Chapters The cold autumn time wind was what woke Sokhor from his sleep, the cold air nipping at his body through the cracks in the wooden walls and the door frame leading to the outside. It was a good thing that Sokhor was woken up as he had a lot of travelling to do and a lot to complete today.
Sokhor stood up from his bed that was made of straw and animal furs, he stretched out his back and got a satisfying popping sound, a quick glance out of the window told him that it was early morning so he wouldn't have to rush to get to the monastery. He was going to take some time to admire his village before he was sent away to complete his challenges, the grand master believed that he was ready to take his trial and put all that he had learnt about his chosen paths into proper use.
Each zebra that is chosen by the grand master has to pick two paths that will shape them and change them until they are ready to complete their chosen trial. The paths that can be chosen by a zebra are all challenging for both the body and the mind, but each one focuses on a different aspect of survival:
The path of the hunter is chosen by the brave adventurer types or by those who have felt the callings of the wild. It teaches zebra to learn how to track and kill the various animals that walk the lands so they could be made into coats, extra food for the villagers and other useful essentials.
The path of the artist teaches a zebra the ways of creating and are responsible for making and designing all tools for the zebra tribes as well as constructed the building that a tribe would need. Only the gifted and smart zebra are accepted into this way of life.
The path of the diplomat teaches a zebra about the other races such as the ponies and griffins that share this world with the zebras, it shows them all of the corners of the world. It also teaches them that violence isn't the only way to win a fight and a sharp tongue to as dangerous as a sharp sword or spear.
The final path is the path of the warrior, it is one that isn't pursued by many as it is requires a zebra to faces that biggest and the most dangerous monsters that are known, it is also their responsibility to protect the villages from any dangers that may lurk in the shadows of their physical world and if necessary, the worlds of dreams. If any danger presences itself to the zebra race, it is their duty to dive in without any fear for their own moral self.
Sokhor wasn't afraid of these monsters and demons, so the grand master of the monastery allowed him to take the path of the warrior and the path of the diplomat, if he was to succeed in his trials he would become a envoy for the grand council, furthermore the grand master promised him a place by his side should he complete the trials of a warrior and it had become Sokhor's highest priority to train himself both physically and mentally to prove to the grand master that his faith in him wasn't misplaced. He step out into the cold autumn air, the wind blowing at his mane and sending chills down his body.
Sokhor's village was lucky enough to be inside the protective walls of the mountainside monastery, so everyone was happily walking around without fear of a beast eating them, the houses and workspaces were all made of logs or scrap wood mixed with mud that didn't provide much protection but kept the rain and snow out. It was good enough for the tribe so it was good enough for Sokhor, children ran around chasing each other playfully, it made him happy to see children running around without fear of the many monsters getting them. One of the many children spotted Sokhor and muttered a farewell to his friends so he could rush over to him.
The child reached Sokhor and they both gave each other a nuzzle, “Hello little brother, how is the day treating you?” Sokhor asked the child, picking him up and balancing him of his foreleg so he could carefully jump onto his back.
His brother shared the same look as Sokhor, grey with black strips all over his body, his black hair was tied back into a single knot that when over his shoulder, the only difference was his mark on his flank, while Sokhor's was of seven points joining into a squiggly swirl, Acuri's was of a line navigating between crossed out dots.
“I'm fine big brother, are your ready to leave for your big trial?” the younger zebra asked, he knew the importance of Sokhor's trials but was going to miss him a lot, as trials can last a few years and can change a zebra into something that he or she wasn't before.
“Yes, young Acuri, I don't know the details yet but the trial is going to be a long and harsh task to complete,” Sokhor replied to his younger brother, “But have no fear, you know that I'll be perfectly safe with the gods at my side,” he added after.
“I know, but I going to miss you so much, the village won't be the same without you here,” Acuri stated with sadness in his voice, Sokhor was going to miss his little brother as he was the only family he had left and since their parents were killed they had grown close to each other. Sokhor knew that Acuri was safe in the monastery and that he would grow up into a brave hunter when the time is right.
“Don't worry little brother, I'll be back before you know it,” Sokhor reassured, he was already walking towards the monastery but decided to take the long way around so he could take one last look at his village before he set off. The village was quite prosperous due to its location, many hunter returned from the woodlands with good quality furs and meats while fishmongers cached and salted their prizes for the long winters where hunters found it difficult to track and hunt animals. Farmers tended their gardens in hopes that they will grow a large produce and get enough to feed their family's for the upcoming year.
The monastery itself was a extremely old building made of hardened stone bricks, it was one of the only structures that Sokhor had ever seen that wasn't made of wood and mud, it was inside the monastery that hundreds of zebra lived and work, each one was dedicated to their chosen paths and some even lived their whole life inside that stone castle so they can better appreciate the paths they had chosen to live by. Outside the massive gates were several zebra in red plated armour with large swords by their sides to fend off any threats that may attack the monastery or the village, these were the ones that were chosen to take the path of the warrior and proved to be the hardened warrior the tribe needed to take up arms to defend the weaker and younger members.
The guards looked at Sokhor closely, halting him by the gate and preventing him access to the monastery, Acuri jumped off his back and landed skilfully on his hooves while Sokhor showed the guards his paperwork and muttered a few pass words.
“Brother, I got to go to school now,” Acuri informed his older brother, a sad smile formed on his lips as he realised that this is going to be his final goodbye to Sokhor.
“I guess this is goodbye for a while then little brother,” Sokhor knelt down and gave his brother a large hug, they stayed like that for a few moments until Acuri broke the silence.
“I'll pray for you every day Sokhor, please watch yourself out their and come home in one piece,” Acuri whimpered, his eyes began watering slightly as he held his brother in his hooves.
“I will Acuri, good luck on your own trials when you get them, focus on them, not me... and remember to act with pride and honour when the time comes for you to prove yourself,” Sokhor advised his little brother as he broke the hug, his little brother nodded his head and Sokhor ruffled his brother's mane.
Sokhor waved his hoof as Acuri faded around the side of a building and back down into the village, he gave a loud sigh and walked in the opposite direction to his brother and entered the monastery to get his trial.
The interior of the monastery was a peaceful environment where many zebra's meditated silently or trained against many different test dummies in separate rooms, students walked around talking with their peers or teachers in quiet voices so they do not disturb the harmony of the rooms. The floors were all wooden but were all smoothed out and well maintained, they felt nice compared to the rocky paths and muddy roads that his hooves had walked on for most of his life, the air around him was warm due to the many candles that were used to light up the rooms or to provide a relaxing scent for meditation and studying.
Sokhor was quick to find his teacher walking though the halls of the building, his teacher wordlessly walked into a empty room and beckon him to follow.
“Sokhor, are your ready for your trial?” Sokhor's teacher asked, he nodded his head in response, “Very well, your equipment has already been decided and packed, ready for you in the armoury, but now I will explain some of the details of your mission so hold all questions until the end,” the teacher walked over to a table and pull out a map from his saddlebag, “Your trial takes you to the land of Equestria, where your skill as a warrior and a diplomat must be used to complete the task, the task is simple, find a zebra that was exiled from the community and bring her back here alive, she poses a threat to you but shouldn't be hostile, so be weary around her, she is held up in a town called Ponyville right around here,” He pointed his hoof to the map, sure enough there was a small point labelled Ponyville, “Take the map with you, it will serve as a valuable asset on your travels, however, it could take a long time for you to find her so you will have to make some friends of the ponies that live in Ponyville, they won't fight you or try to hurt you but they use lots of trickery in almost every aspect of their lives so stay alert, for they live very differently to us zebras...”
Sokhor's teacher continued to explains the basics of the pony way of life and the different types of ponies that he would encounter, however zebra's knowledge on ponies was very limited and left him with many questions that couldn't be answered. After all of his questions were asked, his teacher lead him over to the armour to get his equipment.
“Take a moment to look at your equipment Sokhor, you will find in your saddlebags some: healing potions, preserved food that should last you a few weeks in the wild, flasks of water, matches for lighting fires, a sharp knife for cutting up dead animals if you come across any and finally some other potions with various effects that are labelled on the bottles, the items you requested are inside as well,” the teacher walked over to a mannequin with a set of light adventurers armour with a small, rolled up sleeping bag on its back, it had many straps and padding scattered around to protect the user but the leather like material wasn't the strongest protection against attacks so he'd still have to use speed and discipline to win any fights he many get into, “This is your recommended armour for the journey, its light, doesn't constrict movement and supports a hood to conceal your head from the sun, the armour itself with soften the blows of any hooves but don't rely on it to save you from multiple strikes or any weapons,” the teacher moved on the a table with a single sword on a stand resting on it, “This is your weapon Sokhor, a gift from the grand master's armoury, a curved zebra sword, its yours to keep,” the sword itself was a beautiful creation, the blade was long and extremely sharp, it appeared to be made of a metal that Sokhor had never seen before, the handle has gems encrusted into the top were blade meets mouth-guard and the handle itself was covered by expensive leather, “Cast your mind back to training Sokhor, for I told you that a blade could be wielded in mouth or attached to a piece of forehoof armour if the zebra can stand on its hind legs like you can,” his teacher reminded him, tapping the piece of armour that rested on the mannequin's forehoof.
