Freedom of Choice

Chapters

Chapter II: Into the Frozen North
Chapter III: Dreams of Crystal
Chapter IV: Burdens
Chapter V: Out of this Town
Chapter VI: Ready for Action
Chapter VII: Vacation
Chapter IX: Storm Seen
Chapter X: Thunder and Lightning
Chapter XI: Prairies
Chapter I: A New Plan
Chapter VIII: Fourth Night

Chapter II: Into the Frozen North

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Chapter III: Dreams of Crystal

We started our journey towards the Crystal Empire, with sore legs and heavy heart I left the place where I had my first contact with ponykind. The snow started to give way for the grass, just as the sun began to settle down to give way for the rising moon.

What should be a trek of 3 hours increased to 5, unfortunately I didn’t realized the toll that my past actions had taken on me, I turn to Gilda to ask.

“How much left?”

“About an hour, give it or take it.”

Realizing something, I stop walking, she bumps into me.

“What’s the big idea? Move!”

“Just realized I don’t have any money and I’ll probably have to sleep on the streets. Unless… Gilda, can you fly?”

“What do you want?”

“I’m looking for a farm.”

She shakes her head and points towards something. “There.” I guess that’s my destination.

I nod and change my course for it. As the few minutes pass by, I begin to see a big building and something of what could be made as an orchard, whatever they plant there, it thrives on the cold clime.

The building’s door on my front, I step forward and get ready to knock on it, but a thought crosses my mind, what do I say? Hello sir/madam, I’m a weary traveler that requires shelter. Something along those lines will do, too tired to think properly. I turn to Gilda and she faces me with a look that says “what”. I try to clean myself and make a presentable face.

I knock on the door, hearing the sounds of hooves making their way from the floor above the ground level. The doors open, I see a mare with a crystalline red coat and icy blue mane, the colors clashing, her face, neutral.

“Excuse me miss, my name is Igor and I’m a human, my friend here,” I nudge Gilda, she nods to the mare. “is Gilda, we’re travelers seeking shelter for the night. If you may be so kind to provide it, I promise that during my stay I’ll be of no burden to you.”

She looks at Gilda and me and then brings her hoof to her chin.

“Of course I wouldn’t deny it! The gryphon can stay at one of the guest rooms, but for you… I don’t think it would be possible to house you here, to clear any misunderstandings, I don’t think you would fit in any bed here and I’m waiting for my father and he tends to…” She pouts. “overdrink. I’m more worried to what would happen if he saw you on his state.”

“Reasonable. Where shall I spend the night?”

“Well,” She shifts with discomfort. “would you mind sleeping in the barn?”

I smile. “Not at all, I just wanted a place to rest, protection from the weather and wild animals is enough. Thank you.” I give her a small bow.

Content enough with the results, we walk to the barn. Made of sturdy wood and painted in light blue that would blend on snow, in our current location it merely made it stand out. She opens it and as we began to get in, she asks.

“May I bring you any covering? The place will get quite cold through the night.” I shake my head and point towards my snow cloak. “Alright then. I take it Gilda will stay here as well.” Gilda nods.

“I see.” She turned towards the door and just as she is about to left. “Oh! By Celestia! I forgot to introduce myself, my name is Bright Berry. Sorry for my absent mind, I’m just worried about my father. If you excuse me, I need to go.” She nods and leaves, closing the door behind her.

I shake my head, look at the surrounds to find the perfect place, a big spot where the hay is spread through the ground, I scoop some up, making a layer to protect me from the ground, I lay my backpack down to use it as a pillow and cover myself with the cloak.

“Why did you let them do that?” Gilda asks.

“Please, not now, too tired, promise answer tomorrow.” All I could manage to say.

“I’m holding this promise.” She went silent. Soon after, I would fall asleep.

I wake up just before the sunrise, I feel restless, just a few meters of me Igor lays, and only the sound of light breathing leaves him as his chest rises and fall. I walk to him and start to shake him in attempt to wake him up.

“Hum?”

“I want my answer.”

“Time?”

“Sun just got up.”

“Midday.”

“What?” He didn’t answer this time, if he wishes me to wake him up later he’s dead wrong. “Fine!!” I shout. “Do whatever you want!” After two steps from leaving he answers.

“Wait, what did you say?” He starts to get up.

“I said do whatever you want!” I shout back the answer.

He starts giggling and breaks into a full laugh. “What’s so funny?” I ask him angrily.

He takes a few seconds to recompose himself. “That phrase, ‘do whatever you want’, never thought I would hear it in my life.”

Just forget it Gilda, go straight. “You promised something.”

“Yes I did, what was it?” At least he partially remembers.

“Why did you let those ponies treat you like that? Why you didn’t put up with that?”

He crosses his hind and fore paws. “Tell me, what you’d have done?”

“I don’t have time for this.”

“I’m being serious Gilda, what you would have done in my place?” He’s serious.

“If I were in you place would talk them down, see if I can calm them, as for myself I would’ve ditched them just because of those blasted windigoes.”

“Do you know what a windigo feeds on?” I shake my head. “They feed on ‘negative’ emotions, how much time do you think it would take for another to follow?”

“So, it would be a vicious cycle?”

“Probably.” He gets up and brushes himself. “Maybe it’s for the best, or maybe a flock of them swept the town clean of life after our departure.”

I gasp at this. “Calm down, it’s just a joke.” I shake my head and leave the barn.

Do whatever I want. I beam at the thought. The only impediment being, what do I want to do? I follow Gilda, stepping outside and closing the doors tightly. At the horizon I see the sun.

“Beautiful…” I couldn’t deny it, a beautiful sight. On my yesterday’s rush I could barely admire this world, the sun, the snow, the grass, everything that fills this world is different from Earth, the hues, brightness and contrast of all the things in this world is a thing that only artists and dreamers would be able to achieve, it is a magical land. I’m no exception to it, raising my hand in front of my eyes I see it, the little details that cover my hand, each of my prints seemly drew from something that I wouldn’t ever imagined, the hair on my arms is no different, I imagine how my face looks. Even my touch felt different.

Gilda seems to be reflecting on something, she doesn’t notice me staring at her, what does it feel like to have fur and feathers? How would she see perceive my world? Thoughts and questions for later, as for now, what do I do? Thank my host for the housing.

I turn to Gilda. “Hey,” She looks back. “I’m going to thank Berry, want to tag along?” I smile as the last worlds leave my mouth. She notices me quoting her and nods.

“Very funny, nothing much for me to do, I guess it is fine.”

We walk back to the house to find Bright Berry moving to us.

“Oh, I was about to wake you up, would you mind doing me a favor?”

“Not at all.” I reply with a smile.

“Remember when I told about my father?” I nod. “He hasn’t arrived, I can’t leave the farm to look for him, too many chores. He’s a crystal stallion with a grey coat and yellow mane by the name of Crystal Flux. I may have an idea of where he is, you should look at Blunder Beer’s bar at the Crystal Empire. You won’t miss it because it has the same name as the owner.” She giggled. “Thank you for your help, I’ll be sure to repay it.”

“No need, I’m repaying it for your hospitality.”

She leaves to the farm as I get a glimpse of her cutie mark, a crystal berry with shifting colors, truly unique. Gilda and I leave to the Crystal Empire, without a clock I could only determine of what could be a walk of 20 minutes. Arriving at the border we moved through the streets, the crystalline buildings were either grow out of the ground or were carried from somewhere from the depths to the surface, the giant castle like tower being at the center.

Not wanting to waste time I look for other ponies to interact, only the guards were awake this early, I look at Gilda and smile, she looks at me and I nod towards the guards. “Go on.” She says, so we do it.

A pair, probably patrolling, a crystal and an earth guards. The earth pony visibly shaking and the crystal pony remained indifferent.

“Greetings guards, I’m a little lost here, I’m looking for Blunder Beer’s bar, would you mind pointing it?” The crystal guard was very happy to help me, the earth guard stood there with his mouth open, I thanked and moved to the pointed direction.

Arriving at the structure we enter it, almost empty except for the beer colored, white mane and yellow coat, stallion that sat behind the counter cleaning a bunch of glasses, by the looks he is employed here.

“Welcome to Blunder Beer’s bar, I’m Blunder Beer, may get you anything?” He says with a smile.

“More like ‘somepony’, I’m looking for Crystal Flux, his daughter Bright Berry sent me here to look for him.”

His expression shifted to sadness.

“I guess I’ll close the bar for a while.” He says while cleaning the last crystal mug. “My brother has not been the same since…” He trails off, wait, his brother?

“So, Berry is your niece?”

“Yes, I’ll show you were he is.” We three leave the bar, he closes it and moves ahead of us.

We arrive at a graveyard, moving through the small tombstones I see various names and dates, apparently ponies use the same system as humans, 30 days and 12 months, the years being with 4 digits. We arrive at a particular grave, none other than Bright’s father passed out on the ground with a bottle in a hoof, I approach him and try pull off the bottle from his grip. How the hell a pony holds things with a hoof?

“Hey! It’s mine!” The stallion says with a slurred voice.

“Good, you’re awake.” Blunder says with a scowl on his face.

“Hey drunk, your daughter is worried about you.” Finally Gilda says something.

“Nothing of your business, leave me alone.” He tries to shoo us. I don’t think he can see me straight.

“Blunder, how strong a crystal pony coat is?” I ask.

“Well, the external crystalline part is very strong, almost doubles as armor, why do you ask?”

I swiftly snatch the bottle from Crystal’s grasp, it’s empty, good, I proceed to smash the bottle on his head, sending the fragments everywhere and knocking him out. Gilda and Blunder start to laugh at my doing.

“Damn boy, I was about to it myself.” He catches his breath and laughs harder.

“Me too.” Gilda snickers.

“I guess I have to carry him now.” I shake my head.

“Yep, that you do, I’ll clear this mess. Give Bright a hug for me.”

I dismiss him and turn to Gilda.

“Can you carry my backpack?”

“What?”

“The pack on my back, it’s a backpack.”

“Why should I?”

“I’ll carry the drunkard.”

“And?”

“Would you please carry my backpack?”

“Since you asked so nicely, I’ll do it.” She laughs as I hand it to her.

“Thanks.” I put him on my shoulder. “This will be a fucking long trip.” I shake my head again.

He’s a bit crazy, maybe a lot. Every time I look at the drunken stallion drooling at his shoulder a snicker escapes me, every time he sees me doing it he does the same. Funny guy.

30 minutes walking, I can see him sweating, he just pants and clears his head with his left paw and sometimes claw his head’s fur backwards, strange little claws of his.

We arrive back at the farm, he places down the stallion and slumps down.

“Gilda, would you mind to look for Bright? I need to catch my breath.”

“I’ll do it.” I throw the ‘backpack’ at his face. “You still owe me another.”

I beat my wings and take flight, the berry orchard is almost big as… forget it. It’s just big, the red glowing coat stands out in the green field, and I fly to it.

“Hello Gilda.”

“Hey, we got your father back, Igor is with him at the house’s doorstep.”

“I’ll be there soon. Consider yourselves invited for breakfast.”

Something to fill my stomach would be awesome, the last time I ate something was yesterday? No, the day before yesterday, damn, all that work for nothing, nothing edible at least. I fly back to Igor and we wait for Bright to come back, we get inside, a simple and big house. Igor and Berry move to the floor above the ground carrying the unconscious stallion, probably to set him on his bed. They walk back down and I follow them.

"I apologize on my father's behalf, he isn't the same since mother passed away, he's a good stallion, but from time to time he goes into depression."

"What happened?" Sympathy on his voice.

"It was during king's Sombra reign, sorry, but if you want to hear more you'll have to ask father, it's not a good way of remembering mother." He nods.

We three go to the kitchen. Ah the smell, it’s all fresh made: cakes, pies, cookies, jam, juice and the fruits themselves. Igor looks silly trying to sit on the stalls, he sets down on his rump, doesn’t look so tall. He starts to sniff the food, I can’t control myself and start to laugh, Bright does the same. Igor just stares at us.

“Sorry, but even the smell is delicious, I can almost taste it.”

“Enjoy it!” We don’t waste any time.

We finished the meal, Igor offered to wash the dishes, I choose to lie down and let the stomach do its work. I close my eyes but stay alert.

“So, what you’ll be doing now?” Bright’s voice.

“Right now I just want to take a nap. I’m completely out of my time zone.” I should ask him some time about it. “But I need some money, a bath and a place to sleep.” I haven’t thought about it yet.

“I could offer you some work if you’re interested.”

“That would be great. What is it?”

“I noticed these claws of yours, would you be up for some berry picking?”

“Gilda, would you be up for some berry picking?” I’m surprised by his question.

“That would be great.” We both laugh.

End of Chapter III

Chapter IV: Burdens

Amazing breakfast, I’m just happy to get some food and a place to rest, unfortunately my sleep was disturbed earlier and I couldn’t get proper rest. I leave the dining area to the outside, the house entrance. I look around, still early in the morning, the fatigue making its way to my eyes, I rub them tiredly, seeing a shaded spot bellow a tree I move to it. Lying down near the tree trunk trying to find a comfortable spot, again I decide to use my backpack as a makeshift pillow.

The backpack, I forgot what I’ve been carrying all this time. I unzip every compartment of it and let the contents slump into the ground: the snow cloak, a blue sweater, a raincoat, a notebook, some pens, an umbrella, a wallet, the eyeglasses (now useless), earphones and cellphone. The last item catches my attention, did I remember to recharge it? I try to turn it on, no response.

“Such a shame, I could use some music.” I mutter, placing the objects back into the backpack, again I lie down and turn my head towards the tree trunk. Closing my eyes and getting ready to sleep.

“Hey, I’ve been looking for you.” Not now Gilda.

“Yes?”

“Do you mind me sitting here?”

“Go on.”

Again silence, as I feel I’m about to fall asleep.

“Do you mind answering some questions?”

I laugh. “I knew I wouldn’t get any peace today. One condition, you get to answer some questions too.” I get up to rest my back against the tree.

A smirk forms on her face. “First one, what you were doing on the snow when I found you?”

“I certainly remember not going to a bed, who carried me there?”

“That was me. You’re welcome.”

“I don’t recall this one, all I remember is making my way home, felling tired then I decided to take a nap.”

“I don’t buy it. You were simply walking home and slept?”

“Not that,” I sigh. “humans have chariots that pull themselves, that’s the best term I can come up with, I paid the toll to get aboard, sat down and fell asleep. I don’t recall anything else. Anyway, thanks for saving me. Where are you from?”

“From across the ocean, the griffin kingdom. Why do you wear clothes all the time?”

“I dunno. There are laws against ‘public indecency’, I would surely end up in jail on my world. It’s a human thing.”

“Your world?” Ops, it slipped from me.

“My turn!” I change the subject. “What you were doing up there in the north?”

She goes silent and looks down. “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.” Sorry for bringing this up Gilda. “Changing the subject, a thing has been bugging me for some time, which one is the correct spelling: griffin with double F, griffon with double F or gryphon with PH?”

Her expression quickly changes, she feels amusement at this. “Griffin for the kingdom, griffon for the species, no one uses gryphon anymore, those crystal ponies have been out of foreign contact for too long.” She shakes her head. “What exactly is a human?”

“Damn, I hate this one. The closest thing humans can relate to are primates.”

“Like a monkey?”

“Yes, like a monkey.” She bursts in laugh. “Very funny. It’s like saying a pony is a horse and a griffon a chicken cat hybrid.” She looks at me sternly while I laugh.

We spend some time trash talking, funny small things, for example, humans have hair while griffons have crests, and those can be stylized in many ways. The differences between her claws and my hands, talons and nails. We both being omnivores. Time passes and Bright Berry trots to us.

“This is where you’ve been, shall we get started? We have a lot of work to do.” I nod and start to get up, at first looking at Gilda from below was a bit unnerving, even when sitting she stood taller than me.

We walk to the back part of the property, a giant orchard of crystal berries, the multitude of colors explaining well Bright’s cutie mark, she tends the entire place by herself, she definitely earned it. Moving inside the barn we three start to pick off baskets, due to Igor’s bipedal stance it’s much easier to carry those around, he decides to show off and picks four. Back at the orchard we place our containers down.

“There isn’t much about picking berries, there is no worries about cracking them since the weather is ideal for them.”

“Excuse me, it ‘cracks’, like breaking?” Igor says.

“Yes, those are crystal berries, instead of the usual peel on fruits, crystal berries have a crystal skin, and the crystal part can be washed, melted and eaten as well.”

