The Magic of Dust and Lyrium

“So, where are we going to again?” One figure, about fifteen, asked another. They were 5’6, with shaggy red hair, amber colored eyes that seemed to go red in certain lightings, black cargo pants and a white sleeveless shirt, black and red sweater, wears socks and sandals, white socks.

“I told you before, we’re going to the con in town,” the other said. She was 5’7 with white hair, which was dyed, that’s tied into a pony tale. She wore a black t-shirt with a Dragon Age 2 logo on it with some jeans. Her green eyes looked over at her passenger with a frown. “This makes it the tenth time, you owe me a drink now.”

“Better not be any alcohol, you’re on your own then.” The first said, smirking at the second.

“I was thinking a root beer, wise ass,” the woman said with a smirk of her own.

“Alright, I could do that,” The first said. “Hey, I’m getting hungry, can we stop somewhere?”

“Sure, what do you want?” she asked them. “I see some fast food places, or do you want to sit down?”

“The cons in like, five hours, we can sit.” The first said. The driver nodded and the two of them looked around for a restaurant to go to. They decided to go to a place called The Doghouse. The female parked her truck and the two went inside.

Inside, there was strangely no one else but a single person. They looked like they were eighteen, and had black hair, a mix-matched sweater that’s green and a big tan stripe on one side, blue and pink stripes on the other. They seemed to be manning the register, and while it looked like you could get food here, there was a bunch of stuff on the walls that was also on sale.

“Odd never went to a restaurant like this,” the female said with a frown.

“Well, it looks cool, let’s order something,” The first said with a carefree expression. The female rolled her eyes as the two walked up to the counter.

“Excuse me,” the woman said to the being behind the register.

“Yeah?” They asked, turning to the two. While their left eye was covered, the right seemed… off in some way.

“This place serves food, yes?” The female asked before looking around. “Seems a bit empty.”

“Yeah, it’s a slow day,” The being said with a shrug. “Whatcha want?”

“If we’re ordering here then…” The female thought for a moment. “A burger with fries and some root beer with no ice,” she turned to the first being. “I think we order and go sit where ever.”

“Cool, can I have the same but with a milkshake?” The first asked.

“Sure, take a seat wherever.” The being said, walking to the back. The two of them turned and walked over to take a seat in a booth. They waited for a bit before the being returned with their drinks. After giving them the drinks, the being walked back into the back.

“See anything cool on the walls?” The first asked, looking around.

“Yeah,” the female smirked. “Guessing you did as well?”

“Yep,” The first said, smirking back. The female nodded as she drink her root beer.

“How much money do we have?” The first questioned.

“About two thousand,” the female said. “Been saving up for this con, want to get some souvenirs.”

“I got three,” The first said cheekily, sticking his tongue out at the second. The female rolled her eyes again with a chuckle.

“Always the cheeky bugger,” she said.

“It’s my job,” The first said simply. The female chuckled again. The two of them chatted as they waited for their food.

“So… what are you going as again?” the female asked.

“Not really going as anything, just threw this stuff on,” The male said simply.

“Just threw the stuff on, that’s what you said for everything that involves costumes,” the female said.

“I didn’t really have a costume ready… I forgot we were going,” The male said, shrugging.

“Remind me to put a sticky note on your head, maybe you won’t forget then,” she said with a smirk.

“Alright, sure,” He said with a straight face. The female laughed at this and the two continued talking for some time. At that moment, the cashier walked up with their food, putting them down.

“Alright, anything else ya want?” The being asked.

“Not really, those items on the walls look cool,” the female said.

“Whatcha want from the wall then?” They asked, crossing their arms.

“They're for sale? I thought they’re decoration?” the female asked the cashier.

“Nope, everything on the walls for sale,” The being said. “Really should put a sign-up…” They added in a mumble. The female looked over at the male and raised an eyebrow. Asking them a silent question.

“Alright… how about that strange white locket?” The male asked, pointing.

“Sure, you want anything?” The being asked her.