Getting on the armour was simple and it fitted him perfectly, his teacher was correct when he said the armour doesn't constrict movement as it felt like a cloud was engulfing his body. Even when he had the saddlebags by his sides and the sleeping bag on his back it was still light, not slowing him down much at all, “You are now ready my student, I have taught you everything I know and provided you with the best equipment I can, now it only a matter of promising to the gods that you will see this task completed to your dying breath,” His teacher walked out of the room followed by Sokhor to the heart of the monastery.
The heart of the monastery was a large, open space were many statues of different zebra gods where displayed, the sky was clearly seen through the roofless room. The space was mostly empty except for several hooded zebra priests that surrounded a large statue that represented one of the zebra gods, inside the circle of priests waited the grand master himself.
“Approach, young Sokhor...” Commanded the grand master, Sokhor did as instructed and walked towards the group, as he did so the circle opened up to allow him to get close to the statue and the grand master, “You have been given your trial and have been provided all that is required to complete it, are you ready to begin, for once you start, you can't come back until it is done,” the grand master urged.
“I'm ready grand master,” Sokhor replied, giving a bow of his head to the statue.
“Then let us begin...” the grand master closed his eyes and so did Sokhor, the hooded zebras began to chant something that Sokhor couldn't understand nor did he want to for his mind was fully focus on the grand master's words.
Do you, Sokhor, swear to the gods themselves that the trial assigned to you will
be completed with the use of sanctified and righteous methods?
I do.
Do you declare yourself as a faithful and justified servant to the gods and will defend
their honour to your dying breath and beyond?
I do.
If presented with a threat to the nation or yourself, do you promise to do
everything in your power to remove that problem, even if the cost is your own life?
I do.
If faced with an enemy, do you swear to fight with the courage and honour
that is expected of you, and to never risk your fellow brothers and sisters safety
for your own selfish reason, be on the battlefield or on the diplomacy table?
I swear to shield my brothers and sisters from my selfish, mortal thoughts and actions
or my soul will be set alight to rekindle the sun should I break this oath. Furthermore
I will protect the secrets of the zebra race from any that mat use the knowledge against
our people.
The cloaked zebra's each stopped the chanting and Sokhor opened his eyes to look at the grand master, he smiled at him and reached over to the statue to pick up some glowing dust. A cloaked priest removed her necklace and put it around Sokhor's neck, “Keep this on – always, to guide you in times of difficultly brave adventurer,” she said, her voice was calming and youthful, the necklace hung loosely around his neck but it felt like it lit a fire in his chest that inspired him to complete his task.
Sokhor turned back to the grand master and nodded his head, “The gods have bless you brave adventurer,” He promised, he then blew the dust from the statue into Sokhor's face, he could feel it burning away at his skin but it didn't hurt, he felt his eyes become heavy and he became dizzy as he breathed in the dust particles. The priests held him as he lost control of his body and he could feel them carrying him somewhere, all the while chanting something in a old zebra tongue that Sokhor didn't know, but it help his body to relax and fully fade from consciousness.
He awoke shortly after outside of the monastery's walls in the wilderness, all of his equipment rested against his body. Countless dangers waited for him between here and his destination, he had days of travelling before he would get to Ponyville and most of that time would be spent walking or foraging for food and drink. Yet he didn't fear any of the monsters and accepted the challenge and a chance to show off his skills. He looked up at the sky, his teacher told him that the clouds always move towards Equestria, with his direction in front of him, he place the first of many hooves in front of himself and walked towards his goal. Off in the distance, he heard a sound he was sure to hear a lot more, a growl.
Sokhor's tired eyes finally laid onto the town of Ponyville, he had lost track of time but a least three weeks had past since he had entered civilisation, but he knew that this wasn't going to be the same world as he once knew, he only knew of two zebras in Ponyville, himself and his target. The rest of the them would be ponies, they were a race of many achievement and talents, they used all of these gifts to create a better society for themselves and that gave them great power over the land. When someone would mention ponies in his tribe, he would always think of the two sisters, the two unique ponies that have the power to move the sun and moon at their will, once the other races despised the two sister, they believed that they couldn't be trusted with such power and responsibility, however over time the races came to adjust to the two sisters, accepting them and placed some trust in them to forever raise the sun and moon.
Sokhor saw in the distance, a few ponies flying through the sky. His teacher told him that this was a pegasus pony, it had the gift of flight and could effect weather patterns to make it whatever the pegasus wanted it to be. What kind of advantage that would give the pony, the ability of flight would make travelling much easier and safer, though not completely safe, some of the monsters from his land had wings.
Another thing his teacher told him was that the pony land was a lot more safer than the zebra lands, almost no monsters lived their besides a few secluded places far away from where ponies built their settlements. The only thing he had to worry about was the ponies themselves, he had heard the stories of Nightmare Moon and King Sombra when his was a child, it made him both terrified and curious to learn about the ponies.
Sokhor tried to get a few of the pegasi attention by waving his hoof in the air, none of them stopped or landed near him and he thought a few of them were ignoring him on purpose, none of them had paused to look at him, but a few turned their heads to look when they thought he couldn't see them.
He didn't want to walk around by himself into Ponyville, he had no idea how pony would act around him, if they were ignoring him outside of the town then it could only get worse inside the town. He contemplated finding somewhere to camp for the night, perhaps the ponies would be more talkative in the morning, but he thoughts were interrupted by the sound of hooves hitting the ground behind him, sure enough, a pegasus had landed behind him and looked at him cautiously. She had a greyish blue coat and a pretty bow in her bluish hair.
“Hi...” The pegasus greeted shyly, Sokhor lowered his hood to look at her better, she was very different to what zebra's look like, she was really brightly coloured, he couldn't tell if she used some sort of dye to get that variety of colour.
“Hello... pegasus,” Sokhor replied with a bow, he didn't know how ponies acted around each other, he didn't know anything about ponies at all, perhaps he should ask her about it.
“Err... your not from around here, are you?” she eyed his weapons and armour cautiously, he knew that ponies were mostly peaceful creatures, so she had a reason to be scared by his deadly sword, as if he attacked her, she wouldn’t be able to defend herself.
“I have walked from the zebra lands, to complete my trials that I have been set,” Sokhor said to the pony, he had no idea if she would understand where he meant by 'zebra lands', but the shocked look on her face was enough for him to assume she did.
“Really? You walked that far?!” the pony asked, she was really surprised by how far he had walked, zebra lands were far, far away from Equestria. “You must be exhausted. Please, let me show you around the town, its the least I can do to show you some pony hospitality,” she offered, Sokhor wasn't expecting kindness from the first pony he had met.
“That is very kind of you, however I have nothing to offer you and I do not want to interrupted your day,” Sokhor began to walk past the pegasus, but she stopped him gently with her hoof, she quickly moved her hoof back to her side afterwards.
“It would be my pleasure to show you around, and I had nothing else to do today anyway,” the pony insisted, he knew to watch out for ponies trickery and deception, but she seamed rather genuine to him.
“Very well, lead the way...” Sokhor indicated towards the town, the pegasus gladly took the lead but slowed her walking so the two could walk side by side. “So... are you going to tell me the real reason you're helping me?”
“What do you mean?” the pony responded with a confused look, Sokhor looked at her for a while and she cracked, “Well... lets just say it helps to have a pony with you if you're a abnormal species that;s walking into town, the ponies will act more calmly around you, and you need the ponies acting calm around you, with all that gear and... weapons on you... it could be quite frightening,” the pony explained.
“May I have the honour to learn your name?” Sokhor asked, lowering his head as a sigh of respect. It was a zebra custom to bow heads when they learn each others names.
“My friends call me Flitter,” she looked at him questionably as he raised his head, he just guessed that the two separate species had different traditions, he'd have to learn the pony tradition as soon as he could if he wanted to fit in better.
