When Legends Rise

I awoke with a start, coming to my senses I soon realised that I was sat in an armchair and immediately the events of the night before began to trickle back into my mind. Looking around the early morning gloom of the room my eyes fell on the sight of Tarn, the kobald myself & Vinyl had picked up over the course of our little escapade, fast asleep under the covers of my bed. For whatever reason she’d decided she’d rather stop in my room as opposed to Vinyl’s, probably something to do with the latter being an actual vampire, as a result I’d forfeited my bed to her, choosing to instead crash in a nearby armchair, using my cloak..thing for warmth. Continuing my visual search around the room I saw my armour utterly spotless and placed in a neat pile in the corner of the room, the moment we’ve arrived back I’d set about hastily cleaning my armour, I did not need Autumn and Octavia, let alone our royal hosts, potentially walking in to find my armour caked in dried blood.

Speaking of which…

My mind was reeling over my actions last night, every so often my eyes would catch a glimpse of something wholly irrelevant which would bring forth vivid flashbacks of those few brief moments in the warehouse, every time I was faced with the mental image of the life fading from the eyes of those I’d killed, and no matter how often I tried to justify it as bringing justice upon abhorrent individuals my mind would always return to that fact I’d taken the lives of others, I got the very strong suspicion that I’d be carrying this burden in my mind for some time.

I was stirred from my half asleep musings rather suddenly when my eyes focussed on a set of piercing red eyes peering at me through the gloom, kicking my subconscious into fight or flight for a split second before the rest of my mind caught up, revealing it to be Vinyl lurking in a corner, I couldn’t help but jump at the sight.

“You’re going to give me a heart attack one day” I muttered with a sigh, knowing she could hear me despite the distance between us, this warranted a faint smirk from her as she stood up and made her way over.

“There’s always more than one way to get your heart racing” can the reply in blue magic, shimmering on the arm of the chair I was sat on, this warranted a snort of amusement on my behalf.

“How long’ve you been in here?” I asked as she laid down in front of me with her side up against the foot of the bed.

“About an hour, figured I’d stop by just to keep an eye on our new arrival. Besides, I don’t particularly sleep, you know, on account of being a vampire and all”

“That’ll be useful once we’re on the road...or river” I thought aloud, warranting a wistful smile from Vinyl.

“That’s about the only reason Autumn has been tolerating me”

“What’s all that about anyway?” I asked “when you first showed up Autumn wasn’t exactly happy about you and Octavia joining us” Vinyl winced at this.

“Yeah, my bad...incident a couple years back involving a cart filled with apples. May or may not have been intentional” I chuckled at that, before glancing at Tarn and sighing.

“...When she wakes, see if you can’t get Octavia to take her to one side to talk to her, get her to vent on what she’s been through” Vinyl shook her head uncertainty at that, a pensive look on her face

“I don’t know...I mean I get where you’re coming from. It’s not good to bottle up shit like that, but all the same, you can’t force her. From the few hours that we’ve interacted it seems she’s been chumming up to you, on the surface at least that tells me that she’s trying not to let her past experiences show through” I couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at her, surprised at her level of insight on the matter.

“I thought you didn’t have compassion” I said.

“I don’t” she replied with a shrug “But just because I can’t empathise doesn’t mean I can’t read a pony. It’s actually a vampire trait. For example, from you I’m getting…” she paused at this, putting a hoof to her chin as she studied me, her eyes seeming to pierce right into my soul, before her eyes widened suddenly and more writing hastily appeared “Alright, I'm gonna skip the breakdown of what I'm reading off you and skip straight to the point. I'm struggling to see what Fantasia sees in you”

“Gee, you know just what to say to inspire endless amounts of confidence in me”

“I’m not here to be a friend who lies to protect your feelings, but what I am going to do is help you to improve, because I don't want to be the one to save your sorry flanks every time. If those moving pictures that you showed us have thought me anything, it's that you do have some potential, it's just buried really deep under a potent cocktail of fear and insecurity”

She was referring to the movies I'd shown them on my laptop on the train ride up here, for the purposes of not having to pause every five minutes just to explain a concept which, whilst mundane to a human such as myself, would have been alien to ponies, I'd stuck to one's that would at least feel somewhat familiar in tone.

In the end I settled for things which leaned more towards pre-1900 historicals or outright classical fantasy. This had actually worked in my favour as it at times a certain aspect of a movie would ring familiar enough with these ponies for them to verbally make note of this. So far I’d found out that Deer were practically elves, griffins were not all that unlike vikings, dwarves were like Minotaurs, and both orcs and men were not unlike a group of dog-like races known as cynocephaly, the former being similar to a troll-like sub-species known as diamond dogs, or yrrchs, and my own kind was not unlike another, more wolf-like race known as sythians. I couldn't help but find my spirits soaring at the prospect that maybe some race on this planet was not all that unlike my own, someplace to perhaps settle down.

