The Double-Edged Sword

Chapters

Prologue: Family Issues
Chapter One: Enter the Cliche!
Chapter Two: Start Again

Prologue: Family Issues

Family Issues, what're you gonna do?

Asuya, a 12 year old pegasus with a pale tannish coat, a magenta and pale pink mane and matching tail, dark blue glasses over olive green eyes and generally has a blue watch strapped to his left forehoof, was just about to head outside for a breath of fresh air. Just as he was about to though, he heard the screaming of his only blood relative, his sister Velari. Velari is a unicorn mare with roughly the same coat colour as Asuya, a deep oak green mane with a starch white hairband resting behind her ears and a similarly deep oak green tail, light pink eyes, and a bow and arrow for a cutie mark. As he walked down the corridor leading to the testing room, his adoptive father basically lived in a laboratory , he listened as carefully as possible to try and figure out what was going on. After a few minutes of his sister screaming, he couldn't take it anymore and bucked down the door. What he saw absolutely horrified him. His 'dad', a mutated dark-gray pegasus with a rust orange mane protruding out from his forehead with a uncharacteristic bright yellow stripe splitting it down the middle along with a similar tail, had adopted both him and his sister close to six years ago and currently had Velari strapped to a surgeon's table and was forcefully attaching wings to her body.

He neither looked up at Asuya, nor did he stop his operation, and said "Wait in the library, and I'll deal with you later."

Without even thinking, Asuya charged his adoptive father in the hopes of stopping the unnatural operation. Unfortunately, Cordon, the adoptive father, was already extending his gray dragon like wing to smack Asuya. What he didn't expect was for Asuya to actually change form. Asuya's wings actually retracted and he started to run bipedal as he changed into a human-like form, with armor and daggers forming and emitting a dark oak green light as they did so.

Asuya didn't even realize what he did, but it felt natural. So instead of tripping in the new form, he smoothly slid out a dagger and ran it along the membrane of his opponent's outstretched wing. As he did so, Cordon's eyes began to glow as an aura formed around him, as well as Velari, and he retracted his wing as fast as he possibly could. His once calm and unreadable face turned to face the Glowing green form that had basically totaled his wing, pain as well as fascination obvious among his features. Asuya, on the other hoof (or hand currently), was a unreadable , flames literally surrounding his hands as he once again charged the Stallion that was still harming his one and only sister. As his dagger collided with the grey stallion that stood over his sister, Asuya could feel that his adoptive father was about to cast a teleportation spell and immediately jumped back.

"Don't you DARE take her from me Cordon! We've already been through enough by your hooves and I won't let you take my only family with you just to torture her!" Asuya said with a mixture of pure rage and unparalleled depression apparent in his voice.

But alas, it did no good, for the grey stallion finished his spell, teleporting them away from the humanoid creature in green armor. As an after effect, the teleportation spell also set the house-lab on fire. As he realized that his only family had been taken from him, Asuya slowly changed back into his original pony form and released a sea of tears to mourn his lose. As the fire in the house-lab raced up through the floor, Asuya could here the shouting coming from the Canterlot firefighters attempting to put out the fire. There effort was in vain though, as the fire eventually reached the chemical storage cellar and (as cliche as it is) just straight up exploded. Asuya, who hadn't moved in the few minutes between teleportation and explosion, was enveloped by the flamed and was knock out by debris that was caught in the explosion. Right before he blacked out, Asuya was reciting the same thing over and over again.

"I'm sorry sis."

Asuya woke up suddenly, only to find that he was strapped in a hospital bed, IV and EKG and equipment setup all around him. When he tried to stretch, he could feel a crazy sharp pain in his wings and grunted, attempting not to disturb anypony else. However, somepony did hear him as the white curtain to his right was pulled back to reveal a nurse's head looking down at him. Asuya looked directly at the nurse, who then gasped and fled, going to get the doctor. Not realizing this, Asuya sighed and turned his head to the window a few feet away. Right as he was going to start crying for the loss of his sister, the nurse from earlier returned, a clipboard held under he wing. Still frightened, the nurse moved closer to Asuya, who looked straight at her as she did, so she could examine his wounds.

She did her best to muster a kind smile as she spoke to Asuya. "Good afternoon, sir. How are you feeling?"

Asuya sighed and looked back at the window "Does it even matter anymore? I mean, I'm really thankful for what you have done for me up to this point, but I need to go."

The nurse blinked as he said this, "Well... OK then. I would ask what you need to go do, but I can tell that you don't really want to talk about it. Either way, you still need to rest, your wings were severely burnt and will take a few weeks to recover. Not to mention the fact that the lack of usage over the recovery time will weaken them."

Asuya nodded, not surprised in the least "Yeah, that's understandable. I can handle that. I do have one request however..."

The nurse genuinely smiled now because of Asuya's co-operation "Really? Well this is a first. A pegasus that's fine with not being able to use their wings for at least a few weeks. And what is it that you request, dear?"

Asuya looked down, as if embarrassed "Umm... does this hospital have a.... garden?"

Suppressing her laughter as best she could, the nurse responded "Yeah, we do. Would you like to see it?"

Asuya, catching on the the fact that this nurse was holding back laughter at his request, got defensive and glared at the mare next to him "Yeah, i would. Is that a problem? Or is it just HILARIOUS that a male would like to relax in a garden after being caught up in an explosion after his one and only sister got kidnapped?"

The nurse looked shocked, not knowing about his sister being kidnapped and all, and looked away from the agitated pegasus "I..... I'm so sorry. I didn't know. I can take you there if you want."

Asuya grunted and looked away once more "Just forget it. Besides, I need to be released from this room first" he said as he strained to get out of bed, only to be held back by the straps

The nurse sighed, feeling terrible about what she had done to the unfortunate pegasus "Listen, I'm really sorry about what I did. I'll leave you be for tonight, and I'll come back tomorrow to check on you, OK?" she said as Asuya fell asleep. She smiled to herself and sat down, watching her patient sleep peacefully.

