The Exiled God

The Friendship School

Ocellus exited her room, humming a little tune to herself. She yawned, rubbing her eyes with a cyan hoof. She had stayed up way too late last night studying for today's tests, which she was now regretting. Walking by a series of doors, she discovered that her friends had already gotten up for breakfast. She made her way down the stairs, and towards the dining room, finding her friends crowded around one of the many tables.

"Hey, guys." She said, still shaking off the haze of her tiredness.

"Hi." Their responses were a variation of such, voices monotone and without much emotion. Ocellus sat down next to them, grabbing a banana from a fruit bowl in the middle of the table.

"What's up?" She asked, taking a small bite.

"School was supposed to start 10 minutes ago, but head mare Twilight hasn't even gotten to school yet! If she wants us to take this stupid test, then she should be here!" Gallus said, letting his frustration known.

"Maybe it has something to do with that weird meteor last night. Yona remembers it making really loud noises, and the ground was rumbly too." Yona added.

"Eh, I don't think so. It's just a little meteor. Dragons are used to that kind of stuff all the time." Smolder crossed her arms and held her snout a bit higher, trying to act tough. Ocellus had finished her banana, using her magic to toss it into a nearby trash can.

"Gallus, I don't think you should be blaming head mare Twilight for this. Everycreature can be late sometimes, even her." The rest of the students nodded in agreement with Ocellus. The rest of their breakfast went rather smoothly, the small group having some fun with a couple of Silverstream's jokes and Ocellus' imitations. Sandbar even busted out a joint and filled the dining hall with weed smoke (Ok, not really). It had now been twenty minutes since school had started, and at this point, the students had almost forgotten about their class. Suddenly, they stopped talking. Silverstream included, which was quite a surprise.

"Guys? Hello? What's going on?" Ocellus asked. Her friends were facing the window, and seemed to be entranced with something outside. The small changeling turned her head towards the same direction, and then she saw it. At first, it appeared to be completely normal. Head mare Twilight was just trotting towards the school. But her gaze shifted to the right, and a massive creature came into her view, which was easily keeping up with the princess' pace, due to its long legs.

"What do you think it is?" Gallus whispered.

"I don't know. He looks kind of funny. He even painted his face!" Silverstream replied, giggling.

"Yona thinks the weird creature looks tough. Weird creature looks strong, like Yak!" Yona said pridefully, and with a bit of caution. If this creature was really as tough as it looked, she would have a worthy contender for hoof wrestling matches, and the young yak was fairly content on keeping her spot as champion. But Holy Hay, those biceps were thick.

"Yeah. Tough..." Smolder chewed her lip, licking it while running her eyes over the exposed abdomen of the creature. Ocellus herself had to admit that the creature looked strong. Its chalk-white skin and red tattoos really did a number on her, and it looked suspiciously like one of those "humans" Twilight had told her about in one of her adventures. She cleared her throat with a little cough.

"Um, guys, now that Head mare Twilight is here, I think that we should really get to class. If she finds out that we're not there, we're gonna get into a lot of trouble." She said. The rest of the students (minus smolder) nodded in agreement, getting up to head to their first class.

"Smolder!"

"Oh, yeah. Gimme a minute."

"Come on!"

"Ugh, fine."

Friendship School, Entrance

Twilight burst through the door, slightly out of breath. Kratos stepped in behind her and closed it with a loud slam. He wasn't out of breath at all. Spike quickly got off Twilight's back, said something about janitorial duties, and hurried off. The purple alicorn ran a hoof through her mane, smoothing out any stray hairs, before making her way towards her first-period class.

"I guess that you can sit in and watch the class. Maybe you can teach us a couple of things about Midgard." She said. At this point, there would not have been much else for Kratos to do, besides taking a tour across the school, but since they were late, that would have to be postponed for the moment.

"It appears that your schools are different than what I am used to. Are all your schools like this?" The man asked.