“Interesting.” He says.

“Yeah, really interesting.” Berry giggles.

“So, you lean in and give a gentle tug with your claw and… done.” She shows us.

Igor’s face shows excitement, he circles the bushes placing the baskets around it and sweeps it clean while using both his hands. Bright’s jaw would probably dislocate if she tried to open it more.

“Like that?” He asks and she only nods in response.

She recomposes herself. “That was fast. When those are filled place them into the cart. I’ll leave you to it.” And then she leaves.

“Ok. That was a bit weird.” He shrugs.

We spend the following time doing the chores: fill the baskets, carry them to the cart, empty them, go back, repeat, boring. At least we’ll get paid, I should’ve asked about the payment first.

“Hey Gilda, you’re nice company.” He starts to laugh.

“What’s so funny?”

She, of all the creatures I would least expect to, is blushing. The effect of feathers getting red is pretty funny. I laugh even harder. “You’re blushing.” She gets even redder and gives me a light punch on the side. “Ok, I’ll stop.”

The ringing of bell? Something followed by a loud yell. “Lunchtime!”

I don’t fight it, I just carry the remaining fruits and deposit them into cart. Moving back to the kitchen I’m met by a very happy crystal pony.

“You have no idea how happy I am.” No, I don’t, I only smile in response. “I’m usually burdened by all those tasks.” Now I see.

“What about your father?”

“He’s a good stallion, just a bit sad. Since mother departed.”

I raise my hand. “The sensitive subject, I get it.” I shake my head. “I’m happy to be employed.” I chuckle. “I expect the payment to be fair.” She nods. “Good.”

Gilda arrives a moment later.

I settle at one of the stalls, last time I was barely able to stay straight, the way I’m tired I’ll probably drop like a stone once I hit the bed. Speaking of which.

“Bright, would you mind me sleeping inside the house?”

“Not at all, you could try one of the guest rooms. If the bed holds, you can sleep on it.”

“He’s a featherweight.” I laugh at her remark.

“Very funny, Gilda. But yes, I’m pretty lightweight. My diet didn’t help either.”

Bright looks at me. “Yes, you could use some more food.”

“Partially my fault, the food I used to consume wasn’t of the healthiest either.” Yes, you can’t compare the gruel I’m used to ingest with the things she cooks. “Let’s drop the subject and enjoy the food.” They nod in agreement.

A few minutes later we take another break. Another two or three hours of work, no berries were left behind, it took some time but I confirmed it, the place was clean. I scratch my head and go back to look for Bright.

She’s inside the kitchen, sweeping the place, holding a small broom with a hoof, I guess I’ll never get used to it.

“Bright, what should we do once we finish the gathering?”

She turns to me. “Well, the other thing that could be done is clip some of the rogue branches, but I did it yesterday. Why do you ask?”

“We finished.”

“What? You finished collecting them!? It would take at least four days!”

“If I had a clock I would say it took about four to six hours.” I wiggle my fingers in front of her.

“Oh, I forgot about those… claws?”

I shake my head. “Fingers.”

“I guess I need to check the products.”

We both move outside back into the barn, Gilda approaches us.

“Where you’ve been?” She asks me.

“There wasn’t anything left to do, so I had to ask the boss.” I point with my thumb at Bright while smiling.

Arriving at the barn we help with the wooden doors. She goes inside and looks at the cart filled with berries, she appears to be counting, she looks back at me and I point to another filled cart and some baskets. She looks again at me.

“What?” I ask.

“You did it! You really did it!” She runs towards me, I crouch just a bit, knowing what was coming: a hug. I’m not exactly a model for comparing height, 165 centimeters or 5 feet and 5 inches, ponies must be around 121 cm or 4’. On the bright side, I’m finally taller than someone else.

“Easy there. This will cost you.” I say with a devious smile.

“What do you mean?” She backs out.

“That was a joke.” I shake my head while still smiling. “Anyway, Gilda helped too.” Who knew she could use her claws like I use my thumbs, there will be a lot of things that I’ll have to get used to.

“No hugs for me, I prefer bits.” Gilda says while shaking her head.

“Oh! Of course both of you will get paid, I’ve counted everything, which should be: each cart 450, both carts filled 900; each basket 50, 6 baskets 300; 1200 total, splitting for 2 is 600 bits for each.” I turn to look at Gilda, I think Bright broke her.

“What!? Are those things made of gold!? That’s more than the weather team at Fillydelphia paid after the bug swarm!”

“Is it really that much?” Igor asks me in a dull voice.

“Yes, really that much, you could stop working for the next 3 months and live comfortably.” I nod.

“Let’s go inside the house, I’m sure I have enough money stored to pay you now, if you wish to help me haul the cargo to the town tomorrow, I can get you an extra 50 bits.” Berry says.

“What’s so special about those crystal berries? I may not know anything about the local economy, but they must be really valuable.” Interesting note on his part.

“Yeah, now I’m curious too.” I say while looking at Bright.

“Actually, it’s the demand, the only place where this type of berry.” She points at the carts. “Can be properly cultivated is here, where the cold climate allows the seed to harden and create the shell. Besides,” She smiles. “the place where you just finished working is the best crystal berry farm on the Crystal Empire!”

“Can’t argue with that. The amazing food was enough to convince me.” Igor adds.

“Yeah, let’s get paid already.” I didn’t want to be lectured.

“Of course, just follow me.” Says Bright.

We follow her into the house, past the living room into some sort of office. “Could you wait outside?” Igor and I nod. A few minutes pass. “Come on in!”

The table is filled with piles of bits. “I’m sure you want to count.” Bright says while looking to us.

“This will take a while.” Igor says while dragging a stall near the desk.

Yes! A day of hard work and 600 bits on the bag.

“600 bits, all right.” Igor says while looking at me.

“Yeah.” I smile at him.

He opens his backpack and drags down the golden coins into it. He throws it across his back. “Expected to be heavier.” And shrugs. “Doesn’t matter, I’m probably blowing it all tomorrow!”

I laugh at this. “With what?”

“I want new clothes.” He pulls a part of what he is currently wearing and sniffs it. “But right now I need to wash the ones I’m wearing.”

“Why don’t you just go around naked?” Bright asks while tilting her head.

I turn to look at Igor, his face is tomato red. “Not going to happen, it’s a very personal thing.”

“Do you want me to wash them?” She asks.

“Actually, can you teach me to wash my clothes?”

“Wait a second, you wear clothes all the time and yet you don’t know how to wash them?” This time the question being mine.

“Hey! I’m trying to learn.” He retorts

“Whatever.”

“So, do you want someplace private to take off your clothes?” She asks.

“Yes.”

“Third door to your right is the bathroom.” He waves his hand and moves out.

“Weirdo.” I say with a small laugh.

“He’s a bit different. Where did you find him anyway?”

“Buried in the snow, taking a nap.”

She raises her eyebrow. “Sleeping?”

“That’s what I said, he sleeps like a rock.” She giggles at this.

Igor is back, this time he’s completely covered in the snow cloak.

Better be more careful from now on, washing it on hand will be a bitch. I sigh. Dumb thing on my part, should’ve thought about what I was going to wear after getting them wet. I turn off the shower and start to dry myself, the towel Bright provided me is big and fluffy enough for me, haven’t considered they have way more to dry than a human.

A last look at the mirror, a crystal mirror, my face is less rough, a lot more appealing, at least for me, my beard on the other hand, looks a bit intimidating, good.

My eyes, the dominant dark brown almost black irises were replaced, I can’t make out the color, or colors in this case, a faint glowing blue with shifting tones. This is what’s scaring those ponies for life, I like it. I smirk and wrap the towel around my waist, I still have my dignity.

Opening the door to the outside of the bathroom I look at both sides of the hallway, only 4 residents on the house, none on sight and the 4th being me, I move out and up the stairs into the room I left my belongings.

Into my room I reach for the bed, undoing it and folding the covers, placing them on top of a desk, a modest room. I look out of the window, sun almost setting, I pick the bed sheet and cover myself, lying down sideways, if only I had my underwear.

*knock-knock* “Hello?” It’s Bright.

“I’m here.”

She enters the room. “Do you need anything?”

“Actually,” I point to the door handle or hoofle, dammed be those puns. “the towel is there. When you wake up could you please check my clothes and bring them here if they’re dry?”

She smiles and nods. “Sure, have good dreams.” She picks the towel and leaves.

“Finally peace…”

*knock-knock* “Hey, you there?” Gilda.

I chuckle. “I’m here.”

She enters the room. “Can we talk for a sec?”

“Speak your mind.” I say unmoving.

“Do you remember when we talked earlier?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you want to know what I was doing there at the north?” For God’s sake!

I move and sit cross legged on the bed, using the bed sheet to cover everything down the neck. “Go on.”

“You gotta promise that you won’t tell anyone though.”

“You have my word, what’s so important?”

She looks into my eyes, a deep and sad stare. Her tale, about one year ago, she went to visit her best friend, I say the only one she had, how she tried just for a small time enjoy the company, how she was shunned, “traded” for someone else, left alone. I let her vent. The perspective from her point of view being quite different from the one I saw.

Finishing her story she turns her head down and starts to sob, I don’t know what she expects from me but I’ll do something.

“Gilda, look at me.” She looks up, her golden eyes watered by tears held back. “I thank you for trusting me, I promise I won’t tell anyone about it. But I have a small secret too, one that I’m willing to share, but you gotta promise that you won’t tell anyone though.” She smiles at her own words and cleans her face.

I tell her about them, about the six ponies, how I knew about them. Her expression unreadable.

“Are you telling me you’re not from this world?” I nod. “That some people from your world ‘watches’ us like some kind of play?” I nod again.

“Not us, them, the Elements. Basically they are the protagonists of the play, as you said.”

A small moment passes. “So, you aren’t angry at me?”

“Why? I saw something from another point of view. You already explained yourself. Let it go.” She sighs. “Maybe by choosing her new ‘friends’, instead of you she showed you her true colors.” She snickers at the choice of words.

She takes a deep breath. “Even knowing what I did back there, you saved me at Northtrot. Thanks.”

“The village up north? When I carried you? I’m sure you could’ve walked by yourself.”

“No, one of those things was about to get me, as soon as it saw you doing the magic absorption thing to the other he charged at you.”

“I remember it.” I cross my arms.

“Wait a second, are you one of those weirdoes that watch the ponies?” Her tone changes slightly.

I shake my head. “Weirdo is a bit offensive, yes and no would be the correct answer. I like the plays because the ideals the pass to us, just that, but I don’t fit in the group.”

“Okay then, like you did to me, I won’t judge you.” I close my eyes and lower my head. “One more thing.”

I give up. “What is it?”

She snickers. “I heard you singing in the shower.”

I can feel the blood rushing to my face, she sees it and starts to laugh. “Come on! I did it really loud?” I hide myself underneath the covers.

“Nah, I was about to brush my teeth when I heard you, would you mind singing it again?” She smiles.

Hope is lost for me. I uncover my head. “Only for you, Gilda.”

End of Chapter IV

Chapter V: Out of this Town

“I’m up…” I say to myself.

Sitting at the small, but very comfortable bed, I stretch my arms and let out a loud yawn. Finding my clothes resting at the top of the desk, every piece of them. Lifting from the bed and immediately go for them: underwear, pants and shirt. I decide to go barefoot, feeling the wood floor on my feet.

Moving out of the room, I step at the stairway, into the bathroom and start to wash my face. I dry my face on a nearby towel and go look for the land owner, I hear sounds from the kitchen and move there. Bright Berry washing the dishes, I lean at the doorway.

“Good morning.” I say with a gentle smile.

“Good evening sleepyhead.” She doesn’t stop her task.

I walk to her with intent on helping. “What time is it?”

“Midday, you skipped yesterday’s dinner and just missed lunch. More than a half day of sleep.” She chuckles.

“Yes, I was tired. It’s a miracle I’m not sore. I’m thirsty though, not hungry.”

She points to a jar. “There is still some juice there.”

I pick a cup fill it and sit at the table. She finishes her chore and sits at the opposite end. I gulp down 3 cups, finally satisfied, I keep my gaze at the bottom of the empty cup for a few seconds. I snap out of my trance after hearing steps.

“Hello there.” It’s the bar owner, Blunder Beer, and his brother, Crystal Flux.

I wave my hand at him. Crystal moves close to me, we get into a stare match.

“You don’t look strong.” I smile.

“You don’t look sober.” His brother smiles, but he keeps the serious face.

“Proper introductions, my name is Crystal Flux. My apologies for my behavior.” He raises his hoof for a shake.

“No harm done?” I point to his head, he shakes it, and my hand moves to shake his hoof.

“Geez, look who decided to wake up.” I wave my hand to Gilda.

They all pick places at the table, sitting down, looking at me…

“What?” I ask, uncomfortable with the situation.

“Nothing, when I mean nothing, it means there is nothing to do on the house, except the occasional cleaning. The orchard is clean, nothing to pick.” Bright answers.

“I’m curious about you, Gilda said you are a human. Are you?” Crystal’s turn.

“Yes, I am.”

“Where are you from?”

I scratch behind my head and try to think of an answer, where am I and where was I, alternate world, universe or time? “I really don’t know how to answer that. But humans usually live on cities, you know, similar to the Crystal Empire, lots of buildings with lots of humans doing their human things.” I nod. Everybody at the table laughs, Crystal just shakes his head.

“I won’t get a straight answer from you, will I?”

“You just have to ask the correct question.” I shrug.

“Are there others from your species around?”

Never saw a human on the show, the answer is obvious. “Not to my knowledge. Do you know anything about humans?”

“A few foals’ tales. But you certainly aren’t what I expected to be a human.”

“Yeah, there isn’t anything much interesting about humans, except the hands and fingers. How do you pick things up?” I clap my hands twice and snap my fingers.

“Short range magical field, usually for small things, lacks precision, requires training though.”

“I thought so.”

“So, are you rested?” I ask him.

He nods. “If a certain griffon left me to sleep yesterday I wouldn’t have to deal with a certain drunk.” He crosses his arms.

“Hey, I didn’t wake you up this time.”

He chuckles. “Just teasing you.” I shake my head at him. “Just give me a second to stretch…” He starts grabbing the stool and twisting his back to both sides, sending cracks through his spine, he does the same to his arms and wrists, knuckles and fingers, knees and feet, finishing with his neck. Everybody at the table flinches at this. “Much better.” He sighs.

“I’ll have nightmares about it.” Blunder says.

“No worries, I’m fine. Anyway, I need to get a new set of clothes.”

“Are you trying to hide something?” I snicker at him. “There is nothing wrong with the ones you’re using.” I point to him.

“Well, I can’t have just those clothes, I’ll need something else in case of something happens to those aaaaand I hate this uniform.”

“Whatever.” I shrug.

“We could all go into the city since we have the day off!” Bright chimes.

“That would be nice.”

“I guess I could take a break from the bar.”

“I suppose I could go too.” Crystal says.

“Ok then, I’ll go get my shoes, bits and then we’re out.”

He moves from the table upstairs. We all move outside and in a few moments Igor is down with us, backpack strapped on his back. The minutes pass by, the three ponies keeping ahead of us while Igor stays behind, keeping the same pace as them. I slow my pace down to catch with him.

“Already tired dweeb?”

He smiles. “I was wondering when you would use that term and no, I’m not tired.”

He slows down, I hear his steps becoming slower and then he picks up the pace again, and I repeat the process. We repeat it for three more times and then he stops.

“What is it?” I ask him.

He points and I look at the place. “Look there. Can you see it?” His tone changes to a more serious one. I force my eyes in hopes of seeing something.

“What is it? I can’t see anything.” I look back and he is way ahead of me. I sprint to him. “Hey, what was that?”

He stifles a laugh. “Gotcha.” A full smile.

I mimic him. “I’ll give you credit for that. Why are you behind them and not at their side?”

“It feels natural to me, don’t ask.” He shrugs.

I give him a push. “Come on, they don’t bite.” I walk ahead and he follows me.

We’re close, the ponies keep talking and don’t even notice us. Soon enough we’re all together, we arrive at the Crystal Empire moving through the streets, much activity, some civilians look at our little group, and the guards keep their faces in focus.

“And we’re here, Sew and Stitch.” She points to a plaque with crossed knitting needles.

Bells rings as we move inside, the place is very organized and clean, we pick our places and Igor keeps trying to find a place for him.