“That two handed sword is nice,” she said, nodding to the large two handed dark gray sword with a black and red wrap handle. The being nodded, before walking over and grabbing the locket and the sword, bringing the two over to their customers.  The female's eyes widen at the sword in front of her, it looked real. “How much for them?”

“For everything so far, one thousand,” The being said. “It’s mostly the sword,” They added.

“Sweet,” the female said as she pulls out her money. “I got it,” she added, looking at the male.

“You sure?” The male asked. She nodded.

“The sword cost the most out of the two things, so it’s fair,” she said as she handed the money to the cashier.

The cashier took the money and walked over to the register, putting it in. They then pushed a button, trapping the two in place. The woman blinked and tried to move but couldn't.

“The hell!” she yelled, growling at the cashier.

“Hope you liked the food and stuff, time to send you two on your way,” The cashier send, waving. “Thanks for the business though, it was almost enough for me to let you two stay here, bye!”

As they said this, another button was pressed, the two beings being sent through a portal.

“Sis, you okay?” The male asked his sister, shaking her. The female groaned and opened her eyes.

“Ugg… what hit me?” she asked.

“Dunno, but we got sent into some cave or something,” The male said, fiddling with the chain around their neck. The locket on it seemed to have vanished, but they kept the necklace part on anyway. The female sat up and groaned, her body felt like it was burning.

“A cave?” she asked, starting to look around. She saw that they were in some cave. For some reason, she felt annoyed by this. The male went to help his sister up, grabbing her arm. She hissed in pain as she pulled away.

“Are you alright?” He asked worriedly. She panted.

“Oww… what the fuck was-” she stop as she looked at her arm. She had tattoos that she didn’t have before. She looked at her body and saw that one, it was somewhat revealing, and two, there were familiar tattoos on her.

“So… the ears are new,” The brother commented. She blinked at this and felt for her ears. They were more pointed than before as she paled.

“Is there a mirror or something that I can see my reflection?” she asked.

“We’re in a cave,” He deadpanned. She shot him a glare, which seemed more menacing than before. She was about to say something but she doubled over, her head pounding with pain.

“Are you okay?” He asked, concerned. She didn’t answer, her head being filled with memories that aren’t her’s, yet are. She saw beings that did things to her, made her feel pain. This lasted for ten minutes before it died down.

“God damn it all,” she cursed. She pulled her hands away and looked at them. “Something… happened to me… I don’t know if it’s real or not.”

“Can you describe it to me?” Her brother asked in concern.

“There were… beings… they did things to me… made me get tattoos and-” she stopped as she realized what was going on. “Great, I became the female version of Fenris.”

“I wish I could hug you, but it’d probably just hurt…” ‘Fenris’s’ brother said a little sadly. She looked over at them for a moment.

“Thanks for the thought Xel,” she said.

“You’re welcome,” He said, smiling a little sadly. The two of them soon stood up, which made the female groan at this and looked at Xel for a moment.

“Fine, I’ll bare the pain for a bit,” she said as she offered Xel a hug. He took it, being careful to not touch her skin or tattoos. She smiled at this before pulling away. “Well, now we’re here, better figure out where here is.”

“Yeah, that’d be best,” He said, looking a little perkier. The two of them started to make their way out of the cave. At this point, Xel noticed his sister’s outfit. It showed off her tanned legs and breasts a bit more than normal.

“U-uh, sis, clothes,” He said, blushing a tiny bit and politely looking away.

“Yeah, I noticed,” she said with a frown. “Think the cashier was a perv for this?”

“I… think that’s just what Fenris wears, isn’t it? If he was a female,” Xel said, shrugging. The female nodded but frowned.

“Doesn’t mean I don’t like it,” she grumbled.

“We can find you more clothes once we find people,” Xel said. The female said nothing but silently hoped for some normal clothes. The two of them headed out of the cave and now stood in a forest. It was sunny out and they heard some birds chirping.

“What, that fuck, is up with all this colour?” the female asked, looking around.

“My eyes hurt,” Xel groaned, covering his face. The female looked around until she saw a familiar object; the sword they bought.

“Well, not everything is bad,” she said before walking over and pulling the sword out from the ground.

