Defenders of Equestria

Chapters

The Beginning
Home, Sweet, Home
War and Love

The Beginning

We need to speak, now.

-Celestia

Twilight finished reading the scroll Celestia had sent her and looked up in confusion. She looked at the back of the parchment to see if perhaps, in her confusion, she had read the end of the letter first, but the small message and signature were all there was to the note.

It was the middle of the night and Twilight was quite curious what could be so important that it could not wait until morning. Suddenly the still sleeping Spike gave another magical burp and Twilight levitated the new scroll over to her.

P.S.

Come Alone

-Celestia

She wanted her to come alone? Her curiosity grew and she decided against her original idea of simply writing back to the Princess. Twilight walked over to the window to her room, it offered a perfect view of Canterlot off in the distance, and Twilight couldn’t help but feel that Celestia was watching her, waiting for her to take flight off towards the mountain side city.

Twilight quickly wrote a note to Spike telling him where she had gone, should the meeting take all night, and then traded the warmth of her home for the cold night air outside. Twilight shivered, and wondered if she was up to the task of flying all the way to Canterlot, she was still a little unfamiliar with her wings after all. Still, the train to Canterlot would not arrive for another few hours, and something in the Princess handwriting told Twilight that this was urgent.

She took off, wobbling in the air a little, before gaining her balance and flying off towards the castle.

***

Celestia stood in the room hidden behind there thrones, staring at the statues, wondering what would happen after they cast there spell on them…

“Sister, Twilight is here.”

Celestia turned and smiled in greeting at both her sister and former student. Twilight looked surprised and curious at the hidden room she had been led into. Celestia smiled at the child like wonder on her favorite pupil’s face, it reminded her of herself when she had been so young.

“I came as soon as I could, Princess Celestia.”

She said going into a bow before she apparently remembered something and shot right back up. Celestia gave an internal sigh, even with all she and Twilight had been through, the purple princess still thought of herself as inferior. Celestia wanted to tell her to relax, that they were equals now, but she knew it would be better to get to the business at hoof. ‘Or at hand, rather.’ She thought, giving a quick glance towards the five fingered appendages of the statues.

“I’m glad your here Twilight. I apologize for calling you so late but this was the only time we could have access to this room without any of the guards seeing.”

Celestia paused then, ready to answer the torrent of questions her prodigy would no doubt have for her.

“What is this room anyway?”

Twilight drew a long slow gaze, taking in everything in the room before finishing her inspection.

“This…”

Celestia paused, more for dramatic effect then any reluctance at telling her.

“Is our parent’s treasure room.”

“Parents?”

Twilight seemed honestly surprised at the word and Celestia had to suppress a laugh.

“Why yes, Twilight even we had a mother and father at one time.”

Luna said and then muttered quietly.

“As terrible as they had been.”

Twilight hadn't seemed to have heard the remark and while Celestia couldn’t exactly disagree, she still felt a little shock at hearing her sister speak of them with such hate, she kept a neutral face though so as not to alert Twilight.

“I’m sorry…”

Twilight looked embarrassed.

“Of course you had parents, it’s just…”

Celestia raised a hoof to silence her before she began one of her ramblings.

“Of course Twilight I know it seems odd to think that at one point we had been little fillies, but that was long ago, and while our childhood is not completely irrelevant to what we will ask of you, there are more important things to discuss now, namely these statues.”

Celestia stepped aside and gave Twilight full view of the three statues, all creatures from a time long ago. A human, draco, and kitsune

“What are they? There not ugly, but I wouldn’t call them treasure’s either, they just look like the statues in the castle garden…”

A quick pause.

“Well, perhaps a little different to the one’s in the garden.”

“They are not valuable in the way your thinking of young Twilight.”

Luna said going up to examine the trio.

“They are just made of simple stone, and no jewels adorn them as you can see. No, these creatures hold a different value, one worth much more then simple gem’s or rare stone.”

Twilight swallowed nervously.

“There not like Discord are they?”

Celestia and Luna looked at each other and seemed to be thinking of the best way to answer.

“No, they are not dangerous.”

Celestia reassured Twilight who looked satisfied

“At least we think so.”

Luna said bringing Twilights panic up again. Celestia show a quick look at her sister before giving the other half of there answer.

“But yes, they are similar to Discord in that they have been petrified.”

Twilight looked at the strange creatures, frozen in time, and suddenly grew dizzy.

“There alive in there? Can they hear us?”

Twilight looked at the statues with a cautious look.

“I do not know, but we are going to find out soon enough.”

The three princess stared at the petrified creatures in a moment of silence before Twilight burst out.

“You want to bring them back! With all due respect Princess’s, why?”

Twilight really didn't want to see these creatures alive, the weapons they held and the looks of frozen anger on there faces were enough to convince her of that.

“The past few years have been fraught with many enemy's both new and old, and it has occurred to Luna and I, that it would be best to have a more… active source of defense for Equestria.”

Celestia answered calmly.

“Well… They are scary looking, but assuming they even agreed to help us, how could three monster’s possible defend all of Equestria?”

Luna had flinched at the word monster, but had said nothing.

“We do not need them to solve small crimes, only from serious problems. We plan to give them a base of operations to live in and stay prepared at, so that when an attack or other issue occurs we can summon them and have them lend their aid.”

“But we need your help to free them from their prison, Twilight. The magic that has been placed on them can only be dispelled by three alicorns casting a simple dispelling ray on them all at once. And with Princess Cadence so far away and unable to leave her kingdom, we must ask you.”

“Well, I suppose if you really think it’s best Princess’s.”

“Very well then, I suppose all that’s left is for you to pick which one you want to cast one, we will do the other two.”

Twilight went and examined the three statues lined up along wall. The first one was of a large armored creature, his face frozen in a battle rage that manged to still frighten Twilight even knowing he could not move. He held a small axe that, unlike the woodcutters tool she was familiar with, had two blades and looked designed for battle.

“Eric, A truly fierce human warrior, who while merciless to his enemy's, was kind and sweet to those he could call friend’s.”

Twilight looked back at Celestia with a disbelieving look. There was no way this angry fur-less creature could be friendly at all. Celestia gave a smirk and gestured towards the other statues.

The second statue was of a tall and lanky fox like creature, who wore an outfit that gave him the look of the fancy swashbuckling ponies Twilight had read about it stories. Unlike the last statue his face gave off a calm yet alert gaze, and he seemed to wield no weapon except for the sharp claws extending from his fingers.

“Gaizo, A member of a rare immortal race known as the kitsunes, they are occasionally born of human parents. Of course given that humans are now extinct it would appear that he is the last one of his kind to be born.”

Twilight looked at the noble kitsune. Though she recognized the previous statue as a human from old history books, this fox creature was very new to her. Still he looked very sly and deadly and she still wasn’t sure she wanted him alive.

The last statue depicted a short reptile with obviously feminine features, unlike her dangerous looking friends, she wore a simple robe and though her face looked surprised her eyes held great intelligence. There was something familiar about her, though Twilight could not tell why.

“Elizabeth, a draco wizard of great power, one of the few races outside of unicorns who truly understood magic.”

“Wizard? Draco’s could do magic?”

Twilight was amazed at the idea that there had been other races who could work the mysteries of magic.

“I had known you would take a liking to her, she shared your love of magical knowledge. Yes she is a draco, one of two left in the world, Her kind all but wiped out long ago in a great war. They were closely related to dragons but they lacked the fire breathing and flight ability's, though they more then made up for it with there greater intelligence. They were also known for there growing greed as they grew older, though each dragon-kin’s choice of collectible was different, Elizabeth here valued magic as the greatest treasure and she traveled the world learning all she could of it.”

“Where’s the other one? You said she was one of two.”

Twilight was fascinated by the draco. Even with only the brief history lesson they sounded like a much nobler race then regular dragons were.

“After she had been turned to stone the guards had checked there belongings, there really hadn’t been much of note, except an egg that was being kept in Elizabeth’s bag.”

“Egg?”

Twilight looked back towards Celestia, curious look on her face.

“Well they had taken it, hoping to hatch it and raise the draco to fight for them but it would not hatch without the mother nearby.”

“Finding they could not hatch it, nor could they destroy it, they eventually threw it in storeroom here in the castle. Where it eventually found it’s way to an aspiring young unicorn, wanting desperately to prove her power. And whether by luck, destiny, or sheer skill, that unicorn found the right spell to hatch the egg. Finally the young hatchling within saw the light of day after thousands of years in waiting.”

Celestia looked at Twilight a warm smile on her face and Twilight turned back to the statue of Elizabeth.

“She’s…”

Twilight trailed off and Celestia did not answer, knowing that Twilight knew what she had implied.

“I want to free her.”

Twilight looked at Celestia with a determined look and she nodded that they could begin.

The three alicorns took there positions. Celestia had chosen Eric, and Luna Gaizo. They each fired off a magical ray at the statues, which all hit at the same time. The statues began to tremble and slowly bits of stone fell off like skin flakes revealing the flesh of the heroes underneath.

They began peeling faster and faster and soon all three of there heads were completely uncovered, and they looked around, dazed and confused. Finally all the stone had been returned to flesh and the trio of friends looked at each other with amazement on there faces before jumping off the pedestals they had been placed on and giving a unanimous cheer.

“Were alive!”

Eric shouted, his voice deep and smooth.

“Of course Gaizo told you he would get us out of there.”

Gaizo said as he talked in the third person with an exotic sounding accent.

“I hate to break it to you Gaz, but I think we have these Ponies to thank for our freedom."

Elizabeth said, her voice sounding like an older, wiser, and of course female version of Spike’s.

Gaizo looked at the Princesses and made an exaggerated jump backwards. “Ponies? Looks like they’ve come to finish us friends, well Gaizo will not go without a fight, are you two with Gaizo?”

“Hold on Gaz, something seems familiar about the two big one’s.”

Eric scratched his beard in thought before snapping his fingers.

“Ah-Ha! I got it. It’s little Tia and LuLu! Course they don't seem so little anymore…”

Eric met Luna’s gaze and had to look up a little to accomplish the same with Celestia.

Eric let out a sharp whistle.

“Nope, they are definitely bigger. Looks like we’ve been in there quite awhile my friends.”

Twilight was bewildered. These three had apparently been imprisoned in stone for thousands of year’s and yet the two men just sat there conversing with each other like nothing had happened. Liz had begun looking through her satchel.

“Look Gaizo just saying, maybe ponies grow fast, I don’t think we've been in there that lo-”

“Where is it? Where’s my egg?”

Elizabeth screamed and her two companions instantly ran over to help her look through her bag again.

“Oh no little ass-kicker’s gone?”

Eric yelled with concern in his voice despite his comical words, apparently that had been his pet name for the egg that was now Spike.

“Perhaps you put it in other bag?”

Gaizo suggested.

“No I never left him alone he-”

Suddenly Liz looked up and sniffed the air. She quickly caught the scent of something and her eyes turned to slits and focused on Twilight.

“You, purple pony, what have you done with him? Do not lie! I remember his smell like it was yesterday and you reek of him.”

