Have Friendship, Will Travel

Consciousness stirred. Something hot amongst the cold, pulsating within; it felt so foreign, yet so familiar. The sounds of thousands, no, millions of screaming people amongst the occasional muffled sound. They were so far away, yet so dangerously close.Where have I been until now?

Alphonse’ last memory was set at Icecrown Citadel, in a fight against the Lich King himself. In that memory, which was more of a blur than anything else, he remembered being run through by Frostmourne, before everything went black. Am I in Frostmourne? Why haven’t I been brought back as scourge yet?Everything else was still a blur.

Slowly, Alphonse opened his eyes; through the blindingly bright light and the blur, he could make out that he was in a field not unlike Elwynn Forest. Everything was just brighter – and greener. The whole area seemed to be drenched in serenity. Definitely not in Frostmourne… Alphonse’ head was still groggy and he couldn’t think clearly; the sun drafts certainly didn’t help, either.

In his daze, he began a mental quest to remember how he had ended up in this field after his apparent death. One doesn’t usually get stabbed just to end up in a beautiful field shortly after… Well, at least not one who’s responsible for the death of countless innocent people at the command of evil incarnate.

His quest was quickly interrupted as he began to notice a few major differences; not just in the world he was in, but in himself.

The first thing he noticed was that he was, for lack of a better word, afraid. It wasn’t actually just odd, it was downright abnormal. I’m a Death Knight; I’m not supposed to haveemotions, let alone feel fear.

The second oddity he noticed was that there weren’t any shadows haunting his every thought. He could silence his thoughts and for once enjoy absolute silence. Wow… It’s beautiful.

The third and most blatant abnormality he noticed was that, despite being a Death Knight, and in that inherently a vampire, he didn’t feel the need to feed or kill. While he could still feel that ‘splinter’ in his mind that reminded him of his need for blood, it was as if it had been fed already, if not at this very moment. He only felt like this when he was directly feeding on a living victim, or his sword was absorbing his victim’s blood and placing it directly into his body.

Still enjoying his new-found silence, he continued to lay there in no particular presence while he tried to collect his thoughts. Not too long after, a small critter hopped over to him, sniffed him briefly before scurrying off. Wait, come back! I don’t have my achievement!

Deciding it was time to get up, he tried to move his legs; they moved, however something was horribly wrong with them. They bent backwards! Oh… my… was I transferred into the body of a Draenei? He tried to move his toes, only to get no response from them. Fearing that he’d spend the rest of his days as a space goat, he tried to move his fingers – again, no response. Great… just great!

He decided to lift his hand over to his face, hoping for a human hand while expecting a draenei hand; he was greeted by a squishy… hoof?

As a Death Knight, Alphonse had never screamed audibly in horror, nor had he passed out due to shock.

Regardless, at that moment they both happened in that order.

Cold. A warm pulsating sensation amongst the cold. The resonant screaming of thousands… a stirring.

Slowly, Alphonse opened his eyes again to see the same field he had recently lost consciousness in. He raised his hand—rather, his hoof to his face one more time to verify that wasn’t under the effects of some sort of drug. Dammit, still a hoof!

Being the brave soul he was, he attempted to get a good look at rest of his body. He noticed that his neck was at an unusual length, and that he had trouble bending it so that he could look at his body. Once he did manage to look, he couldn’t help but deduce that he was a horse. A horse with wings?!?

Eerily calm, likely due to his time under many other transformation effects during his time as a gladiator in the arena, his first question was if this was some sort of modified amniomorphic spell. I hate polymorph… If he were to name it, he’d call it the equinomorphic spell. If this was in fact some sort of spell, it was lasting abnormally long; the longest polymorph effect he’d had on him was on his 15th birthday by his best friend and fellow apprentice mage Leonidas, and that lasted only 16 seconds.

Thinking about Leonidas started to bring back flashbacks, although he was having trouble piecing it all together. Instead of dwelling on the flashbacks, he decided to try to get up and walk.

Doing so with his armor on made it nearly impossible, so he dismissed his armor and rune blade to the shadow realm to remove his extra weight.

After what seemed like an eternity, he managed to get up on all fours. It was incredibly difficult, especially because his rear legs bent the opposite way, and he had just switched from being a biped to a quadruped. After falling on his face numerous times, he started moving in a direction other than down. Actually, it would be better described as an awkward waddle; either way, Alphonse was proud of his latest feat of strength.

Instead of randomly walking around, he decided that he would strategically locate a civilized area, hopefully not heavily populated in the case that he’s in Horde territory. Looking around, he found what appeared to be a river coming from the side of the hill. He started walking up along the river, hoping it would lead him to civilization.

Walking with four legs was a pain, and not just any kind of pain; it hurt both his body and his pride. Going uphill wasn't too bad, however he found going downhill was quicker sliding on his face.

