Chapters It was early on the morning. The sun hasn't come up above the horizon and still shines elsewhere among the world. It was about 4:30 AM when we all awoke. Nopony could sleep with such a big day ahead, so we all arose and gathered our supplies. Crisco woke up from the jumbling of the equipment. He made us a good starting breakfast in the dim light of the candles and flame of the cooking fire. A large pot of thick oatmeal was made with a variety of different ingredients that added to the oats perfectly. Two days ago, Granny Smith had shown the large mustached pony how to get honey from bees her special way, which was added to the oatmeal to make the perfect combination. The honey was sensational when swirled into the batch. Everypony perked up a bit after the fantastic breakfast. Everypony was ready to go, until a knock was heard on the front door.
"I wonder who that could be." Tiki said flatly.
"Take a wild guess. It's definitely not one of the mane 6." I said jokingly.
"Yeah, one of them probably picked up on the noise we were making and told the others." Tiki said, opening the door.
"You weren't really planning on leaving without a goodbye where you?!" Rarity said to Tiki, fuming.
"Of course not! We just got up a bit early to... Enjoy breakfast." Tiki smiled sheepishly.
"Well, I took the liberty of notifying the others, just incase you tried to escape without a proper farewell." Rarity said informatively, walking though the front door past Tiki.
"Well, we have more than enough oatmeal to go around, you're welcome to join us in breakfast." I offered.
"That sounds splendid, but I only use oatmeal to moisturize my coat and such." Rarity said.
"Oh, but you must try mah recipe! It'sa homemade Italian breakfast oatmeal. I got'a the honey fresh just yesterday see?" Crisco said, pouring a small bowl of the delectable breakfast treat.
"Oh, well maybe I'll try a bit." Rarity said, giving into the generous offer.
It only took one bite for Rarity to fall in love wit the sweet honey mixed in with the savory, thick, cinnamon oatmeal recipe. The white unicorn now joined us at our large kitchen table, eating oatmeal and having one last goodbye chat with the group. Not long after Rarity sat down to join us for breakfast, 5 more ponies showed up at the door, irritated by Rarity's naive remark on our unplanned departure from Ponyville, which wasn't true. After explaining the real story and giving each pony a bowl of sweet, thick oatmeal, everypony sat at the table saying their last words of goodbye and enjoying the sweet company of conversation in the early hours before the sun rose over the horizon. About 20 minutes had passed, the oatmeal was finished, and the sun's glow was almost breaking the horizon.
"Well, I guess the time is coming for you four to pack up and head off, the sun is breaking the horizon." Twilight said.
"Yeah, it's about time, I guess we might as well head off for the trail we're taking." I said.
"Don't go too fast, I want you around as long as possible before you leave us!" Twilight said somewhat worriedly.
"I don't plan on leaving without a very special goodbye." I said charmingly.
"Oooh things are getting steamy in here!" Rainbow Dash laughed.
"It can get a lot hotter if you want." Silver Dust winked.
"Um no, this temperature of hotness is good where it is." Rainbow said sheepishly, blushing slightly.
"Well ah'm gonna take my hotness somewhere else, if y'all don't mind." Bronze said, walking out the door with Applejack.
"We'll be in the back if y'all need anythin'!" Applejack yelled out.
"I can stay right here, I don't need to go anywhere with Rarity today." Tiki said.
"You're right, nothing 'hot' is going to happen between us, unlike you... Playful ponies." Rarity said.
"Maybe just lightening up a bit wouldn't hurt." Tiki said, whisking his feathery wing at Rarity's side, engaging the tickling.
"Stop it! I'm trying to maintain my composure, before you leave me for so long!" Rarity said, her eyes becoming a bit misty.
"Don't worry, I'll write to you as much as I can." Tiki said.
"Yeah, I'll make sure to send out letters every day if possible." I added.
"That's good to hear, I expect to learn everything about what you all did in each letter, I don't want to miss anything." Rarity smiled.
"I'll make sure to leave out the gory parts and nothing else." Tiki said with a smirk.
Rarity and Tiki had left for the trail at the edge of Ponyville. The couple observed the sun rise over the hill while everypony else was saying goodbye to their companions. Applejack and Bronze were outside and Rainbow Dash was upstairs with Silver Dust. I had the living room all to myself with Twilight.
"Well, I'm all packed and ready to go. There's only one more thing I need before I leave." I smiled and walked over to Twilight.
"What's that? It shouldn't be to hard to..." She was cut off by a kiss.
"I think I'm ready to leave now, I got everything I needed." I smiled at Twilight's dazed expression.
"One more couldn't possibly hurt anything." Twilight said, going back for more.
A few more minutes went by, kissing and goodbyes. I knew nopony would disturb us at that moment, so I started to kiss Twilight's horn softly. A few lone sparks started to fly from the her horn as I let my tongue out of my mouth around her horn. I had to stop shortly after because I knew Twilight couldn't control the bright sparks and the moaning.
"You know things won't ever be the same. Not after that day in the park." Rainbow Dash said.
"Don't worry, I'll write to you often and I'll come back soon. Everything can continue from there." Silver smiled as he packed the last of his bags.
"Yeah, but what am I going to do when you're gone? It'll be sooo boring!" Rainbow Dash pouted.
"I guess it's time to tough up and get ready for boredom." Silver chuckled.
Rainbow Dash tackled Silver Dust onto the bed, locking his hooves in place by her own. This spontaneous action couldn't be explained by either pony, so they just enjoyed the moment with each other and laughed it off. With a kiss at the end, Silver Dust escorted Rainbow Dash out the door and down to the trail with Tiki and Rarity.
Applejack and Bronze were out in the back, swimming in the middle of the river along the back side of the mansion. The river water was warmer than usual, making the swim much more comfortable in the early morning. The two earth ponies had each other locked in their arms, floating in the middle of the slow moving water.
"Ah don't want this to end. Ah don't want you to leave me again." Applejack said, looking into Bronze Hammer's eyes.
"Ah know, but it has to be done. The others need me as much as ah need them." Bronze replied.
"Ah understand that, and ah'll try not to stop ya from leavin' on such an important quest." Applejack said.
"Just enjoy the moment, worry about it later." Bronze comforted Applejack, bringing her closer in his grasp.
Taking his advice, Applejack enjoyed the moment with a long, sweet kiss in the middle of the river. There was plenty of tongue to go around, and the country ponies enjoyed every last bit of it. Knowing that it would be their last time for a long while, both ponies kept lips locked for what felt like many minutes. After a while, they had to break their passionate kiss and head back to the mansion, as they had floated downstream during such a moment.
"Well, the sun's coming up, ah better start headin' for the trail." Bronze walked out of the river soaking wet.
"Alright, let's get goin' for the trail. Grab all of your stuff, ah'll help ya carry some at the door." Applejack offered.
"Don't worry about that, ah packed lightly. It shouldn't be too hard to carry it all." Bronze said walking through the back door after shaking off a bit.
Everypony was now at the edge of Ponyville at the south trail heading into the Everfree forest. Silver and Rainbow Dash had walked in on Twilight and I while we were in the living room. It probably wasn't good to leave Twilight on those terms with Rainbow Dash, since the Pegasus would have plenty of jokes to muse over while we're gone. Tiki and Rarity were watching the sun come over the horizon, Applejack was packing the last of Bronze's pockets on his uniform, and I was saying the last of my goodbyes to the mane 6. The sun was now peeking over the horizon and bringing light to the land as we sat on Ponyville's edge, waiting for the time of departure to come. Everypony was just in one big group hug while the sun continued to rise over the horizon.
After a long while of goodbyes and one big group hug, we all prepared to set off down the trail for Appleloosa. It could've been a two day walk easily, but we were focused on digging out any goblin resistance in the areas. Each of us had our uniform fastened on and packed for a long trip. I even packed a tent to fit four in my back pocket. Twilight had shown me some more tricks with magic, and I caught on fast. Silver Dust was given a book in a unicorn marking language. It explained all of the spells and tricks that could be done with magic. I thought the book itself was magic, since I couldn't read a single word from it, but Silver picked up the language as if he were born reading it. All along the trails he read the book, practicing different spells of manipulation or illusions on the passing scenery.
The sun had now risen above the horizon and filtered through the trees along the sides of the trails. Tiki had been circling the area to make sure we didn't pass over any goblins or other threats to worry about. I also had my Draco-vision on, trying to pick up on heat signatures or other life forces throughout the forest. My eyes were amazing, picking up on the smallest amount of animal life moving throughout the forest. I could see squirrels climbing trees from hundreds of feet away. I even saw bugs moving under rocks down to the smallest detail. As we walked I was beginning to think about these sources of power and the other dangers along the trip. Our uniforms were designed to withstand fire, water, and slashes from many different kinds of weapons, even dragons' claws. I didn't know how my uniform and everything in it would react to such intense power of a magical fire, if the need for such weaponry occurred.
As we walked, I noticed an unusually large form of life in a hollowed out stump to the left of the trail, deeper into the forest. In a short amount of time, I had called the other three down to my side as we began to approach the area of designation. It was a hut surrounded by mysterious artifacts and torches in a small clearing of the forest. I recognized the life force shape as Zecora, and the smaller must've been Apple Bloom helping the zebra with daily chores.
"Hello!" I shouted out, "is that Zecora and Apple Bloom in there by any chance?"
"What a delight! You've guessed us right!" Zecora announced from her window.
"I just picked up on glowing life forces and decided to investigate with my group. We might as well stop to say hello before we leave for a long time." I informed.
"You've been so busy in Ponyville! There never really was a good day to come out to see Zecora." Apple Bloom frowned.
"It's quite fine, little filly! I haven't had time myself to visit Ponyville, I find it very silly! Zecora spoke in rhyme.
"Well, we don't have much time to stick around, we're on a goblin hunt on our trip to Appleloosa." I said.
"I have a warning for you! The point between forest and desert, goblins come out of the blue!" Zecora informed us.
"That's good to hear, we'll be ready for when we approach the group." I said.
"Alright! But before ya go, ah want a goodbye hug!" Apple Bloom said, locking onto my front leg in a tight grip.
We left the hut on good terms, Zecora even lending Silver Dust some spices for cooking and healing. We continued our walk through the forest in the afternoon and almost to dusk. Observing our surroundings, we kept our eyes peeled for goblins or other troublesome sources. Nothing peaked our interest and the sun was beginning to set. I suggested to set up camp for the night and to continue tomorrow morning. As I pulled the tightly folded tent from my pocket, Tiki shouted out from the sky.
"Goblins! Up ahead, there's a small camp on the outskirts of the desert!" Tiki had yelled down to us from the clouds.
We had been walking for the day now, dusk coming along the sky and the other side of the Everfree forest approaching us. I tucked the tent back into my pocket and looked through my Draco-vision. I saw a group of goblins sitting around a campfire though the bush and trees, completely defenseless to an ambush. After Tiki made a silent landing, I explained to the group what my plan was. There were 8 goblins in a small clearing in the forest surrounding a fire. We were each going to take a side and eliminate two goblins in unison. The plan was fail-proof if everypony remained silent. After minutes of positioning, everypony was in the correct location to execute the plan, and the goblins. Each of us slowly walked out of the bush, with Tiki hovering in the air above his selected two. Silver Dust whipped his tail blade through the back of one of the goblins head, grabbing the other by the throat and securing him on the ground. As the other goblins reacted, I had pushed my pair into the pit of fire and watched them burn. Bronze had brought down his hammer in the middle of the log supporting the other two goblins. This broke the log in half and the two pieces flew up and collided, crushing the pair of goblins into a meshed pile of meat and blood. As the last pair of goblins got up to fight back, Tiki dropped from the sky, landing both of his short swords through the back of the goblins' heads. The force had carried the group down, and the swords drove into the log that the goblins had been sitting on.
"Perfectly executed. Best part is that we don't have to clean up after ourselves." I smiled, wiping the blood from my face.
"Well, I'm actually going to have to clean my wings the next time we find water, I don't want it to affect my flying." Tiki complained.
"Don't worry, I could just do this." Silver Dust flashed the mess from each of us away and into the fire in front of us.
"Well that's pretty dang useful, ah guess you're gonna have to show us some more tricks on the trip." Bronze said, lightly clapping his hooves together in a joking applause.
"Alright, calm yourselves. At least we have a camp ground for the night." I said, feeling relieved.
"Alright, I'll clean the bodies away if you get rid of the makeshift goblin tent." Silver offered.
Silver Dust cleared the fire pit and threw the bodies far into the woods after I had burnt them to a crisp in their makeshift tent, just to avoid any stench overcoming us in the night. Aside from the burnt body smell, it was much better than rotting body smell. I had lit a bluish fire in the pit and whipped out our tent for the night. The tent we had was a large, four pony tent, and some of the surrounding trees needed to be cleared and were used as firewood. We all sat around the magic glow of my blue flame as the night became colder as the moon rose in the sky. I decided to have some fun and try out a new trick I thought about for a while after looking into the flame. I had looked into the fire with my eyes glaring green, allowing a single magic spark to roll off of my tri forked tongue. In an instant, an image of Rarity had been projected into the fire. The image looked so realistic that only magic could cast such an image. After a minute had passed, I broke the silence.
"Rarity! It's so nice to see you!" I shouted into the flame.
"Who's there?! The boutique is closed! It's practically midnight!" Rarity jumped from her seat and acted defensively.
"Look into the fire, for it will explain everything." I chuckled, trying not to laugh at Rarity's dumbfounded expression.
"Oh my Celestia! How did you all wind up in my fire place?" Rarity asked.
"Just a spell I had picked up myself." I smiled.
"I know its only been a day, but its so good to see you all again!" Rarity squealed.
"Well, don't get used to it, I don't know how often I'll be able to cast a spell like this." I said.
"That's too bad, but please, let me go call up the others to say hello!" Rarity jumped to her hooves.
"That isn't necessary! I don't think troubling the others in the middle of the night would be such a good idea." I said, panicking.
"But why not? They would all love to see you, even at a time like this!" Rarity argued.
"Yes, but it isn't needed. You can let them sleep, I can visit each of them later on. Besides, it's only been one day." I said.
"Oh, alright, if you insist." Rarity crossed her hooves and sat down in her chair once more.
"Well, there really isn't much to say, we've only walked through the forest and we eliminated a camp of goblins. We've actually made camp on their campsite." I smiled.
"Oh, how ironic! Well I'll leave you boys to your tent! Goodnight!" Rarity winked and put out the fire.
Everypony got into the single tent and soon fell asleep after such a long day of walking. It took a bit longer than usual, probably because of the thought of my bisexual orientation. I knew it made Silver Dust pretty uncomfortable that I liked mares AND stallions, but Bronze and Tiki were totally tolerant to it. It was a cold night, and only got colder because of the approaching winter within the next few months. A blanket wasn't needed, the tent was enough to trap the infinite source of heat coming from my central core fire. Tiki had talked about how great cuddling is all the time, in Equestria and our home world. I never really knew how great it felt to have a cuddle buddy until I met Twilight as a special somepony. Tiki helped remind me of this when he turned over some time in the night and wrapped an arm around me. I didn't want anything bad or awkward to happen so I only moved his arm back to his side before somepony woke up, it was only common courtesy. I fell asleep once more, no more disturbances throughout the night. Dreams overtook my mind and I rested peacefully under the starts of the wide, black sky. It was strange, because I felt as if I visited each of my companions in their own dreams. I saw Tiki cloud surfing through a big storm over Ponyville, a sport he had invented within days of arrival in Equestria. I saw Bronze Hammer, dreaming of Applejack and himself at the forge once again, swimming in the river behind the forge in the middle of the hot day. I could feel the amulet of Silver Dust keeping me from joining his dream, but I knew it was something about crystals, magic, and... Rainbow Dash. I could hear a strange voice in the background, like as if the amulet was speaking with Silver Dust in his dreams. It only made sense because the amulet soon started to address me.
"You! Dragon lord! Keep your distance from me and my partner!" A deep voice rumbled in my head.
"But why? I'm only here to assist, not to harm!" I argued.
"I can sense your power! The dragon lords are an ancient power not to be trusted! I shall bring you to your knees if you threaten the lands around me!" The voice said, seeming enraged.
"I am not an ancient power! I'm a new force that emerged from another world!" I pleaded.
"Another world, you say? This explains all of my questions and such..." The amulet contemplated.
"I'm only here to make peace! I won't change the world around you, but will only reform the things around us, the things that have needed reformation for so long." I explained.
"I see your intentions, your spiritual form is changing in my very presence." The amulet explained.
"You seem to know more about this than I do. I'm only here to do good and to learn, and I think you can teach me what I need to learn." I said.
"I can, indeed. Tomorrow morning everything will be revealed, tell your friend to remove me from his neck and place myself upon your own." The amulet said, his voice dying through the dreams.
The next morning was very interesting. We all arose early, as the sun rose along the horizon. Tiki flew about, gathering clouds for a water supply for this morning. Bronze Hammer gathered some more wood for a cooking fire while I talked to Silver about the dream I had last night, about the amulet. After gathering the wood and collecting some plants along the trail for breakfast, I had cooked up some potato pancakes Bronze had dug out around the trails in the area. We all ate breakfast around the open fire and discussed what we would be doing today and what happened last night. I had told each of them about the different dreams I had encountered, each one accurately correct to the others dreams. I had also mentioned the cuddling session that almost occurred during the night when Tiki had placed his hoof around me. Apparently Tiki was awake when it had happened, and thought that I was asleep. He was looking for something warm to grab onto when it got colder that night and remembered my core fire. After we both realized that we were both wide awake when that happened, Silver and Bronze couldn't help but chuckle at our expressions. I knew I blushed a bit from the thought, but it was harder to tell on a crimson red Pegasus. After the laughing died down from all of us, I explained to Silver Dust about the amulet and how it spoke to me that night. I told him that I need to wear the amulet for myself like it told me to do. Silver was very hesitant about this command and didn't like the idea of giving his source of power to another pony. It took a bit of conversation and convincing, but the amulet finally came off by itself and jumped upon my forehead.
"Ironclad, all powerful lord of bliss, pure happiness and love for others. I see now how you maintain such a positive attitude with a fountain of power such as yours. Although your ways of battle are merciless and sickening, your meaning of friendship and protection is a truly pure motivation. You have an uncanny source of power at your command from the energy of your friends." The amulet's voice echoing through mine, as my eyes glowed green to match the central core of the diamond in the amulet.
"What's happening?!" Tiki had started to panic as an unsettling breeze picked up around the campsite.
"Ah'm guessin' it's just another one of them dragon lord things goin' on again. Ah'm just gonna sit through it." Bronze said flatly.
"I see now the true purposes of our interactions and am sorry for shunning you before. I will no longer interfere with and will welcome your presence in future occurrences." The amulet jumped from my touch back to Silver Dust's neck.
"Let us continue the journey, my friends!" The amulet echoed upon Silver's neck as he looked down upon it in horror.
"This thing can talk? And it's just been sitting on my neck all this time? Why haven't I heard from you earlier?!" Silver looked down at the amulet, which glowed a dark, shimmering silver glow to match the unicorn's eyes.
"Ok. I heard him talk, I'm ready to go." Silver said, hearing the amulet through his thoughts.
"What's all of this talk about lord of bliss and stuff? What the BUCK just happened?!" Tiki asked, dumbfounded by the performance given by the amulet.
"That's apparently my role and specialty as a dragon lord. I'm guessing the appearance of ponies and their ways of happiness have mysteriously summoned another element of power to the order of dragon lords." I explained.
"Makes enough sense to me, lets get goin' before the sun gets high in the sky." Bronze suggested.
"I agree, fighting the desert heat doesn't sound fun today." Silver added.
"Squad, let's move out before anything weirder tops what just happened." I said flatly, walking out into the dried ground.
It was about 9:00 AM when we set out for Appleloosa through the desert. The sun was beating hot, so Tiki had gathered up the clouds around the area to shade us from the heat. As we walked on, Tiki pushed the cloud from the bottom to shield us from the sun. There wasn't a sight of danger for miles around, everything was flat aside from the rocky pillars in the distance. About mid afternoon we approached a form of dirt road leading into Appleloosa. Nopony was traveling the road at the time, probably because it was so hot out. We continued to walk the trail, observing our surroundings very closely, incase any sign of trouble was to jump out in front of us. Soon enough, we were jumped by roadside bandits who had no clue who we were. There were only three bandits, weakly armed with a blade for each criminal. I gave a motion for everypony to stand back and watch the show.
"Hand over whatever you have! We don't care, just dump your pockets!" One of the bandits commanded.
"Please, what are you three going to do to me?" I chuckled.
"I'll cut your throat straight down the middle and watch you choke for breath!" The bigger one had threatened.
"Oh my, isn't that so violent? Please, impress me!" I laughed.
"We ain't joking around here! Either dump your pockets or your head comes off!" The smallest of the bandits yelled.
I got right up into the face of the leading bandit, "please, do away with me if you want the goods in my back pocket!" I chuckled.
"Alright, you're overconfidence is going to cost you and your entire group!" The middle bandit yelled.
A jagged blade landed right in the center of my throat, the largest of the bandits had lunged for my gullet and attempted to run a knife through my neck. The blade only snapped as the top half fell to the floor and I walloped the largest bandit ten feet from me and off the ledge. He continued to roll for ten seconds before hearing him hit the ground with a large crack that echoed through the valley below. The other two bandits looked at me and lunged for my head without thinking. Each of their blades hit the side of my face and bent into an unusable shape. I had bucked the leader off the same ledge and roasted the smallest criminal in front of me. Three bandits out of the way and not causing trouble.
"You're ruthless! The things you do are sickening, yet amusing!" Tiki said excitedly.
"Well, I try my best. You all know that." I swatted my hoof jokingly.
"Lets just forget today's... Show, and get to the town before sundown." Bronze suggested.
"Sounds good, lets hoof it double time!" I said encouragingly.
Each pony started at a galloping pace down the road into Appleloosa. When we reached the entrance to the town, we slowed to a walk and went through the main road of the town. Shops and bars were set along the stretch of the town with western-styled ponies running each building. Our unique uniform got mixed looks from the crowd as we walked down the road to the sheriff's office. Along the side, there were more bandits dressed like the ones we had just encountered on the road into Appleloosa. It didn't take much to catch onto whats going on around here. We walked into the sheriff's office to see if there was a place to stay for the night. Before we entered through the swinging doors, Braeburn stopped us on the street.
"Bronze Hammer! Is that you and your group Applejack told me about?" Braeburn called out to us.
"Yes, sir! We're out on our journey, gettin' rid of all the goblins along the way." Bronze replied.
"Well the sheriff is... Out of town right now, but y'all are welcome to stay out at the ranch while this whole thing blows off!" Braeburn said, glancing around at the shady characters on the streets.
"Hold up now, whats going on here?" I asked suspiciously.
"Just a bit of a bandit problem. We don't have many goblins out here in the desert, but these bandits came along when the sheriff left for a two week trip to Canterlot!" Braeburn said.
"Don't worry, that's why we're here, to clear out all the problems in Equestria, whether it be goblin or bandit." Silver Dust said.
"Alright, lets just get off the streets before we draw some unwanted attention." Braeburn eyed the group of bandit ponies approaching us slowly.
We had all arrived at Braeburn's barn house in one piece. A scrap with some bandits on the outer edge of town and nothing else had happened. We were invited into the home to stay the night while we were passing through, but I insisted on helping these ponies with their bandit problem.
"Now Ah appreciate the offer, but y'all don't have to get involved in this! It'll blow over when the sheriff gets back in town." Braeburn argued.
"But this is a job that we were obligated to do this by the command of Princess Celestia! We can't go against her word on this." I explained.
"It don't matter, Ah just don't want y'all to get hurt while you're here in Appleloosa." Braeburn said worriedly.
"Now, Braeburn. We've fought a war against a horde of goblins, I doubt a group of bandits would be much of a problem." I said.
"What?! Ah thought y'all were just on guard duty! Applejack never explained that you fought in the goblin battle." Braeburn looked surprised.
"Fought? We were the leaders of different sections. I was the one who commanded the army and took Blunt Will's head from his body." I said proudly.
"Well, ah guess there's no stoppin' me from y'all helpin' out the town." Braeburn gave into our offer hesitantly.
"Well, if you're really going to help us, we need to know more about the situation." I said.
"Alright. It all started when Blaze showed in town, Blaze Whiplash. He's a dark red unicorn with a blonde mane and some funky magic missile spell. He can blow down doors and break ponies with one shot, and he's pretty dang accurate, too." Braeburn explained.
"Well of course it's accurate!" Silver Dust exclaimed, "it's a magic missile! It hits where he wants it to hit, there isn't any bragging to be done about a spell like that."
"There ain't much braggin' from his mouth, just threats and tough talk from him." Braeburn said irritatedly.
"We can change that, tomorrow we'll confront him and run him out of town. Either that or just kill him and everypony else that works for him." I said.
Later that night, we were treated to a small, simple dinner by Braeburn and his family. It was much better than being on the trails with nothing else to eat. At dinner we talked about Blaze and where we could find him. We were also warned about the guard he has posted around wherever he goes. I knew the guards wouldn't be a problem, I just didn't want the little snake to crawl away when we blow through his defense. After all the serious talk was over, I got to the stories about the goblin battle and why we were traveling Equestria. The little colts seemed quite excited to hear these stories at dinner and to have a group of soldiers at their table. It would definitely make a good story to tell at school the next day. As the stories continued, everypony finished their dinner and started to clean up. I had told all I could and had everypony caught up on the recent events, so it was about time we all went to bed. There weren't any extra rooms to fit us all in the house, so the barn out in the back would be just fine for us to stay in. One of the little colts showed us to the back and gave us a large old quilt to keep us warm tonight. It was a very generous offer and we all thanked the family for letting us stay. Everypony got their own corner of the quilt and had plenty of leg room due to the size of the blanket.
The next morning came along quickly after a good night's rest. When we woke up, the sun was only beginning to rise over the horizon. I knew that Braeburn was probably up with his family, working early in the morning as usual. Before we left the barn, I decided to send letters out to the mane 6 back in Ponyville. Tiki, Bronze, and Silver also wrote their own personal letters to their loved ones, and I sent them to the mare of each stallion. When Silver Dust approached me with a personal letter, I had no clue who he was sending it to.
"Alright, I'm all set. Send the letter out and we can get going!" Silver handed me the anonymous letter.
"And who does this letter go out to?" I asked suspiciously.
"Do you have to know? Is that how the spell works?" Silver asked nervously.
"Don't worry, just tell me who it is, nopony has to know, and I won't judge." I whispered, pulling Silver closer to me.
"Just send it to Rainbow Dash, she doesn't really want anypony else to know about us yet, but you can be an exception." Silver said.
"Sounds good, I'll just send this off and we can go eat!" I said to everypony.
With a chilled burst of blue sparks, the letter flew out the door and everypony gave a cheer for breakfast. We all walked into the kitchen of the estate through the back door. Through the side window the orchard could be viewed as the buffalo stampeded through the trail. Large, delicious apple pies had been made to serve the whole Apple family living at the estate working the orchard. We were invited in to join them all in their glorious apple pie breakfast. There was enough apple pie to go around twice through the entire apple family. The pies themselves were enormous, about twice the size of a full, regular apple pie. The gooey cinnamon apple filling was sweet and a bit tangy from the tart lemon glaze coating each pie. Everypony soon sat down at the large round table in the dining room to enjoy a large helping of apple pie as the sun rose along the horizon and shown through the single large window in the kitchen. As we finished our apple pie and enjoyed small conversation with the little colts and fillies practically running circles around us, I brought up the topic about the bandits.
"Kids, go out and get ready for work, its time for the bigger ponies to talk..." Braeburn said to his younger siblings.
"Yes, just tell me where I can find Blaze and we'll be off. I promise not to cause a large scene in town if you don't want." I said.
"By all means, cause a scene! Ah bet any pony out there wouldn't mind a bit of a showdown, seeing their enemy fall to brave warriors!" Braeburn said eagerly.
"Alright, cause a scene, got it." I said jokingly.
"Well the first place ah would look would be the sheriff's office. It's Blaze's favorite lounging spot." Braeburn suggested.
"Alright, will do. If we don't find him there we'll ask around and find him at some point, and if he doesn't show we can stick around until the sheriff returns." I offered.
"That would be mighty nice of y'all. Ah won't stop y'all from your job, so just do what's right." Braeburn said, leading us to the front door and off to the town.
The sun was coming over the horizon, and many of the residents of the town hesitantly left their homes and opened for business. Bandits were all around, harassing citizens and causing trouble in general. One of the bandits were trying to take an item from a little filly walking down the street.
"Hand over the ring! You don't want me to have to ask you again!" The bandit grunted.
"No! Ah can't! Mom will be so disappointed in me! It's her favorite ring!" The filly said, dodging the Bandit's attempts to swipe the shiny little ring.
"You owe... Taxes to the town! The ring will pay them off just fine!" The bandit said, grabbing the filly by the mane.
"Ah got this one, guys..." Bronze said with a serious look upon his face.
"Go get em, big guy." Tiki said encouragingly.
"This is your last warning little girl!" The bandit started to raise his voice.
"She doesn't owe you anything, but Ah think ah owe you a first class ticket to the pain train!" Bronze said, grabbing the bandit by the shoulder.
"Get off me you idiot!" The bandit said, dropping the filly and throwing a punch into Bronze's chest.
The hoof made clean contact and a dull thud sound could be heard by all of us. The punch clearly did nothing to Bronze, and he returned the favor with a much more lethal blow to the side of the face. The bandit fell over onto his face with his flank hanging in the air. Bronze continued to buck the bandit in the flank, sliding him into a wooden wall of one of the establishments nearby. The bandit tried to get up and run, but the two clean blows left him dazed and crippled as he flopped back onto the ground.
"Ah'm gonna leave ya there, so you can think about what just happened and WHY it happened." Bronze Hammer said, kicking a cloud of dust in the crippled bandit's direction.
"That was a good performance, I just hope the others don't try and challenge us after such a show." I said, eyeing the other bandits dotted around the main road.
"Lets just make it to the sheriff's office in one piece." Tiki suggested.
We continued walking, bandits now glaring at us from every direction. There were about ten of them now gathered around the area of the sheriff's office. I had spoke softly in the group, telling each pony to watch their backs. I pointed out the number of bandits dotting the crowds, and everypony got a good idea of what was going to happen. We reached the sheriff's office, which wasn't being guarded by any bandits at the front door. I walked through the door, followed by the other three of my group. As the door opened a small bell rang above the door.
"I've been waiting for you to show up. Did it really take you 'soldiers' an entire day to find my office?" A dark red unicorn spoke from the sheriff's seat.
"Blaze Whiplash, you aren't the sheriff and you don't belong here. I'm only here to remind you of that, and to politely ask you to leave." I said, stomping my hoof down on the wooden floor.
