My Little Dwarf: Friendship & Aleby Brother RogaChaptersTalking Horses!?First ContactDoomseekerA Short IntroductionTalking Horses!?It had been a few days since King Thirgaz and his people found themselves stuck in this strange new land. Prior to the incident, they were getting ready to host a feast for the High King's visit. A real honor in most respects, though the few humans in the hold were forced to relocate for the time period, due to the traditions of the hold. Mainly the one where the feast would only have proper Khazalid voiced in the halls. Since the humans who were in the hold were no priests of the man-god Sigmar, they held no knowledge of how to speak in their "secret tongue". The dwarves cared less about their protests and the men knew better than to get on the dwarves' bad side so they had gone to the nearby human settlement of Vaidertal. But that was beyond the point. The dwarves of the hold, mostly consisting of the people from the Hammerhilt and Goldmine clans, had found themselves inside of a mountain when they first appeared. After a quick scan of the area, they began to set up camp before they sent scouts to check their surroundings. Though the cavern's mouth was rather large, suggesting that a dragon or a family of trolls lived there, there were no treasures to speak of in the cave, much to the chagrin of the shortbeards who couldn't keep their gold-lust in check. Before long, the bearded ones had already set up a rather respectable settlement for the 482 dwarves that were in this situation. Despite their uncertain future, the dwarves would not hurry their work. By the time the night had fallen (And the moon, Mannslieb did not have it's companion Morrslieb in the sky either, much to the surprise of the collected dwarf-folk) they were all feasting on some local mushrooms (Dwarves have been known to cultivate fungi for food when meat is scarce, not to mention that surface-dwelling dwarves were frowned upon) that they had found edible and non-poisonous as well as some loaves of stone-bread that they had managed to bake. Not to mention the lovely dwarven ale. When some of the scouts came back early the following morning, the cave's silence was broken by the sound of hundreds of dwarves laughing at the dozen dwarves who told them the news. "Ohohhoo... You beardlings sure know how to jest an old dwarf like me. You should have told us that you'd save some of the beer for later!" The king said, slapping his thighs while still sitting at the head of the feast table. His face became serious as quickly as he had begun laughing. "But I will tell you this. There are no talking horses around this place. The winged horses of the manling Empire are the closest that your horses can relate to. Pegasi, I think they were called. Anyway, you expect us to believe this talk about talking horses that build houses! And these horned ones you speak of sound like something the elves in the forests would have something to do with it. Pft. Damn elves, always getting their noses in business that ain't theirs." The king's thanes all murmured in agreement. The leader of the scouts, a venerable dwarf by the name of Gorgal Stonewall of the Stonewall clan stepped up, silencing the impromptu court room with the dwarf-steel boots that he wore. "These dwarves are not jesting, my king. I saw them myself. Their coats were different between each of the creatures, some of them had wings, some had horns, some had none. And they were talking as if they were sentient creatures. And their arses had tattoos, also different between each. Reeks of Chaos, if you ask me. Last but not least, they were more like the mules we used back home. Stunted little buggers." Gorgal said before laying his hands on the table. He spat at the ground, as if mentioning the word 'Chaos' had induced some foul taste in his mouth. The courtroom fell silent as they weighed the old veteran's words. No honest dwarf would ever lie, that much was certain, not even while drunk. Without further information however, speculating was useless. "You're certain of this, Stonewall?" The veteran nodded and took a pipe from his beard and began to stuff it with pipe weed. "Either I'm lying or the High King's mother was a troll." Some of the beardlings chuckled at that, but the glare of royal dwarf shut them up quickly. King Thirgaz rose from his seat, motioning for his shieldbearers to prepare. "If what you speak is true, Stonewall, then we must see these horses for ourselves. But we shall not go unprepared. My kin! Prepare to march out! Today this throng marches forward!" Rainbow Dash was out in the fields with her friends, close to the mountain near Ponyville. The dragon that had threatened to suffocate the town had long gone and it provided a nice bit of scenery. Just the location for a picnic. As the others began setting down the food, the rainbow pegasus took to flight as she did some stunts in the air, earning a few giggles from her friends. And a Pinkie Pie rolling on the grass laughing as Rainbow did an imitation of Pinkie's hopping movement while jumping enormous distances. "That's not how I look like at all, Dashie!" Pinkie blurted out before she burst out laughing again. "You look so goofy!" "You're the one to talk, Pinkie Pie. I'd say that was a perfect imitation of you when you hop around town, darling." Rarity said, moving the punch bowl a bit further from the pink party pony who had come dangerously close to nudging it. Meanwhile, Dash had stopped her stunts as she noticed something weird near the tip of the mountain. It looked like a huge amount of walking iron statues. But these ones had some sort of body hair around their faces. And they had no hooves! Shaking her head for a second, she looked in the same direction for another moment and they were gone. Shrugging her shoulders, she joined her friends just as Twilight was about to hoof over her sandwich. Whatever she saw was literally out of sight, out of mind. Meanwhile the dwarves started to surround the equines. "Keep out of sight. Don't let them notice you. That cyan one was too close already." Thirgaz muttered to one of his shieldbearers, who took extra care to not let any sunlight glint off his armor. Author's Note Sorry about the shortness of the chapter (No pun intended). Future chapters will all be at least 3k words each! First ContactThe dwarves had the horse-creatures surrounded, making sure to keep to the shadows of the foliage. The rainbow-maned one looked like it had seen them when the throng had stepped out with it's 200 clansmen, but when it didn't make any moves and shook it's head as if in disbelief, the rangers were long gone. Now the horses were enjoying a feast of some sort. A purple drink bowl was on top a black and red checkered mattress, with some strange looking sandwiches - one for each of the creatures - that looked like they had flowers in them. Now that the king had seen them for himself, he came to the conclusion that these things were far too flimsy to be horses. At least of the kind that he had been used to seeing when marching out to war alongside the manlings. They resembled the mules that the more conservative dwarves used in the hold - the Stonewall lad was right. Strangest of it all was how they spoke the same language that the manlings do. Slowly backing off, the throng began to whisper amongst themselves as to not attract the creatures attention. "What do you think, King Thirgaz? They look like... Like mutants." One of his shieldbearers - among the youngest of the lot - asked as he kept his gaze on the white horned horse which was eating it's sandwich with a faint resemblance to some of the nobles of the manling Empire. The king shook his head slowly. "No, those markings are nothing like the stigmata of Chaos. This is different. They don't have that smell either. And there's no warpstone in the air." He said, stroking his beard thoughtfully. Soon he stopped, continuing his little speech afterwards. "Nay, these little horses seem peaceful enough. But the Stonewall has a point. We do not know what they're capable of. We'll go out to meet them. Keep your weapons ready. Only attack on my command." The dwarves grunted in response and annoyance. Some pleaded for the king to take a bit more caution, but as it stood, they had no choice. If these creatures could help the dwarves get a sense of where they were, then perhaps they could find a way back to their lands in the World's Edge Mountains. Slowly they made their way towards the clearing where the horses sat, happily gulping their drinks and foodstuffs. Fluttershy was just about to get up and get back towards her cottage-- a bear was expecting back there and needed constant care and attention-- when she heard some rustling in the bushes. Her eyes became as large as saucers when she saw the creatures that stepped forth. It was a bipedal creature clad in some metallic armor with gold decorations. It wielded an axe that glittered in the direct sunlight. It had a helmet that was festooned with golden decorations as well as a pair of ivory horns, though the helmet did nothing to hide the facial hair that seemed to run all the way to the creature's knees - a big beard, even if the creature was about as large as a pony. As slowly as it had stepped into the open, it became clear that there were more of these things. Some had leather tunics instead of metal armor, but they looked nonetheless menacing. As she glanced around, Fluttershy noticed that there were more of them. They were completely surrounded! She tried to make herself as small as possible as her friends got ready for a fight which these things were looking like they wanted. They had these evil glares in their eyes. They stood there silently for a moment before the figure that first showed itself - likely their leader - raised his axe and pointed it towards her and her friends. "Are you friendly or are you foe?" The horses stood there, obviously frozen in terror if the one with the cream coat and pink mane could be taken seriously. "Answer me! I know that you can speak! My patience is wearing thin!" The king said, taking a step towards the things while sneering. The purple creature stepped forward, still wary, but a lot less scared now that it had gotten over the initial shock. "That depends on whether you're looking for trouble or not. If you're going to harm me or my friends, you're in for a fight." Thirgaz was annoyed. "That does not answer my question, horse." The unicorn - It was definitely a unicorn, even if it was mule-sized - raised an eyebrow at that. "Umm, I believe the proper term is pony. That, or a mare, since I am not a stallion obviously. But we are not looking for trouble, if that answers your question." Thirgaz sighed as he laid down his weapon, placing it in it's sheath in his belt before bellowing to his kinsmen in dwarfish. As soon as he did so, the other dwarves began to echo his actions, confusing the horses - or ponies, it didn't really matter to the dwarf king at this point. "Then that's good enough for me. I am King Thirgaz of Karak Ungzan of the dwarf people." The battle-tested warrior said, taking off his helmet, which revealed his face. It had a scar along his right eye. A moment of silence passed between the ponies as they looked at eachother in confusion before the purple unicorn looked back at the king. "What's a dwarf?" Thirgaz facepalmed as he sighed. They were truly in a place where his people have never existed. "We are Dawi. People of the Mountains. Known to others as the dwarven race." Thirgaz explained. He wasn't comfortable giving more information than that, however, they did answer a question for him unintentionally. They have not heard of us or our people before, he thought. Thirgaz ignored the curious looks from the small horses, and continued with his line of questions. "Tell me, where are we, what is the name of this land?" "What is your name as well, horse - or pony, doesn't matter to me - since you seem intelligent enough to belong to one." During the short time between the king's questions some of the throng had pulled out pipes and pouches containing pipe weed and stamped them full, lighting them and taking puffs,all the while scrutinizing these tiny horses. One of the dwarves carrying a massive hammer noticed the cream-white mare and her hair style and nudged one of his brethren standing next to him. Rarity, noticing the attention smiled at them tenetively. "She looks like an ufdi." The hammerer chuckled, the other hammerer smirked and replied "Don't make me hit you. Look serious." This conversation had been made in Khazalid - the ancient language of the dwarves - as to keep their "guests" from overhearing. Rarity, unable to make heads or tails of this language merely heard words that sounded like stones grinding together, waved a hoof at the two. Both dwarfs nodded their heads and chuckled again. As the purple unicorn introduced herself and her friends, the pink pony began spluttering words out of her mouth in a rapid manner. "OHMYGOSHITOTALLYNEEDTOTHROWAWELCOMETOPONYVILLEPARTYFORYOUAFTERALLYOUARETHINGSI'VENEVERSEENBEFORE!" Pinkie said before she zoomed in the direction of the town, leaving behind confused dwarves and a