A mare with a green coat and brown mane meets us. “Welcome to Sew and Stitch, I’m Sew, how… may I help you?” She looks at Igor.

“Ma’am.” He says with a nod.

“Oh! Hello, how may I help you?” She repeats herself.

“I’m interested in making some purchases.”

“Sure, sure. Would you please come here, I need to take the measurements.” She points to the center of the room, the place is a white circle with a concave mirror on the wall. She pushes a small stool to her side. “Would you please take off your clothes?”

“What?” Surprise on his tone.

“I need to take the measurements.”

“Really? All of it?”

“Yes, all of it.” Her tone changes to a more commanding one.

He sighs and grunts. “Fine. But I’m not taking my underwear.” He takes off the upper cloth and no one in the room can keep themselves from laughing.

“What!?!?” The blood rushes to my head as I hear them laughing at me. I don’t practice any sports, strong legs from walking a lot, an activity which I enjoy, a slight tummy, unnoticeable, lanky arms, definitely my fault for not exercising them.

“Your skin (Gasp) different colors (Laughs)!” Gilda says.

I look into the mirror and I see my face and arms. “I hate the sun.” I’m tanned from my yesterday’s exposure to the sun, I feel more comfortable and laugh together with them. As everybody calms down I look at Sew. “I want all my clothes to be black.”

She stifles a laugh. “Of course. Would you please take your pants down?”

The blood rushes back to my head. I comply. I take off my shoes and then my pants. No one laughs this time. Sew picks up my pant and starts to ruffle through it.

“I recognize the shirt, cotton. But what is the material for the pants?” Despise my shame I answer her.

“Polyester.”

“What?”

“PET.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Plastic.”

“Are you telling me this is made of plastic?!?!?” She yells the last word.

“Yes, it is plastic and no, you can’t have it.” I laugh.

“I wasn’t going to ask for it!”

“But you were thinking.” I reply.

“Stitch, can you come here?” She changes the subject as her voice drops to a normal level.

A stallion with the same colors as her arrives in the same moment. “Yes, sister?”

“I need you to take the measurements, I’ll take the notes.”

He picks a measuring tape, gets on his hind legs and starts the job, all while holding the tape and telling his sister some numbers. A few moments later and they stop, Sew comes to my front.

“Any specifications?” She asks.

“As I said, all in black, I don’t want anything restraining my movements, so make it simple, durable and comfortable.” She nods and writes down, with her mouth. “As for the shirt, you could use the same model for the one I have, except the collar and the opening in the front, no pockets. Make the sleeves go to the wrists.” I rub my wrists to show them. “My pants, I want pockets on both sides, just below the waist.” I point them.

She drops the pencil from her mouth into her hoof. “It will be quite hard.”

“It will be interesting.” Her brother says.

She smiles. “Yes, that too. Anything else?” She asks me.

Now I get uncomfortable, how do you say to girl that you need underwear? On the face and very quietly. I lean a close to her and whisper on her ear.

“Do you see the piece of cloth I’m using on my waist?” She nods. “I need four more of those.” She nods again.

“No need to be ashamed.” She replies.

I scratch behind my head as I get up. “Also, some foot and hand wear, like boots and gloves.”

“Will you want those clothes on your feet too?” She points to my socks and I nod. She picks the pencil and writes again. “Take the measurements of his hands and feet.” Her brother moves close and they start to work again, pencil and tape, he says the numbers and she writes it down. “Anything more?”

I can’t deny a thing I always wanted, a cloak.

“A cloak with something to cover from my nose down, a mask.” I say in a playful tone.

“If we can make the shirt, a cloak will be no problem. Can you sit down?” She’s serious.

I do it and they start again. “Is that all?”

“Yes, that’s all.” I start to put back my clothes.

They both discuss for a while and as I finish putting all my clothes back they talk to me.

“So, why everything black?” She says.

I can’t resist the question. “Why? I’m here to substitute Sombra, isn’t it obvious?” I say a bit louder this time. Every pony in the room gasps and I hear someone fainting, Booze fell.

I sigh and shake my head. “That was a joke.”

Gilda and Stitch are the only ones laughing from it.

“I like his sense of humor.” Stitch snickers.

“Not funny.” Sew says.

“Sorry.” I say with an apologetic look.

“Alright then, it will be ready in 3 or 4 days. And here,” She hands me a piece of paper. “are the prices.”

Shirt 40 bits Pants 50 bits Gloves 35 bits Boots 35 bits Cloak 65 bits

Underwear 25 bits Socks 25 bits Total 275 bits Custom clothes just for me? Priceless.

“Agreeable. Can I pay for it now? I would rather do it.”

They look at each other and then back at me. “Are you sure?”

“Yes, I am.” I smile.

Igor goes into the back room while Crystal and Bright wakes up Booze and explain Igor’s joke. We wait some time and he comes back.

Berry goes to him. “Everything settled?”

He nods. “All done. You said something about shopping?”

She bobs her head. “Yes, we should go to the market square, I have to resupply the house.”

“You should be more careful with what you say, you’ll get in trouble.” Booze scolds him.

He laughs. “Yeah.”

We arrive at the market, fewer looks now, maybe curiosity, Bright isn’t the only one picking supplies, and Igor is also picking some things. When he can’t hold anything else he throws it into his backpack.

“Are there any laws about weapons around here?” Igor asks.

Crystal turns to him. “You can own them, it’s just common sense to not carry them around. Or necessity.”

Igor stops on his tracks. “Where can I buy one?”

Crystal frowns. “The blacksmith.”

“And where is the blacksmith?”

Crystal sighs. “Do you need a weapon?”

“I’ll probably need.”

“Near the palace, I’ll lead you there.”

A few minutes and we arrive at our destination, a sign with a hammer striking an anvil.

“Wait a second, I’ll go in first and call you.” Crystal goes inside.

“What’s up with him?” Igor asks with annoyance on his voice.

“Who knows.” I shrug.

A few seconds later we hear noises inside, loud clangs, yelling and silence. The door opens, Crystal is back. “Come on in.”

“We’ll wait here.” Berry says, her uncle waves at us. I shake my head and go inside with Igor.

“I expected the place to be messier.” Igor says.

True, the place is all tidied up, some armors placed in racks, all belonging to the Royal Guard. A bulky stallion with yellow mane and orange coat comes to meet.

He looks at me, then at Igor. “Hello, my name is Forge and I’m the owner of this place, how may I help you?”

“I’m looking for two things: a small and a big one.” He’s never serious about anything.

“Look, my name is Forge, I work at a blacksmith as a smith and my talent is metalwork, just tell what you want.” He says with annoyance.

“Calm down, I’ll need a small straight knife, the blade can be the size of my hand.” He puts the bags down and show Forge his hands, Forge brightens a bit at the request. Crystal and me pay close attention to him. “And the big one…”

“Say it, I can do it.” Enthusiasm.

“Do you craft spears?” Forge nods. “Do you craft axes?”

“It has been some time, but I can do one.” The hostility on his voice disappears completely.

“Can you mix both?” What is he planning?

“I’m thinking…” He takes a pause. “Metal shaft.” He nods. “It would be really uncomfortable for a pony to use.”

“Well, I’m not a pony.” Igor crosses his arms.

“Oh yes, forgot about that. And the size?”

“About the same as my head, the pointy tip can be a bit taller, the blades can be at my level.”

“Blades? Got it.” He smiles.

“Price?” Already thinking about paying up.

“Calm down! We just started!” Surprised tone.

“I hate having debts, when I come it’ll be just to pick it up and leave.”

“An interesting design. I bet you have many more ideas, never saw a weapon like that.” Me neither.

“There is some irony on the making, we can talk when I’m back to pick it up, right now I’m carrying a ton of things and want to get this over with.”

“My apologies, I’ll just take your height.” He goes on the back of the counter and comes back with a wooden pole. He takes his measurement and marks the stick. “It’ll weight around 8 pounds.” Igor sighs in confusion. “3.5 kilograms?” Igor nods. “85 bits.”

“Isn’t the price a bit low?” Crystal asks.

“I’m not doing it for the money, all I’m charging is the material prices, and I would do it for free, or even pay him for some ideas. I work for the royalty, all the guards do is trip and dent the armor or scratch it during training sessions. I’m getting insane from the lack of work!” I contain my laugh at this.

“How long will it take?” Igor asks.

“I love my work, I really do, 3 days. I can make the knife today and still have time left for the… what is the name of the thing?”

“Halberd, poleaxe or pole-arm.” He shrugs.

Igor picks the money and places it on the counter and Forge counts it. “All settled.”

“Nice doing business with you.” He nods, picks his things and we go outside.

We all get together, Booze leaves to attend to his place. Outside the city and back into the big farmhouse. Igor tell us that if we need help, just ask him, he leaves to his room. The other two go on their business. I’m left alone with my thoughts.

“What is he planning?”

End of Chapter V

Author's Note

Adding more side characters from now on.

Meaning more different points of view.

Border followed by name.

Chapter VI: Ready for Action

Igor

Day 1

Woken up in the middle of the night by screams, it’s Bright, I quickly put my pants and rush to her bedroom. As I get inside I hear the sounds of objects being toppled and throw.

“What is it?” I shout as I enter the room.

I see her cornered into the room, she yells and points to below her bed. “Rat!”

I scan below it in search of the invader, a small brown mouse. In a frantic attempt to grab it I push over the bed, Bright jumps on top of the bed, I quickly launch my hand across the floor. I restrain it with my right hand, the animal doesn’t even react to me; it would expect to be crushed by a pony hoof and not to be picked by “whatever” I am.

“I got it!” I lift the mouse with both hands, trying to restrain and not crush it.

“Throw it out!” She runs to the window, opens it and backs off to the top of her bed.

It understands what I’m about to do and struggles in my hand to no avail, it bites me. I yelp more in surprise than pain and launch it through the open window.

Not thinking about anything else I rush to the bathroom to clean the wound, a small and deep cut in the back of my right hand. I open the tap, grab the soap and try disinfecting the wound.

“Are you alright?” I don’t notice her moving behind me.

“No, the sucker bit me.” I sigh.

The blood stops seeping from the wound. She carefully grabs my hand and inspects it. She stops looking at it and opens the mirrored cabinet. She picks something with her hoof and places it on the wound, a band aid. I laugh.

“What?” She asks.

“You’re treating me like a child.” I shake my head.

She blushes. “Anyway, thank you for… throwing it away.”

I nod and dismiss her with a wave of my hand, I move back to my room, when I’m ready to take my pants off I notice Bright looking through the door’s edge.

“Yes?” I ask.

“Do you mind if I stay here?”

“The house is yours, I can go to your room.” I make my way to her room.

“No!” I turn around. “Please stay, I’m scared…”

“Rats?” I cock my head. She nods. “Fine, you can stay in the bed, I’m used to staying awake through the night.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t mind it, now go sleep.” I point to the bed with a smile.

Day 2

After finishing the breakfast, Bright goes on to do the house chores, Gilda goes take her morning flights, I go outside take a morning breeze beneath the tree and Crystal approaches me.

“Hey Igor, I need your help to pump water to the house.”

I scratch behind my head. “Lead on.”

We go to the backyard, the place where the orchard is, we move a few more seconds and then we reach a manual water pump with a pipe leading to a huge water tank suspended by crystal legs.

“Grab one of the cranks and start pumping it, I’ll do the same to the other.”

I do as he says and he starts doing the same thing to the other side, pull up and push down.

“How long will it take?” I ask him.

“30 minutes if you don’t waste your breath.”

“For fucks sake.” I mutter to myself.

Time passes by.

“Stop that.” He says.

“Stop what?”

“You’ve been muttering curses for the past 7 minutes.”

“I’m already helping you, isn’t that enough?”

“You’ll lose your breath.”

“Fine…” I say in a monotone voice.

A few minutes later I notice him staring at me. I nudge my head towards him, unable to say anything, he just shakes his head and I do the same.

“Done…” He says. I let the handle go and slump to the ground. “At least you stayed silent.”

“Time.” I say between ragged breaths.

“Almost 20 minutes, you shouldn’t have overexerted yourself. I had to keep up my pace with you.” He sits down and smiles.

I take a deep breath and exhale. “You underestimated me!” I say in a playful tone.

Day 3

The sun is setting. I’m taking a walk around the house, just stretching, time passed and I became bored, nothing to do. I have to get rid of some objects I’ve brought here, better pick them. I pick the papers and plastics from my backpack and move far away from the house.

I walk a sizable distance from the house, I start to dig a small hole with my hands, once it’s big enough I start to pour the objects I carried from there. It’s a good time to try the drill technique. I pick the piece of wood and place it at the fire pit and hold it with my left foot, the drill comes in second.

I start to spin the stick on top of the soft wood, the friction does the work and some smoke starts to pour from the wood, the embers collect on the top of the wood, I place the stick aside and pour the embers into the fire pit. There it is, fire.

I move away from fire while keeping my gaze at it, not wanting to smell like smoke when going back to the house. I wait a few more seconds and the fires die out. I move in and nudge the ashes with a twig, nothing left. I close the hole and go back to the farm.

“Hey dude, what you were doing?” I look up and see Gilda, she lands besides me.

“Getting rid of some objects, nothing important.” I shrug.

“I saw you playing with fire.” She says with an accusing tone.

“It was just paper.”

We walk a bit more.

“I’m curious, mind telling me what are you planning?”

“I’m leaving.”

“Come on! It was just a question!”

I sigh. “I should’ve been clearer, what I meant to say is ‘I’m leaving the Crystal Empire’.”

“Oh that… why?”

“Many reasons, I can even make a list.”

She chuckles. “Alright then, do you have a place in mind?”

“Something Falls to the south.”

“Neighagra Falls.”

“That one, have you been there before?” I ask her.

“Just some tourist point, if you want to see the waterfalls that is. Nothing else remarkable.”

“Anyway, I’m just waiting, so I’ll be leaving just after picking my things.”

Arriving at the farm we go inside the house. Bright and Crystal were waiting for us for dinner, as usual by moonrise. We sit at our places and slowly savor the meal.

“Do you mind me going with you?” Gilda asks, in response I give her a stern look that suddenly turns into a smirk, I nod. “You’re crazy.” She gives me a hearty laugh.

Crystal turns to me. “Going where?”

“The waterfalls by south.”

“Any reasons?”

I grunt. “Yes, many reasons, one of them is royalty.” They all turn to me. “What?”

“What did you do?” He asks me again.

“Nothing, and I mean it. I just don’t want to get involved in ‘politics’. Bite me, I have no idea why someone would ‘volunteer’ to be a ruler, sounds too sketchy to me.”

Bright speaks. “I thought you were leaving be–”

I interrupt her. “Not that, you’re a good perso… pony, while my time here has been enjoyable, I really wish to leave, there isn’t anything holding me.” I say the last part with relief and can’t help but smirk at the situation.

Day 4

It is midday, Gilda and I wait for Crystal, he too asked me to travel with us. We’re silently waiting for him. They both walk outside, they talk for a bit, he hugs her and leaves. I just wave my hand to her and she waves her hoof back. We three leave.

Crystal

Igor looks at me. “It seems I’m not the only one needing some time for myself.”

“I assure you I won’t be of any burden.” I tell him.

“No worries.” He waves his hand to me. “Since we’re going into the city, you two could buy whatever you need and then we’ll be ready to go.”

“What you’ve got?” Gilda asks him.

“You have no idea how cheap food is around here, got 10 pounds of peanuts for me. Toilet paper, I don’t want to risk using leaves, not yet. Water bottles. You know, the basic.”

“Why would you need so much peanut?”

“Protein and I love peanuts.” He stifles a laugh.

“I have everything I need.” I tell them.

We arrive at the Crystal Empire and walk through the crowds, this time our visit was much shorter since Gilda knew what to buy, with bags full we went to gather Igor’s orders.

The clothing store, we go inside, the cling clang of bells alerts the owners of our presence.

Sew, as always, is the one to greet us. “Welcome back! I assume you’re here to pick your garments?” Igor nods. “Right this way.” They both move to the back of the shop.

Gilda looks at me. “Taking a vacation huh?”

“Yes. It will be a unique experience.” I tell her.

“Yeah. Can’t skip this one.” She gives me an inexpressive look.

A few minutes later and they’re back. I look at the human, covered in black, from head to… feet, yes, that is the word. And another word to describe him: intimidating. Until he unmasks and drops the hood, he is always looking calm.

“I’ve never wore anything so comfortable. What is it?” He asks her.

“It is linen, as for the process of making it that way, is a secret.”