Eric and Gaizo had quickly grabbed a hold of Liz, not wanting to anger there saviors.

“Calm down Liz!”

Eric yelled.

“Yes Gaizo agrees!”

The kitsune was not very strong and he was quickly knocked away by the enraged mother.

“Let me go, she has him, you can’t smell it but I know she has him.”

She had just about knocked off Eric in her anger now and Twilight did not want to find out what she would do if she got a hold of her, those claws looked really sharp.

“I have your son Elizabeth!”

Twilight admitted.

“She admits it now let me go get my hatchling back Eric!”

“He’s not a hatchling anymore, he’s 12 years old and I assure you he’s quite happy.”

Liz stopped struggling not quite sure what to make of this new information.

“My son is in your care? He’s 12 years old?”

Liz’s eyes darted around in confusion, thankfully her eye’s had gone back to being full normal orbs.

“I want to see him.”

Liz said calmly.

“That can be arranged Ms.Elizabeth, but we have matters to discuss first.”

This was not going as well as Celestia had planned, which wasn't really all that surprising in hindsight. Of course the first thing Liz would look for would be her unborn child, and Celestia berated herself for such foolishness.

Elizabeth looked over at Celestia her eyes growing narrow again, and then she saw it was Celestia, though when they had met last the pony had just been called Tia…

“Remember me Liz?”

Celestia smiled as the look of friendliness seemed to come back on Liz’s face.

“I don’t know if were still friends but you said I could call you Liz that day.”

“Of course I remember…”

Liz had calmed down quite a bit.

“We had come to see your parents, and while we were waiting our turn you had come running up to me.”

Liz smiled at the memory.

“You told me you were playing of magic tag with your sister, that you were the wizard for that round, but you didn’t know any good spells to catch her with…”

“And I had asked if you knew any spells, that my daddy had talked about how powerful you were and I begged and begged you to teach me just one.”

Celestia had tears of remembrance in her eyes, Twilight had never seen her like this before.

“I said yes, I would teach you one, one your sister would never see coming…”

“Color spray!”

They both said at the same time.

“And I had chased LuLu around constantly dazing her with the…”

“That stupid rainbow spell, you never did tell me where you had learned it from.”

Luna said with a look of fake anger directed at her sister. Both princess’s started laughing like school fillies, with Liz joining in soon after and even Eric and Gaizo got in a few chuckles apparently remembering the sight of a young Celestia tormenting her sister with a spray of random colors.

Suddenly Celestia grew dour, and the rest of the room soon followed.

“What’s wrong Tia?”

Luna asked with concern.

Celestia took a quick a look around.

“Where’s Twilight?”

Everyone looked around for the purple alicorn, and after seeing she was gone, Liz grew upset again.

“Where has she gone? She has my child!”

Liz ran out of the treasure room to look for her, and everyone followed. Out in the throne room they could see that the large double doors leading in were cracked open.

“Twilight Sparkle!”

Celestia called out for the young princess.

“Where is she, you must tell me!”

Liz said worry in her voice, though nowhere near as upset as she had been earlier, she still desperately wanted to find her son.

“Don't worry Liz well find her, and little ass kicker.”

Eric reassured his scaled companion, and Gaizo simply placed a hand on her shoulder in comfort. Liz calmed down significantly at her friend’s reassurances, And offered them a weak smile. Celestia’s heart warmed at the strong bond all three still shared, even after years in stone, and wished Twilight had been there to see the display of friendship.

“It would appear she’s flying back to Ponyville. I saw her headed that way through the open window.”

Luna reported after investigating the hallway outside the large throne room.

“Come, join me friends.”

Celestia gestured towards the trio of heroes.

“I can teleport us all there.”

The three friends walked over to Celestia, and after a brief flash of magic found themselves in front of Twilight’s home. It was early morning now, and Celestia was glad to see her sun raising spell she had set, in preparation of the long night, had gone off at the right time.

“This is Twilight’s home, knowing your son Ms.Elizabeth he should be just waking up.”

A crowd of ponies had already begun to gather around the two princess and started murmuring about the three strange creatures that stood with them.

Liz ran up to the door, and finding it locked, cast a simple unlocking spell on it. Though the spell was not flashy by any means, the crowd of ponies all gasped at the display of magic that came from the non-unicorn. Liz ignored this and threw open the door, quickly joined by her two companions.

Spike, who had indeed just awoken, jumped at the sound of the door crashing open, and looked in shocked surprised at the three strange intruder’s. Liz quickly noticed the young draco, and pulled him up into a hug before Spike could even register what was going on.

“Oh my little boy, you are safe! After all this time, we meet at last!” Liz had gone into full-on mother mode and was rocking the very confused Spike in her arms.

“I’m happy too Liz, but perhaps we should tell him who we are before making up for lost time.”

“Gaizo not so sure, little draco seem to not mind.” It was true, Spike had been a little weirded out at first, but something seemed oddly familiar and comforting about this female dragon holding him, and any friendly attention at all was welcome to him.

Liz gave a chuckle and set Spike down, much to his chagrin, and bent down to eye level with the baby draco.

“Of course you two are right, but I’m just so happy to see him safe and happy.” Liz smiled at Spike, who gave a friendly smile in return, just because he had never seen these people before, didn’t mean he was going to start being rude.

“I am your mother little one!” She beamed at Spike and his smile slowly turned into a frown, clearly this poor dragoness was insane.

“Not to be rude, But I’m a dragon and you’re not, I mean your not to different of course, but you don't have any wings.” Spike pointed out.

“Hate to point this out, little buddy, but neither do you.” Eric said. “I’m your Uncle Eric, by the way.”

“And I…” Gaizo did a dramatic twirl. “Am your Great, Uncle, Gaizo!” Spike let out a laugh at the dramatics of the kitsune, they reminded him of a male version of his long time crush, and Gaizo grinned. “Oh watch out Eric, I think I’m ahead for the title of ‘The Cool Uncle’!”

The three laughed and Liz said. “Well you are half-right my son, your father was a dragon, so I suppose that makes you a drake instead of a full blooded draco, but neither are you fully a dragon.” Spike was dumbstruck, he was a drake? He’d never even heard of that! But he couldn’t argue with the female draco, even when he had grown to adult size from his greed, he had still lacked wings. And now that he got a good look at her Liz did seem to share quite a few physical similarities with him, The purple scales and green rounded spikes adorning her head being the most notable.

“So you’re really my mom?” Spike asked, unsure of what he wanted the answer to be. On one hand, he was happy at the idea of meeting at least one half of his parents, on the other he was afraid that she would want to take him away from Ponyville and he really didn’t want to leave his friends.

“Surely you can feel it in your heart, my son. The bond between mother and child is unmistakable!” Spike couldn’t tell whether the feeling he got from her was the feeling she spoke of, but before he could really think about it a familiar voice said to him, a twinge of sadness in her voice.

“It’s true Spike, she is your biological mother.” Twilight pushed past the mob of ponies outside her home and walked in with a somber look.

“Twilight!” Spike ran over to his caretaker and gave her a hug, which Twilight returned.

“I’m sorry for running away, Elizabeth. When I heard that Spike was your son, I knew you would want to take him with you. I just wanted to say goodbye to him one last time.”

“Take him away?” Liz said, and Twilight looked up at her. “Why would I take him from the life he has built here and put him in constant danger with us?” Liz looked at Spike with love, and back to Twilight who looked surprised.

“Because he’s your son! Don’t you want to raise him yourself?” Twilight didn’t understand, the way Liz had acted earlier told her that she would have killed for her son.

“I love him with all my heart, of course I want him to travel with us and teach him all I know, but what he wants is what’s important, and unless I’m reading him wrong.” She gave a wink towards Spike. “He has a lot to live for here in this town. What kind of mother would I be to take him away from the place he loves?”

Twilight looked down at Spike who was staring at his mother with tears in his eyes. “Thank you… Mom.” Spike’s voice was full of sincerity. This had to be his mother, no other person could possibly care that much about his wellbeing, his friends came close to matching it, but this was the love only a mother could bring to her son.

Spike ran and gave his mother a hug, and everyone, Eric and Gaizo, Twilight and the Princesses, and even the large crowd of ponies who had been watching from the door, began applauding at the sight. They broke the hug and Spike gave a tiny kiss to his mother’s cheek.

The Princess’s looked back at the crowd of citizens, and they took there cue to begin dispersing and to go about there business. Celestia whispered something in Twilight’s ear and she nodded and called for Spike to come with her, after asking Liz’s permission of course, and the two left, shutting the door behind them. Both Celestia and Luna looked towards the three, who were looking back expectantly.

“As much as I hate to change the mood so drastically…” Celestia grew serious. “We have much to discuss with you three.”

Eric steeped forward falling into his old role as the groups leader and prime negotiator.

“Well I’m sure we can all agree that we owe our current state of freedom to you two.” Eric looked back at Liz and Gaizo, who both nodded in agreement. “Not to mention the addition of taking care of Liz’s son, no easy task, if her stories of raising young dracos are to be believed." Celestia smiled at the frequent destruction Spike had caused in his young life.

“With all that you’ve done for us, I would say that we owe you a great deal, do you agree, friends?”

“You have kept my son safe for all these year’s. I would be honored to do whatever task you have of me.” Liz gave a respectful bow.

“Gaizo is a kitsune, and we always repay our debt’s.” Gaizo gave a salute.

“Then it is settled, we will aid you in anyway we can.”

Luna sighed. “Before we begin I would like to apologize, on behalf of our parents actions.”

Eric raised his hand to politely silence the princess. “Your parent’s actions were there own, I blame our imprisonment on them and them alone, and while I can not speak for my friends, you two have nothing to apologize for in my mind.”

“I agree.” Liz said simply.

“Yes, Gaizo agrees also, though he would like to know, what happened to King and Queen of ponies?” He asked.

“They have long been dead. My sister and I share ruler ship of Equestria now.” Celestia said with no emotion.

“I’ve been thinking about it, and the way I see it, Liz’s egg was about to hatch before we were imprisoned, Liz’s son is only 12 according to Ms.Twilight, yet you two couldn’t have been older then ten when we last saw you, and your obviously fully grown now, and have been for quite awhile if were to guess. The math doesn’t seem to add up.” Eric scratched his chin in thought before giving up. “The only thing I can think of is if Liz’s son’s birth had been delayed, but that doesn’t seem possible, he was only a few days away from hatching last I saw him.”

Celestia was a little shocked Eric had figured all that out, of the things she remembered hearing of him, his observation had not been one of them. Eric seemed to notice this.

“Don’t look so surprised, I’m pretty smart when I’m not in a battle rage, It just so happens that most of the ancient puzzles in the dungeons we’ve explored have had plenty of monster’s to guard them.” Eric let out a chuckle. “Still I can’t figure out this gap in time.”

Celestia smiled at him “Actually you had it right, Spike’s birth had indeed been magically delayed, he refused to hatch without his mother nearby and it took many years for magic to get to the point that it could force him out of the egg.”