About an hour later Tarn stirred, and I set about getting dressing into my armour and cloak. With that complete, I set off for the breakfast table with Vinyl accompanying me. Upon arriving at the table, the reception could be described as cool at best, the king and queen silently watched me and Vinyl without comment, we didn’t get such curtesy from our fellow travelers.

“Have fun last night?” Octavia asked with a deadpan expression on her face, more so to me that Vinyl, Autumn meanwhile looked about one poorly worded sentence away from flying off the handle. I quickly figured that they already had some idea of what happened, hard not to with god knows how many slaves pouring out onto the streets last night, and were able to connect the dots. Vinyl made no move to answer, and I held up a and hand to stop any further questions as I set about obtaining my own breakfast, taking the time to mull over the answer as I never was good with answering questions of this manner on the fly. Not much that was available appealed to me, so I settled for eggs on toast, along with a cup of tea. Only once I had those in hand and had sat down did I answer her question.

“I’m going to be quite honest with you” I said “No, not in the slightest, and I’m not just including the incident with the warehouse” this must have derailed any pre-planned rant she had thought up, as her deadpan expression broke.

“...I’m sorry?” was apparently all she could think to say.

“Try ‘getting forcefully soul bound to a god against my will’” I said, taking a gulp of tea “It was also Fantasia’s idea to go after someone up to less than innocent deeds, Fantasia herself said, and I’m quoting directly here, ‘thieves, murderers, drug dealers, rapists...so many naughty individuals who use the night to their advantage that need their heads bashing in’, so you can take any pre prepared speeches about morality or some such bollocks and stuff them, apologies your highnesses, because I’m already berating myself over last night” this seemed to throw the both of them completely on the back-hoof. At this point Vinyl chipped in, tapping a spoon against a teacup to get their attention, before ethereal blue writing materialised in front of Octavia & Autumn.

“For once I’m going to wholeheartedly say that he pretty much nailed the reasoning behind last night’s little incident. Fantasia practically forced our hooves into this mess, and it’s not like those we killed were innocent-” at this point I cut in.

“There's a female kobald, nice lass, her name’s Tarn, she’s about yeigh-high” I said, holding my hand at roughly the height her head came up to “Who is as-of right now buck-arse naked in my bedchambers, who I, apologies your highnesses, quite literally dropped in on getting raped back at that warehouse” It was at this point that Autumn had made the unfortunate mistake of taking a sip of her own drink, and was promptly sent into a coughing fit, whilst Octavia went decidedly pale. This definitely caught the attention of the two rulers of this nation.

“I-I’ll make sure that she’s seen to right away” Queen Mystic Diamond said, signalling for a servant to come over.

“Make sure she has some clothes provided as well, please” I said as a unicorn mare approached the queen, who began to relay orders to the servant. The servant wordlessly departed, and only once my eyes returned to the table did I see that most of those present were regarding me with curiosity.

“... Why are you insistent on her receiving clothes of all things, Onælan?” Autumn asked. I coughed, awkwardly.

“Well...I’m not sure it’s proper to say in front of the king and queen” I said, glancing at the aforementioned royalty. The King Regal Knight snorted at this.

“My dear boy” he chuckled “you need not concern yourself with proprietary here, we aren’t like some canterlot nobility. Speak freely, just keep basic courtesy in mind, after all, we are the ones who shall be providing for this kobald girl”

“I suppose it’s more uncomfortableness on my part” I admitted “my kind are more modest than most in these lands, you and other races here are lucky to have your skin concealed by fur, feathers and scale...my own race, and kobalds it would seem, are not so lucky, so all of my kind adorn ourselves with clothes. To do otherwise in public is seen as indecent, punishable under law even, and whilst I wouldn’t be so drastic, such a cultural mentality does tend to leave a lasting impression. This is made all the more worse by the fact that her body type is not all that much unlike the women of my own kind, if she is to be joining our group, then for her to be travelling around unclothed would make things...awkward for me” the king mulled this over, before eventually nodding.

“Your honesty on the matter is appreciated” he said “very well, I shall set my tailors to work making her clothes for your journey ahead”

“Speaking of which” I said, before turning to Autumn “How has your task of plotting a route come along?” at this the burnt orange pegasus produced a scroll, which Vinyl took in her magic and passed to me. Unraveling it I found it was a map of the united realms which fell under the rule of this city; Lindsey to the south, Westwards to the northwest, and Yarvik to the northeast.

“Our journey will start off going west, into my own homelands, I know you’re eager to see Yarvik, Onælan, but I’m not going north without taking the chance to see my home once more, it’s been 20 years since I was last in Achern” I held up a hand placatingly.

“I’m not going to take issue with you wanting to see family again” I said, and she nodded in thanks.

“All told” she said “with the detour into Westwards included, it’s a journey of some 770 leagues from here to Tees-Side. That’s 64 days to walk, or 50 days by river on a small sailing craft” I baulked at that, before hastily taking my phone out, along with a pen and notepad, and began jotting down notes whilst doing calculations, swapping back and forth between a measurement converter and a calculator.