Author's Note: First off, ALL of my OCs came from a story that I tried to write before FiM was even released, so if things seem a bit weird or out of place, please either just roll with it or tell me so I might be able to fix it. Also, don't count on any regular releases. OH one last thing, going to establish the backstory, so it will probably suck, so if you're reading it, Thanks!

Chapter One: Enter the Cliche!

Chapter 1: Enter the Cliche!

-Four years after the events of Prologue.

Asuya was on patrol in the Everfree Forest, making sure that none of the creatures in the forest left and caused havoc in nearby villages. He had had some altercations with a pack of manticores a few weeks ago, so he made sure to keep and eye out for anything and everything that sounded suspicious. He was just about to make his way back to Zecora's hut to check to see if she needed anything from him, when he heard a pony scream off in the distance. With that, Asuya bolted off in the direction of the sound as fast as he could given the constricted space in the forest. He flew straight to the edge of the forest, only to find a lavender unicorn with a darker purple mane and tail with a lighter streak of pink along the length of both under one of the manticores from a few weeks ago. Seeing this, he charged the unknowing beast in an attempt to release the unicorn from the beast's grip. He was successful in this and held out his hoof to the unicorn mare and helped her onto her hooves.

Looked into the mare's eyes and asked "Hey, are you OK? Did you get hit by that manticore's tail?"

The lavender mare looked back, obviously impressed at Asuya's charge "Yeah... yeah, I did get scratched a little, but I'll be fine."

Asuya nodded and turned back to the manticore, who was getting up from the ground "Listen ma'am, I know we just met and everything, but you need to trust me when I say this: Go back to your house NOW. I've seen this manticore in the forest before, and things are about to get incredibly dangerous." He then looked back at the mare, looking for the scratch mark. Upon seeing it, he relaxed a little "Well then, I've got good news for you. That little scratch you got isn't dangerous at all. Granted you lose use of your magic until the venom exits your body, you shouldn't feel any other side-effects."

The unicorn blinked and tilted her head "How can you tell?"

Asuya steeled himself once he heard the sound of the manticore's roar and turned to face the ugly beast. "If we met again, maybe I'll tell you, but as of now you need to leave"

With that, the unicorn started to protest, but before she could even say anything, another manticore lunged at her. Fearing for her life, she attempted to use magic on the beast, only to find that she couldn't. Just as the beast was about to land, Asuya landed a left-hoof uppercut to the monster's gut, effectively stopping it's momentum enough for Asuya to roundhouse the manticore over towards the first. Asuya then proceeded to take a defensive stance between the unicorn and the manticores. Good thing too, because the manticores both charged the stallion which they had a grudge against. If you can imagine a DBZ type fight, where all involved are attacking and dodging really fast, take that and slow it down, and replace the aliens that you would probably see with two manticores and the hero with Asuya, and that's basically how the fight took place. After Asuya had literally knocked both manticores back a good 10 to 20 feet, it could been seen that he hadn't a scratch on him.

He turned around and looked at the unicorn, who was staring at Asuya wide-eyed due to what she had just witnessed "Go NOW! Before you get hurt!"

The unicorn shook her head and stood beside the stallion "No! I'm not letting anypony fight two manticores alone!"

Asuya looked across the field and to his dismay saw the rest of the manticore family he encountered last week appearing from the forest. With urgency in his voice, he yelled at the unicorn mare "Listen, while I appreciate the help, you'll get killed if you stay! I've handled these beasts on my own before. I need you to go now while you still can! And don't even THINK of coming back with reinforcements!"

The unicorn blinked and saw the the family of six manticores across the field. She was absolutely terrified, and while she didn't want to leave this stallion, there was something about him that she trusted. She turned tail and fled, shout as she did so "Don't you die yet, i never even learned your name yet!"

Asuya waited for the unicorn to be out of sight, then he turned towards the beasts before him and taunted the largest of the six "Come at me bro."

Twilight was running as fast as she could to get to Fluttershy's cottage. She was scared to death of those manticores, but that stallion had saved her life from the first one and she refused to just leave him completely. Hopefully Fluttershy knows about manticores and can help him She thought Hell, if nothing else, her knowledge in first-aid will be helpful. She finished her thought right as she reached the door to the little cottage on the outskirts of town. Where she would normally knock elegantly and quietly as not to startle her friend, she knocked frantically, hoping that Fluttershy would be home. Twilight's knocking startled somepony inside enough to make them drop something, causing it to break upon hitting the floor. After a few minutes, probably because the pony inside was cleaning the mess, a yellow pegasus with a pink mane and tail timidly cracked open the door to see who was knocking. Upon seeing Twilight's extremely worried/fearful expression, Fluttershy immediately opened the door fully to let her friend.

Fluttershy was to shocked at her friend's expression to be timid and audibly said "Oh my goodness! What happened Twilight?"

Twilight shook her head "I was just coming back from visiting Zecora, when a wild manticore jumped on top of me!"

Before she could even finish her story, Fluttershy gasped "A manticore attacked you? Are you alright?"

Twilight nodded, but still seemed freaked out "Yeah, I'm fine. But that's not the problem! A pegasus stallion rushed out of the forest and knocked the manticore off of me before it could hurt me too much. Then another manticore appeared from the woods! I thought that I might've been able to help him, but he told me to leave as he fought off both of the manticores before they could get to me. When the fight was over and he knocked them back a good distance, he didn't even have a single scratch on his body."

Fluttershy stood there, mouth agape at what she just heard. A pegasus that can fight off two manticores while defending somepony else and end up without even a single scratch? It didn't even seem possible to her. "Is he going to be ok?"

Twilight shook her head and started shaking a little "I doubt it. He told me to leave and not to come back, even if I brought help. Had it not been for four more manticores showing up, I would've ignored his warnings. I trusted him for some reason and he saved my life, so I decided to come here in the hopes that you might be able to help him."