Eric smiled at finding out he had been right, and Liz looked amazed that magic had advanced to such a point as to force egg’s to hatch. Only the usually unobservant Gaizo saw the the real implications of this statement.

“So how long exactly, have Gaizo and friends been in stone prison?”

Celestia sighed knowing there reaction to the news would be a dramatic one.

“Luna and I have just recently celebrated our 2,000th birthday…” She said, choosing to avoid directly answering the question, hoping it would lessen the impact.

Sure enough it took them awhile for the three humanoids to process the indirect answer but once they did there eye’s grew shocked. Surprisingly though, that was all they had done and even that hadn’t lasted long and already they looked ready to discuss some other topic. Celestia was pleasantly surprised but decided to make sure they had really taken the news well, or if perhaps there minds had just shut off in denial.

“Are you three alright?” She asked cautiously.

“Yeah I think were alright. I mean yeah it’s been a long time and I’m sure we’ve missed a lot since then, but were adventures, discovering the unknown is what we do, and now the whole world is unknown, at least to us anyway.” Eric smiled at the thought of getting back out there and seeing how the world had changed.

“And just imagine the advances in magic in the last two thousand years!” Liz cried out getting a excited look in her eyes.

“And Gaizo gets to explore this new world with his two best friends at his side.” Gaizo cheered and the three friends all laughed.

Celestia and Luna looked at each other in surprise at there optimistic outlook on the whole thing.

“So what did you want to ask us?” Eric asked with Liz and Gaz both looking on in anticipation.

“We wish to offer you a job.” Luna said.

“Yes we wish to enlist your aid in the defense of Equestria.” Celestia explained

“What, like, guard duty?” Eric asked a little unsure.

“Not quite.” Celestia grinned knowing they would greatly enjoy what they were about to offer.

“We wish you to solve the problems that Equestria’s normal defenses cannot. We will pay you *very well* for your services of course and we even have a large base of operations for you to live in and do with as you please.” Luna said with a smirk knowing the three adventurers couldn’t resist.

“You want to give us a home and pay us, and all you ask in return is for us go on adventures and to fight any evil guy’s that show up?” Eric looked excited but quickly hid it and began to stroke his chin in thought. “Well I would have to talk about it with my friends first…”

“Of course.” The two princesses said. The three heroes huddled up together and after a very brief discussion Eric said.

“May we keep any treasure we find on our various missions?” Eric asked and the two alicorn’s smiled.

“Unless we deem an item too dangerous to be in anyone’s possession, yes you may keep any treasure you find on your journeys.” Celestia answered. Eric looked at his friends, who each gave a nod.

“Then I think we have a deal, your highness’s.” Celestia held out a hoof, and Eric shook it gladly, thus forming the team that would come to be known as Equestria’s greatest defense, for years to come.

Home, Sweet, Home

Eric, Liz, and Gaz stood in front of a small cave entrance, icicles hung from the top of the mouth, and they could just barley see the back of the cave through the darkness. After there talk, the Princess’s had offered to teleport them to there new home right away, but not before warning of the extreme cold outside the entrance and casting a protection from elements spell on the three.

Eric was glad they had offered them that courtesy given that they had next found themselves on top of a mountain, and though the snow flurry's and howling wind told him that he should have frozen the minute he had ended up here, yet the princess’s spell kept him felling as warm and comfortable as he had back at Ponyville.

“What is this? Some kind of joke!” Gaz had walked inside the cave and felt along the back wall that lay just a few feet within. “Damn horses, should have known they would trick us, now we will freeze to death up here!” Gaz fumed and Eric walked in to examine the wall, thinking that a door had to be camouflaged somewhere along the stone wall.

After a few minutes of searching he could find no entrance to there supposed home, and he felt the familiar feeling of his rage begin to rise up. “Those damn bitch’s tricked us! Well there in for a surprise when I climb down this fucking mountain and make a rug out of there hides!” Eric flew into a rage and, with no enemy's to attack nearby, settled for kicking the stone wall in anger.

“Why would they protect us from the cold, if they intended to kill us?” Liz reasoned but this did nothing to calm the two men who were loudly cursing. Liz sighed at her friend’s antics. She loved them dearly, they were like family, but Eric’s anger problems and Gaz’s impatience meant she was often the one to solve the many puzzles and problems that had challenged them throughout there adventure’s.

Liz calmly walked into the small cave and glanced around for any signs that this was there new home and not just a final resting place for them. It did not take long for her to notice that the back wall Eric was still kicking in anger was just a little too smooth to be a natural occurrence, that and the addition of a hollow sound that came from Eric’s attacks made it obvious to Liz that there new home lay behind the false cave wall.

Now it was just a matter of figuring out how to open it. This took a little longer then noticing the wall had but it was still easy enough to see that something was buried under the snow that had covered the inner walls of the cave. Liz knocked the snow off the object that had been jutting out awkwardly near the entrance, and found a metal torch that had been buried under the snow. An odd place for a torch, considering the snow and wind would quickly blow out any attempt to light it, and Liz noticed some writing under it.

“A flame as bright as the sun’s rays and as eternal as the moon’s light, will light the way home…”

A simple enough riddle and Liz had no trouble figuring it out, she thought about asking Gaz and Eric to come over and try and solve it, she frequently asked them how she had figured a puzzle out before she let them move on in dungeons, she found it entertained her, but she could feel the cold air outside start to affect her scales, and knew the protection spell would not last much longer.

Liz snapped her fingers as she lit the torch with an eternal flame, and the wall Eric had been kicking began to slide down, much to her companions surprise. They both looked toward Liz and gave a silent thank you with there eye’s before running inside to see what lay in wait. She rolled her eyes those two would have died long ago without her help, but she supposed, the reverse also held true, there skills in combat often allowed her the time needed to solve a riddle or cast a large spell.

“Come on Liz! This place is amazing!” Eric called to her and she smiled, and began to walk deeper into the newly revealed torch-lit hall, but not before looking back to see the wall begin to close. It occurred to her, as far as she knew, that they had no way to leave this place, and she began to worry about the future as she often did, before another call from Eric stirred her from her thoughts.

“Coming!” Liz called back and began walking towards the down-ward’s staircase at the end of the short hall, looking down it she saw it did not descend very far and she could see the beginnings of a bright large room at the landing. She descended and saw an amazing sight.

The large room was simple in terms of decoration but still amazing none the less. The walls were lined with bookshelf's that were filled with every kind of book Liz could think of, and quite a few she couldn’t. There was a shelf of Ancient spellbooks next to one containing simple children’s stories. Every book in the world of Mystera’s history seemed to not only be here but perfectly organized by genre and name as well.

The Logical side of Liz thought of how all these book’s had gotten up here and who had brought them? But that was quickly replaced by the scholar in her who was simply filled with child-like glee at the thought of all the history that lie in the room. It took her quite a bit of constraint to forget her friends, lie on one of the nearby comfy-looking couches and start reading everything that the room held.

“Yeah I figured this room would be a quick favorite of yours.” Liz turned to see Eric sitting on one of the many recliners in the room, He had a smile on his face. “You know that little gasp you gave when you came in here sure was cute. How come you don’t do that kind of stuff more often?” he said playfully, and Liz was very glad that she was incapable of blushing.

“I…” She wasn’t sure how to answer that question and she felt her embarrassment grow even more. Was he really flirting with her? Had he ever done that before? She found she couldn’t remember whether he had or not.

“You know you look like you would be blushing really hard were you able too.” Liz gave a nervous gulp, why couldn’t he be that observant when it came to puzzle solving? She knew why of course, as powerful as he was in battle it was really nothing more then simple rage, and though his intelligence was above average he was by no means a genius. No, his charm and charisma were the real reason he was the leader of there little group, but she could never recall him using it so… flirtatiously before now.

“Where’s Gaz?” she asked, trying to change the subject, she had never really thought of Eric in a romantic way, even after all there close calls with death in the years they had traveled together, still she found herself hoping that he would shrug it off and continue his advances.

“He ran off to explore some more, would you like to go find him?” He asked, apparently seeing the unsureness in her face. What he had really asked was whether she wanted this to continue and lead to wherever it led, or to simply go off in search of there friend, and more then likely forget this had ever happened. Liz looked into Eric’s face, his eye’s told her that he would be fine with whatever choice she made, and she couldn’t help but think what a gentleman he was.

“No, I think he’ll be fine.” Liz gave a seductive smile and practically leapt into Eric’s strong arms. He smiled at her, clearly happy at her choice, and she gave him a passionate kiss. She had never known these feelings for him had been inside her, but looking back she could tell she had always had feeling’s for him. His armor was cold against her scales, but she found she didn’t care, that it would cease to be an issue before to long. The two newfound lovers quickly found themselves a bedroom and started the night’s activity’s.

***

“I’ve wanted to do that for so long.” He said between breaths. She looked at him love in her eyes, they lay there in the large bed they had found, there arms wrapped around each other, relishing each other’s warmth.

“Why did you wait so long to make your move?” she said with a smirk.

“Because I figured you were to smart to fall for my tricks.” He said with a chuckle.

“Apparently I wasn’t, but it’s definitely the best trick I’ve ever fallen for.” She grinned.

“I take it you enjoyed yourself then?”

“As if my screams couldn’t tell you that, really I would be surprised if Gaz wasn’t out there worried about you murdering me or something.” They both laughed.

“So why now? I mean you’ve obviously had feeling’s for me for awhile.” Eric’s smile faded a little.

“That trap the ponies had tripped on us, I knew we weren’t making it out of that, I thought for sure they would kill us, thought they had killed us to be honest. All I could see when we were turned to stone was, well nothing I guess, but I was still conscious, couldn’t move, couldn’t talk, all I could do was think.”

“You were still conscious?” Liz was confused. she hadn’t felt anything when she was in her prison, had only vaguely recognized she had been petrified at all. It was just that one moment when she saw that spell hit her, and the next moment she had been there with the Princesses.

“You weren’t?” Liz shook her head. “Good, I wouldn’t wish that kind of hell on my worst enemy. I was in there for a long time, it hadn’t felt like 2,000 years but I suppose It must have been, maybe I got lucky and tricked myself into thinking it was only 200…” Eric looked somber and Liz realized he had been talking about there imprisonment as if it was long ago from the very beginning, before they had been told how long it had really been.

“How did you stay sane?”

“Simple, after awhile I realized that I wasn’t dead, just frozen. I could still hear the outside world somehow, and it didn’t take long for me to realize we had been put on display in the castle garden. Anyway hearing that you and Gaz were still alive filled me with enough hope to make it through, we would make it out of this, I knew that, we had survived to many things to become some horse’s lawn ornaments.”

“Also, I knew you had no idea about how I felt about you, and I wasn’t going lose my mind without at least telling you about it, so when we were set free I wanted to tell you right then and there, but I waited for when we could speak alone.”

“I’m sorry you had to go through that.” Eric shrugged and gave a warm smile.