He turns around and looks at the mirror, moving swiftly the cloak swerves with his moves, it covers his shoulders going about two hooves above the floor. He moves his arms in every possible position, a simple shirt, covering his neck to waist, arms completely covered. The only noticeable thing on his pants are the two protruding bag like pockets, he paces around and raises his feet to his shoulder level with swift kicks.

“Yep, no restraints and completely flowing. That’s how all clothing should be.” He adjusts the gloves, they cover each of his fingers separately, and boots, going half hoof below his knee level. “Did you really use linen for everything?” She nods. “What did you use for the soles?” He scratches the back of his head.

“Rubber, why?”

“Tree rubber or the other kind?”

“Tree, what is the other kind of rubber you speak of?”

He sighs. “More plastic.”

She lightens up at this. “You have to tell me more about this material you use.”

“I don’t know how it is made.” He shakes his head. “There isn’t much, the main problem is that once it rips, it’s over, better throw it away and buy another one. To sum up, it doesn’t even compare to this.”

She smiles at the compliment. “Glad it’s up to your expectations.”

He turns to her and smiles. “Glad to make business with you.” He gives a small her bow, putting his hands on his back and chest.

“It was our pleasure, haven’t seen my brother so excited about work in quite a while.”

“You both did good work. On top of it, you even had some fun.” He picks his backpack and we leave the shop. Next stop, the blacksmith.

The looks on the citizens around the streets has changed: fear, respect, curiosity.

I turn to him. “Better not put up the hood and mask.”

“I know.” He shakes his head.

We enter Forge’s shop without ceremony. He’s sitting at the counter and brightens up at our sight.

“Welcome! I’ve been waiting for you!” Surely he was.

“So, how did it go?” Igor answers him.

“It went fine… 2 days ago! Really, I expected you to come yesterday.” A bit of disappointment.

“Sorry, couldn’t do. Anyway, can I see it?”

“Oh sure, this way.” He motion towards the back of his shop and we follow him.

I’ve been here before, but Gilda and Igor haven’t.

“Ha! That’s exactly what I expected.” Igor says. He moves around and nudges… everything: armor scraps, plates, poles, cutlery and general tools. “Interesting.”

“I need keep the front of the shop clear, but here” He moves his hoof around, displaying his shop. “is where I get creative.” He grabs the commissioned tools from the weapons hack. “Here, can you tell me more about it?”

Igor doesn’t contain himself and bursts in laugh. “This is so funny. Is there any place where I can get a good swing?” He holds the weapon with his left hand.

“There is the backyard. It’s closed from prying eyes.” Again we follow to him through another back door. The huge place is normally used for testing his creations, a few archery targets and some training dummies.

Igor places down his backpack and holds the weapon with both hands this time, swirling it and changing hands he knees down. “The punch line: an equine crafting a weapon designed to take down cavalry.” He thrusts the weapon forward and motions it upward.

“Cavalry?” I ask him.

He holds it for a second and places the butt on the ground. “A mount, on my species case horses. The concept is pretty simple, much like spears but more versatile, they were more for defense against charges, attackers. The regular design has a hook, for taking people from the mounts, or a hammer, better against armored foes, instead of the second axe blade. Strike, slash and stab. I prefer it this way.” He places his hand on the axe blade.

Forge wrote down everything Igor said. “So it would be more effective against offenders?”

“Yes, simple isn’t. The catch is, you have to stay on your hind legs to make full use of it.”

“I noticed that.”

“I’ll have plenty of time to improve my skill with it.”

“Almost forgot! Here, take this.” He hands him a sharpening stone.

“Got it.” Igor tucks it on his backpack, it’s starting to look stuffed.

We all go outside.

Igor

The walk through the city will be a problem. I sigh. Remembering to no put my hood and mask up my walk was a breeze, except for the few guards that were paying more attention to me, but none seemed to intervene. I’m just making my way out.

A few minutes and we’re outside the city, I turn back to take a look.

“It would make a nice postal card.” The sun hits the Crystal tower at the center and glitters the small buildings that surround it. I look the other way. “And grasslands as far as the eye can see.”

Both Gilda and Crystal look at me, I return the look to their eyes and nod. I support my new acquired weapon on my left shoulder, the backpack strap won’t let it become sore. The wind blows behind me and sun is high at my front.

“Let’s go.” I put my hood and mask on. This will be quite a trip.

End of Chapter VI

Author's Note

And so... it begins.

Chapter VII: Vacation

Gilda

We’ve walked for 3 days. A word to describe Igor would be: eccentric. He refuses to take off his clothes, I can understand though, having no fur and all. We haven’t talked much during this time, except during night time, he was always the one to go grab firewood and volunteer for the first watch, seeing how he likes to sleep uninterrupted it’s a smart move. The first night he woke me up I almost attacked him, those glowing eyes in the darkness are frightening.

Crystal has been very reserved, doesn’t initiate the conversations, only answering to most things. After much talk with Igor he finally showed us what his ‘talent mark’ was, a teardrop clear blue crystal that goes in contrast with his eyes, he is a jeweler, a crystal pony specialized in crystals, it’s like marking wings on a pegasus or a horn on a unicorn, the irony.

I look forward into the horizon, Neighagra Falls, 10 minutes or less walking and they’ll arrive. I land near the main river, clear crystalline water. I stretch my wings, look for a nice place under a tree and start to unpack my things.

The minutes pass and I hear something coming from the woods, my companions. They both come to me.

Igor looks at me. “Nice spot.”

“I know you don’t like the sun.” I answer him.

He places down his weapon, takes off his cloak, folds it and starts to unpack. “Better that way.” He shrugs.

Crystal looks at us. “I’ll set the camp. I’ll call if I need anything.” I nod.

I look back at Igor, missing. Looking at my surrounds I find him near the river, he’s crouched near it. I walk to him.

He places the hand on the water. “A bit cold…”

“It’s autumn, did you expect anything else?”

He pulls a sleeve and submerges his arm into the water… yeah, he is doing it. He runs back to the camp, takes off most of his clothes and comes back with only on his lower clothes with a towel and soap in hand. He drops his towel down with his pants and dives into the water. *Splash*

A few seconds later and he is up, panting heavily. “It’s cold!”

I shake my head and sigh. “Told ya.”

He lathers himself and then dives again. He comes back running and picks his things, drying himself as he runs to the camp with me walking behind him. He goes to his backpack, picking his first clothes. He surely carries a lot of things.

He goes behind a tree. “Don’t look… both of you.”

Crystal looks at me. “As if I wanted.” Monotone.

I give a knock on the tree. “What’cha doing?”

“Changing my clothes.” He answers.

“Why do you need to wear clothes under your clothes?”

He comes back from behind it, fully clothed while drying his head and sits at his bedroll. “For walking or running, yes, I feel very uncomfortable without it.”

I smirk. “So when you sleep you do it naked?”

He chuckles. “You got me.” He raises his hands in the air and waves them. “No.” He blankly answers. “Humans can’t hide their, private areas, thus the clothes. And the lack of fur too. There is the good side of it, I get dry a lot faster than you.” He points to Crystal and I.

I sit in front of him. “Is there anything special humans can do?”

He pouts. “When comparing to ponies or griffons, humans can’t use magic, fly or have super strength. But…” He raises a finger. “humans are pretty good at creating things.”

“Like what?”

He points to his pack. “There are many like those, perfectly similar.” He pulls his shirt. “I had more like these too. All the same.”

Crystal walks towards us and sits a bit further than me. “How is it possible? It would take months for somebody to master and produce those in mass.”

“Automatic sewing machines, you just need a few humans to overlook the production.”

“Like a factory?”

“Yes.”

I turn to Igor. “You are joking.”

“No.” I sigh, have to learn when he’s being serious.

“How exactly many humans are out there?”

He pokes around his pack and picks a paper bag, it’s full of peanuts, and starts to crunch on them, and he’s always snacking on something. “Probably just me.”

I shake my head. “No, from where you are from.”

“From what I remember, 7 billions.” I start to laugh at him and he looks at me with a serious face while shaking his head, I stop.

Crystal coughs. “So, there are 7 billion humans on the place where you came from. What about the other sentient species?” Igor told him about his ‘origin’ on our first day of travel, said he didn’t want anything to cause any suspicions about his past.

Igor looks down. “Only humans. (Sigh) If there were any other sentient creatures out on our world, we would’ve found them.”

I walk to his side and nudge him. “What is it like?”

“Like what?”

I get serious this time. “The place where you lived.”

He looks into my eyes, first time I’ve seen him sad about something. “It wasn’t all that great, but it wasn’t that bad either.” His gaze drifts down. “It wasn’t my place either.”

I ruffle his hair. “Do you think anyone misses you?”

This time I get him into the mood, he gives me the widest smile while shaking his head. “Just my parents. But I always wanted to visit new places, they would probably be happy for me.”

“No one else?”

“Else who?”

“Friends?”

“Acquaintances, yes, friends, no.”

“Why? You are always friendly to everybody.”

“Who knows. (Shrug) I don’t mind either, I’m used to it.” He crosses his arms. “To be fair, I’m happy to be here and no, I don’t want to go back, at least not to the same place. Can you believe I almost got conscripted?” Imagining someone carefree as him in the military is my limit, I start to laugh at the thought and he follows me.

Crystal looks bothered at him. “There is nothing wrong with the military, discipline is always a good thing to learn.”

Igor shakes his head. “I don’t know how things are around here, but the guys who act all tough are the first to get in, I just had to lay low. When they considered my physical, being below average, both in height and muscle, they dispensed me from service.”

“It’s hopeless to argue with you.” He goes back to his camp site.

I look to Igor and start to snicker. “What?”

“Have you ever done anything or just freeloaded all the time?”

“A little of both.” He smirks.

I snicker. “What was it?”

“Nothing I can do here, that’s for sure. It consisted on being in a desk, writing, for hours.” That’s the most I’m going to get from him.

I look at his head. “Don’t you ever groom your hair?”

“Not since my arrival, you helped too.” Ah… yeah, that was me.

I walk to my place and reach within my pack for a hairbrush. I toss it to him, he drops the paper bag and he snatches the brush in midair. “Nice catch.”

“Why would need a… forget it. Fur.” He tries to brush his hair.

I see him struggling with the brush and take it from his hand. “Let me do it.”

I grip his shoulder and he tenses for a moment, then he starts to relax as I untangle his hair. “Who would’ve thought you would be so kind to –” That tongue of his, I give the brush a strong tug and it takes a few of his hair strands, he yelps. “Okay, okay, okay! Sorry!”

“You better be.” In a few seconds I finish it. I take a few steps back to take a look at him, long straight black hair, he needs to brush it away from his eyes and ears. “When was the last time you got a haircut?”

“4 or 5 months, I’m doing it on purpose, wanted to see how long it gets, it doesn’t look that bad.” He runs his hand around his mouth. “Need to get rid the hair around here.”

“Why?”

“Food crumbles and drink spills on it.”

I raise an eyebrow. “Why did you let it grow then?”

He opens his mouth to say something and stay that way, got him. “I guess there is no purpose on keeping it now, I may even get a haircut. It is good to scare strangers, avoids problem, like being robbed (Sigh).”

“You make it sound the place where you lived wasn’t good at all.”

“Like I said, not good, not bad, not mine. I’ll find some place.”

“You’re thinking of something, aren’t you?”

“Not now, will probably think tomorrow. Do you want help with brushing?” He points to the hairbrush that I’m holding.

“It only fair.” I smirk and give it to him.

“Right, I have no idea of what to do with the feathers. I’ll take care of the fur.” He starts to brush my yet.

His touch is firm, yet careful, or gentle, he brushes and sweeps his hand over my fur and in a few minutes it is over. “For someone who has no fur you know what you are doing.”

“Glad to help. I had animals before, no offense.”

“Whatever.”

He points both fingers to me and smirks. “The stunning gal needs to keep her beauty. (Yawn) I’m taking a nap. Good night.”

“It’s midday…”

Conversation is over, when he says he is taking a nap it means ‘back in 3 hours’… wait a second, did he hit on me?

Crystal

Finally some peace, a few minutes ago Gilda left in a hurry for another flight, she just told and left, each one with his problems. Yes our problems, shattered memories, what happened during Sombra’s reign and why do I feel this? This deep sadness. Perhaps I should sleep more, Igor is always in good mood, surely because he sleeps and eats like a creature ready for hibernation; that would explain his lethargy.

My human companion awakes and hurries to his bottle of water. He downs the entire bottle, he is shaking and his breath is ragged.

I walk to him. “Are you feeling alright?”

He inhales and exhales, trying to calm himself, and sits in the grass. “Just a bad dream.”

“A bad dream you say, don’t you mean a nightmare?”

He shakes his head. “No, my nightmares are far worse, I can’t recall the last time I had a good dream.” He picks another bottle and starts to drink.

A topic comes into my mind. “Have you said anything to Gilda? She left shortly after your chat.”

“Nothing (Shrug).”

“Do you mind answering some questions?”

“Not at all. I won’t be sleeping anytime soon.”

“How do you manage to sleep so much?”

He smirks. “Just making up for the lack of rest that I had.”

“It is not very healthy.” He must sleep 12 hours a day.

“I know, but sometimes I feel just like sleeping, despite not being physically tired. Maybe I just daydream too much, another reason for the bad dreams. The brain gets tired too.”

“So you’re just relaxing?”

He looks up into the sky and falls to his back. “Yes, I am.”

I go to his side and lie down. “Maybe you’re right.”

“No maybes, one hundred percent sure. The reason I wanted to come here was just that, relax.”

“I’ve heard no complaints from you during our travel, you seemed a bit lost.”

“Just thinking.”

“About what?”

“Many things, the important and the irrelevant.”

“Do you mind sharing?” It will be a good pastime.

He leans on his hand while supporting it with his elbow. “What do you think about the princess ‘godhood’?”

“Are you talking about the fact that they move the sun and moon?”

“I have some theories.” I nod for him to continue. “Do you know the basic of physics?”

“A very rudimentary concept, not much.”

He sits with his legs crossed and starts to rummage through the grass, picking some pebbles and throwing them away. He finally stops with 3 on hand. “Do you know what gravity is?” I nod. “Imagine me, putting a lot of stones close in space, soon they’ll begin to cluster and attract other stones that are closer. Basically gravity attracts things that are closer to it, that’s the reason we don’t fall up.” He points up and snickers.

“How does it relate to the sun and moon?”

“Which one of them is heavier: the sun, the moon or the planet we are in?” He shows me the 3 stones.

“Probably our planet.”

“So it means that the sun and moon gravitate around it, correct?”

“Correct.”

“So, why do you need magic to something that should work without anyone's interference?”

Scariest realization ever. “I really don’t know.”

“Calm down, it is just a theory. I’m not saying that you should know, just that it is possible that the princesses are up to no good. Or lying, don’t know which one is worse. Or probably nothing (Shrugs).”

“Do you have any other brilliant theories to share?”

“This one is the funniest of them and may even sound plausible. We’re all living inside a cave, a giant cave, the sky is the cave’s ceiling that is painted every day and night, so there appears to be a sun and a moon. This theory means that the sun and moon don’t exist. It also means we are imprisoned here.”

This one is even more disturbing than the prior. “I regret asking you to share your thoughts.”

“Maybe this system only has 3 stellar bodies: this planet, the sun and the moon. If the planet is heavier than the sun and moon, it means both are being attracted and will collide with it. Utterly annihilating everything here. That would probably take billions of years, so don’t worry.” He waves his hand to me. “Maybe the sun is finally extinguishing.”

“Alright, keep your ideas to yourself.”

He salutes me. “Closing archives.”

“Can we talk about something less disturbing?”

“I thought it was funny.”

“Funny? I’ll never forget about those things, I’m even having doubts about the monarchs.”

“Calm down, just theories, I could even be lying to you…” He trails off.

“Wait, were you?”

“(Grunt) Forget it, alright? Let’s talk about better things.”

He makes switching topics so easy, it’ll probably take me weeks to forget about this. “What do you plan for your future?”

“Plans for the future? Zero. Things I want to do? A ton.” He bobs his head.

“Such as?”

“Traveling, I’m doing it now, we’re doing it now.”

“In a manner of speaking, yes.”

“Don’t you like it?”

“It is a different experience, one I won’t forget…”

“Come on! Perk up, enjoy our time here, go take a nap, go bathe yourself in the lake, go eat something!”

“Yes, that was the reason I came here. Relax.”