giggling Twilight. "No need to worry about Pinkie Pie, King Thirgaz. She is just doing what she does whenever a new pony comes to town - throws them a party to welcome them." Thirgaz' one good eye flared at that as his kinsmen were still a bit surprised about the speed that the pony took off. They sobered up instantly as Thirgaz put his helmet back on and began to bark orders in Khazalid. "Everyone get ready for the trip back to the mountain! We won't let these ponies fool us!" Instantly the dwarves got up, some blowing a last puff of smoke before putting their pipes back in the safety of their coats before forming up. This confused Twilight and the others. "What's going on?" Thirgaz looked at Twilight menacingly. "We are not quite trustful of you. This party of yours sounds like a trap to me." Twilight took a step forward as she tried to plead with the dwarf. "But why would we try to harm you? I thought we were friends!" The dwarf king shook his head in disappointment and slight contempt. "It takes more than answering a king's question to become friend to his people, horse. Remember that." With that, the king bellowed the order to move out. As slowly as the dwarves had first appeared, they were gone. Minutes after they had gone, Twilight and the others could still hear the footsteps of the dwarves as metal boots met stone floor. "Well that dude sure could learn some manners." Dash said eventually. "Indeed. And that stuff they put into their pipes, urgh! It smells just horrible!" Rarity said, gagging a bit as she waved her hoof in front of her face. "Not the most diplomatic circumstances, true. But the Princess should be told about this! Maybe royal negotiations would help these 'dwarves' warm up to us. Oh, I can't wait to learn about their culture!" It had been almost a month since King Thirgaz and his people first established contact with the ponies of this strange land that they called Equestria. Strangely enough the ponies didn't try to speak with the king again until only two weeks ago, when the same purple unicorn, Twilight Sparkle, had come to announce that the main figure of authority of Equestria, Princess Celestia, was coming to negotiate peace and possible trade routes. The tales that the unicorn told the dwarves of this Celestia's abilities beggared belief. "You expect us to believe that this princess of yours raises the sun?" "I tell this from personal experience. You see, I am the princess' personal protége as well as her student." "It changes nothing, Twilight Sparkle." Thirgaz said, resting his head on the stone throne that the Goldmine clan's best smiths and quarry workers had fashioned. Twilight sighed as she came to the conclusion that she needed more than words to have the dwarf king believe her. "I suppose I cannot convince you here. Perhaps when the Princess arrives, you will believe me." "We shall see. You are dismissed, Twilight Sparkle. My cousin Angr will escort you back to the entrance to this mountain." The king said, motioning with his hand for the next one who was looking for an audience to step up. With no other choice, Twilight started to walk back towards the hold's entrance, the king's cousin in tow. "If you don't mind me asking Angr, do you think your cousin will react favorably to my idea?" The dwarf shrugged. "Not my place to answer that, Twilight Sparkle. As long as your requests are reasonable and we benefit from it, you can rest assured that our dwarven steel will be there when you need it." The dwarf said simply, having had to answer the same kinds of questions in the past by human ambassadors. It was a long wait. But eventually, on the last day of the month, one of the rangers had come before King Thirgaz and told him that three airborne carriages were coming, pulled by pegasi and bearing important-looking ponies. The king took a swig from his tankard, emptying it before calling his shieldbearers forth. As the dwarf king and his hammerers stepped outside, they saw the carriages which were made from some white material and was gilded with gold. At such short distance the dwarves were surprised at the quality of the gold itself, which was basically flawless. It had been carved a bit shoddy, but it was to be expected - one cannot simply fashion a work of art with something so inconvenient as hooves. As the carriages came down, the armored pegasi that pulled the transports gave way to two large ponies with both wings and horns, as well as Twilight Sparkle herself and an unknown unicorn. "This must be the princess Twilight Sparkle told us about." Thirgaz thought, immobile on top of the shield that he stood on. It also made sure that the dwarf stood on eye-to-eye level with the larger pony. She had a flowing mane that shimmered in bright colours even though the wind was nonexistent today. She also had this air about her, made the dwarf less reserved before Thirgaz noticed this and sternly shook off the influence. She was also flanked by another pony like her. The second winged unicorn was a deep blue, with a flowing mane as well, but this one glowed with dark colours. "So you must be the Princess Celestia Twilight Sparkle told me about." "You are correct, King Thirgaz of the dwarf people. I am Princess Celestia, responsible for the raising of the sun. This is my sister, Luna who is responsible for the moon." The alicorn said, gesturing towards the deep blue pony who nodded. "You say that you control the sun. I do not quite believe it. You do not look like you could handle such a task." Thirgaz said in a manner-of-factly tone. The unicorn that arrived with Twilight Sparkle was about to tell the dwarf to respect the princess before Twilight put her hoof on the guard's shoulder. "Don't do it, Shining. They'll understand eventually." Thirgaz heard the unicorn say to the other unicorn. "Thou art skeptic of our powers? Doth thou request a demonstration?" Princess Luna said, using the royal voice, though not yelling like she did in the past. "Aye. Actions speak louder than words, princess." Thirgaz said, grinning to himself. Luna looked at her sister, who nodded before her horn lit up. The sun began to visibly move towards the horizon and the moon soon showed itself. Thirgaz was impressed but that was magic they used. He spat at the ground in front of them, though the ponies paid that motion no attention. "Even though you use magic, you have proven that you spoke truth. Now, state your business." Celestia stepped forward and hoofed the dwarf over a piece of vellum that seemed like a contract at a glance. "What is this?" Thirgaz said, raising his gaze towards the princess of the sun. "A trade agreement. We will provide our wares for yours and allow commerce to flourish in Equestria. Twilight has told me of your people and seeing you with my own eyes tell me that while you may be a bit hard to understand, our two peoples can become friends. Hopefully this will allow us to plant the seeds of friendship between us and your people." "What would you have that we would need, Celestia?" Thirgaz said, crossing his arms. "We have construction materials, clothes and wood for your forges. Not to mention metals that you would be able to use." "We have a mountain to hack at with our pickaxes and our clothes are made from the hides of the creatures around these lands. We do not need wood either, for we make use of a flammable black liquid which does more than wood would ever do." Thirgaz said, pointing with his thumb towards the mountain which was behind them. "We also have gold. I noticed how you looked at the golden decorations of my carriage." The dwarves eyes all lit up at the mention of the hallowed metal. "This gold that you have on your transports seems like a fair representation of your best. But I need to feel it with my own hands." Thirgaz said, rubbing his forefinger and thumb together. The ponies understood this and Celestia motioned for Shining Armor to bring forth a chest full of bits. It opened and the dwarves looked at the bits hungrily. "Gold..." One of the hammerers muttered in Khazalid. "Look at it shine..." A second one said, almost unable to keep himself from lunging at the chest. "And they say they have lots of this." A third one said to himself. Thirgaz heard them and a quick glance towards them made them shut up. Knowing that the dwarves would not rob their king of a gift, he ordered his guards to lower the shield that he stood on, quickly moving to the chest. He took one of the golden coins, feeling it with his fingers. He bit on it and was surprised at how soft it was. This was very high-quality gold. "You say you have more of this?" The princess nodded. "Now you're talking my language. I think that this friendship-business of yours is going to be a profitable one for us both." Thirgaz stepped in front of the princess. "You promise to fulfill your ends of any bargains you make with my people and we will do the same. But try to cross us and you will pay dearly. Make no mistake, Celestia." The king said, his tone accusatory. "I promise this in front of all your people, King Thirgaz. Let it be known that from now on that the Dwarves are a race of Equestria and friends of ponies. The small town of Ponyville would be glad to welcome you should you wish to visit. Wouldn't they, Twilight?" Celestia said, looking at her student. "Absolutely! You're always welcome." Twilight beamed. As an afterthought, she also added that Pinkie would be really excited for their first visit, which Thirgaz groaned at. The next week was busy for the dwarves as Thirgaz was explained about ponies lifestyles, architecture and how they were herbivores, though that was already quite clear to the king. Likewise, Thirgaz had made sure that the Equestrians understand and respect the dwarves and their traditions as the ponies were given access to the public areas of the hold. A pair of colts, apparently going by the name of Snips and Snails had unintentionally made fun of a statue of Grimnir and it took a lot of convincing and apologizing for the dwarves to calm down and even then the two colts had been banned from every religious area, like the Shrine of Grungni and Valaya. And the dwarves got eventually a good taste of Applejack's famous apple cider. Most of them passed it off as a good cider, but dwarven ale was better in all cases. Her pies were passed off as an appetizer for the meaty main course, which the farmer didn't mind one bit - at least until she noticed how much the dwarves actually ate. Working in the mines is tough work and they need nutrition - something that AJ was hardpressed to deliver to the dwarves since she had not expected them to eat this much. Rainbow Dash was also given a mug of the nutritious beer when she failed to obtain a mug of cider from AJ's stand in Ponyville. It was fortunate that it was of the lighter variety, for Dash was soon booted out of the city for reckless behaviour. Pinkie Pie had also shown Ponyville to some of the beardlings who'd decided to visit the rural town, though her parties and such were scowled at for being childish, not to mention that pranks were usually making the dwarves tempers flare. The party pony had to promise not to prank on any dwarf ever again, a promise which she has kept ever since to the surprise of some longbeards. A few of the older ones even thought about opening a tavern in town. Some of the richer ponies, like Diamond Tiara and her father Filthy Rich, even managed to obtain some dwarven goods and furniture with their large sum of bits, though the dwarves were rather adamant about getting the better part of the deal - something that Filthy admired about them. Most of the furniture happened to be just perfect for ponies, but despite that the dwarves began to make something more fitting - some of them didn't like sitting like the dwarves did. Fluttershy was absolutely horrified of the fact that the dwarves ate meat. How could they kill all those innocent animals!? The dwarves merely responded by saying that if she doesn't like it, she can take it up with the king. She actually tried to seek an audience with Thirgaz at first, but her timid nature eventually kept her from doing that. She did however manage to ask the dwarves to keep their poaching near Ponyville to a minimum - something that the dwarves agreed to, albeit through clenched teeth. And despite their best efforts, the dwarves couldn't manage to have a single normal day with ponies since. Author's Note Many thanks to Malus Darkblade for helping me overcome my writer's block and being the co-author for this story! DoomseekerAuthor's Note I apologize for the lack of updates for the last 6 months or so. But hopefully this will make up for it! Doomseeker The sun was up and it's rays of light blanketed the land from horizon to horizon in it's warm glow. Rainbow Dash was leading the weather team to get rid of the last few spots of gray in the sky - remnants of yesterday's scheduled rainstorm - and was almost finished when one of her crew, a brown pegasus by the name of Swift Pinion came to her. "Hey boss!" Swift said as he flew next to his boss, known for her tomboyish attitude and reckless behaviour. Her recent experiences with the dwarves and their ale didn't do much to fix