As he was walking, he tried to recollect certain things about his life. Since his recent awakening, he had not only reacquired his emotions, but flashbacks about his pre-death knight life were streaming before his eyes.

He remembered how it all came to be… how he became a Death Knight. Back when he was known as Archmage Amschel Lightweaver, he fought alongside Leonidas in a large battle against the Lich King. Heroes in their group were dropping like flies, and much to their chagrin, some of them were getting back up.

Just before the Lich King could strike down Leonidas, he used all of his remaining power and mana to transport him anywhere away from there. The farther away, the better. After that, he was the last man standing; out of mana and physically drained from that spell I’d never used before, he could only watch as the Lich King ran him through with Frostmourne.

Soon after, Amschel, now named Deathbringer Alphonse Runeweaver, was forced from that point on to serve the Lich King in undeath, torturing and murdering thousands if not hundreds of thousands in his wake. It wasn’t until five years later that he met with Leonidas, now an Archmage himself, who helped free him from the Lich King’s grasp.

Deciding to keep the name Alphonse, he befriended Leonidas for a second time, and the two became closer than brothers yet again. Something in Leonidas had changed since he last saw him; he was kind, loving and tolerant, as opposed to his former self. He was completely against the war with the Horde, and did everything in his power to save lives on both sides. Alphonse couldn’t complain; with the lingering effects of being a Death Knight haunting his every thought, a little happiness surely didn’t hurt. Sure, Alphonse didn’t have emotions anymore, but he had a strong sense of honor and care for those around him. Oof!

After getting up off of his face and back to his waddle, Alphonse returned to his thoughts; what happened right before I got here? He remembered that he was in his second fight against the Lich King, this time fighting with Leonidas alongside the Ashen Verdict, a group composed mainly of Death Knights and Paladins from both the Alliance and the Horde whose primary goal was to rid the world of the Lich King.

A pivotal moment occurred where some unknown spell triggered and knocked a good number of people off the side of the citadel. From there, the fight went south: As group members were again dropping like flies, the Lich King turned his attention to Alphonse. “Welcome back, Alphonse… once I’m through with you, I’ll let you introduce your little mage friend here to the Scourge!” The thought of that enraged Alphonse, to the point where he charged the Lich King with all of his unholy might. After a ground-breaking hit, Alphonse was run through by Frostmourne. Tears streaming down his eyes, it was all he could do to try and say goodbye; he couldn’t remember whether or not he got the words out. Before he lost consciousness, Leonidas cast a seemingly powerful spell over him, and then everything went black.

After some time walking, Alphonse remembered that he could just use a teleportation spell to return to Stormwind. Planting himself firmly on the ground, he started casting the spell excited as ever to return home; pony or not. However, instead of being teleported, all he heard was a zzt sound; the spell backfired and knocked him back. He’d never had a teleportation spell fail before, and decided it may be safer to just hoof it from here; lest he teleport himself to Zulway’s foot palace.

As he continued his waddle-trek, he came up to a sign: “Ponyville, 1KM” Great, a city! What an odd name, though.

Upon approaching the city, he noticed that all of its citizens, save a select few, were horses. Some had wings, a few others had horns on their heads, and the rest were just normal horses. Actually, based on their proportions, I’d say that they’re… ponies? That would explain *Pony*ville. From what he could make out, there wasn’t a single human or other azerothian to be seen. They made no clear mark of their allegiance, but on an air of caution, he kept his alliance-marked armor dismissed.

Upon entering the city, and by that it should be noted that he was 1 millimeter within the city limits, he was tackled by an incredible unholy force; feeling like he had just been hit by the Hammer of Justice five times over. Before he had time to pop his trinket and summon his rune blade, a pink monster was standing on his belly, looking him straight in the eyes.

“Ooh! Cool eyes mister! What’s your name? My name's Pinkie Pie! I’ve never seen you here before, and if I’ve never seen you before that means you’re new, because I know everypony!” she stopped for a millisecond before gasping with enough intensity to literally lift her off of my chest, before coming back down and landing on me; and then she was gone.

As he sat there pondering what he had just encountered, others just continued their activities like nothing had happened. Did you not see that? I was nearly decimated by a pony!

Shortly after, a concerned voice greeted him. “Are you okay? Did Pinkie hurt you?” I’m not sure…

He turned around to see a lavender coloured pony smiling at him.

“Hi, my name is Twilight Sparkle! What’s your name?”

“I, uh-it’s Alphonse.”

Still utterly horrified by the pink horror he had just witnessed, he broke into what Leonidas used to call “Confused Mage Moments”; said moments are when a mage, such as himself, would start asking every question that came to mind about a specific conundrum, regardless of what was going on around them, or who they were asking. Realizing he’d probably just confused the hell out of this new-found Twilight, he tried to apologize for confusing her.

