Death's Claw

by Hunter Redflame

Rating: teen
Tags: Princess Celestia, Crossover, Princess Luna, Gore, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Comedy, Romance, Adventure
Length: 13686

Honestly? It could be much worse. Sure, I'm in medieval Equestria before Discord took over. And yeah, I'll probably never see my family again until the End Days... But at least Deathclaws are apparently Holy... Somehow.

So here's a funny story... Hi, my name's John. I am, or at least used to be, a human. Now I'm a bloody Deathclaw. Sound cool? Yeah, I thought so too. Bad news is that I'm a fracking Displaced, which of course means that I'm in Equestria. No, not Fallout: Equestria, that would be easy: kill raiders, knock sense into Trixie, and kick Red-Eye's and the Enclave's asses!

No... This isn't even Modern Equestria! Welcome to the world of Medieval Equestria, where Celestia and Luna are just your stock-standard adventurers with low-level gear and spells! And me? Let's think about this... I'm no normal deathclaw, I'm an Alpha deathclaw. In other words; that thing we do not touch without being about 1000 yards back and a mini-nuke launcher close at hand. My skin can almost certainly stop swords, and somehow I'm Holy-aligned. So... Yeah. Mastery over all things anti-demonic and anti-zombie are mine. No, I'm not sure how in Oblivion it happened either.

In any case, I end up being Doom-Driven Party Memeber Number Three with a beggining Paladin/Cleric Celestia and Rogue/Illusionist Luna. This cannot possibly go wrong, right guys?

Certainly not.

Nothin' to it!

Of course not... You Murphy-calling IDIOT!!!

Oh, right. John forgot to mention us voices in his head. Hello!

So... Yeah. Hopefully it doesn't get too insane on us all...

Oh, who am I kidding? Brace yourself, and beware of gory death by deathclaw. And later shipping, nearly forgot that one.

Ah! Disclaimer: I own nothing except the made-up characters. Everything else belongs to Hasbro, Nintendo, and Bethesda respectively.

Published 2017-03-18 23:10:02 UTC
Last updated 2018-04-08 18:43:03 UTC

Prolog: Displaced

Prolog: Displaced

(\PoV: 3rd person/)

It was a cold October day. One could argue that October is a cold month, but doubly so was this for it was an October in Minnesota, and the snows had come early. Going more specific in time, it was Halloween. As for the place, it was a small group of small houses at the end of a road that connected to a well-traveled biking trail on which no motorized vehicles could travel, save snowmobiles in the winter.

The small neighborhood was alive with little children running about in costumes, (though more often than not they were dressed in many layers of thick coats, sweaters, scarves, hats, mittens or gloves, and snow pants.) And so we go to one of the houses off to the side of the road, (which ends at the very small, but winding footpath up to the Trail,) which looks very plain, nondescript, and otherwise unimportant. But, it is nonetheless the place where our tale begins…

A small group of children, no more than three or four in number and seven or eight in their years, walked excitedly up the short staircase to the door of the house, where there waited a large bowl of candy on the railing of the small wooden platform connecting the stairs to the house. The bowl had been left out the previous night and had frozen to its stand before being filled with all manner of sugary confections. The small group, which consisted of an astronaut, a ghost, a pirate, and an eskimo went immediately for the bowl! Greedily, they grabbed large handfuls, unaware of the sign beneath which read: “Take One, or Face Death!” The sign, of course, was just a jest, just as many such things on this Materialistic Holiday were.

However, the children in their haste did not notice the large shadow showing through the inner door’s curtains, (for this house had, as the others did, a first door which was glass and an inner wooden door with a large window in its upper half, covered on the inside with drapes of a decidedly Victorian fashion, with various spring flowers blossoming or in-bloom.) Nor did they notice as the wooden door opened to the inside slowly and a dark, clawed hand reached for the handle that opened the glass door. As the outer door opened slowly, ominously, one of the children noticed the movement, the small, gaunt pirate looking from his swollen grocery bag to the large, frightening figure slowly emerging from the shadowed doorway.

As the creature slowly began moving outward, one could see its details more clearly. Its black skin was scaly and rough with thin red lines, yet possessed a reptilian slimy-smoothness and sheen. Its hands held five gnarled fingers, the first four with eight-to-six-inch claws that looked sharp enough to cleanly cut anything that ran along them, the fifth seemed to be some sort of thumb with a two-inch hooked claw. Its chest was large and its ribcage jutted out, making the upper half seem thicker and larger than the lower half. Its arms were long, but also thick and strong, with ribbed scale plates along the elbows. Its legs were much the same, and its feet had three clawed toes, with large raptor-like talons on it’s inner toes. Its tail was thick, and greatly reminiscent of an alligator’s.

But what terrified the little swashbuckler was none of these, but its face. It had two long horns, which were much akin to those of the stereotypical European and U.S. demons, being large, rough and curved upward before turning outward once more. Its muzzle was squarish, and it had eight long, sharp teeth jutting out from it, (two in the front from both upper and lower jaws, and four further back along the muzzle.) Its nose was two large holes just above the mouth on the muzzle, but the worst of these nightmarish features was its eyes. Two blood red, fist-sized orbs on the face, set above and to either side of the muzzle, almost seemed to glow with sadistic glee upon seeing that some had broken the one rule that it had set. Then… It spoke.

“The sign said take OOOOONE!” The last part was spoken as though a roar, and startled the pirate and his companions. The pirate dropped his bag and ran, the eskimo jumped out of his skins and ran as well, the ghost also turned and fled, leaving the only girl of the group, the astronaut, to face the beast. She shook in her boots, but bravely dove to collect her pirate brother’s loot for him! The Beast looked down at the white, blue, and red-clad explorer and gave a short laugh before raising his hands behind his head and removing it, revealing a second one underneath.

This second head was much more familiar, as it was human. It was large, (though not as large as the Beast’s,) and had a large mass of black hair tied back into a ponytail. The face of the man was pale and chubby, revealing one-too-many hours indoors, but it was bright and filled with a jovial energy, which his greenish-brown eyes and wide grin sitting between a mustache that seemed to connect to a beard thick enough to require a brush to comb, (though it was of middling length,) attested.

He put the mask under the crook of his arm, put on his black-rimmed glasses, and knelt down to the little girl, who had yet to look up or stop shivering even. Slowly, the astronaut lifted her head up, noticing that instead of a monster’s jaws, there was instead a man’s face. She blinked her teal eyes and began to giggle. The man followed suit, as well as the parents of the quartet nearby. Finally, the man said, “Happy Halloween, Lucy. Now, why don’t you go on back to your scared little brothers and have a good evenin’, alright?”

The little girl, Lucy, got up and nodded, then spoke with a wide grin on her face. “You really scared them, mister John!”

The man laughed. “Oh little one, I told you to call me John! The only ‘mister’ in my family is my dad, Mister Christopher,” John then rose, and looked over at the young brunette’s father and mother before turning back to Lucy. “Now, I think you’d better get back to your parents,” He chuckles. “If only so they can get Jacob’s candy instead of him!”

As little Lucy grabbed the bag and went back to her family, John went back inside his house and grabbed a large bag of mixed candy. He then went back out and started pouring the contents into the bowl. After this was done, he went back inside. The inside of the house was small, but rather homely.

The entryway was also the living room, which connected directly to the kitchen, and to the right was a hallway that lead to the two bedrooms that were his and his three brother’s. There was a couch laying flat against the right wall, with a chair on the wall he was facing tilted so that it and the couch almost touched. There was a small coffee table that sat near the couch, with a menagerie of items on top of it, (an unplugged printer being the largest and some LEGOs being the smallest.)

John didn’t pay much attention to any of these, and just turned down the hall after having shut the doors. The hall was cramped, especially for one of his size, but he maneuvered through it with practiced grace, avoiding both the thermostat on the left wall and coatrack on the right. His destination was the door at the end, behind which was his and the second oldest’s room.

Upon opening the door, he was greeted with the familiar sight of the metal bunk bed that he and Paul, (the second oldest son,) shared. To his left was the bookshelf and the flatscreen T.V., followed shortly by the cloth-covered toybox serving as spare blanket storage and the sitting place of a 9-year-old tower computer and an X-box One. His brother was surprisingly not on the system currently, but had left the system on. He could hear the squawking of his brother’s online friends and ARK clanmates through the headphones hooked up to the black wireless controller, which was sitting on the lower bunk. They used to have a battered office chair that they used for a gaming chair, but that had been rid of only a week prior.

