Soul In the Sword

Chapter Four: A Tense Introduction

"Twilight?"

I looked to Celestia as she said what I assumed to be the new arrival's name.

"Celestia, you know her?"

Smiling softly, she looked to me and gently nodded her head.

"Indeed I do. She is my student, after all."

I looked back at the unicorn in the entrance, who only looked unnerved by my attention shifting to her.

So this is who she meant by 'her current apprentice,' huh? She doesn't look like much.

I glanced back down at the sword still in my hand before quickly looking back to the purple pony.

Though if Sunlight is any indication, looks are very deceiving in this world.

The unicorn's gaze was now glued to the sword and she had a look of horror on her face.

"You! You're the cause!"

Her horn glowed as a violet light engulfed my body and started to levitate me up and away from Celestia.

"Princess, get away from it! This thing is the cause of the magical surges I felt earlier! It's dangerous!"

Celestia's eyes widened in surprise and shock as she quickly stood. I could see her out of the corner of my eye, but couldn't turn my head to face her because of Twilight's telekinetic hold on me.

"Twilight Sparkle! You let him down right this instant! He is not an enemy!"

Twilight's eyes widened as well before turning to me with a glare and increasing the strength of her hold on me, causing me pain.

"What did you do to the Princess, monster!? Was that the spell you cast earlier!? Mind control!?"

Everything seemed to slow down around me as I grew angry from this complete stranger's accusations. Me? Mind control Celestia? I couldn't do anything like that!

How dare she...

Her grip tightened even more. I yelled out in pain from the magic that was nearly crushing me now.

"Well!? Answer me!"

How dare she!

I felt something, something that I can't fully describe. It was almost like a warmth rising into my chest, like my anger was fuel for a fire inside of me. I felt that warmth start to pool in my hands, feeling like I held them close to a crackling campfire.

"How dare you!"

The warmth in my hands shot out from me in a burst of red light that lit up the cave like a red flare and it broke whatever magical hold I was in, dropping me to the floor, landing on my back. I quickly shot to my feet, ready for another attack. I held my left arm in front of me, sword pointing at my attacker while my right hand was held further back, the red glow still surrounding it.

"Who do you think you are!? The first thing you do when you see something new is attack it and accuse it of committing acts of evil!?"

Twilight flinched from my shouting and the display of anger, but her glare didn't let up.

"What gives you the right to determine me to be a threat!? What gives you the right to attack me, you damn bigot!?"

Her ears flattened to her head, seemingly hurt by my words. Her glare softened slightly and had a tinge of concern and worry in it, like she was questioning her decision. The previous glare quickly returned after a moment. Her horn lit up again, and I prepared to strike.

"That's enough!"

The loud shout from behind me startled me, causing me to stumble and hold my ears as they began to ring from the intensity of the declaration. The glow around my hand faded as well. Twilight was similarly startled, the glow from her horn went out and she took a step backwards. Celestia walked in front of me and stood aggressively. While I am not an expert on equine body language, I could easily see how angry the white alicorn in front of me was.

"Twilight Sparkle! This creature, as I already stated, is not an enemy! His name is Liam, and he is my guest! I expect you to treat him as such! Do you understand me!?"

A look of what seemed to be fear crossed the smaller pony's face, and she opened her mouth to argue when Celestia stopped her.

"I said, do you understand me!?"

Sadness replaced Twilight's earlier fear as she glanced over to me. Her gaze remained on me for another moment before she sighed heavily and seemed to relax a bit.

"Yes, Princess..."

Celestia's posture relaxed as well when she heard those words, and she turned back to me.

"Liam, I am so sorry for th-"

"Twilight! What's goin' on?"

A new voice could be heard from the entrance of the cave before something, or rather several somethings, crashed into the purple unicorn from behind and sent her and her assailants tumbling into the cave, stopping a foot away from Celestia's hooves. It was...a pile of ponies?