“Seriously, I can’t open my eyes it’s too bright,” Xel said, eyes shut tight, “What happened?”

“That sword I bought, it's here,” she said.

“Cool… can you lead me until my eyes stop aching from the pastel? I don’t wanna open them and hurt them more,” Xel said, reaching blindly for her.

“Fine, just let me- HEY!” she yelled as they grabbed one of her breasts. She hit him over the head.

“Ow!” They exclaimed, whimpering. “What’d I do?!”

“Got a hand full of my boob, you asshat!” she yelled.

“Sorry…” He trailed off, turning his head away. “But I kinda can’t see right now.”

She groaned at this before taking his hand in hers. “Let's just get going.”

The two of them headed out, the female leading Xel into the forest. He was quiet the whole time, simply trying to keep up with her and not fall. After some time the two stopped for a breather and Xel opened his eyes. They still hurt, so he quickly closed them again with a wince.

“They still hurt?” she asked him.

“Yeah…” He said in a soft voice. Xel heard his sister sit down beside him.

“We'll get through this, we always do,” she reassured him. He leaned against her, shaking a little, afraid. She pulled him into a hug, ignoring the burning pain she was getting.

“I-i wanna go home…” He mumbled shakily.

“I don't know if we can,” she said. “But we're together, that's a good thing.”

“Yeah…” He said, smiling a little. They stayed like that before standing up.

“Feeling better?” she asked. He nodded, smiling still and stealing a quick hug. This had his head between her breasts. She twitched a bit but let it slide, just this once.

He seemed to realize where he was, quickly letting go and backing up. “S-s-sorry!” He exclaimed.

“It's… fine,” she breathed. “Let's just keep moving.” He nodded, timidly holding a hand out to her. She took it and lead him forward. As the two went, snarls were heard, bushes near them rustling.

The female Fenris heard this and stopped Xel. “Did you hear that?”

“Y-yeah,” He said nervously, sounding scared. “What was it?”

“I don't know,” she said as she reached up for her weapon. “Can you open your eyes to climb up a tree?”

He tried so, wincing in pain with a hiss, but quickly ran to a tree and climbed up it, vanishing into the top of it. The female turned as she pulled her sword out. It was odd, since she had never held a sword before, but it felt like she was trained to fight with it.

A giant wolf like thing came out of the bush and it growled at me. It reminded the female of one of the Beowolves from RWBY, it sure look like one other than glowing green eyes. It had more spikes coming off it and just look more demonic. The woman gripped her sword and waited for it to attack.

It lunged at her with speeds that were inhuman. She moved my sword in front of herself to block its attack and it knocked her back. She grunted in pain before she ducked under one of its swipes and saw it took a chunk out of the tree. She rolled out of the way of the beast, away from the tree with Xel in. The wolf turned to her and charged. The woman then brought up her sword and swung it in a diagonally at the wolf. The blade went into the wolf's shoulder and it let out a roar. One of its claws slashed at the woman's side which it started to burn. She grunted in pain as it grabbed her and threw her into a tree. She gaspped in pain and fell onto the ground dazed. She looked up and saw the wolf coming closer. She painted as there was blood oozing out of her side as she slowly got up. She gritted her teeth as she sheakley held her sword. Her body reacted to this as the tattoos began to glow a pale blue and she start to feel… lighter.

She charged at the at the wolf and swung her blade upwards, cutting it’s arm off as she spun around to slash at the wolf's stomach. It fell to its knees as the woman did something that she felt she done before; her hand glowed as she thrusted it into the wolf's chest. It roared in pain as the woman grabbed something inside and ripped it out of it.

She watched the wolf fell sideways and turned into dust and mist. In her hand was the black heart of the wolf as it too faded away. She painted a bit before falling down and clutching her side in pain. She started spouting curses in a different language as the pain returned to her.

“I-is it over?” Her brothers frightened voice called. He simply heard his sister groan in pain as she held her side. He quickly climbed down the tree, blindly stumbling over to her. “A-are you okay?”