“Thank you Flitter for helping me, my name is Sokhor,” Sokhor thanked, Flitter smiled at him as a response, he never really seen many things smile, the zebra race were a serious bunch, whether it was the constant monster attacks or occasionally going to bed with a empty stomach during the cold winter nights, Sokhor guessed that most zebra's didn't have the time to pursue the things they loved and enjoyed, that meant they didn't have much else to smile about.
The two were only into the outskirts of the town and Sokhor was already amazed by pony craftsmanship, unlike the zebra houses, their houses were made of good quality wood and other materials that he didn't recognise. The ponies had also constructed a way of crossing the river that ran close to the town, Flitter called it a bridge and it was made of strong stone that he hesitated to cross over at first, but she had reassured him that it was completely safe. Running his eyes up the river revealed a massive construction, Flitter explained to him that it was called a Dam and generated the town's electricity, he had no idea what any of that meant, but he was sure it was something to do with pony trickery.
When they had reach the town square, Sokhor was overwhelmed by the town, it was all too much, this town was the most populated place he had ever been to and the town hall was the largest building he had ever seen (Except the monastery). He was also getting a lot of ponies staring at him, some where shying away from him while others just watched curiously, he had quite the crowd gathering behind him. He had wanted to raise his hood up a few times to hopefully lose the attention of the ponies, but Flitter stopped him timidly each time, saying it would only make it worse.
Flitter had decided to cut the tour short when they got to the market place, she had estimated that around twenty ponies were following them, plus a few that pretended not to be following them as they would scatter away or quickly fake a conversation between each other. The market place was one of the most busiest places in Ponyville and she quickly regretted taking him here, but she had promised to show him around the town so she wanted to show him all of the popular places, she was hoping that they would have gotten use to seeing a zebra since the last time one was here.
“What is this place for? Why are this ponies all showing off they belongings?” Sokhor looked around, he noticed that a few were passing shiny, circular pieces of metal for the items on the stall.
“Do zebra's not have markets?” Flitter asked, Sokhor shock his head. “Well... when a pony makes something, they can sell it here for money, the pony that wants it can pay money they earn for the things they want.” she explained, Sokhor still looked puzzled. “Ok, I be able to show you instead,”
Flitter looked around the market for a pony that she knew would be able to sell her something without being overly scared by Sokhor. She spotted Roseluck by her stood, waiting around for some ponies to visit her, she should be alright with him.
Flitter walked over to Rose's stand, “Hi Rose, how's it going?” she asked, the mare at the stand looked pleasantly surprised by Flitter's visit. Sokhor believed she was a earth pony, as she didn't have a pair of wings or what he assumed was meant to be a horn, he had seen a few of the other ponies with some sort of bone sticking out of their foreheads. At first he thought it was some sort of trophy, a few zebras would make necklaces or other charms out of the bones of the monsters they have fought and won against, and he thought that the ponies could do something similar, until he remembered that ponies were all peaceful creatures.
“No bad, bit slower today, but its all going smoothly,” Rose replied with a smile, when she realised that Flitter wasn't alone, her smile faded and at the sight of his sharp blade a strong sense of fear grew inside her, but she did her best to keep her cool and stayed professional.
“Err... Rose, this is... Sokhor... Sokhor this is Roseluck,” Flitter introduced them, she had a little trouble getting her tongue to pronounce his name correctly, but she got it right without too much difficultly.
“Pleasure to meet you Roseluck,” Sokhor, once again, bowed his head to her slightly, Rose calmed down a bit after being introduced to him, if Flitter trusted him then she could to.
“Nice to meet you to,” she said, leaning over the counter slightly, “I never met a zebra before, its very exotic, have you travelled far?”
“Around three weeks of brisk walking through swamps and marshes, over steep hill and crossing vast plains. Nothing special,” Sokhor explained, both mares looked shocked, but this was a normal distance for a trial to be set, especially if you are taking the path of the warrior, the further away, the less likely you are going to get help from a fellow zebra.
“Really, all that way? Do you have a camp nearby or some friends with you?” Rose asked, for anything to walk that far was impressive, but if he had travelled through all that alone would be amazingly brave and a bit foolish as well.
“No, all I had brought with me is on my back and no partners or companions accompanied me on my journey,” Sokhor confirmed, both of their jaws dropped further. He had spend his whole life training for long distance travel so he was never surprised by the extremely long distance travel the adventurers went, but to a pony it was a long distance since they never had to leave Equestria.
Rose looked him over again, he did have a muscular build to him, but it looked like he was built for speed and agility rather than strength. She didn't know anything about the zebras, but she knew they weren't as civilised as ponies were, Sokhor seemed civilised enough to her expect for the weapons and armour he paraded around. She couldn't help herself from starting to like the zebra, she had always like mystery and Sokhor was bound to be a bucket full of surprises.
“Well, I'm assuming you will be sticking around for a while then, what are you planning on doing while you're in Ponyville?” Rose asked, shuffling closer to Sokhor.
He paused for a moment, thinking of what he could possibly do, “Well... If I'm truthful, I have no idea, for a start I should try and learn as much as I can about ponies,” Sokhor theorised, Rose nodded her head.
“Well... if you need any... help, with any of that, you let me know and -” Rose began with a bit more lust in her voice that she had planned, Flitter quickly silenced her by hitting her on the shoulder gently. She was starting to regret her idea of talking to Rose now, she knew that Rose would be friendly and that's why she picked her, she should have known that she might try and get too friendly with him.
“Wow, look at the time, I think we should get a move on Sokhor, I still have lots to show you,” Flitter started to push him away gently, he looked confused with her sudden mood change, but she needed to get him away from Rose before she could talk him into anything.
“Actually Sokhor, can you please wait over their for a minute, I got to have a quick talk with Rose about something urgent,” Flitter pointed over to a well maintained tree, he nodded sharply and walked over to the tree.
Rose gave a small tutting sound, “Should of known you would have already nabbed him, bet you jumped him before he even got to the town,” she sneered, she was watching Sokhor by the tree, he was looking at a nest of birds as the mother bird fed her chicks. “You know that nearly any mare that's single is going be after him,”
“I know... I knew that when I first saw him, but I hoping his weapon might scare them away,” Flitter replied.
“He's got to take all that off at some point, pretty sure his just making for good eye candy at this point,” Rose looked away from him and began scanning over the other market stalls, a few mares were occasional looking over to him, but some looked more frightened by him rather than attracted to him.
“Guess I should warn him about that...” Flitter gave a loud sigh, Rose nodded her head in agreement, “I should get back to him, before anypony tries to verbally molest him,” she said jokingly.
“Good idea, I better start packing up the stand anyway,” Rose looked up to the large clock by the marketplace, it would be dark very soon and she would prefer to get home before then. “Oh, send him my way if he needs any work, I'm sure I could find a use for him,”
“Alright, see you around,” Flitter waved her hoof and quickly walked back to Sokhor, who was still content about watching the birds.
“Hey... sorry about that, Rose can be a bit too social sometimes,” Flitter said, Sokhor didn't turn to look at her, but stayed fixated on the birds.
“Why do you persist on helping me?” he asked, never turning to look at her but stay still like a statue, Flitter saw he had his eyes closed as well.
She pondered the question for a bit in her mind. She didn't know why she was helping him, she was floating around lazily and enjoying the afternoon sunlight, she spotted a hooded pony off in the distance and flew over to get a closer look. When she saw that it was a zebra and that he was looking back at her, curiosity drove her to land and talk to him.
“Curiosity I guess, why a zebra would walk all that way to get to Ponyville, must be pretty important stuff,” Flitter replied, Sokhor opened his eyes and turned to her, and smiled.
“Very well then, I hope I will be able to sate your curiosity soon, but not now,” Sokhor replied, “Shall we get moving?”
Flitter smiled back and began walking with him following beside her, “Well... I guess I'll take you to my house, you look like you could use a good rest,”
Sokhor looked back at her with discomfort, “Are you sure?... I don't want to intrude on your family, I'll be happy to stay outside for the night,” he was thinking about spending the night by a camp-fire, looking up at the stars like he had done for all of his nights since he entered Equestria, back in the zebra lands, the stars were like tiny blimps that he thought were just figments of his imagination, but in Equestria they all shined brightly in the dark night sky, he enjoyed look up at them. sometimes he even felt like they were looking back at him.
“Don't worry about that, its just me and my sister in the house, besides its far too cold for you to stay outside,” Flitter insisted, they had already reach her house, it was nothing special and was just like every other house in the town, she lifted up the doormat and pull out the key for the door.
“Sister?” Sokhor mumbled as she opened the door, he had never been inside a pony house before, looking through the door revealed a cosy hallway with a staircase going up, it was one of the nicest houses he had ever seen.