"Eugh...what happened?"

A rainbow maned pegasus was holding her head in her hooves and groaning before she was pushed off of the orange pony that was wearing a hat.

"Consarnit, Rainbow Dash! Would ya git offa me!?"

I snickered at the pegasus' name and the orange pony's accent.

Really? A southern accent? Is that a stetson too?

A white unicorn sat up and frantically started to pat herself down, muttering to herself about her mane.

"Oh no, no, no, no! My coiffure! It took forever to style this!"

"Ow! Forget your mane! What about my head? Agh, that's twice in less than ten minutes!"

Rainbow Dash was rubbing her head with a hoof and wincing, seemingly having hit it after the orange pony shoved her off.

I could see a yellow pegasus sitting up and shaking her head before looking directly at me. She seemed to almost...squeak and then hide behind the white unicorn.

"Fluttershy dear, what's....oh. Oh my."

She had followed the one she called Fluttershy's gaze and when she saw me, hey eyes widened and her pupils shrank to an impossibly small size. It seemed that was enough to direct the rest of their attentions to me as they finally noticed who was in the cave with them.

"What the..."

The reactions were varied between them. The orange one looked at me suspiciously, Rainbow Dash's jaw fell in either shock or surprise, Fluttershy was still hiding behind the seemingly frozen white unicorn, and the pink one...

What the hell is she doing?

Hopping around the cave excitedly, the pink pony was either oblivious to, or uncaring of her friend's shock and surprise as she literally bounced around and babbled about how nice the moonlight looked in here.

Twilight had apparently recovered enough by that point, as she looked around groggily before spotting her friend hopping right towards me, not at all scared or worried. Twilight's eyes widened and she shot a hoof out.

"Pinkie, don't-"

"Ooooooh, what are you? I've never seen anything like you before! Where did you come from? Why are you in here with Princess Celestia? Did you do something bad?"

I couldn't keep up with her rapid questions and just stood there, not knowing what else to do or how to answer her. She seemed to have just noticed the sword in my hand and her eyes widened before a wide smile split her face and she starting zipping back and forth, staring at the sword and the tattoo on my arm.

"Oh wow, that's one shiny sword! Why would you need a sword though? That picture on your arm is really cool too! It's so shiny! Are you a soldier?"

I couldn't help but chuckle at that last question.

"Me? No, I'm not a soldier, just...someone who doesn't know what to do."

My voice was heavy with emotion as I spoke those words, and it seems that the pink pony picked up on it. She looked almost sad for a moment before she walked closer to me and placed her hoof on my leg and gave me a small smile.

"My name is Pinkie Pie. What's yours?"

I glanced over to her friends and saw that they all looked scared or concerned. It seems they thought that I was going to hurt her.

Good thing I'm not like that. I already feel bad enough about the timberwolf...

I looked back at Pinkie Pie and gently rubbed her head, and her eyes closed with a content and happy look on her face

"My name is Liam. It's nice to meet you, Pinkie."

Pinkie just leaned into my hand as I started scratching behind her ears, chuckling softly as her back hooves twitched softly and her tongue stuck out of her mouth slightly.

"Ohhhh yeah, that's the spot. That feels great..."

After another moment, I retrieved my hand from the poofy mane. I could briefly see her pout with a disappointed look on her face before I looked over to the rest of the ponies that were present. Their reactions were mostly the same as before with the exception of Celestia giving me a soft smile, seemingly approving of my meeting with the hyperactive pony.

"Princess, what is he?"

The orange one was still looking at me with barely disguised suspicion as she addressed the alicorn. Celestia looked over to me and started to explain.

"He is a...human, you said?"

I nodded.

"Then yes, my little pony. He is a human. I am not quite sure what exactly that means, but I can assure you all that he means us no harm."

The orange pony's expression only grew more suspicious as she stared at me with an expression that was just short of a glare.