“No…” she groaned a bit. The wound was slowly healing but it still hurt like hell for her. “The hell was- oh wait, you can’t see.”

“Y-yeah,” He said, squirming. She looked up at him before slowly pushing herself up to a sitting position.

“Well… weird demonic werewolf aside, this place is weird,” she informed him.

“We need to get somewhere safe,” He said urgently. She nodded and slowly, and painfully, stood up and took Xel’s hand. The two of them headed out into the forest to search for a place to rest. As they ran, they came across a cottage. The female panted a bit from the pain as she was more pale than normal.

"A… cottage… hope there’s… someone there,” she panted in pain. He nodded, and the two quickly went over, the brother knocking on the door. It took a bit until the door opened and the woman saw… something.

It was a pony, anthro pony with wings. It had yellow fur and a long pink mane. It’s cyan eyes looked at the two in front of it.

“You gotta be kidding me,” the female said as she grunted in pain. Xel didn’t see what’s going on but he heard the door open in front of him.

“H-hello, can you help us, please? My sisters hurt,” Xel said.

“Umm… uhh.. Oh,” the pony in front of them stuttered until she saw the wound in the woman's side. “H-here, let m-me help you i-in.”

The pony reached out and took the female side and helped Xel carry his sister into the cottage. The two set the female down on the couch as she panted. Her breath came much quicker than normal.

“S-stay with me, please,” Xel whimpered to her, looking extremely worried. The pony went over to to one of her cupboards and pulled out some roots, and a descaling agent. She turned the roots into a paste and mixed the agent together to make a poultice. She took it over to the other to and slowly applied it to the females wound. She winced in pain but slowly the pain died down and her breathing went to normal.

"She’ll be fine in a bit,” the pony said. “Umm… is there… something wrong with your eyes?”

“They h-h-hurt to look a-at the colors around,” He told her simply. The pony nodded before walking over to the cupboard and made some sort of potion. This one was a blueish colour. She walked over to Xel and hands it to him.

“H-Here, this might h-held… i-if that’s alright with you,” she said.

“T-thanks…” Xel said, holding his hand out for it. The pony gave him the potion, Xel quickly drinking it. The potion tasted bad, kinda like cold medicine. He shook his head as the liquid went into his stomach.

He felt his eyes tingle a little, opening them. The pastel colors were now at a bearable level to him, which made him smile. “Thank you,” He said. He saw the being in front of him as the pony smiled and nodded.

“Is she going to be okay?” He asked, looking at his sister. The mare nodded again, looking at the elf who’s now sleeping on her couch. “Good… I’ll be napping, then,” He said, before passing out from the day's events.

A few hours later, the next day

Xel woke up from his sleep and saw his sister still sleeping with a blanket on her. He saw that he too had a blanket over him. Keeping it wrapped around himself, he walked over, getting in next to her and snuggling against his sister for comfort. She muttered something but didn’t say anything.

Xel smiled, about to fall back asleep. He then heard something coming from the back that delayed him falling back to sleep. Sitting up, he looked to the source of the noise. He headed the sound again and went towards where it was coming from. Xel walked into the kitchen and out of the window she saw the mare that helped him and his sister is out there with animals around her.

He tilted his head, simply observing. He watched her feed the animals, talk to them, and just generally taking care of them. She had a big smile on her face as she did this.

“Hey, morning,” He suddenly decided to call. This made the mare yelp in surprise before looking at Xel.

“O-o-o-oh, um… m-morning,” she stuttered.

“So… how long until my sis is better?” Xel asked her.

“I-In an hour or t-two,” she said, pulling her mane in front of her to hide herself. “T-the poultice isn’t r-really that strong… sorry.”

“That’s fine, back where we come from that kinda wound would take… longer,” He said simply. She shifted a bit.

“If it was any other, it would have been a death sentence, I’m surprised she lived through a Grimm attack,” she whispered.

“Grimm?” He questioned. She nodded.

“Monsters,” she whispered. She looked around her. “Umm… I need to to go tend to my animal friends, I hope you don’t mind…”

“Alright,” He said, walking back to his sister. When he got back he saw her sitting up with a groan.