“Um, sorry Miss Sparkle; that’s probably all nonsense to you…” he was going to finish his apology, when Twilight cut him off mid-sentence, almost arrogantly “Please, call me Twilight; I assure you, I understood your questions, and trust me: it’s best not to ask. There are things about Pinkie Pie that I simply cannot wrap my head around.”

He made a mental note to steer clear of this ‘Pinkie Pie’ until he learned more about her physics-bending power.

Alphonse regained his composure and decided to take care of the task at hand: He needed to find out where he was so he could figure out how to get back to Stormwind. He thought of simply asking where Stormwind was, but the thought occurred that if these people were aligned with the horde, they may decide to kill him on the spot. “Hmm, I see. I apologize for coming off as condescending. Don’t mind my asking; I’m rather new to this region and I was hoping that you could direct me to the library?” Upon asking, her face lit up as she started to giggle. “I run the local library! I can take you there, if you’d like.”

Without a moment’s hesitation, he accepted her offer. As they started walking together, she started to ask him a few questions of her own. “So, Alphonse, where are you from?” Well, I suppose there’s no harm in explaining my situation. Besides, I’m a Death Knight, what can possibly go wrong?

“To be perfectly honest, Twilight, I haven’t any idea how I got here. I just woke up in a field a few hours in that direction and since then have walked here.”

“So, you’re suffering from amnesia?”

“Not at all, I remember everything I was going, before I di—woke up here.” Alphonse quickly corrected himself, trying not to sound delusional. Twilight paused while looking at his eyes, before continuing.

“Hmm, I see. Well then, why did you want to come to the library of all places?”

Thinking of an answer to that question, Alphonse faltered. How would she react if I explained that I’m not even supposed to be a horse, and that I’m trying to learn more about this place so I can go back to being a bipedal creature and go home…

Before Alphonse could start to say the first thing that came to mind, he was cut off by an odd trio of fillies. They each approached, one orange with lavender hair and wings, one white with a horn, and the other a normal pony with a bow in her hair.

“Did you see that?!?” asked the white one, pointing at his behind. What?

“Oh mah gawsh, he ain’t got a cutie mark!” A cutie what now?

“Wow, he must be a total loser…” remarked the winged one. Ouch, kid…

Almost immediately, Twilight came to his defense. “Scootaloo! That’s a very rude thing to say to our guest!” Never being defended before by anyone other than Leonidas, Alphonse couldn’t help but smile. “Even if it is really weird that he still doesn’t have it.” Oh…

Almost innocently, he proceeded to put his hoof into my mouth: “What’s a cutie mark?”

Twilight looked at him, utterly dumbfounded, while the three fillies started laughing. A few moments into the laugh, Scootaloo stopped her laughing as she pursed her lips. “Wait guys, does this mean we might never get our cutie marks?”

The other two looked at each other in horror before gasping in unison. After a look of hopelessness washed over them, they started walking over dejectedly to a nearby bench.

“Shouldn’t you talk to them or something, Twilight?”

She nodded, “Yeah, I’ll be right back.”

As she walked over to them, Alphonse couldn’t help but notice the horrifying truth: We’re all naked.

Blushing, he turned around hoping his certain appendage would stay asleep. It didn’t, and Alphonse began to panic. As he was going to try to hide or cover it with something, he felt his vampiric senses kick in – he was being watched. He looked up, and heard a slight chuckle coming from directly above. Not knowing where it had come from, he was about to call above just before he heard Twilight call him.

“Hey, Alphonse, let’s keep going. I think they’ll be fine.” He was afraid to turn around, until he noticed that his appendage had returned to sleep.

“Yes, lets.” He stated, clearly flushed as he turned around.

She looked at him with an air of confusion before regaining her knowing smile, motioning Alphonse to follower her.

Still wondering what this ‘Cutie Mark’ trinket or badge was, he decided to ask Twilight about it. “So, Twilight… what exactly is a ‘Cutie Mark’?”

“Oh, right! You seriously don’t know what a cutie mark is?” she inquired, with a half grin, half knowing look on her face. Alphonse had trouble making out what she could be thinking behind that face; it didn’t seem to fit the situation at all. “Did you hit your head or something?”

“Let’s just assume at the moment that I’m not from here and I don’t know a thing about the culture, location, or anything of this place… almost like I'm from another…” He began to trail off as she took over for me: “A cutie mark is a symbol on your flanks that you receive once you find your ‘special talent’. Those girls back there don’t have theirs yet, and work as a group to try to find their talents. It’s honestly almost unheard of to see a full-grown pony without a cutie mark. I’ve only seen it once before, myself.”

“I see… Well, once we get to the library, I’d like to borrow any books that contain cultural information so that I can try to fit in better.”

