Honour Bound: Duty and Love
Chapter 2 - The Foreign Pegasus
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'The Foreign Pegasus'
Fluttershy didn't know what to do. She was just back from another day of shopping, buying food for herself and her animal friends just like every day. She was going about her usual daily routine, making sure all of the animals were fine, feeding them and the like. When she was making herself a cup of tea, Angel rushed into the cottage, freaking out over something.
The shy Pegasus had followed the rabbit out towards the Everfree Forest, the last place she wanted to go near. However, she had to make sure Angel wasn't going to go in, and she was certainly curious as to what he was freaking out about. It didn't stop her from being worried though, because if it was near the Everfree Forest, or in it, then it definitely wasn't good.
As she got closer, she was eventually able to make out something just at the entrance of the forest. She could immediately tell that it was a Pegasus, just by looking at the large wings. The Pegasus himself was covered in various pieces of armour. Fluttershy first assumed that he was a royal guard, but she retracted the thought immediately when she took a closer look at the armour.
She had never seen armour like this before. It was a gleaming silver colour, and helmet itself was slightly jagged. Fluttershy couldn't recall a single time where she had seen a royal guard in armour such as this. Celestial guards always wore golden armour, whereas Lunar guards wore dark lavender coloured armour, but this Pegasus, was way different.
At first, she figured he could have been a captain of some sort, but then she remembered, Shining Armor already had that position in the royal guard. Angel was hopping around the unconscious Pegasus. The rabbit gently nudged him a few times out of curiosity.
The Pegasus must have felt the rabbit nudging him, as he let out a painful groan and rolled over onto his side.
Fluttershy nearly screamed out in terror but quickly covered her mouth. He had cuts and gashes over all his body, and blood was still slowly dripping from them, she wondered how she never noticed them earlier. But then, the shadows of the trees were cast over him so they clearly would have made it difficult for her to see at first.
Knowing he definitely needed help, Fluttershy told Angel to go back to the cottage to find a first aid kit, while she herself carried him back to the cottage. It was easier said than done however, this Pegasus weighed a tone.
It took Fluttershy a good few minutes before she figured out a way to make her job easier. She began removing all of the Pegasus' armour, helmet, breastplate and bracers. She made sure she was extra careful in doing so as she didn't want to risk worsening his wounds. When she removed all of the armour, she placed it all under one of the nearby trees and returned to the Pegasus' side.
She attempted to pick him up again. He was still too heavy, and Fluttershy was now starting to panic.
Fortunately, she got a lucky break when she saw a rainbow streak zooming around in the sky.
"RAINBOW DASH! HELP!" She called out to her friend.
Thankfully, the cyan Pegasus heard her and bolted down to see what was wrong. Of course, as soon as she saw the wounded Pegasus on the ground, she immediately got her answer. "Whoa...what happened here Fluttershy?"
Fluttershy shrugged and said, "I don't know, I was just about to feed my animal friends until Angel dragged me over here and showed this Pegasus. Please, help me take him inside, he's really hurt."
Rainbow Dash looked at the unconscious blue Pegasus and nodded. "I see what you mean, look at those cuts!"
Fluttershy stood on one side of the Pegasus, while Rainbow Dash stood on the other. Together, they were able to lift him up. They placed one foreleg around Rainbow Dash, while they placed his other foreleg around Fluttershy. Their combined efforts were enough to carry him with ease. "Be gentle now, we don't to make his injuries worse." Fluttershy said softly as she and her friend slowly made their way towards the cottage, with the blue Pegasus on both of their backs.
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "Yeah yeah whatever..." She turned to get a good look at the Pegasus, and raised a brow when she noticed his large wings. "His wings are pretty big, I wonder how fast he can fly."
"Please Rainbow, we don't have time for that. We need to get him inside so we can patch him up." Fluttershy replied.
"Alright, alright, sheesh." Rainbow replied. "Who is he anyway?"
Fluttershy sighed. "I don't know."
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Fluttershy watched as the blue Pegasus lay motionlessly in the bed she set up for him. She and Rainbow Dash had gotten him inside and, with her friends help, patched up all of his wounds. She made sure there was an extra pillow for his head, she wanted him to be as comfortable as possible so he could make a quick recovery.
The shy Pegasus had already taken care of bringing his armour in, while she asked Rainbow Dash to go and get the rest of their friends, as Twilight Sparkle and the others would no doubt want to see this Pegasus for themselves. In fact, considering Twilight Sparkle was a Princess of Canterlot, there was a possible chance that she may know who he was. Though, it was just a slim chance though, despite the armour he wore, it still wasn't enough to conclude that he was a royal guard, the armour itself just didn't match the others.
