A Hardened Warrior

Chapter 1 – As the Moon Dances

Sunset. What a beautiful thing, the end of light, and the rise of darkness. Some say the dark is wondrous, others say evil. But I know something they don’t, I know what lies within.

Rise, knight, and bring peace to those of evil.

A human soldier, one who has brought peace to many parts of the world, now stands with his comrades inside of a demon god. Three sets of soldiers were there, an archer troop, knights, and cavalry. Along with a flying battaloon.

“Sir, were inside, what shall we do?” Coming from a child, standing by his leader's side. A child standing next to a towering man spoke.

“Simple, Thomas, we shall wreak havoc upon this god, and claim his heart once more.”

A flying creature care over head, dropping scythe shaped chains into the soldiers, while being shot down by the archers. They set about killing off as many of the Encablossa-born creatures as they could, destroying the supporting limbs as well. When they succeeded, Encablossa created a black hole, sending the remaining soldiers to another world. Only a single soldier survived. This is his story.

A mass of bodies, human and monster, side by side, spread out in a field, no town's in sight. One soldier in particular, was moving.

That foul smell… rotting bodies… my brothers.

He awoke with a start, but something was… off... unrealistic, to put it in one word. Everything had an outline, of black, and the colors were far brighter than normal, much like a child's painting. He picked up his sword laying around, and walked for what seemed like hours, until he found a line of trees.

A forest. perhaps there’s food there? A deer perhaps... I'd could seriously damage a steak right about now...

Imagining such succulent food after a hardy war left the warrior wandering mindlessly into the forest. About half an hour later however, he noticed the trees looked almost evil. He kept his mind sharp, jumping at the sound of howling, and since he knew wolves were often times nocturnal, and carnivorous, he’d have a fight on his hands fairly soon… on an empty stomach.

But the wolves never came, and he found a carcass of what looked like a small wolf, made of wood however. He looked around to find 3 others, something had torn them to shreds, another oozing an oily liquid, from what looked like an over-sized scorpion sting, and he didn't want to find out what did it. So he left the bodies, and instead found a bush with berries. Starving enough to not care if they were poisonous, he scarfed them down, and started to look for some water. He found a shallow stream not to far West, and carried on north.

By the time morning had come, he emerged through the forest, ready to pass out from pure exhaustion. But his determination to get out of the forest surpassed that, and he had found a lot of apple trees. Satisfied, he leaned against a tree and very quickly drifted off to  sleep.

“Whad'ya think it is?”

“Dunno, but its got a weapon, be careful, and make sure Applebloom don’t find out about this”

“Alright, be careful sis”

The knight had been awake the whole time, careful to not move until he was sure there was no threat, or at least to identify his spectator.

Getting up rather quickly, while leaving his sword on the ground, he looked for the source of the voice, unsure why there was an orange colored horse… no, too small for a horse… a pony? With a hat on its head, and a colored branding on its thigh, and a look of determination on it's face.

“Stay back, I don know whatchu are, but I’ll kick you so hard you’ll split, ya hear?”

A look of shock appeared on the knights face, hidden from the orange pony because of his visor. He must be in a cruel afterlife, with talking animals.

“Why are you on mah orchard?”

At a loss of words, he straightened up, and looked around to see if there were any others around. A shepherd to be exact. But he found no one, and he looked back to the pony.

“How are you talking? Ponies aren’t supposed to talk.”

Now it was the pony’s turn to be shocked, she thought it was a monster, but it talked. It’s gotta have some intelligence right?

“Wel- uh… er…”

“Well? Out with it pony." This really annoyed her, but she just scowled at him.

“Excuse me? If I had half a mind to… nevermind, what are ya anyway?”

“Ecclesian knight, captain of General Kendal's close combat troop”

“A knight hmm? And who is this Kendal?”

“Kendal is my leading officer, my general.” but I didn’t see him or Reignier at the field…

“well… anyways… this here is the apple family orchard, mah name’s Applejack… and what’s yours?”

“Roderick, Roderick Alphine”