If her jaw could have fallen off of her face, it would have. Fluttershy had never heard of six manticores gathered in one place at a time. Let alone a pegasus that even thought of trying to fight off all of them to defend an unicorn that he had never met, it just was mind-blowing. Fluttershy snapped out of her trance and nodded to Twilight "Let me go wake up Luna. She's been staying with me to try and change her image around here, and she's really good with healing magic." With that, Fluttershy floated through the house to go find Princess Luna. She explained Luna about what was going on, and they both came outside, with med-kits and everything, and nodded at Twilight, signaling that they where ready.

Twilight nodded back to the midnight blue princess and her yellow pegasus friend and began to run of in the direction of the clear "He's this way! Hurry, maybe well get there in time to help him!"

And at that they all rushed off to the clearing just outside the Everfree.

Asuya dodged attack after attack from the alpha manticore, continually countering with his own attacks. So long as they only come at me one by one, I should be fine. Asuya thought If I'm lucky, I won't have to revert to *that** again...* His thoughts where interrupted as he was tackled from behind by one of the other manticores, and pinned to the ground. He turned his head to see the other five charging at him, vengeance obvious in there features. Asuya sighed Damn. There goes that. he thought as he proceeded to glow with a green light similar to the one from four years ago when he was trying to stop his adoptive father. Asuya disappeared in a flash of light, and reappeared right behind the manticore that charged him. However, he was in full battle mode, and was no longer a pony, but rather a human. (looks like this, and this is just a screenshot from Cabal Online, ESTsoft Corp. http://asuya-syndori.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d32gxlv)

Asuya grinned as he enchanted his sword "Heh, you all really messed with the wrong pony today. I may have gone easy on you a few weeks ago, but not today. You forced me to use this accursed form and you're going to pay for it."

At that, he launched a runic projectile at the largest manticore using his sword, and then closed the gap of a few feet in a few seconds. His sword was glowing an earthly dark green and had a similarly coloured liquid dripping from it as he phased in and out of existence around the manticore multiple times, cutting the beast and reappearing in a new place each time. After a few seconds of this, the elder manticore slumped to the ground with deep gash wounds releasing blood in large gushes. Asuya then turned and faced the female manticore that tackled him earlier and raised his hand, which then proceeded to glow. After literally a second, five obsidian spikes launched themselves from the ground and impaled the unfortunate manticore, killing it instantly as on spike imbedded itself the the beasts skull. The four younger creatures seemed to understand that this was fight that they weren't winning, so the attempted to turn tail and run. But Asuya had other plans, and commanded the earth below them to insnare them so that he could deal with them once and for all. He silently walked over to the on closest to the edge of the forest and slammed his palm into the ground, causing the earth wrapped around the manticore to pull the poor beast underground, burying it alive. Asuya got up and sheathed his sword in the scabbard at his left hip, he wouldn't need it anymore. As he walked up to the next two manticores, he grabbed onto the side of their heads and electrocuted them right on the spot, the earthen vines retracting to the ground as the charred creatures dropped dead. Asuya was grinning like a madman as he walked up to the last one and decided the last one to suffer a fate that could possible be harsher than death. Asuya snapped his fingers and the last manticore was transported into the middle of the Everfree Forest without injury, but also alone and having to live with the memory of seeing his entire family killed right before his eyes.

After he transported the manticore away and buried the rest of the bodies, as to let them decompose and fertilize the forest, he glowed once more as he reverted back to his normal for: a pony. After reverting back to normal, Asuya decided to inspect himself for any injuries. Unfortunately, he had been hit by a few stray tails after that lavender unicorn left, as well as getting impaled by the tail of the manticore that tackled him, leaving a gapping hole in his stomach. Asuya grunted as he stretched his wings and began to try and fly, but fell immediately afterwords due to the manticore venom finally taking effect on him. As his struggled to stand back up, he saw three silhouettes on the horizon heading towards him. Low and behold, the three silhouettes where three ponies, one of which was the unicorn from earlier. Asuya grunted and turned around, trying to get to the forest so that he could hide from the ponies. The venom however had other plans, s he found it increasingly hard to move.

As the lavender unicorn saw Asuya, she started to run as fast as she possibly could, worry in her eyes. As she reached Asuya, she hugged him, it just felt right to her for some reason.

Asuya grunted as he was hugged and tried to break it "I thought I told you stay away."

The lavender unicorn stopped hugging Asuya and inspected him, gasping at how many wounds he had "Well you should be thankful that I didn't, just look at you!" She looked at the two other ponies as they landed "Luna, do you know an spells to remove manticore venom?"

The midnight blue pony with a mane that reminded Asuya of the night sky simply nodded, and he gasped as he noticed that this pony was an alicorn. "Wh...wh...who are you two?" Asuya said shakily.

The midnight blue alicorn just shook her head as her horn began to glow "That's not important. Right now, we need to get you healed up. Now this will hurt, but it'll remove the venom from your system."

Asuya grunted as the spell progressed and boiled his blood to expunge the venom. It hurt like freaking hell, but he just stood his ground and kept from bolting away from the group of ponies.

While the midnight blue alicorn was tending to the venom, the yellow pegasus with a Pink mane and tail reached into her first aid kit and shyly approached Asuya. She then saw the hole in his stomach and gasped, and immediately started to tend to the wound.

The yellow pegasus looked directly at her lavender friend, concern obvious in her voice "Hey Twilight, ummm... could you come here, that is... if it's not to much to ask..."

The lavender unicorn nodded "Sure, what do you need me to do Fluttershy?"

The pegasus just motioned to the chest wound and said with an air of authority "I need you to help me apply the salve and then bandage him up. Once we're done we need to take him to the hospital as soon as Luna's done expunging the venom."

The lavender unicorn nodded and used her magic to start applying the salve onto Asuya's chest where the wound was while the yellow pegasus was applying the same salve to the wound on his back. Between the pain from the alicorn's spell, the intense burn from the salve, as well as the blood lose from all of his wounds, Asuya just couldn't hold out any longer and blacked out.