"No, this is a specialty school. Normally foals go through several years of cutie mark education, where they learn their special talents. Universities are only for very specific talents, and they're really rare, like the Wonderbolts academy or Princess Celestia's school for gifted Unicorns, which is where I went." Interesting. From what he heard, Kratos could assume that these "Cutie Marks" were directly related to a pony's special talent and that their society had an...unreliable workforce, considering that every pony's special talent was different.

"What are these cutie marks?" He asked.

"What do you mean? I thought those red tattoos were your cutie mark." The man simply shook his head.

"My kind don't have these "Cutie Marks"."The look on Twilight's face displaced her shock. Although the humans in the mirror dimension didn't have cutie marks, their pony counterparts' talents did carry over into their world. She couldn't imagine what it would be like to live without having your special talent given to you. Having to choose your own destiny? Preposterous!

"How does that work?" She asked.

"My kind have to go through a rigorous amount of education in several different subjects. We are given a choice for several different kinds of professions, and we are required to choose one. Not one is allowed to leech off society." Kratos replied. They now entered a hallway containing a number of different classrooms. At the end, the man could see a quick flash of cyan, before a door slammed closed.

"Ah, those are probably my students. They're probably worried. It's not common for me to be late, you see." Kratos nodded in acknowledgment. Twilight approached the same door that the blue thing had fled into and opened it. The sounds of a thriving class quickly faded as the Head mare entered the room, Kratos following behind her.

"Good Morning, Mrs. Twilight!" The students said, in monotone levels. Their eyes quickly widened as they saw the other figure enter the classroom.

"Hi, Class! Today is gonna be a bit different because we have a special visitor! Every creature say hello to Kratos!" An awkward silence came across the class, with shy greetings spread across from the students. "Kratos is an alien from a place called Midgard, and he's going to be sitting in through class today. Feel free to ask him any questions you might have!" Kratos walked past the rows of inquisitive students and towards the back of the room, where he pulled over two spare desks and sat on both of them. He nodded, motioning for Twilight to continue. "Because our unexpected delay-" Kratos raised his eyebrows. "There won't be a test today. Feel free to work on any homework from your other classes!" The students cheered, Gallus looking especially happy.

He moved his desk to face those of his friends, who did the same. Leaning his head forward, he whispered: "So, who wants to talk to the guy first? I vote Ocellus." The rest of the group giggled, casting glances over at the hulking biped, who was rubbing his weathered, callous hands, and didn't seem to be paying too much attention to the class.

"Yeah, Ocellus. You should go."

"Yona thinks Ocellus should!"

"Go talk to him! Pleeeeease?"

"What!? But...Why me?"

"You're smart and into aliens! You'll get along just fine!" Ocellus sighed.

"Ugh...Fine." The small cyan changeling got up from her chair and made her way towards the back of the classroom where Kratos currently resided. As she walked, she received several strange looks from her peers while her friends watched on, whispering to themselves. She hung her head lower, trying to make herself smaller while being undoubtedly self-conscious of herself. Approaching the man, she lifted her head back up and straightened out her posture a bit, before clearing her throat with a cough.

"Um, hi?" She said. From this close up, she could see Kratos in complete detail, and was, just like several others, very intimidated by him. He turned his head slowly towards her, a neutral expression donning his face, which was a nice change from his chronic frown.

"Yes, child?" He said. Ocellus breathed in sharply, but not loud enough for the man to notice. Kratos' voice was even deeper than she had expected and added even more to her nervousness. The shy changeling had never been very good in social situations, and it was quite a bit out of her comfort zone to greet a newcomer, much less an alien from another world.

"C-can I ask you a question?" Ocellus wore a hopeful expression, and Kratos nodded curtly in response. He stood up from one of the desks that he sat on and moved it towards her.

"Sit down." The changeling clambered onto the desk, taking her place next to the man, and proceeded with her original intention.