"You're going to have to go through all of my men before you can tell me anything. I'm not going anywhere and neither are you." Blaze said, chuckling.
Four husky ponies walked through the door and seized each of us. We've been through this silly routine before and knew exactly what to do. Nopony fought back and we let Blaze take us outside to the main road in front of the large clock tower. Brown bags were put over our heads and our hooves were bound tightly together. Blaze started announcing to the crowd, planning to execute us as an example of power.
"Mares and gentlecolts! Gather around for my performance! I shall be eliminating conspirators against your stallion in charge!" Blaze said boastfully.
"These four stallions walked into town only a day ago, planning to overtake this town with their harsh ways and plans of enslavement to the apple orchard!" Blaze kept running his mouth.
"Come on! Don't make us laugh! Just skip to your little performance, its getting hot out here!" Silver Dust taunted.
"Seriously! I want to see this little show somepony is ranting about in front of us!" Tiki said, laughing.
"We can't though, we've got sacks on our heads!" I yelled out, laughing with the rest of our group.
We were all now enjoying a laugh about this whole mishap. The crowd started to giggle a bit our own show, even the stallions who tied us up were now laughing. I couldn't see the expression on Blaze's face with my Draco-vision active through the bag, but I could tell he was becoming irate with our defiance.
"That's quite enough!" Blaze yelled, firing an explosive bubble of magic into the air.
"Is that your 'deadly weapon' you've been bragging about?" Silver asked mockingly.
"Yeah, it sounds a bit more like a fireworks display than a deadly weapon!" Tiki chimed in.
"This is enough joking around, which one should I end first?" Blaze though to himself.
"Ah volunteer mahself to start this little show!" Bronze said jokingly.
"Have it your way, I hope you said your last goodbyes before today!" Blaze said, charging a large pulse of magic at the tip of his horn.
One large missile was fired, flying directly towards Bronze Hammer's head. There was only a fraction of a second to react, but nopony had to. The projectile stopped about a foot in front of tan stallion's face and dissipated into the wind from Silver Dust's protection spell. Blaze was confused and still pissed off at our mocking performance, so he fired another shot at myself. The missile hit my face and the bag and ropes around me were burnt off. My face was charred but my green eyes still glowed glamorously as I looked at Blaze with an innocent look.
"Well, you hit me, but it didn't do much good!" I chuckled.
"What's going on here?! What are you made of?!" Blaze started to flip out.
"Well, to be honest with you, I'm not exactly sure what I'm made of, but I'm guessing you didn't know I'm dragon-blooded." I laughed.
"That's it! My men! Seize them! Attack!" Blaze started shouting.
Silver Dust cut his hooves free with his hidden blade and removed the ropes and bags from the other two ponies. We were soon surrounded by black masked bandits, all armed with different shaped blades and cow whips. Each of us took a position back to back, preparing to be swarmed by a crowd of bandits. Tiki had shot up into the air as Bronze took a swipe with his hammer, clearing a section of bandits and throwing them all to the ground. Silver Dust created a barrier to keep his side of enemies from advancing further onto his side. I spat a small blue orb of flame over the middle of my group and it exploded and forced all of the bandits to the ground. Silver Dust forced his group to the ground as he cast a spell on the group to drive them unconscious. The only pony standing was Blaze. The look on his face, seeing his men all on the ground, some of which were clearly dead, was priceless. I started to approach the unicorn, and he only backed away slowly from us. He was almost tripping over himself. It was a sorry sight to see, such a boastful jerk now doubling over in fear. I had finally caught up to Blaze as he had fallen onto the ground and just laid there in defeat. So many ponies were watching, I didn't want to end his life in front of them all. We only bound the maroon unicorn in the ropes he had used to bind us, taking him to the holding cells in the sheriff's building. He knew it was all over and was prepared to face his penalties with dignity.
"Don't worry, the sheriff will only be gone for another week or so. Ah'll make sure to feed Blaze in his cell every day while we wait for the sheriff's return." Braeburn said.
"Alright, I'm glad we could help. We'll be off to the next destination shortly, so you take care now!" I said.
"Don't leave in such a hurry! Y'all might as well spend a day or two here, being heroes of the town and all!" Braeburn suggested.
"That sounds pretty nice, I could go for some good old fashioned cider at the local bar tonight..." Tiki said, thinking about the sweet taste.
"Alright, I'll give everypony a day of rest, but tomorrow morning we'll be leaving." I said.
"Sounds good to me, it's still morning so today will be good enough." Silver Dust said.
Everypony was given the grand tour of Appleloosa by Braeburn himself. All the town folk were very grateful for our job of clearing out the bandits around town. We were all treated to a free meal and drinks on the house at the local bar. We weren't known for being big drinkers, but Tiki almost drove the bar bankrupt with the amount of cider he drank. Even Silver Dust had about three tall mugs of cider. The fries served at the bar were simply amazing and should be world famous. I told the cook in the back to enter a contest or something, but he wanted to keep his secret recipe just through his family. After a night of food and fun, everypony went back and fell asleep in the barn. It was a warmer night out that night, ironic to the defeat of a pony named Blaze. Each of us got our own little bunk somewhere comfortable in the hay bales around the barn. Sleep came faster than usual that night with all the cider everypony drank. It's only been 3 days now and we've got a strong start on our journey.
That Bitter Taste of Death
I had come to a decision to stay in Appleloosa until the sheriff returned to the town with the majority of his deputies, since more rogue bandits had shown up everyday, causing disturbances throughout the quiet little town. Bronze and I stuck around the bar and restaurant most of the week, where all of the drunks and bandits were usually causing a large amount of trouble. I had also picked up an afternoon job at the bar distilling liquor and baking apple pie with my special fire. Since I could create a blaze that burnt slow and controlled for apple pie and extremely hot to distill liquor in high quality, I stuck around the bar for most of the time we were there. The owner appreciated my ability and payed me generously for such quality work. My uniform that we wore on guard duty was starting to get warn down from all the intense heat and all that week, somepony would have to fix it up at some point. Bronze Hammer took the liberty of helping out on the apple orchard of Appleloosa with Braeburn and family. They all got to know each other much better than before, considering Bronze was almost part of the family itself. The family couldn't be any happier for making a hard working mare like Applejack so happy in every way and were glad to have a hard working country stallion around the family and the farms.
During the day, Tiki and Silver Dust did their own little patrol through the small town, hunting out any signs of trouble and eliminating any bad ponies from the streets. Silver Dust had been able to talk with the amulet more after our strange encounter through me. He was able to pick up on many more different spells, like a communication spell that allowed for mental communication between a group of selected ponies. While Tiki was flying, he would be able to whisper the location of a suspicious character and give Silver a mental image of where he is located. Throughout the week, the pair had busted over 30 bandits and trouble makers in the town alone. I had to stop a plethora of drunks and trouble inducing bandits at the bar, and Bronze Hammer actually ratted out a goblin camp within the Appleloosa orchard. Without actually having to do anything, Bronze Hammer pointed out the campsite clearing to a group of stampeding buffalo to clear flat. Within minutes the camp and everything living at it was flattened and the buffalo continued on their way.
One of the days a dangerous hostage situation had taken place while Bronse Hammer and I were busy working. We didn't even get notice of the situation before Tiki and Silver Dust had handled the situation. It took two trained soldiers to accomplish this task under such pressure, and the pair showed they had what it took. A stallion had taken a filly hostage in the second floor of the local tavern at the end of the towns main road. He had locked the door in and had a knife up to the filly's throat, demanding a ransom and to walk out of the town untouched. His demand was too much for such a town to compensate for, showing that the stallion was clearly not in the right mind. Silver Dust and Tiki had shown up to the scene while the stallion barricaded the door and captured the by standing filly. After minutes of devising a plan, the two ponies took action. Tiki removed the bow from his back and took position on the parallel building from the tavern. After sitting at the door for 30 seconds, Silver Dust had been working on the window from the mental image Tiki was sending him of the lock. The only window in the room had been unlocked and slowly slid open, while the Stallion was ranting about his ransom and the hostage. Tiki then proceeded to take his only shot at the stallion, making sure not to harm the filly in his grasp. The arrow flew from the bow and struck the stallion right through the neck, only grazing the filly's ear. After clearing the obstructions from the door, Silver Dust retrieved the little filly from the room and removed most of the image of the dead stallion from her mind. She still remembered what had happened, but she didn't have the blood and violence haunting her for the next few weeks. After a celebration and a small reward that day, Tiki and Silver Dust spent their night at the local bar. They decided to go later at night when nopony would be there to bother them after the days events.
"We did good out there. I'm pretty impressed by that shot you took through the window today." Silver complimented.
"Yeah, it was pretty good." Tiki said, his eyes looking distantly into his mug.
"Alright I can see it in your look, whats up?" Silver Dust asked.
"What're you talking about? Is it really that obvious?" Tiki asked.
"Yeah, and its got somepony written all over it, whats bothering you?" Silver asked.
"It's just Rarity, I guess. We left too soon..." Tiki said, bowing his head closer to his mug.
"I know what you mean..." Silver said, feeling the same tinge of sorrow.
"It's just love, bro. Sometimes it hurts but it's nothing to worry about." Silver said reassuringly.
"I can't get her out of my head right now... She's gotten us to that flirty point in a relationship, really flirty." Tiki said nervously.
"Yeah? How do you feel about that?" Silver asked.
"Well, I'm not really sure. Right now I just want to jump out of a window, its so confusing!" Tiki groaned, drinking another gulp of cider.
"So you're anxious, you don't want to mess anything up? Or you're hesitant on committing to one mare?" Silver asked for specification.
"Both, pretty much." Tiki said flatly.
"Well, if I had advice to throw out there, I'd say just go off of your first reaction to things and show your true self. Rarity seemed to enjoy that side of you to come this far into things." Silver said, elbowing Tiki playfully.
Tiki sighed, "you're pretty much right, I'll keep doing things my way then, with your advice."
After finishing their cider, both stallions went back to barn to prepare for the trip to Baltimare the next morning.
"Rise and shine, boys! I think today will do well for a letter day!" I said energetically early that morning.
"Ah man... That cider really comes back and bites you the next morning." Tiki said, rubbing his temple.
"I don't know, I'm not feeling it. I guess it's the amulet keeping my head clear." Silver said.
"Well I'll give you guys some time on those letters, I'm gonna go see what Braeburn has for breakfast today." I said, walking towards the house.
"Just remember, keep things all you, don't change the majority of things to make Rarity like it more." Silver said, advising Tiki.
"Got it. Keep it simple and relaxed." Tiki said, writing down his thoughts on a white canvas of paper.
Silver Dust's amulet glowed pale red. After a few minutes Tiki and Bronze took notice to Silver Dust's statued position.
"We need to get to the house now. Goblin problems!" Silver said, snapping out of his trance and running for the estate.
I walked through the front door silently, making sure not to wake anypony incase they were still sleeping. It was a Sunday, so I didn't know if I was supposed to be up early in their house. I soon took noticed of the mangled living room and crept slowly towards the kitchen. "Braeburn? Anypony around?" I whispered in the dim morning light. As I walked into the kitchen, there was food all over the countertop and floor. Chairs were thrown about the room and the large dining room table was overturned. I now started to worry about the events that took place before I had arrived. I ran to the front door and began to leave, until a group of goblins walked from the other room and called out to me. I turned around to see a group of four goblins, one at the front door and three others holding ponies with blades to their necks.
"Now, approach the front door, slowly." The leading goblin said with a Cheshire grin across his face.
"You can take what you want, as long as you don't hurt anypony in there." I said.
"Oh, but you don't understand! Ponies will be hurt! We're here for revenge for the destruction of base camp 107!" The goblin yelled in rage.
"I'm not sure which one that is, we've gone through a lot of your camps in the past few days." I said, clearly the wrong choice of words.
"That's it! Bludge! Do your job!" The goblin yelled once again.
"Bludge hurt pony!" The largest of the goblins yelled in a dull tone, dragging a jagged blade across a little colt's back.
Three ponies were held hostage, the mother of the family, Braeburn himself, and a little colt I had spoke to the dinner of our arrival. The mother was, of course, reacting in the worst way. She fought as much as she could to free herself from the bindings of the goblin. Her little boy had just fallen to the ground. Blood spilled across the floor as the leader goblin laughed menacingly. Braeburn and I shared the same reaction of shock and horror as the body of the little colt hit the floor, still fighting for life. The goblin holding the mother hostage soon knocked the mare unconscious and letting her drop to the floor. I had rage building up, my internal core firing up for a pure blood-letting of my enemies. Before I lunged at the group, exploding into flames, an arrow flew over my shoulder and hit the captor of the mother in the right eye. A large metal lamp was levitated over the holder of Braeburn, knocking the goblin unconscious. At the opportunity, I shot over the overturned couch in the middle of the room and brought the killer of the colt down on the ground. I thrust my hoof into his esophagus, almost removing his head from his body. As Silver Dust had rushed into the room, I motioned to the colt laying on the ground. I had dashed out of the door, almost flying off the ground, charging at the leader of the goblins. He had taken off a bit ago, after viewing his men drop one by one. I had leaped onto his back and bashed his skull in mercilessly before unleashing fiery hell onto his body. After returning to the scene hastily, I came just in the for the aftermath of the conflict. Silver Dust had snapped the mother back to consciousness and began to work on the colt lying on the ground.
"You can save him right? Ah'm gonna be able to hold him again?!" The mother said panic stricken, tears running down her face.
"Just stay calm, I can't salvage any of the blood spilt because its been mixed with the goblins, I can only seal the wound and allow time to rest." Silver said hastily.
"Momma, its ok... No matter what happens... Ah'll be ok..." The colt said faintly through the pain.
"No! Stay with us! Don't leave me!" The mother said frantically.
"It should be alright now, the wound is almost sealed and he'll be working within a week." Silver said.
"Oh thank Celestia! Thank you for saving him!" She said, tears running down her face.
"No, momma... Ah'm leavin' today. Ah can still feel it..." The colt said, staggering from his mother's grip.
"What're ya talkin' about? The nice unicorn fixed ya right up!" The mother began to speak frantically.
"Ah can feel it though, somethin' ain't right. It's ok though momma, ah'll be watchin' you... From up there." The colt said, laying on the floor.
"What's going on?! I thought I fixed him! Let me take another look..." Silver said, scanning deeper over the scar of the sword.
"Son of Discord! Nerve damage?! How did I miss that? Hold on..." Silver said, going to work once again on the inside of the colt.
"Nah, it's too late, but ah'm ok, ah'm gonna go somewhere else and ah'll be just fine..." The colt said faintly with a smile upon his face.
It was too late, as the colt said. The little pony's body went limp and he only hung in Silver Dust's arm. The mother soon took the child in her grasp and whispered prayers into his forehead, kissing it repeatedly. The tears started to flow rapidly once again as the mother felt the lack of breathing from the colt's body. Braeburn couldn't help but sit at her side, trying to be strong and hold back the tears. I myself couldn't, knowing that my actions today could've prevented this happening if I had done one little thing different. If I had kept my mouth to myself in such a situation. If only...
Today wasn't the day of departure. There was still a small funeral to be held. A grave had been dug out by the family members and the buffalo who knew the jolly little boy well. Tears were shed throughout the day. The buffalo had given approval of burying the little colt in the sacred buffalo stampeding grounds, under the little pony's favorite apple tree. I soon learned the names of the family, after they truly thanked me for protecting their home and any further deaths that could've been caused by goblins. The little colt's name was Tommy Appleseed, which I felt was only a bit ironic to the relation of Johnny Appleseed in some way. The mother's name was Charlotte Blossom, who shed tears throughout the day. The sheriff had arrived in time for the funeral, also. I had felt so much guilt at the loss of such a little colt's life, I could only blame myself for my actions. Braeburn strongly disagreed and said there was nothing else to be avoided. He had convinced me that I had prevented so much more from happening. The rest of the entire family had been sleeping upstairs, none of them were touched by any goblins thanks to the arrival of us four in the morning. The ceremony had taken place and the burial rituals were performed. I was asked by the entire family to cremate the little colt before they let him rest.
"Tommy would've agreed to it, also. You were the one who protected our family and stopped the intruders." Braeburn told me.
"No, I was the one who arrived at your doorstep and watched your youngest brother drop to the floor from a sword." I said bitterly.
"You need to stop blamin' yourself for what happened today. If it weren't for your squad, our entire family could've been mercilessly slaughtered by a group of green thugs!" Braeburn said strongly.
"Alright, I'll do it. I'll do it for the little colt you've all come to love." I said shakily.
There was no need to remove the corpse from the casket. The fire was magic induced and wouldn't burn anything else, as I had explained. I allowed the flames of sorrow and forgiveness to dance across the pony laying in the casket. The flames weren't my original royal blue aura, it was a lighter blue tinted with a green center. It wasn't any ordinary fire, so there couldn't really be any possible explanation for the color change except for strong emotions. Many touching things were said that afternoon by both friends and family. Gestures of thanks were given out to the four ponies that protected the Apple family that works the orchard hard everyday. Silver Dust's amulet had glowed a purple sorrowful color that day, showing the emotion of everypony around him. Bronze was troubled during the afternoon when he thought about Applejack and how he was going to explain this to her. There was only one way, and it was to speak to her in person.
I took Bronze Hammer down to the estate, to a barrel of water in the back of the barn. We looked into the barrel as I dropped a single spark into the pool. The spark danced circles around the rim of the bucket until hitting the center of the pool and creating a single perfect ripple to the edges of the barrel. The ripple came back to the center and changed our reflections into a single image of Applejack, staring down into our eyes, into the river at Ponyville. It took a little bit for Applejack to realize what had happened. At first she just kept staring, but then I tilted my head and gave a wave through the water.
"Am ah seein' things? Or have y'all learned a new trick or two on your little adventure?" Applejack asked, completely thrown off.
"I would say both, but that's not important right now, we have some grave news for you... It's about the Apple family of Appleloosa." I said gravely.
"What happened? Have y'all talked to them much? Did they not like Bronze?" Applejack asked worriedly.
"Don't worry, they've taken a likin' to me, but this ain't about me. It's about little Tommy." Bronze said solemnly.
"What's happened? Has he gotten bigger? Is he a little trouble maker now a days?" Applejack asked suspiciously.
"Well... There's no other easier way to say this. He's dead." I choked out the words.
"What do ya mean... Dead...?" Applejack froze, the idea hitting her like a train.
"Goblins... It was the last day... We were going to leave, and then I walked into the house..." I said, flashing back to the scene of the tattered house.
"They had Charlotte and Braeburn tied up, everypony else was sleeping, Ironclad walked in the wrong place at the wrong time." Bronze said, glaring at me.
"I could've stopped them, but I just watched his body hit the floor and I froze..." I muttered.
"Why didnt ya do it then?! Why didn't you stop them?!" Applejack said, tears running down her cheeks.
"He couldn't, what he did was the best he could do. Ah'm sure if he moved to stop it there would've been two more casualties in the Apple family today..." Bronze said, hurt by AJ's frustration.
"Who're ya talkin' to?" Big Mac's voice echoed in the background.
"Bic Mac! Little Tommy Appleseed! He's dead..." Applejack said sadly.
"Nope. No, nah that can't be true, is it?" Big Mac said in shock.
"Goblins. Just today, ah'll explain the rest in the house with Granny Smith and maybe Apple Bloom." Applejack said, tears running down her face.
"Eeyup..." Big Mac said, a single tear running down the left side of his face.
"Alright, I'll leave you to yourselves there in Ponyville, I'm going back to the ceremony." I said mournfully.
That night was a hard night to sleep. Everypony kept talking about their actions today. Thoughts kept floating through our heads and circulating through the room as we spoke our minds. After an hour of talking and mourning, the amulet had returned to it's default color and put us all into a deep sleep.
The next morning come hard and early. We all awoke at the same time, still drowsy from being up late last night. I had gone to the back door of the estate and spoke to Braeburn before we left. I let him know that we were setting out for Baltimare and wished the family best of luck for the future. Braeburn gave us each a breakfast snack to go, and we all grabbed a couple apples from the orchard on the start of our walk. It was nothing but desert for the day, nothing in sight for miles in all directions, but at least we knew where we were going. Tiki had gathered whisks of clouds from the air into one blanket of cloud shading us from the heat of the day. It was getting closer to winter, so at least the sun wasn't as strong as it could've been during the summer days. We spent the night on a flat, soft, sandy area we came across at dusk. The tent wasn't needed that night, there was no wind to chill us to the bone, so we all piled over the sand pit I had warmed with my internal fire. The next few day was spent walking and the third was wasted playing around through an oasis of cool water and tropical desert plants. The fruit growing on the cacti were amazing and the water was crystal clear and refreshing to swim through. Plenty of desert life flocked the oasis to enjoy its supply of water and food. All different typed of birds, lizards, and bugs were found in every area of the desert resort. After spending the night in the tent off to the side of the oasis, we woke up the next morning with it mysteriously gone. Nopony could explain what had happened, and didn't need to as far as we were concerned about it. We spent the entire morning questioning what had happened last night, but no answers could be discovered. About high noon, we saw a small town in the distance and became extremely worried that we walked all the way back to Appleloosa somehow. The mystery of the oasis had come up again, but soon went back to being a mystery as we approached the small desert town of Dodge Junction.
"Thank Celestia that this is a different town. I would've died a little bit inside if we had to hoof it through the desert all over again." Tiki said.
"You flew like 99% of the entire trip! The only thing you should complain about are wing cramps or something." Silver Dust said.
"That's true, but I had to push and entire cloud through the desert. You don't know how hard that is." Tiki said boastfully.
"You're right. We have no idea how much you could be lying right now. Pushing a cloud could be next to nothing." I said jokingly.
"That don't matter right now, we all just gotta find somepony to talk to in this small town." Bronze suggested.
"You're right, I'm getting pretty hungry from all that walking." I said.
"I guess we can just head into the tavern for a snack, maybe the owner will know a good place to bunk for the night." Silver said.
"True, but thats not our main focus, we need to make sure this town is in safety before we just spend a night and walk out to Baltimare." I said.
We walked into the tavern at the entrance of the town one at a time, receiving mixed looks from all different ponies sitting at the tables and bar. As we kept walking, our uniform was recognized by a single pony sitting at the bar at the far left. He had recognized us from when we defeated Blaze Whiplash in Appleloosa. "A toast to the Appleloosa heroes!" The stallion shouted out to the crowd. A roar of hoorahs spread through the room as we sat down at a table in the back. A pretty little blonde mare had come over to the table to take our orders and such. She was blonde all the way, her coat was a sandy blonde while her curly mane was a brighter white blonde, which flowed down the left side of her neck and in her face.
"What can I get you soldiers for this fine afternoon?" She asked politely.
"Just cider, all of us." I replied nicely.
"Alright, I hope you're all accustomed to cherry cider!" She said, walking back to the bar.
"Cherry cider? Five minutes in and I'm beginning to like this place already." Tiki said happily.
"Alright, I hope she isn't busy today, I've got plenty of questions to ask somepony about this place." I said more seriously.
The mare returned to our table with a tray of cider mugs filled with dark red, syrupy sweet drinks, much different from regular cider. Each of us took a small drink of the cherry cider and continued like it was regular apple cider. The consistency was a bit thicker and there was a tart aftertaste, but it was still a good drink and we all enjoyed the beverage. I had the mare sit down for a bit so I could ask her a couple of questions. I learned we were in Dodge Junction, the city Applejack had worked in when she didn't bring home the money she had promised from the Canterlot rodeo. The cherry factory was on the outside of town, in front of the cherry orchard. Beyond that point is Hayseed Swamp, a point of interest where a supposed goblin hideout is located. The only reason nopony has gone to try and eliminate the nuisance is because a dragon has claimed the area as his personal territory and won't allow ponies within the area. After purchasing a room from the tavern, we all headed upstairs to unload our gear and enjoy some more of the town. Tomorrow we had a situation to deal with, and it wasnt going to be as easy as a group of bandits. After the afternoon was spent exploring the town and speaking with some of the townsfolk about the goblins, we learned that they've been a nuisance throughout the town for the last few days. We returned to the tavern for another round of cider and dinner before heading to bed earlier than usual. There were only two beds in the room, but at least they were big enough to hold two ponies each. None of the others were very eager to share a bed, and I didn't mind it at all. Tiki was sharing a bed with me because of my warm central fire. It acted like a heater running on nothing but the air around us, warming up the space quickly to a toasty mellow warmth, much better than the cold windy night outside right now. Silver Dust and Bronze Hammer shared the other bed, along with the amulet, who put the two in the same dreams throughout the night and enjoying subconscious conversation with the ponies. There was more talk of the lord of bliss and what was to become of our adventures. Nothing bad haunted any of us, only good things were spoken of the future. The amulet itself had mourned the death of the little colt from Appleloosa, as if it were a real pony along with the rest of us. I had begun to really wonder where this amulet came from and what it's history had to tell for us. The last image I remember of the night was a pair of wings, the bottom had been a pale yellow color, with the top a deep blue shade. They weren't feathered, nor were they scaly. A pair of great, majestic wings covered in a sheeted layer of fluffy down. The fuzz made the winds appear as if they were made from the clouds of Cloudsdale, but I couldn't tell what creature they belonged to.
Everypony awoke the next morning, feeling completely refreshed from the comfortable beds we got to sleep in. It's been days since we've slept in actual beds, something that has become scarce on the roads of Equestria. I had awoken first, looking over to see Tiki's wings had wrapped around me some time during the night. I don't blame him for getting cold during the night, I could feel the draft floating through the room myself. Although his wings had found their way around my torso, Tiki himself still faced the opposite way I did through the night. Silver Dust and Bronze Hammer had slept peacefully through the night also, facing their own way off the side of the bed. As I moved from the bed, I repositioned Tiki's wings in the bed so I could go downstairs into the tavern to see what I could do. Tiki woke up to the sudden movement and silently followed me downstairs to the large, open room. There were many tables along the sides of the walls, a bar along the wall next to the stairs, and a large fireplace in the center of the room. The draft in our room probably came from a small crack in the chimney leading through the side of the room. The fire pit wasn't being used at the moment, but was keeping the building warm late last night as the last of the customers had left the building for their own homes. The owners of the tavern were and older couple, doing quite well with business and all. They only had one mare working the the tables while the wife took the rest of them on busy days and the older stallion managed the bar throughout the day. Business was slower, but they still had a strong income from all of the visitors that come through the town. In order to suffice for any cash that wasn't made due to a lack of food business, they had started to rent out the attic rooms to visitors of the town if it was needed. There were two rooms, each with two smaller beds and a single desk in between them. The upkeep was minimal and easy on the old couple, but sometimes additional assistance was needed. The young blonde mare that worked the tavern with the couple was a tough mare who could handle herself with heavy lifting and such, and could stop most trouble makers without having to call a deputy over. Even though everything seemed good in this small town for most of the businesses, it could all change due to the recent goblin attacks on the town. Goblins come in and ransack a building or two for supplies and usually cause trouble for the late night wanderers on the street. The raids are becoming more frequent and a few deputies have been hurt trying to stop their terror.
As Tiki and I went down the stairs, the older stallion was wiping down his bar and the young mare was sweeping out the floors. The two were preparing for opening and the wife of the owner was in bed, sick with an unusual cold. Due to her old age, the stallion explained, she might not be around much longer if she doesn't pull through this. I had told the old Stallion that our friend, Silver Dust, could possibly help with this problem and cure his wife. Both ponies jumped at the idea and were very impatient waiting for the unicorn to come down the stairs. Tiki and I had a been served cups of hot chocolate with toast and oatmeal, the usual breakfast selection of most ponies that walked into the tavern for breakfast. The old Stallion working the bar didn't talk much, at least not compared to the mare, who sat down with us for her breakfast and had plenty of questions to ask.
"So you four are traveling all of Equestria? What for?" She had asked, intrigued.
"We're going on the order of Princess Celestia, there's a lot you don't know about us, but I'd be happy to start talking." I said, taking a drink of hot chocolate.
"Well, we might as well start off with names. I'm Sonny. Sonny Peach!" She said happily, explaining her cutie mark of a bright yellow peach, cut down the middle of the core.
"I'm Tiki, and this is Ironclad. There's just so much to talk about! Where do we start?" Tiki looked over to me after a spoonful of oatmeal.
"Well, we might as well start by explaining where we came from." I said.
"I definitely want to know which city produced such a look from you, you practically look like a dragon with your looks!" She said.
"Well, I've come from another universe, along with Tiki and the others. We're from a technologically advanced dimension that sent us into here as a test." I explained.
"I remember the letter that Princess Celestia sent out across Equestria that one day! You four certainly fit into our world just fine." Sonny complimented.
"Surprisingly we do, coming from our original world. This dimension would fall to pieces if it were ever exposed to the true nature of our original race." I said darkly.
"Is it really that bad? Was there a lot of war?" She asked, puzzled by my lack of description.
"We don't need to talk about it here, but there was much more than war. Our race was divided among itself by many different groups." Tiki chimed in.
"You mean like us? Like ponies, Pegasi, and unicorns?" Sonny asked with a horrified expression.
"No no, nothing like that. It's more just ways of life and beliefs. There were so many to choose from and many take it very seriously where we originate." I said, sorrow tinged in my voice.
"Alright enough of this then, tell me about your jobs, unless its classified or something." Sonny looked away for a bit.
"No, our job is to remove the goblin problems from Equestria, one city at a time." I said.
"Yeah, but we've been doing a bit more than that lately, since bandits don't qualify as goblins." Tiki mumbled.
"That didn't matter, its still part of our job to protect everypony that needs it."
"Well you can continue doing your job when you get rid of these goblins, the only problem is the dragon safeguarding the campsite of the goblins." Sonny had warned.
"I don't think that will be a problem, I have my ways with the beasts." I said smiling.