Asuya woke up only to find himself restrained to a bed in a white room with all sorts of medical equipment setup around him. Gee, just like the incident four years ago. Asuya thought. Only a few seconds after he opened his eyes though, a group of ponies all stood up, all with a mixture of emotions. The lavender unicorn from earlier seemed to be immensely relieved that he was awake, as did the yellow pegasus and the midnight blue alicorn. There was another unicorn in the room as well, bearing stunningly white fur and an overly styled purple mane and tail. When Asuya turned to face the white unicorn, she giggled and blushed a bit. I don't know, nor do I even want to. Asuya thought as he looked at the rest of the ponies in the room. The only two left that he'd yet to see was a pure white alicorn with a pastel coloured mane and tail that seemed to move of it's own volition, just like the midnight blue alicorn from earlier. She was a good head or two taller than the rest, and smiled at him reassuringly, which didn't make Asuya anymore comfortable. Lastly, Asuya turned his head to see a cyan pegasus with a chromatic mane and tail. She was looking at him with a raised eyebrow, almost as if she was sayingWho is this joker? Asuya sighed and looked back to the three that helped him after the fight, and they all were obviously worried for him. Asuya then realized that every single pony in his room was female, and that freaked him out for some reason. His eyes went wide and tried his best to hide from his guests, shaking a little as he did so.

The lavender unicorn was the first to react and walked over to Asuya's bed "Are you OK?"

Asuya stopped shivering and looked at the lavender unicorn with a face that said Are you fucking kidding me? She got the hint and sat on the bed, worry obvious in her features "What's wrong? Do you want to talk about it?"

That's when the chromatic pegasus spoke up "Uh, hey Twi? Don't you think it would be best if we all introduced ourselves to the guy?"

The lavender unicorn nodded and stood up, reaching her hoof out as she did so "Good point. My name is Twilight Sparkle and these are my some of my friends"

The midnight blue alicorn nodded her head "I am Princess Luna. But please just call me Luna. The title princess is just too formal for me"

The white unicorn then bowed slightly "Greetings, my name is Rarity." and when she noticed Asuya's mane she kinda flipped into designer mode "Oh darling you just HAVE to let me do something to your mane! I mean just look at it."

Asuya raised an eyebrow at that, but decided to let his though slide in an attempt to be polite to his guests.

Then the chromatic pony walked over to Asuya and posed just a little bit "And I'm Rainbow Dash! I was named 'Best Young Flier' last year and I am the ONLY pony to have pulled off the Sonic Rainboom!"

Before Asuya could even respond to the pegasus, the regal looking white alicorn bowed and smiled warmly "And you should probably know me already. But just incase, my name is Princess Celestia."

And THAT's when Asuya freaked out and tried to get out of the bed. Unfortunately for him, he was bound to the bed. After his futile attempt at escape, he just slumped back into the bed and looked at the yellow pegasus with a raised eyebrow since she had yet to introduce herself.

The yellow pegasus picked up on the attention and hide behind her mane a little and almost inaudibly to the rest said "Um... my... my name is... um... Fluttershy."

Asuya nodded, understanding not to push for more information out of the yellow pegasus, and looked back at the unicorn named Twilight Sparkle quizzically.

Twilight looked at Asuya and leaned in a little bit "So, what's your name then?"

Asuya hung his head and sighed, knowing that there was no way out of this situation "Asuya."

Twilight then raised an eyebrow and tilted her head "Asuya? Well then, that's an odd name." Then she got curious and grabbed the blanket covering Asuya "Hey, do you mind if I take a look at your cutie mark?"

Asuya cringed and looked away, but then sighed and nodded.

After she got the OK to, Twilight pulled back the blanket enough to reveal Asuya's cutie mark, only to reveal a blank flank. This drew mixed reactions from the group of ponies. Hearing something from Asuya's direction, Twilight looked at him only to see him crying. Twilight went over the Asuya and hugged him, apologizing for embarrassing him. Given the fact that he was 1. bound to the bed still and 2. understood that it would be rude to pull away from the hug, Asuya just laid there, getting hugged by Twilight, and decided to man up a little.

Asuya waited until Twilight had finished hugging him, and then looked at Princess Celestia "Would t be too much to ask to be unbound from this bed? But, um... if it's not, then that's fine I guess..."

Princess Celestia nodded as her horn started to glow, using her magic to removing the leather binds around Asuya "There, is that any better?"

Asuya nodded and got up, stretching his wings as he did so. What he didn't expect was the reaction he got. All off the ponies in the room, including both princesses, had their mouths agape as they saw his wings. Noticing this, Asuya quickly retracted his wings and hung his head "I'm sorry... I didn't mean to startle you..." Luna walked over to Asuya and showed him her own wings. They were identical to his, minus the colour of course. And that's when Asuya snapped for like the second time. He didn't know that the lunar princess had wings so similar to his and instantly jumped to the conclusion that the group around him would suspect him of some crime. He bolted for the wind in an attempt to escape. He made it out the window only to be tackled be Rainbow Dash.

"And just where do you think you're going mister?" Dash said during their free fall

Asuya regained his composure and floated midair "I'm going Home!" and he turned towards the Everfree.

But but before he could even go anywhere, Asuya was caught in Celestia's magic and lifted back into the room. She put him down and raised an eyebrow "Now what was that for?"

Asuya's eyes were as wide as dinner plates due to fear and he slumped to the floor "Please don't kill me your majesty..."

Luna then went over to Asuya and hugged him, like Twilight, but longer "Now why in the world would we kill the stallion that saved Twilight?"

At this point, Asuya's mind was racing and he was starting to realize that he had just let fear get the better of him, and he began to cry once more. (Yes, cause he's man enough to cry a lot.) All of the other ponies in the room came into hug him as well. Fluttershy Was on his left while Luna was on his right, Twilight was on top of him to his right, with Rainbow coming back into the room and joining in on the group hug by landing next to Twilight. Princess Celestia did what she always did in such a situation and just bent her head down and nuzzled Asuya, with Rarity doing the same for fear of messing up he mane.