“What can I say? When I’m right, I’m right. (Yawn) Going back to my sleep, talk to ya later.”

I still have my doubts about him, but right now I’m taking some time to rest my body and my mind.

End of Chapter VII

Chapter IX: Storm Seen

Igor

Last night events weren’t for the best, I’m beginning to feel stressed. Not to mention physically exhausted, as being exiled on my first day on this world or when I had to carry mister potato bag to his home. I sigh. Better enjoy the moment.

I get up from my bed and examine my shirt, many rips on it, I take it off. Another look shows that it can still be of some use, even if they’re rags. As for my skin, there are shallow cuts and annoying itches through it, I hope don’t get any allergies from it. My weapon feels… sticky, I know exactly what to do with my new rags. I head to the lake with a few items on hand.

Sitting down near it I start by cleaning my weapon, pick some water by hand drop on it and dry with the piece of fabric. A few minutes and it’s over, clean and shiny. Now it’s my turn, I dip both arms into the lake to acclimate with the coldness. Once I’m comfortable with the temperature I take off my pants and jump into the lake.

Inside the water I lather, rinse and scratch my chest. Relieved from the small torment I take some time to float and enjoy the moment of calmness. I walk back to the campsite, I see Crystal, watching the unmoving corpse of the alpha wolf.

“Igor.” He acknowledges me.

“Crystal.” I nod to him.

The fires long extinguished, I sit near the carcass. I trace my hand around the wood creature. The wooden plate should be perfectly smooth, if not for the damage my little party had dealt to it, Gilda had enough strength to open and tear a hole on it and I had the right tool to finish the job, I put my hand inside it.

How to describe it? Damp and squishy? Plants aren’t squishy. I grab whatever is inside and pull it out… meat… I throw it into the ashes. Crystal looks at me.

“What?” I ask. He sighs and shakes his head.

Resolved to not find any surprises, I stop fidgeting inside the wolf. I look at the wood; most parts are melded, almost as if it were a single body, not a magical construct. The creature itself is a giant compared to its lesser pack mates.

The skull is the only intact piece and this catches my attention. I can use it, lightweight hard material. I go pick my knife and walk back to the body.

I unsheathe it, the knife’s handle is a wood cylinder, and the blade is sharpened on both sides. Overall, it is balanced; I just have to be careful when handling it, since my palm can slip over the edges.

I start to cut the wolf around the neck area, or try at least, blades aren’t meant to saw materials like that. I sigh.

Crystal

He finishes cutting the timberwolf head and puts it on his head, I give him another look.

“What?”

“What are you doing?” I question him.

“Isn’t it obvious? Protection... or a trophy.” He takes it off to show me. It’s hollow, what magic used to sustain the creature already faded on the moment he stuck it down, I pick it from his hands.

I give it a few slams, certainly harder than standard building wood, lighter too. I give it back to him.

“Almost dry, it needs more sunlight.” He places it down at an illuminated spot.

This reminded of something. “Speaking of sunlight, we’ll have to move. There is a storm scheduled for today.”

“How so?”

“A pegasus passed by earlier, weather control. Warned us of the storm, so we’ll have to pack and move.”

“To where?”

“That’s the reason Gilda left, she went ahead to make reservations for staying.”

“I didn’t want to stay here forever anyway.” He gets up, dusts himself and points to his bed. “I’ll get my things.”

All my thinks are packed and ready. I’ve been waiting to wake him up, to give him the note. I look at the dead wolf, how long did it take for such a creature to grow to this size? I’m sure Gilda can take care of herself, but the human is difficult to read.

“Can you tell me more about humans?”

“Good morning? How was your night? Did you sleep well?” He keeps on his business.

“I take it as sensitive subject.”

He stifles a laugh. “Nah, I’m just teasing you. Humans are too diverse. Just ask the right questions.”

He picks my curiosity. “Sleeping and eating habits?”

“Diurnal and omnivores, but I’m more active during the night.”

“Do humans hibernate?”

“No.” I was almost certain at that point.

“You showed some combat prowess, care to enlighten me?”

“You would probably do even better if you were a human, also teamwork and safety in numbers.”

“What I meant was the skill with the weapon.” I point to his polearm.

“Oh that? I just improvised. No one teaches this kind of thing anymore.” I’m not sure if he lies or is being truthful. He picks his objects and walks to the wolf corpse, we both look at it. “Where should we go now?”

I almost forgot about it, I fidget around my pack to pick a map. I place it on the ground. “From what I’ve heard, it’s one hour traveling to the east. It’s a small community with 30 housings or less.”

He picks the head and puts it away. “Lead the way.”

I look at the sky and start moving east with him by my side. “Are you really going to keep that?”

“I don’t see the problem with it, unless it rots.” He makes a face and pulls his mask up.

I give him a look. “Do I have to remind you of your choice of garments, have I?”

He looks me in the eyes. “I know!” He says in a cheerful tone, probably smiling.

Gilda

I hate those misfortunes, first the timberwolves and now the storm. What next? At least the pegasus had the courtesy to give us the news and the good will to not scream when seeing the dead behemoth.

After leading me to the town I thanked and went on my way to the nearest inn. If you’ve seen a small town, you’ve seen all. There only seems to be one in the whole place, no complaints. After bargaining I’ve made 3 reservations, it’ll be nice to have a smooth bed under me.

Now I’m just waiting for them in my room. I decide to take a bath and then have a real meal. I’m waiting on the lower level of the building and the ones I’ve been waiting arrive.

Crystal is ahead and Igor is following behind. I wave to them and they walk to my table as I put my keys on it.

Igor picks his. “My room is the eleventh.”

I point to the stairs. “It’s on the second floor.”

Crystal picks his. “Seventh.”

Crystal's room is next to mine, sixth. Why does he feel so dull? They both walk upstairs and I finish my dinner. Carrot and potato stew, I wish they served meat or seafood.

Igor is the first to come back down. At least he isn’t covering his face. He sits by my side, looks at my plate and starts to sniff it.

I push him. “Back off.”

“What? It smells good. I have to order something for me.”

He gets from the table and goes to the counter. I see him talking with the owner, his eyes shrinking at the moment he sees Igor. I stifle a laugh at the reaction. The owner seems to calm down and nods, Igor walks back to the table.

“Have you said something out of the normal?” I question him.

“Me? Nothing, the pony was just scared by himself.” He shrugs.

I roll my eyes. Those ponies overreact so much. Igor looks out one of the windows and I follow his gaze, things aren’t looking pretty outside.

He huffs. “Is the weather always controlled this tightly?”

“In Equestria? Yes.”

A waitress comes by with a serving tray. Igor picks his food and… a milkshake? Then he picks my plate and puts it back into the tray. He thanks the waitress with a smile and she returns it then goes away.

He sniffs his food. “Do you always have to do that?”

“Smelling the food? I like it.”

I shake my head. “You’re a weirdo.”

He picks the cutlery and smiles to me. “Thank you.” He starts to eat it quietly and stops with the spoon mid-air. “Do you think they serve –”

Meat would be the word, but I jam his mouth and whisper. “Don’t say it loud.”

He nods. “Okay.” He pulls his chair close to me and whispers back. “Can you tell me why?”

“They think it’s cruel to kill animals and to eat them, not all of them though, I’ve met a few more open minded.” This reminds me Snow Blanket.

He grows a large smile. “Did you know that plants can also feel pain?”

“You always have something interesting to say.” I lean on my arm.

“Tell me more about griffon diet.”

Crystal

I have to organize my things, unpack and check. I’m not carrying much, some rations, a few bits and some personal things. Since everything is order I move downstairs.

I see Gilda and Igor talking with each other. I also see an empty plate and a cup of milk. I walk to them.

“Didn’t you unpack your things?” I ask Igor.

“Nope, I’ll leave once things calm down.”

Gilda interrupts us. “That’ll take 2 or 3 days.”

Igor pulls his head back and groans then I turn to look at him. “Stop with this behavior.”

He turns back his head. “Stop which one?” Gilda stifles a laugh.

I answer him. “You know what? Keep doing that.”

He shrugs. “I don’t have any bad behaviors.”

“No, you’re just quirky.” He doesn’t answers.

I look at the drink in the table. Is it chocolate milk? “To whom this belongs?”

Igor raises his hand. “Almost forgot… have you ever drunk a milkshake?”

“Is this what it’s called?”

He pushes it to me and I grab it. “Give it a try.”

I pick and give it a gulp… “Delicious.”

He crosses his arms. “Damn. Now I don’t have one.” He raises his hand to someone behind me and a few seconds later a waitress comes by. “Can I have more two shakes and another plate of stew?” She nods and goes.

Gilda looks at him. “Are you still hungry?”

“Yep.”

A minute or two later and I’m still savoring my ‘milkshake’. The waitress comes with a tray, he picks the food and puts his empty plate back on with a thanks and a smile.

“First mine,” He picks the plate. “second mine” He picks the shake. “and the third is yours.” He gives Gilda the second one.

“Gee, thanks.”

“No worries, I’ll pay you… speaking of which, how much are we paying for the rooms?”

“10 bits a day, 15 with double meals.”

“Not bad.” He smells his food.

“It’s the same food.”

“It’s hot, fresh, smells and tastes great.”

I look at him. “Quirky.” Gilda laughs this time.

We keep eating for some time. The weather begins to get worse. Igor picks everything from the table and walks to the balcony. I keep looking out of the window and Gilda calls my attention and points to Igor. He keeps talking with the establishment owner, don’t know what about but both are smiling, he picks a chair tries to sit but instead hits one of his knees in the counter. He swears and curses, Gilda is holding her beak, trying not to laugh too loud.

A group of pegasi enters the place. Between them is the same one who warned us earlier. She walks to Igor and he pulls his hand to her, she shakes it. They talk a bit more, the pegasus walks close to him, they talk in each other’s ears. He points up stairs and she nods, they both go up. Gilda huffs and follows them.

I sigh. “I hope I don’t have to put with this too often.” The waitress passes by and I call her. “I need another milkshake, please.”

Igor

I go into my room open my backpack, grabbing my first memento from this misadventure. I place it on the floor.

She lets out a loud whisper. “You did that?”

“No just me, they helped too.” I refer to my companions.

“The griffon and crystal pony?”

“Yeah, we three against seven timberwolves.” I proceed to tell her what my party did. Not exaggerating in any part, how I got pounced, the smell of burning wood, the adrenaline, my last maneuver.

“That was cool. Tell me, where are you from?”

Retrieving stored lie, applying lie. “I came from the north, past the frozen tundra across the sea.” I can’t tell her, or anyone, that I’m an alien or whatever.

“And what are you?”

I look at both sides. “Can you keep a secret?” She nods in excitement. “Me too.” I grin.

“Not funny! Feel right into that one."

Okay, I won’t lie this time. “Yes, you did. I’m a human.”

She looks confused. “Like the ones in bed stories?”

“Climbing in your beds and snatching your people. Hide your kids, hide your wives and hide your husbands, because I’m kidnapping everyone out there.” I say in a sing tone.

She breaks into a laugh. “You’re not serious, are you?”

“Not even a bit.” I pick the cap and put it on her head.

She takes it off. “It’s a little bit creepy.”

I put it on my head. “Do I look creepy?”

“You look silly.” I take it off. “If you want to talk with anypony, I’m at the first room.”

“Okay, cya.”

I get up from the bed and open the door to her. Gilda is on other side of the door, she looks me in the eyes and makes way to the pegasus. She waves her hoof to me and I wave back. Gilda keeps looking at me.

“Hey Gilda.” She gets in and I close the door. I sit back on my bed.

“So, what you two were talking about?” She flicks her talon.

“Check this.” I pick the alpha’s head and pass it to her.

She takes a look at it and gives me back. “Are you wearing it?”

I shrug. “Maybe I will.” I put on my head. “Maybe I already did.” I take it off.

She rolls her eyes and looks around. I start to unpack my things, reorganize them. I see the rain outside and I open the window.

“I love the smell of wet soil on rainy days.” I close it and open the door. “I’m going out.”

She looks at the window. “But it’s raining.”

I nod and smile to her. “I know.”

We exit my room, I lock the door. Moving downstairs I see Crystal looking outside, some pegasi and the earth ponies that work here. I walk to the door and Gilda stops me.

“Are you feeling alright?”

And another question that hit me. “Never felt any better.” I walk outside.

End of Chapter IX

Chapter X: Thunder and Lightning

Igor

In the rain, haven’t felt like this in a long time. I don’t mind getting wet, why I never did this before? I look up at the overcharged sky, black clouds slowly rolling over the town. It’s not at full force, yet.

When I arrived with Crystal I received a less than pleasant welcoming, a few of the townsfolk tried to bar my entry, fear of the unknown and pack mentality, but I had a plausible explanation. Crystal was worried that I would receive the unwelcome card, but fortunately all I needed was to convince him, just asking with enough politeness and good ideas. A little lie, a traveler from the far north sufficed.

I walk back to the town entrance and look at the big sign, ‘Welcome to Neighagra Foal’s’, nice town by the way. How to describe it? Its rustic small town, almost as if it were a smaller version of Ponyville, some houses with straw roofs, a clinic and a town hall… with a mayor. A shiver goes down my spine and I shudder, politicians.

I’m completely soaked by now and make my way back to the inn. Opening the door I see Crystal holding a towel in front of me, I take off my shirt and wrap myself on the towel.

I nod to him. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

Dripping, I walk towards the counter and I wait to be attended. One of the maids seems to notice and attends me.

“How may I help you?”

“Where can I take a shower, or a bath?”

“Oh! Please, this way.”

I follow her further into the building. There lies a small room with a wooden bathtub, some firewood on the side and a fireplace or a boiler, as if it were used to heat the water. She turns the faucet on and the water starts to fill the tub.

“Do you need help undressing?” She asks.

“No, thank you, but I need your help for something else. Turn around and don’t look.” She complies and I get all my clothes off. I grab two of the objects, the first one is my knife, ever since the wolves incident I’ve been carrying those on my pockets, second one is the room key, better not lose it. “Can you do something about my clothes? Try to make them less… wet?”

“Of course I can.” She turns around picks them. “Do you need anything else?”

Maybe I should… scratch that, I want to shave my beard! “Can I get a razor and a portable mirror?”

“I can get the mirror, but why do you need a razor?”

Stupid, should be more clear. “Oops, I meant a shaving razor.”

“Oh! Sure, I’ll be back in a bit.”

“Thank you. And sorry about the mess I made on the corridor.” She leaves. “Oh well… time to start!”

Gilda

Resting on my bed looking at the ceiling, can’t believe I’ll be stuck here for the next few days, it’ll bore me to death. I hear a knock on the door.

I hope it’s not one of those ponies. “Who’s it?”

“Igor.” That’s him.

I groan. “Come in.”

He opens the door. As he enters the first thing I look at is his face… I can’t hold my laugh. I close my eyes and try to regain my breath. I look at him again, with my eyes watered from crying I wipe them.

“And that’s why I never shave.”

I snicker. “I see. You look like a kid you know?”

He keeps rubbing his face. “No one will take me seriously from now on.”

I nod to him. “Why you took it off then?”

“I felt like doing it. Anyway, I’m going to my room.”

An idea crosses my mind. “I have an idea. Let’s go see Crystal. I want to see his reaction.”

He deadpans. “Ha… ha…”

I push him out of my room into the next one. He knocks on the door. I hear the hoofsteps behind as Crystal opens it, he looks at Igor and a grim spreads across his face.

With a small bow of his head he says. “You look more civilized.”

“I’ve heard this before, you’re right though. I like it more like a stubble.” He rubs his face. “It feels so sensible, I feel like a sheared sheep.” I look at Crystal, we both burst into laugh.

I give Igor a light punch. “You’re so silly.”

He shrugs. “I don’t get it. Best analogy I could come up with.”

I shake my head and smirk at his antic. “Whatever.”

He looks around, disinterested. “So, does either of you have any pastimes?”

“We can play a card game. We’ll need one more player though.” I give him a sly smile.

“Sounds cool, what kind of game?” He lightens up.

“We could try poker. It’s my favorite.”

“I’ve heard about, but never played.”

“Don’t worry.” Crystal says. “I can teach you.”

“Yeah don’t worry. We’ll teach you.” It’s time to have some fun.

Crystal

Two days indoors equals two days of unproductivity, finally when I start to feel useful again at something. Igor got the game quickly, the rest of us are already getting tired of poker with him, it’s impossible to know if he either bluffs or tells the truth, on the good side we haven’t been betting anything.