John gave a small grin and shook his head. He never understood the appeal of online gaming, preferring Bethesda titles such as The Elder Scrolls and Fallout 4. But he ignored the forsaken headset and controller, instead choosing to lay down without taking the costume off and opening up his own RCA Tablet… Computer… Thing. (He never could decide what to call it.) He swiped up on the touchscreen, revealing a hand-drawn sketch of the character Rainbow Dash from the show My Little Pony, Friendship is Magic, as the screensaver as well as the small amount of apps that the tablet had either come with or he himself had downloaded. He made himself comfortable and opened the Browser. What was he doing? Simple: he was reading. Reading fanfiction, to be precise.

You see, even though he was most assuredly a gamer, he was a reader even more so. He was even a small-time fanfiction writer! Nevertheless, he read. He didn’t notice his brother coming back in, but did take notice when he started speaking. He turned his head slightly, but quickly returned to his reading.

As he was reading, he reflected on how he came across the Deathclaw costume he was in. He had been wandering about the small town he lived in, and had been in the park when he felt the need to use the restroom. He went into the small building that held the bathroom for both genders. After doing his business, he walked out and saw a medium-sized box laying on the opposite wall. (The building was fully enclosed and air-conditioned in case of winter cold.)

Curious, he walked over to the box and found that it was already open, revealing a very high-quality Alpha Deathclaw costume, and a small note. It read: “To whoever has found this first, I hope that it brings you better fortune than I.” There was no signature, or identifying mark to show who wrote it.

John, being a very adaptable, (and unworrying,) person, decided to simply accept this as a gift from God and took the box home.

His thoughts then went off on a rabbit trail, pondering how odd it was. In fact, he would wager a small portion, (simply to be cautious,) of the money he had earned as a detailer for an out-of-town marina that he could land in Equestria as a Deathclaw and not react too strongly to it! Not too out-of-town, he reminded himself, just about a mile or three.

Of course, this was all tossed to the side in favor of focusing on more important things. (A good Pokémon fanfiction that didn’t have an overpowered Ash, had a slightly smarter Team Rocket with higher luck stats, and had a character with enough snark that the sheer levels of snark would weigh more than Giratina’s Real-World form!) Indeed, he was a rather simple young man… As simple as an author/roleplay enthusiast/artist/gamer/person with Asperger’s syndrome cold be, at least. Oh, did he mention his ever-changing city-mindscape inhabited both by his characters and others’? No, he thinks in response to himself, he did not.

As the night drew on, and reached around Eight O’clock, he exited Browser and shut the laptop-tablet down and left it on it’s charger for the night. He didn’t have to turn off the light as Paul preferred to play with the lights off. So he lay down, deciding to forgo taking the costume off for reasons inexplicable, and went to sleep.

It was ten when his brother decided to get off early from his gaming, and go to sleep himself.

…And it was because of this, that no one noticed when John started to glow at two, and get brighter, and brighter, and brighter still until finally the light went dark and revealed that all traces of him were gone! Even his tablet, charger, and Bible were gone!

And yet in a land in an entirely other section of creation, far from the Origin as his own world was based off of, in a land filled with pastel equines, (some winged, some horned, and some with none, and a handful with both,) a Demon-Who-Was-Not-Quite-A-Demon awoke in a large cave with a tunnel further in and a crystalline tree near the entrance...

Author's Note

Well, hopefully it doesn't seem quite as silly as I think it'll be... Welcome, I am Hunter Redflame. Before you ask, yes this is a Displaced story and a self-insert. Horribly overused, but workable. Hopefully I can get something more than a ridiculous fic filled with overused actions and Cliche's. Thank you for reading. Now, without further Ado...

Farewell!

Chapter 1: Not Quite the Tavern... [EDITED]

Chapter 1: Not Quite the Tavern...

(\PoV: John/)

I slowly begin to wake up in my… This is not my bed. There are no blankets. Were am I? I start to get up… Stone floor, walls, and ceiling. And a giant crystaline tree. What. I look down at my… Claws? I look further about myself… Tail, raptor feet, horns, scaly skin… I’m a Deathclaw? That’s… Very, very cool! Of course, If I get my claws on whatever interdimentional demon gave me a Merchant-class costume there really isn’t going to be much left of them. Oi, figments of my imagination, you lot there? Characters of other series that I found amusing and made into figments? Helooo? ...I digress, the Lord has it under control…

So. That happened. I’m now a Deathclaw in what I think is Equestria. I mean, not many universes could have a crystal tree in a cave that just-so-happens to look a little, tiny, mamothine amount like the one from MLP:FiM. Honestly? I’m just more upset that I’m here as a fracking DEATHCLAW. Although that would make me one of those fancy schmancy Displaced people… I digress. I had best start trying to move around, get used to the new-OW! …Height, limbs, and strength. I take a step-GURK! Right, jammed my horns in the ceiling. Okay… I look up at the gray rock and the previously mentioned stuck horns. Thankfully, they don’t seem too stuck in… I lean back and firmly tug the horns out-OOF! …Oh yeah, center of gravity shifted… Oh Lord, please don’t let my spines be stuck in the floor! That would seriously suck.

Thankfully they aren’t, and I’m sitting up as best I can. I’ve scraped a small amount of stone with my claws, and yeesh I gotta be careful with these. They can gouge through stone like a-

"Bowie knife through zombie flesh!"

"SHUT UP RICK!!!"

Ah, there they are. Seriously Richtofen, the Galva’s were better anyhow. I’m glad everyone’s still here, but please keep it down? I’m trying to learn a new body’s controls. Oh, and can someone bring Umbra and Lightning up here? I need to see if we can magic.

"Unlikely, but it would be wise to find some sort of way to test for such a thing first."

Fair enough, just wanted to check. Anywho, welcome to Equestria guys!

"Vait, Vaht?"

Someone get Ricky out of here before he gets ideas, we do NOT need to tick off the Princesses right now. In fact, all of you shut up for now, I want to work out how to deathclaw in relative peace. I carefully stand up, mindful of the low ceiling. Walking isn’t too difficult, and the tail actually helps a heckuva lot with that. Similar to the arms situation; not too difficult and very much like as a human. Really, the only difference is size and strength. Probably agility and stamina too, now that I think about it… Hmm, I wonder how much my diet’s changed? Probably leaning towards a more carniv-“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!” Eardrums… Dead… Of all the-“DEMON!!!” …Overuse of extreme C.R.V. could only mean one pony… I turn to the cave’s mouth to-OSHITALICORNWITHAVERYSHARPSWORD!

I very quickly duck under the shortsword-‘TINK!’ …There was a second sword. Emphasis on was. Curious, I look to my chest where the sword should have hit. By the way, OW. Sitting on the cave floor is a sword looking much like a… Stock-standard steel sword from TES IV Oblivion? Seriously, the thing doesn’t even look enchanted! Why would an alicorn, a god-like being in charge of a country be using your standard, likely-looted, adventurer’s steel sword? …No… But maybe, just maybe…

I look from the nearly-destroyed sword to the… Average-pony-sized, dark blue, female earth pony with gray cloak, midnight-blue mane, and emerald eyes… Which happen to have no small amount of fear in them. Yeesh, I know that I’m not quite the safest looking creature around but really? ‘Demon’?

I sigh-Well, let out a long, low breath in a tone I hope is at least somewhat unthreatening-and just march deeper into the cave. I really hate it when people are scared of me. I’d never hurt a fly! I mean, I understand that I’m not exactly an unintimidating person, (even before becoming a ‘claw!) but still!

Suddenly, a wave of warmth washes over me. It’s… Comforting, and warm as the sun on one’s back… Wait… I turn my head back, and sure enough a white female unicorn with a pink mane is standing there in rusty iron plate, horn smoking, and well-used iron warhammer in her magical grip. Her magenta eyes wide with anger, shock, confusion, and fear… Likely for her sister. Undoubtedly, she just cast a Holy spell meant to cause pain to demonic creatures. I’m not really surprised…

"But it still stinks like a Nordic Tomb."

Aye, well said Merlinius Dovahkiin. Well fracking said. I simply sigh again, slump my shoulders, and head further back into the cave. It’s surprisingly not that dark… Or is it just improved night vision? A mixture of both? Who cares? Wait, what’s that there on the ground?

I turn my head down to see… My RCA Tablet-Laptop-Thing? It looks like its been resized to fit my claws… In the wise words of the great warmage Firebrand; “Convenient.” Almost too convenient…

Nonetheless, I pick it up and hold it in my hand to more closely examine it. It’s still the same black with RCA lightly engraved in the center of it. I open it up to see that yes, the keys too had been resized. The screen was blank, but I hadn’t-

“What do you think that… thing is doing here Celly?”

“I know not, Rogue. Perhaps ‘twas placed here by foul Tirek to halt me from attaining my goal.”

Huh. So… Celestia was the one with the medieval speech thing back then… Well now… And… Not sisters? Huh. THAT’S something the Fanfic’s never mentioned… Oh well, can’t get everything right. “Oh please, you Paladins are so uptight all the time! And forgive me, O Glorious Protector, if I didn’t notice you were bound on that cart beside me!”