it. "Oh hey Swift! Done on your end already?" Dash said as her gaze fell over to the side of Ponyville that Swift had been assigned to, finding it completely clear. "Yup, I was wondering if I could have the rest of the day off, got to visit this new pub that this dwarf Matrak Stonetooth is opening tonight." Swift said, pointing a hoof towards the stone structure that rose from a previously blank spot. It had been made recently after gold had been passed from hand to hoof. It had both a Khazalid name and an Equestrian name, both meaning the same: The Ale Hall. "Huh, seems like you and I got the same destination tonight, Swift. Supposed to be a big party. Strange though, they said that Pinkie was not allowed into the party." Dash said, scratching her head a bit in amusement. "What? Pinkie Pie and parties NOT in the same place at the same time? Did somepony just defy the basic truths of Equestria?" Swift Pinion said before grinning at Dash. Both of them looked at eachother for a moment before they burst out laughing. "But seriously though, I'm interested in seeing what they'll do. We never really have seen these guys partying over anything. Seriously, these dwarves are a grim bunch." "Yeah... It's as if they were sensing that something is going to go wrong. Weird." Dash said, rolling her eyes before returning to leading her team. Much of it was done by example. Swift was about to lower down on to the ground and walk in the direction of the town when he saw a dwarf coming from the direction of the dwarf realm, which was known to the ponies as Ironpeak ever since the dwarves had claimed it for their own - something nopony dared dispute. The stranger coming in the direction of the town was different from all the others. His hair had been shaved away with the exception of a thick mohawk that seemed bigger than the dwarf himself. It was dyed orange and he had no clothes except some pants. His body was covered in dwarven tattoos and a gold chain was hanging from his nose, ending on his belly button. His beard had some golden jewelry on it, crafted to resemble a leering dwarf, something the ponies found disturbing. The dwarf noticed the pegasus but paid him no mind, simply walking like a pony on a mission of great significance, ignoring the stares he got from the ponies in the town. "So this is Ponyville. Hrmph." The dwarf with orange dyed hair said as he entered the only open tavern in the town. Every tavern he had ever been to in the past had seen their fair share of strange stuff so he was not surprised when the ponies paid him no mind. "Bartender. A pint of your hardest drink. And make it quick." He said, putting a big nugget of gold on the counter, likely worth more than the drink was. The bartender, a unicorn by the name of Ripe Barley, looked at the nugget, then back at it's owner, then back at the nugget before shrugging and putting the yellow rock behind the counter while his hooves worked to give the dwarf a big mug of the most alcoholic beverage Ripe could think of in such a short timespan. The dwarf took the mug and left the counter, moving off to look for a table in the farthest corner of the Inn. Finding a suitable table he positioned the chair so its back was against the wall, with that done he hopped onto the chair, the wood creaking with his weight, he grunted as something poked him in the side, looking downwards he noticed the haft of one of his hammers poking into his ribs. He snorted and slapped the weapon, moving slightly so he could be comfortable. He was just about to take a sip of the drink he was given when he noticed a few patrons staring at him. He proceeded to glare death at them until he caught their attention, doing so he took a hammer, slowly, from a catch at his side and slammed it on the table with a meaningful look. The colourful patrons got the message and with more than a few blushes turned away before the dwarf took offense. The dwarf took a sip of his beer and nearly spat, choking at the poor flavour. "Umgak.", he said distastefully, and went to pour it on the floor, but caught himself before he did. Sighing bitterly he took to sipping the poorly made drink morosely and fell into thinking. The dwarf's name was Throm Throrsson, once he had been a prosperous miner, valued through his hold. And then tragedy struck, a section of cave he was mining collapsed, trapping him and killing a party of his kinsmen. It took a week and a half to dig him and their bodies out. His clan had tried to console him but his guilt was too much, he had left in the night, gone to the priest of Grimnir and taken the slayer oath for his shame, vowing to fight against the most horrible of beasts until his heroic death was achieved. A few years prior to the events that brought the dwarf-hold to Equestria. He'd been in the hold to resupply - something he would have rather ignored but his human companion insisted on it. And the manling had been forced from the hold due to the High King's scheduled visit - a visit which never came to pass thanks to the strange things that brought the dwarf-hold to Equestria. His thoughts turned to other things, in particular a certain forest that happened to be a short distance away. Throm had heard rumours of dark things that lived there but had disbelieved them. He doubted anything violent lived in this vibrant place of colour and kindness. It made him sick to think that there was nothing in this land that would grant him his wish. He snapped out of his thoughts with a shake of his head. "I am wasting too much time." He said. With that he drained his mug in one go and got up to leave, taking his hammer with him. The bartender, seeing such a high paying customer go called out, "Thank you for choosing my inn, sir!" Throm turned and snarled at the colourful horse reflexively, making the pony recoil in shock and surprise. Now out of the tavern Throm hawked and spat on the ground, his scarred face looking around to get his bearings. He could see the massive tree in the distance said to house the Golden Oaks Library. Grunting as he did so, Throm set off, walking down the road towards the building. While walking he recieved many strange looks for his hair style and colour, the looks only made his rage grow, reminding him of his shame. "Dreng tromm.." he said bitterly, pulling on his beard savagely. These creature were too innocent, once when he had left the ranger outpost he had encountered a pony on the road, the pony had remarked humorously of his hair and beard colour. Throm had nearly strangled him to death. "They don't know." He said trying to ignore the looks as best he could. There were a few dwarves that he noticed, but ignored them as he had other things to do. The other dwarves were too busy to notice him as they were carrying supplies into a building that had a sign which read 'The Ale Hall' in both Khazalid and Equestrian. Finally after a short walk, made grueling by the stares, he reached the Library. He glared at the door angrily and slammed his fist into it a few good times before he heard a young voice cry out in alarm and yell. After a few seconds of waiting the door was opened, Throm, expecting too see a pony. looked down instead to find a young purple dragon. "Hey man, what's the deal with you, you could have knocked the door off its hinges!" Throms face turned thunderous with rage. "Drakk!" he hissed. The young dragon looked confused and spoke, "What's a dra-urgk-" his voice was cut off in a strangled cry as Throm's hand shot out his large fist enveloping the small dragons throat easily. He ripped a hammer from his belt and raised it high over his head, and brought it down with a savage jerk. There was a scream from inside the house and Throms hand suddenly started slowing until his blow did nothing more than a slight thump, snarling he looked up to find a purple horse standing inside looking frightened. "What treachery is this!?" Throm roared, throwing the dragon with all his might at her. The purple pony screeched and hurridly caught the small thing in a field of magic only making his rage grow. "You protect it as well?!" He took his other hammer from his belt, and moved inside of the doorway, blocking it with his bulk. "I can explain!" the purple pony cried. "You better, or your life is forfeit." Throm growled, advancing on her. It had taken 3 hours for the dwarf to calm down and listen to Twilight's explanation of why the small creature was with her. Throm didn't like it so he had told her to keep the fell thing away from him. They were now in conversation about the forest, called the Everfree as Throm came to know. "So.", he said slowly "The rumours are true?" "Yes, there are many horrible beasts that dwell in that forest, like manticores and timberwolves. It's why nopony goes there." Throm tugged on his beard thoughtfully, and said: "How deep would one have to go to find these beasts?" "Not too far. It only gets more dangerous the further you go." Said Twilight nervously, unsure of what the dwarf was getting at. "I see, then that is all I needed to know, I bid you farewell, Twilight Sparkle." He hopped off the couch and walked towards the door, opening it with Twilight close behind. "Why did you want to know? Are you going there? What are you going to do?" The rapid fire questions made Throm smile. He turned to her and there was a fell light in his eyes as he spoke. "I go to seek my doom little one." "WHAT!?" Twilight shouted, everypony in the vicinity looking at the Golden Oaks. But the few dwarfs merely glanced at the slayer and knew that it was none of their business. "I'm going to this forest and either slay every single one of these creatures or die trying. And if what you say is true, then my wish for a heroic death will be granted." Throm said, lifting a hammer to his shoulder. "But why? Why try to get yourself killed? I don't understand!" Twilight frantically tried to stop the dwarf with her physical strength alone, but it proved insufficient. Soon she used her magic to grab his hand, which annoyed the dwarf a lot. "Let go of me, pony. I don't have the time to answer your ridiculous questions, for Grimnir's sake!" Seeing as how she found a way to stop the dwarf, Twilight looked at him with a serious face. "I'm not letting you go get yourself killed without an explanation and that's final!" And with that the dwarf was dragged back inside the library for a long period of questioning. "So you look for a heroic death to atone for a past sin?" "I already told you, pony. And I will say no more. Now let me go! I have monsters to slay!" Twilight sighed as her magical shackles gave way. "You're not going to budge, are you?" "Hrmph, you're lucky I don't kill you where you stand for this insolence." "I was just looking out for you!" Twilight said, shocked. "I look after myself, pony. I don't need one of you for anything other than a Rememberer and even then I would rather have a dwarf to be mine." He said, glaring death at the unicorn. "But-" Throm's gaze made Twilight swallow nervously instead of finishing her sentence. "If the Ancestor Gods look favourably upon me, we will never meet again, Twilight Sparkle. Farewell." With that, the slayer was out of the library, leaving Twilight and Spike looking at eachother and the door. After a long while, Twilight made up her mind and dashed out the door in pursuit of the dwarf. Spike facepalmed as she did. "Seriously, risking your own life to save the life of a mad biped who tried to kill your assistant. Way to go, Twilight." He mumbled before shutting the door and flipping the sign to closed. The edge of the forest was right in front of the orange-crested dwarf, who was grinning madly. "The rumors were true indeed. I can smell the evil coming from this forest." He heard a timberwolf's howl, a small distance away from his current position if his estimates were correct. "Or maybe it's just those blasted walking piles of firewood." He spat at the ground in disgust. His head quickly jerked up as he heard the feminine scream though. With a grunt and a curse he began running towards where he had last heard the noise. He heard another feminine shriek as he neared the edge of what seemed to be a trail and stopped as a purple blur crashed into him. Throm was knocked back a step as his eyes finally landed on the purple thing - The librarian from Ponyville. With a scowl he spoke: "Valaya's tits, horse! What has gotten you so frightened?" The 'horse' in question was about to shout for help when a snarl interrupted them. Loping from the shadows along the trees from the road came five things that looked as if they came from some child's nightmare. Throm looked on in curiosity as the creatures stopped a short distance away upon seeing the dwarf. Their eyes tracks the purple pony as it got up and hid behind this new creature and whimpered. They had chased the food for an hour through the forest and they were damned if they were going to let it get away now. Throm swung his hammer loosely in one hand and while the haft was long enough to use two handed he liked the speed of using it single handed. He grunted and spat at the creatures; Timberwolves if he remembered, they looked... "Pathetic." He said dissapointedly to him the