“Ugh,” she moaned in pain. Xel immediately was at her side, looking worried. She simply wave him off. “I’m fine, just… sore.”

“You didn’t even have ‘fun’ last night,” Xel tried to joke, attempting to lighten the mood.

“Yeah, the dull pain in my side stopped me,” she snarked back with a smirk.

“Like that would,” Xel commented. The elf playfully pushed Xel.

“Shut up,” she said. Xel laughed, smiling at his sister. The two laughed before the elf frown.

“Man, that wolf thing was messed up, looked a lot like a werewolf with white spikes on its body,” she said with a sigh.

“I was told they’re called ‘Grimm’,” Xel informed her. She looked at him for a moment.

“A werewolf called Grimm, getting an RWBY fib here,” she said quickly.

“Maybe… why were we sent here though?” Xel questioned. The elf shook her head.

“I don’t know,” she informed.

“Maybe we could find out if anything's going on?” Xel suggested. The elf nodded before laying back down.

“Yeah, but for now I’m resting, still sore and tired,” she told him.

“Okay,” He said, getting on the couch with her and snuggling against her.

“Still can’t get over this snuggling thing still, huh?” she asked him.

“I… think these are special circumstances,” He said in a small voice. She sighed at this.

“True,” she said before staring up at the roof of the place. She raised an eyebrow. “By the way, I have to ask you something.”

“What is it?” He asked.

“I was going to ask before we left the house, but why did you have a dress in your room?” the elf asked him.

“O-oh… w-well, I’m… kinda both?” He said uncertainly, scared of her reaction. She simply rolled her eyes.

“I already knew that,” she said. “Just thought you were leaning more male side of things… unless you’re having second thoughts.”

“S-sometimes I… just feel more girly,” He said with a shrug. “And did mom and dad tell you? I don’t remember telling you…”

“I was adopted, remember,” she said giving him a smirk. “But I don’t mind having a little sis, with you and shopping it’s hard to tell.”

“O-okay… maybe w-when we get a house, I’ll be your little sis for a day,” Xel said to her, hugging her with the blanket. The Elf hugged him back. They laid there before falling asleep for a few hours.

The elf snored as she turned over. She then caused herself to fall off the couch with a loud thud.

“Ow~,” she groaned.

“Big sis?” Xel questioned groggily, peeking over the side of the couch.

“I’m okay, just breaking my nose… again,” she said, pushing herself up off the ground.

Xel helped her up, making sure to not touch her skin. The elf rubbed her nose and grumbled a bit.

“I need railings so I don’t fall off,” she grumbled.

“We need to get you a crib,” Xel joked, chuckling. The elf looked at him for a moment.

“Maybe,” she said. “So… horse people… didn’t the mare look familiar?”

“Dunno, I’ve been on my laptop for the last couple months, haven’t watched TV,” Xel said, shrugging.

“Hmm, well, might as well give her our names, she did help us,” the elf said.

“I guess,” Xel said with a shrug. As he said that the door opened and the mare from before walked in with a worried look. “Hi!” He greeted cheerfully.

“Oh!... umm… h-hi,” she greeted shyly.

“What are you doing?” he asked curiously.

“Umm…” she looked over and peeked out of the window. “Hiding really… Oh! Are you feeling okay?” she asked the elf.

“Better than before.” the elf answered.

“What are you hiding from?” Xel asked. The mare shifted a bit.

“M-my friend… she kinda went insane and is trying to help other ponies for her friendship letter… oh my, I forgot to ask you both your names… I’m sorry,” the mare said sadly.

“It’s okay, I’m Xel,” The currently identifying as a male said, holding his hand out, “Nice to meet you.”

The mare timidly took his hand and shook it.

“H-hello, my name is…” she muttered the last part.

“Sorry, what was that?” Xel asked patiently. She muttered again, a little louder. “Louder please,” Xel said.

“...F-Fluttershy…” she squeaked.

“That’s a nice name you have there, Fluttershy,” He said kindly. The mare blushed a bit from this.