I glance back at the two to see Luna right up in Celestia’s face with a scowl. Celestia huffs and turns her nose up. “Well, at least I have honor, Thief. And clearly it was a mistake on the part of the military on my arrest.”

“Hah! I doubt that, those were Apples surrounding the cart! Their entire family can detect any kind of falsehood from a league away!”

Celestia gives a small grin. “Which is why thou decided to make use of thine illusory abilities around them?”

Luna sputters. “Well-I-What else did I have?! The idiots forgot to put one of those damn suppressors on me and I’m a perfectly capable Illusionist, thank-you-very-much! And YOU tried to dodge MY question!”

"Heh, this is kinda funny. Like lookin’ at Iron, Warden, and me in an argument!"

And doubly annoying because I can’t force them to shut up! Well, technically we could with the right spell; but One, that’s flat-out wrong. Two; we don’t even know basic magic-

"Actually, there’s this thing labeled ‘All Things Magic’ near the Cheese Emporium."

Ah, thank you Merlinius Sheogorath. What do we have?

"Looks like a couple o’ Resto-spells, some specially-tailored elemental claw attacks, and… Holy Pepperjack!"

What? Restoration spells and what? We need to hurry this along before the Author switches perspectives!

"Why, it’s-"

“MINE PLOT IS NOT FAT! THINE’S IS!”

“NO, YOUR’S IS!”

“IS NOT!”

“IS TOO!”

Oh Sweet Jesus, my ears! …Wait, what’s the reptile ear-thing on the side of their heads? Doesn’t matter, it’s probably blasted. But seriously, enough’s enough! “WILL YOU TWO PLEASE BE SILENT?!” …Okay, so apparently I can speak English… Equish..? Blame magic? No, wait, let’s just leave it up to God watching out for us.

"Agreed."

God thanked for completely nonsensical yet very convenient ability then. Also, a deathclaw’s roar is equivalent to the C.R.V.. We will be making use of this.

The two ponies who were just before about to murder each other are suddenly in eachother’s… Forelimbs? Yeah, that sounds about right. And are staring fearfully at me… Again. I sigh, (I’ll be doing that often, won’t I?) “If you don’t mind, I just woke up. I don’t appreciate two very loud females arguing about the issue of the fatty tissue to muscular tissue ratio of their hindquarters being the first thing I hear… Along with calling me something that I am not, even if I must admit that I look much like the stereotypical demon.”

They seem to have calmed down, (and Luna gives a sheepish smile.)… But they also appear to be very, very confused. I likely would be too, if I came across something very un… Pony-like? No, very draconic, there we go, being that articulate and polite… They’re still in each-other’s forelimbs though… Oh, I’ll leave them. Besides if one spends more time in the embrace of another, relations between the two usually improve. Anyhow, best introduce myself.

“Forgive me for being impolite, my name is Johnathan Dreadscale.” They stiffen at my last name. “Oh be still, it’s more of an ironical name than a true one,” I light up a Healing Hands spell in my left claw, (the one without my tablet in it,) “Considering that I happen to be a fairly good healer.”

"Liar."

And what, pray tell, is our current skill level in Restoration, Warden?

"…Thirty…"

Huh, thought it’d be twenty-five. Sheo!

"Yeeeeeeeeeees?"

Why didn’t you mention that before?

"‘Cause you didn’t ask, ya crab-head."

…Fair enough. Ridiculously high starting Restoration aside, Luna and Celestia seem to have calmed down more… Then they suddenly realize that they’re holding eachother. Luna yips and… Melts into shadows and reappears on the other side of the cave. Definitely a rogue. Celestia on the other hoof seems to have bluescreen’d in startled shock. I chucle-or at least try to sound like I am (it's more like a hiccuping growl)-and shake my head. I know where this is going. I've read too much fanficion not to. Author, kindly go-

Author's Note

Yeaaaah, not gonna happen there Johnny boy! Wait, that was out of character. BUCK! Can we get a do over? No? Damnit... Yeah, sorry about that. Just... Oh wait, I hadn't mentioned that he'd be a wallbreaker did I? No, no I did not.

Oh well, I'm sure we'll all manage... *Slowly edges toward door marked 'Fifth Wall'.

*Fourth wall suddenly breaks... Showing an Alpha Deathclaw!!!*HEEEERE'S JOHNNY!!!

NOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPEHELPME!!!

EDITED AS OF NOV. 26th, 2017

Chapter 2: ...So Roll for Initiative! [EDITED]

Chapter 2:...So Roll for Initiative!

(\PoV: John/)

...In hindsight, that was likely the worst idea I've had thus far.

"Really? And here I thought that antagonizing an Author was a good idea..."

For those of you just catching up, here's the deal. I made a bad call last chapter and decided to prank the Author in charge of this particular subverse. In case you don't get the big deal, they control when Murphy gets to screw you ten ways to Sunday. I scared the guy out of his wits, and even though it hasn't even been a second here... Well, time whosiwatsits and all that. Anywho...

Luna's still up against a cave wall, Celly's still shellshocked and I still don't know their names at the moment from their perspective.

"And why haven't we asked them yet?"

Because I was getting to that, Umbra! I coughed-a sound like a stuttering earthquake-and they looked back over to me. "I believe common courtesy is giving one's name in return for another's?"

Luna rubs the back of her neck with a cheeky smile on her face. Celestia snapped out of her bluescreen moment and looked back to me with slight disdain. "Hehe, sorry about that Claws. The name's Nightshade! Glad to not be on the dinner plate!" Hmm, intriguing... And a fitting (if unimaginative,) nickname.

I looked expectedly over at Celestia. She simply continues the 'Holier Than Thou' look, and adds in some 'Petulant Noble' by turning her nose up and away from me. "I am Solaria, Paladin of the Ember Seekers Order. Know that whatever defences thou hath placed around thyself shall not last forever, demon." Rude. Very, very ru-...Did anyone else..?

"OI, WHAT DAT SOUND?!"

It sounds like... Creaking wood? And-OH GOD IN HEAVEN WHAT IS THAT STENCH? Wait... Wood, stench... Timberwoves? I pop the question to the not-yet-confirmed royals. "Does anyone else hear or smell that?"

Cel-Solaria, scoffs. "Do not bother with such an obvious-"

Luna-Nightshade, interrupts her. "No, I hear it too," Her face contorts into a confused expression. "But why the Hay..." She sniffs, then suddenly recoils. "Blech, that's a foul smell if I've... Ever..." Her eyes widen and shoot to the nearby paladin. "GET BACK!"

Solaria looks confused for a moment, but realization strikes a bit too late as a wooden wolf smaller than me, (but at least twice as tall as Alicorn Celestia,) bowls her over from a poorly-calculated leap. Wait, is it-OH COME ON! I realize too late that the undoubtedly young wolf is headed straight for me in it's tumble and it crashes into me! And once more, fracking OWWW. Of course, all it does to me is stumble me backward and-CRACK!

...The tablet... My only multi-mile longshot at any communication from home... There's silence in the cave as the reformed timberwolf shakes off it's dizziness. It takes one look at me, then one look at the tablet with a now-cracked screen, then back to me. I look slowly from the hopefully still functioning device to the Wolf with my jaw slightly opened in temporary shock. That.... That..! The moving piece of firewood seems to recognize the fact that it is very, very screwed. It whimpers, tucks it's tail between it's legs and its ears flush to it's face.

I growl. The dark, thunder-like sound filling the entire cave. The wolf yips, and dashes toward the exit instantly. Oh, it's not getting away! "GET BACK HERE YOU COWARDLY PIECE OF FIREWOOD!"

(\PoV: Timberwolf pack/)

The Timberwolf hunting pack had scented the two ponies earlier, and had been waiting for them to rest. The older wolves had decided to let the sapling get his first kills as they waited outside the Treerock Den. They stood waiting for the sound of claws rending flesh. They heard the plant-earth-shadow one shout, too late to warn it's companion. They became mildly concerned when they heard the sapling crash and reform. However, they then noticed a new scent. It was not the sea-mana-light one, no. This one was different, this one smelled of oddstone, shadows, and... star-pack?

The hunt-alpha grew tense, it had never smelled such a creature before... What could-Suddenly, there was a sound like sky-shakes. Some of the hunt-pack looked to the sky to see not a single cloud in the sky. The hunt-alpha narrowed it's eyes and continued to stare into the Treerock Den. It knew the sky-shake came from there... But why? The sapling suddenly dashed out, scared by something greatly. Just as the hunt-alpha was about to ask the sapling of it's retreat, a terrifying roar shook the earth around it, and pushed back a hunter that had been close to the den's mouth. Out of the den came something that would haunt the dreams of Timberwolf pups for generations.