"Areyouahuman?What'syourplanetlike?WhatdoyouthinkaboutEquestria?Howlongareyougoingtobehere?" She rambled out. Kratos sighed. It looked like this class was not going to be as mellow as he had expected.

15 Minutes later

The remaining members of the group of friends watched as Ocellus conversed with Kratos. The blue Griffin seemed to be right. They did get along well. Too well, to be exact. Currently, the changeling seemed to be entranced by one of the man's stories. A captivating one, judging by the wide-eyed expression on her face.

"I'm gonna go over there," Smolder said, getting up from her chair and repeating what Ocellus had done just minutes before. The rest of the students simply shrugged, watching as the small dragon introduced herself.

"Hi. My name's Smolder. I'm a dragon, by the way." Perhaps it was just her imagination, but it appeared that his mouth curled upwards a tiny bit. Not a smile, and nowhere close to it, but he was getting there.

"You are quite...small, for a dragon." He replied. Smolder crossed her arms, a small frown covering her face.

"Hey! I'm still growing! Besides, how big are dragons in your world anyway?" She huffed, slightly offended. Perhaps this new visitor was not that great after all.

"The last dragon I have seen was one-hundred times my size, and half as high. Here is one of its teeth that I retrieved from its corpse." He said, pulling out the dragon tooth and passing it to Smolder. Her eyes widened as she held it in her claws, lightly cradling it. It was nearly twice the size of her arm, and was deadly sharp at the tip.

"You...killed the dragon?" She asked, still in a state of shock from the utter size of the dragon this tooth came from.

"Yes. It gave me no choice, and attacked unprovoked." Smolder nodded, handing back the tooth to Kratos, who tucked it into his belt. If he was able to kill a dragon of such gargantuan proportions, he had earned her respect. Pulling over another desk, she sat next to her changeling friend.

"Can you, um, continue with the story please?" Kratos nodded.

"After the war, Odysseus set sail from Troy upon twelve ships. Several days passed until they sighted land. Odysseus' second in command, Eurylochus, urged him to come ashore..." Soon, the two students were enraptured by his story, looking up at him with attentive expressions on their faces, occasionally expressing their thoughts about his tale. On the other side of the room, Twilight watched closely. It was a good decision to bring Kratos to class. She was slightly bothered that he opened up more to two children that he had just met than with her, but she would get to know him better. It was only his first day here, after all. Soon, the bell rang and the students ran off towards their next class. The two girls said their temporary goodbyes, Smolder bumping Kratos' fist and Ocellus wrapping her front hooves around one of his legs in a hug, before heading off to join her friends. He was very surprised but didn't mind the contact. Perhaps his kind didn't show affection through touch. Once all the students left the classroom, and the second-period students started pouring in, she walked over to Kratos.

"So, what do you think?" She asked.

"Your class is...unique. Is there a dining room in the area?"

"Oh, yeah. The break room is just a couple turns to the left. You'll know it when you see it." Kratos nodded and left the classroom, the students making a wide cordon around him. Once he arrived, he entered the room, finding a table in the middle of the room, a long couch pressed to the left wall and a counter with a fridge and a coffee machine to his right. He walked over to one of the windows adorning the walls and covered them with curtains, then approached the couch and, laying out a blanket out to cover it, laid down on it, his feet legs hanging over the edge. It looked like conversing with the children had taken far more out of him than he had expected. Due to his many years of seclusion, he wasn't used to engaging in meaningful conversations, and besides, he had stayed up fairly late last night repairing the cabin from his fight with Baldur. From what he could tell, the pony students were definitely not as friendly as Ocellus and Smolder, judging by the way they avoided him, and he doubted that the upcoming classes would be as entertaining as the one he had just been to. Sighing, Kratos rolled onto his side and allowed his tiredness to lull him to sleep. For a while, he dozed in and out of consciousness, getting up several times to drink some water from the nearby faucet.