“There you are, I was wondering when you were going to show up!” a voice boomed from the large door frame to the left. Another pegasus that looked similar to Flitter, but had her hair shaped differently and her colours were darker than Flitter's, walked out and into the hallway.
The mare looked at Flitter, but paused when she saw that she had a visitor with her, “Hey sis, didn't know you were bringing a new 'friend' around,” the mare said with a giggle, Flitter looked down at her hooves in embarrassment. “I'm only joking, how's it going dude,”
“Cloudchaser... this is Sokhor... Sokhor Cloudchaser,” Flitter didn't look up from her fore-hooves as she introduced them.
“Hello Cloudchaser,” Sokhor gave a little bow like he did to all the pony he met so far.
“A zebra huh? exotic...” she commented with a pause,“So... are you two just friends or...” Cloudchaser began
Flitter looked up and quickly tapped Sokhor's shoulder to get his attention.“Come on, lets get you settled in,” Flitter said, trying to ignore her sister question, Sokhor nodded in response and followed her up the stairs, Cloudchaser muttered a lewd comment as she walked back into the side room. She led him to her room, he started looking around but kept his hoof to himself as he looked over all of the furniture and decorations in the room, finally his eyes landed on the king sized bed in the centre of the room.
“What is that?” He asked, to him it looked like a large meditation mat with lots of cushions spread out over it.
“What? the bed, it's what I sleep on, don't zebra have beds?” Flitter asked.
“That's a bed? Its huge!” Sokhor exclaimed, poking the bed with his hoof with curiosity. when his hoof began sinking he quickly moved his hoof away. “And to answer your question, we do have beds, but made of animal furs and feathers in a pile on the floor,” he explained, she scrunched her nose at the thought of laying on animal fur to sleep.
“Doesn't sound comfortable at all, must be horrible to sleep on the floor every night,” she pondered, Sokhor nodded his head with another smile on his lips.
“If today is any indication, our worlds are very different to one and another,” Sokhor said, Flitter thought over this in her own mind as well, he was a pony that had trained his whole live so that he could live and adapt to any environment he might find himself in. He had walked hundreds of miles in a short time with barely any supplies so that he could come to Equestria to 'complete his trial' that he was set, when he arrived many of the things that she used daily were completely alien to him. What kind of world would something have to live in if carrying a weapon was necessary for survival?
He was right, their worlds were very, very different.
“Yeah... but I will try my best to make you as happy as I can in my world,” Flitter vowed to him, his world must be full of sadness and void of all happiness, she wanted to share some of the happiness that her world had in abundance.
“And I will hope I will be able to return the favour one day,” Sokhor replied in turn, pressing a hoof to him chest as all zebra's did when they made a promise they swore to keep.
After a hour or two, Flitter had finished explaining where everything was around the house and what some of the things did. She took him back in the bedroom. “Alright dude, I'll let you chill around, I got to explain some things to my Sister,” she said, she wasn't going to enjoy explaining this to Cloudchaser, but she had to do it. Sokhor nodded his head in response and she went the stairs to find her sister. She was sitting in the living room with a book, lazily turning the pages.
“Hey sis,” Flitter greeted hesitantly, her sister slammed her book shut and shuffled over to let her sister sit next to her.
“So... who is he?” Cloudchaser asked, looking at her sister inquisitively.
“To be honest, I don't know...” Flitter admitted with a sheepish smile, “He just walking around outside of town, I couldn't just let him wander,”
“So your telling me, that you found a random zebra that was walking around aimlessly in a field, and you brought him into your bedroom for the night?” Cloudchaser uttered, completely stunned by her sister flawless logic.
“When you say it like that, it sounds pretty bad,” Flitter joked
“Sis, it is pretty bad. You can't just invite random ponies into the house,” Cloudchaser stood up and walking into the kitchen, Flitter followed her and turned on the oven for her while she searched through the fridge for something nice to eat.
“Chase, trust me he's harmless, I just finished explaining to him how to open a door,” Flitter countered, she took a step back and let her sister have the run of the kitchen, she was the chef of the house since she barely knew how to use the microwave.
“Ok, he might be a bit of a idiot, but it doesn't change the fact that he has a sharp sword, and judging from the look of him, he knows how to use it,” she may of only seen him for a minute, but it was hard to miss all the scars that refused to fade away. “You should be careful around him, we've all heard the stories of what zebra do,”
“I know... but he seems alright, I think he just wants to learn about us,” Flitter said, Cloudchaser nodded her head in understanding.
“Well, if he wants to learn stuff, take him to the library, there's a whole section on pony history,” Cloudchaser advised, Flitter thought about it for a moment.
“Good idea, I'll tell him that,” Flitter started to walk out of the room and up the stairs.
“Hey, ask him what he wants to eat!”Cloudchaser shouted as Flitter reached the stairs, she didn't replied and kept walking up the stairs to her room. The door was still ajar like she left it, so he hadn't left the room while she was away.
Sokhor had removed the bags from his sides and emptied some of the content onto the floor around him, he held in his hoof, a rag and in front of him laid his sword. On the rag in his hoof was some dried blood stains, indicating that he had killed something recently. The rest of the bags contained bottles of labelled potions, but were wrote in symbols that she couldn't understand.
“What's are all of these bottles?” Flitter asked, picking up one of the bottles to get a better look at the label, she couldn't read what it was called, but the skull symbol gave her a clear idea on what it did.
“Some are healing potions... some are poisons... for example, this one helps clean and close wounds, but one drop of this one can stop your heart from beating,” Sokhor explained, indicating to the two bottles.
Flitter quickly put down the bottle she was holding, as it was the one that stopped your heart, “Why would you ever need a potion like that!” she exclaimed
Sokhor looked up at her, “Mercy...” he said simply, she looked at him curiously. He stayed silent for a while, thinking of a way to explain it, “If I ever needed to kill myself quickly so I didn't have to suffer. if you were left out in the cold with no one nearby to help you, wouldn't you want to die quickly rather than over several days?” he spoke grimly then returned to polishing the sword, making sure the gems encrusted in the handle shined like they did when he was given it.
Flitter sat down next to him and shuffled closer to him, “You're world sounds so horrible... but you're in Equestria now, no horrible monsters here,” she reassured him, she looked over his armour, red marks where it had rubbed were clearly visible against his white and black coat and some of the pads themselves had red stains that had dried over time, it was blood, but this time it was his own.
“Lets get you out of this armour,” she said, fiddling with one of the straps so a shoulder pad could fall to the floor, showing off more of his strips.
As she went for one of the buckles that held on his main chest padding, he raised his hoof to hold her back, “Don't worry about it Flitter, I can do it by myself,” he insisted, putting the sword back into its protective sheath and moving it away from the two of them.
“no please, let me,” Flitter insisted, after a few seconds he gave a loud sigh and lowered his hoof so that she could continue taking the rest of him armour off.
As each part of his armour fell to the floor, she began to notice that the strips weren't completely random, but instead formed a swirling pattern around his whole body, she didn't know if he was born with these swirls on him or if he had styled them himself, but either way they looked beautiful, he was more like a canvas than a pony. Removing his armour was also a good excuse to look at his body closely, his muscle were as hard as stone and unlike all the muscular stallions she had seen back in flight camp, his had all been pushed to the limit multiple times, he hadn't grown these muscle by lifting weights or running laps around a field, but were earned in the wilderness and through harsh training on a day to day basis.
The final piece of armour fell to the floor, “There we are, that's much better don't you think,” Flitter smiled at him, he looked down at the pieces of armour that rested by his hooves, most of it looked beaten and worn down, but could be easily repaired with the right materials.
He stood up and looked around the room for a mirror, he hadn't seen himself for months, since mirrors were rare and most water came from wells in the village or in water bottles so he couldn't look into his reflection in them either, looking at the armour told him that he might have some battle scars from some of the more hairier fights.
He stared into his own reflection. He could barely recognise himself, dirt and mud concealed some of his strips and red sores or blood stains were dotted around his body, hair was all messy and his eyes carry dark rings that weren't part of his original pattern.
Then there was Flitter, a well maintain mare with her hair brushed and trimmed neatly, her coat was well groomed with wings kept in near pristine condition. She was leaned against him closely so she could fit into the mirror’s reflection, she still had a smile on her lips and her raspberry coloured eyes were staring at him in the reflection.
“What do you want for dinner?” She asked randomly, backing away from him and looking directly at him.