His breathing became normal, which she was thankful for. She was glad she patched him up, as he would have died from too much blood loss. She took a good look at him and noticed he was quite well-built, possibly more well-built than the royal guards in Canterlot themselves. He had a dark yellow blade-looking mane, the same could be said for his tail in a way. His coat was good dark shade of blue and his hoofs were a clean white colour.
She looked at his Cutie Mark, it was a Storm Cloud. She wondered how he could have gotten a Cutie Mark like that, though she grew nervous a little as she believed it may have been something destructive. She didn't want to think that though, she didn't want to think that this Pegasus would be the destructive type, and she knew a few other Ponies out there who were quite destructive to an extent.
What made her more nervous however, was how he would react upon waking up. The worst that could possibly happen was him getting all aggressive and demanding to know what happened while he was unconscious. Though to be fair, even if that were to happen, Fluttershy wouldn't be able to give him an answer, as she too was confused.
The thought then entered her head. What exactly happened to him? Considering she found him just outside the Everfree Forest, Fluttershy could only assume that he must have been attacked by something while he was in it and barely made it out. It could have been a Manticore, but then, the wounds on his body didn't exactly look like they were caused by one, otherwise the wounds themselves would have been much more worse, as Manticores where quite ferocious.
Finally, after waiting for what seemed like a good long while, her door opened and Rainbow Dash came rushing in, followed by Twilight Sparkle, then Rarity, Applejack, and finally, Pinkie Pie.
"We're here Fluttershy, what happened?" Twilight Sparkle asked as she approached her friend.
Fluttershy slowly backed away from the bed and faced the young Alicorn. "I found this Pegasus just outside the Everfree Forest. He was injured real badly so me and Rainbow Dash brought him in."
Twilight made her way to the bed where the blue Pegasus lay. She looked at him curiously for a moment before turning back to her friend. "It looks like he had a good few injuries. What happened?"
"I...I don't know...I just found him laying outside the forest and I couldn't just leave him out there." Fluttershy replied softly as she looked back at the unconscious Pegasus.
The young Alicorn Princess looked at him curiously again. She turned to Pinkie Pie. "Pinkie Pie, do you know who he is? You know everypony in Ponyville."
Pinkie Pie rushed to the side of the bed and gave a quick look at the Pegasus before replying. "Nope! Absolutely not! Never seen him in Ponyville once! I guess that means I'll have to prepare a 'Welcome to Ponyville' party when he wakes up! He's going to love it!"
Applejack slowly pulled the cheery Pony away from the bed. "Now just hold on a second there sugarcube. We can do that some other time, right now though, we need ta let him rest and wait till he wakes up." She turned to Fluttershy. "Hey Shy, did he have anythin' with him?"
Fluttershy looked nervously at the other side of the room. "Well, he did have that armour on when I found him." She said quietly as she pointed at the set of armour that sat in the corner.
Twilight, still curious, made her way over to the armour and studied it. "So, he is a royal guard then I'm assuming?" Rarity said.
"That's what I thought but..." Fluttershy stopped for a moment and waited until Twilight looked back at her before continuing. "The armour is different than the armour that the royals guards wear. I've never seen that kind of armour being worn by a guard, ever."
Curiosity piqued, Twilight used her magic to levitate all pieces of armour into the middle of the room where all of them could see it. True enough, the armour was indeed different than a royal guards armour. Twilight had never seen this type of armour ever. It was thick and looked like it was made from a different material than the armour worn by the royal guards back in Canterlot. The bracers were longer too, so long that they must have atleast expanded midway up the leg, that and they looked like they only covered half of the wearers hoofs, no doubt for more protection while keeping mobility. The silver helmet had slightly curved plates at the side, almost giving it a crown look, but at the same time she could tell this wasn't a crown.
Then, their attention went towards the large breastplate. What caught their eyes, was the large open hole at the chest part. They were able to immediately conclude that this was no doubt caused by a bladed weapon like a sword or a spear.
This made them nervous a little. Was he attacked by royal guards? Was he a wanted fugitive?
Twilight didn't see how that could be possible though. If there was a wanted fugitive running around then the Princesses would have atleast informed her. That, and Fluttershy did say he was lying just outside the Everfree Forest, but even then, she knew that despite how dangerous it was, nothing in there could have possibly cut through armour as thick as this.
"So...any ideas?" Applejack asked.
Pinkie Pie was about to open her mouth, until Rainbow Dash cut her off. "No parties Pinkie!"
The pink mare stopped and remained silent, a slight look of disappointment on her face.