It was a great beast, not unlike the fire-sky-death that lived nearby. It stood tall enough to just barely fit inside the Treerock Den. It's fangs, claws and horns promised a swift trip to the Sky-Forest. Suddenly the hunt-alpha understood. This creature was not prey-creature, but danger-creature like the mana-star-danger and it's mother.

And it's eyes were locked on the sapling in rage.

(\3rd Person/)

{Suggested Listening: Hell to Pay by miracleofsound}

John obseved the hunting pack. There were eight of them, including the first one. He didn't care, they broke his one possible link to his home.

They were as good as sawdust.

He leapt at the first, who was trying to hide behind the largest wolf there, (up to John's elbows.) The large timberwolf blocked his path, but just for a second before he smashed through and his claws began to spark. As he struck the younger wolf, the sparking turned rapidly into electricity jumping along and between his claws; a brutal Storm Claw. It did not kill the timberwolf, but it did cause it to shatter quite spectacularly.

John swiftly moved on to the other members of the pack, this time fire surrounds his claws, (making the classic Flame Claw.) The next timberwolf was not so lucky as the previous, the strike hitting home and cutting it cleanly in half. More than that, the embers left from the claw started a fire on the timberwolf's bark. It weakly yelped before being consumed by magical fire.

The other timberwolves got their act together and began cirling John. John didn't bother keeping them in sight, there was no way they could peirce his hide with wood! As one would expect from such thinking, he was understandably shocked when a timberwolf leapt onto his back, bit him, and drew blood. It was a shallow cut, not anything serious, but it surprised him enough to make the mistake of barring his throat. Seeing a wolf leap for him, he quickly jabbed forward and stabbed it where a normal wolf's heart world be before tearing it in half. The burning halves are instantly consumed by fire, killing the timberwolf.

Feeling the wolf on his back try-and fail this time-to bite through his scales again, he swipes his tail and swiftly removes it. On a hunch, roars loudly, the blast wave of sound visible from the morning mist as it stumbled the entire surviving, (and not rezzing,) pack. He then lunges toward the one closest to the cave, his flaming claws tearing through half of the wolf before setting the rest of it ablaze.

He then turned, and caught a leaping timberwolf on his horns by accident. Breifly he panics and swipes randomly at it's underbelly, before just stabbing upward and pulling it off, leaving its corpse burning on the ground.

Suddenly, the fire fades from his claws. John swears before sidestepping another pouncing timberwolf. He stabs the timberwolf clean through before picking it up and throwing it out of the clearing. Suddenly, there's a sharp and short 'bark'. The surviving timberwolves back off as the larger timberwolf puts the still-sparking smaller one on its back. It barks again and the timberwolves retreat, deeming the hunt too costly to continue.

John stands there and pants for a moment before resting against the rocky entrance to the cave...

(\PoV: John/)

{Song End}

That... T-that was...

"A propa gud fight..!"

"...Far better than it could have been, at least..."

"Ho-lee-shit. THAT was a rush."

Will... Will you all quiet down, please..? My head feels like I just got hit in the face by an AT rocket... Is that why we don't just leave spells active during battle..?

"Yes."

I hear Nightshade whistle behind me. "Damn, guessed that messing with you was bad, but..." I turn my head to see her looking around appreciatively. "Just... Damn!" She looks... Near my face, if not in the eye. "Glad you're on our side!"

I grunt. "My head isn't. Used too much magic too quickly, I think. Bad headache."

Sol (Now her official nickname!) walks out of the cave and looks at the carnage with a knowing eye. "I must admit, for a demon you fight with surprsing control."

Bah, not as much as I'd like. I tell her such word for word before feeling some pan in my back. Right, the lucky SOB that got me. Shade (New nickname: assigned.) gasps. "You're hurt!"

I chuckle. "He got lucky. Not even that bad."

Sol huffs. "Perhaps not, but even trivial wounds become infected..." She scowls, and her horn lights up. Suddenly, I feel that same warm feeling from before course through my body and my headache significantly decreases... Magic absorbtion? ...It would explain it well... Solaria blinks and shuts her horn off before restarting it. This time, the spell works as intended and the small wound on my back seals up with an odd scratchy feeling. Huh. So... I have the Atronach sign, then? Still doesn't answer why that damn piece of firewood managed to actually hurt me... And another thing...

"Why?" An innocent enough question, but in this case very important. Sol's obviously a paladin/cleric, so why in the world would she heal something that she had just called a demon? Night also seems to question this, as she looks at Sol with a unspoken question in her eyes.

Sol freezes up for a moment before looking at the cave's mouth in-between Night and I. "I... Know not why. Perhaps..." Her hardened exterior reforms and she sets her face as the stoic paladin once more. "It matters not. I know I saw the object of my pilgrimage in there. Come, if a thief and a demon must be my witnesses to confirm that I reached this holy site, then I shall have them." And with Night spouting indignantly about how rogues are different from theives, and myself once more rolling my eyes, we go back into the cave...

Author's Note

Ah, greetings! I am Umbra, one of John's voices. Because the original author-voice was scared away, I was chosen to take his place. The Author himself wishes to apologise for the delay, and hopes it does not happen again. in any case, we will be needing OC's for a nearby town that's just sprouting up on the edge of the Everfree. No, not Ponyville. You'll see later. In the meantime yes, the green text was an Ork. No, he will not be very prevalent to the story. The ones that are will be left un-italicized to avoid confusion. Hopefully, this chapter will have been worth waiting for. Thank you, those who had the patience to wait this long. Without further ado, Farewell!

^ALERT: Chapter updated and revised.
^Core Timeline: Altered.
^Original Timeline Percentage Kept: 87.397264%-Minor revisions and more accurate character decisions/details.
^Update Notification End.

Chapter 3: Character Development and-Oh COME ON!!! [EDITED]

Chapter 3: Character Development and-Oh COME ON!!!

(\PoV: Nightshade/)

Heh, ain't this whole situation been just a peach? First I buck-up an easy fishing job on some corrupt noble that Fox Tail put a hit-on-sight out for, then I get tossed onto a prison cart headed right for Canterlot. To make it better, I somehow didn't notice that the guards were Apples and was a laughingstock for the rest of the trip for trying to use illusions on members of the Apple family! How the hay was I supposed to know that they were Apples?! Bah!

I was so caught up on it that I only noticed the Paladin tied up next to me when we stopped to rest in the Everfree, of all places! After that came the tiberwolves. Why the caravan head was so stupid, I don't know, and honestly don't care. They gave me the opening to scram and little miss Prim and Proper kept pace well enough with me. After a while, we stop and rest. I get her name, she got mine, and we got to talking about why we were there. Celly, (R.G. protocol has them putting cellmates next to each other in the cart to see if they'd keep from killing each other,) didn't say much other than her name, and her paladinship. Oh, and to leave her be whilst meditating.

After that, we get goin' quick-like. No sense sticking that close to the caravan; even if they'd won we'd just be swooped up and chained right together again... Not to mention that I'd be down even more lockpicks than I already am!

So we walk for a couple hours with a little bit of not-so-friendly banter before she just gets this look and starts gallopin' deeper in! I ran after her, easily catching up. I tried asking her what the Hay she was doin', but she just kept runnin'! Eventually, she slows down near this cave before stoppin' right in front of it. She was panting slightly, while I hadn't even had to break a sweat! She catches her breath before givin' me some cryptic story about some prophecy including a crystal tree, Tirek, and some 'Demon Hunter' or sommat. Then she gets all high and mighty and orders me to go in first!

I started to give this whole stink about it, which of course ended in us fighting for the umpteenth time. Finally, I cave and get in the... Cave. I step in and start to get snappy before I noticed the crystal tree... And the wingless dragon. I kinda thought he was a demon and mighta tried to stab him. Turns out, he's the forgiving type, (he's still really bucking scary though.)

Then the timberwolves came back. One of 'em jumped on in and pounced on Solaria, (as I learned the paladin's name was.) The wooden beast must've put too much power into it though, 'cause he rolled past her and smashed into John, (the dragon.) It didn't hurt him any, but it did make him break the... Thing he had in his claw. Then he got real mad and shouted at the thing as it ran. And THEN he got all whup-plot on the timberwolves! His claws were on fire, literally! Of course, he got that headache that unicorns tend to get when the use their fancy magic too much, but it was AWESOME! ...I really hope he isn't some monster who's just leading us on, I don't think we could even scratch him.

Which leads us to the here and now, with Scales sitting against a cave wall checking on that black thing of his and my would-be Celly checking that fancy, (and apparently holy,) crystal tree out almost like Soft Word does to his, ahh, clients. And me? I'm still keepin' a lookout in case more timberwolves come back. Yawn. "And why're we still here?" I ask to nopony-Ahh, No one in particular.