Silver Dust and Bronze Hammer came down the stairs drowsily, just waking from their slumber. Before receiving their breakfast, the old stallion asked Silver Dust to try and help his wife. Silver didn't turn down the stallion from help and soon went to check up on the older mare sick in her bed. Bronze Hammer was served his breakfast tray and sat down with the rest of us to enjoy the conversation. I continued to explain our plan for Hayseed Swamp and why I looked so much different from the other ponies around me. At first the young mare had thought it was a side effect from coming from another world, but I had explained the genetic change done to my body. I told her it was to be used against anypony who stood in my way and to give me administrative power over this world, but it only lead to the creation of a new ancient power. After we had disconnected from our original world in the horrible lab accident my power had gone through and taken its own form in this world. The closest it came to was the ancient governing powers of a dragon lord. After that, I had gone into detail with the ancient times of beasts and fire, and how Equestria was truly formed. Sonny was very religious though, and told me not to speak about such things around other ponies around here, even though she completely believed me. I knew what she was talking about with the religious folk in a small town and all, so I promised to keep my lips sealed about the story. Silver Dust soon emerged from the back room where the older couple lived while they weren't running their establishment. The mysterious spices that Zecora had given to Silver Dust proved to be extremely useful. One of the powders started to react to the air in the room of the sick pony. Silver Dust only had few explanations for this, and decided to give the powder to the mare by mixing a bit into her cup of tea. The mare drank the concoction and soon showed physical improvement of her original condition. Silver Dust then mixed a bit more into the rest of her cup. The mare drank the rest of the tea and showed signs of major improvement. One of the side effects must've been sleep, because she soon started to rest after the medicine was given to her. The old stallion couldn't thank us enough for saving his wife, and didn't charge us for the night in the room we stayed in. Silver Dust finally joined us for breakfast as we all sat down and ate, enjoying conversation right before customers started to show up at the door. We finished the meal and said our goodbyes and walked through the front door to begin our job for the day.
The Hayseed Swamp was, well, a swamp. It was very damp and the ground wasn't stable to walk anywhere. We hiked through trails of muck and swamp water looking for the goblin hideout. Tiki had hovered through the trees above looking for the camp site while we struggled through the mess of brush and mud. After an hour of trekking through the mess, we finally came across solid ground leading into a lush green forest. Tiki had flown up high into the sky to observe the plot of land from the sky. It was apparently an island of green in the grey, mucky swamp stretching approximately one mile wide and another one and a half long. We started to walk through the floating island of green and stumbled onto a resting dragon blocking the only trail through the area. The only thing left to do was confront him and ask him about the campsite. None of the others liked the idea, but it had to be done. Since I was the only pony here who was completely fire proof, I stepped up to confront the dragon while the others watched from a distance. I had remembered the respect gained by all of the other dragons that night of the migration. I had full confidence this one would also obey my consent if he knew who I was.
"Dragon! Address yourself! I have only a single question for you." I said strongly.
"Dragon lord. What brings you to my territory?" The dragon asked drowsily.
"I'm investigating a goblin infestation in the area, I have orders to eliminate the campsite." I said.
"Orders? The might dragon lord takes orders from ponies to do such dirty work?" The dragon chuckled.
"This is why some question your power. This is why you cannot fully control your subjects before you." The dragon explained.
"I can easily control everything in Equestria, I choose not to though." I said.
"Of course not. You're only the lord of bliss, a very weak form of power at most." The dragon said insultingly.
"So you think you can defeat me? Right now? Right here?" I challenged.
"Of course I can, you haven't even discovered your true power yet, you are only a shell of what you can possibly do." The dragon said, stretching its wings across the trail.
Show him your power.
"I will make you kneel before me! Will you then question my power?!" I said loudly.
"Give me your best! I want to see what your power shows for such a weak element such as 'bliss'." The dragon said mockingly.
I did not stall any longer, nor did I question the inspiring voice that echoed in my head. The scaled pattern on my coat shown out and my eyes glowed as rings of blue whisks of fire swirled around my feet. Everypony watched in horror as I unleashed a fiery blast that made an explosive contact onto the dragon's chest. The beast was thrown off his feet and through a few trees before stopping. Everything around us was dried and singed by the heat, my uniform taking a burning toll from the intense heat. After laying there in tense pain, the dragon stood up to release a downpour of fire and heat on myself. The fire continued to pour down for a moment, catching fire to everything around the area.
You shall not fall, fight for your era.
I had opened my eyes in the middle of the vortex of flame only to instantly react by jumping up through the vortex towards the Dragon's head. I didn't know how high I had to jump, so I just shot up as high as I could go. After coming out of the vortex, I was just above the dragon's scaly head, which was about 18 feet from the ground. I brought one of my back hooves down upon his head, bringing his whole body down to the ground. I held his thick, strong neck down on the ground as if it were just another twig in the forest.
Show no mercy, you shall be rewarded.
My mouth started to tingle as flames started to jump from my mouth. I held the heat until I could no longer withstand the energy, dropping a ball of explosive magical flames onto the dragon's face. Everything went white, changing to black shortly as smoke filled the surrounding area. The dragon had survived the blast, holding onto life by a simple string of hope. "I submit. You have proven yourself..." The dragon muttered, fainting from the pain coming across his body. Everypony just looked at me while I stood there, fading in and out of consciousness while the smoke had cleared.
Enjoy your reward, you have performed well.
The voice echoed off into the back of my head as the smoke cleared and I calmed down from my "performance." Everypony was still staring at me in disbelief. I could understand why, but they were all used to the more vicious side of myself from the few battles before. It wasn't myself that worried any of them, it was my uniform. I still felt my uniform on my body, the sleeves were down on my arms, I was just missing some pockets. I felt the fabric along my back, it wasn't the same and was extremely lightweight. It felt more like a short robe along my back and ending about 6 inches from my tail. The two sides of the clothe draped down near my legs and almost felt like a cape swinging at my movement. I could feel a collar around the neck of the robe coming up around my mane and stopping before my ears to leave my field of vision unhindered. The collar came up about three inches from the base of my ears and felt lightweight but stiff from movement. The sleeves of the robe were very loose and light, allowing easy movement and maximum comfort for wearing all the time. The entire robe itself was extremely comfortable and could be worn as long as I wanted to wear it, I didn't feel anything uncomfortable about it. I almost felt like I wasn't wearing anything. One of the large boulders to the side that had been melted from the fire was glassed over and acted almost like a mirror for myself. I looked into the reflection to see the azure weavings of curls, wings, tails and claws around the entire robe. The etchings seemed to glow hot from the recent battle as if they were blue coals in a fire. The heads of the deep blue dragon etchings curled around on the collar, with the mouths opening off at the edges of the collar. The design was extremely familiar, I remembered it from the sword I had placed in the grave of Glimmer Hunt. Memories came back to me as the blue glow returned to the etchings and the eyes turned a dark golden color, matching the rim of the collar. The gold sealed in place and gave the collar extra stability. Gold edging sealed the back of the robe as well as the sleeves. Everything about this outfit seemed as if it were from another world. I had a good feeling that the clothing was fire proof, along with anything else proof, but that would have to be tested later.
"Where did THAT come from?!" Tiki asked, breaking the seemingly eternal silence.
"There was this voice in my head, fueling my emotions through the fight..." I said.
"Was it the amulet? Did it sound familiar." Silver asked.
"I did nothing of the such!" The amulet echoed.
"It was a new voice, but he said that I earned a reward for performing so well. I think he knows about us, he's watching us." I said.
"Well ah don't know if he can hear us or not, but we all better get some sorta outfit like that!" Bronze said.
At these words, each of the three ponies were engulfed in a deep ruby flame with a purple edging. The flame only lasted a few moments, destroying the original fabrics and replacing them with new robes, similar to mine, but having their own unique differences. Tiki had slightly longer sleeves, in exchange for a shorter collar and less of a back to the robe to reduce wind resistance. The original arrow pouch he had carried was also embroidered with the dragon design down the sash of the pouch. Bronze Hammer had a similar collar and robe design to myself, but his torso was covered with a Dragon scale patterned chain mail within the double stitched torso of the robe. The end of the robe before his tail came down the sides lower than mine and were also visibly thicker stitching than all of our other robes. Silver Dust had a long sleeved loose robe, the sleeves much more open at the end then our other designs. Instead of a collar, a large hood was in place. The tail of the hood flew back like a dragon's tail, curling towards the bottom at the end. The hood itself was very open and had been crafter perfectly to accommodate the horn of a unicorn with out awkwardly showing a horn through the fabric. The robe itself stayed the same as my torso design. One surprising thing that had happened was the amulet upon Silver Dust's neck had bound with the robe at the end of the chain it was linked to and became part of the uniform.
"This is intriguing. I feel much more free and powerful than before. I've just got room to stretch my magical energy through the whole robe is all." The amulet said, much louder and clearer than when it was just a necklace.
"Well I guess we'll be able to speak more often with this change." I chuckled.
"Well, what happens now? We just got pimped out so hard, how do we top this?" Tiki asked.
"I'm thinking about testing the limits of the new look." I said.
"Lets get to it. Ah'll just take mine off so we can slash it with a sword a bit." Bronze offered.
"Alright, I know that the stuff has to be fire proof, lets get to the cutting of the test subject." I said eagerly.
"I want to take the first swing!" Tiki said.
One of the swords Tiki had was pulled from an inside tether of the robe. He brought the sword down on the side of the robe and cut clean through the extremely thin fabric with one small swing.
"Are you kidding me? I just ruined Bronze's robe, sorry guys." Tiki said disappointedly.
"What're you talking about? I don't even think you hit the fabric." Silver chuckled.
"But I felt the fabric tear! I saw the hole in the side!" Tiki said, looking back to the place of impact.
"I saw it, too. I also witness the hole restitch itself when you turned away, it was pretty cool." I said.
"Huh, so I guess it's somewhat sword proof, lets see how it does against magic." Tiki suggested.
"Alright, everypony stand back." Silver Dust warned.
After the fight with Blaze, Silver managed to pick up on the magic missile trick. He also found the spell in the book he had received from Twilight about different spells of magic. Although it wasn't supercharged by the amulet, he was able to cast the spell and do some damage to the robe itself. The white fabric had charred and ripped a bit, but within seconds the charred marks disappeared and the rip holes closed up. The robes were somewhat magic resistant compared to what would've happened to regular cloth. Our original uniforms would've easily disintegrated from a magic blast such as that.
"Well, even if you guys aren't magic resistant, I can keep you safe from projectiles." The amulet echoed from the hood.
"Alright, there's only one more thing that I've started to wonder now. Somepony has to wear the uniform while I slash their arm." Silver Dust requested.
"Alright. Lets get this over with..." Tiki groaned.
"Alright, even if it doesn't seal your wound, I can do that myself." Silver said, whipping out the blade fastened to his tail.
The blade was quickly slashed across the robe and Tiki's left arm. The blade cut through the cloth like butter and grazed Tiki's arm. Blood started to drip down the fabric as the cloth started its closing process. It took much longer than usual to close the cloth only because Tiki's cut was being sealed along with the fabric.
"I'm just guessing that the bigger the wound, the longer the process will take." I said.
"You're most likely right, which means if anypony takes a sword to the back, I'm going to have to fix it up before the robe can get to it." Silver said.
"I hope you can fix a back the right way, we don't want any more incidents..." Tiki spoke out.
Everypony glared at the Pegasus for such a remark and we all soon kept walking. We soon discovered that out clothing was completely stain proof to add onto everything else. The mud and swamp water repeatedly fell onto the sides of our robes, only to slide off and disappear from the bright white cloth as if nothing had ever happened. We all agreed not to mention this to Rarity until it was necessary. We all knew how much she would freak out if we had stain proof fabric. Besides the fact that we didn't even know where the robes even came from, we weren't sure how to explain it to everypony that asked where they could purchase such an outfit. After walking through the forested areas for a bit, I figured that if we rolled back the collar and kept the back from draping so much, it would look like any other regular outfit from a high class area such as Canterlot. The only other thing would be the unusual properties such as mending by itself and instantly removing stains. I would explain that later to anypony who asked if it came to that. We all continued walking through the forest, heading towards the location given to us by the fallen dragon. After our fight, he had come back to consciousness shortly and didn't hesitate to argue. Our new uniform had struck something within his memory and he answered my question without hesitation and complete obedience. After we set off he crawled back into his den above the large boulder on the side of the hill. We had been walking for about ten minutes now, nearing the other edge of the forested plot of land. Tiki came down to warn us about the small cloud of smoke that rose from a small clearing near the boggy waters of the other edge. It was surely to be the camp we've been hunting for all of today. The sun was starting to set and we only had so many hours of daylight left to crush this camp and return to the tavern.
It was a much larger base of about 30 or so goblins. Tents were lined up along the sides of the clearing and a large fire pit was built in the center. Goblins were waltzing around everywhere, enjoying the food and drink they've stolen from Dodge Junction and dancing around the open fire. There was a charred body of a pony skewered to a stick sitting over the open fire. Tiki had taken position in the sky, walking the rest of us through our positioning. We were all preparing to engage an ambush on the entire camp, wiping out the majority of the goblins before they could react. Silver Dust had been using the mental communication system with all of us together, which usually wouldn't have worked, but the amulet was able to tap into my energy pool with my consent before the operation took place. First thing that we did was position myself behind the tents so I could light them ablaze when the fighting broke out. Many of the goblins were located in some of the tents, I could see each of them with my Draconian eyes. Silver Dust took position down near the boggy water, ready for any goblins to approach the waters edge to be ambushed. Bronze Hammer took position in the bushes aside the fire pit where a large group of armed goblins had been sitting, eating away at the cooked corpse. Tiki was still in the sky, bow readied, incase he had to take down any straggling goblins that would screw up the plan.
The sun began to set and the light started to fade away from the land. The next goblin had approached the water, gathering it for a drink and for cooking at the fire pit. As he bent in to gather water in his bucket, Silver Dust was given the all clear to take down the first target of the night. He lashed his blade clean through the neck of the target and shoved him into the dark, muddy bog. Two more goblins had approached the waterside to investigate. Silver Dust quickly moved from the bush, landing another strike through the neck of one of the goblins while snapping the neck of the other. Both of the bodies were thrown into the bog and everything continued as planned. One of the bodies had been positioned in the camp for the group of armed goblins to see. As stupid as they were, they sat there for quite a while wonder what had happened, instead of warning for intruders. Bronze Hammer then charged the group of seven armed guards and knocked most of them into the fire pit. Two had landed to the side, which were soon assassinated by a falling arrow and Silver Dust. The first goblin to receive the impact of the hammer had been mangled on the head and had to be kicked off by Bronze into the fire pit. At the sound of violence, a swarm of goblins had jumped up and started to arm themselves. Before most of them could escape, I set fire to all six tents and they burnt up in an instant. The leader and a few of his men escaped the tent with minor to moderate burns as the blue aura of the blaze glowed on their faces, claiming the lives of all their fellow comrades.
"Surrender now in the name of the Princess!" I commanded.
"We'd rather die than be taken prisoner by ponies!" The leader grunted.
"Have it your way. Another day gone by and no prisoners taken." I smirked and started walking to the group with the other three following my back.
These goblins were trained to the best of their abilities, fighting them was a definite challenge. There was a goblin for each of us, a dark wizard, a brute, an archer, and a leader. We each separated to continue the fight with our destined matches. Silver Dust was soon locked in a close quarters battle between the wizard, exchanging magical blasts and the occasional lash of a small blade. Each parried the other with a magical shield and a returning blast one after another. The only determining factor of who would win this duel would be the one with the most endurance. Tiki had kept the archer busy and saved Bronze Hammer from an arrow to the neck. The archer had taken a point back behind a tree, drawing an arrow to his bow and taking aim for the largest of the ponies. With Tiki's eagle vision, he could spot the hidden assassin and which pony he was taking aim for. As the arrow left the string and flew for Bronze Hammer, Tiki had shot his own arrow, splitting the original in half and landing them both in the flames. Another arrow was fired at the archer from the sky, striking his bow through the center and rendering it useless. The archer then pulled two knives from his sides and continued into battle. Tiki soon met this goblin face to face for a duel to be remembered. Bronze Hammer had met the large brute of a goblin on the field, hammer in his grip. The brute himself carried a spiked mace made of wood with a skull fastened on the end. Both warriors met weapon to weapon in a test of strength, trying to force the other to the ground as hard as they could. This continued back and forth between the two, neither of them determined to lose this test of strength. I had no weapon to use against the leader of the campsite, so I just blocked his blows through my hooves and returned the favor with a belch of flame of a quick punch. He was powerful enough to deflect my flames with his metal shield and could parry my hooves from a swing of is sword. After a small time of fighting, my from hooves started to sting from taking a blade bare-hoofed and the strikes landed on my body were becoming sore from the impact.
This belongs to you, use it wisely.
The voice returned to my head and I felt a small amount of weight pile up in one of the tethers of my robe. I forced the goblin back with a blast of magic induced flame and drew a sword from my side. It was a shorter sword, but very broad. It was unbelievably lightweight and had the same azure dragon markings as the robes and the monument I had made of Glimmer. The sides of the blade were extremely sharp and surprisingly thin. Usually a sword of this design would break from the width of the blade, but this was clearly different. I took one swing at the shocked goblin leader and pierced his shield, leaving a split down the middle. The length of the sword was only a third of the way longer than Tiki's short sword and was about double the width. The engravings glimmered like those on my robes, and the gaping mouth of the head lead down to the point of the sword. I had taken another swing at the leader and slashed his blade clean in half. I took another swing at the shield and severed the edge of the metal plating. One burst of fire eliminated the opponent and I watched as the other three were just finishing their fights. Tiki had knocked the two blades from the other archer with his hooves as he brought his wings down with the two swords and severed both arms of the archer. Driving a blade through the neck of the goblin, Tiki finished the job and returned to my side blood stains slowly dissipating from his robes. After another collision from Bronze's hammer, the mace of the brute goblin had snapped and his skull was bashed in with the head of the hammer, and easier way to go from such a weapon. Bronze Hammer baked the brain matter off his hammer in the fire and returned to Tiki and I. Neither Silver nor the wizard showed signs of exhaust, so the amulet had helped Silver end the ongoing fight by placing a barrier behind the wizard, reflecting a stray magic bolt back into the goblin's spine, splattering him all over Silver Dust. Luckily, Silver had his hood down over his face so that most of the blood landed on the robe and quickly disappeared from sight. We all looked at each other, campsite destroyed and burnt to the ground. Each of us had blood stained on our tails and some of our mane. We all laughed at the sight and decided to go home before it got too late. The battle had ended and my sword disappeared into flames for the next battle I would need it in. The sun had already set as we piled all of the bodies into the fire pit and leveled the campsite for the vegetation to later grow back into. The journey home wasn't so long since we galloped all the way home through the bog and made it back within 15 minutes time. After everypony got back to the tavern, we washed up in the back and entered through the front door again. Customers looked at us from all directions, mainly focusing on our uniform. I had everypony roll down their collar and tie down their robes in the back, which mostly covered up the whole flashy look, but didn't hide the intriguing azure decor along the backs and edges of our robes. We all sat down in one of the back tables and each had a round of cherry cider.
"I'm guessing you all got rid of all the goblins, judging by the clean up session in the back." Sonny chuckled.
"You guessed right, no more problems in Dodge Junction." I said.
"That's good to hear, now I can go home and sleep in peace!" She said, feeling relieved.
"I think I'm going to do that same after being out in that swamp all day." Tiki groaned.
"You were flying the entire time though!" Silver argued.
"Yeah, but my wings are killing me!" Tiki said, stretching his wing out.
"Whatever, I think we can all sleep in peace tonight after such a day." I said, breaking apart the pointless argument.
Alright, y'all finish your drinks and get to bed, I've still got to finish my shift." Sonny said, standing up from her break.
"Alright, have fun! Call us down if there are any problems." I said.
Everypony had fallen asleep that night, no dreams or disturbances to remember. The amulet had let us sleep deeply without any dreaming or such to be done. The only thing that had happened in the night was Silver Dust being awoken by the amulet late in the night. A disturbance of two ponies had been detected outside by the amulet. There was a small bring ping from the gem and Silver Dust jumped from bed quickly and silently.
"What's going on?" Silver mumbled.
"We've got a problem outside." The amulet echoed quietly.
"Alright, let's get this over with." Silver said irritatedly.
The faint sound of two ponies arguing outside could be heard in the hallway of the second floor of the tavern. Sonny was leaving from her shift and walking home, when a mysterious stallion stopped her outside causing trouble. Silver watched momentarily from the back of the tavern through the front window of the door as the stallion became increasingly angry at the blonde mare's resistant attitude. After hearing the sound of Sonny being thrown against the front door, Silver Dust burst through the entrance and threw the stallion to the ground.
"Sonny? Who is this?!" Silver asked frantically.
"It's my step brother! He's here because I didn't come home earlier like he told me to..." Sonny said painfully from the ground.
"And you've got no business in this! She belongs to the family and she is to do what she is told!" The stallion said angrily.
"She isn't coming home tonight, not with a brute like you." Silver Dust said, throwing his hood over his head.
"Lets finish this." The amulet echoed in.
The stallion stood up and charged Silver head on. Before anything was done, Silver tripped the stallion to the ground. The stallion bucked his hooves out, knocking Silver to the ground. The stallion rolled over on top of him and landed one good punch to the face before a barrier stopped the second blow from happening. This gave the unicorn enough time to recover and throw the step brother from himself. The stallion was thrown onto the floor as Silver Dust came up from the floor back onto his hooves. The stallion soon charged again. Silver Dust met this attack with a speeding hoof to the center of the face, knocking the stallion back onto the floor, this time he didn't get up from the blow.
"Alright, you go get a deputy, I'll keep him here." Silver said as Sonny got up from the ground.
"Thank you, for everything. If you and your group hadn't shown up for these few days, I could be in a much worse place right now..." Sonny said.
"It's alright, you'll be in a much better place after this, as soon as we get an officer over here and you explain what's going on." Silver said.
A deputy of the Dodge Junction police department had shown up about 5 minutes later to arrest the assaulter of the blonde mare and take him away for the night. The owner of the tavern had woken up from the commotion and invited Sonny to stay in the other vacant room for the night, free of charge. The blonde mare soon explained that her father married a snooty unicorn with an earth pony son, who was 3 years older than her and out of control. Since Sonny was legally old enough to leave the household she lived in, the owners invited her to stay at the tavern until she found her own home and some peace of mind. After this whole scene, which lasted about ten minutes, everypony went back to bed and slept the night away.
I arose the next morning in the early hours. I had to figure out how we were going to carry the stuff we had packed in our original uniforms, since this new robe style has left us with almost no pockets, just two very large side pockets on the cape of the robe. I grabbed the edge of on of the sides to reach my pocket. I wanted to see how deep the pocket was to figure out how much stuff we could fit. To my surprise, my entire arm dove into the never ending slot and I almost fell into the vortex. This was extremely strange and I was now trying to figure out what would happen if I put something into the endless pit. I dropped a bit down the pocket and I soon felt it hit the end of the pocket. As I reached in I grabbed the coin out of mid air and pulled it back out. I solved our packing problem and stuffed all of my gear into the pockets. There was no weight added when all of these items were inside the pocket, which only made things easier. I was really beginning to enjoy having this new look. Nopony was up at this time in the morning because of the late night incident with Sonny and all. I went out to the back alley to figure out my new weapon. Last night a godly sword had come into my possession and burst into the flames when the fighting was over. I wanted to know how to get it again, and I sat outside for a while smoldering from my mouth. I thought about trying to bring it forth through some magic and fire until that voice echoed in my head again.
It's a powerful weapon, I do not think you are ready.
"Who are you?" I asked immediately.
I am not important right now, but we shall meet someday.
"Why can I not wield the weapon you presented to me last night?" I asked.
I am thinking over the decision to provide it to you. I am not sure if such power should be left in Equestria for so long.
"What power? What does such a blade wield?" I asked.
It possesses emotion. The blade will pierce anything you put your mindset to you. With the power of friendship and love, your element of bliss can render you invulnerable with such a blade.
"There are so many questions to ask! I want to know everything." I said.
All in good time. I guess I shall leave you with your elemental blade. Use it wisely.
The voice trailed off into the back of my head once again as it spoke those final words. I had sat in the alley for a few moments thinking about what had just happened. After contemplating the event I had puffed a plume of smoke with the sword's engravings glowing through the plume. After taking shape and definition, the sword fell to the ground, still glowing with heat. I picked up the blade, examining it closely. Nothing had changed from it since last night. I was wondering what kind of metal the blade was crafter from, and what the handle was made of. The metal of the blade was a gleaming white metal, brighter and whiter than silver. There was still a metallic reflection but the color itself was brighter than many other metals know to ponies. The blue engravings seemed to be made from a sort of magical gem infused into the sword. The hilt was hard to tell. It had a wooden feeling, but it was a dull green color and was slightly mendable. The grip of the material was superb and allowed me to swing the weightless blade at unimaginable speeds. I had sound the blade around carelessly for a while, enjoying the feeling. Only one bad swing left the blade halfway submerged into a stone wall and completely slashed through a metal trash bin in the alleyway. Nothing seemed to be damaged beyond repair and could still continuing what it did. The wall still stood firmly and the trash can was still able to hold garbage. I tried to fit the blade into one of the pockets, but it hit the end of the pocket half way in. The sword was unaffected by whatever magic the pockets had used to store so many items, so I had to sheathe it in the tether under the cape on my robe. The sword was only ridiculously wide, about 6 inches in width, and was still quite short so it remained concealed within my robes. The sun was rising over the horizon now and I went back into the tavern. Sonny was up early starting her routine of cleaning up the tavern before opening. She was sweeping the floors and wiping off the dirty tables when I walked in.
"That outfit you guys picked up in the forest looks pretty comfortable." Sonny said.
"Yeah, I'm liking it more and more every day." I said, looking down at the robes across my chest.
"I just hope ponies don't give you too much trouble on where you got it from." Sonny said worriedly.
"Yeah, it'll be a lot of explaining to do for everypony that asks." I sighed as I sat down at the bar.
"Just like yesterday morning?" The old stallion running the bar asked.
"Yeah, that was pretty good yesterday. I wouldn't mind having it again." I smiled.
"I haven't eaten yet either, could I get a bite to eat also?" Sonny asked politely.
"Please, you can call me Joe, or Paps, now that you're living with us for the time being." The old stallion smiled as he turned around and begin fixing our dishes.
"Thanks Paps. It's nice to have some family after last night..." Sonny said quietly as a tear ran down her cheek.
"You've been working here so long, It'd be a shame not to be able to call you part of the family now." Joe smiled.
The other three stallions came down the stairs a bit later, plates of food in their designated spots. Each of them were dressed in their robes, and I explained the never ending pockets on the robes. Tiki dropped his fork into his left pocket to test this out, and almost lost it in the floating depths of the pocket. After breakfast everypony packed their things into their pockets and were ready to set off for Baltimare. We said our goodbyes and walked out of the tavern towards the Hayseed Swamp.
Due to the harsh conditions of the area, it took about a week of wandering to get through the entire hayseed swamp while eliminating goblins from the area. There were times where we had to float out tent on the bog. Luckily enough the tent was totally waterproof, so we didn't have to fear anything when we were submerged halfway into the bog. There were other creatures that had to be fought, including a hydra that we decided to evade in the thick mangroves along one of the solid grounded areas. It wasn't a fun time out in the swamp, but we had a job to do and we made the most of our trip. There were plenty of water plants and bulbs that were very good to eat if cooked correctly. Most of the plants were very starchy, but none tasted bad and were supposedly high energy foods. At the end of the last day of the week, Tiki had spotted the peaks of tall buildings in the distance as we were tripping through the muddy waters of the bog. We had approached the town at sundown and didn't have any time to find a place to stay for the night, so we just pitched the tent once again outside of the town. We had a better sleep that night than in the bog due to the solid ground and dry air. The next morning we all slept in until the sun was shining in the sky and the glare had come through the top of the tent and had awoken us all. I wrapped the tent back up into my pocket as we all prepared to enter the big bustling city. Each of us fastened our cape down and rolled up our collar to try and blend into the crowds more. As we walked into the town, many ponies gave us a strange look from out outfit and probably from the scars we've picked up over the passing time. I've lost track of time now, it could've been a month or two since we left Ponyville. I was sending letters to the ponies back home, and they were sending back. I had learned that Rainbow Dash had gone to the wonderbolts boot camp and that one of the dragons that had fought with me had taken a nap in the mountain in the distance. The dragon was blowing smoke over Ponyville and had to be stopped before it spread throughout the land. I remembered this occurrence happening in one of the episodes back in our world, and now it was happening now. One of the recent letters had also talked about the new rulers of the crystal empire and how discord was being reformed by Fluttershy. I wished the ponies the best of luck in their adventures in the latest letter and continued our own adventures in Baltimare. As we walked through the city, we looked through all of the windows of the shop and took notice of everypony in the crowds of the streets. The streets had gone from dirt and dust to cement and cobblestone. The buildings were no longer wooden houses but large stone buildings. There were many streets throughout the town and would be easy to get lost on if we didn't play things out smart. I was lucky and had Tiki with us to help navigate over the areas, but we had to be cautious about the no flying rule some of the guards had warned about. We had high class medals that showed us as trained soldiers and powerful commanders, but we still had to register for a flying pass through the city. As we continued walking, I noticed a pair of red mustached stallions that couldn't be mistaken for anypony else. Flim and Flam had fled to Baltimare after the crushing defeat of their buyers of the death machine. They had certainly gained some riches from the deal and were hiding out in a large city such as Baltimare.
"Guys, take a look at the table in front of the cafe, 2 o'clock on our left." I said briefly.
"Alright, what's the plan?" Silver asked quietly on the streets.
"I know that they're high class criminals for doing business with the goblins, but the royal guard hasn't given a warrant for their arrests because I haven't told the Princess about their part in the first battle." I explained.
"What do we do now?" Tiki asked.
"Only thing we CAN do is to wait it out while I get a letter to the princess. Silver I want you to follow these stallions for the day. Sync up the mental communication so I can contact you when I have the document for the arrest." I explained.
"Alright, we're good to go. They won't get away this time." Silver said, throwing his hood over his head.
"Alright, everypony else, hoods up and capes down, cover your face and cutie mark." I said.
"Aw yeah! We look like badass mercenaries!" Tiki shouted softly within our group.
"Let's just walk the other way while Silver keeps an eye on our targets." I said.
As we walked deeper into the town, things began to turn a more dull shade of grey. Everything looked sad and depressing and got worse the more we walked towards the center of the town. Something wasn't right, but at least there weren't any goblins in sight. We got to the center of town, with a large fountain in the center. There was a well off to the side providing water for all of the ponies in town. We hoisted up a bucket of water for a drink. The water tasted fine and didn't look suspicious, but the ponies and buildings around us looked so dark and gloomy, as if a stormy cloud had rolled over the sky. There were only a few white clouds dotting the sky, but it was almost as if the sun was being absorbed by something floating over the center of the city. We all looked at each other in confusion, knowing that there was something wrong going on here. Earlier today I had sent out a letter to Princess Celestia about the Flim Flam brothers and the crimes they have commited against all the ponies of Equestria. I explained that we needed document to arrest them for their past crimes. While we were at the well, I had felt a massive sneeze coming on. I wasn't thinking like I should've. I put my head into the well to sneeze so that the flames didn't brown the nearby townsfolk to a crisp. As I blew the blue flame from my muzzle, the warrant of arrest flew down the well and I heard the wax seal hit the bottom. There was no splash, which was strange and relieving at the same time. The other two looked at me in shock. Tiki couldn't help but start laughing his flank off while Bronze Hammer sat there in shock with me, realizing what I had just done.