Twilight then noticed something she failed to notice earlier. There was a small design of some sort on the front of breastplate. It was a grey crown. "A grey crown?"
"Well I'll be..." Applejack added as she also noticed the grey crown design on the armour. "Well if there's one thing ah do know, he's definitely not a royal guard from Canterlot."
Rarity looked at the unconscious Pegasus in confusion. "If that's the case, then who is he?"
Twilight walked over to the side of the bed again and looked closely at the Pegasus. He was well-built just like a royal guard, in fact, he looked even more well-built than the common guard themselves. His wings were unusually large for a Pegasus aswell. They were just as big as Princess Celestia's wings.
Suffice to say, Twilight had a possible theory but she didn't want to jump to conclusions too soon. She turned to her friends and said, "I think I should inform the Princesses of this. Clearly he isn't a royal guard, but he's definitely not a normal Pegasus either."
"I do believe you're right darling." Rarity replied.
Twilight made her way over to the door. "I'm going to go and get Spike and have him send the Princesses a letter. Hopefully they'll know who he is, or atleast where he's from."
"Well if they don't, then we can just ask him when he wakes up." Rainbow Dash replied as she followed her friend outside. "Besides, from the looks of those wings of his, I bet he's fast, but I bet he isn't as fast as me though."
Applejack just rolled her eyes and turned to Pinkie Pie. "Come on you..." She then turned to Fluttershy. "Hey Fluttershy, ya gonna need a hoof with him?"
Fluttershy shook her head. "No. I should be fine by myself, thanks for offering though."
Nodding, Applejack dragged Pinkie Pie outside of the cottage where the others were waiting.
"I must say, he is a rather..." Rarity stopped as she continued to look at the Pegasus' unconscious features. "He is a rather, dashing Stallion. Don't you think?"
Fluttershy just blushed and hid behind her mane. "If...if you say so..."
Rarity giggled before trotting outside.
"Don't worry Fluttershy, we'll be back soon. If he wakes up before we get back, make sure he stays here, ok?" Twilight said.
Fluttershy merely replied with a nod. Her friends then trotted off, leaving the shy Pegasus alone with the unconscious stranger.
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Princess Luna slowly descended down to the balcony below and calmly trotted into the throne room where her sister was waiting for her. Just like every other day, she had just finished raising the moon, beginning the night.
Celestia was currently sitting at the bottom of the podium, reading various reports brought in by scouts. Luna approached her sister with a curious look and said, "What news sister?"
The white Alicorn merely shook her head before using her magic to set the letters down. "Nothing new. All is well in the other towns and villages."
"That's good to know. Hopefully things will continue to remain that way." The dark Alicorn replied.
With a sigh, Celestia said, "I'm sure they will. As long as we remain on good terms with the Griffin King and the Dragon King, our subjects are safe."
"Do not forget sister, there's still the Changelings. As long as they're out there, our Ponies aren't fully safe." Luna replied.
Celestia nodded. "I know. But after her last defeat, I'm sure Queen Chrysalis won't make another move for a good while. She will not risk defeat a second time."
Luna narrowed her eyes at her sister. "What about...the Mad Unicorn?"
No reply came from the white Alicorn.
"How do we know if he's really dead? Remember, we never found his body." Luna added.
Celestia faced her sister and said, "If he's still alive, he'll reveal himself eventually. For now, we have nothing to worry about."
The two Alicorn sisters sat in silence for a good long moment, pondering on what to do next. Celestia was considering taking a little trip to Ponyville, merely to pay a visit to Twilight Sparkle and her friends and see how they were doing.
Just as she was about to speak her mind, a scroll materialized before the two sisters. "A letter from Twilight Sparkle I'm assuming?" Luna said.
"Yes...let's see here..." Celestia said as she used her magic to open the scroll before reading it.
Dear Princess Celestia,
Something recently just came up that has gotten me and my friends very curious. Earlier during the day, Fluttershy had found a wounded Pegasus just outside the Everfree Forest and took him in to nurse him back to health. He had the appearance of a royal guard, he even had his own set of armour. What has us confused however is that his armour doesn't match any that yours or Princess Luna's guards wear, and his wounds looked like they were done by swords or spears. I wanted to ask you if there has been anything going on regarding a wanted fugitive. I know by his armour that he is not a royal guard, but I also know that he is not a normal Pegasus either. His armour does however have a grey crown designed on it and I was wondering if that also sounded familiar to you. Me and my friends are currently waiting at Fluttershy's cottage, the Pegasus is still here too, I hope you can reply as soon as possible or make some time to see the Pegasus for yourself. Please reply as soon as possible Princess, I don't want my friends to worry.