“It’s in the past now, I’m just happy you and Gaz made it through the whole thing with me, especially you.” She smiled at him, loving the feeling of being needed. “We three have been through so much, I would feel horrible if Gaz was dead, but without you, I don’t want to even imagine it. That sounds awful too me, to favor one of you over the other, but I guess even a mother has a favorite child.” Liz had no problem being the favorite of Eric’s, would probably be mad if she wasn’t, especially after tonight, but she still found it sweet that he worried about possibly upsetting the balance all three of them shared.

“How about your little guy, huh?” Eric changed the subject to something he knew would brighten the mood. “Funny how the same ponies that almost killed us kept him alive all these years, don't you think?” Liz beamed in pride at the thought of her son.

“I find it funny that he adapted so easily to there customs, usually you cant get a baby draco to stop chewing on everything, alive or not.” Liz implicated and Eric thought grimly that the little guy could have easily taken a chunk out of some pony and that they would have more then likely killed him for it.

“Do you think I was right in leaving him there with them?” she asked and he felt glad that she wanted his advice on raising her son.

“Yeah I think he’s happy there, in fact I can pretty much see how his life is going to turn out.” Eric said with sureness, and Liz looked at him disbelievingly. “If he’s anything like his mother, the call for adventure is sure to reach him, and you and I both know that that is a hard call to resist.” Liz looked surprised.

“I never thought of him putting himself in the danger like we do, I guess I didn’t want too, but your right I could see it in his eye’s after I had told him what the Princess’s had wanted, for just a brief moment I could see that he wanted to join us.” She looked unsure about her son’s lust for adventure.

“I know you don’t like the idea of him putting himself in danger, I know my mother certainly wasn’t thrilled at the idea when I told her what I was setting off to do, but you know just as well as I do, once it has you in it’s grasp it never lets go. And besides…” Eric looked around at the large nicely decorated bedroom. “We seem to be doing pretty well in our chosen profession, I have no doubt he’ll be even better at it then we are.” Liz smiled at Eric glad he was here for her, and wrapped him in a hug which he returned.

“I wonder if he’ll study magic like I did?” Liz said smiling at the thought of her son following in the footsteps of his mother.

“Well have to visit him sometime so we can teach him what we know.” Eric said soothingly, and Liz found that to be a wonderful idea, she remembered when she had taken her first steps into the realm of the arcane, amazed at how much wonder she had felt.

Liz had nothing more to say, and apparently neither did Eric. She lay in his warm embrace, thinking of the love she felt for not only the human lying next to her but also that which belonged to her beautiful son Spike, the thought’s of her and Eric passing there knowledge to the young Draco filled her with joy and she soon found herself asleep, a smile never leaving her face the rest of the night.

***

The next morning Liz and Eric awoke still face-to-face with each other and gave each other a quick good morning kiss before getting dressed. Liz put her simple purple robe back on, and Eric in a fit of curiosity, checked the closet to see to his surprise a large variety of cloths that seemed to be specially tailored for him lined up on one side with a large amount of dresses and robes for Liz lined up on the other.

While Liz had been awestruck at the apparent complexity of the magic this place held, Eric simply shrugged it off, he had never understood the lessons into magical theory Liz had tried to give him, and as such any magic, no matter how amazing, was usually viewed as nothing more then a means of convenience for the human. Still they had both chosen to replace there original vestments with the much nicer cloths in the magical closet, Eric choosing a simple cloth gray shirt and matching pants and Liz choosing a nice dress of her favorite color, pure purple.

The two opened there door to find a frowning Gaz leaning against the wall across from there door.

“Well nice of you two to leave Gaizo out here alone last night!” He gave a snobbish grunt and held his nose up high. Eric and Liz simply laughed at there friend’s antics, and after Gaz noticed that the two had come out of the same room together, he put on a large smile. “Gaizo forgives you though, it would appear my two friend’s have become something more since Gaizo had last seen them.”

Eric and Liz gave a bashful laugh, both surprised at there normally slow-witted friend’s observation, and Gaz simply looked at them with an approving smile.

“How about you Gaz, did you have too much trouble finding a bed last night?” Eric asked a little guilty about how they had left him out here.

“As a matter of fact Gaizo had much trouble, our new home is huge my friend’s! It took Gaizo well into the night to see all it had to offer.” Gaz had been making his typical exaggerated hand gestures through the explanation, and Liz and Eric had to suppress there snickers. “But enough for now! Gaizo is very hungry and he is sure his friend’s will agree to come join him for breakfast.”

Eric and Liz’s stomach both growled as if on cue, and Gaz gave them a wink. “Well I suppose we haven’t eaten since… well since we were set free, kinda odd how we hadn’t noticed.” Eric scratched his chin, wondering how he hadn’t noticed the hunger that had now become painfully noticeable.

“Well come then, Gaizo knows you will be greatly enjoy what the kitchen offers us.” Gaz began to walk down the hall that lead to there bedroom’s, led them through a cozy living area, and into a small dining area that held a simple round table with four padded chairs circling it. The table had already been set with plates and silverware, and Liz couldn’t help but once again wonder. Where all these things had come from and who had placed them here? The fact that they lacked the signs of age and looked brand new did not help matters any, and she thought for a crazy moment that what if there was some kind of hermit up here, living with them? What would they do if they found they had unwelcome guests? What-

Eric noticed Liz had a panicked look on her face and he quickly put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

“What’s wrong Liz?” he gave a look of concern and she instantly felt better at her lover’s comforting actions.

“Nothing, just letting my imagination get the better of me again.” She laughed it off, yet his face did not lose it’s worried gaze.

“Are you sure? When you tell me that, it usually means you’ve noticed something is wrong.” He gave a warm smile. “And every time it ends up being more then your imagination. You’re smarter then we are Liz-”

“Hey!” Gaz who at this point had just been watching the two converse, suddenly spoke up at the apparent insult. Eric shot a glance over at him and he quited down seeing that this was not the time for his dramatics.

“We would have died long ago if it wasn’t for your intelligence-” She gave him a loving look at the compliment. “So if somethings wrong you can tell us.”

“Well, don’t you guys wonder how this table got set up?” Liz pointed towards the rather expensive-looking silverware.

“I just assumed it was magic.” Eric said and Gaz nodded in agreement. Liz rolled her eyes at her friends lack of knowledge when it came to the workings of magic.

“It doesn’t work that way, magic can’t just spontaneously do things, it has to be controlled by someone, otherwise it’s nothing more then energy floating around in the air. The closet in our room can be explained as some really complex calculations set to go off whenever the door is opened, even then someone had to have provided the cloths that would appear, but thats besides the point, what I'm saying is the table setting itself makes no sense. how could it have known we, or anyone for that matter, would ever set foot in here? It’s clearly not been set for very long, there’s no dust, but theres signs that it’s been somewhere else before it ended up here.”

Eric looked at the plates on the table and now that he was actively looking, he could see tiny smudges on the edges that suggested someone had brought them here. Eric’s eye’s grew wide.

“Someone’s in here with us!” Gaz who had zoned out during Liz’s speech, jumped at Eric’s outburst and attempted to draw his sword only to find it wasn’t there.

“Yes, and whoever they are, they are either friendly enough to prepare things for us, such as the table, and they simply haven’t shown themselves yet. Or they do not know we are here and have been living on, unaware of there new guests.” Liz finished and the three friends huddled together, suddenly uninterested in thoughts of eating, and very certain that they were being observed.

“Gaizo is suddenly not so sure he likes our new home.” Gaz said, the fear almost palpable in his voice, Eric suddenly felt very horrible about leaving his friend alone last night, what if he had been ambushed by there mysterious squatter?

“We need to find a way out of here…” Eric took on his role of leader, no fear in his voice, which surprised him. “Whoever this person is, they have the advantage of knowing this place, and we are in no condition for a fight right now.”

“Agreed.” Liz said voice full of cation.

“Yes, Gaizo found a room last night that seemed to be for teleporting out of here…” Gaizo said before getting a look of embarrassment. “Of course Gaizo was very tired last night, he could be mistaken, and he only vaguely remembers the location of this room.” Eric sighed, why couldn’t it ever be simple?

“Well it’s the only chance we have, we should go now, do you remember anything at all about where to-”

“Oh Deekin knows where map room is!" A shrill child-like voice called out. Gaz let out a very high pitched scream and whirled around to the source of the voice, and Eric and Liz, while not quite as scared as there kitsune ally, still cautiously turned to see what was behind them.

The three stared at the tiny brown-scaled creature, who had a big sharp grin on his large snout. Despite the intimidating set of teeth that filled his smile, his eye’s held no hate or anger in them, instead they seemed to have a look that said the little creature only wished to serve and please.

Eric quickly composed himself and decided to attempt to parlay with the creature that was apparently the hermit they had only just been discussing.

“Greeting’s erm…” Eric stuttered trying to think of a way to address the still smiling lizard like humanoid. It was not a creature he was familiar with, it shared similarities to a Draco but it had a far bigger snout and despite appearing short, he sensed this little person was fully grown.

“Hello there, did you say your name was Deekin?” Liz had taken over for Eric who had apparently forgotten the little creature had given his name already.

“Yes Giant Girl Kobold, I am Deekin, teller of epic tales, and singer of songs.” Liz didn’t know what a Kobold was but he hadn’t said it as an insult so she decided to ignore it for now and try to appeal to the little one’s apparent interests.

“So you’re a bard then?” Liz said remembering the traveling singers that she and her friend’s had often spoke to after hearing there tales of great treasure hidden away somewhere nearby. Deekin’s face grew excited at the title she had guessed at.

“Yes, that be what old master call me.” Suddenly Deekin frowned. “Deekin miss old master, me wonders where he is now…”

“Who was your old master?” Liz asked, her fear was gone now, the little Deekin didn’t seem to want to hurt them, in fact he seemed quite lonely to her.

“He was great human hero named Ivan, he look like that human except his hair was bright and not dark and black.” Deekin pointed a claw at Eric.

“What are you little guy?” Eric’s fear had also gone, though he would never admit it, he found Deekin’s mannerisms adorable, and he could tell he was going to like the little lizard.

“Me Kobold…” Deekin paused in thought “Deekin not really sure what more to say then that, he just glad that he have some peoples to talk too.” So that was why he had called her a Kobold, Liz thought, he thought she was a member of his people.

“How long have you been up here?” Liz asked

“Deekin lose track after two years.” Was all he said and seeing the shocked look on there faces quickly added. “It OK though food never seem to run out in this place, and Deeking love to read stories in library!”

Gaizo who had been very quiet through out this whole meeting decided to ask his own question.

“Gaizo wonder’s why you chose to wait to make yourself known, surely you were desperate for company after so long.”

“Hey Fox-man talks like Deekin!” Deekin said excitedly at noticing Gaz like talking in the third person too. Gaz gave a smile, he was glad the little creature was finally warming up to him after he had been eying him wearily through the whole talk. After Deekin calmed down and was reminded of the question he gave a surprising answer.

“Deekin had been scared at first of powerful looking heroes, but then Deekin see Kobold lady and human mate and decided you were good peoples.” Deekin said innocently, and Liz and Eric both gave a look of embarrassment as Gaz let out a loud laugh.

“Oh Gaizo likes little lizard man! Tell me Deekin? How did you know they were good people from watching them mate?” Gaz gave a wicked grin to his companions, who were glaring at him.

