私の小さな馬：魔物の千年紀戦
My Little Pony: The Millennium Battle of the Demons
Chapter Two: A Rude Awakening
Dainishou: Burei na Kanki
だいにしょう：ぶれいなかんき
第二章：無礼な喚起

Preread by reflective vagrant, who deserves a digital high-five for his hard work!

The Mane Six and Spike sat in the lobby of the hospital silently, waiting for updates on the child’s condition. It had been fifteen minutes since the news that the boy had stabilized came, and relatively little had happened since. The seven sat there, and there was tense, awkward quiet in the room.

Everypony stared at the floor, all in deep worry for the creature that had just arrived in their world. Especially for Fluttershy, this was a difficult, emotional trial to face. She was biting at her hooves, almost in tears. Everypony had given her hope that everything would be okay, reassuring her that the child would be fine and the clouds of this ordeal would pass.

Fluttershy looked in the infirmary ward’s direction, a cold sweat dripping down her face. Despite her friends’ hopeful words, she still worried.

Suddenly the hospital doors slammed open, a ferocious voice behind it blowing a huge wave of wind into the hospital.

“Twilight Sparkle! Where art thou!?” a newcomer shouted, stamping into the room. Her eyes glowed a bright white, and a fury raged within.

“Princess Luna, you’re here!” Twilight said back, standing up. Everypony soon followed as they bowed to her.

“We hast heard of the letter sent, from our sister! Whence is it!?” Luna stomped a hoof against the floor, cracking it. Neither Twilight nor her friends had ever seen this blistering rage from Luna before.

“Princess, please calm yourse-”

“I’m sorry, but could you all please-” a nurse who trotted into the room started. Upon seeing Luna, she gaped and gasped. “N-Nightmare Moon!” She immediately dropped to a shivering bow, backing away towards the door she emerged from slowly. Luna deadpanned, releasing an angry sigh.

Finally calming enough to focus, she shook her head. She took momentary flight, lifting one hoof above her head. “We art nay longer that… monster everypony knew us as before! We art anon Luna, the princess of the night!”

After a few moments of quiet, she dropped back to the ground. A merely sad look appeared on her face when she saw that the nurse had escaped back into the back room of the hospital. She looked at the ground, frowning.

“Princess, are you okay?” Rainbow Dash questioned, flying toward the lunar sovereign and landing in front of her.

“Yes, We art… fine.” She let out another sigh, this time of sadness. She looked back to Rainbow Dash before returning to her normal, regal posture. Her voice lowered as she turned back to Twilight. “Whence is this child thou wrote of?”

“He’s in the medical ward. When we found him, he was horribly injured, so we checked him in here.”

“We must see this child, for this couldst be a situation dire,” Luna informed, a stern look on her face.

“You would have to ask the nurse.”

Twilight called out for the nurse, who came back with a sweat dripping down her face. She peered around the corner, slowly edging around the door frame and coming back into the room. She gave another bow before stating, “I apologize for my r-rude behavior earlier. I did not expect to see you, Princess Luna.”

“‘Tis all right. We shouldst not hast pronounc’d ourselves so brashly,” she apologized, her voice still sounding loud and forceful. The nurse once again began to retreat as the princess stepped towards her, more aggressively than she intended. “I request access to the child recently admitt’d.” She lowered the volume of her voice further, perhaps too much, as her voice became nearly a whisper.

The nurse took a moment to think about it: Whether to allow her to see the boy or not. In the end, she knew that Luna was her princess, and that it’d probably be best to allow her to do so.

“Yes.” She nodded her head.

“Thank thou.”

The nurse guided Luna into the hallway and then into the room the child inhabited. Upon laying eyes on him, a wave of the most intense fear washed over her, and in her mind’s eye, she had a recollection of horrible memories.

‘Just like him...’ she thought, a cold sweat dripping down her face.

The child was wrapped all over in bandages, from head to toe, with only a few slits in the red-stained tape feeding in fluids from an IV. Luna had never seen any of this technology before, but that was besides the point. What mattered to her was the simple existence of the boy.

Next to the child’s bed was a solitary table, where the red book lay.

“This cannot be possible,” she mouthed, shifting her eyes to the book. “He really is one of them…” It was now a one-hundred percent certainty in her eyes as to what he was, and it horrified her.

She slowly and carefully approached, eyeing him slowly. She extended a hoof and touched the child, the soggy bandages squeezing out blood. Another round of traumatized memories flashed, and she jerked her hoof back.