“Yeah, I give up.” The pegasus says.

“I’m off.” I say.

Gilda looks at Igor and frowns. “I regret teaching you that.” She throws her cards into the table. “How do you do that?”

“Do that what?” He looks quizzically at her.

“You know what? Forget it. I’m not playing this with you ever again.” She crosses her arms.

“Really? I thought you liked it.”

She points at him. “I like to play it, not with you. By the way, keep the deck.”

He picks the cards and starts to shuffle. “Thank you.”

I look at him with curiosity. “So, where did you learn to do that?”

“Maybe luck, maybe skill or maybe it’s your own fault. Anyway, I had my share of fun.”

“Our own fault? Please, explain yourself.”

He stops shuffling the cards. “I just know.” He shrugs and starts to organize the deck.

The pegasus looks at him. “Can you do that thing with your fingers again?”

“Sure.” The cracks and pops are disconcerting, to say the least. “Ah…” He sighs in relief.

“So, Lightning Dust, are you a resident of this town?” I ask her.

“Me? No way, I came here looking for some excitement.” She gives a light tap in the table. “I’ve heard about how things work up here. Less populated areas give me more space to be…”

“Daring?” Igor interrupts.

She snickers. “I was going to say reckless, but this one fits better.” He nods. “You see the storm out there? Solo work, just had to wind up a tornado there, another one there and the job was done.”

“Have you considered the safety of others?” I question her.

She gives a flap of her wings and raises an eyebrow. “Why do you think I was flying low when I found you?”

“Understandable.”

She turns back to Igor. “You’re really far from home, what’cha doing all the way down here?”

“Can we please change the subject? It’s not something I’m fond of, right boss?”

I answer him. “Yes, sorry for intruding.”

“Not going in a rant but, coming here was the best thing that happened to me.”

“Glad you like the kingdom.”

Gilda gives a huff. “When is the rain ending? This waiting is killing me.”

Lightning gives a nervous smile. “I may have overdone it.”

“Where is the rest of the weather team?” I question her.

She waves her roof around. “Around the town, they’re locals. Like I told ya, I came here for the excitement. Getting paid for something I like is just a bonus.” She grins.

Gilda looks at her with and electrifying look. “When it’s over how about a little race?”

Lightning rebuts her with the same look. “It’s on.” They shake hooves and claws.

Igor has been just observing until now. “Cool, I’ll want to see this one.”

“By noon?” Gilda asks.

“By noon.” Lightning nods.

Gilda points at Igor. “If you don’t get come, I’ll break down your room’s door and drag you out.”

He looks down. “Okay. Just call me.”

“You promise?”

“Sure do, I want to see it.”

When it was the last time I saw a griffon in a flight competition? “I too wish to watch it.”

Gilda looks at me. “Yeah, you can come too.”

Igor

I feel some kind of itch on my arm, I push it out and scratch it. A few seconds later the same sensation and I repeat the process. And I feel it one more time.

I rub my eyes. “That’s it. What the hell is doing this?”

I hear the sound of snickering. “I got you sleepyhead.” Gilda flicks her claw at my head.

“Funny.”

She points at me. “Yeah, considering I woke you up is a miracle.”

I get up from the bed. “I remember the reason though. You did it already?”

She shakes her head. “Nah, it’s still raining outside, it got even worse, don’t know how you can sleep with all this noise.”

I look out of the window and I see a raging storm outside, lightning strikes and thunder echoing in the distance. “It doesn’t look good.”

“Huh, Lightning and the rest of the weather team have to deal with that. I suddenly don’t miss working on weather teams anymore.” She snickers.

“It’s that bad?”

“When you have to work under those conditions.” She points out of the window. “It is.”

“When do you think it’ll be over?”

She looks up in deep thought. “One hour, maybe less.”

“Enough time to ready our leave.”

“I’m still waiting for my race with her. I’m not sure if she’ll pull it though. And you’re still coming with me.”

“Okay. Do me a favor and go talk with Crystal, once the sky is clear we’ll move.”

She turns around and waves to me while exiting the room. I had plenty of time to think about many things, or everything. Many possibilities from which I can pick, I’ll just have to choose the one which suits me most.

I stop my actions. “Decisions…”

“Lightning Dust! Don’t turn your back on me!” I hear a shout followed by crashing of objects.

I pick all my things and walk out of my room. On the hallway I find both Crystal and Gilda.

Crystal looks annoyed at the stairs. “What’s the commotion?”

“That Lightning, she’s into trouble.”

I notice the storm has receded. “I can only imagine why. You both ready?” They nod. “Let’s go.”

Walking downstairs begin to notice the damage caused: one of the windows is broken, some tables toppled and chairs broken. Lightning is fighting with another pegasus, black mane and dark purple coat.

“I don’t care if you can wipe a storm in less than a minute! You almost killed me!” He yells.

“Why are you making such a fuss about it? Nopony got harmed!” She rebukes.

I stop paying attention to them and walk to the place owner. “I’m here to settle the debts.” I’m hit by something in the back.

Lightning

I rushed behind the human and crouched. The wooden chair hits the bag behind the human, it falls to the floor and I dodge it, this was Thunder’s biggest mistake, besides trying to hit me. I want to see what the human will do about him. Somepo… someone armed will put some sense into his thick skull. But when he turns around and looks at me, his frown and the look of his eyes make shrink, yet I feel like I should be the one to careful around one him.

“Who did that?” He asks and I point to Thunder, he gives Thunder an even hateful look. Then he turns back to the inn owner and keeps talking, neither Thunder nor I daring to say a word. “All settled then.” He sits on the counter. “Better than the stools… now, what the fuck was that?”

Thunder is the first to break the silence. “This! I don’t even know what to say… she! She made a tornado just –”

The human interrupts by hitting the floor with his tool. “No, why did you hit me?”

I look at Thunder, the expression on his face is hilarious, but I prefer not to laugh given the circumstances. “I wanted to hit her.”

“Can’t you at least say you’re sorry?”

“I’m not so –”

“It’s for me! You hit me! Not her!” He’s right. Then he looks at me. “You too, just give me an apology.”

“I’m sorry!” I say quickly to him.

“I’m sorry?”

The human huffs. “I hope nothing is broken.” He opens his bag and fetches the timberwolf skull. “It’s intact. Nice.” I see what he’s doing now, intimidation.

“I’m sorry! Please don’t kill me!” Thunder throws himself to the ground and covers his face while shaking.

“Calm down, I’m not doing anything to anyone. Just be careful when trying to kill others.”

Thunder is taken aback by the response. “Kill?”

“Just be more careful with what you do, you could’ve killed someone. You don’t start to throw thing unless you’re really sure you want it.”

Thunder’s head drifts down. “I’m sorry… I didn’t want to hurt you... or her.”

The human’s face softens. “I’m out. Let’s go.” He gets down and walks outside the inn with the crystal pony and griffon behind.

Thunder walks to me. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean any harm.”

“I feel like a jerk, I’m sorry too.” We hug each other.

“I guess I’ll have to pay for the damages here.” He says with concern.

I shake my head. “It’s also my fault. I have some part in this.” I feel like a jerk.

Igor

Gilda gives me a light touch. “What was that?” She almost whispers.

I lean my weapon on my shoulders and massage my head with both hands. “I feel so stressed.” I pick it back and keep walking. “Just forget it.”

I hear the flap of wings and I turn to see Lightning hovering some distance behind us. She touches the ground and gives me a half smile.

“Hey.”

“Hey.” I answer.

“I just wanted to say that I’m sorry.”

“I already accepted it, shit happens.” I turn around and resume my travel.

She keeps walking behind me. “Where are you going?”

“Anywhere that’s peaceful.”

“Do you mind if I go with you?”

I stop on my tracks. “Why?”

“I’m feeling bad for what I did, I’m sure they don’t want me around anymore.” I turn around to look at her and look her right into the eyes.

“Can you take care of yourself?”

“Of course I can!”

“I don’t mind.”

“So I can?”

“If you want to… just don’t throw anything at me.” She gives a laugh. We walk for a few more seconds. I can’t keep those questions out of my mind. “Lightning.”

“Huh?”

“Do pegasus lay eggs?” Gilda gives a loud laugh.

“What? No!”

“Asking doesn’t offend.” A good dose of humor does wonders.

End of Chapter X

Chapter XI: Prairies

Crystal

Lightning approaches Igor. “So, where we’re going to?”

Igor shrugs. “Anywhere.”

His answer unsettles me and triggers my response. “Are you telling us you have no idea of our next destination?”

“Nothing planned. We’ll be fine, don’t worry about it.” He tries to dismiss me with a wave of his hand.

“I hope you at least have a sense of direction, I don’t want to end up walking in circles.”

“Fine!” He picks up his knife, unsheathes it, holding it by the blade and offers it to me. “Hold it.” For a second my heart skips, I take it from him. “Let’s see our luck.” He throws the sheath to the air and it lands.

He leans to Gilda. “So where is it pointing to?”

She looks at it and then at Igor. “South.”

I shake my head. “Are you really playing a luck game?”

He picks it up and I give him back the knife. “We’re not really going anywhere specifically, are we?”

“And it worries me.”

“Is there anything that you don’t worry about? Another addition will be of help.” He offers Lightning his hand and she gives it a bump. “We’ll be safe and sound.”

Lightning gives him a questioning smile. “We’re wandering then? It’s okay by me.”

He replies. “I guess we’re. It’s not so bad.”

I roll my eyes. “Be that way.”

Gilda walks between Igor and Lightning. “Let’s go then.” Lightning walks ahead of us and Gilda follows right by her side.

Igor yells at them. “Whoa, can you slow down?” They both look back and seem to do as he asks. He looks at me. “Let's go.”

We go south. I can’t believe how much we walk, miles in a day? Igor is lost in thought as always and there is some kind of attrition between Gilda and Lightning, they’ve been trading stories of their travels. I’m not sure if it’s a rivalry between Griffins and Equestrians, it’s certainly nothing against ponies, she treated me fairly until now, so that’s the only thing I can assume.

We reach the end of the forest, wasn’t far as I thought. How long we’ve been traveling? Three to four hours. Exiting the forest, we stop at the top of the hill.

“That’s fine, we’ll settle here.” Gilda and Lightning each start to unpack their belongings, Igor takes a deep breath. “I love this place…”

I sit down. “Please, explain.”

He sits by my side and stares into the distance. “Nothing, I just like it.”

Lightning comes to his side. “It’s you who usually collects the firewood, isn’t?”

“That’s me.” He nods.

“I guess we’ll have to spend the night in the dark, most of the fallen sticks are still damp from the rain.” The discomfort is clear on her voice.

“That’s the reason we’re traveling in group. We take care of each other. I expect the same thing from you.”

She sighs. “I guess so. That’s why you carry that weapon around isn’t?”

“That’s the only reason.”

She gulps. “Don’t you think other ponies –”

“People, before we discuss anything, it means a group of persons or individuals.” Haven’t thought about that, that’s how you group different species?

She looks around. “I know what ‘people’ means and it’s the first time I use it. It’s just that… it feels weird.”

He smirks. “It’s two and two. And I refuse to use words like ‘everypony’ and ‘anypony’.”

She shrugs. “That makes sense. What’s wrong with those words anyway?”

“Besides it sounding xenophobic?” We both flinch at his answer. Never thought of that, does it makes other species feel uncomfortable around us?

“Ok then, so, where do I put my things.”

“Pick a place. Feel comfortable to put them anywhere. There is plenty of room.” She snickers while leaving and then he turns to me. “What we were talking about?”

He reminds me. “We were talking about the natural environment.”

“Yes, that. Can you feel the wind, the grass, the moments of peace?” I close my eyes for a few seconds. I feel the wind blowing against my coat, my hooves upon the grass each blade brushing against them. It brings me memories of a simpler time.

“You miss your family, don’t you?”

A bit of sadness floods my heart. “Yes.”

“Don’t you have a hobby of some kind?”

“Not since I closed my shop.”

He snickers. “You like to work don’t you?”

“Not any work, detailed work. I’m a masterwork with jewels, I can probably work with anything that requires precision, the patterns and shapes, I could do anything, even statues, have you seen the ones near the library? They were made by me.”

He smiles. “Congratulations.”

I give him a mock bow. “Thank you.”

“Do you think you could pick some kind of hobby?”

“Maybe I could, when we reach the next town.”

“I know what you would love… a magic cube.”

“What’s a magic cube?”

“It’s nothing related to magic, mind you, that’s just the name. I don’t think they have those here. But the concept is simple, a cube with nine squares on each side, each line rotates horizontally and vertically. You paint each side with a different color, scramble it and then try to match it back.”

I tilt my head, trying to imagine it. “It seems interesting.”

“It is pretty cool. I never managed to put more than five sides of the cube though.”

I give him a perplexed look. “But a cube has six sides. The way you explained it, it’s impossible to match…” A grin spreads on his face. “Very funny.”

He snickers. “Got you. Do you think you can draw the schematics?”

“I’m confident.” Nine squares, six sides… one cube with fifty four squares. Sliding mechanism for proper rotation, how to hold it all together? Perhaps I should use a socket?

“That’s the spirit.” He opens his bag, picks a journal and a strange pencil. “Here, keep them.”

I take them from him, the journal is made of flexible white paper, full of lines made to improve writing, but the ‘pencil’ intrigues me. “How does it work?”

He takes it back and presses the end of it. *click* A metallic end appears, my eyes widen in surprise. “It’s a pen, you can use it to write, or you can just keep making the noises.” *click… click-click-click-click* He gives it me back. “If it runs out of ink, just open it and pour more into the tube.”

I mimic his action. *click-click-click-click* I like it…

“I’ll put my things right… here.” He places it a few steps away from me.

I take a look at our small camp. Gilda is sitting at her place, frowning over something. Lightning is massaging her legs, probably not used to all the walking, not the way we walked. She’ll have to exercise her legs more. Igor is… thinking? By the look of his face I can guess what.

“Hey Lightning, we have to talk over something.” Yes, he’s doing it.

Lightning

Wow… alien or legend? Or is he both? From what he told me, he felt like the need to lie. I can’t blame him though, if I saw an alien or a legendary creature armed, I would’ve taken him down. But still… why did he tell me the truth?

“Why did you tell me the truth? It’s not like you owe me anything.”

He crosses his arms. “I just don’t want to cause any… inconvenience between us. But I also ask you to keep it a secret. It’s my place to decide to who I tell it.”

Politeness… “You didn’t have to say it anyway.”

“I wanted to tell you, okay? I don’t like to lie, but I’ll do if I have to.”

An idea crosses my mind. “What if I want to tell it to somepony?”

He smirks. “It’s also a thing I don’t admit. Traitors. Best case scenario, I tie you upside down and you’ll have a human hand as a cutie mark.” Crystals snorts something and Gilda laughs at me. “Worst case scenario, you may need my help in the future and you won’t have any. And you won’t see me ever again.”

I expected a more aggressive approach from him, he looks pretty passive. “Are you threatening me?”

“Me? Threatening? Why would I do such a thing to someone who can’t even defend herself?”

I huff in annoyance. “I can defend myself at any time.”

He gets up from the ground and points at me. “I bet you can’t even lift me!”

He’s getting on my nerves! “Yeah? I bet I can!”

He walks to me sits atop of me. “I bet you can’t even do five!”

“You’re a featherweight! I can do fifty!”

I start doing pushups. One… two… three… four... fi- he starts to tickle my sides. I fall to the ground and he pins me down with no intention in stopping the tickling.

“Stop it!” I try to demand, but I’m laughing and crying so hard I can hardly breathe. “Plea—” I take sharp breath. “Stop!” This time he hears me and stops. “Don’t do that ever again!” I try to glare at him, but my face is paralyzed with a smile.

“It’s your own fault.” He starts to creep towards me, showing his hands, I push him. “Ouch… that didn’t even hurt.”

“Go buck yourself!”

“You can buck yourself too.” The others are laughing at us.

I shake my head in disapproval of him. “Funny.”

He shows his tongue to me. “You asked for it.”

I gather my breath and recompose myself. “You’re crazy.”

He gets close to me this time. He looks me in the eyes and offers his hand. I take it and he pulls me up. He starts to take of the dirty from my coat. He gets close to my ear and whispers. “I won.”

I give him a tap. “Alright, you won this time.”

The time I spent with him at the inn I could pick some things from him, he’s serious and funny at the same time, not a trait you find on ponies or griffons. A human he says.