As the group hug disbanded, Asuya just stayed where he was on the floor, utterly ashamed of his attempt to escape. "I'm.... I'm... I'm sorry...."

Rarity looked at Asuya with a bit of confusion "Well what ever for darling?"

Asuya looked away from the group "Well, because I caused so much trouble and tried to escape..."

Princess Celestia smiled "Don't worry about it. Besides, you didn't cause any trouble at all."

A knock heard at the door and Princess Celestia responded "Who is it?"

A male voice replied from the other side of the door "It's us Princess. We got your letter and want to check up on him"

Princess Celestia nodded and opened the door via her magic and let two ponies through the door. One male and on female, both pegasus and both in wind suits. The stallion had a palish blue coat and a darker blue mane and tail, while the mare had an orange coat with a mane and tail that looked similar to fire. As the mare walked in, she turned her head to see Asuya, gasped, and rushed over to him.

She hugged him to the point of strangulation, tears starting to form in her eyes "Oh my gosh, Asuya! What happened to you?"

"Ack! Can't... breath..." Asuya choked out through the mare's death hug

The mare blushed and loosened her grip "Hehe... sorry about that. But what happened to you Asu?"

Asuya sighed and looked away from the mare "Well... um... l... um.... kind of fought off some manticores..."

The mare's jaw dropped upon hearing this "Well why the hell would you go and do that?"

Twilight came and sat down next to Asuya, leaning on him a little "He was saving me. He fought off six manticores to save me."

This caused everypony to gasp again, everypony's eye's wide with shock. The newly arrived pegasus mare looked at Asuya with a mixture of shock and admiration "Is true Asu? Did you really fight six manticores?"

Asuya nodded hesitantly "Yes, Spitfire. But it's nothing to be proud of..."

The pegasus stallion looked at Asuya as if he were crazy "Wait, wait, wait. Lemme get this straight... you fought off SIX manticores and, although I'm assuming this, WON yet you're not proud of such an accomplishment?"

Asuya nodded "Yes Soarin', that sums it up pretty well." then a thought struck him "Hey... how long have I been out for?"

They all looked away, Luna being the one to break the news "2 Months."

Asuya raised an eyebrow and thought to himself Really? I've only been out for two months? Damn, that's a lot faster than the recovery time on my own and tried to get up, but couldn't because Twilight was still leaning on him and Spit was still hugging him fiercely "Uhh, may I get up now?"

Twilight and Spitfyre both said in no unison and both snuggled that little bit closer to Asuya.

Soarin' decided that Spit would be fine and would probably not leave Asuya alone for a while anyway, so he walked towards the door "Well, I've got a feelin' that Spit will be hear for a while, so I'm going to go work with the Wonderbolts in her absence. Take care Asuya. Feel free to come train with us whenever, it'll be nice to have an old friend to race with again. You can come to Dash, so long as your around that is."

Everyone said their goodbyes to Soarin' and Rainbow, since she decided to take him up on his offer. Princess Celestia said she needed Rarity's help with a design for the next Gala, which Rarity happily agreed too. Luna and Fluttershy came and went seeing as how they were the ponies taking care of Asuya's wounds, but were otherwise off to enjoy the day. Twilight decided to stay with Asuya for as long as it took for him to get better, snuggling up to him whenever possible. Spitfire also decided to stay with Asuya, trying to catch up with the former Wonderbolt and also snuggle with him as much as she possiblly could. They both even slept in his room, despite his argument, each once again trying to snuggle up to him.

After both Twilight and Spitfire appeared to have fallen asleep, Asuya climbed out the window and flew up to the roof and started to sing. He sat up there for a few hours, with two mares listening to him through the window, singing to his hearts content and eventually flew back into the room, Spit and Twilight both still in bed asleep for all he knew, and decided to sleep on the floor. That night he dreamed of one thing

He dreamed of the day four years ago when he lost his sister, and how he vowed to find her one day.

Authors Note: I know that this idea about Asuya's Bipedal form is cliche, but there are some aspects to his character that I want and need to keep, and him being a pony makes it difficult. I'm terribly sorry if it bothers you, but I've already strayed a lot from his original character and somethings about him just don't cleanly transfer over to being a pony. Sorry T-T

Chapter Two: Start Again

Chapter 2: Start Again

Asuya woke up suddenly due to a dream turned nightmare and kept himself from waking up anypony else. He rubbed his temples and stretched a bit, knowing that he wouldn't be going back to sleep anytime soon, when a thought struck him Where am I anyway... Canterlot? He looked out the window to check for the spires and such that populate the majority of the magical capital city. He didn't see any architectural structures like those in Canterlot, so Asuya rubbed his eyes just incase he was hallucinating or something and took another gander at the window. What he saw was a fairly tame town square surrounded by architecture that was simplistic yet also majestic in a way. The way the buildings all seemingly merged together while still being easily selected from each other just left Asuya in awe. While Canterlot has many ornate buildings and majestic sculptures, it just seemed to lack that appeal of unity that small towns embodied. Asuya was so taken by the view of this village that he never noticed that Spitfire had woken up. While she wasn't exactly elegant when it comes to sneaking, Spit still managed to walk over to Asuya undetected and positioned herself to execute her plan, smiling to herself as she did.

"Hey Asuya, how are you this morning?" Spit asked

Asuya didn't look at Spitfire, not out of disrespect, but rather due to being preoccupied with the view before him "Good."

Spit giggled to herself a little "Hey, um, can you come look at this for a moment Asu?"