creatures looked like they were held together by some sort of magic. They looked like a weird amalgamation of wood and sticks with the occasional leaf sticking from them: it reminded him of a spell a manling wizard had shown him in his short travels from the clan hold. Not nearly as dangerous in appearance as the ponies claimed. One of the creatures ran forward and with a howl leaped at the dwarf. The dwarf snarled and lunged forward bringing his hammer swinging in an arc for the creatures torso, there was a sickening crack as it connected and the wolf dropped down a few feet away from the dwarf in a pile of wood and twigs. With a howl the rest of the creatures ran forward at the thing that had harmed its pack and Throm's eyes widened and gripped his hammer with both hands and swung backing away slightly. His first swing connected on the head of one of the wolves smashing it to splinters but Throm was unable to catch a moment's respite as he heard a snarl to his left and looked in time to see on of the beasts lunging at him. He turned, sucking in his gut as the wolf lunged past and turned quicly to keep it in front of him and with a curse brought his weapon back over his head and swung it down quickly smashing the beast back to shards. A weight settled onto his back causing him to grunt but that grunt quickly turned into a snarl as he realized it was the beast's jaw's sinking into the meat of his shoulder. Throm roared as he leaned forward putting a hand on the things jaws and tugging, making it lose its balance and fall to the side where it scrabbled to right itself before an iron shod boot crushed it's thick wooden skull. He turned quickly as the final wolf lunged at him and quickly brought his arm up and winced as the creature's jaw's latched on and started tugging, tearing at the meat of his arm. Throm dropped his hammer and moved his hand to the creature's bottom jaw working his fingers into it and with a savage wrench snapped it from the creature's mouth, moving his other arm free he quickly grasped the wolf's head together in his palms and with as much pressure as he could began to squeeze until finally with a sickening crack the creature fell into a heap of wood. Throm stood there, panting with a mad gleam in his eye before he took notice of the surroundings. Sitting there staring in horror at the dwarf was Twilight. "Good fight." He said with a grin. Twilight could only gape at him, making the dwarf chuckle. "At a loss for words, are ya? Doesn't matter. You're answering." Throm said before closing the distance and staring at the unicorn's eyes. "Why did you follow me?" Twilight looked at the broken twigs and pieces of wood that had once been timberwolves. Throm grabbed her by the throat. "Why did you follow me, horse?" His eyes suddenly looked up as he heard a noise. The dwarf had no chance to wait for an answer as he pushed the unicorn forward and jumped back as a hooded figure landed in between Twilight and Throm. "Do not harm my friend, bearded one, or this will be the last time that hammer is swung." The figure threw back the hood, revealing a mohawk of black and white stripes. Golden jewelry adorned the zebra's face. "Zecora!?" "Yes, it is I, Twilight. Here to save you from this brute's might." The potion maker replied before turning her full attention to the dwarf. "Out of my way, horse. This is none of your business." Throm snarled angrily. The zebra didn't move an inch. The dwarf grinned in response. "Good, I was hoping you'd do that." With formalities out of the way, Throm threw his hammer at the zebra, who dodged it easily. The runes on the hammer began to glow before it began to switch directions, flying back to Throm who caught it by the haft. Twilight was amazed. She'd heard of the magic trapped in dwarven runes, but they never taught her anything about it other than the basic information that every dwarf knows - even that info was shared only after petitioning from the king. But her wonder abated quickly as the dwarf raised his arm in an attempt to throw it again. She wasn't sure if Zecora could dodge it again. "Throm, wait!" She cried out. The dwarf threw the hammer again. Once again did the zebra dodge the hammer that could crush her skull in one blow. This time the hammer got lodged in a tree, the sheer force of the throw threatening to snap the tree in half. Even Throm was slightly impressed by this. Either he was growing stronger or the Everfree Forest had a lot of flimsy trees. "Wait!" The unicorn repeated. Yet again did the dwarf ignore her, stomping to get the hammer, or to strangle the zebra, Twilight wasn't sure which. The earth's rumbling stopped his advance. Looking behind him, he saw a gruesome sight. A gigantic timberwolf was glaring at him knowingly. The dwarf smiled, showing his yellow teeth. "Finally! I've been looking for a challenge!" He shouted out to the wolf. He snatched his hammer from the tree, bits of it still sticking to it, before throwing it at the wolf. It hit the alpha with a resounding crunch as wood snapped and leaves began to fall from the force of the impact. Not that they could hear any of it over the timberwolf's cry of pain. "Pah! I expected more from one of the wutrothvarf!" The zebra and unicorn had both cowed as they saw the slayer face the giant timberwolf fearlessly. "What is going on in that fool's head? Alone and with no hammer, he's bound to fall dead!" Zecora grunted, thinking that maybe she should take Twilight out of the forest while the alpha was distracted. Something made her stay, however. "It's what he fights for. An honorable death." Twilight mumbled. The dwarf and wolf eyed eachother, the former with a mad glint in his eyes, the latter with an animalistic intelligence that told it would be in for the fight of it's life. Throm's smile turned vicious and with a roar torn from his throat he charged the giant beast. The wolf snarled and lunged trying to bull the small creature over using its weight, but the dawi dodged and hammered and meaty fist into it's side with a loud crack. The wolf jumped to the side and backed away before lunging again. Again Throm tried to dodge but the wolf moved with him and closed it's jaws on the dwarf's leg, snarling it lifted the creature and started shaking it. Throm howled in agony and - using his body's momentum - managed to swing forward and hammer a fist into it's balefully glowing eye. Something unexpected happened; as the socket cracked the green glow exploded in a small burst of green sickly flame burning the dwarf's hand. Throm howled again as the great beast opened its jaws to howl in agony, releasing the dwarf. Throm quickly scrambled to his feet and moved away, limping slowly backwards to avoid the beast's thrashing. Throm laughed; the pain, it made him feel alive. "Yes, good, come beast, let this be a fight worthy to remember!" Suddenly a shout from behind him interrupted his dark thought glancing over his shoulder Throm saw the purple horse holding his hammer in a glowing aura. "Throm, Catch!" Called Twilight, throwing the hammer to the dwarf. The dwarf caught the hammer deftly by the haft and made to turn only to be tackled to the ground, feeling a set of jaws clamp around his leg. There was a crunch and Throm had felt like every bone in his leg had turned to dust. Screaming in pain he rolled over and - swinging the hammer in one hand - smashed the wolf in the face to get it away and buy time to stand. The wolf snorted and leaped back pawing its face and whining. Throm quickly stood leaning his weight on his only fuctioning leg. Having recovered, the giant wolf howled and charged. The dwarf held up his hammer and brought it down as the beast smashed into him, hitting the same side of it's face again. The thing flailed slightly as it's head was completely smashed, one side of the timberwolf literally falling off. The timberwolf's weight proved too much as it barreled down upon him, twigs and branches scraping his skin as the main body fell on his chest. The dwarf let out a cry of agonising pain as he felt his ribs crack and shatter. But the wolf was dying. Throm must have hit it in the brain, if the slight twitches were of any indication. The thing made a motion to rise again, but Throm, even in his prone state, managed to twist his hammer in his hand until he thrust the haft through the thing's eye and into the remains of it's brain, killing it instantly. The timberwolf never even let out a death cry as it exploded, scattering twigs and dead leaves everywhere, the force of the explosion injuring the dwarf even more. His breathing was now ragged, one of his eyes didn't obey him and he was pretty sure his stomach acids were flowing into his bloodstream. Twilight and Zecora were amazed that the dwarf was still breathing, but it made them all the more worried. "Throm! Oh Celestia, Throm, we'll get you help!" The dwarf snarled at the pony, making Zecora frown slightly. "And rob me of a mighty death, horse? Killing this thing is my greatest achievement and has rid this forest of a grave threat. I gladly give my life in return for it's death." The dwarf gave a wet gurgle and spat a bloody red mess to the ground next to him. The zebra herbalist thought she saw a piece of flesh in there, making her grimace. "Perhaps now... Now the Hall of Ancestors will welcome me... My... atonement... accomplished..." The dwarf said before his eyes slowly began to close, a smile on his lips. "Throm.. Throm!" Twilight cried, tugging at the dwarf's body, until Zecora laid a hoof on her shoulder and shook her head. "His spirit joins the ancestral hall. For this great deed, they'll answer his call." The zebra said, before turning back towards the road, Twilight following her almost automatically, though she took a long glance back at the dawi corpse. After the two reached the edge of the forest, Twilight spoke up. "Thank you Zecora for bringing me here, but I have to go see the dwarf king's representative here in Ponyville. I have to let them know what happened to Throm." She said, not feeling that cheered up considering all the events that had transpired. "And I must return to my abode, even if I wanted to help you lighten your load. But I have heard of a place opening in town, how does the two of us going there together sound? A drink might help your thoughts besoothe, at the Ale Hall of Matrak Stonetooth." The zebra said, waving the unicorn farewell as she turned to go back into the woods. After Twilight had stood there for a moment, she smiled. "I'd like that." She said to herself. "And then his hammer hit the timberwolf on the side of it's head. The wolf fell on top of him, still alive, until Throm thrust his hammer in it's eye, killing it. But his injuries were too severe. And he didn't want my help or Zecora's..." Twilight said, sipping at her drink as the collected dwarf group listened intently. "Aye. A good death. A giant wutrothvarf sounds worthy of a drengi like him." One of the longbeards said, nodding approvingly. Rainbow Dash was there as well, drunk as a sailor but had somehow managed to not get kicked out. "I propose a toast! For the slayer of the big and bad timberwolf! The hall welcome him and all that you dwarves say." Dash said, holding her mug up while smiling stupidly. The dwarves grumbled slightly at the cerulean pony's lack of respect but most of them raised their mugs in response and drank anyway. Unlike what Dash and her fellow drinking buddy Swift Pinion had thought, there was no dancing or singing. Just drinking their super-tasty alcoholic Bugmans XXXXXX while glaring daggers at anypony who looked at them funny. The silence lasted until one of them started to hum to a grating tune, one that seemed to echo off the walls as the dwarves began to sing their hymn of farewell. Their honored dead now join the ancestors in the halls of the Ancestor Gods and shall forever be remembered as heroes. The ponies had no knowledge of what was going on, but the tune was easy enough for them to hum along. It was soothing in a way. It was a slayer's farewell. And wherever he was in the Halls of the Ancestors, his kinmen knew that he was watching over them and smiling, with a beer mug in one hand and a pipe full of quality weed in the other. A Short IntroductionNote to readers: This is an introduction! The story has not begun yet! The first chapters will be told from the dwarves' point of view. In addition, the story starts from the point when the dwarves have actually established a camp in the land. As to how they actually became to be in Equestria, they have no idea but they're positive that the elves had something to do with it. That, or perhaps the Chaos gods thought it would be fun to pluck a hold's worth of dwarves from the face of the Old World. The mountain that they came to inhabit during their time was also a poor one. Most of the mountain consisted of marble, some sandstone and gneiss. While there were a few veins of ore, it would not have been enough for a hold in normal circumstances. These were hardly normal circumstances however. Still, the dwarves got good steel and a mountain to hack at. Funny that this same mountain seems to be in the vicinity of a certain town known as home to the Elements of Harmony... Author's Note No pun intended in the title.