"I don't buy it, Princess. We get dragged outta bed at this hour, told by Twilight that there was some kinda dangerous magic and then this weird critter just pops outta nowhere with a sword, and ya don't have the slightest feelin' that he might not be tellin' the truth about himself?"

Celestia looked rather annoyed by her accusations, and it showed on her face. It didn't deter the hat wearing pony as she shook her head before leveling her gaze back at me.

"I don't know much about magic yer highness, but I trust Twilight when it comes ta' stuff like this. He is the one who caused all that magic hooey, right Twi?"

Twilight's face was mixed with trepidation as she looked back and forth between her teacher and her friend.

"I...I don't know anymore, Applejack."

The newly dubbed Applejack looked at Twilight in surprise before dropping her glare and giving her an incredulous look.

"What do ya mean, ya don't know? You're the one who dragged us all out here, and now ya don't know?"

Twilight's ears pinned themselves to her head as she looked away with an expression of guilt on her face.

"It's...complicated, AJ. This creature is definitely magical, yet...I don't think he's the one who cast that first spell. His magical signature doesn't match that of the first spell. He did cast something, but it doesn't seem to have been anything harmful. He might be...no, he's definitely dangerous."

Shaking her head, Twilight looked Applejack in the eye and gave her a determined look.

"I trust Princess Celestia. I already scanned her for mind altering magic and I didn't find anything, so I know now that he isn't influencing her. If the Princess trusts him then...I'm willing to give him a chance."

Applejack simply stared at her for a moment before snorting in anger and walking towards the entrance of the cave, sitting down next to it. She wouldn't look at any of us, and I could tell that she really didn't like Twilight's response.

Why does she dislike me so much? I know I'm not exactly the norm here, but this just seems...beyond the norm.

Applejack's friends seemed to share my thought as they looked at her in something close to disbelief before Rainbow Dash just shrugged and starting walking towards me. She stopped at a slight distance from me, far enough that I couldn't touch her, and she waved in a lazy greeting.

"Sup? I'm Rainbow Dash, fastest flier in Eques-"

She cut herself off with a large yawn. her head shook in an attempt to shrug off how tired she was, and she chuckled before continuing.

"In Equestria. Sorry about that, this is later than my awesome self usually stays awake, hehe."

Well, she certainly thinks highly of herself. I wonder if she can back up those words.

I smiled at her and waved back with my free hand.

"It's nice to meet you, Rainbow Dash. If you didn't hear me earlier, my name is Liam."

"It's good to meet you too, big guy. Wow, you really are tall, aren't you?"

I laughed before looking around at the rest of the ponies. Now that I had a moment to stop and really look at them, they were on the short side. The only one who came close to my height was Celestia, standing at about six feet tall. I'm by no means short, standing at six feet and three inches, but these small ponies were only about 3 feet tall.

If this is how short most of these ponies are, I'm going to wind up being a giant among them.

The white unicorn was walking towards me with a hesitant expression on her face, like she expected me to do something to her or her friends.

"It's...nice to meet you, I suppose. My name is Rarity. While I'm not quite...convinced that you aren't a danger to us, as a show of good faith I could repair your rather...damaged clothing. Assuming you wouldn't mind, darling."

I wasn't quite sure what to make of this one. On the one hand, she seemed friendly enough, especially given the situation. On the other hand, she openly admitted to not trusting me. Hopefully I can change that soon. I get the feeling that I will be dealing with these ponies more than I may like...

"While I would like to accept your generous offer, I doubt any money from...where I'm from would be worth anything here."

She shook her head and gave me a small smile.

"No money needed, darling. As I said, I wish to make a show of good faith. You may be odd and your clothes are...less than stellar, but I don't feel like you would hurt us."

I returned the smile and looked into Rarity's eyes.

"Thank you, Rarity. It means a lot."

I glanced over at the last pony that hadn't introduced herself. I almost forgot that the yellow pegasus was there, she was so quiet. She seemed to want to look anywhere other than at me, and her eyes were darting back and forth. I would have almost described the motions as panicked.