Asuya nodded and turned to face the mare asking for him "Yeah sure, what is--" He started, but was cut off by Spitfire kissing him fairly passionately. Asuya's eyes easily doubled in size due to shock at the mare's unexpected action. Between still being in awe of the view of the town and the shock from the kiss, Asuya couldn't move at all. Spit eventually broke the kiss so that she could breath, giggling at Asuya's face. She leaned in once more for another kiss, this time placing one of her hooves around Asuya's neck. Both of them were blushing, Spit more so than Asuya as the second kiss connected. It was just as long as the first, but more calm and controlled. After about a minute, Spit once again broke the kiss, blushing heavily as she nuzzled Asuya.

"Good morning Asu~"

"G-g-g-good morning Spit..." Asuya stuttered, blushing unimaginably deeply.

"You're so adorable when you do that Asu... just makes me want more~" Spitfire giggled as she half teased Asuya.

"I... um... where am... are we anyway Spit?" Asuya eventually asked

"Why the Ponyville Hospital of course. Twilight, Fluttershy, and Princess Luna all found you a few yards from the Everfree with incredibly heavy injuries, so they had to take you to the closest hospital: here." Spitfire answered factually.

"Um.. I.. um.." Asuya stuttered for a little bit as he tried to sort out his thoughts given everything that's happened "About how close are we to the Everfree?"

"Ponyville is the closest settlement to the Everfree Forest, so not too far. Why do you want to know?" asked a puzzled Spitfire.

"Because I want to go home Spit." Asuya answered once he finally sorted his thoughts out.

"Wait, you live in the Everfree Asuya?" asked Twilight and Spitfire.

"Oh... um... I.. I'm sorry that I woke you Twilight... um... sorry..." Asuya responded, much like Fluttershy would, as he shrunk a bit.

"It's fine Asuya, it lets me see you more today~" Twilight said as she was blushing and smiling at Asuya.

"But.. um... yeah.... I live in the Everfree." Asuya meekly said, obviously not wanting to be in this situation.

Both Twilight and Spitfire raised they're eyebrows at this. Neither of them expected anypony to live in the everfree, minus Zecora of course, let alone somepony like Asuya. Twilight pegged him as the type to come from Manehattan given how good he is at fighting and Spit thought he just moved to Cloudsdale after he left the Wonderbolts three years ago. Both mares sat down beside Asuya to attempt to comfort him. But, to they're dismay, they're action only put him in a state of discomfort. When they would ask him about it, Asuya would just shake his head and say 'I just want to go home' over and over again. Twilight eventually wrote a letter to the Princesses asking for one or both of them to come help Asuya settle in Ponyville and asked Spitfire to keep Asuya company while she was gone. Spitfire obliged and stayed with Asuya, attempting to both comfort him as well as make a few moves on him every now and then while Twilight was sending her letter. A good 30 minutes passed before Twilight came back and Spit had neither gotten any closer to Asuya, nor did he ease up and move from his little spot on the floor. Twilight knocked on the door and waited as Spitfire got up and answered. As Spitfire opened the door, she notice not one, but three ponies waiting there. She stepped aside and bowed as she let in the two royal sisters. After they passed, Spitfire immediately rose and went over to once again sit next to Asuya, Twilight following and reclaiming her spot from before she sent her letter. Asuya just lay there, depression filling his features, as the two mares sat down beside him once again and as the two Princesses also approached. Why is this even happening to me... I just want to go home. Asuya thought, on the verge of tears as his thoughts start to cloud once more. Oddly enough, Luna broke the very awkward and saddening silence in the hospital room.

"Asuya, would you like to tell us what's wrong?" Luna asked as she took a sit in front of the depressed stallion, her sister following suit.

"I... I.... I just want to go home..." Asuya reiterated for like the hundredth time that morning

"Asuya, would it help if we gave you a home right here in Ponyville? That way, you can keep in touch with society and you will still be close to the Everfree." Celestia offered warmly.

"While I appreciate the offer... I... I can't ask you to do that Your Highness. I can't ask that from anypony." Asuya responded, shaking his head as he did so.

"And why is that Asuya?" Luna asked, concern and curiosity starting to appear in he features.

"Well.. because... I just don't want to be a burden on anypony." Asuya said, shaking his head a little as he responded to the midnight blue Alicorn.

"Asuya, you would not be a burden to us. You single-hoofedly saved my personal student and I want to thank you. If you want a house in Ponyville, or any settlement for that matter, it would be the least I could do." Celestia responded with a warm smile spreading across her face as well as reaching her eyes.

"Besides, Hearth Warming is in two days. Don't you want to stay and celebrate it with us?" Spitfire asked as she leaned on Asuya just a little.

"Well... I mean... I do... but... um... I.. um... also...." Stuttered Asuya as he tried to answer Spit's question honestly while still not being too harsh, blushing as she started to lean on him.

"You need to speak up more Asuya, I can't really hear you." Spitfire said, teasing him a little bit.

Asuya just shook his head at that. While he wanted to tell them the truth, he really didn't want to hurt their feelings. The four mares just looked at him with raised eyebrows and concern in their eyes, unsure how to help Asuya, let alone what's bothering him in the first place. After a good few minutes of lightly crying, Asuya stood up and sighed.

"I... I... I'm sorry that I wasted your time. All of you deserve a better friend than me... I should probably be going then..." Asuya said, hanging his head a bit as he did so, and walked towards the door.

Before he could even take literally two steps, Asuya was glomped by both Spitfire and Twilight, each starting to cry a little bit. Luna also made a move to stand as well and similarly glomped Asuya, just not a quickly as Twilight and Spitfire did. Seeing this, Celestia glanced at her sister with a raised eyebrow which, in turn, caused Luna to blush slightly.

"Asuya, please don't leave..." pleaded a somewhat distraught Spitfire "It was hard enough the first time..."

"Please listen to us Asuya, you're not a bad pony..." Twilight said, attempting to reassure both herself and Asuya. "All of us really want you to stay."

"Agreed, we all want to get to know you better" Luna said, blushing lightly.

"I'll see to it that you get a quality home right here in Ponyville. Would you also like me to get you a job for income?" Celestia offered.