“Um...what are you doing?” Autumn said.

“We’re taking rivers, yes? Not canals?” I asked, not looking up.

“Um...yes, they’re the fastest way to travel besides rail.” Autumn said.

“And there’s no restrictions on speed, correct?” I asked.

“No? What are you getting at?” at this I finished writing down the notes, picked up the notepad and tossed it to her. She read through them, her brow creasing in confusion. “25 days? What exactly are you proposing? That we sprint non-stop the entire way to Tees-Side, I’d struggle to fly that distance in that time”

“No” I said “the answer is simple, we make a launch”

“A what?” Octavia asked.

“You guys have boilers small enough and powerful enough to power boats, yes?” I asked, glancing to the rulers of this nation, Regal Knight scratched his chin with a hoof.

“I believe I’ve seen the occasional barge running under its own power, yes” he said.

“So we take a boat which can house the 4, sorry, 5 of us, we find a vertical boiler and fit that in, build sleeping quarters, then theoretically we could travel near enough non-stop food, fuel and breaks notwithstanding. We aren’t on any real time constraints, so we’ve no need to go quite so fast, but still, it beats 2 months”

“And you plan to make this work...how?” Autumn asked, massaging her forehead with a hoof in frustration.

“You’re talking to a member of a species which got to the moon and back on less processing power than this thing” I said, picking up my phone and shaking it slightly “if there’s one thing my kind knows how to do, it’s bodge random junk and make it work. And it just so happens that I know my way around steam engines” Vinyl piped up at this moment, tapping a hoof on the table.

“Now I’m starting to see why Fantasia chose you” the words floated above her head “You’re meant to be the one who throws random shit together and somehow makes it work”

“Language, Vinyl” Octavia hissed, Autumn meanwhile looked confused.

“Wait, what do you mean by “why fantasia chose you”, Vinyl?” she asked.

“Something we talked about earlier” I said, before pointing at Vinyl “safe to say she’s got more than her fair share of criticisms about me, let me tell you” Vinyl smirked at this.

“Oh, come on, everyone has their role to play in a team, I simply hadn’t quite figured your role out yet is all”

“Whatever do you mean?” Octavia asked, raising an eyebrow, Vinyl leaned back in her chair and examined a hoof as she wrote out a fresh response.

“You, dear Octy, are the diplomat of the group, you can get us out of tricky situations with words alone. Autumn is the grumpy war vet’ who is able to fight her way out of trouble. Onælan is that one weird foreigner who makes the weird stuff for ridiculously specific situations. Tarn, our latest addition to the group, is our scout and lock-pick, also the bard.”

“And what of you?” Autumn asked.

“Vinyl is the one who gets us into trouble in the first place” Octavia said, a whisper of a smirk appearing on her face for the first time today. It was at this point that the king cut in.

“I would hold out on being quite so eager to travel north if I were you” he said, a troubled expression on his face as a letter floated in front of him.

“What’s happened, father?” Octavia asked.

“The one thing I had hoped wouldn’t happen…” he said with a deep sigh before floating the letter over to her “Heimut has begun invading Cerbuckenland” The room seemed to go very quiet as thoughts began to race through my mind, my knowledge on the politics of this world were extremely limited, but some things were striking terrifying parallels with the history of my own world from the past century. I was shaken from my musings by Octavia calling out my name, and my eyes focussed to see my three companions, and the king and queen, staring at me with varying levels of worry.

“A...are you alright?” she asked “you look ill”

“Heimut speaks german, yes?” I asked, only to receive blank looks “‘Sein oder nicht sein, das ist die Frage’, they speak that language, yes?”

“That would be correct” Regal said “Why do you ask?”

“This world has some parallels with my own, these lands are not all that unlike my own homelands, with the exception that I hail from an island decidedly smaller than these lands.” I said “I will spare you the specifics of politics, but I feel very strongly that what happened 70 years ago in my homelands is starting to happen here”

“Are you certain of this?” Regal asked.

“Absolutely” I said “I would strongly suggest that you at least begin preparations for conflict, if you already have intentions to make plans, I would suggest redoubling those plans, and encourage your immediate allies to do the same. Make sure that any attempt to invade will at the very least be extremely costly for them”

“And…what of you and the rest of your group, Octavia included?” Mystic asked.

“I won't speak for the others, they can stay here in safety if they wish, or they can come with, it makes no difference to me” I said, I found myself rubbing my wrist, nervously “But as for myself, after what I've read and been told about their Kaiserin?... I would very much like to march right up to the capital and splatter her brains on the Palace walls” the latter half of my sentence came out as little more than a whisper, but from the looks on their faces I could see that they heard me perfectly. With my thoughts made perfectly clear, I stood up and took my leave, I needed alone with my thoughts to think things over.