“I'm sure anything you make will be fine,” he replied, turning to look back at her, she nodded her head and began to walk out of the door, he followed her but stop when he reached the stairs. “Do you mind if I take a shower before having dinner?” he asked, he didn't normally care about the way he looked and preferred to be more practical than looking fancy, but if he was going to be having dinner with Flitter and her sister, then he would prefer to look his best.
“Of course, you remember where everything is?” she said in reply, Sokhor nodded his head and walked towards where the bathroom was, Flitter continued to walk to the kitchen, her sister was still cooking the food when she stumbled in and sat down at the table, head in hooves.
“What'd he say?” Cloudchaser asked, Flitter began explaining most of what she knew about him and all of the things he had said to her.
She didn't know what to think of Sokhor, when she saw him waving at the pegasi that flew near him, he looked lost and alone with nopony to talk to, but when he started talking to her about his homelands, she was starting to think that nothing nice could come out of a place were weapons and poisons were carried around so casually...
Sokhor rarely felt 'clean', baths were a rarity back in the zebra lands and when he did have them it would only be a few minutes before he would start to sweat or would have to start crawling in the mud as part of his training. This time was different, this time he wasn't going to have to train or do anything at all, he was just going to stay in with Flitter until the morning. He had never had time to relax before with others, but a part of him knew that he was going to enjoy himself.
He looked back into Flitter's mirror, he looked much better, the pattern in his coat was much more visible than before since it was no longer distorted by the mud or dried blood that had sunk into his fur. His hair was left untied and was hanging down by his shoulders, he would normally tied his hair back so it wouldn't blow into his face whilst meditating and break his concentration. But he wasn't going to tie it up, he wanted to look his best and many zebra than had seen him with his hair down would comment on how nice it looked, his teacher described his hair to be like a manticore's mane, thick and fierce in every aspect but still looked smooth on the eyes. He had given up on understanding what he teacher meant when he said things like that.
Taking a deep breath in, he pried himself away from the mirror, assuring himself that he was perfectly fine and that it didn't matter if he didn't have his hair up or his armour on, he was only going to eat dinner with two ponies that he had only recently met. He was going to have to get use to this, learning all of the different customs of a races that lived in the world and adapting to enjoy their company, this was just a small step on the long path of become a successful diplomat.
Sokhor could hear the two ponies muttering to each other, he could hear exactly what they were saying nor did he care, for the absolutely mouth watering smell of well cooked vegetables caught his attention and the grumbling of his stomach made him want to run into the kitchen like a mad pony, but he managed to control himself and peered into the kitchen through the large door frame. Flitter was sitting at the table and her sister was by the counter, mixing something into a bowl and pouring the content into three smaller bowls. Flitter saw him in the doorway and beckoned him to sit next to her.
Flitter looked at him in awe, with his hair down and flowing freely as well as the patterns in his coat now clearly visible, he looked enchanting to say the least. “Hey Sokhor, nice shower?” Flitter asked as she patted the chair that he was walking over to, she looked over to Cloudchaser, who was staring at him with googly eyes like she did back in flight school to some of the stallions.
“It was enjoyable,” Sokhor replied with a grin, he sat down in the chair and glanced over to the other pony in the room. Cloudchaser quickly regained her demeanour and brought two of the bowls over to the table, placing them in front of Sokhor and Flitter.
Flitter began eating her meal as soon as in landed in front of her, but Sokhor waited for all of the ponies to be at the table before eating. He wasn't sure what he was about to eat, however the gorgeous smell and look of it was enough to make him want to face-plant into it.
Cloudchaser sat down opposite him with her own food and looked at Sokhor curiously, he knew how to use a spoon and picked it up like Flitter was doing, taking a experimental spoon full of the chunky liquid and engulfed it into his mouth. A explosion of flavour hijacked his taste buds and sent his mind spiralling out of control, he was grounded to a halt, mind completely fazed by the incredible taste.
“You alright dude?” Flitter asked, waving her hoof in front of his face to get his attention, he was able to quickly reel back his mind.
“This... This is amazing,” Sokhor uttered his praise, moving his spoon to get a second mouth full of the sensational liquid, Cloudchaser gave her sister a reassured smile.
“See... told you he'd like it,” Cloudchaser said to Flitter, “Besides, It's only some vegetables mixed into a stew, why wouldn't he like that?” she added on, she spoke like he wasn't in the room or was trying to ignore him for some reason.
Flitter gave a sheepish smile, “I just wanted to make sure that Sokhor here would enjoy his first pony meal,” she tapped him on the shoulder, making him look up from his food.
He had the feeling she was prompting him to say something, “Y-yes, the food is very nice, thank you,” Sokhor stuttered, the group stayed mostly silent for a while, each one slurping at their food. Cloudchaser kept on glancing over to Sokhor in between mouth fulls of her meal.
Cloudchaser had waited long enough, she wanted an explanation, “So... am I ever going to get an answer?” she asked, catching both Flitter's and Sokhor's full attention.
“What do you mean?” Flitter said, curious on how her sister was going to reply
“How'd you two meet?” she questioned, leaning in closer over the table
“She found me wandering outside Ponyville, she was kind enough to help me and showed me around,” Sokhor replied, looking innocent and apparently not picking up on what Cloudchaser was implying.
“Ahh... how sweet, she could never resist a lost stallion, well at least not the last one she brought in like it was a stray dog,” Cloudchaser chuckled despite Flitter scornful look.
“Chase, I thought you say you'd never bring that up,” Flitter grumbled behind her hooves. Sokhor looked between the two, but stayed silent.
“Alright, I won't talk about it,” Cloudchaser replied, a smile still on her lips as she turned to look at Sokhor, “What about you then? What's your story?”
Sokhor thought of a good way of explaining his trial to them without telling them too many details, “I'm looking for someone, a zebra, no name or description, hopefully that would be enough information, zebra are apparently very rare around here,” he said, both Flitter and Cloudchaser fell into thought.
“I remember that there is a zebra around here somewhere, don't know where she lives though,” Flitter informed, Cloudchaser nodded her head in agreement.
“It's not much, but better than nothing, thank you,” Sokhor looked down at his mostly empty bowl, even if he didn't know where she was, at least she was still nearby, Ponyville wasn't a massive town, he will be able to find her shortly.
“Why do you need to find this zebra, is it important?” Cloudchaser asked him
“It's important to me... not anyone else,” Sokhor chuckled, they both gave him confused looks, “This is my trial, my test to prove my worth, to put everything I have learned over my whole life into action, if I succeed then I get everything I have ever wanted, if I fail... well, I try not to think about that,” Sokhor explained.
Flitter patted him on the back gently, “I'm sure you won't fail, you've come this far,” she reassured him further with a warm smile, he gave her a small smile in return.
Time past quickly as Sokhor told them about life back in his homeland, skipping the horrible and unnecessary parts, he didn't want to talk about the horrific monsters that crept the woodlands and rivers, he tried his best to paint a positive image of his homelands to the two ponies listening. They asked him questions and he answered the truthfully and explained things as best as he could, but he was no poet or word-smith, so he couldn't explain things well and left them with many questions.
Sokhor tried his best to fight back a yawn, but he couldn't. Both Flitter and Cloudchaser joined him and yawned too, he didn't know how long they had been talking for, but it had been a least a few hours.
Cloudchaser looked over to a clock in the comer of the room, “It's getting late, it might be a good idea to go to bed,” she suggested, they were all tired and the thought of a comfy bed was very appealing to them all.
“Yeah... that's a good idea,” Flitter said as another yawn escaped her lips, “You must be tired to Sokhor, lets get you to bed,” She stood up and began to tug his foreleg lightly to get him to move.
“Ok...” Sokhor replied as he stood up, he walked slowly beside her, but turned back to look at Cloudchaser, who was still sitting at the table, staring off into space, “Are you coming Cloudchaser?”
Cloudchaser shock her head, “Nah, I'll got to do something real quick, you two run along,” she replied, resting her head onto the table.
He wanted to ask her if something was the matter, but Flitter kept on dragging him towards the stairs.
The two slowly dragged themselves into Flitter's bedroom, Flitter quickly crawled into her bed while Sokhor grabbed both of his bags and placed them next to the bed.
“What are you doing that for?” Asked Flitter, Sokhor looked up at her as he finished organising them into a pile.
“Making a pillow so I can sleep,” Sokhor replied.
“Don't be silly-” Flitter shimmied over and tapped the mattress with her hoof “- we can share,”
Sokhor hesitated, “A-are you sure?”
“Yeah, hop in,” she gave him another smile, he slowly crawled onto the bed. His body sunk into the mattress and his head rested lightly on the pillow, he had never felt this comfortable in his life. “Isn't that better than sleeping on the floor?”
