A Hardened Warrior

A/N: I’ll be trying to make these all 1k+ words at least. May take a bit longer than before, Since school is going to start in a week or two.

Chapter 10 - A God’s Wrath

It was raining outside, more like storming like armageddon. Lightning, hail and rain bigger than your fist, falling at a good 20 mph. The whole sha-bang. And Roderick was caught in the middle of it.

Roderick had just left the Everfree on the other side, only to see a storm start brewing. A big one. He turned tail and ran back in to find a cave or something to get away from it. He’d found one, thankfully, and it had just started pouring.

What he found in the cave, however, wasn’t as appealing as the storm outside. It was a MASSIVE purple shaded bear-like thing with constellations on it. Claws bigger than him, If he didn’t know any better, he would’ve tried to kill it. But it was still sleeping however, so that gave Roderick a choice, stay here and possibly die in the morning... Or freeze and die in the rain tonight.

The choice was obvious.

Roderick found a crevice in one of the walls of the cave. Making as little noise as possible, he squeezed in, and attempted to sleep.

’Coward... I give you power, but you won’t try to kill an Ursa Major?’

‘I’m not trying to die...’

’You forgot already... I’ve made you immortal. You can’t die.’

‘...’

’That’s what I thought.’

‘shut up’

’Oh? I don’t get to ‘troll’ you?

‘What does ‘troll’ mean?’

’I thought all you mortals had the same terms for things... Oh how I hate being mistaken.’

‘Just... Let me sleep.’

’Fine, when you’re ready to pick this conversation, you know where to fin-’

Roderick fell asleep before Nightmare could finish her thought. Leaving her to her own devices. As well as anger for being ignored.

Waking up to loud noises is never fun. Loud noises are annoying. Annoying things wake us up. That’s why we have alarms. But alarms are supposed to be set at reasonable times. Not five hours after Roderick fell asleep, he was awakened by a loud roar. Needless to say, Roderick was annoyed. Shit, meet fan.

’I didn’t realize spines could bend that way... or necks...’

‘They don’t. Until you piss me off.’

’Right... remind me to make an offer to you when I become whole again...’

‘Are you still speaking to me?’

’...’

The awkward silence kept up for a while, at least, until they reached the edge of the forest.

’Where are we going to go?’

‘Griffin territory.’

’You’re still annoyed... aren’t you?’

‘I hadn’t noticed.’

After that, the silence continued. Nary a peep was heard from Nightmare, noticing how easy it would be to take over, but decided against it. She could still feel pain, and Roderick would stop at nothing to stop her. Not even suicide, after countless hours of torture. He would have no trouble at all, fitting into the Griffins’ country.

The zebra from the forest was extremely skeptical about coming to the castle. She hated the dirty glares she got from everypony. Rich to poor. Like she was a monster. Even the guards gave her dirty looks, until she told them she was here for the princess, which only confused them.

By the time one of the guards left to go confirm it, ten minutes had passed. She was irritated, and they could feel the hatred coming from her glare. After the guard that left told her she was admitted, they stepped aside, and heard her mumble something about ‘incompetent’ and ‘stupid cities’.

She greeted the princess like any outlander would. A simple hello, and a curt nod. Which seemed to leave the princess almost offended, but showed no sign of doing so.

“Hello... Zecora.”

“Your highness...”

The two had already gotten off to a bad start. Ponies and Zebras, despite their physical appearances, almost never got along. But with all the strange happenings in Ponyville, she wasn’t surprised anymore. And Zecora wasn’t exactly happy, enough so that she’d stopped rhyming.

“I heard you came in contact with the beast we’re trying to find.”

She chose her words carefully, the terms ‘hunt’ and ‘subdue’ usually unnerved her subjects.

“Yes, I saw it.”

“Would you care to explain where you were? As well as where it was headed?”

“The forest, I was gathering herbs... It seemed passive, but... It mentioned that it was plagued by ‘Nightmare’”

Thankfully, Luna wasn’t present, but was instead dealing with some flooding over in Manehattan. Apparently, an Ursa minor was rampaging through town. Something about it losing it’s mother.

“Right... well, do you know where it was headed?”

“No, I ran. I doubt it would’ve told me anyways.”

“I see, thank you for sharing this information with me. I’ll have my servants arrange a room for you.”

A happy thought slipped into Zecora’s mind.

“If it’s all the same to you princess, I’d like to return home, I must confess.”

“Very well, I’ll have a chariot send you back, I’m sure my subjects would be uncomfortable around you, from what I’ve heard.”

With a curt nod, and a complete 180 on the spot, Zecora began to trot out of the room, and into the lobby. All the ponies present gasped as she came out, and murmuring ‘not-nice’ things. Which, filled Zecora to the brim with something mixed between anger at the ponies, and self-hate, for ever agreeing to come here. She couldn’t wait to get back home, make some bombs, and blow up some of the mountainside to let out some of her anger. Nopony ever knew Zecora was a demo-freak. Nopony ever would, they’re all too afraid of the forest, and the explosions would send them scurrying anyhow.

The chariot was already waiting for her. The flight attendants... were the guards out front. She couldn’t wait to get out of this place. After explaining where to go, they both shuddered at the mention of ‘Ponyville’. They’d probably seen the crazy things that happen there. But they went anyways, to the path near Fluttershy’s, so Zecora could have a peaceful walk to her home.