Talking Horses!?It had been a few days since King Thirgaz and his people found themselves stuck in this strange new land. Prior to the incident, they were getting ready to host a feast for the High King's visit. A real honor in most respects, though the few humans in the hold were forced to relocate for the time period, due to the traditions of the hold. Mainly the one where the feast would only have proper Khazalid voiced in the halls. Since the humans who were in the hold were no priests of the man-god Sigmar, they held no knowledge of how to speak in their "secret tongue". The dwarves cared less about their protests and the men knew better than to get on the dwarves' bad side so they had gone to the nearby human settlement of Vaidertal. But that was beyond the point. The dwarves of the hold, mostly consisting of the people from the Hammerhilt and Goldmine clans, had found themselves inside of a mountain when they first appeared. After a quick scan of the area, they began to set up camp before they sent scouts to check their surroundings. Though the cavern's mouth was rather large, suggesting that a dragon or a family of trolls lived there, there were no treasures to speak of in the cave, much to the chagrin of the shortbeards who couldn't keep their gold-lust in check. Before long, the bearded ones had already set up a rather respectable settlement for the 482 dwarves that were in this situation. Despite their uncertain future, the dwarves would not hurry their work. By the time the night had fallen (And the moon, Mannslieb did not have it's companion Morrslieb in the sky either, much to the surprise of the collected dwarf-folk) they were all feasting on some local mushrooms (Dwarves have been known to cultivate fungi for food when meat is scarce, not to mention that surface-dwelling dwarves were frowned upon) that they had found edible and non-poisonous as well as some loaves of stone-bread that they had managed to bake. Not to mention the lovely dwarven ale. When some of the scouts came back early the following morning, the cave's silence was broken by the sound of hundreds of dwarves laughing at the dozen dwarves who told them the news. "Ohohhoo... You beardlings sure know how to jest an old dwarf like me. You should have told us that you'd save some of the beer for later!" The king said, slapping his thighs while still sitting at the head of the feast table. His face became serious as quickly as he had begun laughing. "But I will tell you this. There are no talking horses around this place. The winged horses of the manling Empire are the closest that your horses can relate to. Pegasi, I think they were called. Anyway, you expect us to believe this talk about talking horses that build houses! And these horned ones you speak of sound like something the elves in the forests would have something to do with it. Pft. Damn elves, always getting their noses in business that ain't theirs." The king's thanes all murmured in agreement. The leader of the scouts, a venerable dwarf by the name of Gorgal Stonewall of the Stonewall clan stepped up, silencing the impromptu court room with the dwarf-steel boots that he wore. "These dwarves are not jesting, my king. I saw them myself. Their coats were different between each of the creatures, some of them had wings, some had horns, some had none. And they were talking as if they were sentient creatures. And their arses had tattoos, also different between each. Reeks of Chaos, if you ask me. Last but not least, they were more like the mules we used back home. Stunted little buggers." Gorgal said before laying his hands on the table. He spat at the ground, as if mentioning the word 'Chaos' had induced some foul taste in his mouth. The courtroom fell silent as they weighed the old veteran's words. No honest dwarf would ever lie, that much was certain, not even while drunk. Without further information however, speculating was useless. "You're certain of this, Stonewall?" The veteran nodded and took a pipe from his beard and began to stuff it with pipe weed. "Either I'm lying or the High King's mother was a troll." Some of the beardlings chuckled at that, but the glare of royal dwarf shut them up quickly. King Thirgaz rose from his seat, motioning for his shieldbearers to prepare. "If what you speak is true, Stonewall, then we must see these horses for ourselves. But we shall not go unprepared. My kin! Prepare to march out! Today this throng marches forward!" Rainbow Dash was out in the fields with her friends, close to the mountain near Ponyville. The dragon that had threatened to suffocate the town had long gone and it provided a nice bit of scenery. Just the location for a picnic. As the others began setting down the food, the rainbow pegasus took to flight as she did some stunts in the air, earning a few giggles from her friends. And a Pinkie Pie rolling on the grass laughing as Rainbow did an imitation of Pinkie's hopping movement while jumping enormous distances. "That's not how I look like at all, Dashie!" Pinkie blurted out before she burst out laughing again. "You look so goofy!" "You're the one to talk, Pinkie Pie. I'd say that was a perfect imitation of you when you hop around town, darling." Rarity said, moving the punch bowl a bit further from the pink party pony who had come dangerously close to nudging it. Meanwhile, Dash had stopped her stunts as she noticed something weird near the tip of the mountain. It looked like a huge amount of walking iron statues. But these ones had some sort of body hair around their faces. And they had no hooves! Shaking her head for a second, she looked in the same direction for another moment and they were gone. Shrugging her shoulders, she joined her friends just as Twilight was about to hoof over her sandwich. Whatever she saw was literally out of sight, out of mind. Meanwhile the dwarves started to surround the equines. "Keep out of sight. Don't let them notice you. That cyan one was too close already." Thirgaz muttered to one of his shieldbearers, who took extra care to not let any sunlight glint off his armor. Author's Note Sorry about the shortness of the chapter (No pun intended). Future chapters will all be at least 3k words each!
First ContactThe dwarves had the horse-creatures surrounded, making sure to keep to the shadows of the foliage. The rainbow-maned one looked like it had seen them when the throng had stepped out with it's 200 clansmen, but when it didn't make any moves and shook it's head as if in disbelief, the rangers were long gone. Now the horses were enjoying a feast of some sort. A purple drink bowl was on top a black and red checkered mattress, with some strange looking sandwiches - one for each of the creatures - that looked like they had flowers in them. Now that the king had seen them for himself, he came to the conclusion that these things were far too flimsy to be horses. At least of the kind that he had been used to seeing when marching out to war alongside the manlings. They resembled the mules that the more conservative dwarves used in the hold - the Stonewall lad was right. Strangest of it all was how they spoke the same language that the manlings do. Slowly backing off, the throng began to whisper amongst themselves as to not attract the creatures attention. "What do you think, King Thirgaz? They look like... Like mutants." One of his shieldbearers - among the youngest of the lot - asked as he kept his gaze on the white horned horse which was eating it's sandwich with a faint resemblance to some of the nobles of the manling Empire. The king shook his head slowly. "No, those markings are nothing like the stigmata of Chaos. This is different. They don't have that smell either. And there's no warpstone in the air." He said, stroking his beard thoughtfully. Soon he stopped, continuing his little speech afterwards. "Nay, these little horses seem peaceful enough. But the Stonewall has a point. We do not know what they're capable of. We'll go out to meet them. Keep your weapons ready. Only attack on my command." The dwarves grunted in response and annoyance. Some pleaded for the king to take a bit more caution, but as it stood, they had no choice. If these creatures could help the dwarves get a sense of where they were, then perhaps they could find a way back to their lands in the World's Edge Mountains. Slowly they made their way towards the clearing where the horses sat, happily gulping their drinks and foodstuffs. Fluttershy was just about to get up and get back towards her cottage-- a bear was expecting back there and needed constant care and attention-- when she heard some rustling in the bushes. Her eyes became as large as saucers when she saw the creatures that stepped forth. It was a bipedal creature clad in some metallic armor with gold decorations. It wielded an axe that glittered in the direct sunlight. It had a helmet that was festooned with golden decorations as well as a pair of ivory horns, though the helmet did nothing to hide the facial hair that seemed to run all the way to the creature's knees - a big beard, even if the creature was about as large as a pony. As slowly as it had stepped into the open, it became clear that there were more of these things. Some had leather tunics instead of metal armor, but they looked nonetheless menacing. As she glanced around, Fluttershy noticed that there were more of them. They were completely surrounded! She tried to make herself as small as possible as her friends got ready for a fight which these things were looking like they wanted. They had these evil glares in their eyes. They stood there silently for a moment before the figure that first showed itself - likely their leader - raised his axe and pointed it towards her and her friends. "Are you friendly or are you foe?" The horses stood there, obviously frozen in terror if the one with the cream coat and pink mane could be taken seriously. "Answer me! I know that you can speak! My patience is wearing thin!" The king said, taking a step towards the things while sneering. The purple creature stepped forward, still wary, but a lot less scared now that it had gotten over the initial shock. "That depends on whether you're looking for trouble or not. If you're going to harm me or my friends, you're in for a fight." Thirgaz was annoyed. "That does not answer my question, horse." The unicorn - It was definitely a unicorn, even if it was mule-sized - raised an eyebrow at that. "Umm, I believe the proper term is pony. That, or a mare, since I am not a stallion obviously. But we are not looking for trouble, if that answers your question." Thirgaz sighed as he laid down his weapon, placing it in it's sheath in his belt before bellowing to his kinsmen in dwarfish. As soon as he did so, the other dwarves began to echo his actions, confusing the horses - or ponies, it didn't really matter to the dwarf king at this point. "Then that's good enough for me. I am King Thirgaz of Karak Ungzan of the dwarf people." The battle-tested warrior said, taking off his helmet, which revealed his face. It had a scar along his right eye. A moment of silence passed between the ponies as they looked at eachother in confusion before the purple unicorn looked back at the king. "What's a dwarf?" Thirgaz facepalmed as he sighed. They were truly in a place where his people have never existed. "We are Dawi. People of the Mountains. Known to others as the dwarven race." Thirgaz explained. He wasn't comfortable giving more information than that, however, they did answer a question for him unintentionally. They have not heard of us or our people before, he thought. Thirgaz ignored the curious looks from the small horses, and continued with his line of questions. "Tell me, where are we, what is the name of this land?" "What is your name as well, horse - or pony, doesn't matter to me - since you seem intelligent enough to belong to one." During the short time between the king's questions some of the throng had pulled out pipes and pouches containing pipe weed and stamped them full, lighting them and taking puffs,all the while scrutinizing these tiny horses. One of the dwarves carrying a massive hammer noticed the cream-white mare and her hair style and nudged one of his brethren standing next to him. Rarity, noticing the attention smiled at them tenetively. "She looks like an ufdi." The hammerer chuckled, the other hammerer smirked and replied "Don't make me hit you. Look serious." This conversation had been made in Khazalid - the ancient language of the dwarves - as to keep their "guests" from overhearing. Rarity, unable to make heads or tails of this language merely heard words that sounded like stones grinding together, waved a hoof at the two. Both dwarfs nodded their heads and chuckled again. As the purple unicorn introduced herself and her friends, the pink pony began spluttering words out of her mouth in a rapid manner. "OHMYGOSHITOTALLYNEEDTOTHROWAWELCOMETOPONYVILLEPARTYFORYOUAFTERALLYOUARETHINGSI'VENEVERSEENBEFORE!" Pinkie said before she zoomed in the direction of the town, leaving behind confused dwarves and a giggling Twilight. "No need to worry about Pinkie Pie, King