“Because Human male actually care about the fun his mate was having, old master cared too, and he was most heroic person Deekin knows! Like, old master and this human both like to use there mouths on-”

“That’s enough Deekin!” Eric cut him off sternly, and Liz was staring very hard at the ground.

“Oh right Deekin forgets that big people’s don’t like talking about mating. Deekin not understand, but he not talk about it anymore unless you wants to.” Gaz opened his mouth to say he wanted to hear more but then thought better of it, he would just have to catch Deekin alone some time.

“Well Deekin would you like to join us for breakfast?” Eric offered after the awkwardness of the conversation had passed. “Though really I think its closer to lunch now.”

“You wants Deekin to eats with heroes?” He asked bashfully.

“I don’t see why not, do you guys?” Eric asked his friends.

“I would love to hear some of your stories over lunch, Deekin, I’m sure you have quite a few.” Liz said, very interested in hearing of how Deekin ended up here.

“Yes Gaizo very much enjoyed his first story of you two.” Gaz said with a grin before being playfully punched by both Liz and Eric. Gaz offered to make lunch as a means of apology, and before the other three could even really start talking he was back in with four plates of simple yet tasty looking roast-beef sandwiches, balanced along his arms.

As the four ate there meal they traded questions with Deekin asking about where he had come from and how he had gotten here. When asked about his homeland Deekin started describing a land called Faerun, which none of them had ever heard of, and the large variety of mostly-hostile creatures that inhabited it, only a few of which sounded familiar to any of them. It wasn’t long before the three friends had deduced that Deekin was not of the same world as they were, a fact which at first surprised the Kobold before he remembered the large magical explosion that had brought him to this place, which ended up raising even more questions, that Deekin did not have the answers too.

When they next asked if Deekin missed his home world, he was quick to answer that the only thing he really missed was his sole friend, the master he kept referring to named Ivan, but Deekin was quick to dismiss any idea’s of returning home. He was sure his friend had already forgotten him, it would not have been the first friend Ivan had lost, and that there was really nothing to look forward to back home except death at the claws of some monster.

“But here I have three new friends!” He had said excitedly, and the three friend’s, now brought up to four, had shared a good laugh at there new friend’s optimism. Deekin was very interested in the adventure’s of the three heroes and they had talked long into the night of there origins, how they had met, and all the quests they had been on. Deekin was very surprised at hearing they had technically been alive for 2,000 years, even if they had been in stone for most of it.

“Oh but Deekin is sure you got your revenge on the enemies before you turned completely to stone, right?” He asked, voice full of wonder. He had been taking notes the whole time they had been talking, saying that he was going to write there story so the whole world would know of there deeds.

“I dunno buddy, I’m thinking it’s too late for that story.” Eric said, he was truly tired, by this point Liz and Gaz had retired for the night and Eric wanted to go join his lover in their bed. Still he knew it would be rude to leave Deekin, who seemed to have a never-ending supply of questions.

“Oh please oh please oh please! This is the last story Deekin promises!” Deekin was begging him and Eric smiled at the Kobold’s child like nature. Eric looked towards the general direction of the bedroom’s and sighed. He really wanted to wrap up under his covers and feel Liz’s warmth around him…

“Oh Deekin get it, you want to mate again!” Deekin deduced and Eric just laughed at the Kobolds blunt way of saying it.

“No Deekin, I just want to lay down with her.”

“Yes that what Deekin said, mate!” Eric smiled.

“How about you Deekin? You ever have someone special in your life?”

“You mean like Deekin’s old master?” He looked a tad confused.

“No I mean someone you loved… someone you wanted to mate with, all the time.” Eric knew that was the only way to explain it to him.

“Oh…” Deekin looked to be deep in thought. “There was one girl Kobold who Deekin like, like that, she smart and liked stories and songs just like Deekin!”

“What happened to her?” Deekin was silent for awhile and Eric knew this was a hard question for him, and was about to tell him he didn’t have to answer when Deekin told him.

“Old master killed her.” That was all he said, and it took Eric quite awhile to register the words.

“What! Why?” Eric didn’t quite understand, and was hoping it made more sense in context of the situation.

“I had asked old master to free me from even older master, he was big white dragon, so old master agree and went to my tribe’s cave to kill dragon. Deekin knew hero would have to hurt some Kobolds who liked dragon, but master killed all the Kobolds, even those who not want to fight…” Deekin had a conflictive look on his face, as if he felt he was betraying his master by telling Eric this story.

“Why would he kill the one’s who didn’t want to fight?” Eric couldn’t believe what he was hearing, Deekin had spoke of this Ivan as a chivalrous charming warrior who stood up for all that was right, and this did not sound right at all.

“Master tell me that he had to be sure they wouldn’t try to trick him, that leaving them alive was too dangerous, that it didn’t matter because they were all evil anyway.”

“If he believed all that why didn’t he kill you?”

“Because Deekin had something he needed, so Deekin trade favor for statue, and after job was done master was nice enough to spare me, so long as I would help him from then on.”

“Let me get this straight…” Eric could feel his anger rising up in him. “He wanted some magic statue you had, and you told him you would give it to him if he killed this dragon that you used to serve.” Deekin nodded. “So he decided the best way to do that was to go into your tribe’s cave, slaughter everyone in there regardless of whether they were attacking or not, and then even after you had given him what he wanted he threatened you into being his slave!”

Deekin looked shocked but after awhile he nodded in agreement.

“Deekin never see it that way before now, Deekin just saw how kind master was to his fellow humans, and…” Deekin looked very distraught. “Master kill all my friend’s, kill my family! Master only kind to other humans, how could Deekin not see how mean he was to other peoples, even those who try to help him!”

Deekin was shouting and Eric let him release it, he knew the Kobold needed to release all the anger he had pent up in him, he recognized the feeling. Finally, after cursing his old master’s name in as many way’s he seemed to be able to think of, Deekin calmed down and looked towards Eric.

“You not like old mas-” Deekin stopped himself halfway and tried again. “You not like Terrible Ivan though, you truly kind to Deekin, kind to your friend’s, even though we are of different blood.”

“We can’t chose what were born as Deekin, to think someone worse or better because of the luck they had when they were created is truly foolish, and it would seem old Ivan was quite the fool.”

“Thank you Eric, you make Deekin feels much better.”

“You got somewhere to sleep tonight?”

“Yes, Deekin make nice little home in secret halls, it remind him of home.”

“Alright well I’m going to go on to bed, I’ll see you later Deekin.” The two said there goodbyes and Eric made his way to his bed where Liz was laying on her side in a simple purple nightgown, Eric gently climbed into bed and wrapped his arms around her from behind and she subconsciously put her hands on his and muttered something about how happy she was, before resuming her soft snores, and Eric joined his love in slumber, but not before thinking how for the first time in his life, he truly felt happy and at peace.

War and Love

A week had passed since they had all moved in to there new home and met Deekin, and in that time the ‘trio of heroes’ as Deekin had taken to calling them had fully discovered and become familiar with there new home.

Aside from the central library, which also served as a sort of meeting room for the group, and the living area where they had taken up residence, that had discovered a treasury room that had had a small pile of gold in it, apparently all that was left of the previous tenant. Though it came nowhere near to filling up the room, it was still more then enough money to let them buy anything they would need for awhile.

They had also discovered a large map room that could teleport them anywhere in the world of Mystera they wished to go, along with some simple recall stones that were set to bring them back to there home. They had tested this by making a trip to Canterlot in order to inform the slightly worried princess’s that despite some troubles they loved there new home. Deekin had not gone with them on that trip, still not ready to venture to the outside world just yet.

Now as Liz sat in the great library pouring over a history book, trying to catch up on what she had missed in the last 2,000 years, she found her mind wander to the reason they had been given this wonderful home, the princess’s of Equestria had wanted them to defend there land from any threats that would try to attack it.

But as Liz had been reading she noticed that Equestria had remained relatively peaceful and untouched for the past five hundred years. Only in the past few years had it begun to have a few major problems but the few there were had been coming fast and hard.

First Nightmare Moon had tried to destroy all of Mystera with an eternal night, then Discord had escaped from his stone prison and almost destroyed Equestria with his chaotic sense of humor. Not long after the Changeling’s had made a brazen attack on Canterlot in an effort to take over and had come dangerously close to succeeding, only being stopped by a kind of “love” magic that was not even known to exist until then.

Perhaps most notable about the changeling attack was the fact that Celestia herself had tried to smite the changeling queen, and was easily defeated in the short duel. It did not take a genius to figure out that it was more then likely this humiliating defeat that had prompted Celestia to free the three ancient warriors that were hidden behind her throne.

Suddenly a burst of magic briefly appeared next to her on the table before quickly fading away, leaving a rolled up piece of parchment sealed up with a wax image of a sun with a crescent moon inside of it. Liz quickly unrolled the parchment, a little surprised that something had already happened that needed there attention.

Dear Elizabeth,

Your talents are currently needed in the town of Ponyville, Princess Twilight has reported a small band of small green humanoids is en route to the town, and that they appear to be approaching with the intent to attack. I have sent some of my troops to aid in the towns defense, but they are poorly prepared for any actual combat, and need the aid of you and your friend’s to keep the town safe.

In addition to the defense of Ponyville I also wish you to investigate the origins of these creatures and make sure they will not pose any further threat to my little ponies, by any means necessary. As you may have already discovered there is more then enough bits in your new home for you to purchase anything you may need on your quest, and should you neutralize this threat completely I will reward you and your companions handsomely for your efforts.

You must make haste! My soldiers have recently reported losing track of there location, and that they could arrive at any moment! I wish you all luck in your mission.

Signed,
Princess Celestia.

Liz finished reading the letter and got up to locate her friends, excited at finally getting to go back out into the world and lending it her aid, even if it was just defending against a simple attack by some roving band of monsters.

“Hey Liz, we just got our first job!” Eric came running from the map room where he had been looking at the various kingdoms seeing which still stood and which had fallen in the last two thousand years. He had a piece of paper in his hand, that Liz assumed held the same message as hers had.

Suddenly a nearby bookshelf swung open and out came Gaz, who had been exploring the secret caverns with Deekin as his guide. “Gaizo has news friends!” The three looked at each other and noticed they all had there own parchments in there hands.

“Ponyville is under attack!” They all yelled to each other, in an attempt to make sure they all had the same message. Finding that they did they quickly made off to the map room where they snatched up there gear that they had stored in the room for such an occasion, before setting the map to the small town of Ponyville and jumping through the portal, ready for adventure.

“Wait for Deekin!” Deekin also jumped through the portal just as it was closing. Much as he fretted about the outside world, he knew he didn’t want to be here by himself for any lengthy period of time, he had had enough alone time to last the rest of his life.

***

The four landed in the central area of the town of Ponyville, and barley had enough time to shake the dizziness that came with teleportation out of there heads before hearing a nearby pony scream.

“There here! There here! Oh the horror!” Some nearby royal soldiers came over holding there spears menacingly at the four heroes.