Your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle
Celestia read through the letter a second time and pondered her thoughts for a moment. "Hm, that is interesting..." She said quietly.
"What is it sister?" Luna asked as she approached the white Alicorn.
Instead of replying, Celestia levitated the scroll towards her sister and watched as she too began reading through it. Luna, just like her sister, read through it a second time before speaking. "A Pegasus who looks like a royal guard but does not wear matching armour? Hmm..." She looked at her sister again. "Twilight Sparkle also stated that there was a grey crown design on the armour, though I am not familiar with it. What about you?"
Celestia shook her head. "No, I am unfamiliar with it aswell. I do know however that there are no fugitives running around that we're aware of, so that's most definitely out of the question. She also stated that he was found outside the Everfree Forest. Though he could have been attacked in there, her letter mentioned that he had wounds that looked like they were done by spears or swords, and I don't recall ordering my guards to attack anypony, nor would they for that matter."
"If that's the case, I'm quite curious now. Perhaps we should go down and see this Pegasus for ourselves." Luna said.
Celestia nodded. "I agree. But perhaps it's best that we wait until morning. If the Pegasus is unconscious then it would be pointless to go right now."
Luna thought for a moment. "True. I suppose the Ponies themselves will also be needing their rest so I guess we can attend to this matter in the morning." She turned to leave but stopped and faced her sister again. "I recommend sending Twilight Sparkle a letter back and let her know of our visit tomorrow."
"Of course sister." Celestia replied as she watched her sister leave the throne room.
The white Alicorn Princess slowly walked outside onto the throne room balcony and looked up at the night sky. "A grey crown...I don't recall such an emblem. Could he be from one of the foreign lands?"
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Several royal Pegasus guards descended down to the large beach below and began approaching a team of Lunar guards that were grouped around a dead body.
"We got your message and came as quickly as we could. What happened?" A Celestial guard asked.
One of the Lunar guards backed away from the dead body and said, "We found this dead Pegasus here as we were scouting the area. Clearly he was washed up here, but the question is, what killed him? He was impaled by this spear here..." He said as he pointed to the spear that lay next to the dead Pegasus.
The Celestial guard approached the dead Pegasus and examined him. His coat was a dark shade of white, and most of his body was covered up by dark grey armour. All of the armour itself, bracers, helmet and breastplate, were all slightly jagged, but what caught his eye was the design on the armour. There was a gold crown surrounded by a ring of fire designed on the front of the breastplate.
"Well?" One of the Lunar guards said.
The Celestial guard faced him. "Have you ever seen that design before?"
"Never..." The Lunar guard replied as he looked at the design on the breastplate. "I've never seen a design like that before. The design itself definitely doesn't belong to the Griffin Kingdom or the Dragon Kingdom. And I doubt that the Zebra Tribes in the foreign lands would use armour like this..."
Looking down at the dead Pegasus again, the Celestial guard said, "So if he isn't part of any of them, who is he with? I know for a fact that he's definitely not one of ours. Celestial and Lunar guards don't wear armour like this, and the Crystal Guards at the Crystal Empire certainly don't either."
"Well, either way, we better report this to the Princesses right away. They need to be informed of-" Before the Lunar guard could finish, he was cut off by another guard.
"Sir! Look!"
The two guards turned to the large open ocean beside them and saw something in the distance, slowly approaching.
"What's that?"
It looked like a group of Pegasi, which they were able to tell just by the wings that were flapping up and down. As far as they could tell, there were nine in total, but as they got closer, they noticed a few seemed a little different than the others.
It was only after they reached the six guards, that they were able to make out the difference with the others. A few of them were Griffins, and just like the dead Pegasus at their side, the Griffin and the Pegasi that arrived were wearing the same jagged-looking armour, with the same gold crown and ring of fire design on the breastplates.
One of the Celestial guards readied his spear and pointed it at the group. "Who are you?!"
A Pegasus stepped forward and set his sights on his dead ally. "I'll assume that you six were responsible for that?"
The lead Celestial guard who examined the body earlier spoke up. "No. We just found him like this, we had nothing to do with it."
Chuckling at the reply, the Pegasus said, "Really? Well that's fine..." He lowered his head and looked at the spear in his hoof. "It doesn't really matter anyway."
Before the lead Celestial guard could question what he meant, he found himself getting impaled right in the chest, by the Pegasus' spear.
The other guards all just watched in horror as their fellow guard immediately fell to the ground, his body lay motionless.
"KILL THEM ALL!"
With barely any time to react, the guards braced themselves as the Griffins and Pegasi unsheathed their weapons and lunged at them.
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