Solly turns her head to just give me a 'Shut Up You Infidel' look before snorting and turning to her tree. Scales grunts. "Simple; I need to make certain that this device of mine still works, and we need to wait for Sol to figure out that we need to move before the timberwolves come back." He gives what I think is an annoyed glare, but for all I know of draconic faces it could be an 'I'm Hungry' look.

Sol, (hey, it's a good nickname, why not?) turns back to him with a 'Be Silent Infidel' look on her face. "Mine name, wyrm, is Solaria Dawnhammer of the Ember Seekers Order of paladins! Kindly call me by mine name!"

Scales rolls his eyes... Or at least I think he does? Solid-colored eyes are kinda hard to read. Anyway, he shuts his thin black box and looks at her square in the face. "And why should I care? The only thing I paid attention to throughout your little outburst was that I am apparently not a demon anymo-" Suddenly, he gets hit in the face with a Holy spell! (Heck if I know which one, I'm an Illusionist not a cleric!) ...That did absolutely nothing.

He grunts. "Again? That didn't work last time. Although I won't stop you from trying again if you must, I do quite enjoy the warmth that particular spell gives." He opens the box again, this time hitting what seems to be a silent switch on the side to my... Well-trained eyes. A dim light emits from it, causing Scales to frown again. I wonder what that thing is... But do I really want to risk pissing him off? Not really, no... But I still want to know what that thing is damnit!

(\PoV: John/)

Huh, so the thing was turned off? Well, that's the only time I've ever seen the filling battery on this table-puter-thing, so that's what I'm going with. I hit and hold the button this time, still being gentle as so to not pop the glass screen out. Thankfully the crack seems superficial, though like with most touchscreen devices said feature likely won't work. It won't bother me too much, I wasn't going to even remotely think about using that feature until I made sure that I wouldn't just cut right through the screen.

Anyhow, it quickly turns on and shows the standard RCA logo... Which unfortunately has a plain-and bright-white background encompassing the entire screen. I wince, but bear through it. Soon enough, it simply switches to the name of the tablet's model, (Viking Pro, if anyone at home is curious,) and is once again back to a black background as it loads up. I hear the clip-clop of hooves coming closer to me and look over the top of it to see Night coming closer with a curious look on her face.

Of course, Night notices me noticing her and she stops midstep with what I think is an apprehensive look. "Ah, I..." She glances at the table-puter-thing. I roll my eyes, of course she's curious about it.

"It's more or less a high-tech journal now with the screen cracked." She seems a bit startled at my sudden answer to her unspoken question, but shakes her head.

"R-right. I, ah, was just a bit curious as to what it was, that's all," She says before going to the cave's entrance. Huh. Guess she's still a bit scared of me. Oh well, can't expect such things to just up and go away now, can I?

The next few minutes after that are pretty boring. Sol's still ingraining the Tree in her memory, Night's stopped watching the entrance and started trying to bend her other sword back into shape, (with shocking success, though earth pony strength probably helps.) I, on the other hand-should I get used to saying claw instead? Bah, it doesn't matter. I've been carefully typing out a journal entry on Word. I figure that I may as well do something, and keeping a log of the adventure sounds like a good idea. What, you lot want to see? Too bad! It's a journal, I'm pretty sure there'll be a dramatic and heartfelt moment where it'll be read sometime in the future, but for now? No journal entry for you!

It's been about twenty minutes since then, and still nothing. I'm pretty sure Sol's looking for a keepsake now, and Night's almost got her sword straight again. I wrapped up the Adventure Log's first entry, that too. I shut the tablet off and simply have it in my left claw for now. I swear, if Sol doesn't hurry up... Actually, I don't think I'd do anything but act threatning at most. I mean, yeah I'm a deathclaw, but I'm still a good-aligned person. Unlike that god-damned Scar Artist from Shadow of Mordor, he and his OP-unless-stealth-killed traits can burn for all I care for him! Wait...

I start to take a good look at the Tree of Harmony. It almost seems to be glowing, but... Oh. Oh SHIT it's getting brighter! I quickly close my eyes and turn my head away from the Tree. Not sure about Sol, but Night let's out a surprised shout so I think she didn't notice in time. After the flash, a shining, ocean blue bicorn is standing just in front of the tree right next to Sol. (In case you didn't know, a bicorn is an alicorn-sized pony with two horns and two pairs of wings.) The bicorn also has a rainbow-colored mane and teal eyes, but that's not really important right now.

"WOO! Main quest time!"

"I wouldn't be too excited, Dreadscale, this isn't a game."

Can it! Either way, I need to pay attention to this! "Greetings. Sadly, our time is short, and I cannot speak long. I am the Aspect of Harmony, and I require your assistance."

Sol, of course, has prostrated herself to the Aspect. "Thy wish is our command, Goddess."

Night, on the other claw, (that's actually fun to say!) has a different reaction. "Wait, she's-but-that-I-Uh..." In case you're wondering, yes, she did do cartoonesque motions. Before bowing herself, that is. "Uh, yeah, what the paladin said, hehe..."

I, on the other claw, nod my head. "Alright then, what needs doing ma'm?" After all, this is a being of great power, it's usually a good idea to show a level of respect to them.

The aspect nods."This world is in grave peril, and my original chosen have forsaken their old paths for darkness. I leave it to you three to return this world back to Harmony before the dreaded lords of Entropy take their hold. Travel first to the northwest, you shall find there a village. Take heed, however, as the pestilent lord has plans to darken their hearts."

She winces, then looks back to each of us. "I must leave, but before I do so I shall give you three gifts."

A rolled-up piece of parchment is first. "This map shall always show the locations of you and those aligned with you, and will also tell you if they have deceased." She gives the map to Nightshade, who somewhat-awestrikenly accepts it and puts it into some hidden pocket in her cloak.

The second gift again appears out of thin air, and is-HEY! THAT'S MY BIBLE! I'D RECOGNIZE THAT CAMO CASE ANYWHERE! "This is the holy book of a true human religion, the wisdom found within should surely aid in your travels... I am most certain that your draconic aquaintence would agree with me." I nod tersely as the aspect gives MY Bible to Solaria, who holds it reverently in her magic before slipping it into a gap in her armor and bowing in thanks, (though not before throwing me a curious glance.)

Finally, the Aspect turns to me. "I apologize that I have no material gift to give you, but I can give you that which many of your kin in this world have; flight!" No,she isn't-Oh COME ON!

Or at least that's all I'm able to think before I'm grabbed in a rainbow light and my world is filled with pain, in particular on my back. Mercifully, I black out...

Author's Note

Whew... Just in the nick of bloody time! Yeah, sorry about the late chapter, at least I got it done today. You would not BELIVE the kind of trouble I was having just getting my computer to type this stuff while not stinking lagging to death! Damn college Wi-Fi to hell!

Anyhow, those who've read this chapter previously will notice some differences, starting with minor ones and getting larger as they go. For those who didn't, don't worry too much about it. I just made it a bit more realistic from last time. But yeah, there we go, rewrite of Chapter Three. Hope you guys enjoy.

Sincerely,
Hunter Redflame.

Chapter 4: Whew... Wait, What-WOAH! [EDITED]

Chapter 4: Whew... Wait, What-WOAH!

(\PoV: John/)

Ourgh... That hurt... Someone make a note to knock myself out before being transformed again...

Prayerfully, we won't... But I'll make note of it anyway.

Thank you, Lightning. Alrighty, time to get up... I slowly open my eyes, showing that I still had my claws. Still as demonic-looking as always.

Looking over myself-YES! Limbs are as they should be! I turn my head back to look at what I'm pretty sure are-Yep. Those are dragon wings. Huh. They're surprisingly whole, not even any ragged edges! Then again, I guess those come with time and battle experience. Anyway, they're the same shade of black as I am, and continue the blood-red veins shtick to my shagrin. I mean, any color that doesn't make me look like a deppressed teenager who likes a knife too much would be prefered...

Night snickers for a moment before it turn to look at her, with her one hoof in front of her mouth. Once she sees me looking though, she quickly shuts up and starts whistling and looking anywhere but me. Ah, metinks I was tinking out loud. I roll my eyes. "Well, go on, I'll be the first to admit to having accidentally said something silly out loud."

She scratches the back of her neck with her hoof, (I know real equines can't do this, but I'm in a different dimension! So, frack... Logic... Okay, weak argument, BACK TO STORY!) "Hehe, good to know you've got a sense of humor at least. I guess this whole trip isn't gonna be that boring," she says with a not-so-subtle look toward Sol who has her head buried in MY-well, her Bible now, I guess.

I nod. "Oh, I'm sure something or another will help keep it exciting." I stand-OW! "...Damnit, not again!" Aaand once more I got my horns stuck! Perfect! I say as I tug-ow. Try to tug my horns-ow. Frack, I'm stuck. I look to Night sheepishly. "Um... Can you help me get unstuck please?"