Silver Dust wasn't around to levitate the warrant from the hole and the warrant to arrest the two criminals had been lost down a well. We've come to an impasse that would be very time consuming to work around, so I kept Silver Dust focused on the two ponies until they settled down somewhere for the night. While Silver tracked the unicorn brothers down, I had gotten everypony dinner after we investigated the town a bit more and bought a room in a small motel at the center of the city. During the day we also cleared Tiki for a flying license with the medals of honor we received for our duties out in the goblin war. Everypony on the force, whether it be police or royal guard, recognized the design of the medal and the engravings on the back. It was a high class achievement that not very many ponies had achieved and were still around today to show it off. Tiki had dropped Silver Dust some dinner while he was on watch duty over the two unicorns. After about another hour of watch, the brothers went into their fancy apartment on the top floor of a fancy housing block. The four of us went to bed that night and decided to get the warrant out of the well just before the sun rose over the horizon.
"You seriously dropped the warrant down the well?" Silver laughed.
"I didn't drop anything. I had to sneeze and I didn't want any casualties from one outburst. The letter was just the cause of my sneezing and was shot down the well." I said, annoyed at my mistake.
"That's literally the funniest thing that's happened since the fight with Blaze back in Appleloosa!" Tiki said, rolling around on his bed laughing.
"You just remember who you're sleepin' with, mister giggles!" Bronze said, eyeing myself laying in the bed closest to the window.
"Why can't there be an option for four beds to a room?" I asked pointlessly.
"Not sure, but it would be a mighty smart idea." Bronze replied.
"Alright, let's just get to bed and worry about it tomorrow morning." Silver Dust said.
Everypony laid down in their bed and soon fell asleep. I had been facing the window looking out over the center of town, where the warrant was at the bottom of the well. The moon was shining bright in my face, so I used my collar to keep the moon from shining through. At the corner of my vision where the collar cut off, I saw something strange near the well. There was a glowing flare of toxic purple floating from the well. It looked as if plumes of purple heat and smoke were arising from the bottom of the well. The clouds drifted through the city, creating an ominous mist in the streets and seeping through the windows of the houses along the sides. As the mist started to approach our room, I called out to the other three.
"Everypony! Front and center!" I yelled in a panic.
"What the buck is going on?!" Tiki asked frantically, falling out of bed.
"We've got a problem coming our way fast! Look out the window!" I said, pointing to the mist coming from the well.
"It doesn't look safe, everypony stay within the barrier!" The amulet echoed from Silver Dust's hood.
"Alright, but we have to get down in that well. I think the source of power is down there!" I yelled over the humming noise now coming from the well.
All four of us rushed down the stairs of the second floor running out the building to stop whatever was happening. Other ponies soon arose and entered the streets as well, but they weren't in the right mind. They were completely grey in the night with no color or definition in their eyes. The citizens wandered the streets aimlessly like zombies. As we pushed through the crowd, we reached the center, which was completely empty of citizens. As we approached the well, goblins started to poor out of the hole in the ground. We each took a position as we started to slash the dark clones to the ground. The mist that had been exiting the well had ceased and we were free from the bubble shield that was keeping us from performing at full potential. As we spread out through the crowd we opened up and started eliminating the mass by the groups. Bronze Hammer brought his hammer across the crowd with a sweeping strike, disabling ten goblins at a time with each strike. Silver dust had been popping missiles into the groups and lashing out his blade at anything that got too close, with the amulet pushing back the group with a pulse of magic every so often. Tiki was floating through the air, dragging his swords along the heads and necks of the crowds of green soldiers walking the grounds. Trails of bodies fell in his path as he continued to eliminate the warriors. I had my broadsword out, slashing the green enemies into halves and pieces with speedy swipes of my sword. Bodies were starting to pile up along the streets and blood flowed down the gutters as if it were storming red water. The swarm had stopped crawling from the well as the last goblin jumped from the hole, a deep purple glowing crystal in his hand. He held the power and ran through the crowd, trying to escape our fury. He also held the warrant of the Flim Flam brothers. Running down the street, the little goblin waved the crystal to our direction, sending the zombified ponies to our direction.
"Tiki! Go for the crystal!" I said, pointing to the fleeing goblin with my sword.
"I'm on it!" Tiki said, firing an arrow for the goblin's knee.
"Everypony be careful of where you attack! Citizens are in the field now and we can't have any casualties!" I warned.
The arrow flew through the air at an amazing speed, striking the goblin right at the knee, but the crystal's power was guarding it's carrier and allowed for him to escape. I dropped a fire bomb in the middle of the goblin group, eliminating the most of them without scorching the ponies on the outer edge of the group. We all pushed our way through the crowd of bodies and ponies as we hoofed it toward the fleeing goblin. It was a dramatic chase through the streets of the town, running through different alleyways and dodging miscellaneous zombified ponies. In the end we all went in a big loop until we reached the complex of the Flim Flam brothers. The goblin dashed around the corner as we followed, being met by a large contraption built more for speed than for fighting. The two brothers were in the front ready to drive off in haste at the sight if the four of us. The goblin hopped onto the back and the unicorns charged up the machine. Within a moments notice, the vehicle was moving down the street and heading out of the town. We continued our chase, hoofing it double time to keep up with the targets. At the edge of the city, the vehicle took a turn down a dirt road heading for the Everfree forest. Tiki shot one more well placed arrow into the gears of the vehicle, causing them to grind and stop momentarily. The contraption halted and kicked up, flinging the small goblin off the back and onto the ground. I had charged up to the crystal in the goblin's hand. Bringing the sword down upon the evil source of power, the two energies collided and sparks of power jumped in all directions. As I continued pressing on the gem, the goblin's hand started to melt, as his skin started to char and smolder. Through the sounds of screaming and the feelings of death and pain being projected by the crystal, I though about Ponyville and everypony living there. I thought about Twilight Sparkle and the other 5 ponies. The thought of each pony's face gave my sword and I power. The dragon engravings lit up through my sword and my robe, along with everypony else's robes. The crystal started to spark and crack, until I raised my sword and brought it down once more, slicing clean through the gem and into the ground. Colors exploded everywhere and jumped through the air as the hundreds of goblin bodies disintegrated into nothing. The moon had started to glow brightly down on the city as the colors jumped to their original spots, returning joy and happiness to the gloomy city we had walked into earlier that day. The sounds of confused voices flooded through the streets, followed by screams of terror. We ran into the city once more to be greeted by a large machine, headlights shining in our faces. One of the death machines used in the war had appeared from one of the garages of the complex that the Flim Flam brothers stayed in. It's design had changed since our last encounter, becoming much larger and invulnerable to outside attacks. The only way to destroy such a contraption would be through the inside.
We had nowhere else to run, it was a small one way street. The machine started charging down the street, blades spinning into a pit of metal through the inside of the processing machine. Citizens started to run the other way as the four of us stood in the presence of such a monstrosity.
"What do we do?!" Tiki said frantically.
"Well, you can fly! We can run!" Silver said, still hesitating to turn in the other direction.
"I've got the strangest idea." I said with a smile.
I whipped off my robe and chucked it into the center of the machine. The cloth of the robes was soon torn to shreds as the blades began to process the fabric. The regenerative power of the robes started to kick in as the fabric bound itself through the blades, trying to retake its original shape. After a fe moments of this, the fabric began to thicken around the blades as the machine started to clog and the gears started to grind. The machine then came to a stop, smoking and shaking as it broke down into pieces from the fabric. When it finally stopped moving, I went up and removed the tattered robes from the core of the processing area. The cloth turned into a near liquid form as it loosened from the blades. My robe then whipped back into its original form and texture as I fastened it to my body again.
"Alright... Everything is taken care of, lets just go to bed." Silver Dust said, exhausted like the rest of us.
The next morning came quickly after last nights events had calmed down. I gave everypony some time to sleep in, along with myself. When we awoke and went down to the streets, we were greeted by a flood of gracious ponies. They were all thanking us for our job well done and talked about a dark dream they were trapped in. The mayor of Baltimare came down to personally thank us for our duties and supplied us with more food and such for our next journey. A ceremony was held in the square as we were yet again flooded by thanks from the citizens of the incident last night. The colors around us had been returned to normal and Baltimare looked like a whole new city. Princess Celestia had arrived to congratulate us about an hour after the ceremony started. I informed her about the escape of the Flim Flam brothers. We were excused from this when she learned of the swarm of goblins that had emerged at the time. When she returned to Canterlot, a full scale search for the two wanted ponies was released. Every town received warning and wanted posters with a bounty for their captures. We spent about another week or so. The mayor had asked us to stay for a while, courtesy of the city itself. We decided to stay to make sure nothing bad stuck around. After dealing with a few incidents over the week, we were ready to head out for our next destination and clear out more foes who threaten the safety of the creatures of Equestria.
Author's Note
This was definitely a long chapter for myself! I put a bit more effort into it that others, which explains the prolonged release, I just hope you all enjoy everything in it!
We packed up and left early in the morning, avoiding the crowds in the streets of Baltimare. After a week in the city I felt ready to face the bigger stuff. We were heading to Manehattan after a short trip through a trail on the Everfree forest. I knew we wouldn't stick on the trail, we still had to hunt down goblin campsites and such. It would be four days on the trail at most to explore the entire surroundings of the forest. We were lucky to have a Pegasus in the air, I'm pretty sure we would've been through the forest for much longer without somepony up there. We set off before the sun had risen to the northeast. We could've gone northwest along the field, but that would only take hours to arrive at Fillydelphia, and we would be leaving the entire section of the forest trail uncovered. Everypony was pretty awake and ready to walk. It took about half an hour to get to the forest's edge.
"I can't believe we have to cover the ENTIRE forest!" Tiki said disappointedly.
"We can get it done fast, but it has to be done. We can't leave any stray rebel goblins out there." I said.
"Why can't we just break the sources of power and let the stupid goblins wander around?" Silver Dust asked.
"Come on, you all know that they're fighting on Blunt Will's orders. They aren't stupid creatures like regular goblins." I explained.
"He's right you guys, we can't let these critters come up and bite our behinds." Bronze chimed in.
"Alright. Lets get this over with." Tiki sighed and took off into the air.
We started walking through the forest and immediately came across two different camps. At first, we took out the camps swiftly and recklessly, which costed us some bruises and scratches from simple goblins. The robes did a good job of sealing off small wounds and keeping us comfortable, but we couldn't risk any serious injuries. We decided to take on the next camp slower and more cautiously. Tiki suggested just burning down the camps and everything in the area, but it wasn't an option. As much as I would love to turn an entire goblin camp into a blackened crisp, I didn't want to burn down the forest. If we had been in the field where my magic fire would've been easier to control I could remove an entire base from the face of Equestria.
We kept exploring for the day, finding only one more goblin camp and pony camp. We came across a group of gypsy carriages set up along the forest trail. The gypsies of the camp seemed oddly familiar. I noticed a strangely pink older couple resembling an energetic pink mare I knew in Ponyville, then I remembered something I heard from the human world. This gave me a strange idea that I would have to try out later on, maybe in a personal note to Pinkie Pie. The bard of gypsies warned of the strange properties of the forest and told us to turn back and go a different route. As much as I would've wanted to heed the warning, the other three agreed that the trip wouldn't be worth it. We continued through the path until dusk came and we could no longer traverse in the dark. Before the sun set and the moon rose high in the night sky the trail became less visible and more dense with overgrowth. I didn't like the look of the trail, but with my friends and myself we could take on whatever lies ahead. We pitched the tent at the side of the trail in a soft bed of tall grass. That night I had a single dream of the deep, mysterious voice calling to me from the trail. Everypony else was having the same dream and even the amulet was captured in the trance and remained silent through the night. Something powerful beyond our reach lied within the trail, and we would have to face it tomorrow.
"Anypony else have a weird dream all night?" Tiki asked.
"You all heard that voice, right?" I asked.
"Yeah, it didn't seem very threatening, but I'm sort of afraid of what's in that trail." Silver Dust said.
"I'm not exactly afraid if it's related to another voice, he's the one who gave me my blade." I smiled.
"What? You've been talkin' to this mystery voice and haven't told us about it?" Bronze Hammer asked.
"I've probably mentioned it a couple times, but not in an important way." I explained.
"Well, as long as he's on our side I'm alright." Tiki said.
"Whatever, let's head out while its still morning." Silver Dust said, opening the front of the tent.
Fog poured into the tent and shrouded us all in mist. It didn't feel damp or smell like swampy mud. There was no condensation anywhere, the mist was just there. It was a complete mystery to all of us, especially Tiki. After being through the clouds so many times the Pegasus had picked up on the details of clouds, fog, and mist. This apparently wasn't anything cloud related, which made us cautious exiting the tent. There was nothing bad around and everything was still where it was from last night. I packed up the tent and we each had a small meal before we went out to the thick foggy trail. I decided to send a letter off to the mane 6, since we hadn't written to them in what seemed to be weeks. After discussing the events from the last week I continued to our current situation. I described the mysterious fog and where we were going. Each of the other 3 put in notes from their point of view and anything private on a separate paper. At the end I sent a small message for Pinkie Pie to see how she would react. I finished the letter and we all signed the bottom. I sent the letter off in flames and we went to the shrouded path of mystery.
"It's not that bad in here, just a crowded path is all." Silver Dust said.
"True, but we still have to make it to the other side." I replied.
"I feel so exposed down here... It's strange not flying above you guys." Tiki said.
"Well you couldn't fly without us in your sight, welcome to the ground." I said jokingly.
"Lets just get through this..." Tiki sighed.
As we kept walking, the path started to open up into more of a field. There were large rocks covered in moss with pools of crystal clear water all around. Gentle hills rolled over the land from what we could see. The fog was still thick in the air and kept our distance of view extremely short. I tried my Draco-vision, but there was nothing to see and I doubt it would work through the mysterious fog. We continued to walk through the fog even after the trail slowly turned to grass and we were walking blindly. Tiki tried flying into the air but fog crawled through the sky a mile high. Tiki couldn't fly past a certain distance without the weight of the air dragging him down to the ground. The fog kept Tiki from flying higher as it grew thicker in the air. After he reached the mile mark, the fog was like butter and Tiki went into a free fall before recovering about 20 feet above the ground. I tried to view Tiki in the air through my Draco-vision as he climbed higher, but the fog was obstructing all of my visions. As he climbed into the shrouded sky I lost complete track of him within 20 feet of his takeoff. We continued to walk through the land for what seemed like hours, almost days. We passed many unique structures, none made by ponies or anything of the sort. This mysterious land seemed untouched by the hooves of mortal souls. I doubt we were even in Equestria still, and this fog was now intriguing me beyond imagination. After an eternity of silence I tried to break it. I shouted but no sound went through the air. My shout was like a whisper to the other three near me. I thought about how we would communicate and somepony responded in my thoughts.
"I guess thoughts are the only thing that can really travel through this fog." Silver Dust said in thought.
"Are you using the amulet to do this?" I asked.
"Nope, I just heard you thinking to yourself and decided to think with you." Silver said jokingly.
"Ah'm surprised we didn't find this out earlier. Ah guess we were just busy with the scenery." Bronze chimed in.
"Alright. That doesn't matter any more, I want answers from somepony!" Tiki said loudly through his thoughts.
It's about time I explained myself.
The mystery voice from our dream had echoed through the fog once again. The very sound of this deep tone shook the ground and distilled the pools of water around us. We all looked around franticly for answers, but nothing showed as far as we could see. We continued walking slowly until we approached an unusually flat patch of taller grass. Anypony could easily tell that this was a perfect circle around 20 feet in diameter. The grass didn't feel like grass, it was extremely soft and induced sleep to the touch. Before anypony could respond to anything, two massive emerald wings spread across the patch and a scaly face emerged from the patch. The wings weren't scaled, but covered in a certain fluff that whisked around like a blazing fire. The dragon seemed to have a mane of the flaming fuzz around his ears going down his neck and falling a bit into his face. The rest of his body was flame fluff on the top and smooth glossy scales on his underside. His tail and body didn't show much through the fog so we couldn't tell exactly how large the beast was. I was skeptical on referring to him as a dragon due to the mysterious fuzz along his back and his fuzzy mane, if it was a mane.
"Lord of bliss, it is a delight to see you in the flesh!" The creature said in a jolly tone.
"What? Lord? I would hardly call myself that, maybe just a strong leader." I said sheepishly.
"Now now, do not deny your destiny!" The beast bellowed.
"Well if you say so. Can you tell me who you are and where we are?" I asked politely.
"You are all in the afterworld! The land of life after death! And I am the great lord of desire! I was the creator of greed and war! Do not fear though, I am an honorable being, with my past far behind myself!" The dragon said happily. He was indeed a dragon, a strange dragon.
"Oh Celestia! Dying is gonna be a bummer with this fog all around!" Tiki blurted out.
"Of course not! You all only see fog because you are still mortal!" The dragon explained.
"Thank CELESTIA!! When y'all said afterworld I thought we were all dead!" Bronze said.
"Oh, all of you are far from dead!" The dragon bellowed.
"I'm guessing you know the past and future, don't you?" Silver Dust asked.
"Of course I do! It's quite boring so I try my best not to look into the future all the time, but I've seen great things for all of you!" The dragon lord said.
"So why did you bring us all here?" I asked.
"You stopped in front of the portal, so I opened it during the night while you all were asleep." The dragon explained.
"Do you have a name?" Tiki asked.
"I was not named when I was created, but I have taken the element of desire to myself, you may call me Desire if you wish." The dragon lord offered.
"Alright, Desire, why are we here?" I asked.
"I didn't want to give up the opportunity of bringing you all here! I had just opened the portal for you to visit me in!" Desire said cheerfully.
"Alright, so whats up with this fog?" Tiki asked.
"It isn't fog, its the souls of all the creatures of Equestria and beyond, the souls of the past and the future." Desire explained.
"What?! These are living things floating around us?" Tiki asked.
"Well, its hard to explain. They aren't really living and they're all soul floating around you. Each individual soul cannot be given a unit of definition, but when they are all together they create a dense cloud of one." Desire told us.
"Well how big is this world?" I asked.
"It's physically endless!" Desire burst out.
"That's not really possible." Silver mumbled.
"You're in the afterworld! Don't question my authority!" Desire said jokingly.
"You rule over the afterworld?" I asked.
"Well, we all do. Power, Deceit, Mutany, Rage, Sorrow, and myself." Desire had explained.
"Wait a second... 6 dragon lords, all having special elements. I've heard this somewhere before." Silver Dust thought to himself.
"Most likely from being around the elements of harmony. We are the counterbalance of those six." Desire explained.
"They have been around as long as ourselves, but it is their time to walk the land after the Discordian era had ended." Desire continued.
"Where do I come in?" I asked anxiously.
"Ah! You are an unexpected element that harmony had formed! With the era of Celestsia and Luna, there has been so much happiness in such a well working world, your presence was necessary!" Desire explained.
"But I'm not part of this world! How could this have affected me from a different universe?" I asked.
"Oh, it didn't! When you showed up with such power the energies of the world started to take advantage of this spawn!" Desire ranted on.
"They were preparing for you to take your role in the world with such perfect timing! The lab explosion that had broken your physical bond from your home world was completely unaffected by our dimension's actions, but it was another well timed occurrence!" Desire continued on.
"When that bond broke, you became part of our world and you gained even more immense power from the immortal energies around you!" Desire finished.
"So it was just the Equestria dimension placing my power into a proper position?" I asked.
"Well, with a bit of adjustment. I'm a bit surprised your physical body was able to contain the energy." Desire said shockingly.
"Well, there have been outbursts, but nothing large." I said.
"There haven't been outbursts at all, we would all know if there was. Your largest energy leak could level Ponyville three times over, which is why you must be careful of yourself until your true form takes place." Desire explained.
"So I'm going to look like you?" I asked.
"Well, not exactly, you'll have a mane and the fuzz, but it will reflect your personal feelings and your element." Desire explained.
"What? Ironclad is going to look like you? He's going to be a dragon?!" Tiki asked frantically.
"I never said that exactly, but his true form will be different from his original, most likely larger to host his core power source." Desire said.
"Aw man! You would look so cool as one of these fluffy dragons! We could be flying buddies!" Tiki said to me.
"So lords of the elements don't all take the same form?" I asked.
"Well, the dragon lords all have taken quite similar form such as my own, but the elements of harmony had taken form only recently from being only forces of pure invisible energy. I really can't say if you'll take dragon or pony form, maybe both, or something completely different." Desire had pondered.
"And ya also mentioned that you don't act like yer former self? Your days of desirin' are over?" Bronze asked.
"Yes, mostly. After many millenniums, my personality smoothed out to a more full range of emotion rather than a spike of desire, greed, and selfishness." Desire explained.
"Ah hope the rest of ya did the same, 'cause some of them elements sound pretty nasty." Bronze said.
"Yes, all of them have mellowed out to a more mutual personality such as mine, but we all still share our unique qualities." Desire explained.
"Well, we best be on our way. We have a long trip ahead of us!" Silver said walking off into the mist.
"I really should send you all back, its already been 6 months..." Desire said casually.
"Celestia, no... You don't mean that time isn't correlated to the mortal world here?" Silver said, panicking.
"Why would it ever correlate? The souls in this land would have to wait an eternity to enter the mortal world!" Desire laughed.
"Just send us back before we lose more time..." I said worryingly.
As you wish, lord of bliss.
A portal was opened in one of the pools of crystal clear water and we jumped through. Everypony shot out of the other side and fell onto the ground of the trail we were originally in. The mist had disappeared from the forest and everything seemed the same as when we entered. When I looked over to the entrance I saw that it was completely opened up and the vegetation had been cut back. The path had been cleared out like any other trails that we walked along Equestria. At first we had thought that we came out in a different trail, but then I noticed the opening and the area of grass we had pitched our tent in 6 months ago. We sat there beyond belief at what was happening and the next thing that went through my mind were letters. I haven't received any since leaving the portal and the last one I had sent was before we entered. I pulled a quill and paper from my pocket and started writing a note to Twilight. I asked what the date was and how long we had been gone for. After writing down those few sentences I sent the letter immediately and waited for a response.
It was late morning so Twilight and the others couldn't have been so busy as to ignore one of our letters. At the least, Spike would just read off the letter to Twilight while she was busy doing whatever she was doing. It didn't take long for a letter to be sent back to us, and what it said shocked everypony even more. The letter said that we had been gone for 6 months and 2 weeks. Letters where trying to be sent to my source of energy, but couldn't be traced to be sent. The mane 6 had been worried sick about our disappearance and thought something horrible had happened to us. Twilight also mentioned something about Pinkie Pie acting differently after I had sent her that verse of song in our last letter.
When you've bungled all your bangles
and your loved ones have been mangled
listen to the jingle jangle
of my gypsy tambourine.
Those were the words I had sent in the letter in a song form. It was an old nursery rhyme I had remembered from a music video I had seen in the human world. Maybe it would bring back memories from her past, maybe not. I just wanted to know Pinkie's reaction if any was given from the verse. Apparently it had affected her initially, and became progressively worse as answers started to run out. I wasn't around to give Pinkie the answers she deserves. With that aside though, I still had to sort out this whole time warp stuff. Before I got to the rest of the group, I felt a potential communicating portal in the pool of water on the side of the trail and had to talk to Pinkie Pie. I dropped a single spark around the pool and it danced across the water until it found the middle. The spark dove into the water and one ripple flowed to the sides and returned to the center, replacing my image with a reflection of Pinkie Pie.
"It's been 6 months, hasn't it?" I asked the reflection.
"Ironclad?! How did you get into my drink?" Pinkie asked ecstatically.
"Just a little messenger spell I know, but that isn't important." I said sternly.
"What's the important thing then? Other than you guys being gone for 6 months!" Pinkie said into her drink.
"I heard you were acting strangely after I sent you the gypsy verse..." I said.
"Where... Where did you find that song?" Pinkie choked out.
"I saw a group of gypsies on the trail into a forest and one of the couples reminded me of you. One thing lead to another and I thought about something I heard from my home world." I explained.
"I saw images. Memories came back and I couldn't explain them. Do you know about my past? Before the rock farm?" Pinkie asked desperately.
"I don't know the details, but it doesn't matter. You have your best friends in Ponyville!" I said encouragingly.
"I can't sleep though! I haven't been able to sleep! I need to know my roots!" Pinkie yelled into the glass of water.
"I don't exactly have the back story, but I think I know the ponies who do... If I find them I'll get you your answers, Pinkie." I said assuringly.
"Okie doki loki, I'll be waiting for those answers. At least I can rest now knowing that." Pinkie said, letting out a deep sigh.
I returned from the pool's view, letting Pinkie's image fade into the water as I joined the other three at the edge of the trail. We sat there for a while looking at the scenery, just trying to grasp the fact that 6 months had gone by within minutes in that other world. Silver snapped us out of our little meditation in the forest, and we continued through the trail. I knew that once we reached the next largest city I would have to get a letter out to Princess Celestia. I needed to know the situation at hand with the goblins and anything else. We continued our regular patrol with Tiki circling overhead while the rest of us trekked through the forest trail. We walked all day, only to find empty camps that once held goblins within their tents. The goblin forces had moved out from their hiding places and gathered somewhere else. I didn't know where they were, but I was worried that the worst had happened and that they invaded the major cities without warning or something related to the subject. The sun started to set as we continued to walk the trail, but the glow of Fillydelphia could be seen from the air. We galloped all the way to the city as it got darker out to find that everything was in tact and nopony was harmed. The campsites didn't have any fresh signs of departure so I wasn't worried about anything imminent. I had to get a letter to the princess for a briefing on what had happened over the last six months. I wrote a small message and sent it out as the sun set before us on the edge of the town.
The message I received came quite quickly and was shorter than I would've imagined. It explained that the goblins had moved out against Manehattan as their first target. Without our help around, the Princesses deployed their men to the city for aid and crushed the resistance. The soldiers could only stop the invasion for so long and had to barricade the entrances due to the overwhelming population of goblins. I took a good guess to say that a source of power was behind the army. Since we were nowhere to be found for 6 months, the goblins were able to move ahead on their plan because we weren't there to stop them. The cobblestone roads of the city where dimly lit by street lamps glowing a pale yellow, along with the occasional green glow of a firefly. Nopony was walking the streets at night, just a few shady characters along the sides down a few streets we went through. The Princess designated us to a house on the end of a side street that was run by a friend who could house us for the night. It took a bit of navigation and walking to find it, but we finally found the complex on the end of South Hay Street. I knocked on the door and heard a jumbling of a lock and noticed movement through the peep hole on the middle of the door.
"Ah, so the four warriors have returned!" A familiar voice rang out.
"Yes! We need somewhere to stay for the night before we can leave for Manehattan!" I said through the door.
"Hold on! I shall open the door soon, but this lock is a bit rusted." The familiar voice replied.
"Here we go! Please, come in." Luna opened the door.
"Luna?! What are you doing here in Fillydelphia?" I asked in surprise.
"I am stationed here in Fillydelphia for the week for the soldiers in Manehattan. It was too dangerous to stay in a suite in the city under siege." Luna explained.
"I see, but why stay in such a basic little apartment?" I asked.
"Looks are usually deceiving!" She winked at us as she revealed what was behind the door.
"What the buck?! This place is huge!" Tiki exclaimed.
"How far does the building go back?" Tiki asked as he flew back behind the building.
"Thank you for allowing us to stay here for the night." Silver said graciously.
"It isn't a problem! But there are a lack of rooms, so somepony will have to sleep with me tonight." Luna said, looking at the shocked expression on all of our faces.
"You aren't serious, are you?" I asked, closing my dropped jaw.
"There are enough beds for you all! I am just having fun with your group! Would there be a problem with sharing a room with royalty?" Luna asked playfully.
"Of course not!" Silver Dust said shaking his head.
"Good, because I may change my mind later." Luna said jokingly.
"That definitely threw me off my hooves, I'm ready for bed." Tiki said, flying back in through the door.
"The magic apartment or Luna's way of havin' fun?" Bronze asked.
"Both, but I'm too tired to react to a princess flirting with our group." Tiki said blandly.
"Alright, I will allow you all to rest while I take my place into the night. But I should let you know there are only so many beds in the back room, one of you will have to use mine." Luna said, opening the door into the night sky.
We all went to the back room where the beds were all located. There were only two beds and a guest bed in another room in the back hallway, and each pony got to pick their own beds before I could even enter the rooms. I was a bit hesitant to do this, but Luna insisted on using her bed for a good night's rest. The couch in the living room was a bit small. There was also a reclining chair and another two seat couch in a small semicircle around a small fireplace. The front door was to the right of the living room, and in the back was a step up to the dining area. A large round table of black wood was set up in the back with a small chandelier hanging over the middle of the table. The kitchen was to the left behind the dining room with many different burners and stoves behind an island bar in the kitchen. I never knew Luna was a skilled chef until seeing this. There are probably many things that I didn't know about Luna, but looks are deceiving as she said. I continued walking down a side hall outside of the kitchen into a door at the end. I opened the door slowly to find a smaller room with a large, glorious bed of black and blue laying in the middle of the room. Drapes of stars and galaxies came over the ceiling and down the edges of the bed. The sheets and pillows were extremely light and fluffy, also matching the dark color scheme of black and blue. As I touched the pillow, twinkles of stars jumped from it and floated away. It was becoming increasingly late outside the window looking into the back behind the alleyway. The window could be opened and an alicorn like Luna could even fit out and step onto the roof of the neighboring complex outside. I tried doing so and stood outside in the spring night air and looked upon the moon. The air was warmer than expected and felt a bit moist. I thought it would be much colder and more dry, but then I remembered that I completely missed the winter season in that single visit through the portal. I sat down on the roof looking into the stars, thinking about the future.
"Cannot sleep in a bed such as mine?" Luna had asked behind me.
"I haven't tried it yet, but I like this little rooftop you have access to from your window." I said.
"It's nice to come out here once in a while, just to look up to the stars." Luna said.
"Yeah, looking at them keeps your mind clear, I bet." I said.
"You must have a lot going through yours, being gone for so long." Luna said.
"Yeah, it's tough to comprehend, and everypony must've been worried about our disappearance." I said.
"Yes, I spoke to the mane 6 in Ponyville about your coming, they've all missed you so much and are relieved at your return." Luna said comfortingly.
"That's a big relief to hear. There haven't been any large changes in their lives yet?" I asked.
"Yet? Your group knows more about our future than we do, that's right." Luna said.
"Yeah, but I've figured out that some things don't happen at all and others may happen at different times." I explained.
"I guess you might know about what will become of Twilight and you..." Luna said disappointedly.
"What? Is there something wrong with becoming an alicorn?" I asked.