Thirgaz. She is just doing what she does whenever a new pony comes to town - throws them a party to welcome them." Thirgaz' one good eye flared at that as his kinsmen were still a bit surprised about the speed that the pony took off. They sobered up instantly as Thirgaz put his helmet back on and began to bark orders in Khazalid. "Everyone get ready for the trip back to the mountain! We won't let these ponies fool us!" Instantly the dwarves got up, some blowing a last puff of smoke before putting their pipes back in the safety of their coats before forming up. This confused Twilight and the others. "What's going on?" Thirgaz looked at Twilight menacingly. "We are not quite trustful of you. This party of yours sounds like a trap to me." Twilight took a step forward as she tried to plead with the dwarf. "But why would we try to harm you? I thought we were friends!" The dwarf king shook his head in disappointment and slight contempt. "It takes more than answering a king's question to become friend to his people, horse. Remember that." With that, the king bellowed the order to move out. As slowly as the dwarves had first appeared, they were gone. Minutes after they had gone, Twilight and the others could still hear the footsteps of the dwarves as metal boots met stone floor. "Well that dude sure could learn some manners." Dash said eventually. "Indeed. And that stuff they put into their pipes, urgh! It smells just horrible!" Rarity said, gagging a bit as she waved her hoof in front of her face. "Not the most diplomatic circumstances, true. But the Princess should be told about this! Maybe royal negotiations would help these 'dwarves' warm up to us. Oh, I can't wait to learn about their culture!" It had been almost a month since King Thirgaz and his people first established contact with the ponies of this strange land that they called Equestria. Strangely enough the ponies didn't try to speak with the king again until only two weeks ago, when the same purple unicorn, Twilight Sparkle, had come to announce that the main figure of authority of Equestria, Princess Celestia, was coming to negotiate peace and possible trade routes. The tales that the unicorn told the dwarves of this Celestia's abilities beggared belief. "You expect us to believe that this princess of yours raises the sun?" "I tell this from personal experience. You see, I am the princess' personal protége as well as her student." "It changes nothing, Twilight Sparkle." Thirgaz said, resting his head on the stone throne that the Goldmine clan's best smiths and quarry workers had fashioned. Twilight sighed as she came to the conclusion that she needed more than words to have the dwarf king believe her. "I suppose I cannot convince you here. Perhaps when the Princess arrives, you will believe me." "We shall see. You are dismissed, Twilight Sparkle. My cousin Angr will escort you back to the entrance to this mountain." The king said, motioning with his hand for the next one who was looking for an audience to step up. With no other choice, Twilight started to walk back towards the hold's entrance, the king's cousin in tow. "If you don't mind me asking Angr, do you think your cousin will react favorably to my idea?" The dwarf shrugged. "Not my place to answer that, Twilight Sparkle. As long as your requests are reasonable and we benefit from it, you can rest assured that our dwarven steel will be there when you need it." The dwarf said simply, having had to answer the same kinds of questions in the past by human ambassadors. It was a long wait. But eventually, on the last day of the month, one of the rangers had come before King Thirgaz and told him that three airborne carriages were coming, pulled by pegasi and bearing important-looking ponies. The king took a swig from his tankard, emptying it before calling his shieldbearers forth. As the dwarf king and his hammerers stepped outside, they saw the carriages which were made from some white material and was gilded with gold. At such short distance the dwarves were surprised at the quality of the gold itself, which was basically flawless. It had been carved a bit shoddy, but it was to be expected - one cannot simply fashion a work of art with something so inconvenient as hooves. As the carriages came down, the armored pegasi that pulled the transports gave way to two large ponies with both wings and horns, as well as Twilight Sparkle herself and an unknown unicorn. "This must be the princess Twilight Sparkle told us about." Thirgaz thought, immobile on top of the shield that he stood on. It also made sure that the dwarf stood on eye-to-eye level with the larger pony. She had a flowing mane that shimmered in bright colours even though the wind was nonexistent today. She also had this air about her, made the dwarf less reserved before Thirgaz noticed this and sternly shook off the influence. She was also flanked by another pony like her. The second winged unicorn was a deep blue, with a flowing mane as well, but this one glowed with dark colours. "So you must be the Princess Celestia Twilight Sparkle told me about." "You are correct, King Thirgaz of the dwarf people. I am Princess Celestia, responsible for the raising of the sun. This is my sister, Luna who is responsible for the moon." The alicorn said, gesturing towards the deep blue pony who nodded. "You say that you control the sun. I do not quite believe it. You do not look like you could handle such a task." Thirgaz said in a manner-of-factly tone. The unicorn that arrived with Twilight Sparkle was about to tell the dwarf to respect the princess before Twilight put her hoof on the guard's shoulder. "Don't do it, Shining. They'll understand eventually." Thirgaz heard the unicorn say to the other unicorn. "Thou art skeptic of our powers? Doth thou request a demonstration?" Princess Luna said, using the royal voice, though not yelling like she did in the past. "Aye. Actions speak louder than words, princess." Thirgaz said, grinning to himself. Luna looked at her sister, who nodded before her horn lit up. The sun began to visibly move towards the horizon and the moon soon showed itself. Thirgaz was impressed but that was magic they used. He spat at the ground in front of them, though the ponies paid that motion no attention. "Even though you use magic, you have proven that you spoke truth. Now, state your business." Celestia stepped forward and hoofed the dwarf over a piece of vellum that seemed like a contract at a glance. "What is this?" Thirgaz said, raising his gaze towards the princess of the sun. "A trade agreement. We will provide our wares for yours and allow commerce to flourish in Equestria. Twilight has told me of your people and seeing you with my own eyes tell me that while you may be a bit hard to understand, our two peoples can become friends. Hopefully this will allow us to plant the seeds of friendship between us and your people." "What would you have that we would need, Celestia?" Thirgaz said, crossing his arms. "We have construction materials, clothes and wood for your forges. Not to mention metals that you would be able to use." "We have a mountain to hack at with our pickaxes and our clothes are made from the hides of the creatures around these lands. We do not need wood either, for we make use of a flammable black liquid which does more than wood would ever do." Thirgaz said, pointing with his thumb towards the mountain which was behind them. "We also have gold. I noticed how you looked at the golden decorations of my carriage." The dwarves eyes all lit up at the mention of the hallowed metal. "This gold that you have on your transports seems like a fair representation of your best. But I need to feel it with my own hands." Thirgaz said, rubbing his forefinger and thumb together. The ponies understood this and Celestia motioned for Shining Armor to bring forth a chest full of bits. It opened and the dwarves looked at the bits hungrily. "Gold..." One of the hammerers muttered in Khazalid. "Look at it shine..." A second one said, almost unable to keep himself from lunging at the chest. "And they say they have lots of this." A third one said to himself. Thirgaz heard them and a quick glance towards them made them shut up. Knowing that the dwarves would not rob their king of a gift, he ordered his guards to lower the shield that he stood on, quickly moving to the chest. He took one of the golden coins, feeling it with his fingers. He bit on it and was surprised at how soft it was. This was very high-quality gold. "You say you have more of this?" The princess nodded. "Now you're talking my language. I think that this friendship-business of yours is going to be a profitable one for us both." Thirgaz stepped in front of the princess. "You promise to fulfill your ends of any bargains you make with my people and we will do the same. But try to cross us and you will pay dearly. Make no mistake, Celestia." The king said, his tone accusatory. "I promise this in front of all your people, King Thirgaz. Let it be known that from now on that the Dwarves are a race of Equestria and friends of ponies. The small town of Ponyville would be glad to welcome you should you wish to visit. Wouldn't they, Twilight?" Celestia said, looking at her student. "Absolutely! You're always welcome." Twilight beamed. As an afterthought, she also added that Pinkie would be really excited for their first visit, which Thirgaz groaned at. The next week was busy for the dwarves as Thirgaz was explained about ponies lifestyles, architecture and how they were herbivores, though that was already quite clear to the king. Likewise, Thirgaz had made sure that the Equestrians understand and respect the dwarves and their traditions as the ponies were given access to the public areas of the hold. A pair of colts, apparently going by the name of Snips and Snails had unintentionally made fun of a statue of Grimnir and it took a lot of convincing and apologizing for the dwarves to calm down and even then the two colts had been banned from every religious area, like the Shrine of Grungni and Valaya. And the dwarves got eventually a good taste of Applejack's famous apple cider. Most of them passed it off as a good cider, but dwarven ale was better in all cases. Her pies were passed off as an appetizer for the meaty main course, which the farmer didn't mind one bit - at least until she noticed how much the dwarves actually ate. Working in the mines is tough work and they need nutrition - something that AJ was hardpressed to deliver to the dwarves since she had not expected them to eat this much. Rainbow Dash was also given a mug of the nutritious beer when she failed to obtain a mug of cider from AJ's stand in Ponyville. It was fortunate that it was of the lighter variety, for Dash was soon booted out of the city for reckless behaviour. Pinkie Pie had also shown Ponyville to some of the beardlings who'd decided to visit the rural town, though her parties and such were scowled at for being childish, not to mention that pranks were usually making the dwarves tempers flare. The party pony had to promise not to prank on any dwarf ever again, a promise which she has kept ever since to the surprise of some longbeards. A few of the older ones even thought about opening a tavern in town. Some of the richer ponies, like Diamond Tiara and her father Filthy Rich, even managed to obtain some dwarven goods and furniture with their large sum of bits, though the dwarves were rather adamant about getting the better part of the deal - something that Filthy admired about them. Most of the furniture happened to be just perfect for ponies, but despite that the dwarves began to make something more fitting - some of them didn't like sitting like the dwarves did. Fluttershy was absolutely horrified of the fact that the dwarves ate meat. How could they kill all those innocent animals!? The dwarves merely responded by saying that if she doesn't like it, she can take it up with the king. She actually tried to seek an audience with Thirgaz at first, but her timid nature eventually kept her from doing that. She did however manage to ask the dwarves to keep their poaching near Ponyville to a minimum - something that the dwarves agreed to, albeit through clenched teeth. And despite their best efforts, the dwarves couldn't manage to have a single normal day with ponies since. Author's Note Many thanks to Malus Darkblade for helping me overcome my writer's block and being the co-author for this story!