“It's much better, thank you” Sokhor thanked, she blew out the candle that rested on the bed side cabinet and the room fell into complete darkness.
They both laid there in silent, the room was completely peaceful. until he heard Flitter edging towards him, “Hey dude... feel free to say no, but can we cuddle up, its pretty cold in here?” She asked awkwardly, the room was indeed, cold, but he was sure that wasn't her only reason.
“If you want,” he said, he was too tired to argue with her and he didn't mind her laying close to him. she quickly moved closer to him and he raised his hoof to let her slide closer to him. She rested her head against his chest as he wrapped his foreleg around her.
His chest was a lot softer than she thought it was going to be, despite all his muscle his chest was still as soft as silk and make for a good pillow, “Good night Sokhor,” she whispered to him.
“Good night, Flitter,” he whispered back. The room was once again, peaceful, the only sound he could hear was Flitter's soft breaths and the tickle of warm air that she breathed out of her nose. Slowly his muscles relaxed and he fell into a blissful sleep.
A blast of cold wind brought Sokhor back to reality. The smell of burning filled the air as houses went up in flames, the zebras that were hiding inside screamed as loud as they could as they slowly died in their own fiery hell. He wanted to look away but everywhere he looked, zebras were burning or getting cut down by his fellow warriors. The zebras that he called brothers and sisters were the ones that were destroying the town and murdering the innocents. He was no better, for his sword was also drenched in the blood of the townsfolk. Reasons and excuses why they were doing this flooded back into his mind, but none of them mattered now. No turning back now.
A few of the building were left untouched by the flames, they had all agreed on pillaging them later for anything of value. It was Sokhor job to make sure no one was hiding inside the buildings, he didn't care as it gave him a excuse to get away from the smell of burnt flesh that plagued the air outside.
The buildings were just like the buildings in his old village, single rooms that had all the essentials scattered around on the inside, the only differences was the amount of expensive decorations that were littered around the place. Rich tapestries were against the walls or hidden away, gold pieces of jewellery were left out on tables or in small wooden boxes and rolls of velvet were stacked up against cabinets. This was no doubt, a wealthy village, they could have easily afforded a way to defend themselves against attacks but they didn't even try to defend themselves when he came up the road.
They were all dead now, so it didn't matter.
Sokhor went back outside, the screams had mostly stopped now and the birds had started chirruping again. But the air was still foul, a consent reminder of the deeds he'd done. As he walked out the door, he heard the faint sound of crying, Sokhor quickly tracked down the sound, it was coming out of a old cellar hatch by the side of the house. He drew his sword from its sheave and opened the hatch cautiously with its sharp tip.
Behind the hatch were a group of children, barely old enough to start school, they were cowering in here, hoping they wouldn't get noticed. They all looked up to Sokhor with eyes wide in fear, a few started to mutter prays to the gods, whether for mercy or protection didn't matter, it was up to him if they survived.
“Get out, now!” Sokhor commanded, all the children flinched but obeyed his orders, “Line up! Single file!”
The children all lined up so Sokhor could get a better look at each one. The oldest looked around fourteen and the youngest could have been eight or nine years old. These ones were lucky enough to all be under sixteen, if they weren't they would had had to been killed like their parents were.
One of the younger children started to cry and the zebra next to her, broke from the line in order to comfort her. She started to cry into his shoulder and he stared up at Sokhor menacingly. Sokhor knew he had to punish him for disobedience, but left him alone for a bit so the younger zebra could stop crying.
He many be a monster to them, but he wasn't heartless.
Once she had calmed down a bit, Sokhor pushed the older zebra away from her. The older one took a stand and sized himself up against Sokhor, even we Sokhor drew his sword, he still didn't back down.
Sokhor chuckled, “A brave one are we?” he asked, eager to hear the young zebra's response.
“I won't let you hurt any of them, you will have to kill me first!” the zebra growled, Sokhor laughed and put away his sword, the zebra gave him a confused look.
“You are honourable young one, but you are foolish if you think that you can match me,” Sokhor said, the zebra didn't relax, still ready to ponce at Sokhor if he did anything. “Calm yourself young one, I mean no harm to you,”
“You say that now, but once your finished with the village you'll leave us here to die,” the zebra hissed.
“What is your name?”
“Koda...”
“Well Koda, I promise you and your friends won't be harmed, if you all behave,” Sokhor said truthfully, they were young enough to be a use to his tribe, so had to keep them alive long enough for the elders to pass judgement on them.
Koda nodded and the other zebras gathered around him, he appeared to be the leader of their little group. Sokhor watched them closely as he waited for one of the patrols to get here, to take the children back to the camp. A few in the group kept turning their heads to look at him, some looked scared and some looked angrily at him.
When the patrol arrived, Sokhor explained the situation and they agreed to take the children back to camp. The children lined up again and slowly began marching along side the warriors.
“This one looks too old,” the patrol leader pointed towards Koda, who looked shocked when he was called out. Another member of the patrol grabbed him and brought him forward.
“He looks fine to me,” Sokhor said, “Perhaps we should wait for the elders judgement,”
“Or perhaps we should save them the trouble,” the leader chuckled, drawing his sword and moving closer to Koda. The other children watched in horror, some of the older ones shielding the eyes of the younger ones.
Koda didn't even flinch as the leader rose his sword to strike, he did however, close his eyes and waited for death to take him, but nothing happened, instead, the ringing of metal smashing into metal sounded and he opened his eyes. Sokhor had rushed to meet the leader's sword with his own, hitting it with such force that it would of broken his jaw if he wasn't as experienced. The leader's sword flew out of his mouth and fell to the floor with a clang.
“What do you think you are doing brother!” one of the other members snapped at him.
“Following the rules, any under sixteen years of age must be brought to the elders, that's the code,” Sokhor reminded as he sheathed his sword, a few of the zebra mumbled their agreement under their breath.
“He's not coming with me, and if your so fond of him, you can take him,” the patrol leader grabbed Koda by the hair and through him towards Sokhor. He landed in the mud by Sokhor's hooves.
“Very well then, take the rest and go,” Sokhor said, flicking his hoof in the air. The patrol quickly left, a few of the children mouthed thanks to him as they left. Sokhor looked down at Koda, who was still lying on the ground, looking up at his saviour. “Try to keep up, I won't wait for you,”
Koda did has he was told, standing up and following behind Sokhor timidly, “Thanks for saving me...” he uttered.
Sokhor didn't reply.
Small beams of Celestia's sunlight tickled at Flitter's nose and eyelids, causing her to wake up from her peaceful sleep. The previous day's events resurfacing in her memory, she gave the bed around her a few hoof taps to see where her friend had gone, he wasn't there.
She opened her eyes to look around the room, she turned away from the blinding sunlight and looked around the interior of the room. His armour was still there, but had been reorganized and piled up neatly in the corner.
He was by the window, looking out as dawn reached over the hills. He maintained a perfect balance on one hind leg, other leg bend to help maintain balance and forehooves joined by his chest. He was like a statue, perfectly still apart from the soft breaths that caused his chest to move in and out, in near-complete synchronisation with the blowing winds outside.
Flitter watched him, never making a sound or moving too fast. He knew she was awake, but continued to look out the window as the sun broke past the rolling hill around Ponyville, he outstretched his hooves as far as they would go, lowering the second hind leg to the floor. He lowered his forehooves and dropped down onto all fours again, he looked back at Flitter.
“Pleasant morning to you Flitter, trust you slept well,” Sokhor said, walking away from the window and closer to Flitter.
“Dude, its way too early to be awake, get back in the bed,” Flitter replied, moving the sheet over so Sokhor could get under.
“But the sun is up, and its a beautiful day,” Sokhor protested, turning to point out the window.
“There's no rush, we have all day to do stuff, but right now we can catch some extra hours,” Flitter leaned over and grabbed one of his hooves, gently dragging him into the bed. He gave a sigh, and crawled into the bed, Flitter gave a mental cheer and cuddled up to him like she did before. He was different this time, instead of being soft and cushion like, he was as solid as iron and tense.
“Sokhor, what's wrong, why are you so worked up?” Flitter asked
Sokhor paused, opening his mouth to speak, but shutting it before any words could escape. “It doesn't matter... it was just a illusion,”
“Did you have a nightmare?”
“I'm a warrior... we don't have nightmares,”
“Tell me about it,” Flitter rested a hoof on his cheek, “What horrors must be in your dreams, if my nightmares are your reality,”
“The future... I saw the future... foresight is a dangerous thing,” Sokhor crawled out of the bed, “I cannot sleep, I need to walk,” Sokhor rushed to the door, his mind was racing and he needed to find peace.