“Whoa there, fellas…” Eric tried to calm the two stallions down and gently tipped one of there spears down. “Were on your side.”

The two soldiers looked at each other in confusion for a moment.

“Stand down boys, these are the Princess new pets.” A broad chested stallion dressed in an some kind of officers uniform came behind the two grunts, who immediately complied and gave a salute. He nodded to them and they scurried off to find something more important to do. The white furred colt turned to them with an odd look on his face.

“Alright I know the story with you three, but whats with the lizard? He your mascot or something?” The officer looked towards Deekin who was cowering behind his friends at all the sudden excitement. Eric did not care for his tone and he could tell he would not be getting along with this particularly pony.

“Never mind who he is, where’s the trouble?” The pony took on a surprised look.

“I had heard you humans had a one track mind but I expected you to at least ask my name first.” He smiled at his own joke. Eric wasn’t sure who the stallion was trying to impress by insulting him, because he certainly didn’t find it funny.

“Fine, to whom due we owe the honer of being needlessly insulted?” Liz said a little mad at the jab this cretin had made to her love.

“Wow, I see where Spike gets the attitude now. Nice job raising him by the way, oh wait…” He smiled cruelly.

“How dare you! I should kill you where you stand!” Liz took on a offensive stance and lit a small magic fire in each of her hands.

“Nope, I don't think you will, unless of course, you like the feeling of two goddesses hunting you down.”

“We are not afraid of your-”

“Liz calm down.” Eric held an arm in front of his lover, she looked betrayed but complied and extinguished the large flames that had almost shot out of hands.

“Listen here tough guy, you don't like us, we get it. But the fact is you need our help to defend this town, and your about one more insult away from us walking out on this deal we have with your leaders. So you have two choices, you can keep expressing your dislike, have us leave, no doubt lose some citizens to this attack, and then have to tell your Princess’s how some ponies lost there lives because you couldn’t play nice.”

“Or you can have us aid you, save the town, and be able to say you did your duty and made the right choice, despite your personal feelings.” The officer pony gave Eric a look of disbelief, as if he had just been lectured by some inferior being. Still he seemed to get the message.

“Fine, you can stay, but if you even glance at any pony the wrong way I’m sure the princess’s will understand the actions I’ll have to take.” Eric managed to keep his temper in control, he wanted to tell this arrogant little prick that he had taken shits scarier then him and his whole damn army combined. But he instead gave a convincing false smile.

“Understood, now would you kindly tell us what you know of these creatures? Mr…”

“Shining Armor, Captain of the royal guard, but you will address me as Sir.” He said with complete confidence that he was there superior. This time Eric couldn’t help but make a comment.

“I wouldn’t get your hopes up there Mister, be glad that I’m choosing to address you politely at all after that quip you made about my friend’s parenting skills. Now come on, the Princess’s note sounded urgent, and I’m sure she didn’t want me to come just to have a pissing match with you.” Shining looked at Eric with disgust at his vulgarity and rudeness, well don’t give what you can’t take back, Eric thought. Shining chose to thankfully keep his thoughts to himself and simply told them what he knew.

“We don’t know much about these apparent marauders, just that there a little shorter then a full grown stallion, have green skin, and that there is no information on them in any of the bestiaries we have looked through. My scouts last reported around thirty of them approaching from the south.”

“Have you made any attempt to converse with them, and perhaps persuade them from there attack?” Eric thought the simplest route, to him anyway, was to try to be diplomatic with them. Shining gave a sigh.

“A soldier who considers herself a bit of a negotiator volunteered to try and talk them out of it. She quickly flew back, and I first assumed that she had been successful from her lack of injures…”

“I take it they attacked her on sight?” Eric said, and Shining for the first time gave a look of fear.

“She hadn’t even gotten close enough to really see them, but she could hear them giving some kind of war chant from that distance…” Shining paused, and his bright white fur seemed to impossibly grow paler. “She had been…rather distraught, apparently they had been singing about burning the village down and… capturing “The Little Horsies”, they wanted to cook and eat us alive. Needless to say she made the logical call that they would be unwilling to negotiate.”

Eric nodded in agreement, in his experience when it got to the point that they wanted to eat you, it was better to prepare for a fight.

“She had never before heard of such evil, and to be honest, neither have I. The changelings came close but at least they would have stuck us in some dream world while they fed on us, painlessly and with no risk of death I might add.” Shining seemed to be rather distraught and Eric couldn’t help but try and comfort him, if only because the pony needed to stay focused on leading the defense.

“Hey, just stay focused on keeping the townspeople safe, we’ll take care of these little monsters, right guys?”

Liz and Gaz looked unsure and Eric was afraid they were going to say they wanted to leave these ponies to there fate. He wasn’t sure what he would do then, he knew as rude as these Equines had been he couldn’t leave them to certain death, they were no fighters Eric could easily see that in Shining’s nervousness and he was a Captain! No to leave them would be as wrong as killing them all himself, perhaps even more so since he knew what the monsters intended to do with them.

Thankfully, they reluctantly agreed to help, though it was clear to Eric that they had only agreed because of there long friendship, they really didn’t care what happened to these ponies one way or the other. Still, despite there obvious reluctance, Shining gave them a look of gratitude.

“Thanks, really I mean it, I apologize for my rudeness before I just.” He paused unsure of what the reason was. “I dunno it’s just most creatures that walk on two legs tend to be rather monstrous to us ponies.”

“You had no reason to assume different of us, I understand, no hard feelings I hope.” Eric offered out a hand which Shining allowed him to grab and give a firm shake.

“Of course not, and Ms.Elizabeth I truly am sorry for what I said. Your son is a wonderful little guy and I’m sure you would have raised him right if you had the chance.” Liz gave no reaction to this, and Eric gave a sad nod to Shining.

“Draco’s don’t easily forget insults from anyone, or any pony for that matter, don’t take it personally.” Liz shot a quick glare towards Eric and he knew he was going to have a talk with her about today, whether he wanted to or not. Shining seemed to notice the glance and leaned in to whisper.

“You can yell at me a little, I’m a married man myself, and trust me, lady’s don't like there man ignoring an insult on them.” Shining offered.

“I do not need you to interfere in our personal issues.” Liz snapped, her superior Draconian hearing picking up the whisper easily. Both Shining and Eric jumped and blushed at being caught. Liz gave a huff and walked off while Eric followed off after her. Deekin looked towards them and back at Gaz who was just watching them begin to argue.

“Is Eric and Liz mad at each other?” Deekin asked with worry in his voice. Gaz smiled down at the worried Kobold who he had begun to see as a little brother.

“Yes little Deekin, but do not worry, they will find there way through it.” Gaz comforted Deekin who looked very scared at the thought of his two friends fighting.

“They haven’t been with each other very long have they?” Shining asked Gaz, who cocked an eyebrow at him.

“They have known each other as long as Gaizo can remember.” Gaz laughed. “But only recently have they truly begun to figure each other out.” Shining smiled at the kitsune’s wisdom, recalling how long he had known the mare who would become his wife before he had begun to truly figure her out.

Gaz and Shining watched the couple argue for awhile unable to hear any of the words they harshly whispered to each other. Deekin had grown bored and was now trying to get the attention of a nearby guard, who simply stood stoically, giving no indication he was paying attention or even alive for that matter. Finally Eric and Liz seemed to reconcile and they gave a loving hug to each other before walking back towards there friends.

“Sorry about that.” Eric said.

“Yes, we should get to the business at hand.” Liz said still refusing to look at Shining directly. Shining understood, he had insulted her abilities as a mother, and he had barley forgiven himself for making such a cruel statement.

“I really don’t have much else to tell you, they-”

“There here, Ponyville is under attack!” A rainbow maned pegasus was flying over the town square shouting her warning. Eric thought at first she was referring to him and his friends, but then he saw the odd way she was flying and the tiny arrow that was sticking out of hind leg, apparently not sharp or large enough to cause any real damage, but still a sign that the attack had begun.

The town erupted into a panic as the war chant that Shining had referred to became audible, the grisly song just incrising the panic that had grasped the peaceful ponies.

“Goblins chew and Goblins bite,
Goblins cut and Goblins Fight.
Stab the dog and cut the horse,
Goblins eat and take by force!”

“Goblins? Deekin hate Goblins! Always burning and eating everything.”

“You know what they are?” Shining had been ordering his guards to round up everyone and get them to safety but he had heard Deekin talk in remembrance of the creatures.

“Of course they-” Deekin started

“No time! Come with me Deekin I need you to tell me what you know of them, while your friends stay and fight!”

“Yay, Deekin always want to ride pony!” Deekin jumped on Shining’s back who began to run off and usher the townspeople into there homes. Eric looked around and saw that the goblins had suddenly appeared all around them, having slipped right past the meager defense the town had set up.

Thankfully most of the villagers had escaped into there home’s and the few that hadn’t were far to fast for the goblins to catch on there stubby little legs. Still, they had begun burning down all the various market stalls and carts that were set up, and Eric knew it was only a matter of time before they moved on to the houses.

“Why are you just standing there?” Liz had already begun to zap the little beasts with her magic, and Eric couldn’t see Gaz anywhere but seeing the various goblins that lay on there ground with there throats slit, some of them still gurgling on there own blood, and he knew Gaz had definitely joined in the battle.

Eric drew his axe and tried to channel himself into a battle rage, but was finding it very hard to feel any anger at all. The goblins were such simple opponents and he found there antics much more humorous then aggravating, especially given that they hadn’t appeared to score a single kill during this whole attack while most of them already lie dead or frozen from Liz’s ice magic.

Then Liz cast a fireball at a group of goblins who had decided they were safer in a group, apparently unaware that that was the best target a wizard could ask for. The ones that didn’t instantly turn to ash from the blast found themselves thrown from the explosion and screaming in there odd high pitched voices as they tried to put themselves out.

The comical sight of them running around on fire, and the hilarious sound of there screams, was too much for Eric and he quickly burst out laughing, seeming to forget that this was indeed an actual attack.

“This isn’t some comedy act Eric! Start swinging!” Liz screamed over the sounds of battle at hearing him laugh.

“Oh come on Liz, these guy’s couldn’t kill a puppy!” As if to prove Eric's point a goblin chopped at his leg with his sword, which was really nothing more then a sharp looking stone tied to a stick. The attack bouced harmlessly off the thick chain armor Eric wore and Liz couldn’t help but join him in laughter at the Goblin’s almost adorably, confused face.

Suddenly Gaz jumped out of nowhere and picked the goblin up before quickly snapping his tiny neck. Gaz looked at the last goblin now lying dead in his hands, gave a howl of laughter and then threw him over his shoulder as if the monster was just a piece of trash. The three friends looked around at the now finished battle, and all laughed at how ridiculously easy it had been.

All around were the corpses of Goblins and the only sign that they had achieved anything with there suicidal attack were the few charred remains of the market stalls that had been burnt down, and Eric wasn’t sure they had even done that, that perhaps Liz had just caused some minor property damage with her fireballs.

“Well I think we can all agree that was the easiest battle we’ve ever been in.” Eric said after they had calmed down.