DoomseekerAuthor's Note I apologize for the lack of updates for the last 6 months or so. But hopefully this will make up for it! Doomseeker The sun was up and it's rays of light blanketed the land from horizon to horizon in it's warm glow. Rainbow Dash was leading the weather team to get rid of the last few spots of gray in the sky - remnants of yesterday's scheduled rainstorm - and was almost finished when one of her crew, a brown pegasus by the name of Swift Pinion came to her. "Hey boss!" Swift said as he flew next to his boss, known for her tomboyish attitude and reckless behaviour. Her recent experiences with the dwarves and their ale didn't do much to fix it. "Oh hey Swift! Done on your end already?" Dash said as her gaze fell over to the side of Ponyville that Swift had been assigned to, finding it completely clear. "Yup, I was wondering if I could have the rest of the day off, got to visit this new pub that this dwarf Matrak Stonetooth is opening tonight." Swift said, pointing a hoof towards the stone structure that rose from a previously blank spot. It had been made recently after gold had been passed from hand to hoof. It had both a Khazalid name and an Equestrian name, both meaning the same: The Ale Hall. "Huh, seems like you and I got the same destination tonight, Swift. Supposed to be a big party. Strange though, they said that Pinkie was not allowed into the party." Dash said, scratching her head a bit in amusement. "What? Pinkie Pie and parties NOT in the same place at the same time? Did somepony just defy the basic truths of Equestria?" Swift Pinion said before grinning at Dash. Both of them looked at eachother for a moment before they burst out laughing. "But seriously though, I'm interested in seeing what they'll do. We never really have seen these guys partying over anything. Seriously, these dwarves are a grim bunch." "Yeah... It's as if they were sensing that something is going to go wrong. Weird." Dash said, rolling her eyes before returning to leading her team. Much of it was done by example. Swift was about to lower down on to the ground and walk in the direction of the town when he saw a dwarf coming from the direction of the dwarf realm, which was known to the ponies as Ironpeak ever since the dwarves had claimed it for their own - something nopony dared dispute. The stranger coming in the direction of the town was different from all the others. His hair had been shaved away with the exception of a thick mohawk that seemed bigger than the dwarf himself. It was dyed orange and he had no clothes except some pants. His body was covered in dwarven tattoos and a gold chain was hanging from his nose, ending on his belly button. His beard had some golden jewelry on it, crafted to resemble a leering dwarf, something the ponies found disturbing. The dwarf noticed the pegasus but paid him no mind, simply walking like a pony on a mission of great significance, ignoring the stares he got from the ponies in the town. "So this is Ponyville. Hrmph." The dwarf with orange dyed hair said as he entered the only open tavern in the town. Every tavern he had ever been to in the past had seen their fair share of strange stuff so he was not surprised when the ponies paid him no mind. "Bartender. A pint of your hardest drink. And make it quick." He said, putting a big nugget of gold on the counter, likely worth more than the drink was. The bartender, a unicorn by the name of Ripe Barley, looked at the nugget, then back at it's owner, then back at the nugget before shrugging and putting the yellow rock behind the counter while his hooves worked to give the dwarf a big mug of the most alcoholic beverage Ripe could think of in such a short timespan. The dwarf took the mug and left the counter, moving off to look for a table in the farthest corner of the Inn. Finding a suitable table he positioned the chair so its back was against the wall, with that done he hopped onto the chair, the wood creaking with his weight, he grunted as something poked him in the side, looking downwards he noticed the haft of one of his hammers poking into his ribs. He snorted and slapped the weapon, moving slightly so he could be comfortable. He was just about to take a sip of the drink he was given when he noticed a few patrons staring at him. He proceeded to glare death at them until he caught their attention, doing so he took a hammer, slowly, from a catch at his side and slammed it on the table with a meaningful look. The colourful patrons got the message and with more than a few blushes turned away before the dwarf took offense. The dwarf took a sip of his beer and nearly spat, choking at the poor flavour. "Umgak.", he said distastefully, and went to pour it on the floor, but caught himself before he did. Sighing bitterly he took to sipping the poorly made drink morosely and fell into thinking. The dwarf's name was Throm Throrsson, once he had been a prosperous miner, valued through his hold. And then tragedy struck, a section of cave he was mining collapsed, trapping him and killing a party of his kinsmen. It took a week and a half to dig him and their bodies out. His clan had tried to console him but his guilt was too much, he had left in the night, gone to the priest of Grimnir and taken the slayer oath for his shame, vowing to fight against the most horrible of beasts until his heroic death was achieved. A few years prior to the events that brought the dwarf-hold to Equestria. He'd been in the hold to resupply - something he would have rather ignored but his human companion insisted on it. And the manling had been forced from the hold due to the High King's scheduled visit - a visit which never came to pass thanks to the strange things that brought the dwarf-hold to Equestria. His thoughts turned to other things, in particular a certain forest that happened to be a short distance away. Throm had heard rumours of dark things that lived there but had disbelieved them. He doubted anything violent lived in this vibrant place of colour and kindness. It made him sick to think that there was nothing in this land that would grant him his wish. He snapped out of his thoughts with a shake of his head. "I am wasting too much time." He said. With that he drained his mug in one go and got up to leave, taking his hammer with him. The bartender, seeing such a high paying customer go called out, "Thank you for choosing my inn, sir!" Throm turned and snarled at the colourful horse reflexively, making the pony recoil in shock and surprise. Now out of the tavern Throm hawked and spat on the ground, his scarred face looking around to get his bearings. He could see the massive tree in the distance said to house the Golden Oaks Library. Grunting as he did so, Throm set off, walking down the road towards the building. While walking he recieved many strange looks for his hair style and colour, the looks only made his rage grow, reminding him of his shame. "Dreng tromm.." he said bitterly, pulling on his beard savagely. These creature were too innocent, once when he had left the ranger outpost he had encountered a pony on the road, the pony had remarked humorously of his hair and beard colour. Throm had nearly strangled him to death. "They don't know." He said trying to ignore the looks as best he could. There were a few dwarves that he noticed, but ignored them as he had other things to do. The other dwarves were too busy to notice him as they were carrying supplies into a building that had a sign which read 'The Ale Hall' in both Khazalid and Equestrian. Finally after a short walk, made grueling by the stares, he reached the Library. He glared at the door angrily and slammed his fist into it a few good times before he heard a young voice cry out in alarm and yell. After a few seconds of waiting the door was opened, Throm, expecting too see a pony. looked down instead to find a young purple dragon. "Hey man, what's the deal with you, you could have knocked the door off its hinges!" Throms face turned thunderous with rage. "Drakk!" he hissed. The young dragon looked confused and spoke, "What's a dra-urgk-" his voice was cut off in a strangled cry as Throm's hand shot out his large fist enveloping the small dragons throat easily. He ripped a hammer from his belt and raised it high over his head, and brought it down with a savage jerk. There was a scream from inside the house and Throms hand suddenly started slowing until his blow did nothing more than a slight thump, snarling he looked up to find a purple horse standing inside looking frightened. "What treachery is this!?" Throm roared, throwing the dragon with all his might at her. The purple pony screeched and hurridly caught the small thing in a field of magic only making his rage grow. "You protect it as well?!" He took his other hammer from his belt, and moved inside of the doorway, blocking it with his bulk. "I can explain!" the purple pony cried. "You better, or your life is forfeit." Throm growled, advancing on her. It had taken 3 hours for the dwarf to calm down and listen to Twilight's explanation of why the small creature was with her. Throm didn't like it so he had told her to keep the fell thing away from him. They were now in conversation about the forest, called the Everfree as Throm came to know. "So.", he said slowly "The rumours are true?" "Yes, there are many horrible beasts that dwell in that forest, like manticores and timberwolves. It's why nopony goes there." Throm tugged on his beard thoughtfully, and said: "How deep would one have to go to find these beasts?" "Not too far. It only gets more dangerous the further you go." Said Twilight nervously, unsure of what the dwarf was getting at. "I see, then that is all I needed to know, I bid you farewell, Twilight Sparkle." He hopped off the couch and walked towards the door, opening it with Twilight close behind. "Why did you want to know? Are you going there? What are you going to do?" The rapid fire questions made Throm smile. He turned to her and there was a fell light in his eyes as he spoke. "I go to seek my doom little one." "WHAT!?" Twilight shouted, everypony in the vicinity looking at the Golden Oaks. But the few dwarfs merely glanced at the slayer and knew that it was none of their business. "I'm going to this forest and either slay every single one of these creatures or die trying. And if what you say is true, then my wish for a heroic death will be granted." Throm said, lifting a hammer to his shoulder. "But why? Why try to get yourself killed? I don't understand!" Twilight frantically tried to stop the dwarf with her physical strength alone, but it proved insufficient. Soon she used her magic to grab his hand, which annoyed the dwarf a lot. "Let go of me, pony. I don't have the time to answer your ridiculous questions, for Grimnir's sake!" Seeing as how she found a way to stop the dwarf, Twilight looked at him with a serious face. "I'm not letting you go get yourself killed without an explanation and that's final!" And with that the dwarf was dragged back inside the library for a long period of questioning. "So you look for a heroic death to atone for a past sin?" "I already told you, pony. And I will say no more. Now let me go! I have monsters to slay!" Twilight sighed as her magical shackles gave way. "You're not going to budge, are you?" "Hrmph, you're lucky I don't kill you where you stand for this insolence." "I was just looking out for you!" Twilight said, shocked. "I look after myself, pony. I don't need one of you for anything other than a Rememberer and even then I would rather have a dwarf to be mine." He said, glaring death at the unicorn. "But-" Throm's gaze made Twilight swallow nervously instead of finishing her sentence. "If the Ancestor Gods look favourably upon me, we will never meet again, Twilight Sparkle. Farewell." With that, the slayer was out of the library, leaving Twilight and Spike looking at eachother and the door. After a long while, Twilight made up her mind and dashed out the door in pursuit of the dwarf. Spike facepalmed as she did. "Seriously, risking your own life to save the life of a mad biped who tried to kill your assistant. Way to go, Twilight." He mumbled before shutting the door and flipping the sign to closed. The edge of the forest was right in front of the orange-crested dwarf, who was grinning madly. "The rumors were true indeed. I can smell the evil coming from this forest." He heard a timberwolf's howl, a small distance away from his current position if his estimates were correct. "Or maybe it's just those blasted walking piles of firewood." He spat at the ground in disgust. His head quickly jerked up as he heard the feminine scream though. With a grunt and a curse he began running towards where he had last heard the noise. He heard another feminine shriek as he neared the edge of what seemed to be a trail and stopped as a purple blur crashed into him. Throm was knocked back a step as his eyes finally landed on the purple thing - The librarian from Ponyville. With a scowl he spoke: "Valaya's tits, horse! What has gotten you so frightened?" The 'horse' in question was about to shout for help when a snarl interrupted them. Loping from the shadows along the trees from the road came five things that looked as if they came from some child's nightmare. Throm looked on in curiosity as the creatures stopped a short distance away upon seeing the dwarf. Their eyes tracks the purple pony as it got up and hid behind this new creature and whimpered. They had chased the food for an hour through the forest and they were damned if they were going to let it get away now. Throm swung his hammer loosely in one hand and while the haft was long enough to use two handed he liked the speed of using it single handed. He grunted and spat at the creatures; Timberwolves if he remembered, they looked... "Pathetic." He said dissapointedly to him the creatures looked like they were held together by some sort of