His slumber didn't last long, however, since the sound of a door opening, followed by a blood-curdling scream, startled him. Cursing whoever it was that woke him up, he stood up, peered out the window to tell the time, and found that the sun was still in the same position it had been in hours before. That would take a while getting used to. Walking towards the door, he paused for a moment, hearing voices.

"Rarity, it's okay. That was only Kratos." The man could tell that this was Twilight, due to its slightly scratchy consistency.

"What do you mean, that was only Kratos! Have you seen it!" Kratos scoffed. This one was clearly the one who disrupted his slumber. A softer, more calm voice followed up.

"Um, Rarity. I think you should be more nice with our guest. Twilight said that he's totally safe, so there's nothing to be worried about. I'm sure that he'll be really nice when you meet him."

"And if not, we'll beat him up!"

"Rainbow!"

"I can't wait to throw him a party!" Kratos scoffed, raising his eyebrows. He had had far more than enough parties in his youth, those that involved wine and women in particular, and he had no intentions of revisiting such an ancient pastime.

The door opened, and Kratos turned to face them. Just like Starlight and Twilight, the ponies in front of him were of many different colors, such as white, pink, light blue, butter yellow, and orange. He was met with a variety of reactions. The white one gasped and shielded her eyes, the pink one gave him a massive (and slightly disturbing) smile, the light blue one's eyes widened and her ears flopped to the sides of her head, and the yellow one let out a small "eep!" like sound and hid behind her mane. Surprisingly, the orange pony gave the least expressive reaction, and instead lifted her hat from her head and gave him a sharp nod, which Kratos returned.

"Hi, Kratos. These are my friends..." She pointed towards the group of ponies that were now a plethora of awkwardness. "This is Rarity." She pointed towards the white one, who scoffed and scrunched her nose in disgust.

"Your outfit, or whatever that thing is, is absolutely horrid! I can not, no. Will not have you walking around here in those rags!" Rarity said furiously. Kratos' frown dropped even lower from where it was.

"These garments have served me well, for many years, and certainly far better than anything you could ever conjure." Rarity's jaw hit the floor. Never had she seen someone who had such little regard for fashion, or even basic decency! She spluttered, at a loss for words, before her eyes rolled into the back of their sockets and she passed out, flopping onto the ground. The room was silent for a moment until the light blue pony (which Kratos later learned was called Rainbow Dash) spoke up.

"Daaaaang." Slowly, the rest of the group broke into laughter, which escalated into some rolling around on the ground and bawling their eyes out. "How did you do that!" Rainbow said, flying right up towards Kratos' face. "I've never seen anypony that she can't force to change their outfit!"

"A life of not caring what one's thoughts are has taught me to be resilient." He said. The blue pegasus hopped onto his shoulder and shook his head in her hooves.

"Teeeeeach Me!" She said, causing the other ponies to break into laughter once again. After their merry-making had died down, Twilight introduced the rest of her friends and picked up her unconscious friend from the ground, placing her onto the couch. The next several hours of the school day passed by relatively quickly, and Kratos found himself becoming quite bored, due to the lack of a boi by his side. By lunchtime, he had thoroughly explored the school and was now roaming the school grounds. Looking towards the Everfree forest, he wondered what would happen if he slipped out for a bit, went for a walk, maybe a short hunt. Due to one of the many schedules he had found adorning the walls in the school, he knew that it would still be a couple hours before the day ended, and he decided that it wouldn't hurt if he left. He would be back soon enough. Cracking his neck, he started jogging, before breaking into a full sprint. Due to his godly strength and speed, it took him very little time to get to the forest, which was miles away from the school. As he entered into the lush woods, he decreased his pace into a crawl, as not to disturb any possible prey in the area. This would be a fun hunt indeed.

Friendship School, Staff Break Room

"Uhh, Twilight?"

"Yeah, Starlight?"

"Where's Kratos?" The sound of choking on a sandwich was heard soon after.