Night's right eyebrow twitches once, then again, before finally she bursts out laughing. Y'know, the kind where you wonder how the Hell your sides haven't died yet? Yeah, that's the one. On the upside, it does have a pleasant tone to it. On the down, she's still not helping me. I deadpan. Because of course that's what the reaction would be, joyous laughter at a teammate in trouble. God, if this is how it's going to be, why am I even here?

Finally, she gets down to snickering. "Y-yeah. J-just one s-second, Scales!" My deadpan remains as she shadowports to my right shoulder. She then carefully rolls on her back, (THOUGH SHE'S STILL BLOODY SNICKERING!) and places he rear hooves on the cave's ceiling near where my horns have gotten themselves stuck. At least, I think that's what she's doing. I'm not gonna be able to just turn my head to look in my current state now, am I?

POP-THUD! "...Ow. " That was the FACE! I'm free, but I guess even stealth-based earth ponies have that impressive strength of theirs. Still, having one's face hit the floor so quickly kinda hurts. "...Thrnk yu, Night." Note to self, dirt still tastes terrible.

Night snickers again, this time at least having the courtesy to cover her mouth with a hoof. "N-no problem, Scales."

I carefully get back to a standing position, albeit slightly hunched over. "If thou art quite done making the very earth shake," Oh look, Sol's back from Bibleland! "Shall we set up our camp for the night?"

Huh? I look outside to see-yep. Whadya know, it's night out! "That sounds like a good idea to me."

Hello? HELLO? ANYBODY HOME?!

Of course! Y'know, I thought that the one who wanted us lot to be quiet as the sneaking khajit was this human-looking deathclaw fell-Oh wait, that's YOU!

Yes, Sheogorath, he did. He's simply so chaotic that he has no cares in any world to give.

Well why not be random? Life's no fun without a sprinkle 'o chaos!

Ah. You lot are back. Fantastic, just keep it down would ya? I'm trying to-"Very well, John shalt have the first watch."

"Sounds good, 'night Scales."

Wait, what?! God damnit you guys! "Don't I-" 'Get a say in this?' Is what I was going to say before noticing that Nightshade was already fast asleep on her cloak, showing her-Yep. I was right, she's Luna. After all, not many ponies have a large black splotch surrounding an oddly-filled crescent moon on their flank!

"No." ...And that Solaria had finished taking her armor off and was laying on the floor next to it, eyes closed. Also Celestia confirmed, that's her sun on her rear. I look out toward the cave mouth and sigh. Sentry duty, oh how fun.

...Ehehe... Sorry?

GET THAT SORRY SONUVA BITCH!

YIPE!

(\About four hours later.../)

Nothing. So much quiet nothing. Honestly though, that's a very good thing considering the timberwolves yesterday.

Indeed. One would have expected them to return by now... Though the reprieve is most welcome.

Yeah, now if only it wasn't so boring... I've been leaning on rocky wall the cave's embedded in for a good while now, and there's no sign of any angry wooden wolves anywhere. The forest beyond is dark, and the trees honestly would have made one believe they were in a swamp if they didn't know any better. The flora is also quite swamp-esque, with ferns and mushrooms dotting the ground and exotic flowers sprouting up everywhere. Thankfully there's no sign of THAT particular blue flower yet, but I haven't gone exploring yet so... Yeah.

There's the steady clip-clop of hooves on stone behind me. Wonder who it could be? I turn my head to see Solaria, once again in the rusty iron plate, walking toward me. "I guess my shift is over, then?"

She nods, magenta eyes fixed forward. I sit down at the entrance, trying to make myself comfortable to sleep because I am NOT going back in that cave and getting my horns stuck again! "Thou art staying out here?"

I turn my head to see Sol looking at me in confusion. "Yep, hard to get one's horns stuck on the ceiling when there's no ceiling."

She nods tersely, though I see a faint smile forming nonetheless. "I would suppose so, though I must admit that such problems as art thine are... Rare." I crack a small smile as well, even if the joke wasn't the greatest in the world. We remain in that calm silence for a few minutes until Sol turns and asks another question. "The Lady said you knew of that holy book, yes? Could you help me understand some of it?"

Huh. I could at least try, I guess. "I can try, what is it you don't quite get?"

She takes the Bible from her back and opens it to-Ah, the story of Noah! I wonder what could have gotten her confused about it so quickly? She points to the part where God forwarns Noah that he'll flood the Earth. "I know not why this 'God' would ever have need of such an act. Every lesson I learned at Emberchain says that humans could do no wrong," Oh. "so how could they have ever reached that point?" Oh... She really isn't gonna like what I have to say...

I sigh, and look her in the eye, much to her unease. "I will ask this any time you ask something that you may not want the answer to, and I would ask that you answer as you would. Are you certain that you want to know?" The truth would break her, especially if it was something shed been taught from birth, but I'm not about to lie with something this big. (To her, of course, though this means that humans were at some point here on this world...)

Sol pauses, but steels herself and looks me square in the eye. (Which is impressive in and of itself.) "Yes. I-I want to know how this could have become neccesary."

I nod, and soften my gaze. "I am afraid that you you were taught a lie," Solaria visibly recoils, shock clear on her face. "If out of spite or misinformation, I don't know. What I do know is that humans are-were the most chaotic species you could ever meet. The sad thing is, the vast majority also had dark hearts, especially at that point in time."

Sol shakes her head, and opens her mouth to object when-SHNICK-CRASH!

"...Ow..." MY BALLS!!!-Wait, I'm a deathclaw, my manhood is safely tucked away inside that sheathe-thing, (which is the main reason I have not been freaking out about being in the nude around two females,) most male dragons seem to have, so no balls but still-MY BIOLOGICAL CRIT-ZONE!!! I slowly look down to see that, while it did not penetrate my hide, that Ice Spike most certainly left a bruise. ...Is my Atronach sign mixed in with the Apprentice sign? If so, then things just got more complicated. And painful, but mostly complicated.

Solaria comes over to look, but I hold out an open claw to stop her as I use the basic Healing spell from Skyrim to get rid of the bruise. I then turn over to Solaria with a grim look in my eye. "Wake up Nightshade." No other spells head our way, so I'm assuming that was a stray shot. "Tell her that I got hit by a stray spell and that I'm going to investigate." I get up and start moving quickly in the direction the Ice Spike came from, (At least, the direction I'm assuming from where most of the pain was centered.) Why can things never be simple in these stories?

... B-Because it would be, hehe, to boring for the readers?

Oh shut up, Dreadscale.

Author's Note

Alrighty, that's another edit out of the way. I never noticed how short this chapter was until now, y'know? Anyway, I'll leave this off here.

Sincerely,
Hunter Redflame.

Chapter 5: Why We Don't Make the Healer Mad [EDITED]

Chapter 5: Why We Don't Make the Healer Mad

(\PoV: Third Person/)

The clearing was littered with small ice spikes and puddles of water, as well as feathers and not a few streaks of blood scattered about... But the more important details here are the beings still within said clearing. There were four pegasi, all in very light armor of a Roman-esque motif and-"Alright you damn stickhead bitch, you had your last bucking shot!" ...And most assuredly, stallions.

These four ruffians are Pegasi Raiders, pegasi that decided to tell their kind's more honor-bound culture to go buck itself and sold themselves as unscrupulous mercenaries. In short: bandits. All four pegasi had seen better days, as the various cuts in both armor and skin, (not to mention several missing feathers,) attested. The seeming leader of the group grinned predatorially. "Now either we get our fun and your stuff AND our little payday behind ya, or you die, Hawk has fun with your corpse, and we still get our payday. Whadya say, bitch?" His wings are still fully extended, showing the overlapping, scale-like pattern of wingblades.

The, ahem, 'Stickhead Bitch,' is a light gray unicorn mare with an almost-white ice blue mane. Her dark blue robes shifted as she adjusted her position to one more able cover the downed figure behind her, a cutie mark of a lavender, runed teardrop over a five-point lavender pentagram showing clearly as the robe did not cover her flanks. She also had a satchel carrying what looked to be well-read books, (though for all intents and purposes it could very well be battle damage.) She grit her teeth and growled, even as her bright blue aura flickered as she struggled to even maintain a simple Telekinesis over her pinewood mage's staff. Her eyes, the same sharp blue as her aura, searched wildly for some way to make it out of this mess while remaining... Untouched by the sligthly smaller bandits. "Tch, g-go to Tartarus! I've s-still got enough magic to s-send you bastards there myself if I-I need to!" Obviously a lie, but what could she really do at that point?