“Why hath another one of thou foul cretin appear’d in this world!?” she screamed, taking a step back. Her eyes turned to pinpricks, and her breathing staggered.

In a sudden moment, the child awoke, the loudness of Luna’s voice ringing in his ears. He could only barely make a faint moaning noise as his eyes opened. There were two small slits in the bandages for his eyes to see through, and he immediately clenched his eyes and tried to raise his hands to his face, but couldn’t.

Luna’s and the child’s eyes met, and a tense silence fell upon the room. Neither of them blinked, nor did they make a noise.

“Princess Luna, is everything all right?” Twilight shouted, galloping into the room.

“This creature hath nay purpose to be in this world! F’r all We know, this beast is merely a beshrew on Equestria!”

In an instant, Luna used her magic and lifted him off the bed, detaching him from all of his IV units. The fluids all leaked onto the floor as she threw him into the nearest wall. His bandages tore on fragments of the wall, which fell on top of him.

“Princess Luna, what are you doing? Stop!” Twilight shouted. It was all in vain, as she once again lifted him up. In Luna’s magical grasp, the child writhed and squirmed, trying to break out from it. At this point, the other five of Twilight’s friends arrived in the room.

“Nani, okotte iru no ka?” the child asked out, panicking.

(A/N: What’s going on?)

“Silence, thou impudent worm!” Luna screamed, slamming him back down into the ground. The child’s face wrappings fell off, revealing a huge scar running down his face, from his forehead, down the left of his nose and ending at his upper lip.

Fluttershy, eyebrows furled and teeth bared, was about to step up and say something, but the child grasped at the fallen debris. He lifted himself up holding his right hip and scrunching his face. He opened his eyes, looking at his opponent. The look of bitter disgust and hatred towards Luna in his eyes scared Fluttershy out of her maternal rage.

He scowled at her, baring his teeth at her. His body glowed faintly red, as did the book on the table.

“Ore to onore ga atta no ga nakatta no ga, kisama, boku ni fuzakete mo ii to omou no ka!?”

(A/N: I’ve never even seen you before, but you think you can just mess with me!?)

He leapt towards her, his body glowing bright red at this point. A deep fire burned in his eyes, and he knew that he would put this insignificant weakling in her place. To think that she would show such disrespect toward him!

The book also shimmered violently, to which Twilight noticed. Her attention was immediately brought back to the boy, though, as he landed and took one more stride towards Luna.

“Fuzakeru na!”

(A/N: Screw off!)

In an instant, a blinding yellow light surged around his left hand, coating it in electricity. He slammed his fist into Luna’s cheek, shocking her and coating her body in painful lightning. She flew back into the wall behind her, causing it, too, to crumble and fall on her. The child, suddenly going unconscious, collapsed to the ground, slamming his head against the hard marble.

All of the Mane Six, including Spike, gasped at this horrible display between the lunar princess and the human, and Fluttershy screamed, running out of the room; this violence was too much for her to handle.

“How ghastly!” Rarity whispered, taking a step back. “Fluttershy!” She ran out after her friend.

Pinkie Pie gasped loudly, also taking a step back. “Ooh, sparkly!” she said, looking to the table and beginning to walk over toward it.

Immediately Luna stood up, shaking off the pain of the blast. She became irate. Her eyes glowed brightly and whitely. She stamped the ground, cracking it. “Anon, can thou seeth wherefore this creature is a beast!? 'Tis a blight on ponykind!” She charged her magic again, surrounding him in her blue aura.

“Princess Luna, stop!” Twilight demanded, using her own mana to envelop Luna’s horn, cancelling her magic. Doing so proved to be taxing on her mana reserves after but a moment, making her feel like a limp slice of bread.. Rainbow Dash flew in front of Luna, between her and the boy, and Applejack ran beside her. She set her hooves hardly on the stone defensively.

“All of you, wherefore doth thou side with that... cretin?” Luna gaped, her eye twitching. She looked betrayed as she glanced over to the face-down boy.

“Princess, I don’t know what you’ve got against him, but you need to knock it off!” Rainbow Dash shouted, lowering herself to the ground, though not touching down. Applejack nodded in agreement.

“B-But… He’s a-”

“Yeah, he’s a ‘bad guy,’ or whatever. I’m sorry, but you should pipe down, princess,” Rainbow Dash cut off.

Inwardly, the child smiled, knowing that he was getting his way.

Luna’s mouth dropped to the floor, unable to comprehend what was happening. How could they support this monster? It was blasphemy!