Asuya sighed "I'm assuming that I'm not going to win this argument am I?"

All the mares in the room shook their heads at Asuya's question. "Fine, I'll stay here in Ponyville." Asuya said, succumbing to defeat. Luna, Twilight, and Spitfire cheered a bit, hugging Asuya a little bit tighter. "But.. um.. Your Highness," Asuya said as Celestia got up to go get his living arrangements set up, causing her to turn her head and look at Asuya

"Yes?" Celestia asked simply.

"I... um... well... you don't have to build a house for me... I... well... I can build my own house." Asuya stuttered a bit.

"Are you sure Asuya? Building a house is more difficult than you'd think..." Celestia questioned, an eyebrow raised

"Yeah... um.. I'm sure. I've kinda... well... I've done this before." Asuya responded as the three mares around him released him from the triple hug.

"Well, if you say so. Just remember, if you need me to help you at all, please don't hesitate to ask. Also, please drop the 'Your Highness' and 'Princess' stuff. Just call me Celestia, or Celly for that matter" Celestia said, smiling warmly at Asuya and walking out the door.

The rest of the day was fairly tame, mostly consisting of Spitfire, Twilight, and Luna all hanging out with Asuya as he quickly finished recovering. within a few hours (around noon for those of you who want to know times) Asuya was released with perfect health. Against his will, Asuya walked around town with the same three mares from the hospital as he was introduced to countless amounts of ponies. The only ponies he didn't meet where Applejack, she was on business in Manehattan and will stay until further notice, and Pinkie Pie. While Twilight was enthusiastic about introducing Asuya to the possibly insane party pony, Pinkie and the Cakes were just way to busy. The group eventually made it back to the Library to relax and prepare a little bit for the upcoming holiday. Again, against his will, Asuya agreed to stay at the Library with Twilight until he finished building his new house, but he did compromise with Twilight and moved the spare bed from Twilight's room to the basement. As Spitfire and Luna left, Asuya found himself engrossed in a book series and completely missed their departure and made a mental note to apologize to them ASAP. Around Midnight, Asuya succumbed to blissful sleep, after saying good night to Twilight, and made sure to continue reading the next day. And that's exactly what he did. Literally all day, from when he woke up to about midnight once again, Asuya was engorging himself with the knowledge held inside the Library. Twilight eventually brought Pinkie over, but Asuya was so engrossed in his studies that he didn't even seem to acknowledge Pinkie's presence, which basically sums up that day. Seriously, not much else really happened.

Hearth's Warming Day

It was around 3pm in Ponyville as Twilight and Asuya where walking over to Sugarcube Corner for the 'Welcome to Ponyville' party that Pinkie was throwing for Asuya that he was never told about, as is customary for said party type. Upon nearing the home of the hyperactive party pony, Asuya's instincts instantly kicked in and he began to plot out escape routes incase of an ambush since all of the lights in Sugarcube Corner were off. Twilight never even noticed Asuya's paranoid actions and just kept walking and talking about some of the ins and outs of the town as she lead them towards the darkened building. What made things even worse was that Asuya didn't notice anypony on the streets while he was scanning the surroundings for escape routes, which set him on edge that much more. By the time they reached the sugary building, Asuya had his wings fully extended protectively and his glasses transformed a into headgear much like a Teragrace Helm (Cabal Online reference. I'll be doing that a lot.) as he prepared himself for the worst. Twilight opened the door and walked inside, motioning for Asuya to do the same. Against his better judgement, Asuya followed suit and walked into the darkened building. After he walked in something closed the door behind him, which made him jump and ready to bolt. As he crouched defensively, all of the lights were instantly cut on and everypony in the room said 'Welcome to Ponyville!' throwing confetti everywhere. Since he was still paranoid from earlier, Asuya freaked out and bucked the door behind him open and attempted to escape. But before he started to fly, Twilight pulled him back to the party via her magic and held him there until he calmed down.

"I... I... I'm sorry that I freaked out like that everypony" Asuya said, shrinking a bit due to embarrassment.

"It's alright Asuya, you didn't hurt anypony here." Twilight said, attempting to reassure him that he did nothing wrong and letting go of her magical hold on him.

"Yeah! I mean we probably should've asked you if you like surprises in the first place. I mean I like surprises, but that's just me. I also like cupcakes and cookies and I'll have a muffin someti-" Pinkie Pie said, only to have a cupcake shoved into her mouth to keep her quiet.

"Any-who, Welcome to Ponyville my dear. I know we've already met once, but I'd like to introduce myself once again. I am Rarity, fashionista extraordinaire!" Rarity said, striking a small pose as she introduced herself again.

"H-h-hello..." Asuya stuttered "It's.... nice to... um... meet you... again."

"Are you OK Asu?" Spitfire asked as she got past the crowd and sat down next to Asuya.

"Y... yeah, I'll... I'll be fine. I'm... well... I'm kinda... um... shy..." Asuya responded meekly, shrinking as he said the last word.

"Ooooo! I can help you with that!" Pinkie said as she finished her cupcake and grabbed Asuya by his front right hoof, zooming off the way only Pinkie can and introducing Asuya to everypony at the party.

Since literally everyone in Ponyville was at the party, that's really all Asuya did for the duration: get introduced to random ponies by a hyper-active bouncing pink blur. It was an interesting day to say the least, especially since he and Fluttershy both agreed on a place near her house for Asuya to construct his. With that done, Asuya headed back to the Library since he didn't really have anywhere else to stay while his house was under construction. Being polite, Asuya knocked on the front door of the library and waited for a little bit for Twilight to finish whatever it was she was doing and let him in. A good minute or two passed before Twilight came to open the door. Asuya bowed a bit as he entered the building, which caused Twilight to blush a bit.

"Why so formal Asuya?" Twilight asked as she walked in behind him

"Oh... um... did I go to far?" Asuya asked, his embarrassment starting to show.