"An alicorn?! Is that what lies within Twilight Sparkle's future?" Luna looked surprised.
"Well, yes. If everything happens according to what I've witnessed." I said.
"We will all have to wait for the future to reveal what is in store for us." Luna said.
"You're right, but it's time I got some sleep." I said.
"Yes, I shall continue my job watching over the night. I will be back in the early dawn to join you." Luna said playfully.
"Oh, I thought that was just a joke!" I laughed.
"It mostly was for your friends! I had my suspicions on how they would react." Luna smiled.
The young alicorn princess took off into the night as I went back to the window. I creeped through into the dark room and climbed into the plush, comfortable sheets of the bed of night. I soon fell asleep and it felt as if I was falling through the stars in space, floating endlessly in the dark of the night. My dreams also floated endlessly through the abyss of sleep.
"Good morning, Dragon Lord." Luna's voice whispered as I turned over to face the princess lying in bed next to me.
"Hello, when did you get here?" I asked drowsily.
"I have been laying here for 2 hours now, just resting." Luna replied.
"I thought princesses like you didn't need sleep?" I questioned.
"It's true, but a bit of rest never hurt anypony. Besides, your internal flame is very comforting in bed." Luna answered playfully.
"Eh, thanks. I hope you enjoyed it while you could." I said awkwardly.
"I enjoyed it more than I should have." Luna giggled.
"What? What did you do?" I asked nervously.
"I am just having more fun! Do not worry." She replied.
"Alright, well I should probably get my group and head off, we have to go clear out Manehattan." I said.
"You're right, hurry now before it's too late." Luna said, turning over in bed and returning to her rest.
The sun was rising in the sky as the other three were just waking up from their sleep. I had called them from bed and told everypony to get ready to leave soon. Luna heard the ruckus and decided to stop sleeping and prepare a meal for us. I was interested to put Luna's cooking abilities to the test. As we were all getting ready packing our pockets and throwing on our robes for the day, Luna was preparing the kitchen with all different ingredients and cooking utensils. Her magical horn was working hard as many different things floated through the air and made their way to their proper position. After we were all packed we just sat from the living room watching the amazing show of magic in the kitchen. All different vegetables and spices flew into different pots and pans as the different meals took form and started to smell through the air. The different aromas were very appetizing and none of us could wait for the food to be prepared. As each of the different foods came off the pans and onto the plates, everypony took a seat at the dining room table and prepared for breakfast. Luna brought over the dishes for each of us, a bit exhausted from using magic on so many different things at once. We all sat down and dug into the meal and weren't disappointed. The food wasn't 5 star exquisite material, but it was much better than snacking on the road. It only took a few minutes for everypony to finish breakfast and be ready to leave for the road. We said our goodbyes to the princess, still a bit shocked at finding her in such casual living conditions.
We left the complex and started walking through the city. Fillydelphia was much larger than Baltimare and was a lot more confusing traversing all the short winding streets around the tall buildings. Tiki's license to fly through Baltimare also had affect in the other large cities such as Fillydelphia and Manehattan, which gave us a large advantage for navigating the streets. It only took an hour to get through the entire city at a walking pace and moving on to Manehattan. We were slowed down another hour by a hold up situation at the Fillydelphia bank. A group of rogue Griffins were planning on taking all of the golden bits and whatever gems they could get and selling it to an unknown source for an artifact of power. The group meant business and didn't plan on sparing anypony if it wasn't necessary. There were a few deaths in the process, but it was only that from before we arrived. The griffins had the front door of the building barricaded and the back door was guarded by two of the larger griffins of the group. There were 7 robbers in total, all of them were very well armed with bow, sword, axe, etc.. Each of them carried multiple weapons for different purposes. They used certain tools for killing civilians, another for fighting other forces, and an extra for ranged attack. Tiki flew up to the top of the building to look for the roof entrance while Silver Dust kept the robbers at the blocked door busy. Bronze and I went around the back to deal with the two bigger guys.
"How do you suppose we approach this?" I asked Bronze.
"Ah'm not really sure, ah guess just roast em if the door and walls aren't gonna burn down." Bronze replied.
"Sounds good, I'm getting pretty fired up for this anyways." I said in a cheesy pun.
"Alright, drop the jokes and toast these little birdies." Bronze said loudly so the two guards could hear him loud enough.
"I'm not sure, I don't think it would be very nice. Maybe we should just approach them and ask nicely." I said loudly as a joke.
"Enough jokes! Run off before we actually come over there!" One of the griffins yelled down the hall.
"What? Come over HERE? Somepony might sneak through if you two leave your post!" I said jokingly.
"It's a hallway! Nopony... Ah forget this, I'm gonna deal with these two!" The other griffin said in rage.
"Ok, I guess it's fire time then!" I said, filling the hall with a tsunami of blue flame washing down the brick corridor. Flames danced down the hall and jumped from the ground up along the roof at their highest. Trash cans that were made from anything other than the strongest metal either burned away or melted into a puddle. The two griffins standing down the hall in front of the door screamed horrifically as they were almost instantly turned to a pile of charcoal and ash. I didn't hesitate brushing them to the side and moving up to the door, but Bronze needed a quick moment to recover from those screams. I'm pretty sure if I didn't have the blood of a fiery-hearted monster I would've been a bit haunted by the noises that burning griffins made. As we both approached the door the other griffins on the inside became increasingly worried about their friends on the outside from the sounds of agonizing screams. One of them opened the door just a crack to check on their friends, but received a metal hammer to the cracked door. The blow shattered the griffins face and bent the metal door in half. As I jumped through the doorway I was jumped by two more griffins, sinking their larger blades into my neck and flank. The blades didn't penetrate my hide, but I could feel the irritating weight of thick metal on my neck. The sword along my flank might've broken my coat or removed the hair from my flank, I could feel something happening either way. In response to this, I met the axe on my neck with my own broadsword and slashed the metal head in half down a diagonal angle, rendering the weapon useless. As I turned around to meet the other attacker on my flank, Bronze had already brought his hammer across the side, throwing the bird into the wall and breaking his neck on the impact. Hearing the noise on the inside, Tiki dropped down from a window opening and assassinated one of the charging griffins with his short swords. Silver Dust stopped wasting time with the griffin at the front door in the other room and just blew the barricade down with a thrown barrier of magic generated by the amulet. The griffin of the front door was thrown behind the wooden counter from the impact and was soon finished with a blade to the neck from Silver Dust. The robbery was stopped in it's tracks and all the hostages in the bank at the time were rescued. Silver went through bringing the injured ponies back to a better state of health and even saved one from near death. The stallion had been shot in the neck with a bow and was physically dead for about 45 seconds before Silver reached the business horse. During those 45 seconds I had put my Draco-vision on to see his life force jumping from his body. I saw a small hazy portal open in the back room near one of the safes as his life slowly floated towards the opening. When I discovered this vision I just guessed it was from the dragon blood and that all dragons saw in this way. I had vision to detect heat signatures from animals, which changed the shape of my eyes to a serpentine slit shape. This vision to see life force only caused the colors in my eyes to glow and swirl different shades of green and required magic to activate. I thought more deeply about the facts and what my supposed fate was for myself to make the conclusion that this ability was only possessed by myself or the other dragon lords of the afterworld. As I continued thinking, it made more and more sense. The life forces I see looked completely similar to the fog in the afterworld that I saw when my Draco-vision was active. The fog I see emanating from live bodies were just tiny clustered bundles of the mist, about the size of a small apple. I can tell the different animals because of the size, shape, and color of each soul is different. As I continued to think I was snapped out of my thought by an officer who came to ask our group what we were here for. I only explained to him that it was our job to help and I showed him the backside of our medals we received at the ceremony after the goblin battle. He knew the engravings and waved us off as clear. After that we left the city in the last 15 minutes and now we were on the edge of a field, leading to a coastal path to Manehattan.
It was about mid day now as we marched the path to Manehattan. The day was increasingly warmer than yesterday, making it a good time to swim through the beach. Tiki had grabbed a large solid piece of driftwood to try his surfing abilities as a pony. As if it came naturally to him, the Pegasus used his wings as perfect balance as he shot through a funnel of water and out the other side of the massive wave of salt water. I had witnessed Tiki surf thunderstorms on a sheet of white cloud in Ponyville before this quest of ours. The white cloud was apparently lighter than storm clouds, which allowed Pegasi to glide across storm clouds like a surfboard during a storm. During one of the storms over Ponyville, Tiki was given the job to steak a rainbow at the end of the storm across the sky. Using his cloud board, Tiki took the bucket of rainbow and let it trail off the back of his board through the weakening winds of the storm, creating a perfect rainbow streak across the sky that day. Everypony was so amazed by the intensity of the rainbow colors because Tiki had used all of the bucket across the middle of the sky, and not a regular bucket across the entire sky. It wasn't a bad thing, it was just a different way of spreading rainbows across the sky.
As the day went by and Tiki continued surfing I noticed a small ship in the distance of the waters of the ocean. The ship was sailing the same way we were headed, and came increasingly closer as we walked. I got a look of agreement from Silver and Bronze. Tiki came in a bit later after also spotting the ship in the distance. The ship continued to come closer to the shore as we prepared to be met with whatever danger was aboard the vessel. Tiki flew out to the ship to be greeted with open hooves from all sorts of jolly sea ponies from different places. The ship anchored off of the drop off of the shore and sent a dingy onto the beach to search for their business partners. A group of griffins were supposed to meet the group on the shore somewhere with a large bounty in exchange for a magical artifact from a far away place. I decided not to tell them what happened to their business partners, but to just sit here on the beach for a while and chat. The pirates agreed to the idea and set up a bonfire for the night while they waited. We talked about where we were from and some of our personal lives. The sun was getting close to setting as we all built the large bonfire along the beach, enjoying the company of our new privateer friends. They claimed to be pirates of code and do not partake in direct violation of laws wherever they are. Another dingy soon pulled ashore with different types of liquor and a group of ponies with different instruments. I know good alcohol is extremely hard to come by in such a good intentioned world such as Equestria, and I had my suspicions. The band of musical pirates played and I continued the conversation by explaining where my group originated from and why we were here and such. The captain of the crew jumped at the word "human" and tried to brush his reaction off.
"You seemed a bit nervous at that word..." I said suspiciously.
"Nope, I've never heard of it before!" The captain said, taking a large drink of his bottle of rum.
"There's nothing to hide, alcohol was nonexistent in this world until an unusual group of pirates showed up off the shore of Equestria." Silver said, trying to make the captain more nervous.
"We're all originally from Equestria! We just sailed off for a couple years is all, learned some new tricks." The captain claimed.
"Well, I know that any regular human would come into this world with alcohol, guns, and other ways of life from the human world, which would only taint the innocence of Equestria." I explained, eyeing the captain.
"I know what you all are trying to do, but it won't work!" The captain had shouted.
"Who put you in this world!" I shouted with a smile on my face.
"I did it myself!" He shouted back.
"Yeah, I knew you were human." I said, satisfied with my results.
"Well, you caught me, just send me back or whatever you've got to do." The captain said.
"Well as long as you don't work for anyone in the human world that I should be worried about, you might as well stick around. You deserve the reward for building your own machine and getting to Equestria!" I said.
"You mean nobody else found the code for Equestria?" He asked.
"No, why? How many people have been doing this so far?" I asked nervously.
"It's just becoming a regular thing, everyone builds their own simulator for FPS games and such, I'm just one of the few who go code hunting for different worlds." The captain explained.
"Sweet Celestia... This is bad, how many years has it been since the first simulator was built?" I asked anxiously.
"It's been about 50 years now, it's pretty common technology." The captain said casually.
"Holy... Son of a... It's been 50 YEARS, guys..." I said as we all shared the same expression of shock and dissapointment.
"Wait... You were the test subjects, you were the four who died all those years ago?!" The captain asked surprisedly.
"That's us... We've only been in here for about 50 weeks now, with the time warp through the afterworld and all I'm pretty sure." I said, calculating the math.
"I can't believe I found the same server! This is amazing!" The captain said.
"You don't understand do you, this isn't a man made server, this is another dimension... This is a world untouched by human hands with all of its innocence preserved..." I said irritatedly.
"This is truly amazing! I have to exit and inform someone about this!" The captain said anxiously.
"If y'all leave here and bring any other humans back, you'll be in a mighty sticky situation when ya get back." Bronze Hammer said angrily, bringing his hammer and some rope from his tether.
"What, why shouldn't humans know about this? It's an immense discovery for mankind!" The captain said, drinking more rum.
"When humans come into this world, everything changes. It won't be Equestria anymore, it'll be a pony version of earth with all of its flaws and such brought in with it." I explained.
"You've all changed! You're one of them now, aren't you?" The captain asked.
"Yeah, and we know what we're going to lose if you bring humans into this dimension." Silver Dust said irritatedly.
"It can't be that good, could it?" The captain asked.
"It's perfect, better than anything else from the old world. Nopony around here cares about money more than each other, we're all supportive and strive to help one another." I explained.
"I'll ditch the alcohol..." The captain sighed.
"I'm glad you understand." Tiki said, putting his swords back into his tethers.
"Oh and... About those griffins..." I said sheepishly.
"No... You didn't annihilate the whole bunch did you?" The captain asked, spitting his alcohol from his mouth.
"Yeah, they didn't get away with anything, sorry about spoiling your little deal." I said.
"Oh no, I guess it's for the best." The captain said disappointedly.
"So what did you find outside of Equestria, anyways?" I asked.
"Oh, nothing really. It's just a lot of forest out there with some dragon roosts and all." The captain explained.
"Well, its definitely getting late out, I think we'll just pitch our tent and head to bed." I said.
"Please, join us out on the water for tonight!" The captain offered.
Last night was a pretty crazy night. We boarded the ship of Captain Barrels. He told us his name after he introduced us to his crew and announced himself as Captain Barrels of The Black Serpent. He explained that some of the ponies on board where friends from the human world that helped build this massive galleon along with some handy computer programming thought the wormhole. Everything on the ship was black, the wood was a dark flexible palm wood and the sails were slick black sheets of strong fabric that pulls the ship along in the wind. The cargo ship was also build for war, carrying three decks below lined with rows of 26 cannons on each row for both sides. Gun powder hadn't been discovered or used in Equestria from what we know, so the cannons are powered by a spark of magic. A skilled unicorn could easily spark off an entire row of cannons from one of the floors and move down to the next to do the same, but none of the members of the crew were strong magicians. There were a lot of men who could operate the cannon, though, so there wasn't a problem with that. The floor below the last cannon row was a massive storage room, filled with crates, which were filled with exotic goods from different lands of Equestria and gems from far away lands uncharted by Celestia or Luna. A long time ago, Luna once tried to set out to one of these far away lands to create her own land to rule over, the land of the night. Princess Celestia forbade this to happen though, for she saw that it would cause problems between the two lands and only wanted unity for her people. Unity was something that stuck around for the last thousand years, so Luna did not argue with Celestia's wish and remained in Equestria.
The sun was just coming over the horizon and the crew of the ship was laying about, sleeping in hammocks or just across the floorboards. A lot of the ponies came from the shores of towns and cities across Equestria. Captain explained that his men went through the bars and alleys of the towns searching for the right stallions to work the ship and be apart of the greatest crew in Equestria. Most ponies showed up to the beach, but only few were allowed onto the ship. Some of the toughest ponies were turned down because they were prone to cause trouble on the ship. Captain Barrels was looking for determined, loyal ponies to work with his crew, not tough guys who came along to drink and cause trouble. I looked over the group and knew that they were a good bunch, and should be kept close to myself. I knew I could use them for something if I payed them well. My group had woken up in the crowd and soon joined me on the high deck looking over the crowd near the captain's quarters. We had to go into shore soon and continue our walk to Manehattan. The captain came out from his quarters and rowed us to shore in a small dingy. The sun was still low in the sky, so we were in the cold shade of the galleon until we reached the sand bar. It was low tide so the sandy shoal was showing from the water and wasn't possible to cross by dingy, so we had to swim back the rest of the way. I made sure to keep in touch with the captain. He had a gem on the hilt of his glorified sword that was compatible with Silver Dust's gem. It didn't talk or anything, but had traces of magic which allowed us to get mental contact with the captain if we ever needed him. The gem in the hilt of his sword was originally the item of interest for the griffins, but looked much better in the golden hilt of a broadsword. I looked back to see the stallion paddle back to his ghostly ship. The silhouette of the already black galleon made the ship look fearsome in its own ghastly shade of darkness. I felt uncomfortable leaving the group of human ponies alone because of the knowledge they possess and what it could do to Equestria if human ways got out into the world, but I know that after talking to the captain that they should be able to keep most of it to themselves.
The four of us continued walking to Manehattan along the coast of the beach. Tiki continued to surf at our side as much as he could. Nothing really happened all day on our walk until we reached the grassy area before the forest trail leading into Manehattan. It was later in the day, the sun was still high in the sky. The four of us gathered outside the forest and had to keep quiet. We didn't know exactly where the army of goblins were, but we had to find the energy source generating it. Tiki made a trip high over the forest trying to see any sign of goblin activity in the forest in front of us. We were given the all clear and moved cautiously. The next hour was silent, completely silent. We used mental communication to whisper off to each other in thought, but we didn't talk much, we just had to get to Manehattan.
"Ironclad, when we get there, I can flash myself and maybe another one of us in." Silver said.
"You've learned the teleport spell that Twilight uses often?" I asked.
"Yeah, but I don't have it down quite yet." Silver said.
"I could help with the magic, but I'm not familiar with the spell." The amulet said.
"Alright, that's ok. I'll stand outside while you and Bronze head in, I'll keep guard outside while Tiki keeps me covered from the air." I said.
"Sounds good, I'll keep an eye through the forest and the other on you." Tiki added.
"What do ya reckon we do when we get inside?" Bronze asked.
"I want a SitRep on the goblin attacks and the barricades." I said.
"Alright, I'll talk to whoever is in charge. I won't take long." Silver replied.
It was a long, slow walk to Manehattan, but we arrived soon enough. The sun was getting lower in the sky as Silver and Bronze warped through the barricade into the streets of Manehattan. Nopony was out at dusk because of the curfew put upon the citizens due to the situation at hand. This has only been going on for about two weeks now since the goblins attacked. Buildings on the outside of the city were fairly mangled and some of the goblin bodies were lying in the buildings and windows. The guards seemed to take care of the situation that occurred at the time, but they don't clean up too well. The bodies didn't rot or smell much, they just dried out and lingered until the dark magic of the source of power was broken. The bodies were just conjurations and weren't actually made of flesh. Silver and Bronze didn't have Tiki around to navigate the streets, so it took a bit longer than usual to find whoever was in charge around the town. It only took minutes for the two to find a guard and have him lead them to the commander of the Manehattan forces. The commander walked down to the edge of the town with Silver and Bronze, talking about the goblin attacks and how the barricades are holding up well against the attacks. Some of the green creatures have been able to find small tunnels through the debris into the town, but a spear to the head had stopped any crawlers from making it through. The spear would then be positioned into the hole for any other unlucky goblins to run through. The commander gave us a supposed location for the source of power generating all of the warriors. There was a large mine somewhere in the forest that leads down pretty deep into the land. The source of power would most likely be located in the bottom of the mine, creating armies of goblins as we spoke. When I learned of this news as Silver and Bronze warped from the town, we spared no time in galloping for the mineshaft.
Goblins littered the forest floor along the way. Conjured goblin soldiers didn't hold up for long periods of time and were only meant for a short lived battle. The fake goblins didn't eat after they were created and only wandered around until they found a purpose or a command to make them useful. The fakes would all die and blow away in the wind after the crystal is broken or their original copy was killed. A gem of such dark power could hold up to ten or more original copies and make hundreds of each easily. There seemed to be at least four original copies with all the zombielike goblins wandering around without purpose. They didn't really bother attacking because the gem hadn't been activated to attack a certain point or pony. Some jumped our way lazily to just throw us off or give them something to do, but I just threw a blade out and ended the lazy attackers. We didn't have an exact location for the mine, so we spent a few hours wandering around looking for the mine. I remembered within an hour of searching that my Draco-vision could see through the ground and into, say, a mineshaft. I quickly took a look around the ground and saw a large blob of energy coming from deep within the ground of a mine entrance about 30 minutes away from our position. We soon found the entrance and the fight began as the sun touched the horizon.
Goblins were covering the entrance, allowing nothing to enter the mine. I had no patience reasoning with goblins, neither did the other three. Bronze cleared the entrance with a sweep of his hammer. It was a fast sweep, removing all three goblins from the entrance without making much noise. Aside from the crunch of bones and the clank against the metal, the attack was completely silent. We soon entered the mineshaft swiftly and quietly. Gems and ores covered the walls and bodies of miner ponies littered the floors. Most of the bodies were reduced to dried skin and bone, but rotting flesh lingered in the air as we crept through the narrow halls of the cave. We soon came into a larger opening into a cavern filled with goblins. With a purplish glow in their eyes, each of the hundred warriors charged with simple stone weapons or bare claws. We all drew our weapons and prepared for a good fight. One by one, we each slashed down the marauders. Tiki and I parried most of the attacks and slashed back with a quick swipe of a metal blade. Bronze Hammer just swung his hammer like nopony else could do, clearing off groups of incoming attackers as the next row lined up to be swept off once again. Silver Dust took the defensive approach, shielding off the groups and finishing them with a quick magic projectile. Anything that got behind Silver took a quick blade to the head and dropped to the ground like a doll being dropped by a clumsy little filly. We could see that the group thinned out immensely when I blew a blast of fire across my own little crowd. The gems in the room picked up the glimmer of the blaze and held it for a small while. The room glowed different colors from the gems and the thin rankings of the goblins could be viewed clearly. With a whip of fire tamed by magic, I had guided the trail of leaping flames across the last of the warriors, scorching them to the ground. Silver Dust healed off a wound on Bronze's side and the robes we had on fixed up any little scratches over the next few minutes. We continued walking after Silver lit an orb of light to follow us through the cave system. I was beginning to wonder how long we would be down here for, so I activated my Draco-vision to see if I could pick out any more groups to search through. I spotted a small ball of energy in one large room and a larger bundle of energies in a larger cavern. I noticed the smaller orb in the little cavern wasn't a group of goblins, but a single living energy source emanating power from itself. I didn't know many other things that were capable of doing such energy, so I took a good guess on that being the crystal. We continued through the cave, making a right turn to the smaller bundle of energy. We were soon stopped by a pit traveling straight down into a pool of water being illuminated by a species of bioluminescent mushrooms. I didn't want to fall down into the pool, only because we didn't have time to get lost and I didn't want to go for a swim just yet. There was a single railroad dragging over the ditch, bending to it's own weight. I decided to make this quick and sprinted across the rails, stepping lightly and making as few impacts as possible. Thankfully the rails stayed in one piece and I had an exit. Only Tiki flew along with me to the other side because I didn't want Silver or Bronze to break the metal bars by accident and remove my way back. I continued through the cave after telling the others to wait there for a bit. The cave soon became extremely narrow and reduced Tiki and I to a single file line down the tunnel. As we continued walking, the faint purplish glow of the crystal shown through the tunnel as we approached the cavern. We continued to move closer as sounds of screeching and fuzzy white noise echoed through the cavern from the crystal of dark energy. As we entered the room, the crystal exploded with horrific noises of screams and cries of lost souls of ponies and goblins alike. Tiki and I were forced to the ground covering our ears from the horrible sound until the ghastly voice of Blunt Will shook the walls and punched through my chest.
"My cause will not be lost. I will bring you to your knees once more..." The crystal glowed brighter.
"I'm going to end this." I grunted through the noise as I raised my blade, glowing deep blue with fiery power.
I ended the sounds and released the energy from the gem as I split it in half down an angle. Howls and screams shot from the cracks and jumped through the room as ghost white shadows. They crawled through the room and escaped through the cracks and holes in the cavern ceiling, entering the air above and speeding to the afterworld. Energy shot out from all directions and jumped through the different precious stones in the walls. With the last of the energy from the crystal, hundreds of goblins were instantly generated in front of us. Some of them weren't fully generated and some were over generated due to the lack of filtering and control through the crystal. The gnarled bodies fell to the floor and started rushing for us in the middle of the room. I felt like I was in the scene of a horror movie, making my last stand from the horde of creatures coming to tear the flesh from my body. Both Tiki and myself were overwhelmed by the horde of creatures that were supposedly goblins. Claustrophobia soon found its way under my skin and I became extremely uncomfortable with the greenish monsters clawing at my hide. I soon heated up and started to melt the goblins from my body until I had some breathing room. Once I could see my surroundings I unleashed a rain of hellishly blue fire from my muzzle and cooked the surface of the cavern. Most of the creatures fell dead and turned to dust as the next wave of monstrosities showed. Tiki was yelling something from the pile he was trapped under as the live horde started to move its way toward me. Blast after blast, I cooked the incoming monsters down to dust as they floated away through the crevices of the cavern. Within moments I made my way to Tiki, who was covered in horrific gashes and cuts from the gnarled creatures, using only teeth and claws to maim us to death. I picked up the Pegasus and slung him over my back. With a friend clinging to life and an army of creatures you would call goblins coming to me, I had tapped deeper into my core of energy. My features changed once again as my tail turned to scales and flesh and my underbelly became smooth and scaled. My back hooves soon turned to three large claws with a smaller hooked toe on the back of each ankle. My mane turned to a sparkled golden downy fuzz that ran long and went down my backside and puffed out near my tail. Streaks of blue and white danced through my cloudy mane as the raw power jumped from my body and overtook myself. Tiki would have said something that only he would say at the moment, but pain was overtaking him and he grabbed onto the fuzz along my back as I sprinted like a bolt of lightning through the cave. When we got to the tunnel I had used my hind claws to gallop across the ceiling where I had more room to spare. I could physically feel myself moving more efficiently because my midsection had lengthened out and my legs became longer, increasing the distance of my stride. The goblin monstrosities started to scream through the cave as a flood of blackened green. I continued to speed through the cave as I saw the opening with Silver Dust and Bronze Hammer standing there like nothing was happening. "Jump in the water!" I yelled in a rasped draconian voice as I came sprinting through the cave, my coat and mane lighting up different colors of blue and gold. My eyes streaked green through the path that I ran as I hoofed it as fast as I could to the opening. Both Silver and Bronze jumped into the water with no questioning when I called to them, thank Celestia. I dropped Tiki down with Silver and Bronze as I stood at the edge of the rail thinking of something to do. Blue fire occurred to me naturally, and I decided to use whatever power I had left in this new layer of my core. I jumped from the ledge and started to free fall. Time itself seemed to slow down as I started to fall, either that or the raw force of draconian magic emanating from my body kept me airborne. I saw the goblins start to spill over the ledge. When I heard my three friends hit the safety of the water I exploded with power. It felt as if flames danced from all corners of my body, even through the hairs on my coat. Fire filled the cavern and flooded through the tunnels as I loosed a breath of flame like no other. Every single goblin in the cave system was disintegrated, the railroad tracks above me were instantly melted and thrown into the ceiling and walls around it. Anything that wasn't extremely solid rock or at least metal was vaporized. Nothing survived the blast, not even the dark magic that leaked through the cave from the crystal. As I hit the water below me, I heard the voice of Desire echo through my head.
Half way to your full potential. Once it is unlocked, everything will change.
The three stallions washed up on the beach of the underground lake illuminated by glowing teal mushrooms. Little white fish swam in schools around the pillars of rocks sinking down through the lake. I noticed that they had no eyes on them, just small whiskers and large, sensitive fins. Plants grew in the lake, but they were colors of white, blue, even black. There was no sunlight shining down here, so none of the plants could actually turn green for photosynthesis. I washed up to my three friends, unconscious as my features and energy levels returned to normal. Tiki was being patched up by Silver and Bronze was shaking the water from his ears after dragging me to shore. A combination of Silver's magic barrier and the fire proof robes kept the three ponies from being scorched beyond repair. The intense heat from me back in the cavern and tunnels had cauterized some of the more dangerous wounds Tiki had received, which may have saved his life by giving him a bit more time to hold on in the run through the tunnel. After everypony was ready to head off, we looked around for the exit out of the lake. There wasn't exactly an open exit from this side of the lake, so we swam to the other shores while Silver searched underwater in a bubble of magic. We continued to search and found a clear exit straight up to the light of day. As I looked up the hole I noticed the bucket hanging from a small roof, which meant that it was a well. If we were under a well, we must've been under somewhere in Manehattan. I decided not to rush anything much, since we've already removed the problem from Manehattan. We spent a lot of the day enjoying the sights of the lake. There were some interesting plants that the amulet of Silver Dust had pulled from the lake or the shores. They had a much different taste than any green plants from the surface. Most of them were more sugary from the minerals of the cave, others had no taste at all but were supposedly packed with vitamins and such. I had a good time swimming through the warm water, observing the different fish in the lake. At the bottom of the waters, near one of the deeper pillars, I had found giant albino catfish that were as large as myself. They also had no eyes and could only have a good feel for what was going on around them. The other three were doing their own things, I hadn't payed any attention to what they were doing because I was so caught up with the fish in the lake. Neither was I paying any attention to the time, so we left through the well in a hurry before it became too dark to see our surroundings.
"That was pretty crazy down there, we should go back sometime!" Tiki said.
"I'm planning on that, after we're done traveling Equestria, we can bring the mane 6 back here." I said.
"Ah bet we'll find a good bunch of places to go to when we're done with this little tour." Bronze added.
"Plan on that stuff later, guys. Right now we have to talk to somepony about a place to stay." Silver said.
"Do you two remember the way to the commander's house?" I asked.
"Yeah, we're going there right now." Silver replied.
"It would be a lot easier to navigate if it were brighter out." Tiki said.
"Don't worry, I know where we're going." Silver argued.
Soon enough, we arrived at the front door of the commander, who assigned us to a nice four bedded room in a complex down the street. We got in late during the night, not bothering to unpack and such as we all just hit the bed and went straight to sleeping. I knew we all had our own beds, but I couldn't resist asking for the joke of things, "who wants to cuddle tonight?" I received three NO's in unison reply as I chuckled and fell asleep with the others. I drifted into my dreams, cracking my eyes to the glow of the bright full moon shining through the window to see the mare in the moon. Before I fell into a deep sleep of faint dreams, I saw Luna gliding across the sky through the middle of the moon, her shadow passing through our only window. As her shadow passed my face my eyelids shut and the darkness stayed.
Author's Note
It now feels like the slowest week ever after I find Internet and can post this chapter! I'm sorry the lot of you had to wait, but here it is! Chapter 3 may not be as long as I would've wanted due to all of the things Ive been doing this week, but I'm going to post at least something. Chapter four will be on its way most likely next week, depending on how well the start of school goes...