magic. They looked like a weird amalgamation of wood and sticks with the occasional leaf sticking from them: it reminded him of a spell a manling wizard had shown him in his short travels from the clan hold. Not nearly as dangerous in appearance as the ponies claimed. One of the creatures ran forward and with a howl leaped at the dwarf. The dwarf snarled and lunged forward bringing his hammer swinging in an arc for the creatures torso, there was a sickening crack as it connected and the wolf dropped down a few feet away from the dwarf in a pile of wood and twigs. With a howl the rest of the creatures ran forward at the thing that had harmed its pack and Throm's eyes widened and gripped his hammer with both hands and swung backing away slightly. His first swing connected on the head of one of the wolves smashing it to splinters but Throm was unable to catch a moment's respite as he heard a snarl to his left and looked in time to see on of the beasts lunging at him. He turned, sucking in his gut as the wolf lunged past and turned quicly to keep it in front of him and with a curse brought his weapon back over his head and swung it down quickly smashing the beast back to shards. A weight settled onto his back causing him to grunt but that grunt quickly turned into a snarl as he realized it was the beast's jaw's sinking into the meat of his shoulder. Throm roared as he leaned forward putting a hand on the things jaws and tugging, making it lose its balance and fall to the side where it scrabbled to right itself before an iron shod boot crushed it's thick wooden skull. He turned quickly as the final wolf lunged at him and quickly brought his arm up and winced as the creature's jaw's latched on and started tugging, tearing at the meat of his arm. Throm dropped his hammer and moved his hand to the creature's bottom jaw working his fingers into it and with a savage wrench snapped it from the creature's mouth, moving his other arm free he quickly grasped the wolf's head together in his palms and with as much pressure as he could began to squeeze until finally with a sickening crack the creature fell into a heap of wood. Throm stood there, panting with a mad gleam in his eye before he took notice of the surroundings. Sitting there staring in horror at the dwarf was Twilight. "Good fight." He said with a grin. Twilight could only gape at him, making the dwarf chuckle. "At a loss for words, are ya? Doesn't matter. You're answering." Throm said before closing the distance and staring at the unicorn's eyes. "Why did you follow me?" Twilight looked at the broken twigs and pieces of wood that had once been timberwolves. Throm grabbed her by the throat. "Why did you follow me, horse?" His eyes suddenly looked up as he heard a noise. The dwarf had no chance to wait for an answer as he pushed the unicorn forward and jumped back as a hooded figure landed in between Twilight and Throm. "Do not harm my friend, bearded one, or this will be the last time that hammer is swung." The figure threw back the hood, revealing a mohawk of black and white stripes. Golden jewelry adorned the zebra's face. "Zecora!?" "Yes, it is I, Twilight. Here to save you from this brute's might." The potion maker replied before turning her full attention to the dwarf. "Out of my way, horse. This is none of your business." Throm snarled angrily. The zebra didn't move an inch. The dwarf grinned in response. "Good, I was hoping you'd do that." With formalities out of the way, Throm threw his hammer at the zebra, who dodged it easily. The runes on the hammer began to glow before it began to switch directions, flying back to Throm who caught it by the haft. Twilight was amazed. She'd heard of the magic trapped in dwarven runes, but they never taught her anything about it other than the basic information that every dwarf knows - even that info was shared only after petitioning from the king. But her wonder abated quickly as the dwarf raised his arm in an attempt to throw it again. She wasn't sure if Zecora could dodge it again. "Throm, wait!" She cried out. The dwarf threw the hammer again. Once again did the zebra dodge the hammer that could crush her skull in one blow. This time the hammer got lodged in a tree, the sheer force of the throw threatening to snap the tree in half. Even Throm was slightly impressed by this. Either he was growing stronger or the Everfree Forest had a lot of flimsy trees. "Wait!" The unicorn repeated. Yet again did the dwarf ignore her, stomping to get the hammer, or to strangle the zebra, Twilight wasn't sure which. The earth's rumbling stopped his advance. Looking behind him, he saw a gruesome sight. A gigantic timberwolf was glaring at him knowingly. The dwarf smiled, showing his yellow teeth. "Finally! I've been looking for a challenge!" He shouted out to the wolf. He snatched his hammer from the tree, bits of it still sticking to it, before throwing it at the wolf. It hit the alpha with a resounding crunch as wood snapped and leaves began to fall from the force of the impact. Not that they could hear any of it over the timberwolf's cry of pain. "Pah! I expected more from one of the wutrothvarf!" The zebra and unicorn had both cowed as they saw the slayer face the giant timberwolf fearlessly. "What is going on in that fool's head? Alone and with no hammer, he's bound to fall dead!" Zecora grunted, thinking that maybe she should take Twilight out of the forest while the alpha was distracted. Something made her stay, however. "It's what he fights for. An honorable death." Twilight mumbled. The dwarf and wolf eyed eachother, the former with a mad glint in his eyes, the latter with an animalistic intelligence that told it would be in for the fight of it's life. Throm's smile turned vicious and with a roar torn from his throat he charged the giant beast. The wolf snarled and lunged trying to bull the small creature over using its weight, but the dawi dodged and hammered and meaty fist into it's side with a loud crack. The wolf jumped to the side and backed away before lunging again. Again Throm tried to dodge but the wolf moved with him and closed it's jaws on the dwarf's leg, snarling it lifted the creature and started shaking it. Throm howled in agony and - using his body's momentum - managed to swing forward and hammer a fist into it's balefully glowing eye. Something unexpected happened; as the socket cracked the green glow exploded in a small burst of green sickly flame burning the dwarf's hand. Throm howled again as the great beast opened its jaws to howl in agony, releasing the dwarf. Throm quickly scrambled to his feet and moved away, limping slowly backwards to avoid the beast's thrashing. Throm laughed; the pain, it made him feel alive. "Yes, good, come beast, let this be a fight worthy to remember!" Suddenly a shout from behind him interrupted his dark thought glancing over his shoulder Throm saw the purple horse holding his hammer in a glowing aura. "Throm, Catch!" Called Twilight, throwing the hammer to the dwarf. The dwarf caught the hammer deftly by the haft and made to turn only to be tackled to the ground, feeling a set of jaws clamp around his leg. There was a crunch and Throm had felt like every bone in his leg had turned to dust. Screaming in pain he rolled over and - swinging the hammer in one hand - smashed the wolf in the face to get it away and buy time to stand. The wolf snorted and leaped back pawing its face and whining. Throm quickly stood leaning his weight on his only fuctioning leg. Having recovered, the giant wolf howled and charged. The dwarf held up his hammer and brought it down as the beast smashed into him, hitting the same side of it's face again. The thing flailed slightly as it's head was completely smashed, one side of the timberwolf literally falling off. The timberwolf's weight proved too much as it barreled down upon him, twigs and branches scraping his skin as the main body fell on his chest. The dwarf let out a cry of agonising pain as he felt his ribs crack and shatter. But the wolf was dying. Throm must have hit it in the brain, if the slight twitches were of any indication. The thing made a motion to rise again, but Throm, even in his prone state, managed to twist his hammer in his hand until he thrust the haft through the thing's eye and into the remains of it's brain, killing it instantly. The timberwolf never even let out a death cry as it exploded, scattering twigs and dead leaves everywhere, the force of the explosion injuring the dwarf even more. His breathing was now ragged, one of his eyes didn't obey him and he was pretty sure his stomach acids were flowing into his bloodstream. Twilight and Zecora were amazed that the dwarf was still breathing, but it made them all the more worried. "Throm! Oh Celestia, Throm, we'll get you help!" The dwarf snarled at the pony, making Zecora frown slightly. "And rob me of a mighty death, horse? Killing this thing is my greatest achievement and has rid this forest of a grave threat. I gladly give my life in return for it's death." The dwarf gave a wet gurgle and spat a bloody red mess to the ground next to him. The zebra herbalist thought she saw a piece of flesh in there, making her grimace. "Perhaps now... Now the Hall of Ancestors will welcome me... My... atonement... accomplished..." The dwarf said before his eyes slowly began to close, a smile on his lips. "Throm.. Throm!" Twilight cried, tugging at the dwarf's body, until Zecora laid a hoof on her shoulder and shook her head. "His spirit joins the ancestral hall. For this great deed, they'll answer his call." The zebra said, before turning back towards the road, Twilight following her almost automatically, though she took a long glance back at the dawi corpse. After the two reached the edge of the forest, Twilight spoke up. "Thank you Zecora for bringing me here, but I have to go see the dwarf king's representative here in Ponyville. I have to let them know what happened to Throm." She said, not feeling that cheered up considering all the events that had transpired. "And I must return to my abode, even if I wanted to help you lighten your load. But I have heard of a place opening in town, how does the two of us going there together sound? A drink might help your thoughts besoothe, at the Ale Hall of Matrak Stonetooth." The zebra said, waving the unicorn farewell as she turned to go back into the woods. After Twilight had stood there for a moment, she smiled. "I'd like that." She said to herself. "And then his hammer hit the timberwolf on the side of it's head. The wolf fell on top of him, still alive, until Throm thrust his hammer in it's eye, killing it. But his injuries were too severe. And he didn't want my help or Zecora's..." Twilight said, sipping at her drink as the collected dwarf group listened intently. "Aye. A good death. A giant wutrothvarf sounds worthy of a drengi like him." One of the longbeards said, nodding approvingly. Rainbow Dash was there as well, drunk as a sailor but had somehow managed to not get kicked out. "I propose a toast! For the slayer of the big and bad timberwolf! The hall welcome him and all that you dwarves say." Dash said, holding her mug up while smiling stupidly. The dwarves grumbled slightly at the cerulean pony's lack of respect but most of them raised their mugs in response and drank anyway. Unlike what Dash and her fellow drinking buddy Swift Pinion had thought, there was no dancing or singing. Just drinking their super-tasty alcoholic Bugmans XXXXXX while glaring daggers at anypony who looked at them funny. The silence lasted until one of them started to hum to a grating tune, one that seemed to echo off the walls as the dwarves began to sing their hymn of farewell. Their honored dead now join the ancestors in the halls of the Ancestor Gods and shall forever be remembered as heroes. The ponies had no knowledge of what was going on, but the tune was easy enough for them to hum along. It was soothing in a way. It was a slayer's farewell. And wherever he was in the Halls of the Ancestors, his kinmen knew that he was watching over them and smiling, with a beer mug in one hand and a pipe full of quality weed in the other.
A Short IntroductionNote to readers: This is an introduction! The story has not begun yet! The first chapters will be told from the dwarves' point of view. In addition, the story starts from the point when the dwarves have actually established a camp in the land. As to how they actually became to be in Equestria, they have no idea but they're positive that the elves had something to do with it. That, or perhaps the Chaos gods thought it would be fun to pluck a hold's worth of dwarves from the face of the Old World. The mountain that they came to inhabit during their time was also a poor one. Most of the mountain consisted of marble, some sandstone and gneiss. While there were a few veins of ore, it would not have been enough for a hold in normal circumstances. These were hardly normal circumstances however. Still, the dwarves got good steel and a mountain to hack at. Funny that this same mountain seems to be in the vicinity of a certain town known as home to the Elements of Harmony... Author's Note No pun intended in the title.