Behind her is figure wearing a heavily damaged black travelling cloak, revealing deep furrows of red on a snow-white coat, as well as white bat-like wings. This other figure is laying on her side, (for she is a mare,) the scratches bleeding heavily as she struggles to breathe. Her midnight blue mane shifts as she looks up at the unicorn with sorrow-filled, blood red eyes. Of course, as she looked up at the unicorn, she caught sight of something just at the edge of her blurring vision. Even as the flock of raiders spread out to surround them, she focused on the figure which looked to be nearly as tall-if not, taller than the trees that circled the clearing.

It looked like a dragon, but it was slightly hunched over, and had red lines traveling all around its body. It's horns were oddly curved and it's wings were far larger than what she thought a dragon of that size should have. It's scales were black as the night itself and refused to reflect the moonlight like an dragon's would. It's claws were longer and sharper-looking than the average dragon's, as well. It's rear limbs, however, were most glaringly different as it's legs were bent like a pony's, and it had a sickle-shaped talon on it's innermost toes. Then she caught it's eyes; blood red, with no other shade in them, and wrath seemed to pour out from them.

The downed pony saw his claws tighten into a fist as her vision failed... But to the end of days, she would remember her first time feeling a Deathclaw's growl as the earth beneath her rumbled, and she blacked out...

The others felt the air reverberate with a constant roll of thunder, that seemed to slowly become louder with each passing moment. The unicorn spotted John first as he came out of the treeline, sheer terror causing her to lose her grip on the staff. The Raiders saw this, their green-coated leader turning first to see what looked to be a very ticked off dragon.

Now, credit where credit is due for the Raider, he did not wet himself upon seeing an angry psudeo-deathclaw up close. "Oh TARTARUS no, I am NOT loosing this payday!" ...Of course, that may simply be because he has no brains and decided that it was a good idea to charge at our dear friend John... Which can only end badly for him.

As the Raider leaps toward John with the intent to slash at his chest, John sidesteps and grabs said wings. This has the unintended yet not-unwelcome side-effect of both rendering the wingblades uselessly damaged and dislocating said wings, causing the Raider to scream in agony. John huffs. "Pitiful."

He then tosses the Raider into one of his friends, knocking both clean out. The other two look at each-other and decide that it would be a good idea to cut their losses and run. They fly to ther friends, pick them up, and fly off in a hurry. This leaves the unicorn and John standing and looking at eachother. One with slight concern, the other...

(\PoV: Unknown Unicorn/)

Oh SHIT! First those damn mercs found us, now there's a demon?! How could this day get any worse?!"It would appear that your companion requires medical attention. Please stand aside, miss." ...Bwuh? Did... Did a demon of all creatures just-"Miss, your friend is hurt, badly. Please stand aside so that I can do what I am able." He says with a proffesional tone, albeit with tells that he himself is slightly nervous.

No. In fact, TARTARUS no! I'm not letting that demon anywhere near her! "G-Go away demon! I-I'll banish you!"

Suddenly one of the dragon's claws light up with a gentle gold light that seems to pulse like a heart-"HEALING MAGIC?! From a DEMON?! HOW! Just... Just how in the gods' names could a demon use holy-aligned healing magick?!"

The demon (?!?) just shakes his head with a low growl. "Do you belive me now?" I- "Good. Now get out of my way so I can save your friend's life!"

I dumbly step aside and let the... Well, he can't be a dragon, but then... Ahrg, this is just one huge headache on top of another one! The golden glow soon washes over Moony, and the kid's wounds seal up nicely. I just... I sit down and try to collect myself. Okay. So. A strange dragon that light doesn't hit right just used holy-aligned healing magic to save the kid, I've still got an overuse headache thanks to that fight with the bandits, and just-I don't bucking know anymore! The dragon, (demon-I DON'T BUCKING KNOW!) looks over Moony again before nodding and turning to lay against a nearby tree-Which barely lasts a second against his weight before falling over, causing him to shout in surprise and splay out his wings! HAH! That one should have been obvious, hay-brain!

The dragon sits up and rubs his head. "And yet again, I eat dirt. I really ought to stop doing that." He crosses his legs and looks at me. "I suppose I should have asked earlier, are you injured as well?"

"Ha! As if those meagre pegasi could ever possibly have hoped to pierced my wards!"

The dragon lets out a deep chuckle and shakes his head. "Ah, yes, because you clearly had the situation well in hand-well, hoof, but you know what I mean." Is he-He's mocking me! Why that son of a whorse! Once I get my magic back I'll-

"I see that thou hath handled the situation, John." Who-Huh. Coming into the clearing from the same direction as the-Oh forget it, as John, came from is a unicorn paladin in rusty plate and with a warhammer on her back. Beside her is an earth pony with a brown cloak on, though I'd guess that she's got some tricks up her mane to be out here in the Everfree.

John nods. "There were four armored pegasi harrasing these two," At that he gestures to the kid and I, "I assumed, given the language used and the implications thereof, that the pegasi were either bandits or mercenaries of the worst kind and not some form of military or law enforcement."

The paladin nods. "Pegasus Raiders, some of the worst scum to even their own." Walks over to me. "I am Solaria Dawnhammer of the Ember Seekers Order. My companions are Johnathan Dreadscale-"

"Though, I assure you," He interjects, "The name is purely for the sake of irony."

The paladin tenses, but calms quickly. "Yes, now, the other is-"

"Name's Nightshade, nice to meet you!" The buck?!I trun around to see the cloaked pony leaning against a tree next to the kid! How did she-OWOWOWOWOBAD HEADACHE! DOWN!

"...My name is Mystic Drop, and the kid here is Blood Moon," The paladin tenses at that and John's eyes narrow, not that I really care at this moment, "Now, can everypony please just shut up so this headache can go away? If you don't I'll make sure you never feel warm again!" I say that last bit perhaps a bit too agressively, though again, I don't really care right now as I've got a bucking huge headache!

"Muhhhh, lrme sleep..!" Shit, the kid's choosing right now to wake up? How could this get any-Oh SHIT! The kid gets up, and the tattered remaints of her cloak fall off, revealing bat wings clear as day, as well as her huge flanks. Don't open your eyes kid, there's a paladin right bucking-Then she blearily opens her eyes and reveals to everypony here her blood red, cat-like eyes. She first locks them onto me. "I was having a horrible..." She then notices John. "...Oh. That wasn't a nightmare, was it?"

I gulp, all too aware of the paladin's baleful gaze. The Ember Seekers have a rather large vendetta against anything or anyone who skulks in the shadows, including thestrals and bat-ponies. I can't fault them for it with what happened to the city of Lorethick, but it just so happens that Moon is a pureblood thestral. Buck. "No, kid, no it was not. And, ahh, there's an Ember Seeker here. Behind me."

She pales, (or at least I think she does, with her having a white coat and all.) "Ah. Um, that's not great. M-maybe we could just sit and have tea and not fight?"

To the surprise of most there, myself included, (though I'd never say it,) John nods. "Tea sounds good," He levels a very clear look at Solaria. "Right, Sol?"

The paladin grits her teeth. "I suppose that shalt be agreeable." Even though she says it in a voice that clearly suggests otherwise.

John the I-Don't-Bucking-Know nods his head, before getting a sort of twinkle in his eyes. "So a rogue, a paladin, a sorcerer and a dragon sit down for tea with a bat-pony..." Uhg, oh gods he's a joker...

Author's Note

I LIVE!!!! Well, mostly. My deepest apologies for not uploading a chapter sooner. Anyhow, I would like to introduce you all to somepony you've probably seen mentioned here before: Umbra.

Standing in your veiw next to Hunter is a bat-winged alicorn with a curved horn. He is black, with deep blue spinal ridges going all the way to the end of a barbed, draconic tail. Oh right, he also has dragon talons in place of rear hooves. He also has fangs, and his eye whites are the same blue as his spines while his actual eye is purple and cat-like. The tip of his horn is also shaded blue, though it fades to black midway to his head.

Ah yes, greetings to you all. And before you ask, yes. I was indeed inspired by Sombra. In any case, I shall be in the AN from now on as co-host. On that note, we would like to thank both doompony32 and crimsoin sun for sending in OC's, especially crimsoin. Two of the OC's have been revealed now, but crimsoin has been kind enough to create a fair few for the first stop on this little journey, so be on the lookout for them later.

Yes indeed, Umbra. I would also like to remind everyone here that I will be accepting OC's for a good while now, and may decide to ask you about how your characters might react under certain circumstances in the future. What can I say? I may end up being more of a DM than an Author!

Anyhow, I would like to take the opportunity to also thank all of you who thumbs-upped and left a review! I would also like to ask those who disliked why the did so, even if they did it solely because this is a Displaced fic. I also think I've said also one-too-many times in this AN.

Without further ado though, farwell.

[EDIT]
SURPRISE, two for one deal, good for today only!