“Oh for you sure, you didn’t do a single thing!” Liz pointed out with a playful look in her eyes.

“Yes Gaizo must agree, he and Liz did much of the work while our fearless leader sat here laughing.”

“OK, your right, I could have killed at least one.”

“You didn’t even kill one?” Liz shouted in astonishment

“Oops did I say that?” Eric gave the look of a child being caught in a lie, and Liz had to bite her tongue to keep a laugh inside from escaping.

Soon the nearby ponies, hearing that sounds of battle had ended, came out of there homes and gave a shocked look to the three heroes after seeing the bodies of the goblins that littered the streets.

“That was… Awesome!” Eric looked up and saw the rainbow maned pegasus from before, still with the small arrow in her leg, apparently she had been hovering up there the whole time, and had seen the whole battle. “Come on every pony, let’s hear it for Ponyville’s new awesome heroes! Well except for the useless, fur-less one!” She said with a laugh before suddenly a goblin who had climbed on a nearby roof jumped at her, Eric quickly tossed his axe and effortlessly hit the goblin in mid air.

The pegasus looked back in shock at the close call, and rubbed her head in embarrassment.

“What was that? I was too busy taking aim at your would-be killer.” Eric said with a grin.

“Uh I mean… Three cheers for all three heroes!” She corrected and the whole town erupted into cheers, giving far more then just three, they stomped there hoofs in applause and Eric gave a casual wave and a smile to the large crowd. Gaz was relishing the attention as he did various acrobatic maneuvers while Liz shot off some magic sparks that resembled fireworks into the air behind him, much to the delight of the ponies watching.

Eric felt a tap on his shoulder and turned to see the pegasus from before.

“Hey thanks for saving me back there, sorry about calling you useless…” She blushed before giving him a quick kiss on the cheek much to his surprise. “Anyway thanks again, maybe ill see you later!” She said, voice tinged with hope, before quickly flying away until she was out of sight. Eric rubbed his still warm cheek and smiled at the cute way the pegasus, whose name he had never gotten, had blushed at him.

“What was that about?” Liz asked and Eric shot around, much faster then he had intended too.

“She just wanted to thank me personally for saving her.” Eric said, glad to see he was able to keep his voice sounding steady and normal. Liz looked at him for a moment, almost seemed to be waiting for him to say something else, but she nodded and said.

“Oh OK then…” She said a little hurt in her voice, she had seen the whole interaction, Eric realized.

“Well-”

“Hey nice job guy’s! I’m sorry I ever doubted you.” Shining ran up and smiled at them before sensing that something was amiss. “Oh sorry, am I interrupting?” He asked concerned he had interrupted something important. Eric looked at Liz who was just staring at him a look of neutrality on her face, before answering.

“No not at all.” Eric said simply.

“I’m going to go see if Spike is alright.” Liz said before quickly walking away, it took Eric great constraint to not chase after her.

“Something wrong?” Shining asked.

“No, nothings wrong.” Shining gave a disbelieving look but continued.

“Alright then, come on, Twilight and the mayor would like to reward you for saving the town.”

“What about Gaz?” Eric looked back at his friend who was currently showing off his swordsmanship skills.

“Sure if he wants to come, but it looks like he’s having a bit more fun here right now.”

“Yeah I guess he’ll be fine.” Eric sighed he couldn’t stop thinking about Liz but he followed Shining anyway to collect his reward, not really caring what it was, but knowing he couldn’t refuse.

***

Liz knocked on the door to Princess Twilight’s home. She couldn’t believe him, he hadn’t lifted a hand to help her in the battle, yet had no problem showing off to that rainbow haired-

The door opened and her son Spike awaited on the other side, he looked up at her with surprised joy, and the sight of him brought a smile to her face despite everything she was thinking.

“Mom!” He hugged her legs and she felt like crying again, though this time it would be out of happiness instead of anger. He looked up and noticed the sad look in her eyes.

“What’s wrong, where’s Uncle Gaz and Uncle Eric?” he asked wondering why her friends had left her alone. At hearing his name she broke down. She brought her hands to her eyes and began to give out moans of pain and sadness.

“Mom? What’s wrong?” Spike had gently led her in and shut the door so they could talk in private. Liz quit sobbing, she was stronger then that after all, but she couldn’t help but give the occasional sniff as she thought about telling her son her problems.

“Oh don’t worry about me Spike, just being with you has already made me feel much better.” It was true she did feel much better, though her heartbreak still lingered within. Spike put his hand on her knee and she put one on his head.

“Were you here to fight the monsters?” He asked excitement in his eyes at hearing tales of his mothers battle prowess. She smiled at his eagerness.

“Yes your mother and her friends came to defend the town.” She said simply.

“Are they all gone?”

“Yes we easily defeated them all, though we do have to stay in town for a few days to make sure they don’t try again.”

“Really! Are you going to live with me and Twilight while you stay here?”

“I suppose so, if Princess Twilight will have me.”

“Alright, I can’t wait for you to meet my friends!” He hugged her again and she gladly returned it. Happy that she had been so lucky as to meet him at all, even though enough time had passed for him to live his whole life, he had waited for her, refusing to hatch without his mother for two thousand years, only coming out through purely magical means.

“Why were you so sad earlier mom?” he asked still holding her tight, and she sighed knowing he wouldn’t let it go.

“Let’s just say someone I like very much, doesn’t quite feel the same about me.” She traced a finger along the scales atop his head.

“Oh you mean like you love them but they ignore your feelings?” Spike asked and Liz looked at him.

“Not quite, he knows I exist, maybe he even loves me, but not in the same way I love him.” Spike looked at her with confusion on his face. She gave a weak chuckle. “Ah but those are things to discuss when your a little older. How about you though, who do you love that ignores your feelings?” Spike looked shocked.

“How did you know!”

“Oh you have to very observant to understand magic like I do.”

“Can you teach me magic? I tried asking Twilight but she’s so busy all the time.”

“Sure, after you tell me about this love of yours.” Liz reminded Spike of her original question.

“Oh ok…” Spike nervously twiddled his claws “It’s this mare named Rarity… I’m always doing stuff for her so she’ll like me and she just sees it as me being a good friend to her.”

“Have you told her how you feel?”

“I did one time, but she didn’t say anything when I told her, she still just treats me the same as she always has. I kinda wish she would just tell me it won’t happen just so I would know to give up.” Liz smiled at her and Spike gave an odd look at seeing it.

“What?”

“It’s simple, she hasn’t responded to your feelings because she herself is unsure how she feels.”

“Really!” Spike seemed excited that there was a chance at all his crush might have feelings for him.

“I think so, it seems obvious to me. If she didn’t answer you then it would seem she isn’t sure if she returns your love.”

Well either that or she was stringing him along, taunting him with her affections to get favors from him, it could be either or, but Liz decided she would have to meet this Rarity to really be sure.

“So what should I do?” He asked.

“Nothing, just keep doing what you have been, eventually she will reach her answer. All you can do is try to be as sweet and friendly as possible until then. Something I'm sure you’ll have no problem with.” Liz warmly smiled at her son who happily returned it.

Liz and her son said nothing more after that, and Liz softly stroked Spike’s head until he fell asleep, tiny arms still wrapped around her waist. Her sadness was gone now, she was content with the thought that while Eric had apparently grown tired of her already, she would always have her son’s love, and that was more then enough for her.

***

Eric stood outside in the Ponyville park with Liz, it was late at night, and after he had been given an oversize novelty ‘key to the city’, he had gone off to find Liz at Twilight’s home, remembering that she had wanted to see Spike. He had practically burst in to find Liz and her young son asleep on the couch. He had tried to wake her up without disturbing Spike’s rest but had failed, and after shooting him an angry glare and telling Spike to go on to bed she had agreed to start the night’s fight somewhere more private.

“What do you mean your not coming home?” Eric asked unsure of the true reasoning for her her refusal to return home with him.

“I wish to stay with my son while we finish our job here, why is that so hard to believe?” She said simply, and Eric felt his anger rise up in him, though this was the first time it had ever been directed at one of his friends.

“He’s been fine without you for two thousand years! whats one more night going to hurt?” He knew that would hurt her bad as it was half-way out, she had told him that she regretted inadvertently trapping her son in that egg for so long, but his anger wouldn’t let him stop himself from saying it.

She slapped him, which was really more of a slash given her claws, and Eric could feel his cheek start bleeding, though he was far to upset to notice any pain.

“How dare you, If you hadn’t convinced me to join you all those years ago, I would have never ended up in that stone prison, and my son in his!” She yelled at him.

“You act as if I forced you to come with me!”

“Sometimes I wonder if you had!”

“Really because the way I recall it you were begging me to let you tag along!”

“Oh please you can’t recall anything before we were stone, all you remember is how terrible a time you had, well I’ve got news for you, it wasn't too much fun for me either!”

“Bullshit, it was nothing but a blink for you, I had to endure a fucking eternity!”

“Oh here comes the cursing, what next, are you going to hit me, huh!” Eric realized his hands were balled up into fists and that he was very close to striking her, but the sense of survival in him knew that she could easily destroy him with a snap of her fingers, quite literally.

“Look…” he said trying to calm down and diffuse the situation. “Is this about that pegasus from earlier? Let’s talk about it.”

“Oh now you want to talk about it!”

“Yes I do please calm down.” Eric said a little fear in his voice, Liz had already summoned some flames in her hands.

“Not until you admit she kissed you!”

“Ok she kissed me, I’m sorry I didn’t dodge it or anything I thought that might be just a little rude!”

“And?” she stared daggers at him, the flames in her hands had died down but Eric knew they could come up at any point, still his pride refused to let him admit it.

“And what?”

“Don’t test me Eric!”

“What do you want me to say?”

“Just say it Eric, so we can end this!”

A pause and then…

“I liked it ok! Fine you got me, Let’s have a hand for Elizabeth!” He started clapping sarcastically. He was glad they had chosen to move to the park for this because they surely would have attracted quite a crowd.

“Why?” She didn’t yell like she had before and it shocked Eric out of his little performance.

“What?”

“Why, why did you like it? Are you just a natural womanizer? Or was it something I did?” She had done a complete 180 on him and she was crying.

“Liz I…” He didn’t know what to say, he loved her, he really did. The thought of losing her scared him, but at the same time he couldn’t deny he had felt a thrill at the kiss he had received today. He wanted to be mad at the rainbow maned pony who had started all this but he knew if it hadn’t been her this would have come up at some point anyway. He realized this was a battle he could not solve with crafty social maneuvers or his sheer strength.

“Liz I love you!” She looked at him stone faced and unaffected at all by his confession. “I know I love you but, I can’t explain it. It’s like I’m afraid too, and I don’t know why!”

He had never felt true love before, he had always been a womanizer, girls had always been nothing more then rewards to him. But Liz was different, he had known her so long, she was his best friend, but at the same time he was very afraid of committing himself to her.

“It’s ok.” She looked at him with sad understanding. “You’re a romantic Eric, you love the feeling of starting new love, not maintaining it. I can’t be mad at you for what you are, in fact all I feel is pity, you’ll never know what it’s like to share everything with someone, to go through everything, good and bad, with them, to stay with that person for your whole life and beyond.”