“Ohh... ok, I'll wait for you,” Flitter said, a sad look fell onto her face as he left the room and she was once again, left alone. She hated being alone.
An early morning walk helped clear Sokhor's head, the peaceful chirping of the birds and the gentle touch of wind against his fur helped him cool down, maybe he'll be able to figure out the dream soon.
Sokhor strolled beside a river, water parting around the rocks that laid lazily at the bottom. He followed it far, the town hid behind the hills, the sense to walk away and never return lingered in his mind. To run and never look began to appeal to him, he would never take part in the horrific act that he dreamed off, to only ever do the things he wanted to do. To be as free as the birds that perched around him.
The soft melody of music flew through the air, its beauty soothing his doubts and fears. He follow the harmonious sound until he found its source, a mint green unicorn perched on a stone slab with a golden coloured instrument in some kind of magical grip. Sokhor moved in closer, the snapping of a twig under-hoof broke the mare's concentration and caused the instrument to fall to the ground.
The mare picked up the instrument again in her magic, resting in on the stone beside her, never turning around to see who had interrupted her. “I'm sorry... was I playing too loudly?” the mare asked softly.
Sokhor moved closer to her, “It was beautiful,” Sokhor whispered, when she couldn't put a face to the voice, she turned around to look and was surprised by the zebra.
“Do you really think so?” a smile grew on her face.
“Truly,” Sokhor reassured, the mare picked up the instrument again, fiddling with the wire loops. “But why play so far away from the town? Ponies all over should enjoy such wonderful sounds,” Sokhor insisted, the mare chuckled to herself.
“Well... not everypony enjoys my music, I can't blame them. With musicians like Octavia to play them wonderful tunes that I can't ever match. After all, I'm just a simple mare with a simple lyre,” She said, looking sadly down at the grass.
“Sometimes the most simplest things, can be the best,” Sokhor sat down next to her, she looked down at him from her elevated position.
“Maybe your right,” she muttered, looking brightened by Sokhor's word. “I'm Lyra Heartstrings,” She rose her hoof.
Sokhor recognised the interaction she was seeking, “They call me Sokhor,” he met her hoof with his own. She gave a light shake and he did the same.
“Guessing you're the new guy that everyponies been talking about, I hope you're enjoying your stay in Ponyville,”
“It has been a interesting experience so far, just hoping the first day goes smoothly,” it was Sokhor's turn to stare down at the floor.
“I'm sure you'll be fine, pony aren’t the most trusting of something new or unusual, but once they see your a nice guy then they'll be fine with you,” Lyra reassured.
“I hope so, but ponies seem friendly enough as it is, I don't wish to intrude on your lives, for they are so vast and complicated” Sokhor stood up and looked off into the distance, the opposite way from Ponyville.
“Missing home?” Lyra stepped beside him, “I can imagine it hard to adjust to it all, being from so far away, all of the luxuries us ponies have, apparently you all still live in huts,”
“You seem to know more about my way of life than others,”
“I only know as much as the next mare, we've all heard the stories of zebras, then there's a few rumours floating around, but I refuse to accept them as the truth... such horrible things,” Lyra informed, Sokhor turned his full attention to her.
“I'm sorry to disappoint, however the zebra race is infamous for it ability to do unspeakable things, have no fear though, I mean no harm,” Sokhor muttered, Lyra looked at him with an indecisive look on her face.
“And do you regret any of the things you've done?” She asked quietly.
“Yes... but I know I wouldn't be standing here if I didn't do those horrible things,” Sokhor replied firmly.
“At least you regret it, that's a start,” She gave a small shudder, “I don't think I could ever do something like that,”
“I only did those thing for survival, not just my survival but the lives of my family,” Sokhor stated, making sure she understood his reasoning.
“I suppose your right, to save the ones you love,” she looked up into the sky, “Sun's risen, I best get back to the town, do you want to walk we me, it would be nice to have company?” she smiled at him.
“I should be getting back as well, let's walk,” Lyra went to pick up her lyre from the rock, using her magical grip again to hold it as she walked.
“How do you do that?” Sokhor asked, indicating to the hovering lyre in front of him.
“What? Magic, well, it's all in the horn,” she replied with another smile...
The town was a bit more lively now, pegasi flew through the sky above and small groups of ponies wandered the streets. Lyra had explained to him how pony magic works as best as she could, she was no expert on magic, but she knew the basic like every unicorn did.
Lyra's mouth on and closed a few times, Sokhor waited patiently as she tried to form her sentence. “Sokhor... Could I ask a big, big favour?” she asked nervously.
“Very well, what is it?”
Lyra looked hesitant for a moment, “I'm auditioning for a place in a orchestra... nothing special, but I was hoping to get somepony to listen to me play properly before I go... I don't mind if you say no, but nopony's ever said that my music was good like you did,”she said, looking hopeful at him.
“It would be a honour to hear you play,” Sokhor replied, nodding his head. Her face lifted up with joy and she pulled in for a quick hug.
“You will! Thank you so much,” Lyra exclaimed, shying away after her hug. “Can you do tomorrow, same time, same place on the hill?”
“Same time, same place,” Sokhor gave her a small smile, she gave a squeak of delight.
“Oh thank you, thank you, thank you,” she moved in for a second hug, but Sokhor raised his hoof to stop her, the ponies around them were still watching them since the first hug.
“It is no problem, Lyra Heartstrings,” Sokhor reassured her.
“Please, just call me Lyra,” She insisted, “You have no idea how happy you've made me. I got to get back to Bon Bon, I'll see you tomorrow,” Lyra slide around his raised hoof and gave him a small, friendly nuzzle on his cheek. Sokhor immediately froze up, unsure on what to say back to her.
“Err... F-Farewell,” Sokhor muttered, bowing his head down so she couldn't see his glowing cheeks. She walked into the town and he walked in the opposite direction, he didn't know what to think, was it just a harmless gesture of friendship? or a plot to make him vulnerable so they could ponce?
It had dawn on him that he would have to go past several residential areas to get back to Flitter's house and he was without any way of defending himself, had he fallen for an attempt of trickery? Ponies watched him from the windows or were behind corners, unlike before they weren't afraid of him. A few that walked near muttered a “Hello,” or “Good morning,” to him as they passed, to which he gave a wordless nod or ignored them entirely, for he didn't want to start a conversation with them.
The sound of galloping hooves moving at a high speed echoed near him, he turned to look but before he could even turn his head, a bright pink mare appeared like magic in front of him, causing him to jump back. “You're the new pony, I know your the new pony because I know everypony in Ponyville,” The mare said at incredible speed. “Word is your arrived yesterday and were all big and scary, but now you're all friendly and nice so we can all be friends and have a party, do you like parties? I love having parties-”
“Slow down, please miss?” Sokhor tried but she was already lost in the moment.
“-Parties mean that there is lots of cupcakes and music, ponies to talk to and games to play, oh aren't parties just the best things EVER?!” the mare continued, her voice was slowly grinding in his head and starting to give him a headache.
“Miss...” Sokhor voice grew louder as the mare continued at the same neck breaking pace.
“I know! I'll throw you the best party ever! We can have lots of balloons and goodies to eat, I can invite the whole of Ponyville so you can make so many new friends, it will be so much fun!”
“Miss! Please stop talking!” Sokhor snapped at her, he caught her attention as well as the ponies that were walking around. All stopped to look at them.
The mare's wide eyes looked up at him and her hair seamed to deflate from its bouncy state. “D-don't you like parties?”
“No. I don't,” Sokhor said firmly, her eyes started to water slightly and the ponies around started to mutter.
“Was it something I said?” the mare asked through choked breaths as she recollected herself.
“Don't blame yourself, but I didn't come here to have a 'party',” he replied, he was sure what a party was, but he was sure it was some sort of social event. Judging from the angry sounding ponies around him, he wasn't going to be making many new friends.
The mare opened her mouth to talk but the dull thud of a stone hitting the back of his head silenced her. “Nopony make Pinkie Pie cry!” a stallion in the crowd shouted.
“Yeah!” a few of the ponies cheered, more angry stares fell on him and a bunch more small stones and rock started levitating.
Sokhor could only run as the stones were thrown at him and ponies broke off to chase him down. “Run him out of town!” a mare yelled, the ponies around her roared their agreement.
“We don't want you here!” another pony shouted.
Sokhor ran as fast as him leg could carry him, but he couldn't outrun the pegasi that were dropping sticks and other objects in front of him, causing him to trip and stumbled. Due to him having to stand up or slow down the other ponies were able to keep up with him. The hailing of debris rained down on top of him consently.