The Awaited Reunion
We spent about two weeks in the streets of Manehattan, helping repair any damages and enjoying the company of the soldiers and guards who were now freed from their goblin watch duties. Almost everypony walking the streets came to know us by first name because of the announcement sent out to the citizens. The letter notified everypony that the goblin dangers had been lowered significantly and it was safe to walk about the streets of Manehattan and continue daily life. At the end of the letter a sincere thank you from the mayor listed our names and a well drawn picture of what we looked like. Ponies started to pick up on this, along with our unusual uniform. At times it's pretty hard to walk the streets as a crowd gradually grows around us while we travel from one place to another. The city itself was a huge town and was complicated to travel through. After about four days of walking around the area, we became accustomed to the streets and knew our way around decently. Every few days we all took a break from the big city and went out to the underground lake at night for a swim in the steamy warm waters. The lake was like a lukewarm bath due to a pocket of lava flowing quite close to the surface. The gems around the mine were probably from the receding lava pocket, solidifying in all different colors and shapes from their relatively new forming within the rock. The cavern was very peaceful and illuminated well even in the middle of the night due to the bioluminescent fungi growing in the cavern. The fish in the lake were also unusual, surviving in such high temperatures of water in a cave system.
On the last night we spent down there before we left, a small goblin had emerged from his own little island of the lake to speak with us. The only reason he hid from us the last few times we were down is because he only thought we would slaughter him without question. We had just arrived down the hole of the well and started to swim and enjoy ourselves when the little green goblin emerged from the island vegetation and made his presence known to us. He only watched us from his island cautiously and did not say anything, trying to avoid seeming dangerous in any way. We went off on our own activities for a little while before somepony noticed the goblin laying out on his little beach. Bronze Hammer had taken to a mound on the beach that was unusually warm from the lava pocket and was nice to bury yourself in the mound and relax. Silver Dust had been with the amulet, learning about the different plants and fish around the area. Tiki was island hopping, going around the walls and shores of the islands and beaches around the lake, exploring the cavern and everything it had to offer. If the Pegasus found something unusual or interesting, like a strange fruit from an underground bush, he would bring it to Silver and the amulet to learn more about it, like if it was edible or not. I had been swimming through the deep waters with the fish, island hopping as well as I was swimming. We all did what we did for a while until Tiki had landed on the small island of the goblin watching all of us and our actions cautiously.
"This one's a bit small, I think I might've missed it last time we were here..." Tiki mumbled to himself, alerting the goblin laying on the beach.
"Hello Pegasus! Welcome to my home." The goblin grunted in the friendliest voice he could make of.
"What? Who are you?! You're lucky I don't have my swords on me!" Tiki yelled, fluttering into the air to keep a distance from the voice.
"I do not wish to harm, this is my home and I won't cause trouble." The goblin grunted again.
"Ironclad! You missed one when you scorched the caves a few weeks ago!" Tiki yelled to me as I crawled from the water, weeds clinging to my tail.
"Alright, lets see how bad it is..." I mumbled, catching my breath from my last underwater journey.
"It's just a regular goblin, but I thought we cleaned this place out the first time!" Tiki yelled.
"Please, do not hurt me! I have done no wrong!" The goblin yelled.
"You've done enough, working for Blunt Will!" Tiki shouted.
"I took no part in his plans for Equestria!" The goblin argued.
"Alright, I guess we can't kill him, he hasn't done anything wrong yet." I said.
"But how do we know he won't do something wrong later? We have to arrest him at least." Tiki argued.
"I'm not the only one, there are more like me! More that did not want to be part of Blunt's doings! We never wanted to hurt any of the ponies." The goblin pleaded.
"So what happened? Why did the rest go along with him? Why did the goblins all group together and try to rule Equestria?" I asked.
"He was very convincing, claiming the ponies had outcast the other creatures of Equestria and that they needed to fall!" The goblin explained.
"*Cough* Adolf Hitler *cough*" Tiki grunted.
"Alright, I'm going to talk to Princess Celestia about this, maybe we can straighten things up and bring your species into the light of things." I said, whacking Tiki in the wing for joking about a human remark.
"My name... You may address me as Grim if you wish..." The goblin said, slowly crawling back to the vegetation of the island.
"Grim, we can't stop fighting the goblins until we eliminate the sources of dark power threatening Equestria." I explained.
"This is true, you must prepare yourself for the last battle, it will be harder than the other two combined. When you destroy one source of power, its energy flies to the next closest crystal and adds to the other's power." Grim explained.
"So you're saying the last crystal is going to have the power of the other two combined?" I asked.
"Even worse, Blunt Will can be resurrected at full power if the energy is released from the crystal and not fully destroyed by a stronger source of power." Grim informed.
"I'm extremely grateful that this information was given to me before I resurrected Blunt on accident. " I said.
"Just as long as you know what is going on in the land, you need to stop the slaughter of regular goblins and destroy Blunt Will's power." Grim said with relief.
"Now, tell me more, about your kind and why they don't live throughout Equestria more than they do." I said.
I took Grim back to the main beach where the well hole was located. The other three ponies gathered around for a story to be told as Grim explained the history of the goblins. Thousands of years ago, when the creatures of Equestria took form, goblins had branched off from the dragon race somehow and took there own form over time. As time continued, goblins took on their own adaptations, losing the ability of fire and exchanging scales for hair and skin. The species never began with wings and their arms and legs only took on more distinct form from their ancestors. To this day, goblins all carry dragon blood in their veins, which made them a very valuable commodity about 5 centuries ago. After a hundred years of being hunted for an easy source of dragon blood by many creatures, mostly pony poachers, goblins started to hate the things around them and become naturally vicious to protect the survival of their kind. Powerful beings like Blunt Will took the job of protecting the goblin kind too far by trying to overtake Equestria. Fighting back was an expected thing from the hunting and such, but conquering the lands around them had gone too far. Princess Celestia tried to negotiate peace, but the poachers and their illegal practices drove the goblins into a state of rage and hatred. The goblin wars broke out and Blunt Will was defeated shortly after, driving the rest of the goblins into far away lands where ponies dare not venture. Conditions where never well and the hatred from the goblin race only grew. Some goblins had branched off from their group, living more secluded, or with a small group of similar goblins. These individuals no longer held a grudge against the ponies and had hope of amendments with the rest of the world.
After the story and a bit more relaxing underground, I took Grim back to his little island. I asked him if he would accompany us on our journey through Equestria, but he declined and thought it would be safer to stay under ground in solitude until Blunt Will was destroyed completely. Grim had faith in our group and wished us the best of luck as we continued our journey. We climbed out of the well late in the night when nopony was wandering the street and the moon was high in the sky. After walking back to the place we were staying, everypony climbed into bed and started drifting to sleep. It was only seconds before each of us drifted off and didn't wake up when we heard two familiar voices outside of our window.
"Brother, if you keep tripping over me like this we're bound to get caught!" The familiar voice whispered harshly.
"I'm sorry, but we had to choose the night of a new moon? It's pitch black out!" A similar voice replied.
"It's you two! I'm coming for both of you!! You won't escape me!!" I yelled as I burst open the swinging window in our room and jumped from the third floor without thinking.
"Run, brother! They're onto us!!" Flam yelled out.
"I can't believe Ironclad jumped from the window..." Silver mumbled, looking down onto the street where I had landed.
Tiki soon flew out and followed my lead down the street while Silver flashed Bronze and himself out the window and down to the street. I had landed on my hooves hard after a single flip through the air. I didn't have time to worry about what I had done to the sidewalk, brushing chips and slabs from my legs and cape. We all continued down the street in a group pursuing the Flim Flam fugitives.
"We only did it for the money! Nopony actually got hurt, right?" Flim said over his shoulder as we trailed them down the street.
"Oh, you've caused a lot more death than there needed to be! You're going to pay for supplying such machines to such enemies!" I yelled.
"Please, no! We can pay off our debt! Just don't send us to prison or kill us!" Flam yelled.
"I'm probably going to do both after you indirectly killed all of those soldiers and spent the counterfeit money over the last few months!" I said, forgetting that its been close to a year since they first escaped our clutch.
"Few? We're practically out of cash!" The two brothers both yelled over their shoulders.
"Lets just finish this! Tiki, take them down!" I yelled.
"I've been waiting for you to say something." Tiki said, raising the arrows in his bow, taking aim for the legs of the two stallions running through the streets.
The arrows landed directly into the back right hoof of each of the two stallions, causing them to fall over and lay in place as we caught up to their position. The twin stallions were laying on the floor as we approached them, cringing in pain. I slowed down to a walking pace as I came up to the mustached pair. Silver Dust came up and removed the arrows from the ankles of the two stallions, patching up the holes left by the arrows. Bronze fastened the two stallions up with a bit of rope around the legs. The moon was black in the sky as we walked the two mustached ponies to the Manehattan police center. Not much was said as the two brothers faced their defeat. It didn't take long before we reached the police station. There was a single deputy sitting at the front desk, dozing off occasionally from the lack of activity at the time of night. Not much was said as Flim and Flam were locked in a cell for the night by the drowsy deputy and the rest of us went back to our complex. When we got back Tiki flew up to shut the window while the rest of us went back to join him in the room. Everypony laid their heads down on their pillows and fell asleep.
It was early morning when we were all awoken in the hours of dawn by a message I received through my flaming sneeze. Everypony jumped from their beds as flames danced through the air and the note flew up and bounced off of the ceiling.
"What the BUCK?!" Tiki yelled out in a frenzied panic.
"Alright... I'm awake now, lets see who sent me what..." I said drowsily.
"For the eyes of The Lord of Bliss to read..." I read aloud, "your next stop through your tour of Equestria will be in Canterlot. I have taken the liberty of reserving train tickets for the four of you and hope to see you at the train station by tonight. Also, I shall continue to address you as an equal to myself, and not one of my subjects. Your new role of an elemental lord will be recognized among us, Lord Bliss."
"You've really got to get a new nickname, you don't want people calling you the Lord of Bliss do you?" Silver Dust asked rhetorically.
"What's wrong with it?" I asked in return.
"Well it's a bit... Queer I guess." Silver replied.
"Eh, you're right. I guess if anypony thinks of something else, just bring it up to me." I said.
"So our next stop is Canterlot? When do we have to leave?" Bronze asked.
"About an hour. We should probably pack up and head off right now." I suggested.
"Oh, come on! We've got plenty of time!" Tiki argued.
"Yeah... I'll be ready in a little bit." Silver said flatly.
We all packed our things and started off for the train station. Eating along the way, we took one last look around Manehattan before we left the area. We weren't going to return in a long while so we enjoyed whatever sights there were before leaving. The sun was only breaking the horizon, but the tall buildings were keeping the rays of light from shining among the gloomy streets. Not many ponies were up and about, but the few who were waved us off as we came closer to our destination. The train station was lit dimly by the rising sun, still filtered by the streaking clouds on the horizon of the morning sky. It only took about 45 minutes to reach the train station, the rest of the time was spent clearing our tickets to the staff and such while waiting for the train to arrive. There was practically no real waiting after we were completely ready to board, since the train had arrived while we were being cleared by the mare behind the stand.
"Oh! You four know the princess personally I take it?" The mare had asked.
"Yes, in fact, we do. Did the tickets give it away?" I replied.
"I haven't seen many of these types of tickets, but this is the town that they appear the most, the personal escort tickets." The mare said.
"Huh, I bet they have a lot more in Ponyville than anywhere else." I said.
"That's what I've heard, too. The princess has a group of close friends somewhere in Ponyville." The mare replied.
"Yeah, Twilight Sparkle and her group of friends." I explained.
"I'm guessing you know them as well?" The mare asked.
"Yeah, we know a lot more ponies around here than you would imagine." I chuckled.
"Alright, well it looks like your train arrived, better not keep the princess waiting!" The mare said as the gate opened to the train.
We all walked toward the unusually small train. Princess Celestia must have reserved a personal ride for the four of us to take to Canterlot. Everypony boarded as I followed them all up to the back. The stallion attending the door gave a strange motion and look to the mare standing at the counter. I turned around to glance at the attendant at the window as she quickly turned around to return to her work. We boarded the train and started to move off for Canterlot.
"Ironclad, take a break! It's just a train." Bronze said, glancing over to myself.
"I'm not sure if we should trust this ride, I don't feel right." I said, staring out the window.
"What's there to worry about? It's a personal train sent by Princess Celestia!" Tiki said.
"I know, but we're also going pretty fast, it's worrying me." I said nervously.
"You also left the station 20 minutes early." The voice of the amulet rang out.
"What?!" Everypony said in unison.
"I thought we were all aware of this." The amulet said.
"Ok, I'm getting a bit sketched out, too." Silver said.
"I haven't heard of a royal transportation system that was off-timed until now." I said.
"Alright, I guess just keep an eye out for anything else suspicious." Tiki said in a ludicrously relaxed voice.
"While you guys do that, ah'm gonna go talk to the conductor of this train." Bronze said.
"The conductor will be a bit reassuring, as long as he's as sane as everypony else around us." Silver said.
"As long as we even have a conductor up there!" I said jokingly.
"Don't jinx it! We've got no idea what will happen at this point." Tiki said.
"I think we're all just worrying over nothing." Silver said.
"There's no conductor, how crazy is that?" Bronze asked, returning shortly from the other room.
"I BUCKING TOLD YOU!!" Tiki said, lunging on top of me as a joke.
"The train's probably controlled by magic or something, let me take a look at the controls." I grunted, pushing Tiki off of my chest.
I went into the conductor's room, looking over all of the levers and gears in different places. I noticed that there was a long red lever that seemed jammed all the way forward and bent into place. The coal fire running the train was overflowing with coal, and when the fire started to burn down, more coal fell in. I didn't see any form of magical element in the room, but I had also noticed a gripped lever laying on the floor and a spot of ripped wires where a lever belonged. Putting it all together, I realized this was an act of terrorism or attempted assassination. The throttle was jammed forward and the brake was ripped out, the engine was being fed coal automatically and it wouldn't surprise me to see a bomb strapped on the back door right now. "We need to get off, now!" I yelled. The train was heading up to a ridge hanging off of a cliff on the left side. I saw that trying to take the turn in would result in the cars flipping off the track and into a rock wall. The force would total the train and the remains would slide down into a dark gulley. There was only so much time to react, so we went with our usual escape plan. We hadn't planned it or anything, it just came to us like it had on other occasions. Silver Dust and Bronze Hammer ran to the back and burst the door open as they flashed from the platform onto the ground behind them. Tiki just flew off and joined the other two on the sidelines as I sped off up the hill. It was either now or never, I could either jump off a speeding train cart or sit through a train wreckage. Either way I knew I would survive due to my tough physique and magical energy. I decided to save myself the climb out of a dark gorge and jumped from the caboose, landing on the edge of the track as the few small train cars hit the side of the cliff and rolled down the hill into the gorge. Within five seconds of the fall, an extremely large fiery explosion blasted into the sky from the gorge as a rigged bomb went off from detecting the wreck. I thanked my decision to jump off, as I'm not so sure if I would've survived that, even considering my physical conditions.
"Guys, I think somepony wants us dead." Tiki said, staring into the flaming train wreck in the gorge.
"What? Are you sure this wasn't just a little accident?" Silver replied sarcastically.
"Save the comments for the princess, we have to get to Canterlot by tonight. Lets hoof it before another train comes speeding down the tracks." I said.
We ran swiftly down the train tracks with the thought of if another train came down the tracks. There was a rock wall on one side and a cliff on the other, no way to dodge anything coming either way of us. We continued to run at a pace, since we wouldn't be able to continue very long while sprinting. Thankfully, no trains came down the railroad as we were running along. I thought that maybe the missing train had caused somepony to close off this route up to Canterlot, giving us time to head up without worry. I didn't know if this was true for sure, considering that the rigged train probably didn't belong to the palace, so I disregarded the thought and continued to run with the others. Back in the human world, I had been on the high school cross country team. I was well built for running and only became faster with training. These skills and such had carried over to this dimension. I knew that because most ponies in this world weren't fit to run miles uphill for long periods of time. I think the only ponies I know who could keep up with our group were Applejack and Rainbow Dash. They both proved this in the episode of the iron pony competition, although I'm not sure if the competition even took place yet in this dimension. I knew that the other three weren't exactly the laziest of guys back in the human world. We all invested a lot of time into video games in the human world, but when we weren't playing, we were out being active. I knew that Silver Dust and Tiki were good runners because of their paintball training, and Bronze Hammer was a farming country boy to the bone. I'm pretty sure Bronze would be a hulk if he replaced all of his guns with a knife when he went hunting. Now that the topic comes to me, I wonder if Bronze missed hunting much, I knew you couldn't do it anywhere in Ponyville. I'm pretty sure everypony missed something from the old world, something that you couldn't do here because of its violent or inappropriate nature.
Once again, losing myself in thought, I've passed time by like it was nothing. We ran all the way to Canterlot and approached the train station. Tiki had yelled something down to us, which snapped me from my day dreaming. I looked up to see the platform of the train station, with 6 familiar characters standing at the edge of the station. They were walking away from the station, as if they were giving up on the chance of us showing up by tonight. As we started running over the hill, one of the six looked up and ran towards us. Rarity had sprinted toward our direction, surprisingly enough. Applejack followed and then the other four at the sight of the four of us coming over the hill. Sparing the conversation, everypony walked back to the train station, completely out of breath from the run, more us than the 6 mares.
"Spit it out already! Tell us everything!" Rarity demanded.
"It's... Been a long time." Tiki panted out.
"Ah think a nice slow walk back to the castle will help y'all recover from that mighty run up that hill." Applejack suggested.
"Good idea, show us the way." I said.
"Oh somepony please tell me the details! I want to know everything that happened while you were gone!" Rarity yelled out.
"Well, our train was rigged, pretty much. I can explain the rest of our journey when we sit down and rest a bit." I said.
"Rigged?! What are you talking about?" Twilight asked.
"Well, there must be somepony who wants us dead, the train was set at accelerating speed with no braking mechanism. We jumped before the cars ran into the side of the cliff as the bombs rigged on the bottom went off at the bottom of the gorge." I said plainly.
"That sounds horrible! Are you all ok?" Rarity asked.
"Yeah, we all got off ok, but I doubt that'll be the worst thing that'll happen to us." I said.
"That's true, if somepony wants you dead, there's bound to be more plans of assassination in the future." Twilight said.
"We should probably warn Princess Celestia about this." I said.
"We'll have plenty of time to talk to her when we arrive at the castle." Twilight said.
"I don't plan on talking much tonight, I'm ready to sleep for the next few days as it is." I chuckled.
"You can sleep all you want after tonight, but first you're spending time with us before you go to bed!" Rarity chimed in.
"Maybe you could help me sleep a bit better tonight, its been a long time since we've seen each other." I winked to Twilight.
"Oh. I'm going to be much too busy tonight! I have important planning to do with the Princess for the Crystal Empire!" Twilight said nervously.
"Alright, I'll let you go tonight." I said, ignoring the reaction.
"Well I won't keep you from the others, you should go greet everypony else!" Twilight said.
"Pinkie! Fluttershy! I've missed you both so much!" I yelled out to the only other two ponies not distracted with the others at the moment.
"You owe me answers, mister!" Pinkie yelled angrily as she hugged me tightly.
"It's true, I do owe you answers. The ponies with those answers will find you soon enough, I put them on the right trail." I said, smiling.
"You look more like a dragon every time we see you..." Fluttershy said, walking behind the group.
"It's only the outside that changes, I'm never going to change on the inside!" I said, running over to hug Fluttershy before she could fly into the air.
"Oh! It's ok, you really don't have to do this, I'm fine with a..." Fluttershy mumbled before I cut her off.
"Nonsense! You're my favorite pony to hug! Aside from Pinkie, your mane is so soft and fun to snuggle with!" I said, holding onto the shy yellow mare.
"Mine smells like cotton candy!" Pinkie said loudly, jumping up and down along side of the group.
"I'm so glad that you like my mane, but can we stop hugging and catch up to the group?" Fluttershy asked.
"Yeah, let's get back to the castle." I chuckled.
It was a good walk through Canterlot before we reached the castle. The sun had set and night swept across the town in an instant. Lights along the street lit the town dimly as few ponies still walked the town at night. We approached the castle gates as the night guards stood aside at our presence. We all walked into the palace, looking over the sights. Everything was familiar to me from my first visit to the palace, but the other three hadn't been inside the castle before. We entered the main room shortly. Princess Celestia was sitting upon her throne with a smile on her face, glad to see our group once again.
"Greetings to you, my four best soldiers!" Princess said to us.
"Good evening princess." I said as we all bowed to her presence.
"There really is no need for the courtesy, Lord Bliss! I should probably be the one bowing to you, if anything!" Princess Celestia chuckled at the idea.
"Please, Princess, there really isn't any need! Until I become an all powerful being, I'm one of your subjects!" I replied.
"Alright, if you insist. Maybe you could ask your own equals for some help on the transformation." The princess suggested.
"I'm not sure, I could just wait for it to happen on my own." I said sheepishly.
"Oh, but you could always ask! I know that one of your equals is in this very room right now." Princess Celestia said.
"What?!" Everypony said almost simultaneously.
"Curses! I knew the secret would get out soon." The amulet upon Silver Dust echoed.
"Come now, Lord Power! Have you not introduced yourself to your new equal?" The princess asked jokingly.
"No, but I guess I'll have to do it now..." The amulet grunted.
"Keep the collateral damage to a minimal." The princess added in.
The room soon exploded with energy from Silver Dust's amulet as a large, white, snaking shape soon took form. Lord Power, the controller of magic itself, emerged from the gem and took physical form in front of all of us. He also had the downy fuzz along his head and neck, running down his back and puffing out from his tail. Power didn't seem to have much of a torso or limbs. He was also missing wings, but none of these things were needed, since the being was pulsing with raw magical energy. Even being over 15 feet long, the snaking dragon lord could hover in mid air from his magical energy. His body snaked around the room, whipping around objects and curling through the air. The energy released from the transformation lingered in the air like cement, weighing down on all of our shoulders like rocks being dropped on our backs. With glowing white eyes, Lord Power made contact with me. My eyes sparked as his own eyes returned to their regular white shade.
"I've watched you for some time now, you're energy force has manipulated much since our first meeting point. You're ready to make the final transformation." Power said to me.
"We aren't rushing anything? It isn't going to hurt if we do this?" I asked nervously.
"Well, considering it hasn't been done before, I'm not sure. Nothing bad should happen, it will just take time." Power explained.
"Alright, let's begin tomorrow morning, I am ready for whatever challenge I am put up to." I said eagerly.
"Why wait? Off to the afterworld!" Power said.
One of the smaller water fountains started shimmering as a misty portal was opened from the water. Lord Power dove into the pool of water through the portal in an instant and disappeared from the room. I soon followed him through the portal into the afterworld. As I fell through the wormhole I saw a streak of blue fly past my face, with white, gold, and different shades of blue in the mix. I disregarded the shape darting past me, considering I was jumping through a portal into the afterworld. I didn't know what the portal would or could do, so there was nothing I could accurately make out from it. I went down through a deep pool of water, surfacing onto the other side of the portal in a small pool of water in the misty grass field I once visited before. There was no fog and I could see to distances incomprehensible by my mortal mind. I saw different creatures all living together in different areas. I saw oceans, forests, rivers, deserts, everything. It was all in front of my very face at the same time, yet it almost felt unreal. I managed to turn my head away from the magnificent sight to cast my eyes upon another. 6 dragon lords were floating in front of my face, smiles upon their muzzles. I saw Desire somewhere in the middle of the six, along with Power centered in the middle of the group. Four of the other dragon lords floating in the air weren't familiar to my eyes, but I felt like I've met them before, as if we were all close friends that knew each other from the inside out.
"We have all agreed to the terms of what shall soon happen." Power spoke out.
"Due to the imminent situations, your final transformation will have to be assisted to occur early. We will also assist you in the quest to remove the last source of dark power that taints our land." Power continued.
"If you focus hard enough, you do not need to ask for names or such. You already know all of us through the universal power well of the afterworld." One of the dragons spoke out.
Power, white dragon of magic.
The names flowed through my head and everything I needed to know came to me. While the other 6 were preparing for the transformation, I was thinking about the future, and what I saw before I came out of the visions. I saw our last battle, the crystal will be destroyed and Blunt Will falls to our power, only after great struggle of course. I see my future form and the things to come of it. The last thing I saw was Twilight, tears flowing from her eyes. I didn't only see it but felt the emotion. I could feel the separation, the loneliness. I soon realized that it wasn't her feelings, it was mine. The only thing I felt from Twilight was regret. Before I could look into what had happened to us, a strange tingling feeling of magical energy swept over my body and I blacked out.
"What happened...?" I asked groggily.
"The transformation worked. With the power of six of us, we manipulated your fountain of magic so that one of us could morph your physical form to better fit your magical form. From what we felt, you should be in near perfect unison to your magical energy." Power explained.
"Do I have access to my full magical capability?" I asked.
"There's only one way to find out, lets go back to the mortal world, you and I." Power said.
"How much time has passed in that world? Weeks? A month?" I asked.
"Well, you blacked out for quite some time, I think about 15 years had passed." Power said.
"You're kidding, right?" I asked nervously.
"More or less, it's been about 12 to 15 years." Power said, agreement spreading along the other five dragon lords.
"Can we do a bit of time travel?" I asked.
"Anything of your imagination is possible if you know the spells, but time travel is considerably more energy consuming." Power said.
"Is that a problem? Is there a limited energy pool?" I asked.
"Oh no, the energy rebuilds and multiplies like a living thing, its just complicated to use an energy consuming spell such as time travel." Power explained.
"What if all 6 of you did it together?" I suggested.
"...this hasn't been tried, its worth a shot." Lord Rage admitted.
"Everyone take position then, I'm going to try one way or another. I can't go back after 15 years..." I said solemnly.
"We understand your mortal attachments, let us begin the process." Power said.
The feeling of magical energy floated through the air as electrical sparks of magic flew and a ring started to engulf us all. I stood in the middle as a fountain of the energy while the other six stood around me and focused the energy into a time bending ring. The spell worked flawlessly as I was warped through time and space back to Canterlot. I shot out of the portal back into the room with Power following behind me shortly. We both laid on the ground as everypony looked around us. Confused looks encircled us.
"Well? Did it even work?" Tiki asked.
"It worked much better than I expected." I replied.
"It almost looked like you two bounced right off the water!" Silver said.
"The time spell worked much better than usual, judging from these reactions." Power said to me.
"Yeah, not to mention my new appearance." I said excitedly.
"Oh my. Something must've happened re-entering the mortal world through a time warp. You're back to your original state of appearance." Power said disappointedly.
"You're kidding right?" I asked irritatedly.
"Take a look for yourself, I can only notice small changes about your inner magical appearance. That's about it." Power said, warping back into Silver Dust's gem.
"Son of a... All that time was just wasted then." I said angrily into my reflection of the pool.
"It's alright, we will still have enough power with the elements of harmony combined with their counterbalances to destroy the crystal and Blunt Will." Power echoed from the gem.
"All of you get some rest for now. You have a long day ahead of you tomorrow." Princess Celestia said to us all.
Everypony returned to their rooms and fell asleep as they fell into their beds. Applejack and Bronze both shared the same bed in another room. Tiki and Rarity were also granted a private room in the palace. At first Silver said he would just stay here with me, but I insisted on spending some time with Rainbow Dash. I knew they wanted to, even though Rainbow Dash didn't want to show any mushy feelings to her friends. In the end, Rainbow and Silver both got a room to themselves for the night as I fell asleep. Before I drifted off, Pinkie and Fluttershy both came into the room to spend the night with me. The two mares slept in different beds that were originally meant for the other three stallions. Twilight was busy, as she claimed to be. She had been up late that night working on plans she had to make. I don't know the details to what had happened since I had fallen asleep soon after Pinkie and Fluttershy showed up. The last thing I remember was a light blue dragon, his green eyes shining from the shadows cast over his body.
We were all back in Ponyville, at sugar cube corner. I was enjoying a milkshake with Pinkie and Fluttershy. The other three ponies of my squad were missing, but I didn't bother asking why, I don't even remember how I got here in the first place. My milkshake wasn't it's usual yellow, it was more of a pinkish red, and the cupcakes laid out on the table shared the same tone of color. The textures of the cupcakes were very unique and intriguing. I asked Pinkie what her new recipe was, and she responded with "pony cupcakes." I thought it was just a clever nickname for her recipe until she told me it was made with 100% natural ponies. The look on her face started to twist as I darted my eyes around the room nervously. Nopony was anywhere to be seen, and Fluttershy had disappeared. Pinkie slowly walked toward me, asking me if I wanted to help her make another batch. I started to back away towards the door, until I heard Fluttershy's voice scream out from somewhere. I ran toward the screaming past Pinkie. I melted the lock off of an old rusted metal door and broke through it immediately. As I started down the stairs, I looked over my shoulder to see Pinkie Pie directly behind me. She had a twisted smile on her face to match her flat, straight mane. The pink mare shoved me down the flight of stairs and I tumbled down into a dark room. Fluttershy's screaming was louder as I looked around, my vision becoming dark and blurred. I saw pink and red everywhere from a single lightbulb swinging from the ceiling, bringing light to the dark, rusted room I was in. My vision continued to blur as a pink shape came over me and I blacked out. The last thing I heard were horrid screams of agony and pain. I didn't need vision to know what happened.
I soon woke up in my bed with a cold sweat running down the back of my neck. I was in the castle room with Pinkie in one bed and Fluttershy in the other. Both mares slept peacefully as my heart rate calmed and my breathing normalized. I didn't know if it was a side effect of something, but I had just experienced a horribly vivid nightmare. Because of my unusual power and certain acquired abilities, I feared that it could've been a look into the future. I sparked a bit of magic into my vision to see around the room a bit better. Nothing was out of the ordinary and I noticed the energy and light of the sun through one of the walls. It was beginning to rise up to the horizon, not breaking the surface of the land just yet. I estimated another few hours of sleep before the rest of the group woke up. Still feeling uncomfortable and edgy from such a vivid nightmare, I laid back into my bed and tried to sleep. I was soon stopped and almost jumped from my bed as I felt the presence somepony in the same bed as me. I darted over quickly to see Fluttershy slowly making her way around to my bed.
"What happened? You look like you just saw a ghost, you poor thing..." Fluttershy said compassionately.
"It was worse than a ghost, but it was only a dream." I said shakily.
"I learned that it's especially hard to recover from even a dream sometimes..." Fluttershy said softly.
"I've also learned that over the years of dreaming." I replied.
"It really helps to have something to hold after such a dream. Usually Angel is around to comfort me when I need it, but he didn't come along with us..." Fluttershy said disappointedly.
"Why? Did something bad happen? Did you have a nightmare, too?" I asked.