“T-thank you…” she said softly. “And… yours?”

“Viriola,” the elf informed her.

“Nice to meet you two,” she said with a smile.

“So… how long till we can go out?” Xel asked.

“Umm… anytime really,” Fluttershy said as she looked at the door.

“You sure? I don’t want to run into anything bad,” Xel said.

“Umm… defined bad…” the mare asked.

“There was a werewolf thing we ran into, it’s what gave Viriola her injury,” Xel explained to the shy mare.

“Well, not that, ”she informed him. “Or any Grimm in town, if that’s what you mean.”

“Oh, okay,” Xel said, sounding relieved.

“Yes… fighting Grimm would be bad,” Viriola said grimly. “I prefer my body not getting ripped apart.”

“Me too,” Xel said.

“Well, if you need anything, I’ll be here…” the mare shifted a bit before leaving the two alone.

“So, should we try going to town?” Xel asked his sister. His answer came from the sound of the elfs stomach growling.

“That’s a yes,” she said as she grabbed her sword. “Come on, let's find some food or something.”

“Should we ask the mare for money? What if they don’t take ours here?” Xel asked. The elf frowned at this.

“I don’t know-hey!” she pulled out a leather bag that wasn’t there before. “Where the hell did I get this?!?”

“What’s in it?” Xel asked. Viriola opened the bag and saw gold coins in it. “Did… our money turn into this?” Xel guessed.

“Maybe, there’s a lot here…” she started counting the ones she can see. “I think there’s a gold coin for each dollar… and I had about a thousand left so a thousand coins.”

“I had my full three, do I have a… yep,” Xel said, bringing out his own bag.

“So we have four thousand together, I guess we don’t have money problems for now,” Viriola told Xel.

“Yeah, let’s head into town now,” Xel said. The two of them headed out of the cottage. The two saw other ponies going on in their daily lives. They did saw some of them staring at them and whispering. Viriola frowned and got more annoyed that some of them were unicorns staring at her, but she didn’t know why.

Xel was more nervous, sticking close to his sister. As they continued on and more and more of the ponies looked at them, the two found a small restaurant that went by the name ‘Bloodstone Templar’.

“Nice name… I think,” Viriola muttered.

“I dunno…” Xel said, not liking the look. The two of them walked into the place and looked around. It was dark, cozy, something like a coffee shop for brooding wizards. There was thirteen booths, thirteen tables with chairs, thirteen pillars that hold up the the roof of the place which are placed throughout the room, making the path different every time someone walks. There were two old stallions in one of the booths playing chess while smoking pipes. Over by the counter cleaning a mug was a large, ashen gray stallion with an olive coloured mane.

“This place is cozy,” Viriola said simply. Xel looked around at the place before answering.

“I’m still nervous…” Xel mumbled, not liking the place. The elf shrugged before the two walked over to the stallion who’s cleaning the mug. He looked at them with gray eyes.

“What having?” he asked, nodding at the board with the food. Most of it was vegetarian but the two did see some meat meals on there as well, only beside them it said ‘out of stock’.

“Do you have french fries?” Xel asked shyly. The stallion nodded. “Medium please,”

The stallion grunted before looking at the elf.

“I’ll have the same,” she ordered. The stallion grunted again before turning over to what looked like a deep fryer and started it. Viriola and Xel looked around and went over to a booth.

Instead of sitting across, like he normally would, he sat next to her, not wanting to be alone on the other side. The elf saw this and pulled him into a hug.

“It’s okay,” she whispered. He leaned into the hold, shaking slightly. The two stayed there until the stallion was finish making them their food and walked over to them.

“Here,” he said, putting the bowls down for them. “Just let you two know, next time you come here, you’ll have to get the food yourselves.”

“Right…” the elf replied. The stallion walked away from them to get back to his counter.

Xel started nibbling on fries, silent now. Viriola ate her fries without talking as well. All was heard in the building was the occasional sound of one of the stallions moving a chess piece on a chessboard. “So… now what?” Xel questioned.

“Don’t know,” the elf said. “I just don’t know”