“Tell me, what if more humans came from where you’re from?”

He sits and concentrates. “A difficult question… how many humans does it take to make first contact?”

Oh, I know those jokes. “You tell me.” But I’m not playing.

“It takes around two hundred human leaders. A hundred welcomes with open arms, the other hundred disagrees with the first party. We wait for the war to end and the response of the victorious.” He keeps smiling to me.

I keep a straight face. “I think I get it, but it’s a bit dark.” Okay, it was funny. I just don’t want to give him the impression.

“Suit yourself.” He shrugs.

His joke brings another topic to the board. “Just a question, what’s your problem with the princesses?”

He gives me a serious look. “Manipulators, both of them, maybe even all four.”

I can see he doesn’t like the monarchs, or leaders, whatever he call them. “Which?”

“It’s flaring butt and satellite ass.” Celestia and Luna. The camp breaks into a laughing fit, except him, he’s serious… and funny.

“By the gods, you’re gold!” Gilda exclaims.

Again I have to recollect my breath. “Are you serious?”

“I’m deadly serious.” We all calm down at his response. “A piece of advice from me, don’t trust them. If you knew what I know, you wouldn’t think any different from me.”

He made his point. Being forceful with him isn’t taking me anywhere. I can see he takes no pleasure in speaking about them in anyway, so I just drop the subject. There is just one thing bugging me.

“Who’s taking the night watch?”

“First!” Igor raises his hand. I facehoof, no more questions for him. “You have nothing to worry, I’m all about honesty.”

Crystal whispers to me. “You can trust him.” He reassures me.

“After all, it’s not like we would kill the other one while they sleep, right?” My heart starts to pump at Igor’s remark. Calm down Lightning, he’s just joking… isn’t he? I just crawl into my bedroll and try to keep the thoughts away.

Gilda

And I take the last watch as always. I sigh. Why Igor is even accepting everyone that comes his way? Well, almost everyone, I’m positive he doesn’t want anything with royalty because of what he saw, he only mentioned that he’s an alien, not that he knew about this world. But the way he said those words, it was in an even angrier way than when he was hit by the pegasus with the chair, it was just like the anger when he left Northtrot, a controlled anger. Don’t trust them. What they did to deserve that opinion from him?

The sun is rising. I stretch my wings and legs, letting out a loud yawn. What’s the good side about traveling with other people? More sleep and security for me.

I decide to wake up Crystal first. He’s sleeping with chest up and his head tilting to the side. I nudge him a few times. Soon enough he’s up.

“Gilda.” He gets up start to do his things.

“Crystal.”

Second one Lightning. She’s sleeping with her chest and head turned up, she’s was also drooling, I nudge her just one time and she’s awake.

“Good morning.” She yawns and keeps looking at the sky.

“Morning.”

Last one Igor. I hesitate at the moment. There’s something different about him. His face is… the word… serene it is. Yeah, that one, he looks serene. Crystal walks to my side and looks at Igor.

“He looks so peaceful.” He whispers.

“I thought the same thing.”

“Aren’t you waking him up?”

I shake my head. Soon enough Lightning is by my other side and she lets out another loud yaw. Crystal hushes her.

“What’s the idea?” She whispers.

“Look at him.”

She watches Igor for a few seconds. “He looks happy.” We all nod at this, perhaps this is the reason he likes to sleep so much? “Wake him up already.”

They both look at me. “Fine, I’ll do it.”

He’s curled to one side, chest falling and raising. I give him a little scratch to his cheek and he scratches it back. Lightning starts to snicker. Have patience Gilda. I grip his shoulder and give him a light shake.

He starts to move and then he opens his eyes. “What?” He says with a drowsy voice and a mute yawn.

“Sun is up.” I tell him.

“Fine…” He starts to pack up his things at a slow pace.

When he’s finally done I ask him. “What took you so long?”

“Nothing, I’m just feeling sleepy.” Another mute yawn leaves him. “Lead the way.” He places his weapon on his shoulder.

I look to the sky. Sun rises in the east and sets in the west. South we go. We go through the depression and then we reach the top of the second hill. We see a farming community just a few paces from it. We didn’t even walked half an hour since we left the camp.

Lightning grunts and stomps. “I could’ve slept in a bed!”

“You did.” Igor answers.

“That’s not what I meant.” She looks at him and rolls her eyes. “Ah, yeah, it’s you.”

“What did you meant by that?”

“Nothing.”

“Do you think they have chickens?” She widens her eyes. “Calm down, I just want the eggs. I would love to eat some eggs.”

The conversation is over. We walk downhill and in a few minutes we reach a dirty road path. The path weaves between the crops, it’s probably harvest season, never paid much attention to it. At the entrance of the town we see a plaque.

Igor comes to a stop. “Welcome to Prairie Ponies. Does the name of every city ponies live, include a pun?”

Everyone stops and looks at him. “I never noticed that, weird.” I say.

“I don’t get it.” Lightning says.

Crystal narrows his eyebrows. “That was an interesting observation.”

Igor sighs. “Let’s continue.”

The town square is full of ponies setting up their stalls. What do you do when you see a griffon, a human, a crystal and pegasus ponies? You get confused. Their curiosity is getting best of their fear, so no problems until now. At the town board is the town map, I usually go there instead of asking for location. The inn is… at southwest sector of the town. We reach it, Silent Stallion’s Sleep. Yeah, I guess they do puns without noticing.

Inside we’re welcomed by a unicorn stallion: black mane, grey coat and a musical note for a ‘cutie’ mark, it’s so fun to Crystal’s reaction when he hears that word. “Welcome to Silent Stallion’s Sleep. My name is Silent, how may I serve you?”

Igor is the first to speak. “Breakfast please.”

“Right this way.” He motions us to one of the tables.

Each of us sits at the table. The unicorn levitates a quill and notepad. “What will it be?”

Crystal is the first. “Please, I would like some hay and milk.”

“I want scrambled eggs and some cider.” I order.

“Double her order.” Lightning doubles me.

Igor is thinking. “Bring me bread, scrambled eggs and ale.” The unicorn goes off.

Crystal is put off. “Really? The sun is not even high in the sky.”

“That’s the best time to drink! I’ll have plenty of time to digest the alcohol before sleeping.”

Crystal huffs. “Sometimes I think you do those things just to spite me.”

“It’s done, I won’t order anything else.”

A few minutes of chatting to pass the time and our request is done, he places the plates in front of each of us. “Enjoy.”

We start to eat. Crystal and Lightning are eating moderately. Igor is juggling the knife in one hand and holding an egg sandwich in the other. I call the ponies and point to Igor, he’s not even paying attention. He takes a bite, puts it down, picks the cup and then takes a sip. Crystal rolls his eyes and keeps eating.

“So Igor,” Lightning starts a conversation. “what do you think of Equestria?”

“I love this place! I come here. I see crystal pony and griffon and ride pegasus. This place has everything!" Crystal chokes on his food, Lightning and I are laughing at him.

“Wow.” I wipe a tear from my eye. “I bet you don’t have any plans to the future.”

“A very loose one, but I have it.”

“Care to share?”

“Step one: go to Equestria. Step three: be happy!” He says with enthusiasm.

I notice a thing. “Step two?”

He stops playing with the knife. “Ah, that’s the loose part.”

“So it’s basically a big whatever?”

“Whatever I want to do is fine. There is nothing and no one holding me back.”

We go back to eating with smiles plastered on our faces. Is there a single moment when he isn’t happy? Sometimes, he’s upbeat, not annoying happy as a pony I met once.

“Why the frowning face Gilda?” He asks me.

“Nothing.” Calm down, inhale and exhale.

“Uh… okay.”

We keep eating and then feel the unexpected. It feels like an earthquake, but I for all the time I lived in Equestria I never felt one. Ponies are screaming, things are falling and the inn owner rushes to barricade the door? Igor is helping him pushing things into the door.

“Help me block the entrances!” Silent yells.

The rest of us rush to the windows. “What’s happening?!” Crystals asks.

“They’re back!” The door bursts open to reveal a swarm of prairie dogs. I don’t know anything about farming, but when those things start to swarm places, someone will have problems.

I’ll just sit here. There isn’t much we can do. They’re toppling the chairs and climbing at the tables, eating the food. The ponies are trying to push the animals outside. Igor is just watching it, I guess he never saw anything like that.

“Oh no, you don’t!” I hear Igor shouting and then I see his knife flying.

I see where it lands, on a small skull. The other prairie dogs see this and scatter. The unicorn sees the mess and runs out. We all keep looking at the body on the top of the table. Crystal is displeased with it, but not angry. I can hear Lightning’s stomach burbling, she runs outside, probably to hurl. Igor goes to the table, picks his knife and cleans it on the clean table.

I walk to his side. “You screwed big this time.”

He eats and drinks the rest of his food. “I know.”

End of Chapter XI

Chapter I: A New Plan

Author's Note

The first and second chapters are the introduction to history.

I ask you readers to point my grammar errors, I don't have a proofreader and/or editor.
You can send me a message or leave it in the comments, I don't mind.

I also ask you to leave some comments related to the story of course.

Enjoy the reading!

Chapter I: A New Plan

The day goes on. The usual, getting out of the bed is the hardest part of the day, at least my day, should I be complaining? Maybe I should, that’s all I can do about it, I'm nihilistic.

Sure, its midday by the time I wake up, I have no idea from where I picked this habit. Sometimes I get to bed and keep staring at the ceiling and then I check the clock – 4, 5, 6 a.m. – and there are times I don’t sleep at all.

Lunch time, I need the sustenance, I go to the kitchen, open the fridge and look inside, I grab the quick cooking pasta package, open it and proceed to cook and eat it.

“Human fuel…” I say after finishing my tasteless meal.

I take a quick shower, brush the teeth and then get dressed. Looking myself at the mirror I see: plain white shirt, dark blue pants and white sneakers.

“I hate this…” A look at the bathroom mirror says it all. Every day is the same. Picking my backpack with the essentials I leave the house on my way to the bus stop, instead of the usual harsh midday scorching sun, I was met with a cool breeze and an overcast weather.

“Just the way I like it.” True, I avoid the sun whenever possible, a 15 minute walk to my destination.

Does it have to be like this? Probably. The bus is on schedule, as always – 1 p.m. – the waiting doesn’t bother me at all. I tend to… turn off, for large periods of time and my body goes on auto. Last stop, my stop – 13:50.

What am I doing? School of course. 8 hours of lecturing with 3 breaks of 10 minutes. Nope, good luck body, I’m off. Then the rest of the day is spent scribbling notes, hearing, socializing and eating.

“Hey man, you alright?” One of my classmates asks me.

“Yeah…” A lot of thought was put into the answer.

“You look like shit!” He remarks.

“Thank you.” I say with the most sarcastically tone a human can make.

I go pretty well with everybody, I’m just reserved. A small wheel of my classmates form around and the small talk starts. I simply nod or shake my head in answer for anything directed at me.

The day goes uneventful. We say our goodbyes and handshakes, it’s almost midnight.

I get to the bus stop and luckily my ride is ready to depart. I get on, I pay it and I sit down. Leaning my head against the glass of the windows and closing my eyes, I try to have a moment of peace. Just to be interrupted.

“Greetings.” A deep male voice says.

“Good night.” I say as I start to open my eyes to look at his face. Strangely enough, I’m unable to focus, just a black splotch. I ran my hand across my face and notice I’m not wearing my glasses. Not going into my backpack to pick it.

I hold my hand in front of his; he acknowledges it with a handshake. He almost seemed… content.

“You do feel a bit, tired, if I may say.” A stranger, taking notes on me, on an empty bus, things will go to hell pretty fast.

“Yep.” I simply nod, not taking my eyes a second from him.

“Is something wrong?” I really hope he isn’t into me!

“Just tired of my normal average life.” Where this answer came from?

“If you were given a new choice, would you start anew?” He's creeping me.

“Sure, would be a nice change of pace.” Yes, one more day at this and I would probably suicide.

“If you were given a choice, where would you go?”

“Anywhere,” I try to think on a few places on top of my mind. “Azeroth, Tyria, Sanctuary, Tamriel…” Hope he gets the clue that I’m mocking him and scram.

“Beautiful names, what would you seek on your journey?”

“Peace, I would hate to find myself into another world just to be killed in a few days. It would be disappointing.” I nod in confirmation to my answer.

“You do look resourceful.” A compliment, he screams rape.

“Ok 'friend', what’s the catch?” My tone switches to a more aggressive one, I’m a bit resourceful, but avoiding conflict is a better choice.

“The 'catch' is you should wake up now that you’re out of danger.”

My vision wasn’t blurred at all, it was him or whatever it was, the shadows around him crept over me, no struggle, no movements, no feelings, and then… nothingness.

I rise as the sun raises, a good habit of mine, I don’t have the luxury of wasting the daylights at the Frozen North.

The small hut that I currently reside doesn’t belong to me; it’s more of a medical clinic of the little village, Northtrot. The bonus is, I’m paid to guard the place through the night, my employer is the local town doctor, who is also happens to be the town mayor, Searing Blaze, a respectful guy, don’t know why ponies even try break in, he told me the last guy that tried it got scorched by him and had to stay in the clinic, he’s short tempered.

A few minutes later and he barges in.

“Morning.” Grumpy.

“You too.”

“No one tried anything last night?” He starts to check the cabinets, no complaints.

“Nah, it was cool.” I stand and stretch my back, making some bones crack; it doesn’t bother him at all.

“Good,” He picks some bits from his bag and places them at the desk. “hiring a griffon to stand guard here was the best decision I made, the townsponies are beginning to have second thoughts about getting in.”

I walk up to the desk, count the bits and place them into my bag. “Nice.”

“I’m fair, as long as you keep in line.”

“Sure.” I nod to him.

“Don’t you have to do your things? You know very well how some of those ponies look at you when you bring your food into town.” He’s right.

“Yeah, we aren’t in ponyland anymore, they can suck it up.” I smirk at him.

“Fair enough, you’re done for the night.” He shakes his head and starts to write at papers he grabbed from the desk.

“See ya, Sear.” I turn around to the door and make my way.

“Good game, Gilda.” Just as I close the door, I hear a laugh behind it.

I take flight as soon as I’m out of the clinic, from the air it’s very easy to see the town, about 15 huts with chimneys and an inn, which is carved on the side of the hill. The locals are mostly earth ponies and pegasi, there are only 2 unicorns, Blaze being one and the other is the innkeeper, Snow Blanket, the inn also has 2 permanent residents, Dig and Dug, employed diamond dogs, explains why she was the most welcoming of the town towards me.

Hunting in the snow is no easy task, not only most creatures have a white coat able to blend with the surrounds, but the cold winds make it hard to keep the flight. Snow offered me shelter in return for getting some hunt for the dogs at weekends. I do my daily hunt on the hopes of getting something, once in a while I manage to get big prey and stay at the inn for bigger times, mostly I end up with a hare or two, enough to keep my skills sharp and my belly full.

Spotting something in the snow, I slowly descend into the plains, just a mound of snow to hide me from my prey. Apparently it’s half buried into the snow, probably dead, but I’m not the one to take chances, I collect my breath and get ready to a sprint…

I burst from the snow top at an extreme speed ready to pounce at my prey, a small distance away and it’s not even aware of me, definitely dead. I make my leap. A soft thump, no sound of breaking bones or even a small squeak of pain, whatever I hit felt like cloth. I ran my claw against the object, it’s definitely cloth, and I start to dig around just to see whatever treasure I’ve found.

I keep digging when suddenly I hit something, the smell of blood, whatever is down there I’ve decided to be more careful, no animal would know what to do with fabric or even wear it, perhaps a cargo animal, unlikely. Then I unearth it, an almost fur less white skin with the wound I inflicted upon it, a superficial scratch, even more carefully I start to dig around it.

A few minutes later I finish it, it’s almost completely covered in clothes, the head and upper paws being exposed to the cold, the place where I pounced is a kind of bag strapped on its back. As for the features, unlike anything I’ve ever seen, way bigger than a pony, long forepaws with stubby claws, probably the same size as a diamond dog or even taller if it isn’t hunched like them, below the waist it’s completely covered and the hind paw is covered in something, can’t figure out. A big patch of fur covering the head and a smaller covering the face, it’s nose is very different from a muzzle, almost like a beak, but not sharp, the nostrils are underside instead of the end, the mouth is a small gap after the nose, the skin there looks the same as lips on mammals, the eyes are shut, can’t make anything out of it, the less alien features on it are the eyebrows and eyelashes.