"It wasn't a bad one, I can go back to sleep easy enough. I won't keep you up anymore, try to get some sleep." Fluttershy said, walking drowsily back to her bed.
"It's only a few hours before sunrise, but you can sleep with me if you want. I really did have such a bad nightmare..." I said, thinking back to the images in my head.
"Oh... Ok, I guess if it's only just a few more hours." Fluttershy said, coming back to my bedside.
"At least it's a large bed, there's enough room for both of us." I said, laying back into bed.
"It helps a lot more when you're hugging somepony, that's the point." Fluttershy said, climbing onto the side of my bed.
"Alright, if you insist. Sleep well, Fluttershy." I said, rolling over and grabbing the Pegasus in my arm and soon falling to sleep.
Those few hours went by fast as the sun rose over the horizon and lit the land of Equestria with it's shining beams of light. I woke up from the last few hours of sleep I got, thanks to Fluttershy. I don't think I would've been able to fall asleep again by myself after such a nightmare. Pinkie Pie was still sleeping in her bed, unchanged since last night when she fell asleep in that position. As I moved toward the edge of the bed, Fluttershy stirred and woke up with me. Before she could say anything, I signaled her not to wake anypony by speaking. Although It's not like her delicate voice could wake anypony in the palace, not even Pinkie Pie, sleeping just a few feet from my own bed. We both got up from the bed and walked out into the hall. Applejack and Bronze Hammer were out in the hall with Twilight, who looked as if she hadn't slept all night. Fluttershy and I joined the group and went out to the dining hall in the early morning. Some of the night guards were getting a snack before leaving their shift. We all went and got breakfast from the rows of meals being served from the cafeteria staff. After eating silently, the rest of the group came into the dining area to get breakfast and talk about everything that Rarity wanted to know.
"Don't worry darling, we've all been reading your letters, just tell me what happened in the portal." Rarity demanded with a smile.
"Yeah, tell us all what really went down, how long were you in there?" Silver asked.
"Well, I was temporarily transformed into my draconian form and granted an infinite pool of energy. The effects didn't stay while I came back through the portal. The only way I could come back at the same time I left was with a time spell. I was in there for 15 mortal years and had to travel back through time. " I explained.
"That's fascinating!" Rarity said.
"It really was, I met the six elements of disharmony, if I had to call it something. There are six counterparts to your elements of harmony, all with different looks, abilities, and personalities. The only real difference between you all were your appearances. Everything else correlated perfectly." I continued.
"You should introduce us to your new friends some time." Tiki said jokingly.
"I'm pretty sure I'll be doing that soon when we go hunting for that last source of dark energy." I said seriously.
"It's gonna take all of them magical powers to destroy this crystal?" Bronze asked.
"It's not just a crystal, its Blunt Will himself. When we destroy this last crystal, he will have all the power he needs to be resurrected in his own flesh. The dragon lords are going to intervene with this and prevent the unbalance of energy from emerging into their world." I explained.
"Now don't go and push yer luck! Stay safe around that crystal!" Applejack said to the four of us.
"I'd rather see mahself fall than the rest of Equestria." Bronze said.
"Alright, I think I've done all of the explaining I need to, I'm going to head into the main palace to start our day." I said, finishing my platter of breakfast.
"I don't think he'll be able to handle it!" Rarity whispered roughly to the other 5 mares as I walked away.
"Somepony has to tell him at some point! We can't just drop it on his shoulders at the last possible moment!" Twilight whispered back.
"He's a tough pony! He'll bounce back from it if you give him some time." Rainbow Dash chimed in.
"Is this about the crystal?" Silver Dust asked.
"No, it's much worse than that." Fluttershy said.
"I'm thinking that if he takes full form, it wouldn't hurt him as bad as it could if he learned about this right now." Twilight said.
"Just tell me what I've gotta say to him!" Tiki said loudly.
"Keep your voice down! It's much more complicated than that." Twilight said.
"What's all of this about?" Bronze asked.
"It's the only thing that can actually hurt him. If we do this at the wrong time, something horrible could happen. He might not even be able to fight Blunt if he knew!" Twilight explained, a tear running down her face.
"Ah'm guessin' the best time to break the news would be right after the fight." Applejack suggested.
"That's what I was thinking." Twilight said, sorrow tinged in her voice.
"Sweet Celestia... You're all joking, right?" Silver said in a shocked tone of realization.
"Are you ready, my loyal subjects?" The princess asked.
"We are ready." The four of us said in unison.
"We have located an unusual source of evil power in the southwestern fields of Equestria. It's the least settled area of the land and a perfect place to house a larger army..." Princess Celestia said informatively.
"We'll head out as soon as possible, princess." I said.
"Good, I expect you all to leave by today and deal with the problem immediately. I hope you know what the last crystal foreshadows of?" The princess asked.
"I know exactly what we're up against. I have a plan." I smirked.
"I hope you know what to do, the fate of everypony in Equestria rests on your decisions." Princess Celestia said solemnly.
"Everything will go according to my plan, we'll prepare to leave before noon." I said.
"If you need any assistance, just talk to any of the staff around the building. Don't be a stranger!" The princess said to us as we walked out of the main room.
Everypony was in the guest room we were staying at, packing their belongings and saying their goodbyes. After my group had packed, most of them split up and said their more personal goodbyes to their lovers. Silver and Rainbow Dash took a walk through the gardens of the palace. Tiki was in Rarity's room, assisting her with the packing. Applejack and Bronze were somewhere else in the palace, alone to themselves for the last time until this whole mess is cleared up. I was to myself for these last moments in the castle, packing my things and preparing to leave for the southern fields of Equestria. I knew Twilight was very busy here in the castle with everything going on and all, so I decided to leave her be until we returned to Ponyville and everything was calm again. The sound of footsteps lingered through the hallway as I put the last of my things into my endless pockets. Luna walked past my door as I was walking out. She smiled and winked my way before I could reach the doorway and say something to her, but she was gone as I turned the corner. I didn't have time for any games or hide and seek, so I just walked the other way to find the other three.
I didn't have to do any looking for long. Everypony was in the entrance room of the palace. The mane 6 were packed to return to Ponyville and the rest of my squad was ready to head out for the source of evil located in the southwest fields of Equestria. After being dismissed by Princess Celestia, we walked out the door and started our walk. Striding through the streets of Canterlot, memories came back to all of us. I was thinking back to when this world was only a TV screen for us. I remember the first time I watched the show, the feeling I had seeing the characters along with my friends and the brony community. We all thought about our old lifestyles and the struggles we fought through each day that came with our brony lifestyles and rituals. I thought about all of the friends we could've had in this world with us, but there wasn't enough time or planning to put it into action. The lab explosion was a moment of good timing, like Desire explained to us, but it prevented any of our friends from joining us in a world where pain caused by others was non existent. Everyone dedicated to ponies could've been here with us in this world, but something happened. We were cut off from the humans, and it was for the best. The past is behind us and we must move on, this universe has accepted all of our presences we are lucky for this. I was snapped out of my concentration of thought as we reached the path down from the mountain.
"This will take much too long, let me just warp us all there." Power echoed from the amulet.
"Go ahead, I'm ready for it." I said, stopping at the edge of the trail.
"Alright, I'm going to need some help from your power source, maybe Silver's, too. Do you remember how to manipulate other ponies' energies like we taught you?" Power asked.
"I don't remember any of you teaching me that, but I feel confident on being able to do it..." I said unsure of myself.
"Good, the training we did paid off well, then." Power said happily.
"Is this good enough?" I said, focusing the surrounding energy of everypony into a semi-physical form.
"That's perfect, I can warp us to the fields now." Power said, morphing the energy source into a bubble around our group.
Time and space twisted and changed around us. Loud noises and extremely bright, vivid colors encircled us and sunk into our heads as our physical bodies were vaporized and reassembled in another part of Equestria almost instantly. It was a memory jolting experience from our first trip and how the same exact experience occurred when we traveled between worlds. I don't think anyone with a commercial simulator from the human world experiences this on such a scale because only their consciences are warped into a man made simulator. Our consciences were warped through a simulator into a fully developed dimension, somewhat parallel to our original universe. Now we just warped through time and space in physical form, restructuring somewhere else in Equestria. Because it wasn't completely mental based, we don't suffer from such horrible migraines. After centuries of time travel and teleporting, an alicorn such as Princess Celestia or any of the dragon lords have become accustomed to the feelings.
We came out of the portal in a field of deep green, tall grass. Tree line could be seen in the distance on one of our sides and the beach could be seen on the other. The water was a clear light blue color, tinted orange by the glow of the setting sun. The sky was a golden orange color due to the setting sun on the western coast of Equestria. Even though it felt like an instant of warping, we took all day to get here. There wasn't a massive pool of energy at our use at that moment, so we went off of whatever I had within myself and Power, along with Silver's energy. There was enough to go around to make an instant warp to this location, but something was sucking the energy around the land and interfering with the flow more than anything. We didn't want to risk any mistakes or errors in the spell, so we used an easier, less dangerous approach.
After a bit of looking around, we ran to the beach to take a quick swim. With the sun setting, we came out of the water and went to work. Silver and Bronze went out to gather firewood while I pitched our tent and Tiki went looking for a fresh water source. I dug out a good spot for a fire pit and positioned some large rocks around the pit to avoid fire hazards in a grass field. I decided that the smartest thing to do was to clear a patch for our camp. I focused my energy to burn a ring around a small area of the grassland to be cleared. I raised the temperature as everything in the area started to singe, catch fire, and soon blow away in the wind. I pitched the tent and set up a fire pit for our group. Silver and Bronze soon returned with a good pile of fire wood from the forest. Tiki came back with his pocket filled with water. It was an ingenious idea to carry water in an endless pocket, but risked the chance of every single item in the same pocket getting soaked by the water. Luckily, nothing was touched by the pool of water Tiki had picked up as he dumped it all out into a large kettle we found in the area.
There was a large amount of appliances like the kettle littered around the area. Some of it was either broken or rusted out, but other pieces seemed newer and barely even used. We had plenty of water from Tiki's pocket, so we washed out the kettle and filled the rest with water. Everypony got a spot around the fire pit, even Power took a physical form and joined us in the socialization. He had his dragon form, except he was pony sized and fit well around the fire place with us. The only way to pull off such a small physical form is from using all of his energy from the warp spell and not being able to regenerate it because of the disruption of energy somewhere in the area. We had the kettle filled with water and boiling over the fire when we realized that we had nothing to cook and had no idea why we were boiling water. In the end, Silver decided to toss in a jar of a special herb that Zecora gave him that day when we left Ponyville. It supposedly had good relaxing properties and a sensational taste. This was no lie, as we drank the entire small kettle full of tea. The taste was a strong, sweet taste of something I couldn't put my mind to, but I felt like I've had the taste from somewhere before. I kept thinking about this, but became drowsy after a while and just decided to talk with the rest of the group.
"We all know the plan tomorrow?" I asked.
"Yeah, we're going to find the crystal and Power will summon the other elements of disharmony to eliminate the power within it." Silver said.
"Yeah that's it, then once we get this over with, we'll be back in Ponyville before you know it!" I said excitedly.
"Back to the days of relaxing and hanging out with our favorite group." Silver said.
"We never really had days like that, we've been working ever since we came to Equestria." I said.
"That's true, so I guess we finally get to relax and do what we want when we return to Ponyville." Silver said.
"We finally get to live normal lives as ponies when we return!" Tiki said.
"Well, ah've still got a lot to do with Applejack." Bronze chimed in.
"Yeah, I've got tons of work with Rarity, now that you bring it up." Tiki said.
"I just can't wait to get back to Twilight, I've almost forgotten what love feels like after being gone for so long." I said.
"We should just totally tell him." Tiki whispered to Silver.
"I'm going to grab another log for the fire. Come help me out, Tiki." Silver said hastily.
"Alright, let's go." Tiki said, following Silver out to the edge of the forest.
"We can't tell him! You know what everypony else said would happen!" Silver whispered harshly.
"He needs to know. We have to explain to him what's really going on." Tiki said.
"We can't drop that on him before a fight like this!" Silver argued.
"We also can't drop something like that on his shoulders at his weak point after the fight!" Tiki replied.
"We have to wait until tomorrow, when everything has passed over!" Silver hissed.
"No, if we tell him then, it will crush him! If we told him right now, when he's at his toughest point before battle... I think he can pull through it." Tiki said stubbornly.
"...now that I think about it, if you said that differently, it would make sense. Bronze will be the deciding vote." Silver said.
"Agreed." Tiki replied, flying back to camp.
We were all sitting around the fire quietly as the blueish flames danced around the pit and radiated heat from the blaze. I lit the fire myself, which gave the flames a strange blue tint while they burn hot on the logs. Power was laying around the open side of the fire where we didn't put any seats to sit on down. Tiki and Silver were rushing back from the edge of the forest. They didn't come back with any wood, only a simple question for Bronze to answer.
"Bronze, do we tell him, or not?" Tiki asked.
"...No, definite no, wait until later." Bronze said, realizing what the question was about.
"Tell me what?" I asked suspiciously.
"It's nothing, we can tell you after tomorrow." Tiki said.
"Oh, it's about Twilight, isn't it?" I asked.
"No, the question isn't even for you." Silver jumped in nervously.
"Just tell me now before I get the answers out of you guys some other way." I said jokingly.
"It's about Twilight." Tiki sighed.
"Go on." I said slightly anxiously.
"You two... Can't be together. I'm not sure why, but it can't happen." Silver said.
"There's more to that? ...right?" I asked, as my heart sank down through my chest at the sentence I heard.
"There isn't much more, but I know that you shouldn't worry about it." Silver said reassuringly.
"Yeah, it isn't you, Twilight was just as sad when she was talking about it." Tiki said hastily.
"And that's supposed to reassure me? I have no answer to why! Even worse, Twilight is equally upset about what's happening!" I said irately.
"You had to mention Twilight's reaction..." Bronze said to Tiki, face hoofing himself.
"It's only a few days! You'll know soon enough what's going on from Twilight herself!" Silver said.
"True, I just hope we can still manage to speak to each other. Something serious is going on, if it wasn't me and it wasn't her who caused this breakup..." I drifted into thought, and soon into sleep as I passed out on the ground from the tea I drank a short while ago.
"Huh, I guess the tea really was effective after all." Tiki said.
"Yeah, maybe if you drank more than one cup you would feel it." Silver replied.
"Ah'm not sure about y'all, but ah feel the tea workin' just fine. Ah'm goin' to bed." Bronze said, yawning shortly after he spoke.
"I will stay out here for the night. See you all soon tomorrow morning." Power said softly on the other end of the fire.
Power used his magic to levitate me closer to the fire and turned my face away from the blaze as everypony else went into the tent. If I was to sleep in the tent that night, my internal fire would make the room into an oven. It was warm outside already, and fairly damp due to our close location to the beach. Everypony soon fell asleep after the news was broken to me. I'm pretty sure I would've never been able to sleep if the tea hadn't knocked me out. I'll know soon enough what was going on.
The next morning came smoothly and early. I woke up next to a still burning fire. My magic had kept it blazing throughout the night. It was early dawn, the sun wasn't over the horizon and the stars still barely dwindled in the pale sky. Everypony was still sleeping, aside from Power, who was staring at me intently. I knew he didn't sleep all night, but it probably only felt like minutes had passed by through the night. When you live for thousands of years, time can pass by incredibly fast if you lose yourself in thought. I have acquired this ability since entering Equestria all that time ago. It's been forever since we came to this world.
One thing I haven't kept track of is time. We've been so busy lately that we haven't been able to monitor many other things. We've worked ourselves to the bone some days and lazily relaxed most of the others. All of theses days have been spent doing the same thing. We've been serving the princess on her last command to us. Once we finish this fight and return to the princess, we will either receive new orders or be dismissed for the time being.
My mind returned to Ponyville and what awaited us there. Our mansion has been mostly vacant for so many months, aside from Crisco caring for it on the weekends that he wasn't cooking for fancy ponies. Pinkie Pie would usually be at sugar cube corner, serving goodies and such to the many ponies that enter and exit daily. I probably upset her pattern of work majorly when I brought up some disturbing memories from her childhood. That'll soon be solved, as I took the liberty of interjecting on a conjuration spell of one of the pink gypsies. I told them about their long lost daughter and what she was up to. They were overwhelmed to hear that their daughter was still alive and went straight to Ponyville as soon as they could. We were probably going to miss this happy reunion, but I bet Pinkie would be more than happy to tell me the details of what would happen. Everypony would be glad to see us and tell anything they thought would be even remotely worth talking about. We would be sitting around for days on end telling stories. It'll be so nice to see everypony again, especially Twilight.
That name struck an arrow through my heart and spilt my dragon blood all over the grounds, I felt like I was losing all of my energy with Twilight not being with me. It was going to be tough to adjust. I haven't a clue to what went wrong. The feeling of myself doing something wrong was pulling at myself. I felt like Twilight was repulsed by my draconian form. It could be because of my absence from Ponyville, I know how she can be paranoid sometimes. I'm probably the one being paranoid, but I can't help the empty hole in my mind that Twilight won't be mine anymore. I feel like my energy is seeping out of this hole and chasing after her. My thought was broken by a voice. I looked up to see the sun rising higher in the sky and the daylight shining down on everypony. The fire next to myself was out and smoldering in the sun. It felt like time had jumped right over my head during my daydreaming.
"Who's ready to fight and go the buck home?" Tiki asked.
"Ah'm ready to end this and take a mighty long vacation!" Bronze laughed as he stretched out from the tent.
"It'll be so nice to live normally after this." Silver added in.
"Don't get your hopes up too soon, we still have to fight." I said, coming out of my trance.
"It will be very tough. We will need the help of all 6 elements of disharmony to bring down such a dark force. I've felt the power of yourself, Ironclad. The bliss of the land has granted you power equivalent to all 6 of the elements of harmony, combined with Princess Celestia herself. Your well of magic is truly amazing, if we could only find it's full potential." Power explained to us.
"We'll find it soon enough. Bring in the elements and any other ponies we need if more power is needed." I said.
"No, your power is practically spilling from your mortal body, it shall happen today, I just don't know when." Power insisted.
"Ok, whatever you say! Let's head out before the sun gets too high in the sky." I said, walking off in whatever direction I first glanced to.
After Power located a trail to follow to the powerful dark energy, I turned to follow the rest of the group and set off for the final battle. We didn't actually follow a physically defined trail, but a leak of energy coming from a coastal plain not too far from our area. It most likely looked similar to our location, but it was on a peninsula and the path was mostly forest. As we walked, the energy got stronger as everypony could physically detect it's presence. I could follow the path because the energy in the air became visible to my eyes. We continued walking through the forest, only mumbling a few things between each other along the way. I could feel the nervous energy coming off of each member of the squad. We were all thinking of the future. I could feel everypony thinking about the battle and the possible outcomes. Not all of us may leave for Ponyville today. We could lose somepony along the way, even more than one could fall. We would be playing this battle out very carefully, it wasn't just another goblin raid any more.
We were getting close to the area of interest. At the end of the peninsula was an old abandoned lighthouse with an eerie purple light coming from the top. It was mid day, but the crystal center looked as if it was shining darkness across the land it looked upon. Goblins were laying about, ready to get up and fight. We were at the edge of the strip of land going over to the lighthouse. Dark clouds lingered in the distance as the crystal's power fluctuated and pulsed darkness across the land, stretching farther in diameter with each pulse.
"We need to destroy this thing as soon as possible." I said quietly.
"We need the other 5 lords of disharmony." Power replied.
"Let us bring them forward and engage in the battle of the ages." I said eagerly.
Our energies combined into one portal, colliding with the energy coming off of the crystal, drawing attention to our location. Raw power clashed in the air, causing heat and parts of the universe itself to shudder and reassemble shortly after. This was extremely dangerous for mortal ponies. If one of these shudders were to hit them, they would be instantly melted and reassembled wherever the place of impact was. This wasn't controlled energy, which meant that they would be reassembled in which ever way the pieces came back together. Energies collided as the 5 dragon lords started to enter the mortal world. One by one, claws grasped the edges of the wormhole as each of the lords slithered from the afterworld. The portal grew larger as their power helped fuel our own and sped things up. The energy released off of this also helped to repel the dark energies back to the lighthouse and off of the land.
Goblins rose from all directions, mostly from the peninsula. Heavy booming sounds could be heard from the distance as a black warship in the horizon unloaded a broadside of highly explosive shells onto the peninsula, eradicating many of the goblins rising and preparing for an attack on us. The rest of the goblins coming from the forest and the beachside were slaughtered by the dragon lords or myself and the others. The only thing left was the crystal and a few straggling goblins lingering along the coast. As I looked over from the last goblin I slashed down with my sword, the ship sailed off into the distance over the horizon. The original copy of the goblin clones created by the crystal had emerged from the lighthouse. Stumbling over to our side I kept everypony from mercilessly slaughtering the creature and brought him at our side. I knew he didn't want to fight any longer and told him to wait in the area. After seeing him run into the forest, I went back to focusing on the threat at hand.
"It's time we ended what we should have stopped a very long time ago." Mutany yelled out viciously.
"You thought you could end me so easily." Blunt's voice echoed out.
"It's too late to make a move, he's already capable of physical form." I said gravely.
"Strike while we can!" Rage shouted mightily.
A streak of red flame flew from Rage's mouth as the rest of the colors flew and brutally attacked the crystal. The gem shattered into pieces and the blackness of the energy was consumed by flames. Dragons took shape in each streak of fire, eating away at the darkness viciously in a primal carnage of light, fire, and magical energy. The fire died down and the dark clouds of a storm rolled over the island. The light of the sun was blocked from our view. One speck of blackness survived, unbreakable by the powers of the dragon lords themselves. This darkness grew larger, and rapidly. It started taking shape in the center, as shadows leaked from the corners of the shape across the ground and over the lands. Once it got to a certain point, the shadow exploded over the land and soaked into the ground for miles. Screams and hollers of pain echoed through my head and across the land. The last scream I heard was of Twilight. It was so realistic, I could've swore that it was right in front of me. Small tears rolled down my face as the blackness pierced me and the image of Twilight's heartbroken face haunted the back of my mind. My eyes were shut as blackness crept through my body, consuming me from my hooves up. Before it could reach over my legs, I heard a voice yell out.
"Don't give up! We need you! We all need you! I need you!" Twilight yelled out, standing in a grassy field along with the other 5 elements.
"I never stopped loving you, and if you give up now, you'll never know what happened. You deserve to know the truth more than anypony!" Twilight said, tears running down her face.
The sky was blackening as the wind picked up and streaks of lightning flashed through the sky. Armageddon itself seemed to sweep over Equestria as Blunt Will took physical form in front of my very eyes. His appearance was more slouched and dark. True evil was spread over his face as the shadow that formed him failed to leave his body. Carrying a massive black club, he raised it in his hand and pointed to me.
"You will fall this day. The land belongs to me." Blunt said, pure black evil chording with his voice.
"This land will not be yours, for I will not fall to you." I said, feeling the hole in my soul being patched by Twilight's words.
"This was a very anticipated reunion for us, Lord Bliss. Do not think that I am not ready to make you kneel once more." Blunt's hideous voice echoed.
"I have power in friends, power in friendship. I'm fighting for everypony in Equestria, good or bad. Friendship is magic and I can feel the full power running through my body." I said strongly, listening to the voices of the ponies everywhere, even from the afterworld. I'm fighting for all of them.
"I won't just take one of your friends from you. I'm going to take them all this time!" Blunt screamed, throwing his club on top of my head.
Everything went black for a split second. I was in Ponyville with all of my friends around me. I hadn't forgotten where I just was and what I was doing. I went into a slightly panicked state of mind. Nopony was around the town and everything had blackened. I wandered the streets for a bit until I approached Twilight's house. Inside the library, two dead bodies of the residents were there. Spike was mangled on the floor and Twilight's body was bloodied on her podium. I couldn't run, I couldn't react. It was almost as if someone else had control over all of my actions. I forcefully looked down at my hooves to see blood across them, along with my chest and neck. My sword was at my side, stained with blood. I continued through the streets, seeing all the dead bodies of the ones I used to know and love.
Sugar cube corner was filled with bodies. Pinkie's body was laying on the top, with her twisted expression on her face from the dream I had a few nights ago in the palace of Canterlot. Blood stained the floor and walls as the pink shade of the store faded into black and the shadows continued to spread. Everything went hazy again as I felt myself drifting to another place.
I soon found myself at Fluttershy's cottage. Animals were everywhere, dead from starvation or brutal beatings from her other pets. In the back, I saw the mare laying dead on her bed, her mane was chopped and torn. Her tail was also mangled and stained with her own blood. I couldn't stop myself from walking over and examining the body, but I looked away as she was turned over.
Rainbow Dash's body was completely maimed. Her wings were severed from her body, as if they were ripped off by hooves. Her legs were broken in many places and her mane was all one bloodied red color. I stopped and felt myself able to speak once again. I held back the urge and was spoken to instead.
The whole Applejack family had been decapitated as the blackness killed off the orchard and shriveled all of the trees to dried up twigs. I felt as if I was the only one in this world and that I had caused all of this to happen.
Rarity's boutique was ransacked and her body had been wrapped in a dark cloth, stained red from a single wound made by a blade that was plunged through her heart. I looked over all of these bodies so heartlessly. I wanted to react and I felt myself doing so, but in a different way. I was confused with the feelings I was experiencing. This upset me, but I couldn't be upset either. It was confusing and I didn't have time to think it over, I was just thinking of the images I saw.
"This is your future. My defeat only leads to these outcomes. Think about your moves wisely, dragon lord." Blunt whispered into my mind.
"This is a lie. You don't hold the power to see into the future, and even if you could, I know that you would change the look of the outcome." I said angrily.
"You know nothing! There is no time for you to decipher what is real and what is not! I do not even care if this is real! It's only a distraction." Blunt chuckled evilly to himself.
"How long have I been gone?!" I asked.
"Long enough for this outcome to occur, you don't even know if this is reality or not!" Blunt began to laugh maniacally.
"You're a twisted being... I'm going to kill you, avenging the deaths of all that you hurt." I said.
"Will it be worth it? Just give up, join your friends in another world. You can all be happy there, to yourselves." Blunt suggested.
"When I get out of here, I'm going to..." I was cut off as I felt a strange power overcome myself.
A bright light burst at the point of impact. Blackness originally enveloped the impact, but a stronger magic repelled the attempted attack. A mere fraction of a second passed, but felt like days of suffering. I didn't care, though. I was ready to suffer a thousand deaths and wounds to protect my beloved friends. I felt nothing and only focused on one thing. The impact of energy on my head shook my core energy and loosed something from myself. My physical form split into pieces as white light shined through and something incredible emerged.
It was a smooth blue dragon. The torso was thin and long, but very defined and muscular. The arms were long and scaly with long fingers accompanied by gleaming black talons. The legs weren't exactly as long and resembled more of a form of a wolf. Tho foot was long and thin with large, narrow toes. The talons on the feet were shorter and more curved. There was a single toe along the back of the heel with a large curved talon that allowed for grabbing items if needed. The legs and arms were long and thin, but more muscular near the body than the hands and feet. The muzzle of the creature was long and thin, with fine teeth filling the jaw in a perfect row. The tongue was a triple pronged snake tongue, dull pink in color. The eyes radiated different shades of green, as if the color of the green was pure magic flowing from the eyes of the beast. Similar to the other dragon lords, a white fuzz ran around the head and neck of the beast. It flowed like a tuft of could in the sky, almost perfectly resembling an actual cloud. Two tufts hung from the side of the jaws of the beast, resembling long side burns of white cloud, streaked with blue and gold. The tuft of cloud fuzz was also streaked with blue and golden colors, running down the back and tail of the dragon. Fuzz covered the entire top half of the beast, only baring scales on the pale beige underbelly of the snaking dragon. The tail was long, thin, and looked delicate, but was very strong. It almost doubled the length of the head and torso of the dragon as it whipped around in the air like the breeze of wind in the sky. A smaller tuft of white cloud ended at the tail, seeming as if it was only hovering after the tip, and not actually attached to the tail. Wings were attached to the body, also covered in fuzz on the top so that the wings remained hidden as they were pressed against the backside of this beast. They spread out long, but surprisingly lacking in width or thickness. It didn't matter, they were only used for quick propulsion and acute control while in the air.
This was me.
My true form had taken shape, my cutie mark was gone, but I wasn't pony anymore. The impact of the magical force of the club shook out my magic core and released the power from my mortal body. I was now immortal, a god among my own friends. I didn't have time to think about it much, as I grabbed my sword floating through the air next to me. The physical exertion of magic from my body caused me to hover through the air uncontrollably. I could've floated away into the sky if somepony pushed me off the ground. My sword had grown in size with my own look. It had stayed proportional to its original dimensions, but almost tripled in size. I no longer needed to carry it at all times. I could summon my weapon whenever I required it, and required it now as I took hold of it with my tail and thrust the blade through Blunt Will. The blade pierced his side and came out at an angle. Black liquid poured from his side and vaporized as it floated in the air. It was dark magic spilling from his body.
"This is for everypony you hurt." I said, slashing the sword across his legs.
"This is for everypony you planned to hurt." I grunted, dragging the blade across his chest, spilling more blackness into the air.
"And this is for everypony. Every single soul there ever was and will be to exist, every single soul you threaten at this moment." I yelled, thrusting the sword into his blackened chest.
"Your blade will not hurt me." Blunt chuckled.
"Then I will bring you down with my own true power." I grunted determinedly.
Instantly, Blunt shot into the sky through the clouds. My Draco-vision was tracking his energy and I spread my wings and shot up to chase him. I left the ground with such force that I almost blew over everypony on the ground, kicking up a storm of sand and dirt mixed with sea water. The sky itself was blackened. There was no sun and only an evil red moon. The sky was engulfed in blackness, not a star to be seen anywhere, but the sky wasn't the limit. Blunt came at me with his weapon as I parried it with my sword. The clash caused space and time itself to shudder and dissemble the physical world slightly. He came at me again and another shudder shook the sky.
"You cannot parry him! These shudders will destroy Equestria!" Power roared up to me.
Blunt came in for another strike and missed as I whipped my my wings through the air and darted to another location in the sky. Shooting up behind him, I threw my sword through his shoulder and released fire from my gullet. The magic infused in the fire was so dense it almost melted the dark magic from the beast. A large, rough hand reached over my neck and threw me through the sky. I recovered shortly and shot up to him again. Stopping inches away from him, I released a massive burst of fiery energy that lit up the sky and ground as if the sun itself had been present in the sky. Blunt Will showed in his true form, blackness no longer engulfing his body. The evil soon recovered and took over again. This gave me a strange idea.