He fell once again to the hard floor near the outskirts of Ponyville but this time he couldn't stand, his knew he couldn't get away. The mob crowded around him, their kicks and shouts filling the air, “Ponyville for Ponies!” some shouted. A unicorn levitated him into the air, carried him out of the town and through him to the ground with a lifeless thud.
The mob gave a collective cheer of victory, some were high hoofing each other or just laughing together. The crowd started to break up and went to continue with their day. A pegasus lead a dark cloud over him, gave it a kick and cold water started falling onto him.
The crowd started to quickly thin out until only two ponies were left. Roseluck and the mare that he believed was called Pinkie Pie. Roseluck waited for the ponies to leave before helping him whilst Pinkie watched.
“Sokhor!” Roseluck cried, she dragged him from beneath the storm cloud. “You're going be fine,” She reassured.
Sokhor raised his hoof and pushed her away gently. “I do not need your help,” Sokhor said, standing up on shaky hooves. “Besides, you ponies had made it quite clear that I'm not welcome,”
“You know we don't all dislike you, ponies are just scared of you,” Rose said, Sokhor looked at her with a raised eyebrow.
“Drop the façade, what I just saw was a town uprising to kick me out,” Sokhor shot back, Rose fell silent and Pinkie walked to her side.
“I never knew that ponies could all be such big meanies,” Pinkie spoke softly, still a little nervous.
“Haven't you done enough damage yet?” Sokhor hissed at her, she flinched but stood her ground as she gave him a sad smile.
“I sorry, I'll make it up to you, I pinkie promise,” the pink pony sat down and began doing several gestures with her hooves, “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!”
Sokhor opened his mouth to reply, but felt something run down the back of his neck, a feeling he was too familiar with. Raising his hoof to wipe it away, looking at his hoof reveal that the liquid running down his back was actual blood. Rose looked at the back of his head.
“Oww, its looks pretty bad, we should get you to hospital,” Rose advised, Sokhor gave a quick shake of his head.
“No, take me back to Flitter's house, I have a potion for this sort of thing,” Sokhor insisted, Pinkie and Rose shared a uneasy glance between each other.
“If you're sure,” Rose said. The three quickly walked to Flitter's home, avoiding any ponies they saw and Pinkie kept checking if Sokhor was still fine. Rose gave the door a few knocks and after a few seconds, Cloudchaser opened the door.
“Hello... oh no, what happened?!” Cloudchaser let the three in, Sokhor carefully stumbled into the living room and sat down on the sofa.
“Sokhor? Oh Celestia, what happened?” Flitter walked in from the kitchen, she looked at him with wide eyes as he smiled at her.
“Flitter... remember the potions I told you about... healing potion...” Sokhor said as a wave of dizziness overcame him, but Flitter already rushing up the stairs before he could finish. She quickly grabbed his back and emptied the content. The vials and bottle rolled across the floor as well as a few things she saw the night before, except one thing she didn't recognise. It was like a brown envelop, only made from rough paper and was rather sloppy, on the front it read “For blessed eyes only,” in loopy handwriting. She didn't have time to think, she quickly hid it inside the top draw of her dressing table and rushed back down with the healing potion.
She uncorked the lid off of the bottle and Sokhor drank it down, like magic, the cuts and bruises started to fade away, though they left faint scars from where they once laid. Sokhor downed around half of the bottle before stopping. As soon as the bottle left his lips, he gave a loud gagging sound accompanied by a shudder. “Such a horrible after-taste,” he commented.
“Now can you tell me what the hay is going on?” Cloudchaser asked impatiently, Rose and Pinkie looked down at their hooves.
“It was my fault, I-” Sokhor began, but was interrupted by a pink mare.
“No, it was me, I want to say hey, but Sokhor was in a hurry, he said some things and got beat up by some ponies,” Pinkie summarized, skipping over a few details.
“Do you know who did it?” Flitter asked, sitting beside Sokhor and brushing his mane with her hoof.
“There was a lot of ponies,” Rose muttered, Flitter and Cloudchaser looked at Pinkie, who nodded her head. “I was just walking around at the time, I see him running away from a group of angry ponies,” Rose added.
“So, lets get this straight... you said something and are now public enemy number one?” Cloudchaser asked with disbelief. All three nodded their heads.
“What am I going to do with you?” Flitter asked rhetorically to Sokhor with a smile.
“For a start you can stop messing up my hair,” Sokhor said whist waving his hoof at her in attempted to get her to stop, “Secondly, I got to clean myself up, walking around with blood stains might not be the best idea,”
“Good idea, blood stains aren’t the most friendly looking thing,” Pinkie said, her voice had a way of making something sad so much more nicer. “Oh dear, sorry, but I gotta run, I promised to watch some of Dashie's tricks. Hope you feel better soon,” she said at a high speed, they all said their goodbyes and she bounced out of the door.
“Alright, I'll go get myself cleaned up,” Sokhor stood up from his seat and went to the bathroom.
He stared at himself in the mirror, thankfully his face was mostly untouched, the same couldn't be said for the rest of his body, for it was riddled with small cuts and bruises that hadn't fully faded away yet.
His was going to be really sore later.
Flitter sat at her bed, the mysterious brown package in her hooves. She didn't know if she should open it, she obviously wasn't meant to look at it and she could help but feel like she was betraying Sokhor's trust by even holding the envelop in her hooves. However, if Sokhor was going to be a danger to anypony, it would be written inside. Her sister's words and the old nightmare night stories about zebra's killing each other for fun echoed through her mind. She had to open it, not just for her safety, but for the whole town's.
The seal broke easily enough, he must of opened it several times before. Inside was a single piece of folded paper, she let it fall onto the bed. Her mind was split three ways, one was telling her to trust Sokhor, to put the paper away and never look back. One was telling her to read the note and see what happens. And the final one was telling her grab his sword now while she still had a chance, with the element of surprise she could easily murder him.
She dismissed the final thought quickly.
She picked up the note, hooves shaky and her hairs standing on edge. She closed her eyes and unfolded the piece of paper. Her eyes opened and her mind filled with an unexpected disappointment, for it was written in some sort of code she couldn't understand or work out. Looking at it, she knew she wasn't smart enough to work it out, but she knew somepony who could, Twilight Sparkle. Conveniently she was already planning on taking Sokhor to the library today, so she could ask her then.
She put the paper back into the envelop and took it downstairs, to put in her saddlebags for later so Sokhor wouldn't find out. Her saddlebags were hanged up on the wall by the door.
“You really shouldn't go through your coltfriend's stuff, you might find something,” Rose's voice said from behind her. “Or at least try to look less suspicious when taking his stuff,”
Flitter turned to look at her, “He's not my coltfriend,” she muttered, getting a chuckle from Rose.
“Sure he isn't... Flitter it's obvious, the way you look at him, the way he looks at you,” Rose smiled at her.
“No... he isn't my type,”
“Oh well if you're not interested, then I'll just go upstairs and tell him I'm available,” Rose said, licking her lips.
“Don't you dare,” Flitter step in front of her.
“I thought you didn't like him?” she asked whilst fight back a giggle.
“I don't, but for all we know, he might already have a Marefriend,” Flitter suggested, Rose processed this possibility.
“Wouldn't surprise me,” Rose looked back up the stairs, like she was waiting for him. “Anyway, I better get going, the stand ain't going open itself,” Rose and Flitter shared a friendly hug before exiting the door.
“See ya soon,” Flitter waved her goodbye, Rose reached the street before waving her own hoof back to Flitter and continued to walk into the town. At the top of the stairs, Sokhor looked down at her with wide eyes and saddlebags by his sides. Flitter couldn't help but feel nervous as she felt his stern gaze.
“Hello Flitter,” Sokhor said as he reached the bottom of the stairs. When his hoof hit the final step, she flinched lightly. “Are you alright, you seem a bit nervous?”
Flitter forced herself to be calm, “No, nothing wrong with me,” she gave him a wide grin and he looked at her suspiciously. “Err... are you planning on going somewhere?” She asked, trying to change the subject.
“I must start the search for the zebra I was sent to find, for I now know I am not welcome here,” Sokhor spoke calmly despite his impending failure, for he cannot complete his trial fully if the ponies kept on kicking him out of town.
“There's no need to search, I'm pretty sure Twilight knows the zebra your looking for,” Flitter informed.
“Really?” Sokhor looked at her, amazed if it was actual going to be that easy. Flitter nodded her head. “Then there's no time to waste! Please take me to this 'Twilight' pony,”