I lean closer to it. It’s alive, but shivering, the cloth isn’t enough to keep it warm for this place, what do I do? I start to pace around it, the breaths are getting weaker as well as the shivering. I’m not leaving it alone to die in the cold, but where should I bring it? Snow Blanket! She’s the only one that won’t freak out on it.

I try to pick him through the chest, but the bag is on the way, I try to remove it, the paws are between the stripes of clothes that hold the bag on its back, easy. I start to pick him up, more careful than what I do with my prey, it’s lighter than I expected, probably a pony in weight, I imagined something this big should be heavier.

When I’m about to take flight I remember the bag, I could pick it later. Having a better idea I put the bag on its chest and put the paws between the slings. Ready, I pick the creature and cargo then take off.

Arriving back at the town, I land at the inn’s door, it’s still early and most of the townsponies are asleep or in the fields, no idea of what they can plant in the snow. I lay the creature down and start to drag it inside the inn, the bell’s rattling makes its noise as I push the door open.

“Morning Gilda, I see you had lu –” She stops mid-sentence to see me dragging the “hunt” inside.

“Can you give me a hoof?” I say intoning the “hoof” part.

“Dig! Dug!” Goddammit mare! No need to yell!

I hear the two dogs making their way to the main hall, heavy stomps at snail pace. Both of them arrive at the same time, they are never apart.

“Yes mom?” They say in unison… forgot to say, Snow is like their adoptive mother, she told me she had found them both a long time ago and took them under her care, yeah, she’s one of a kind.

“Can you dears help Gilda with this poor animal?” She says in a motherly tone.

“Food?” Snow and I shake our heads in answer to him; Dug needs more food for his brain.

*Slap* Dug was hit on the back of his head by his sister, more for berating than hurting, I bet he only felt a smack. “Mom said help, not eat.” Dig is stronger, smarter and bigger than Dug, the little fella is probably still growing.

“Don’t be so harsh on your brother,” She scolded her. “put it in the room next to mine, I’m sure there is nopony there.” She levitates a key from her key-set to Dig.

“Yes mom.” They leave our sights towards the chambers.

We stay stuck in an awkward moment, not knowing what to say to each other.

She finally broke it. “Do you think it’s sick? The poor one doesn’t seem to be in any shape for anything.”

“Aside from sleeping while being buried in the snow, I think it’s fine.”

“Sleeping in the snow? Don’t you think it fell there?” She has a point.

“Probably, you should talk to Searing. I haven’t found anything for me to eat; fruits and veggies won’t sustain me.”

“Good idea. I’ll leave now, better go to him. Bye.” She left the inn at a hurried pace.

A small laugh leaves me as I go outside. I take flight back to my task, find some meat. But not in single moment I stopped thinking about Snow’s guest, whatever it may be.

End of Chapter I

Chapter VIII: Fourth Night

Gilda

I was pretty hungry, so I left to hunt something, the problem with trees is the amount of cover it gives to animals, which is also a good thing since most of them tend to sleep inside or atop trees. My favorite hunt is squirrel, tastes like rabbit. I lick my beak at the thought.

The area probably has a good number of animals, a stream of clear water and fructiferous trees and bushes around. One of them catches my attention, an acorn tree, it has a squirrel on top of a branch. I quickly dive and take it out. It never saw me coming.

I go for the river and take a look at my reflection, blood on my beak and talons, I wash them out. Another look around some bushes and I find some berries, they look edible, I put some of them into my bag. A look at the horizon, the sun is setting, I decide to head back to the camp.

I see our camp, Crystal is near the campfire and Igor is turned to a tree doing something. I get down without making too much noise, drop my things at my place, Crystal looks at me and waves his hoof and I wave back. I walk to Igor and see what he’s doing, he’s using the knife to carve the wood.

“Hey.”

He turns to me hey. “Hey.” And goes back to his task.

I lean a bit closer to see him making stick figures on the tree. A bunch of what appears to be stick humans with stick spears throwing them at stick ponies, which are trying to escape the humans. I smirk and shake my head.

“Why the heck are you doing this?” I point to his drawing.

“I was bored and why not? Maybe in the future some silly pony is going to come here and create some silly story about the drawing, maybe even put this entire place down under preservation.”

“Preservation? Preserve what?”

“Oh yeah, forget about it. Forgot about not being home.” He finishes doing his art and sits down. “What you’ve been doing?”

I get closer to him. “Hunting.” And give him a glare.

“You got something?” He whispers.

I back off. “Yeah.”

“What you got?”

He’s always so curious. “A squirrel.”

“What does it taste like?”

I shake my head again. “Like rabbit.”

He crosses his arms. “I thought you would say chicken (Shrug).” I have no idea how to answer that. “Never mind. What you’ll be doing once you leave?”

I don’t know why, but the way he said it hurt me a bit. “Why?”

“I figured out what I want to do. The question is, what you’ll be doing?”

Fast thinker. “Trying to get rid of me so soon?” I give him a smirk.

“No. Sorry for sounding rude.”

“No worries, I haven’t thought about that, keep traveling I guess.”

He perks up. “Have you been somewhere else?”

I nod. “Tried work at the big cities, the coastal ones.”

“Is it hard for a foreigner to find a job?”

I lean close to him. “Most ponies dislike other species, if that is what you mean, even for a griffon it is hard to find a job. There is this old rivalry between us.” I remember the first time I went to Cloudsdale, wasn’t easy.

He sneers. “How the cities smell?”

Weird question. “They don’t. Yours smell?

To my surprise he nods. “Like a fog of smoke, smog. Not good for my health, or anyone else, for that matter.” He starts to flip his knife, picking either the blade or the grip. “It is also bright, noisy and overpopulated, good riddance.” He grins and looks directly into my eyes. “A question if I may, the eye shadow, is it natural?”

I puff my chest, he’s probably going to crack a joke. “It is not eye shadow, it’s natural, so what?”

He shrugs. “Nothing, it compliments you.”

I feel my cheeks blushing. “How so?”

“I think it looks pretty.”

I turn away from him and try to calm myself down. Why he does those things? One second he doesn’t even care I’m here, the next he tries to smoother me. I walk to Crystal and notice him gripping tufts of grass, he seems dizzy, swaying a bit, and keeps his gaze down.

“Are you feeling alright?”

He nods. “I’m just…” He turns up to look at me and his eyes shoot into the sky. “I’m just a bit dizzy…” He turns his gaze down again.

“What is your problem?” He points to Igor.

I walk back to Igor, whatever he did, I want to know.

“Dude, what the hell you did with him?” I say while pointing to Crystal.

His face shows some concern. “You don’t want to know.”

I’m not so interested anymore. “Whatever. Shouldn’t you start watch now?”

“I know.” He gets up and brushes himself, he picks his weapon and we walk to the campfire.

Crystal looks at him. “It will take some time… to get used to it.”

“Stop ruminating that, you worry too much.” Igor massages his temple. “Look, look at me.” He walks to Crystal and grabs his head while maintaining eye contact. “I usually don’t do this, I’m going to sing a calm song and you’re going to calm your shit down, okay?” Crystal slowly nods and his head is released. Igor sighs. “Just this once.”

Crystal

A bit saddening the way he sings, still calming, soon enough Gilda and I were following his voice, I will always remember that music.

Igor looks me in the eye. “So? How are you feeling?”

I inhale and exhale. “Better, thanks.”

He waves his hand. “Don’t mention it. That was one of my favorites.”

“Tell me, is that how you feel?”

He looks into the crackling fire. “Yes.”

Gilda looks at me and I return the look, nodding to her. “So, why didn’t you go and made some friends?”

He looks at her and back into the fire. “I tried. Better to be alone than feel lonely.” That was a clever play of words, with some truth hidden between. “And then it became too tiresome to deal with people. People are more likely pick up on me than listen to me.” He sighs.

Gilda goes closer to him and gives him a tug. “I was hoping for something more, lively.”

He shakes his head. “Not gonna work. I’m feeling tired already.”

“Wait a second, when I left weren’t you sleeping?” She points to his bed.

“No, do you know the sensation of when you forget something?” He taps his head. “An annoying sensation, in the back of your head. That keeps you from doing something.”

I interrupt them. “The way you describe it, it appears to be something awful.”

“Or something that will really annoy me. Anyway, go to your beds, I’m taking the first watch, as always.”

Better give him some space, Gilda leaves to her place and I to mine. I take a gulp of my water and get ready to sleep, cradling into my bedroll a few minutes pass, I’m finally falling asleep.

“Woooooooooooooo!” What was that?

“I knew it! We have company!” Igor yells to us.

My heart jumps up my throat and my blood runs through it, adrenalin ready to help. I jump from my bed and rush to him, Gilda already by his side. He lifts his weapon and points his finger to the woods, I can see yellow dots in the woods.

“What are those?” I ask them.

“Timberwolves. I’m counting a pack of seven.” Igor answers.

“Can you see in the dark?”

“Yeah.” That explains his eyes.

Soon the wolves move from the woods to us, encircling us, Igor is right, I count seven wolves in total and ahead of me I see two.

“Two on my sight.” I say.

“I got two.” Gilda says.

“Three, the alpha and two minions.(Grunt) Why me?” Igor says.

Alpha, the way he said wasn’t good, I turn to look back at it. It really doesn’t look good. A head taller than the minions, more wood, certainly the minions are a bit shorter than me, the size of Gilda perhaps. I turn to look at my foes.

Gilda snickers at my side. “Haven’t fought one in a while. You two won’t like their smell.”

We are surrounded, I back up a little and feel the heat of the fire. I just have to concentrate a little and harden my coat, done. I pick a nearby branch from the stock pile and light it up.

“Leed den do de fie!” Lead them to the fire, I said. I had to use my mouth to hold the stick.

“Don’t need to say twice. I wanted to test my new weapon anyway.” Igor says.

“Dond sped!” Don’t spread.

“I know. Save your breath, you’ll need it.” Yes, I guess he can learn something from others.

Soon enough, I hear a howl and something charging at our location, we are spread in a triangle, behind us is the fire and ahead of us the wolves. I hear the sound of wood being broken and being peppered by wooden splinters.

“Minus one.” Gilda says.

They didn’t like seeing their pack friend being crisped. They give a collective howl and charge at us. I jump forward and swing the make shift torch, trying to dissuade the attacker. They jump back at the sight of the fire on my mouth.

Something behind me has been taken down, without looking back I keep fending my attackers. With a swing of my head I throw the torch at one of the wolves, it whimpers, drops and rolls. The way it catches fire I assume its body was dry. The second one tries to stomp the fire from his friend without any success.

It snarls at me and charges with its mouth open, I lift my hoof to give it what it wants. Without flinching I look at the wolf, its wooden teeth broken into my fore hoof coat, it didn’t reached for my skin, the animal tries to give me a smile. I spin around and throw the wolf into the fire.

I turn to see Igor charging at the alpha and follow behind him.

Igor

I crouch and point my halberd forward, left hand near the tip and right near the blunt end, anything that is dumb enough to charge at a spear doesn’t deserve to live, it does exactly as I expected, it comes at me and when connecting with the spear point it blows into wood shrapnel. As an instinctive reflex I cover my face and close my eyes, bad move.

I feel something pinning me down and I swiftly thrust my right palm forward: wood breaking and flesh ripping, bad time to not be wearing my gloves. More shrapnel peppers me, some piercing my clothes and burying into my skin, nothing unbearable.

I get up to take a look at the alpha, is it smiling? I quickly realize what it sees, I turn the weapon blunt backwards and it hits one of them, this time I applied enough force to not destroy and only push it into the fire, the wolf doesn’t even cry, just falling into the flames. I switch hands and using the bladed end as a shovel I hit the other one into the fire.

I rush to the alpha with the spear pointing forward, with Gilda and Crystal behind me.

Gilda

The first one was a piece of cake, but at the second I take my eyes off from the thing it tries to snatch me with its jaws, just like the last one it was throw into the fire. The flames help greatly when fighting them, otherwise they just keep coming back, or getting bigger as they merge with each other, the bigger they are, the harder it is to make them burn, too much sap.

I turn to see the campfire, much bigger than the first flames, Igor and Crystal are charging at the alpha and I follow behind them. The minions are piece of cake, but the big one is made of bark instead of twigs and the magical sap that lacks on the smaller ones is sticky as glue, the first time I fought one I had to spend an entire day trying to clear my wings from it.

Igor rushes and encircles the beast while pushing it, in turn the animal tries to bite or claw him, he deflects the attacks with his weapon. We three flank and encircle the beast.

I warn them. “Careful, the outer part is hard as bark.”

Igor swings his weapon at the alpha’s neck, the creature not even intimidated by his action tries to dodge the attack, launching itself towards him, and the blade gets stuck just below the neck, near the torso.

Crystal rears back and kicks the alpha in the legs bringing it down. I in turn jump on its back and start to open a way into the more soft parts, opening way to the core, I’m covered in sap, great.

Igor pulls his weapon back and yells to me. “Jump out!” I jump and flap my wings, sending me a few steps from the alpha. Igor raises his weapon and brings it down, splaying sap on everybody, and he does it again, again, again…

Crystal moves to his side and nudges him. “It’s over…”

Igor looks at him, at me, at the beast. He takes a deep breath, brings his weapon on the beast once more, and pulls it back. “Just making sure.”

I look at everybody around, we’re all covered in grime. I sneer.

“We need to get rid of it, and fast, the sooner the better.”

I rush to the river and leave the two behind. Soon enough they are both into the river washing themselves.

Crystal looks at Igor. “That was unnecessary.”

“I was just making sure, didn’t you see them rising up?”

I look at him. “Really? I’m sure I didn’t need a sap shower.” I hate this.

He keeps scratching himself. “I’m sorry! Happy now?”

I huff. “You have no idea how bad it is, hairless monkey.” I scold him.

He doesn’t even take offense, he walks to me and starts to scratch me… it feels so good. “Just show me where it is.” I wash my face and he starts to clean it up. “You’re clear.” He walks to Crystal. “You too.”

Crystal

I look at him and sigh. “Fine, do it fast.”

Igor runs his hand across my coat. “What the hell? It solidified already?”

“Oops, sorry.” I relax and it goes limp, he starts to rub and scratch where the splotches were, it feels comfortable. “Done.”

We all move out of the water. Igor goes to the alpha body and starts to drag it towards the fire, he’s drying it up; I don’t think we’ll need more lumber.

We all sit at our respective places, Gilda is drying herself at her place, I’m drying myself at my place and Igor is picking chips from his skin, grunting and swearing for every chip he picks.

Gilda yells to him. “You hit them and they blew, didn’t they?”

“Yes.”

“Idiot.”

“Uh huh.”

Igor finally ends his task, gets up walks to the corpse near the fire. He takes a limb from the animal and starts to sniff it, every time he wants to eat something he sniffs it first.

“Are you eating that?” I ask him.

He gives another it another sniff and throws it into the fire. “No. It’s green.” He says it with a sneer.

“What is the problem with green food?”

“Nothing.”

Gilda interrupts again. “Maybe if you ate more of it you could grow up, twerp.”

“Uh huh.” I sigh, why did I decide to follow them anyway? Igor picks his spear axe and slowly walks to the lake. “Stay awake for a few minutes, gotta clean this.” He tells us.

Gilda looks at him and walks to me. “Did you saw him?”

“What?”

“What? Him!” She whispers. “He was angry to the point of melting and then, that thing with the axe, now he’s back to normal, all passive!”

I noticed, he’s either good at controlling his emotions or he wasn’t worried since the beginning. “Tell me, what griffons know about humans?”

She recoils at my question. “Some stories, nothing silly like pony stories. A few of them are a bit more, gruesome. Most of them are stories about, you know, what he did.” She points to the alpha’s body.

A thousand years and the griffons didn’t change much. “Just leave him be. I’m sure he’s angrier at himself.”

She cocks her head. “What do you mean?”

“He almost failed, it was his watch, and he almost failed us.”

“I don’t –”

We see him coming back and Gilda runs back to her place.

Igor

“So, I’ll be taking the rest of my shift. You two get some rest.” I shake my head. All I wanted was some peace. What do I do tomorrow? Clearly this place isn’t safe as I thought, there are probably cockatrices or manticores around, or even an ursa. I’m not sure about them, but I’ll manage something for me.

I whisper to myself. “Stay awake, stay alert, stay alive.” And keep my watch.

End of Chapter VIII