A Short Tale

Chapter 6: All In Good Time

Travian stared at the white horse in front of him. He had a lot to think about. He could never kill something on this planet! Surely, she didn't want a pony dead... She seemed like the kind of ruler they'd look up to. She was white, had nice flowing hair, and had a sweet motherly voice. Here she was, potentially offering him a job. This was just... Wrong. He couldn't accept, could he? But that inner rouge inside him told him to do it. Lives don't matter much, do they? Money does! Money could get him everything he could ever need, right? Also, he had to kill that dastardly commander who attempted to kill him. Not any of his crew, just him. He was an assassin, not a crazed gunmen. One's a job, the other's mental sickness. A mental sickness his brother has.

The silence was broken when he said, "Nah. I have something on my mind," also known as a treacherous human to collect his debt from, "and I'm certain I won't need you to get out of this place. Sorry if I may not assist you, 'princess', but I will not resort to killing things just yet. I can still live a different life." No he couldn't, but no one could blame him for trying. He already racked up at least five kills upon this planet. He was beginning to get attached, too.

"Well... Since I can't convince you, it seems, why don't we talk about something else? I heard you came within possession of two cursed items. Is this true?" Plan A was a go at this point.

"What? Who would ever tell you that? I don't even know a thing about curses."

"My student, who was able to tell me only a few things about you, but that was one of the things." Plan B was a go, it seemed.

"I don't know about any object like that then."

"Really? You know, after you live for as long as I do, you can tell a lie." She was good. Too good. Travian gave up trying to lie his way past the ultimate lie detector. Though, as old as he was, he could say the same.

"Fine! I have a few magical or cursed things, so what? It's not like they can cause mass harm."

"They can actually, if I saw the report right."

"Oh. Well in my hands, they won't!" No guarantees, of course.

"I'd rather trust my magical archives as a better and more safe place to keep them." He would have to think very hard to get past this. Then again... He could say the truth. That was difficult though. His conviction for these items was high and mighty.

He prepared his next sentence with said conviction. "The only hands they belong in are mine." He let loose a sigh of defeat, finally spilling the beans, as it were. "They were relics from a time long ago that once belonged to me. I don't know how they found me. Maybe it's because I am cursed myself. Honestly, I don't know. But I know they are mine, and mine alone." He tried to stand tall, but his defeat at the hands at a horse were severely damaging to his self-esteem. Not like he had any, but eh. It helped to think he had a major amount.

Thankfully, Celestia isn't a supreme dictator of evil and resigned. "Fine. I'll trust you to hold on to them for me." That wasn't part of the plan. "Until then, what means do you have of leaving Equestria? You mentioned you wouldn't need my help."

Before he could stop himself, he said the real reason. "My brother." She lifted an eyebrow at him. "He has the means to go anywhere and everywhere anytime he wants. So long as he feels the need to. Unless he is barred off by magic, which this planet is full of. For him to appear for even an ounce of a second, I would need to be in serious peril. Then again, that hasn't worked too well in the past." He couldn't really rely on his brother too well. He would need to fend for himself.

"You have an interesting family, I suppose."

"Correction: My only family. Every other member of our family is long gone." Well, actually only their parents and their predecessors, but that's besides the point.

"Well that's unfortunate." Travian felt as though she were partially heartless.

"Indeed." He looked from left to right. "So if you're done with me, can I go? Kind of got ancient artifacts to utilize." Self defense was key against teleporting giant white horses. Cheating can only be beat by cheating, after all. That or extreme skill, which he possessed to a minor degree.

"Go ahead. But know I will be keeping good watch on you." Many options were out of the window for Travian now.

"Kay." Travian turned around and walked his way to the cottage, leaving the princess behind. Eventually, he made his way to the cottage. He always explored in the direction opposite of the town, Ponyville, to avoid detection. He would rather not have the whole pony world know about his existence. That would be catastrophic. He would have to maintain a good reputation. He knew he couldn't actually do that. He looked around the back of the cottage to find his bow where he placed it. "Hey Fluttersky, I'm home!" He had fun messing up her name on purpose and on accident.

He slumped down upon the wall. He then realized he had just spoken to this royalty as though it were a common plebeian. "Oh. That's not good. I probably didn't do well for first impressions... Oh well." He beamed with happiness, just glad to be with his bow and quiver. He loved to smile as he could feel his teeth better. And it freaked everyone out. Also, he was told to be physically, mentally, and clinically insane, but that was a bold-faced lie. He could never be insane-- Ever.

Suddenly, he felt a shift in his environment. Something was horribly wrong. Nothing on the ground was wrong. He looked up, to see the sky looking relatively normal. "Wait... Was that cloud there before?" He whispered. He picked up his bow and pulled an arrow out of his boundless quiver, watching as another materialized before his eyes. He nocked the arrow, and took steady aim at the new cloud that appeared out in the blue. He pulled back the arrow, getting ready to fire. He decided to not fire at the center of the cloud, and shifted his aim to the left. He then let go of the arrow, watching it soar through the sky. It shot through the cloud, somehow instantly destroying it. What came from the cloud, however, did not please him.

The cyan menace appeared before him. "Woah!" She started falling out of the sky. It appeared as if she were trying to spy on him. Maybe she always was. After all, she messed up this one time. "You could have killed me!" She recovered from her plummet and was a few meters away from Travian. "Wait, that's how that thing works?" She was an annoyance in his day. Travian wondered what would happen if he tapped that flying horse with his bow. He could totally tap that.