"Hello, I don't think we met yet. My name is Liam."

I gave a smile that I hoped looked friendly enough as her attention was now solely on me. She gave a small squeak before fleeing behind Rarity, huddling up and shaking behind the white mare.

"Uh...are you alright?"

Rarity looked back at her and sighed softly before looking back to me.

"That's Fluttershy, darling. She's, well, very shy. Considering that we are in a cave in the middle of the Everfree Forest and most things here aren't very friendly, I'm not surprised that she's especially nervous right now."

She put her hoof to her muzzle as she seemed to be contemplating something.

"Hmm...maybe I should schedule an earlier spa appointment for the two of us."

I let my gaze wander to the ponies in the cave. Applejack was still sitting near the entrance, looking quite upset. Rainbow Dash was chatting with Pinkie Pie, the latter of which was bouncing in place. Twilight seemed sad after what happened with Applejack. Rarity had started talking to Fluttershy in a soft tone, the words too quiet for me to hear. Celestia looked...somewhere between annoyed and happy. Seems she didn't entirely like how this played out, but it definitely wasn't a disaster.

Celestia turned towards the group of ponies and smiled at them.

"Well, it seems it's about time to wrap this meeting up. Is everypony ready to go back to Ponyville?"

The group of mares all looked at Celestia as she asked this, and everyone besides Fluttershy and Applejack nodded. Fluttershy because she still seemed too scared to do much of anything, and Applejack because she was still moping.

"Yeah, I still need more sleep. I'm not used to staying up this late. I'll need to take a long nap later."

"Indeed. I do need my beauty sleep, after all."

"Oh! Oh! Maybe I can throw Liam a 'Welcome to Ponyville party tomorrow! Can't have everypony falling asleep in the middle of his party!"

"I...I guess. I'm sure that Spike will want to know what happened too."

Applejack didn't give a verbal response, she just gave another snort as she stood to leave, the rest of the ponies following her example.

Fluttershy kept herself practically glued to Rarity's side as we all started to make our way out of the cave. I trailed behind them a little, not wanting to crowd anyone.

She's...really skittish, isn't she? I hope this won't be the extent of our relationship.

I sighed as I exited the cave entirely, only to stop and gag as a familiar smell hit my nose. The ponies were all frozen near the entrance and were staring at...something in the woods.

Oh no...oh no! Not more of them!

My eyes shot open as I finally realized something that I should have thought of a long while ago.

Wolves are pack hunters...

The cave entrance was surrounded by them. Easily a dozen timberwolves were nearby, their glowing green eyes shining brightly in the darkness of night and their growling piercing through the otherwise quiet air. The smell was much stronger than last time, which made sense, I suppose.

This many? Oh shit, what are we going to-

I looked to Celestia with wide eyes and near panic in my eyes.

"Celestia, can you do anything to stop them?"

Still facing forward, Celestia gave an angry snort and stomped a hoof.

"No, I can't. I used too much magic to do much besides annoy them. Between teleporting here from Canterlot and trying to save you, my mana reserves are all but empty."

I could only stare at the back of her head in shock as her words set in.

There's...no way. This can't be how this ends, can it?

I looked at the group of ponies as they all seemed to be in a similar state as myself. Fear and shock were easily visible on their faces as they looked around them. I could even see a tear in Fluttershy's eyes. There was no way out. They had us completely surrounded. The only place to go was the cave, and that would just leave us trapped inside as we were...

No...

I felt that warmth again as my hand started to glow, along with the sword.

I won't let that happen...

I walked past the stunned ponies and raised the sword to face the closest timberwolf.

"I won't let you hurt them!"

A red aura seemed to completely encase my body as the phoenix tattoo on my arm glowed a bright orange.

Liam!

My eyes shot open as I heard the familiar voice.

Sunlight?