“You dare to defy me!? We are your princess, and We say that he is unwelcome here!” Luna shouted, growling deeply and throatily. She stood back up, and her eyes both twitched. “You know not of what he is! We don’t comprehend why you defend him so!”

“You can’t just make that judgement like that! You have no reason to be so hostile towards him!” Twilight stood, feeling the pressure in the room starting to rise. It became more difficult to breathe suddenly.

“We have exactly the evidence We need to say so about him! We have-” Luna began, but was surprised when Twilight cut her off for the third time.

“Prove it,” she snarked.

“W-What?”

“Prove it. Show me what’s so bad about him.”

Did thou not just seeth what he did to us? He attack'd us!”

“You instigated, Princess. You had no excuse to hurt him first! I mean, I don’t think that it needed to escalate the way it did, but still, you started it.” Twilight knew that she had checkmated Luna, who look a step back.

“B-B-But…” Luna stammered, not believing that she had been outsmarted.

“Please, Princess Luna, stop arguing,” Rainbow Dash commented while rolling her eyes. “It’s pointless.”

Luna blanked, taking a deep breath. “Fine. Be that way. Stay in with thine stubbornness.” Luna looked away with an exaggerated “hmph.”

When he saw the look of defeat on his opponent’s face, the child had to refrain from laughing. He could tell that she had been trumped in their little argument, and it joyed him so.

Carefully making sure the child did not object, Twilight lifted the boy up from the ground and put him back on the bed. He sported a new bruise on his forehead, but it didn’t look too bad.

“Has everything settled out in there, darlings?” Rarity asked from outside the door, peeking her head in. She jerked her head back when she saw how destroyed the room was.

“Oh, my! What happened?” she asked out, walking in. Fluttershy followed behind her, hiding meekly.

Meanwhile, Twilight was reconnecting the boy to his IVs and changed some of his bandages. She made sure that everything was tight enough around him, though she did loosen slightly if he groaned.

“There was a bit of a… mishap in here that we needed to take a moment to sort out, but everything’s okay now. Right, Princess Luna?” Twilight asked, gazing over to Luna.

All she gave was a cold glare. “We shalt see.” She had no regret on her face.

“...I’ll take that as a ‘maybe.’ Anyways, yes, everything is fine. We’ve settled everything for now.”

Both Fluttershy and Rarity gave sighs of relief. At the same time, a nurse trotted back in whose mouth dropped when she saw the damage. She blinked a couple of times before asking, “What happened here?” Her eyes gazed to Luna, and she screamed, “Nightmare Moon!” before running back out. Luna growled loudly, gritting her fangs.

“P-Princess Luna, p-please, c-c-calm down…” Fluttershy mumbled, then looked away shyly as Luna gave her attention.

Luna took a deep breath, trying to cool her head after that incident. It was just… all so much for her to hold in. Disbelief, really.

“Very well. We apologise f’r our rash portance. We had too much emotion to control ourselves.”

“...It’s o-okay, Princess,” Fluttershy responded slightly despondently, looking lowly at the floor. “C-Can we please move on…” She shied away slightly. “If that’s okay with you.”

Before Luna could react, the child gave a garbled moan from his bed, attracting everypony’s attention. Luna took a few step back, turning her head away, so as not to make eye contact. Fluttershy walked up to his right side, looking anxiously at him.

He opened his eyes, and for a moment, the two’s eyes locked together. Her eyes quickly turned to those of kindness, giving a small sense of security to the child. She stroked the top of his bandage-covered head.

“Are you okay?” she softly asked, picking his head up slightly from the bed.

“Kimi ga wakarenain da yo.”

(A/N: I can’t understand you, you know.)

“Fluttershy, I don’t think that he knows what we’re saying to him. I wonder how we can make him…” Twilight trailed, thinking of the spells that she knew.

A little lightbulb went off in her head as she remembered an old spell that she learned while still in Canterlot.

“Fluttershy, can you please put him down? I have an idea.”

Fluttershy hesitated, glancing between the boy and Twilight. She slightly tightened her grip on him for a moment, but ultimately set him down a moment later and stepped back. Twilight’s horn began to charge up; she strained for magical energy as her horn glowed magnificently. She began to feel weary from the spell’s extreme requirements, but she continued nevertheless.

In an instant, she lowered her head down to the child’s, releasing her massive blast of light-red energy into his head. It funneled in through his nose and ears, and for a moment, his eyes lit up like a star as the knowledge of the Equestrian language filled his mind.