"No, it's fine Asu, just curious~" Twilight giggled

"Oh... um... OK. So... um... what now?" Asuya asked, a little lost as to what to do since his 'Welcome to Ponyville' party ended about an hour ago.

"Easy, now we celebrate Hearth's Warming. Just you and me~" Twilight said, blushing a bit as she turned off the lights so that the room would be lit only by the candles she had setup earlier.

"Um... aren't we... um... you know... supposed to... well... give each other gifts?" Asuya stuttered a little, starting to understand why it took Twilight a few minutes to answer the door.

"We are~" Twilight said, blushing as she walked up to Asuya.

"Then... um... what are you doing Twilight?" Asuya asked, really confused by Twilight

"What do you think?" Twilight said as she neared Asuya

"I don't know." Asuya said plainly.

"Well, my present to you is... well... me." Twilight said, blushing heavily as she hugged Asuya

Asuya just stood there, unsure how to react to what just happened. Why is this even happening to me? Isn't there some other stallion that deserves this kind of attention more than I do? All I want to do is get my sister back and yet Life keeps making things that much more difficult. Asuya thought, blushing a bit as Twilight hugged him. Twilight broke the hug and rested her forehead on Asuya's, blushing as she did, and leaned in. Asuya braced himself as Twilight leaned in, know exactly what she was trying to do, and blushed as their lips met. It lasted a good few seconds, both Asuya and Twilight blushing up a storm, until Twilight broke it.

"I.. um... well.. thanks Asu~" Twilight stuttered a bit, blushing heavily.

"W-w-wait do you mean?" Asuya stuttered, utterly confused as to what Twilight was talking about.

"Well, this was my first time... My first kiss" Twilight said, blushing heavily.

"Oh... I.... I'm sorry..." Asuya said, feeling guilty since he has also kissed Spitfire recently. Granted he didn't exactly mean to, but still.

"What? Why are you sorry Asu?" Twilight asked, utterly confused.

"Well... I'm sorry... that... um... I was... well... you first..." Asuya said, shrink a bit as he did.

"Why would you say something like that Asuya? You're a great pony... and cute too." Twilight responded immediately, blushing a bit as she said the last part.

Asuya shook his head and walked for the basement, wanting to sleep this off and hopefully understand it more the next day. Before he made it halfway down the steps though, he remembered something and walked back upstairs. He walked past Twilight, saying 'Wait here...' as he walked outside. A few minutes later, Asuya returned to the library with a medium sized package under his wing, which perked the curiosity of the really confused unicorn in the room.

"What's that Asuya?" Twilight asked as she got up and looked at the package as best she could.

"It's... well... a... um... gift." Asuya said as he gently laid the package on the floor, blushing as he did so.

"Really? Who for?" Twilight questioned.

"Well... um... you." Asuya said meekly.

"Really?" Twilight said, looking over to Asuya only to see him nodding. Twilight turned back to the present on the floor and began to open it. Much to her surprise, the box contained two separate things. The first thing Twilight saw was the ornately crafted cake that had 'Thank you for all of your help Twilight' written on it in cursive. When she looked at Asuya, all she could see was him looking away, blushing up a storm. What puzzled her the most though was the other gift. All it was was another box. Upon closer inspection, Twilight discovered that it was in fact a jewelry box. She was left speechless when she opened it. Inside was a White Pearl Necklace that had literally every single pearl was carved in such an ornate way, that even though each pearl was different, it blended as if it was all one long pearl. At the end of the necklace hung a gold pendant in the shape of the sun, like Celestia's Cutie Mark, with a white moon engraved in a midnight blue circle right in the middle of the golden sun. Twilight was speechless, This necklace must've cost a fortune Twilight thought.

"H.. ho... how did you get this Asuya?" Twilight asked, completely dumbfounded.

"Hmm? Oh that. I.. well... I... um... made it." Asuya said.

"No, not the cake Asuya. I meant this beautiful necklace." Twilight said, still gazing at the ornate piece of jewelry.

"Um... I made that too Twilight." Asuya said

"You did!?" Twilight said, mouth agape as she turned to face Asuya.

"Um.. yeah... is that bad?" Asuya said, completely lost

"No, it's... incredible Asu..." Twilight said, still flabbergasted at her gift.

"Happy Hearth's Warming Twilight" Asuya said as Twilight glomped him.

The rest of the night was fairly uneventful, since Twilight had asked all of her friends to wait till the next day to come over and celebrate the holiday. Twilight tried on her new necklace and hugged Asuya multiple times, still wanting to thank him for the jewelry. Spike eventually came to the library and instantly saw the cake, which Asuya happily handed to him. While Spike obliterated the cake, Asuya picked up where he left off the day before and began reading once again,Twilight leaning up against him as he did so. After eating half of the cake, Spike was full and decided to hit the stack, saying good night to the two ponies still in library. After a few hours of reading, the clock tower tolled midnight and Asuya put an end to his endless study session. As he was about to get up, he noticed that Twilight had fallen asleep next to him. Asuya lifted Twilight up onto his back as gently as he possibly could and walked up stairs into her room, placing her into her bed gently as to not wake her up. Satisfied that she was still asleep, Asuya exited the room, closing the door on the way out, and headed back into the main room to clean up the mess he had made. It took a bit to re-shelf the dozen or so books that he had completed, so Asuya didn't get to bed until like 1AM. As soon as he got into his bed, he could feel the blissful grip of his subconscious pushing his eyes closed. Blissful sleep took over his entire body in a matter of minutes, leaving him to dream. Visions of Twilight and Spitfire crept into his subconscious, as well as his old home and the few neighbors he had. But Asuya primarily dreamt of one thing:

He once again dreamt about his sister, hoping she was still alive.

Author's Note: I'm sorry if all of this seems a little rushed, I wanted this to be finished on Christmas, but that just didn't happen. I tried to finish it yesterday, but then I got Skyrim. Please feel free to comments, I'd love the criticism. Anyway, thanks for reading!