Yeah, it's me! Don't worry, Liam. I'm here to help you.

I smiled as I felt her desire to protect me and destroy the threat in front of us.

Sunlight..thank you.

I could almost feel her smirk as I thanked her.

Nothing to thank me for. After all, what kind of knight would I be if I just left you to die?

The wolves were getting antsy at my display of power. The growling had grown in volume as they realized that I was a threat, and that I would fight back.

Liam, Dawnbreaker has a few features that Celestia doesn't know about. A while back, I realized that I needed something besides a sword if the situation called for it.

The nearest wolf was stepping closer, head close to the ground and growling. It seemed it was planning to attack, and soon.

Like what?

Again, I felt her smirk.

Oh, just something with a little more reach. All you need to do is channel magic into the grip and will it to lengthen.

...what?

Channel your magic into the sword, It's not that-

The wolf deciding it had waited long enough and leaping at me had cut off whatever Sunlight was going to say and I could feel her panic at the situation.

Liam!

The sword was coated in red magic before I knew what I was doing, and I acted on reflex. I thrust the sword forwards, and wished to keep the wolf away from me.

The handle of Dawnbreaker extended into a long shaft that propelled the sword forward, right into the exposed chest of the leaping wolf. The wound burst into flames and burned as I hefted the skewered timberwolf over my shoulder and behind me. The wolf shattered against the rock wall and quickly burned to charcoal, the flames seeming to mirror my resolve in its intensity as it quickly ate at the flammable vegetation that the timberwolf was made of. The ponies were thankfully spared from the burning body of the wolf as they jumped to the side in surprise.

I flipped the spear around, once again pointing the tip of the blade at the rest of the timberwolves with a two handed grip, who now looked enraged. Seems killing their friend made them more than a little mad.

Oh, thank the Forge Mother! You figured it out! You have a knack for magic, that's for sure.

Sunlight's relief was palpable, and I could feel her pride at how quickly I learned to use Dawnbreaker's previously unknown feature. I could sense her smirk return and almost paled at the sheer malice that she was now directing at the timberwolves.

Now...are you ready to burn these worthless piles of wood to ash?

I nervously smiled as another wolf leapt at me, uncaring of the magic aura concentrating in the sword at its approach.

Ready as I'll ever be.

I tried to channel more magic into the blade as I thrust it towards the incoming wooden projectile. I wasn't expecting the sword to shoot a stream of fire directly at the timberwolf.

"HOLY-"

I ducked as the now burning wolf soared over me, yipping in pain. As it hit the ground, it shattered into dozens of pieces. I stared at the burning corpse for a moment before sharply turning back to the remaining timberwolves.

Well that was a hell of a surprise. Only ten timberwolves left...

Ha! I knew you had talent! It took me days to learn the Flame Jet spell, and you did it by accident!

Protect ourselves now, brag later!

Three more wolves had leapt at me while I was distracted, and I barely had enough time to slash one across the face, igniting it. The now burning wolf landed on me as its two friends starting to bite at me, one getting a solid grip on my right arm and pulling as hard as it could. I screamed in pain as I felt muscles tear and rip as the thorny teeth chewed through it.

"Get off me!"

I channeled what mana I could into my right arm and the wolf was ignited as fire wrapped itself around the arm. It yelped and rolled on the ground with its mouth burning, its eyes wide and scared. The other timberwolf jumped off me as I started to burn everything I was in contact with. I pushed the charred corpse off myself and tried to stand up. I looked down at my injured arm and saw that the wounds were bleeding badly, though the blood was sizzling and quickly evaporated, leaving an iron smell in the air. The wolves looked more than a little nervous now, though I doubt they had given up.

Liam, you aren't going to last much longer!

I winced as I lifted my injured arm and channeled more mana into my body, coating all four of my limbs in arcane fire while I waited for the wolves to strike again,

Oh, I can tell. This really hurts, and I can almost...feel my mana running out.