The instant the spell wore off, the child went unconscious. Fluttershy gasped, immediately rushing to his side, abruptly knocking Twilight, who was recovering, off her hooves.

“Oh, my goodness! Are you okay?” she cried, lifting his head up immediately.

“Fluttershy…” Twilight gasped a few times, catching her breath. “The spell made him go unconscious for a moment. He’s fine; trust me,” Twilight assured, standing back up and putting a hoof on Fluttershy’s shoulder. Fluttershy sighed gratefully, and when she looked at Twilight expectantly, Twilight added, “It’ll only take him a few moments for his brain to work out all of the information. After all, he does seem to be sentient and smart enough to handle it.”

“Oh, thank goodness,” she squeezed out, putting her hoof on her chest.

“Un… Hnngh…”

Twilight stood back up onto her hooves, a little less shakily, looking over to the child. For a split second, his body had a magical glow, almost aethereal, as he opened his eyes up.

“F-Fuu…” he attempted to say, failing. “Fnn…” He had a hard time making sounds, as if his voice box was ejected from his throat. “Nuuf…”

“Uh, he-llo?” Twilight slowly asked, trying to make sure that he could get what she was saying. “Can you understand me?” She pronounced every syllable with extra care and annunciation.

“Ee… H-H… Hi…?” he pronounced, leaving his mouth hanging wide open as he crooked his neck. “Kyuu ni wak-stand you?” he shifted, blinking rapidly. “Suddenl...ly I can under-er-stand-d...you?”

“You understand us? That’s wonderful news! The spell worked!” Twilight exclaimed, ecstatic that her spell worked after all. Suddenly, a sneer could be heard from behind them as Luna stomped out of the room.

“You…” the child loudly growled, a poison traveling on his voice. It was clear that his accent hadn’t yet left him.

Luna shot the poison right back with her eyes. “Thou are not one to speaketh to Us in such a rude manner, thy cretin.” A darkness unlike any depths of the Earth and Tartarus lined her voice, barely noticeable, but strong enough to intimidate him.

“You l-littl-le-”

“Okay, let’s not start again, please.”

Luna didn’t give any reply as she exited the room, a small, dark aura surrounding her.

The child’s eyes were darting uneasily back and forth from his main opponent to the six other potential irritations in the room, and his stance shifted to accommodate the drop in pressure from the lunar princess leaving. “Uh… So… Whe-wher-re am I?”

“You’re in a hospital.”

“I do not know what th-that is,” he remarked, getting an eyebrow raise from Twilight and Rainbow Dash.

“Really?” Twilight retorted, throwing him an odd look.

"Did I not just tell-ll you that I do not know?” he asked irritably. He couldn’t roll his eyes harder, and with a scoff, he added, “You ar-re pr-retty dumb, ar-ren’t you?”

“Huh?” Twilight asked, with jaw-slacking dumbfoundedness on her face.

“I th-think it is quite id-diotic that you do not under-rstand what I said.”

“B-But-”

“Do not,” he snapped, heat rising in his head, “make me r-repeat mysel-lf.”

“Okay, okay! Cool it!” Rainbow Dash commanded. The child’s eyes rolled like marbles.

‘Like she could do anything to me anyway,’ he thought, taking no credence to the threat.

Suddenly, the child realized an odd sense around him, barely even noticeable, like some sort of primitive sixth sense in the back of his mind, but brushed it off with a quick shake of the head, like the dislodging of a fly.

Applejack felt the heat in the room escalating, especially around the child, like a volcano waiting to erupt violently. “Alright. Everypony, mosey on down now—there’s no need t’ get up n’ antsy about this, now is there? We’re all tryin’ t’ figure out what’s goin’ on ‘ere, so why don’t we all take a breather?”

Twilight turned her head towards Applejack, with the occasional shift in her eyes back and forth from the child. “That… That’s probably a good idea, Applejack.”

Fluttershy poked her head out from behind Rarity, and Rainbow Dash came down to the floor as Twilight took a small step back. The child, however, only eased up from his fighting stance. His face still seemed to show no sign of respect or real trust.

Silence filled the air for an uneasy moment. Applejack looked around at the child and everypony in the room. “There’s probably a heap ‘f questions ya need answered, but maybe we should start with introductions, now that you’re awake n’ all.

The child’s eyes became a bit uncertain for a moment, but kept their distrust.