I grabbed the dazed evil Blunt Will and threw him down the the peninsula once more. Coming down like a nuclear warhead, I smashed my foot onto his body and shoved him deep into the ground. With rushed manipulation of the energy around me, I induced the 12 elements of harmony and disharmony to release their power and strike at the evil. Magic was hurled through the air like a physical force and struck the two of us directly from above. Blunt Will showed as himself once more as the evil was subdued into a condensed state. I raised my sword, and with a strike of lightning in the distance, I brought it down, severing the connection between this dark energy and it's host, Blunt Will.
Clouds subsided, the sky turned blue, the sun came out, and everything returned to normal. Everyone was forced back onto the ground from the explosive release of energy that occurred from the separation and destruction of the energy. With no host, the dark energy source had no living space. It jumped along the ground, searching for a host and progressively losing all of it's gained power. The ball of darkness jumped at my throat and attacked my body. The force hit me weakly and singed into nothing as my force of magical energy around my body had vaporized the parasite. The only thing left was an old, tired goblin laying in my hands.
"You've stopped the nightmare... 500 years... I owe you everything." Blunt Will said, in his normal voice. A normal voice such as mine or anypony else's.
"The only thing you need to do is rest. Go to sleep and I will visit you soon." I said, closing his eyes and gently laying his head to the sand of the beach.
"Words... Cannot describe..." Silver said in awe.
"It's over everyone, its finally over." I said softly.
"All of you, come with us." Power said.
Using my massive energy pool, we were all warped to the afterworld.
Author's Note
It's been a long time since I've posted! I'm truly sorry for the wait, but this might become a common wait, due to my weekly schedule and school. I will continue to try my best when it comes to writing, it will only take longer to post.
We all came out in the afterworld. Tiki, Silver, and Bronze were shuffling around our grassy field of pools and mossy stones. This area was actually a floating perch of land, shrouded in mist from the rest of the afterworld. Only the immortal could see through the mist clearly, which is why the three stallions were so confused and blinded from their surroundings. This perch of land belonged to the 6 elements of disharmony. Each of them agreed to the location of soft, green grass and large mossy rocks with pools of clear water dotting the chunk of land, and thus raised it from the rest of the world as their personal home. The pools of water served as good portal openings whenever needed. There were different patches of tall grassy areas suitable for lounging in where we once met Desire at. The pools of water around the edge flowed off of the floating island and into the afterworld through the shroud of mist seemingly holding the area above the rest of the endless land. I would soon find myself floating through my own imagination, passing the years by in moments when I will lay here to myself and look over both mortal and immortal worlds. I won't let myself go just yet, I plan on spending every single waking second in the real world with my friends as their mortal lives go by. I will be there for each of them as every event in their lives pass by. We will all soon be here, in a land where life is immortal and we live on forever in the perfect utopia. I was snapped out of my day dreaming when a voice spoke out.
"You all fought well, Equestria is finally at peace once more." Power said to us.
"I'm glad we can finally return to our normal lives." I said.
"You may. But before you all leave, there are souls that wish to speak with you." Power replied.
"Do go for too long, ah don't wanna be stuck in this fog for much longer." Bronze said, sitting inert in one of the patches of grass.
"Is there any way we can heat up one of these pools?" Tiki asked.
"That's a good idea, I will get to that while Bliss heads off to meet with a certain goblin waiting for him below us." Power said, motioning down one of the waterfalls.
"Alright, I won't take too long." I said, flying down from the ledge into the afterworld.
"Let me start by asking for your forgiveness." The voice of Blunt Will spoke out from behind me, under the shade of the floating island.
"You've already earned my forgiveness and sympathy, I understand what caused all of those actions." I said sympathetically.
"Well, now that we've started off on the right foot of things, we can go on to other subjects." Blunt said, taking my shoulder and walking me off into the distance.
"Of course, this conversation can be more personal now, we are friends up to this point." I said.
"That's not what I want to talk about. I've been here long enough to know that I can't return to the mortal world." Blunt said sadly.
"I could always take you back, but I understand what you're saying." I said.
"Good, you know that you have to put the goblin race on track again. You have my last dying words. The words from the real me." Blunt said.
"That's good to know, I will negotiate with Celestia about this subject. I promise that your kind will be in good hands." I said assuringly.
"I can rest peacefully knowing this." Blunt replied.
"I also know that you have many tales from living for 500 years. Let's keep this conversation going." I said happily.
"And that we shall! But I have somepony you should talk to when we come across the spot I'm taking you to." Blunt said with a smirk.
"Let's continue, then!" I said cheerfully.
"I also want you to take this..." Blunt said as he pulled a document from thin air.
"A document for your people, to assure them in your command. I will use it wisely." I said.
"I'm sure you will, now where were we?" Blunt asked rhetorically.
Blunt told me of many stories and accounts he witness throughout his years. We talked for such a long time about his quests for dominance over his kind and Equestria. We even talked about the years before that, the years of his young age and what he lived through. He spoke about the horrors he saw and the ponies that killed so many goblins. There was one occasion where he even witnessed a poacher extract the dragon blood from his own parents. There was no advanced technology back then, which meant that processes such as this were more gruesome than today. The bodies were baked over an open fire as the blood boiled and steamed throughout their bodies. After cooling down, the carcasses were split open. Any regular blood was dried to the hide or steamed away. The dragon blood remained liquid and had the consistency of molten lava. As the carcasses were cut open their insides were dumped into a large thick cauldron. Cooking over a low temperature, the stew of organs and blood were separated as the solids were removed. The fire was then heated up to a higher temperature as the rest of the regular commodities were steamed off. The remanence was pure dragon blood. Only a small amount was gained from this process, but had amazing properties to be used for potions, cooking, or rituals of magic.
Blunt Will witnessed this entire process from the poachers and his parents' bodies. He was desensitized from this moment in his life and created the base hatred for ponies and most other creatures of higher living in Equestria. This was also the same approximate time when the dark evil erupted in him, causing him to become immortalized in hatred and desire for revenge. This story was also a bit different from the original story of his dark manifestation. I was told that he was always evil and born from pure darkness. I was told he had no parents and that he only lived for evil purposes. This clearly was not true, because if it was, Blunt Will would not exist and would not be here beside me.
"Alright, snap out of your day dreaming! Somepony special is here to see you." Blunt said, motioning to a purple mare lounging in a field past the forest.
"I can't believe... It's... You've found her?" I asked in awe.
"Go see her, you have a lot to discuss." Blunt said, pushing me into her direction.
"How have things been? I'm still very proud of you." I whispered, laying next to Glimmer Hunt.
"Who are... Ironclad?!" Glimmer said in shock as she realized my eyes from the draconian body I had taken form of.
"I've come a long way, too!" I chuckled at her reaction.
"You're the new lord? The Lord of Bliss?" She asked.
"I am." I replied.
"This... But... It's so good to see you again!" She said, tears leaking from the sides of her face.
"Where did we leave off from last time?" I asked, pulling her closer to me with my tail.
"My cutie mark." Glimmer said, showing her flank to me.
"Ah yes! I have an idea to what it means!" I exclaimed.
"What? What does it mean?" Glimmer asked excitedly.
"I think it has something to do with this." I said, drawing my sword from thin air.
"The designs... Are exactly like my cutie mark!" Glimmer said, double taking on the sword to her cutie mark.
"The same mark also appeared on these." I said, materializing my old robe onto Glimmer's body.
"What does this make me?" Glimmer asked anxiously.
"I guess... It makes you mine. You are my faithful student, in a way." I said.
"I'm not sure how it would work out. I'm stuck here in the afterworld. You can just jump in between the two worlds." Glimmer said dissapointedly.
"There's always a way. I can take you back. We can continue from where we left off." I offered.
"We... We could. I don't want to offend anypony, but I don't want to leave here. It might be better if I stayed..." Glimmer said hesitantly.
"I understand. I promise to visit once in a while. I might just open a portal to see you whenever I can." I offered.
"That would be nice." Glimmer said.
"It's settled then. I will see you every 30 mortal years. I think that should be enough time for both of us." I said.
"30 years?! Are you crazy?" Glimmer asked.
"No, I'm trying to correlate mortal time with universal time." I said.
"It felt like years though. The time you were gone was endless for me." Glimmer said sadly.
"I guess... There must not be a correlation. Unless the feelings of angst and desire caused time to pass extremely slowly for you." I said.
"I'm not sure, just don't leave me for too long." Glimmer said grimly.
"I won't, but I should probably leave right now. The mortal world needs me." I said, hugging her tightly and kissing her forehead goodbye.
"I'll try to keep myself busy while you're gone." Glimmer said.
"I have someone who could help you with that." I motioned over to Blunt Will coming out of the forest.
"Is this another joke?" Glimmer asked, backing from my hold away from Blunt.
"This is the real Blunt Will. This is the Blunt Will that isn't corrupt by dark power." I said.
"Please, give me a chance. I didn't ever want to take your life..." Blunt said sorrowfully.
"I... It wasn't you?" What happened then?" Glimmer asked confusedly.
"It was myself, but with a tainted mind of bad intentions." Blunt explained.
"Give him a chance, you two could be good friends in this world." I smiled, flying off to the floating island again.
"Is everypony ready?" I asked.
"Yep, let's get the buck out of this fog." Tiki said flatly from his pool of steaming water.
"Ah'm about done with this fog, too." Bronze added.
"Alright, I'll open the portal and we'll head back to Equestria." I said.
"I've been wondering where our uniform went, too. We lost them coming through the portal into the afterworld." Silver said.
"Our job was finished when we broke the last crystal. Our combat uniforms aren't needed. They will appear whenever you next need them, though." I explained.
"Are you coming, Power?" Silver asked.
"You are powerful enough to do everything that I could in that gem, just remember everything I've taught you." Power said.
"That's a lot to remember in such a small time, you couldn't stay for a couple months and maybe tutor me some more?" Silver asked.
"My place is here. Besides, you have all the knowledge still in the gem, anything you need to know will come to you magically through the gem." Power said with a toothy smile.
"Alright, farewell to you all, may we see you soon enough." I said.
"Yes, let's not make it soon in the afterworld, you all have good lives ahead of you!" Mutiny called out.
I opened the portal in the middle pool of the floating island. The three stallions jumped through one by one as I sat by the portal, pouring drops of magic into the pool to keep the vortex open. After all three made it through, I snaked in after them. Colors flashed bright and vivid, as if we were traveling through a swirling hallway of rainbows. Sounds jumped from all areas, from whispers to screeches and everything in between. It must have been the noises of all the cities and settlements of Equestria as we shot through space to the realm of the living.
We came out in Manehattan as I hoped. Our first job is to get Grim to help lead the goblins from hiding. I might as well take him to Canterlot to speak with the princess. It wouldn't be long until the goblins were part of everyday life, working and living along side the ponies of Equestria.
I came through the portal with ease and no after effects. My magical energy must keep me protected through portals such as that. The other three, on the other hand, need to get used to traveling through the portals. It might be a while before the migraines stop coming on so strong. It was worth it though, not having to travel for days on end to get across Equestria. We don't have to fight goblins anymore, so maybe they can start taking trains around the land instead of a four day trip of hunting through forest and desert. Things will become normal soon, we just have to finish what we started so we could go back to living happily and normally. Everypony started to come back to their senses as I was sitting here, pondering the future. We all grouped up I checked our surroundings. We were near the old mine shaft leading down to the lake. Things looked much different from before. Everything was more green and overgrown around the entrance. The sky was a glorious deep blue shade. The clouds were large and fluffy as they floated through the sky lazily. The sun was still itself, golden yellow shining down across the land. The trees seemed a bit greener and the grass was visibly taller and also much greener.
Scenery aside, we went down the mineshaft and headed to the underground lake. We haven't been down the mineshaft since I wasted all of those goblins through the tunnel with one massive blast of fire. The flames melted and reformed the walls into mystifying swirls and colors of rock and gems. Many of the gems had fallen to the floor after the rock melted and they were loosened from their place. Everypony was picking up jewels and trying to figure out where to keep them without their uniforms. I took all of the gems from the ground throughout the caverns and whisked them away to somewhere else using a warping spell over the floors of the cave system. I explained shortly after that I'm holding onto them until they need the gems again for whatever reason. I know that the majority would go to Rarity for her work. The others would have their own little cut of the jewels for whatever they want to do with them. Bronze and Applejack would most likely sell their cut to raise more money for the orchard. Silver might keep his cut and enchant the jewels or something similar to that. Tiki would devote his cut to Rarity's work, no doubt about it. I didn't need a cut of the treasure, only because I had my infinite capabilities of magic and could conjure up my own gems. I might give whatever cut I get to Captain Barrels as payment for all of his good work.
As I think to Barrels, I wonder about how he is and what he's doing. Human time is much different from Equestrian time, maybe he isn't around any more. Maybe he caught onto everything and cut away from the human world. It wouldn't be a bad thing to do that, it might even be a good idea if he stayed here and kept humans from entering this world. If human kind came into this world in mass, I have no idea what they would do. Maybe send pilgrims here to take over and settle the land. Things would only become worse from there until humans wage war with the ponies and, sadly, win the battle like events usually play out. It's far into the future, their weaponry surely is much more advanced from when I was in high school. Things would surely take a turn for the worst if humans took over this world. I wouldn't allow it to happen though. Even if it killed me, I would use every drop of my power to keep such people out of this innocent, untouched world. I would definitely allow some people into this world, people that didn't care for settlement and to conquer this land. I wish I could've gone back to get more friends. We have a vacant mansion to fill and even a pirate ship for hard workers to take refuge onto.
I snapped out of my thinking as we reached the place of descent. We all jumped down into the deep lake and came up shortly next to one of the rock pillars. It was a long swim back to shore since the lake was so large underground. Most of the islands were underwater and the vegetation was easily adapted to aquatic situations. Even Grim's island was mostly underwater. We reached our usual island, the only island not flooded by the rising water levels. Tiki dried his wings and took off around the lake searching for the goblin. I also flew off with my Draco-vision to see if I could pinpoint Grim's location. I soon found an island driven from the water on a cliff about the lake. Grim's energy radiated through the vegetation in a small hut crafted by the little settler.
"Grim? Is that you?" I asked.
"It is, and so you have defeated Blunt Will as I've heard over the years of a dragon lord defeating the dark energy!" Grim said happily.
"Over... The years?" I asked nervously.
"Yes, two years have passed since the battle, I think today is the anniversary." Grim said.
"Damn guys, it happened again..." I said to myself.
"What happened?" Tiki asked as he flew up to the island on the cliff.
"Two years, Tiki." I said sadly.
"No... This is much longer than 6 months, this is bad!" Tiki said worriedly after realizing what I was talking about.
"At least we left everypony on a good note, no goblin army to threaten the peace." I said.
"I'm done with this dimensional stuff! We've wasted too much time doing it!" Tiki said, flying off to the others.
"Are you ready to go?" I asked Grim.
"I am finally ready, but where will I go?" Grim asked.
"We'll find a spot for you somewhere, but for now I have to speak with Celestia and you're going to help me." I reassured him.
"Ok, I am ready then, with your assurance." Grim said as he hopped onto my back.
We flew off and met up with the others. They were all shocked at the news Tiki hastily delivered to them. There were a lot of questions to be asked, and I had the answers to all of them.
"Why don't we just head back in time, maybe a year or more?" Silver asked.
"It would be pretty risky to time travel from one energy level to another, going through the time period of when Blunt and I clashed. One of us would most likely become lost in the process." I explained.
"What do we do now?" Tiki asked.
"Just play out our lives as usual. There isn't much else we could do." I said.
"Ah'm pretty sure everypony else is fine, just missin' us is all." Bronze said.
"Alright, let's go home." Silver said.
I flashed everypony out of the underground lake and to the surface of the forest outside of Manehattan as soon as Silver had finished his sentence. It wasn't as if we jumped across Equestria or in between dimensions. Everypony could brush something like that off as if it were nothing. Some unicorns use teleporting spells in their daily life and have no troubles or symptoms from the effects. I decided that we should send a letter to the princess in order to notify her of our return. This didn't take long now that I had hands and magic. I asked about the date and the goblin issues that were supposedly being solved. I hope everypony was taking the steps to helping the species of the goblins recover from such a long period of outcast from the world. The answer I received on that question would decide the course of Equestria. Two years is long enough to either make the goblins our friends and partners or our worst enemy. I knew that they would be our friends either way, after so long being hated and hunted. If I offered them a break, a rope of hope from the black well of hatred they plunged into, most of them would come around and accept my offer. I just hoped for the best.
I sent the letter out and we were off to wherever we needed to go. I decided to walk the coast south of Manehattan for the time being while I wait for a response from the princess. I knew that if she didn't respond immediately it might take a day or even a week for a response. Royal duties come before most of the other matters at hand, and I was patient about this even at such times. As we walked I saw a black ship out in the distance from the shore under the gleaming sun of the afternoon. I knew exactly who it was and decided to fly out there hastily with Grim on my back. The others were just casually walking the shore and weren't going anywhere fast.
I spread my wings, long but very short in width. The top half was covered in cloudy white fuzz with the bottom half a mellow shade of blue. Even though they were long and thin they gave me excellent propulsion through any medium, let it be air or water. I shot off the ground, kicking up sand into a small storm of dust on the beach. Darting to the ship, my tail was lashing about behind me and my hair was swirling like a puffy cloud of mist in a slight breeze. I thought it was quite funny when screams of terror and orders from the captain came about the ship. I saw ponies scrambling to their positions as I landed gracefully onto the deck, turning to face Barrels on the upper deck of the ship.
"You wouldn't shoot an old friend, would you?" I asked sarcastically.
"Ironclad? That isn't you, is it?!" Captain Barrels laughed.
"It is, in a new set of flesh!" I responded.
"You've changed so much, yet so little!" Barrels said, jumping down to meet me on the lower deck.
"You've managed to stay yourself also! Are you still connected to the human world?" I asked.
"No, my crew and I broke away many years ago after the government started to become more..." Barrels paused, looking for the right word.
"I know exactly what you mean. I'm guessing you all managed to conform to the ways of life in Equestria after a few years?" I asked.
"Yes, we've conformed well! Life is much better here, we have more freedom than ever to do as we please!" Barrels said.
"You haven't been causing trouble, have you?" I asked sternly.
"Oh no, of course not! We've been sailing to far away lands to find treasures of the unknown, mostly raw ores and gems." Barrels said.
"That's very good, benefiting Equestria! I actually have a small gift for you to make up for everything you've done." I said as my eyes flashed green and gems started to fall from the sky.
"This is a mighty fine gift!" Barrels bellowed happily, his crew scrambling around like children.
"I also have another thing for you..." I said, bringing Grim off my back with my snaking tail.
"What? Why?" Grim asked confusedly.
"I thought since you lived on a lake for so long, why leave the scene of water?" I said.
"Are you willing to work with the rest of the crew?" Barrels asked.
"Yes." Grim responded shortly.
"Welcome to the family!" One pony screamed from the back.
"Nopony will judge you here, we're all outcasts in our own way." Barrels said reassuringly.
"I feel welcome already." Grim said with a smile.
"I'll let you all get settled, I have many more things to do after being gone for so long." I said.
"Farewell!" Grim said as I flew back to shore.
"Don't worry about Celestia or the goblins either, I've got that well under control, also." I added before flying off.
I met up with the rest of the group and we continued as if nothing had happened. They all knew what I was doing when they saw the ship in the distance. We continued to walk when I received a letter from the princess. It was actually from Princess Cadence explaining that both Celestia and Luna were away on important business and that Twilight and her were watching over the palace. It didn't take any deciphering to understand that Twilight had received her wings and was now an alicorn. If Twilight was entrusted on watching over the royal castle, she must've been royalty herself. It was exciting news to learn about such an event happening, but the only thing I was missing was an accurate timeline on the events that took place over the two years we had been missing from. I would have a timeline later, but for now we had to continue our trip. The others argued to why we couldn't just warp back to Canterlot and get it over with, but I insisted on other things I had to do.
As we kept walking we passed many land marks that were quite familiar from our original trip. Along one of these landmarks near a forest I saw the group of gypsies traveling Equestria in their low and humble lifestyles. The pink couple were sitting around a cauldron making their dinner for the night and keeping warm from this unusually chilly wind blowing in the dusk sky. Even though it was late spring and we were near the southern oceans, there was a cold land breeze coming from the northwest. We had been walking and the sun was setting down the horizon over the blue ocean. The sky was fading in fiery orange shades, which reflected off the water and tinted the ocean a fiery color as well. The trees and grasses were green while the sand on the beach remained beige white and powdery. The caravan of old, humble gypsies were parked near the tree line of the forest as the glow of their campsite radiated off more each coming minute due to the lack of light from the setting sun.
"Mr. And Mrs. Pie, I've been meaning to speak to you for a long time now." I said softly as I slowly drifted over to the campsite of the pink couple.
"Don't worry about it anymore, we've spoken with Pinkie." Mr. Pie said with a smile.
"You've told her everything, I presume?" I asked.
"Of course, we would never keep secrets from our own daughter." Mrs. Pie said softly.
"That's all I needed of your time, I'll be off now. And thank you for holding your reactions to my new appearance." I said sheepishly.
"Oh, but it's getting late! Please stay for a bit, we insist on repaying you after you've reunited us with our little girl!" Mrs. Pie insisted.
"This depends on what you're cooking..." Tiki said, peeking up to look into the pot.
"It would be a pleasure." Silver said over Tiki as he dragged the Pegasus back to the ground and back from the pot.
"Yes, there is plenty to go around! Stay for the night if you could!" Mr. Pie said.
"Yeah, but what's in the pot? What the buck am I going to eat?!" Tiki said nervously.
We stayed for the night after eating plenty of stew that was never specified on what it was. Nopony argued what it could've been either, since it was so good. I only ate a small bowl of the stew from the large pot because I was immortal and did not require food. I only eat food for the tastes since my body isn't exactly a body, it's made of pure energy that has taken physical form and texture, so I didn't have muscles or organs to maintain or worry about. My strength is only determined by the intensity of my magical energy and my stamina was determined by the energy pool I possessed. Once I got a feel for my own power I could do much more than I ever could now.
After we ate, the two gypsies brought out large, thick quilts that we could use for the night if it got too cold outside. There wasn't enough room in the carriage with all of their belongings to fit everypony inside, and it wouldn't be fair to everypony if only one had the privilege of a bed and a roof. We all agreed that none of us needed it and decided to sleep outside by the fire. Sleep came fast to everypony around me and I could feel their consciences fade into sleep as I gazed into the stars,closing myself in a deep trance of thought.
We woke up the next morning much later than we usually do. The sun had risen high in the sky and I had moved my gaze from the stars to the smoldering fire. I had kept it burning all night with only the focus of my glare on the embers. A blue hue soon took over the smoldering ashes and the fire continued to dance in small sparks for the next few hours of dawn until everypony else woke up. When we were all up everypony had oatmeal made by the gypsy couple. I didn't have any because I didn't need any, and it also gave the other three in my group and extra small portion for each of them. We soon said our goodbyes and headed off after helping clean up. As we started walking I was thinking about all the other things I had to do before we went to Canterlot to see the princesses and the mane 6. It surprised me when I realized that I really didn't have any other errands that I couldn't perform without the princess helping me with the goblin issues. I told the others and they were pretty happy that we were going to be able to go to Canterlot so soon. We were just about to warp all the way to Canterlot before a mysterious figure stopped me from completing the spell.
"We've been waiting for your return, all of you." This mysterious stallion in a black cape said to us.
"Who are you? You don't look too welcoming." I said uneasily.
"Looks are usually deceiving, like the look on the mare from the train station..." He mentioned.
"It's one of them..." Tiki whispered to me.
"There really isn't much to fear from us, we aren't assigned to eliminate you anymore, in fact we've taken a liking to you, Lord Bliss." The stallion said with no emotion as he slightly adjusted his mask.
"I'm not interested in partnership, I don't need it." I said defensively.
"We aren't interested in partnership or anything related, just know that we'll be watching you." The stallion said as he walked the other way slowly and faded into the forest.
"Anyways... Time for Canterlot!" I said as if nothing had happened.
"Why don't we go after him?" Bronze asked.
"Why would we? He didn't cause problems, and if him or any of his groupies do cause any trouble, we'll deal with it later." I said, powering up the magical portal once again.
"Good enough for me!" Tiki shrugged and got within our circle for the portal.
We went through the portal and came out soon enough in Canterlot. The sun was setting once again and everypony at the gates were leaving to go home or heading into the castle for the night. The travel time of the portal took up the entire day to minimize the migraines that everypony received. There was ultimately no discomfort from the trip and no one was expecting us to be here, so it didn't affect anything overall.
After a bit of walking, we approached the main gates and were granted immediate access into the palace at the sight of myself and the other three. We walked down the hallways lined with red carpet and dimly lit by fire pits along the hall ways. Shining sets of black armor lined the hallways, complementing the old fashioned paintings dotting the walls along with the stained glass windows depicting tales of major events that occurred in pony history. We continued to wander down the hall slowly until we reached the palace room where Princess Celestia's throne lies. It wasn't occupied at the very moment, but Princess Cadence was standing in the open room talking with a guard about some royal affair that needed to be taken care of.
"I know this is a bit unexpected, but..." I mumbled as we entered the room.
"Oh! Hello everypony! It's so nice to finally meet you!" Cadence said with a surprised look upon her face.
"It is truly a pleasure, I'm sorry we arrived on such short notice, I didn't even tell you that I would be showing up with my group in the first place." I said apologetically.
"It's quite alright! There's more than enough room with both Celestia and Luna gone!" Cadence said.
"True. Where exactly are they right now?" I asked.
"At this very moment they are in the Crystal Empire. Goblin affairs are being settled in a royal manner with some of the local leaders of the goblin factions and the ponies of the north." Cadence explained.
"Really? How long has this been happening? Is everything going well?" I asked anxiously.
"Everything is going more than well. Almost all of the goblin population has agreed to a treaty between the ponies. Ponyville was one of the first locations to make peace. Although it must be hard for such a change in lifestyle for both sides, goblins do make good assistants and servants for tedious chores." Cadence continued.
"What? Goblin slavery? Is that what's going on right now?" I asked nervously.
"Oh, that's forbidden in the code of ancient law written by the founders of the lands. Goblins happily agree to most jobs offered to them. Most of the jobs that ponies don't wish to do everyday are taken by goblins for very low cost. Things have worked out very well between the two communities and the goblins are even starting to become self sufficient in their own communities." Cadence finished.
"I'm so glad to hear of this, I can stop worrying and look to the future now!" I said happily.
"That's good to hear! You all must be tired now, go sleep for tonight and we will head to the Crystal Empire soon." Cadence said.
"Alright, although seeing Twilight before bed would be nice." I said.
"I'm sorry to say, but she's already left for the Crystal Empire, you'll be able to see her soon enough, though." Cadence said.
"Fair enough, is there anypony else around to keep you company for the time being?" I asked.
"There is only Discord, which is plenty enough to keep me entertained while I hold the castle down here with Shining Armor." Cadence said.
"Oh! I'm going to have to speak with Discord tomorrow, then!" I said eagerly.
"This is enough talking, I'm so ready for bed, even if we only traveled for 2 minutes all day." Tiki said.
"I will leave you all for the night, come join us in the dining hall tomorrow morning!" Cadence said, starting off for her bedroom.
Everypony settled into their original room they slept in when we were last here in the castle. Nothing much had changed since we were last here and sleep came easily to everypony within the castle walls. I could feel it come swiftly and heavily upon each pony's conscience as they all drifted into slumber, one after another. I didn't sleep in a bed or in the castle, for that matter. I snaked out one of the windows quietly and wrapped my tail around one of the flag poles of the roof tops to keep from drifting off as I floated. I didn't need sleep, I could've just floated around and gazed into the stars all night. I could've even gone through everypony's dreams and visited them all in their sleep. After a while I broke from my thoughts and drifted into my own state of slumber as well.
Luna was correct, sleep isn't needed, but it's still nice to sleep.
Everypony woke up in the morning to hysterical laughter coming from the dining room. I had found my way to Discord after he had finished any work he was assigned to do. I met him in the hallway by flowing through the ceiling back into the halls of the castle. Discord was walking through the carpeted hallways leisurely, making his way back to his own room in the castle when I had appeared from no where and gave him quite a scare. He jumped back and giggled a bit at the awkward moment and the floating dragon in the hallway. He told me that it felt good to see a bit of chaos still lingering in this world, which begun our conversation. We talked for hours through the night in an open court room as we floated around leisurely, passing the night by with our words. When I had found Discord it was in the middle of the night, around 2:00 AM would've been my best estimate. I asked enthusiastically about all the amazing and frivolous bits of chaos he had caused over the centuries, and he replied with many stories of silly encounters and happenings from his world of chaos. Even though Discord was reformed, there wasn't any problem with a bit of chaos controlled into one single room. Nopony was around to witness it, so we both had some fun with magic and chaos, like the cotton candy clouds and the chocolate milk rain. Before the sun rose we whisked away our creations and cleaned up the room as if nothing had ever happened. I learned much about magic and the miscellaneous things I could do with it from this night and would most likely use it in the future for pointless entertainment.
The sun was rising above the horizon and cracking through the windows as everypony lay in their beds waking from the previous night of arrival to the Canterlot castle. One by one, they each rose out of bed from the noise coming from the dining hall in the main rooms of the castle. Discord and I were finishing the night with jokes that we've both accumulated over the times. We were laughing hysterically at some of them and didn't realize exactly how loud we were. Cadence came out from her room and urged us to be quiet until the morning wake up call began and the guards had to work. The other three soon awoke and joined us in the dining halls after Discord and I had finished the last of our conversation.
Everypony ate breakfast and relaxed for the day through Canterlot. Silver and Tiki decided to leave for a popular cafe at lunch time while Bronze took a long walk through the hedge maze in the back of the castle. Discord had other things to attend to so I only floated through the clouds,closing myself in my imagination and day dreaming like usual. Dusk came fast for everypony and we all gathered in the main room of the castle. Princess Cadence told all of us that we were invited to the Crystal Empire to stay with the mane 6 and Celestia and Luna. It was a given that we were going to be there, but because of the royal matters taking place there, we had to be cleared before arrival. We were all excited to be able to finally leave and be with everypony else again. This time we wouldn't have to leave anymore, we would be able to be with each other for as long as we possibly can. I'm pretty sure the mane 6 would be equally happy to see us considering that 2 years have passed since our last encounter. It would be a great reunion to see everypony once again. Things can finally calm down and we could live normal lives, at least, as normal as possible. Even though things will calm down there is still much work to do.
Author's Note
End of book two, but still more to come! Keep your eyes peeled because I will be posting a link to book three here or somewhere else when I get to it, most likely here.
Cover art for book three is still needed along with all of the other original characters I'm planning to introduce, book three will surely be a party!