In all seriousness though, I hope that this new version of the encounter with Moon and Drop is alright with you guys. I'm trying to make sure that I don't mess something up. Also, if you'll look closely, you'll see something else that I put in. Anyway, here's to me eventually getting around to another chapter!

Sincerely,
Hunter Redflame.

Chapter 6: Well, Now I Just Have to Keep Them From Killing Eachother

Chapter 6: Well, Now I Just Have To Keep Them From Killing Eachother

(\PoV: Jonathan/)

"So a rogue, a paladin, a sorcerer and a dragon sit down for tea with a bat-pony..." Mystic groans and puts a hoof to her forehead just below her horn. I grin "Oh come now, I didn't even say the pun yet!" Not that there is one in the first place, but sillyness can help keep heads from rolling at inopportune times. For instance: the first gathering of The Party.

Nightshade snorts and rolls her eyes. "If there was supposed to be a pun after that, I'll eat my cloak. And I like this cloak"

Well then, don't I have the perfect job for little miss Ruins-The-Fun... "Alrighty then, you can go get the firewood."

She sputters before giving me a a peeved look. "And if I say no?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe a TPK right outa the gate?!"

Probably, so let's try to avoid that. "Oh, then I suppose I'll go get it," Shade opens her mouth to speak again, "Which would leave a quite clearly annoyed paladin in close proximity to a being she hates, as well as her friend. With only an illusionist to keep one from killing the other two instead of the large creature with exceedingly tough scales. Do you see where I'm going with this?"

She closes her mouth before motioning to the woods. "Uh, yeah, on second thought, I'll go get that wood, eh?" She quickly shadowports out of the clearing to God-Probably-Knows-Where to get some wood. What? She's the rogue, of course I don't know where she went! Now Sol on the other hand... Yeaaah, that probably wasn't the best thing to say... She's practicaly fuming!

"Dost thou wish to imply that I hath no self-control?" She says through gritted teeth.

Let's see... Do the smart thing again and explain the answer in a slightly sarcastic tone, but also make complete, logical sense? Or do I do the stupid yet hilarious for the readers thing and just say yes? ...Oh hell with it! I fix my best deadpan face and look Sol in the eyes. "Yes."

She stares at me in shock for a moment. Then, she twitches. Then twitches again, this time slowly starting to get that 'I'm Pissed Off!' look that only an anime character could do better. I'm about to get hurt again, aren't I?

"Yeeeeeep!"

"Undoubtedly."

"...Sigh... And I was so looking forward to a relaxing tea..."

She comes in screaming with her warhammer out, it impacts before I have time to sit up and-hey, that didn't hurt that much. BINK! Not that, either. I look down and see Sol screaming her lungs out and continuing to hit me... BONK! To absolutely no effect.

"Oi, she 'its loik a grot!"

Yes, random Ork, yes she does. Oh! Idea! And it's going to be hilarious! I look over to the other two, who are sitting there with jaws meeting the floor. In a completely relaxed voice, I say, "Lovely weather this evening, isn't it?"

Of course, this causes Sol to redouble her efforts in trying to hurt me, (though at this point, I'm more worried that she's going to hurt her throat with all that screaming.) But she's not the one I'm paying attention to all that well now, is she? Anyhow, Moony, (not to be confused with the werewolf Marauder,) puts a hoof over her mouth. Too bad for her that a pony's eyes are so expressive, because I can see how she's just barely keeping in her laughter. As for Drop, well, I hope we're not about to experience an Alolan Ponyta, but I wouldn't bet on it. I mean, what else could a rapidly twitching eyebrow mean coupled with an almost-scowl. Whup, make that a complete gritting-her-teeth scowl now.

"How..." Mystic Drop grits out, "Can you... Keep... Making. My. Headache. WORSE?!" She practically explodes, but not literally. Sadly.

I shrug. "Because that's what people like me do to people who rely on inflexible logic? No offense."

Mystic glares at me for a moment, but then Moony finally starts laughing. Her laugh sounds like Chrysalis', actually, just less mean and rude and un-nice. Also with a higher pitch, but meh, details.

"As the most logical of the figments, I feel that I should alert you to your illogical categorization of important details about others."

Feh, whatever Ironheart. Noted and mostly disregarded. Drop turns to glare at Moony, before softening it and sighing. She turns back to me. "None taken, I guess. I mean," Drop gives a tired smile, "You got the kid to laugh, so I guess you're not so bad for a whatever-you-are. I mean, what are you anyway? I'm pretty sure that demons and mundane healing spells dont mix, and light doesn't hit you right to mean you're from this plane." Yeah, the demon-healing spell thing kinda-Wait, I'm sorry, light doesn't what?!

I take a good look at my claws, taking careful notice of... Wat. I actually look like a deathclaw from Fallout 4. Not just in basic shape, (No duh, Shamrock Hooves,) but I mean I actually look like one from the games. How the HELL didn't I notice that earlier-Wait... Demons, light not hitting them right? No, nonono those can't be-No, wait, opposites attract, of course that 'verse would find its way here... Well shit. Batten down the hatches, men! We may have a 40K-level problem here.

"...Shit. If those ones are the 'Lords of Entropy', then we've got our work cut out for us."

Maybe, but if they're weak to the Elements like I've theorized they might be-

"Stop. We lack any true evidence that they are behind this. Even then, we have no true combat experience. We got lucky that we were transformed into something that can take a hit ridiculously well instead of a pony. All the same, if it is them, exactly how could we fight them with a weakness that cripples us toward their entire realm of power?"

{Please note that at this point, John thought many swear words that certainly would not be appropriate to mention.}

"Oh look! Sol's stopped! I'm also totally not trying to get us off this depressing and grimdark train of thought!"

Hm? Oh yeah, you're right. Sol's panting and laying against the tree that I knocked over. I look over to her, and she glares back up at me. "Feeling a bit better now?" She stares at me in surprise, the glare getting lost in confusion. "Don't think I didn't notice how down you were getting back there with what I said earlier. That, with everything that happened in the clearing? You needed to let off some steam." Because that's totally what my plan was when I said-Oh heck with it, you lot behind the Fourth know I'm bullshitting. No need to extrapolate. (Yes, I know what the word means. No, you can't test me on the dictionary definition.)

Sol looks away for a moment, but looks back up at me. "Well... Huff... I thank thee... Hah... Then."

I nod and very carefully keep from grinning, instead gently sweeping my tail back and forth. "No problem, Sol. What are friends for, anyway?" I then carefully reach into the center of our little group and dig out a pit for the fire. Due to my massive claws, the proccess only takes a minute, even packing the dirt up around the edge of the small pit to make up for the lack of large rocks. Turns out that thumb-claw helps for digging, which is nice.

Blood Moon, who has calmed down, smiles. "That certainly helps, thank you, Dreadscale."

I nod to her. "You're welcome," I look around, but don't see anything nesccesary for tea, and look to Moon and Mystic. "I don't suppose either of you would have a kettle and tea leaves handy, would you?"

M&M, (did you really think I'd miss such an obvious accidental reference?) look at eachother before looking back at Sol and I. "You mean that you didn't have such supplies?" Moony says in a surprised tone.

At this I scratch the back of my head sheepishly. "Nope! I just wanted to keep everything from going wrong right out of the gate, hehe..."

Everyone, including Sol, stares at me a moment. Then the chuckles start, and everyone starts laughing. Slowly, yeah, but everyone's laughing like loons soon enough. And for your information, I'm proud to say that I was giving out a booming laugh as well!

Soon enough, Nightshade walks into the war-torn clearing with a bundle of sticks on her back to see all of us laughing uproarously. "...I missed something here, didn't I?"

Author's Note

HUZZAH! WIZARD SURPRISE! A CHAPTER IS YOURS!

*cough cough.* Alrighty, Merasmus voice over, here's the next chapter everybody! So yeah, I'm back. And obviously, John's jumping to the absolute worst-case scenario here. I mean, there's plenty of other fantasy demons who look like deathclaws, (or is that the other way around..? Hmm.)

Anyhow, I'll be keeping the OC submissions open for now, but not much longer. Just so people are aware. Also keep in mind, please keep them to the simple side of things, I've already gotten a Submission of Ridiculous Power, and I'll be limiting those to one-per-series in order to keep things from going completely away from me. Oh, and for the purpous of keeping the reveal a surprise, please PM me with any details about characters.

Moving on, I'm putting a tenuous One-Chapter-Per-Month schedule in place. This is not set in stone and is subject to change, but it should hopefully keep me from making these ridiculously long wait times between chapters. If not, give me a shout, I'll probably be reading something on-site anyhow.

And that should do it. If anyone has any questions at all regarding to the story or what's in it, don't be afraid to let me know!

Sincerely,
Hunter Redflame.

Chapter 7: Dancing Emerald Shadows

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.