"Yes to both your statements. Yeah, I could have killed you. Yeah, that's how it works. Fortunately, you can't touch it." She was in his face by the time he finished that statement.

"Oh? And just why can't I touch it?"

"This object kills magic instantly if it touches anything. Don't believe me?" He took the bow and tapped a single pink and purple flower. Suddenly, it's petals turned into a grayish color. "Now that is what it does. So can you just leave me to do my thing?"

Unfortunately, his intimidation could not pierce the seven mile thick skull of this pony. "Nuh uh. Twilight told me to watch you, and that's what I'm gonna do." She realized her mistake after she said it. "I mean, I'm interested in you!" She blushed for a second then shook herself. "I mean, you're suspicious!"

Travian was more than a little baffled at what she just said. "What?" He caught the Twilight bit, but the other words got garbled.

"Nothing!" She gasped and came really close to Travian. "Are you a spy?"

Travian took quite a long pause. "A spy... of whose, exactly?"

"Anypony's!"

Travian face palmed. "No. I am not a spy, at least as of right now. I just kind of want to live here for a little while." A little while was an understatement, if his judgement of his brother was correct. "Look, I'll let you get back to spying on me. I got somewhere to be."

"And where would that be?"

"A giant, dangerous forest. Gotta find some fallen log. Wouldn't suggest following me unless you want to slow me down." His choice of words may not have been the greatest since it seemed to make the rainbow devil even angrier at him.

"Slow you down? Please! If anything, you'd slow me down." Travian rolled his eyes in his helmet.

"Alright. Tell you what. You can come with me. In fact, I'll rely on you. I will leave my things here." He dropped his bow, causing the green grass around it to gray. He then went around his head to unlatch the helmet. "If you can catch up, I'll trust you." The first person he would place his trust in on this planet would be the rainbow menace. At least, supposedly. This would go smoothly and he could pull his up as a joke later. He could also use it as an excuse to tell him that he doesn't trust her. It was a completely and one hundred percent opaque plan that was bound to work.

Rainbow Dash nodded her head, as if accepting a challenge. Apparently, everything was a competition to her. For her to challenge him in the forest, though... It was not the greatest of moves on her part. Admittedly, he was out of practice and even then was suited to a more marshy setting instead of a jungle setting, but that didn't mean he couldn't pick it up quickly. The flying horse flew up to a cloud. "Tell me when you're ready to go." Travian started removing the various plates on his suit. It would make him light weight and completely unprotected, something he would normally never do. Of course, he had his pisto- He checked twice.

His pistol, as he forgot, was lost against the manticore. One of the only good things was that he felt as though he could do any athletic feat. He would have to get used to the lack of weight and helmet. "Ready when you are, Dash." He started walking towards the forest. He felt a presence above him, and looked up to see a cyan pony.

"Are we really gonna go this slow?" She was looking down at him with a bored expression.

"Well then fine! If you want to, we can go fast." He started to speed up. Eventually, he ended up sprinting. He looked to his side to see a snoring Rainbow Dash. "Oh, I don't doubt you're fast. I doubt you can use your head, eyes, and surroundings like me." She just yawned, showing that he must have been sluggish. He was relatively fast without his plates, easily out speeding a normal human. Obviously, this pony was like a jet if this was slow.

Suddenly a tree passed him, making Rainbow Dash wake up. He jumped at a tree's trunk and used his claws to climb to a branch. "So we're just looking for a log?" Travian smirked, knowing what would happen next.

"Yep. This is where it gets fun." He jumped forth, grabbing a stray vine. He could finally release his inner monkey. Of course, he was more lizard than ape, but he was still a humanoid in shape. At least, so he thought. Maybe he had an inner reptile that told him to just laze about all day in the sun, bathing in the warmth... Wait. He did that more often than he'd like to admit. Maybe he really did not have an inner monkey.

He swung on the vine, feeling the wind grace him. He let go at the right moment, letting him get to another branch. He ran forth on the branch, jumping off of it to the next one. Rainbow was no where in sight, showing that he lost her. "Yes! Fina-"

She was there, just staring at him. "You have really weird ways of getting around." Travian jumped off the branch on to the ground. He landed softly in patch of blue flowers. That were kind of soft.

"Righto. It seems you can keep up."

"More than that." What a braggart. He'd have to mark another reason to hate cyan things on his list!

"Well, you can just go shut your face. At least I tried! And it was fun trying, to be honest. I should try trying more." Of course, his element was ruined when some wooden wolves managed to sneak around them and surround both of them. "Oh hey! A situation where I can try!" A single wooden wolf charged at him from behind, snapping down on the back of his leg. "And... I just got out... Of the hospital." Pain was more a problem since his suit wasn't functioning properly. Also, he didn't have any plates to stop the teeth. Really, the suit was nothing without the plates or the helmet. Why'd he put his trust into the blue one, again?

However, the wolf disappeared as a wave of light blue washed past him. Rainbow Dash was at his side in an instant. "Hey? You okay?" Travian let his leg speak for that question. "Hello? You there?" Maybe she didn't get body language so well. Travian shuddered in the coldness that was now enveloping him. His vision was fading, as well.

"I'm... Fine." No, he wasn't, but showing weakness was not the way of the old. He had to be strong, even in these situations that he gets himself into.