“Liz, we can make it work we-” She slowly shook her head and he realized this was the end of there relationship both as friends and as lovers.

“What now?” he asked defeated.

“I’m still going to work to defend Equestria, I have to, for my son’s sake. If you decide to keep this job too, then I suppose we’ll just be two people working in the same office, so to speak.

“I’ll change Liz you’ll see, it may take years but I’ll show you I can commit to you.” She just gave a sigh and began to walk off towards the Library. Eric fell on a nearby bench and expected to cry about this turn of event’s, but he could find no tears to shed.

He had known this would happen from the very moment he had seduced her. That they would love each other for about a week, then something would happen to cause a fight and he would be disillusioned with the whole thing and leave her. He had thought of his friend Liz, his love, the same way he had thought of every other women he had been with, as soon as things stopped being fun it was time to move on.

He was a child, nothing more. He treated women like toys and when he was bored with one he quickly threw it away and picked another one to play with. He realized he wasn’t sad that she had broken up with him, he was sad because she was no longer his friend, and that was worse.

They had been friends forever, and only lovers a short time, so this didn’t really surprise him. He recalled hearing somewhere that the person you love is really just your best friend, but he couldn’t believe that. There was such a huge difference in how he and Liz treated each other after that night they slept together, before she was just one of his best friends, he had loved her like a sister and they often playfully argued back and forth with each other.

After that night had been a different story entirely. Suddenly she trusted him with everything, most notable to him, was how she had asked him if she was making the right choice in leaving her son in the care of the ponies. Before that night, she never would have asked him that, it just wasn’t natural, but suddenly they fucked and all that changed? What the hell was up with that?

Eric sighed knowing he could think in circles about this forever, but the fact was Liz was no longer his friend, and he was just going to have to deal with that.

He had thought about leaving Equestria, walking out on the deal he had made just so he wouldn’t have to see her again, but he had his other friend to think about. Gaz would be devastated if Eric left, and even if Gaz chose to follow him to wherever he ended up, Gaz would never forgive him for making him chose, and Eric would be damned if he was going to lose both of his best friends.

He reached into his bag and pulled out the recall stone. Reading the simple phrase written on it teleported him back to his mountain top abode, specifically into the library room, where he saw Gaz was asleep in one of the nearby chairs snoring loudly.

Eric smiled at his friend, touched that the kitsune had apparently waited up for him. He sighed dreading telling his friend what had happened and that things would never be the same between him and Liz, but knowing it had to be done. Just as he was about to wake Gaz up a familiar screechy voice called out.

“Is everything still good between Eric and Liz?” Deekin was sitting on another chair that was behind Eric, apparently asleep until the noise of him arriving had awoken him.

“No Deekin, everything is not good.”

“Oh, Deekin had bad feeling but figured he ask anyway.” Deekin paused and then. “Does Eric wish to talk to Deekin?” Eric smiled at the friendly Kobold, though he had known him only a short time, he felt like Deekin had been part of his group all along. Still Eric felt Deekin would only be upset at hearing details of the experience and Eric shook his head.

“Ok Eric, Deekin go to bed now, good night.” Deekin scurried off somewhere, it still amazed Eric that he could seemingly disappear even if you were staring right at him.

“Gaz wake up.” Gaz lazily opened his eyes but quickly grew energetic at the sight of Eric.

“Eric how are you friend!” He smiled apparently not noticing that Liz was missing or the frown that crossed Eric’s face.

“Just wanted to wake you before I hit they hay.” Eric said simply and Gaz gave a small frown.

“Gaizo thanks you, but he still has his original question, how is Gaizo’s friend feeling tonight?”

“Seen better day’s Gaz, much better days. But all you need to know is that me and Liz… Well let’s just say I’m not going to be calling her Liz anymore, if you get what I mean.” The kitsune looked confused for a moment before he put two and two together and gave a large frown.

“I see…” That was all Gaz had to say for awhile, and in that time Eric noticed Gaz had not spoken of himself in the third person, something he hadn’t done since they were sure there death awaited them that day in Equestria’s royal castle, so long ago

“I suppose I will now be forced to choose between my two best friends?” He gave a sigh and pulled a flask from his pocket apparently having anticipated this conversation and Eric wondered how smart the fox man really was, he acted dramatic and unobservant most of the time, but for the first time it occurred to Eric that that may just be a facade put on by the kitsune, him easily hiding his true personality just as easily as he hid his body in combat.

“No I can’t ask you to choose between us.” Eric said and was about to explain why when Gaz interrupted.

“And I can’t ask you to stay here with the women who was once your friend, trying to pretend that were still a team even when were obviously not… so it would appear we are at an impasse my friend.” Gaz took a swig of whatever was in the flask before letting out a satisfied sigh and continuing. “I wonder then, is this the end of our little group? We did have a long run I must admit, but still, I had such hopes that many adventures still lie ahead of us.”

Gaz offered the flask to Eric who took a quick swig before handing it back, it was foul tasting but effective and he grew light headed from just the one sip. Gaz laughed.

“Oh yeah, You never were much of a drinker Eric were you? I suppose that’s a good thing, I’ve see you angry before and I would hate to see you drunk and angry.” Gaz laughed and Eric joined in agreement.

“So what should we do now my friend? You always were the leader of our little group.” Gaz asked and Eric had no idea how to answer him. After awhile of silence Gaz offered.

“The way I see it, It comes down to you choosing to stay or choosing to leave, neither one leads back to the way things were of course but both hold there own possibility's of a brighter future.”

“But we’ve been together so long it feels wrong to break us up…” Gaz just stared at him.

“a story with no ending would be a boring story indeed would it not?” Gaz offered his wisdom.

“I suppose.” Eric said sadly. Gaz gave a sad smile.

“The story of this trio of friends has come to an end and now it’s time to begin a new one, but that’s alright because we never forget the stories we have already read, do we?”

“I get what your saying Gaz, but your immortal, it’s not the same…” Eric finally realized why he couldn't accept his wisdom, kitsune's were naturally immortal and forever young, it was easy for him to look towards the future because it would never end for him.

“Would you care to guess how old I am Eric?” Gaz suddenly asked and Eric couldn’t even begin to guess…

“With all the wisdom that’s been coming out of you, I would say a least a couple thousand.” Gaz laughed as if this was the funniest thing he had heard his whole life.

“Not even close my friend, no I’m afraid I have not even reached my hundredth birthday… well so long as we don’t count the years in stone, my tails apparently didn’t.”

“Tails?”

“Oh yes did I not tell you that? A kitsune grows an additional tail every hundred years he lives, so were I at least one hundred I would have two. But enough of that the correct answer to my question was thirty five years of age.” Gaz laughed at the surprised look on Eric’s face.

“Yes when everyone hears of an immortal creature they naturally assume they’ve been around for ages, but even we have to go through child-hood. Trust me were I as old as you had assumed I would not have even held a passing interest in your little adventuring group when we had met, anyway do you see that point I’m trying to make here Eric?”

“That your not much older then me and you still have no problem leaving the past behind. But you’ll live forever! You don’t have to worry about whether your death is happy or sad because it’ll never come!”

Eric tried to reason but somehow he was sure that the kitsune would have an answer for that too, and as it turned out he did.

“All the more reason for you to strive towards a better future, your time on this world is limited and if you don’t work for it, you will, as you have put it, die a sad lonely death instead of a happy one, one where you are surrounded by your loved ones as you slip into the next realm. But that’s enough wisdom for now I think… I take it you have decided to go then?”

“No I’m going to stay for now.” Gaz cocked an curious eyebrow at him.

“And why would that be Eric?”

“You just told me, I have to work towards a better future, the future I want, and the one I want is one where I’m still friends with you and Liz. I’m going back to Ponyville, I’ll see you later Gaizo!” Eric made off towards the map room and Gaz just offered a chuckle in farewell.

***

Liz woke to a pounding on the door to the room she had rented at the local Ponyville inn. Twilight had nowhere for her to sleep at her home so she offered to put her up at the nicest inn in town. She looked at the clock on the wall, it told her it was three in the A.M and she knew that only one person could possibly want to bother her this late at night. Another knock came and she jumped out of bed and stormed over to the door.

Had she not made it clear? No, of course she had but he was going to be persistent anyway, just like the stubborn man he had always been. She threw open to door to see, to no one’s surprise, Eric standing outside with an apologetic smile on his face.

“It’s three in the morning Eric, can we do this later?” She was tired and a little upset at being disturbed. She had tried to leave things in a way that would leave no doubt as to the future, yet despite her brutal honesty he still stood there with that damn grin on his face.

“I know it’s late Liz but I talked to Gaz and thought about things and I want to try again.”

“Eric I told you were not a-”

“I don’t mean us as lovers, I mean us as friends.” She blinked, she hadn’t expected that but still she kept her guard up knowing he would say anything to get her to jump in his arms again.

“May I come in?” She wasn't sure about being in a small room with Eric, her spells were powerful but they took time to cast and there wasn’t a lot of room to maneuver around him should he decide to attack.

Suddenly his face took on a look of hurt and she realized he must have see the distrust on her face. What was she thinking? After all they had been through was she really thinking he would try to hurt her? She was very confused and wanted desperately to just lye back down and forget for awhile.

“I guess I don’t have too, if your uncomfortable, I understand.” She didn’t know what to do and wished it would go back to before they had been imprisoned, everything had been so simple then, it was just her and her friends exploring the world and having fun along the way. But it was too late to go back to that, right?

“Why are you here Eric?”

“Because I…” He paused and then scratched his beard in thought before beginning again. “I love you, but-” He raised a hand up, asking her to let him finish, she nodded and he continued. “I understand your mad at me, so I propose we just… go back to the way things were, before that night, I think I came on too fast and strong and I just want us to be friends again, at least until you’re ready to forgive me and I’m ready to commit to you.”

“You know it’s not that simple Eric we can’t just go back.” She said sureness in her voice.

“Okay, but tell me this, why not?”

“Well because-” She stopped mid-sentence, why couldn’t they just go back to the way things were, that was what she wanted wasn’t it? But something just seemed odd about the idea. It felt like it could never work, though she couldn’t come up with a reason why.

“Because we’ve had sex.” She said dumbly.

“So?” He said a winning smile on his face.

“There’ll always be tension between us, we can’t just be friends!” She was trying to come up with reasons and was failing spectacularly.

“The way I see it Elizabeth, there’s always been tension between us, that’s kinda what led to that night in the first place.” And then she saw it, the way out.

“But I hadn’t held feelings for you then so your wrong!” She said triumphantly.

“Are you certain about that?” Eric said popping her victory like a balloon.

“I guess not… but I mean-” She said sadly.

“Just think about it, alright?” Eric gave her one last smile, and walked off.

Liz closed the door, more confused now then ever. She decided she would just try and take things one day at a time. Starting tomorrow she would do her best to act as if she and Eric had done nothing that night.

With this final thought she drifted off to a dreamless sleep.