After a few moments, Applejack broke the silence. “Here, let me start. My name’s Applejack, and I work at Sweet Apple Acres on the edge ‘f town. Can I ask for yer name, hun?”’

His answer came in the form of darting of his eyes between them. He motioned back into a fighting stance.

“Okay, then...” Twilight said as she saw this. “I guess that’s a pass. My name is Twilight Sparkle, and I’m the librarian, as well as Princess Celestia’s personal protege. Can we ask for your name now?”

He blinked rapidly for a few seconds as his face fell into a state of disbelief. This mare being the underling of a princess? He couldn't take her seriously.

He found himself getting frustrated at the repeated name-asking, too. His face showed it, too, as his glare to her increased.

Before he could speak his mind, though, Rainbow Dash stepped in. “Twilight, how about we all tell him our names first?”

The child snorted loudly, causing them both to shift their views to him.

“What?” Twilight asked.

“She,” he started, pointing to Rainbow Dash arrogantly, “is smarter than you,” he finished, pointing at Twilight.

“Hey!” Rainbow Dash shouted.

A vein throbbed in Twilight’s head, nearly bursting, as the child finished his interruption.

“Why, I never…” She had to resist completely freaking out on him with information on everything she’d accomplished—it wasn’t the occasion.

“Okay, that's not cool! You’re just a-”

“Rainbow Dash, please, just… don’t, please,” Twilight stepped up, taking the deepest breath her lungs would offer. “I think that I should leave for now and come back later, or tomorrow even. This entire time, it’s just been a conflict between me and him, and I think it’s because of the stress that he has right now from his injuries.”

She turned toward the boy. “I’m sorry for all the stress you have been put through until now, and for any that I might’ve added.”

The boy couldn’t help but revert to a slightly more calm state when she said that, but it sounded like pandering at that point. He had appreciation for the gesture itself, but what he didn’t like was that she was trying to appeal at his emotions.

“I’ll come back tomorrow, and maybe we can just start fresh. Is that okay?”

“Okay, f-fine.”

She then took her leave, and the room felt awkward, like those moments where someone else tries to hug you and you have absolutely no clue what to do, so you just sit there and take it.

“...Would you like to be by yourself, darling?” Rarity asked, to break the galactic tension that was utterly crushing the child inside.

“...F-For now, y-yes.”

Rarity left the room as well, and the rest of them got the notion that he was seeking solitary comfort and trotted out after her, except for Fluttershy. He raised his brow as she walked up to him with a smile.

“Can I hel-lp you?”

“If it makes you feel any better, sweetheart, I want you to know that my thoughts are with you to get better as soon as possible,” she softly said, kissing him on the forehead with love.

“Ah… Uh…” he mumbled, not understanding what was going on, or what she was talking about. He felt fairly okay, with a few places that ached here and there. He didn’t question it, though, as she was showing a great show of respect to him. He grinned as she nuzzled against him.

She pulled her head back, and looking into his eyes, said, “My name’s Fluttershy. What’s yours?”

He gave her an empty stare, his answer to a question he didn’t know how to respond to. His mouth hung open, as he tried to think of something to put in its place.

“My name… My name is…" He took a good few seconds to think, before the golden idea popped into his head. "Gash."

The lie slid right past her. She looked at him for a moment, unsure what to think about that name. “Gash… that’s a… nice name.”

“Th-Thanks.” She smiled at him.

“Well, I think that it’s time for me to go back home for today, so I’ll come back and visit tomorrow, okay?”

“Sure, pl-lease do.”

“Good-bye!”

She walked out of the room happily, and he felt a strong feeling inside his heart that made him feel really good.

With these feelings in tow, he closed his eyes and fell asleep, looking forward to their meeting the next day.

Author's Note

This takes place after Discord gets turned back into stone in Return of Harmony, but before the events of Luna Eclipsed, so that's why she's talking using old English/Equestrian.

The reason that "Gash" stutters so much is that because in the Japanese language various sounds, such as "th" or "we," don't exist, so he has to get used to his tongue doing things it hasn't before. Also, in Japanese, there are no English "l" or "r" sounds on their own. The Japanese "r" is like a combination of the English "l" and "r," so he also has to learn how to make those sounds properly.

I have included Japanese in the heading of this chapter because I wanted to pay homage to the story of Konjiki no Gash Bell (Zatch Bell!), the story that influenced this one.

私の小さな子馬：魔物の千年紀戦: Literally "My Little Pony: The Demon's Millennium Battle
Burei na: Rude
Kanki: Awakening, evocation, arousal

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