You're not only completely new to magic, but this is the first time you have used it. You're doing just fine, Liam.

I looked at the eight remaining timberwolves as a number of them seemed ready to attack.

I need to finish this, and fast. Do you know any way to take out a few of them in one go?

Yes, but...It's risky. Whether it works or not, you'll be entirely out of mana, and will probably lose consciousness. If that doesn't finish them off, then...

I quickly realized what that meant. My death. No...all of us. All of us would die if this didn't work.

I don't see any other way out. Do you?

Well...we could leave the rest of them behind and flee by ourselves.

I narrowed my eyes and growled.

That is not an option.

I felt Sunlight smirk at my response.

I know. I can feel how much you want to protect them. I wouldn't dream of leaving any of them behind, especially Celestia.

The wolves were inching closer, and I knew we were running out of time.

Sunlight, tell me.

Alright. I've...never taught anypony this before, but this I was planning to teach you when you had better control. This could get...messy.

My eyes widened as I felt the knowledge transferring directly into my head. I now knew how to cast this spell, wrapping my entire body in mana and igniting it, burning everything around me.

"Veil of the Phoenix..."

I did what I knew would cast the spell, covering my body in mana and commanding it to ignite. I almost seemed to explode in a bright flash of light as flames danced around me, the heat not being contained to just my body. When the light dimmed enough to see, I looked myself over. It was like a layer of flame coated me. It was hot, yet it wasn't burning me. I felt something on my back move, and I turned my head to look at the wings of pure fire on my back before facing the wolves again.

"Well? Who wants to be first?"

I had never felt more powerful in my life. The energy coursing in and around me made me feel invincible. The rational part of my mind reminded me that this was not the case, and that I needed to end this before my mana ran out completely. The wolves looked ready to bolt, terror clear on their faces as they watched the burning man in front of them.

Cowards...

"Well then, I guess you can all go at once."

I wrapped my wings around myself and formed a ball of fire directly in front of myself as I looked towards the wolves with contempt.

"Burn."

The fireball shot towards them as I whipped my wings open and a small wave of flame burned the grass in front of me as the ball of fire magic impacted the wolf and exploded. Four wolves were caught in the explosion and all but one were in burnt pieces. The only wolf to not be immediately destroyed was burning as half of its body was caught in the blast, and it staggered forward before falling to the ground, the burnt half of its body crumbling to ash. The remaining two wolves waited only a moment before fleeing into the forest, their terrified yowling decreasing in volume as they ran further away.

I looked around at the destruction and was stunned. Several trees were burnt husks, the grass all around me was charred black, and the nine bodies littered the area.

Wait...there are nine corpses, and two took off...where did the last one go?

A scream sounded behind me and I quickly turned around as the missing wolf was leaping at the group of ponies. It was flying straight at Fluttershy, the pegasus mare seemingly frozen to the spot in fear. Its maw was wide as it leaped, ready to bite into the poor pegasus upon impact.

"No!"

Once again acting on reflex, I reversed my grip of the spear and coated it in what mana I had left before raising it and hurling the weapon at the timberwolf. The spear buried itself in the wolf's side, pinning it to a tree. The magic surrounding me seemed to have burned itself out as it faded, and I stood there panting before looking towards the yellow mare.

"Are...are you alright?"

She just looked at me in shock and softly nodded her head, too stunned to do anything else.

"Good...I'm...glad..."

I fell backwards as my vision darkened.

Seems I pushed myself too hard...

Yes, but...you did it, Liam. You did it. They're safe.

My eyes closed as I lay there in the burned grass, and unconsciousness took me.

Author's Note

Chapter four done!

For those wondering, this is pretty much what Dawnbringer looks like, though its a bit more intricate than the example given here. Dawnbringer is a leaf bladed sword, with the blade wider near the tip.

As always, if you notice any errors or problems, please let me know! I live off of feedback!