“You sure are strange, Alphonse!” she said, chuckling throughout the sentence, giving him that knowing and hopeful look again. What’s with that look, anyways? He couldn’t help but chuckle and nod along with her.

Once they arrived at the library, Alphonse noted that it wasn’t really what he’d expected: It was a tree. Are there Night Elves here? The sight of it reminded Alphonse of the time he had to explain to one of his friends that restoration druids aren’t trees, even though they’d like to be a tree. His friend noted that he had no sense of sarcasm, before walking off. Alphonse just shrugged the comment off before getting back to planning his offensive: It was a mission where they had to carry a branch of Nordrassil over a lake and into contested territory to plant it; complications arose when a group of Tauren tried to stop them, claiming that it was their land. But, that’s a story for another time.

Once inside, she directed him to a stool while she walked over to make some tea. “Would you like some, Alphonse?” she asked, with a refreshing air of warmth.

“No thanks, I’m not very thirsty at the moment.” He didn’t know why he wasn’t thirsty – normally by now he’d be thirsty for blood, but now he was completely sated, as if he was feeding at this very moment.

Once the water was on the boiler, she came over to him and sat down.

“So, Alphonse; I know it may be a little rude to ask, but you’ve got me genuinely intrigued. Who are you?”

I’m the Death Knight. That’s what he wanted to say, anyways. “Well, I may as well formally introduce myself to start: I am one of the Twilight Vanquishers, Commander Alphonse; Death Knight and Mage in service of the Alliance. I serve as an active member of the Ashen Verdict, and my purpose is to protect the innocent from evil.” He completed his formal introduction with a regal bow.

She sat back and did a double take. “Death Knight? Alliance? Twilight Vanquisher?”

“Yes, well, you see, I’m not from around here. I’m not even originally a pony! At first I thought this was some sort of sick equinomorphic spell, but now I don’t even know what to think. I don’t even think I’m on Azeroth anymore…” He began to trail off before she interrupted him, her face bordering a mix between knowing excitement and concern. “Azeroth?!? Stop, please… can you start from the very beginning?”

And so he did; he explained everything about how he became a Death Knight, about his fellow mage and close friend Leonidas, about how he died and subsequently woke up here, and more. “The weirdest thing is that I’m not thirsty for blood right now. Normally I’d be holding myself back from trying to feed on your blood, but right now I feel as if I’m completely sated.”

She sat there for what felt like five to ten minutes, just looking at him, putting her thoughts together. He couldn’t help but awkwardly smile while he waited for her to do something.

“I’ll be right back, okay?” She got up and ran upstairs into her loft. She lives in a library? Being a mage, he was familiar with living in a library. Given the fact that he no longer required sleep, he could read until he needed to feed again.

She walked over to the ledge, looking straight at him: “I do have one question for you: You claim to be a mage, yet you aren’t a unicorn. How is that possible?” He didn’t know the answer to that question.

Without warning, she threw a ball at him. “Levitate this!” Without any thought, he used his magic to levitate it. The magic appeared to be streaming out of his eyes this time; usually it would stream from his rune blade or his hands, but never my eyes.

“Woah, Twilight. This is different; I can feel the magic channelling through my eyes!”

“That would make sense, you’re not a unicorn; you don’t have a horn to channel with. Hey, would you be willing to come out with me outside Ponyville and do a demonstration?”

A little confused, I inquired further “Demonstration of what, exactly?”

“Of your powers as a Mage and a Death Knight.” Alphonse nodded gingerly; he always enjoyed it when people liked his abilities, instead of fearing them. This was his chance to shine. “Of course! when do you want to head out?”

“Now, actually. We’ve got about two hours left of sunlight before today is over, and I don’t want to wait until tomorrow.”

She hopped down the stairs, as a purple dragon thing walked through the door. “Hey Twilight! Oh, you have a guest… Hi mister! My name’s Spike! What’s your name?” he asked, with a look of interest. “It's Alphonse, pleasure to meet y--”

Twilight chimed in as she was walking for the door. “Alphonse and I are just heading out so for about an hour or two, can you take the pot off of the boiler and clean-up for me? Thanks!” Not even giving the purple dragon thing called Spike a chance to respond, she looked at Alphonse and motioned for him to follow. And with that, they were out and on their way.

They continued walking until they had arrived in what appeared to be a sports field; Alphonse wasn’t sure which sport it was for, but it was big.

“So, Alphonse, show me what you can do!” she called, smiling cheerfully.

As he started powering up, he was interrupted by an ear-piercing howl coming from Ponyville; followed by the sound of many screaming citizens.

Twilight's eyes opened wide in horror “Sweet Celestia! Ponyville!”

The two ponies shared a shocked glance at each other before Alphonse broke into a full gallop towards Ponyville. "C'mon Twilight, Let's go!"