The Crystal Express rolled into the platform at exactly 16:15 on a crisp Autumn afternoon, a Friday to be specific. While five of the six passenger cars all filed out at an easy, average pace, the passengers in the sixth all hurried out as though the car had been filled to capacity with bees or something. The station guards hadn’t let this go unnoticed, and soon all cautiously armed themselves with their spears lest something dangerous were to appear next.
A single, unassuming pony wearing a black and blue jacket emerged calmly, his sides bare of saddlebags or any indication that anything was wrong in the first place. The pony himself was as white as Her Highness Celestia’s white flanks, and his light blue mane was pulled back out of his shining green eyes so that his relatively average horn was left open for the public to see.
The guards narrowed their eyes at the stallion, yet remained unmoving though loaded to spring into action at a moment’s notice. At closer inspection, the entire right half of the stallion’s body seemed to shimmer in odd patterns as the sun reflected off of… whatever it was that the sun’s light was reflecting off of. Looking past the shine through use of a quick spell, the guards’ eyes fell upon his flanks to get an idea of who they were.
An odd symbol sat on his flank, a triangular shape tipped with circles with lines shooting off at the faces to join to the circles near the end of the points. Through every surface that the lines created, strange glyphs adorned the empty spaces, though they were unintelligible for the moment. The guard eyed him warily as he stood, then shifted where they stood as he moved a step or two forward.
The strange pony stopped and took in his surroundings with a grin before turning back to the car and giving a sharp whistle. The Guards looked back to the door, then blinked in surprise as the strangest group of travelers crawled out of the train carriage.
A dragoness, green in scale and lime on her underbelly dressed in light plate armour. Whatever her plates weren’t covering was covered in a shining blue chain-mail, which clung tightly to her voluptuous curves. There had to have been some magic involved in getting that armour on, since there was absolutely no indication of a seam or latch nor strap. It was as though the chest piece had been wrapped around her and forged into place.
Bright red eyes glared out into the crowd as she seemed to analyze every possible threat, though she smirked when her eyes came to rest on the pair of Equestrian guards equally eyeing her. They were eyes that told stories, stories of wars and battles against impossible odds. Eyes that told the guards that she’d seen things, done things almost too terrible to discuss in polite company, if at all, and yet she smirked. There was power behind those eyes. They were the eyes of a predator in every sense.
The eyes matched the face they were set into, while a slight jingling drew the eyes towards her set of horns, capped in silver with sapphire baubles hooked to them from tiny chains. Two horns came out just behind her ears, while the second pair came out from the top of her head, acting as sentinels. The sharp spines along her head and back shimmered in the light, looking nothing short of menacing.
The next thing to come out of the train was a behemoth of a minotaur. The creature had to bend down almost to the point of getting on his knees so that he could squeeze himself out of the small aperture, his massive hand grasping the wall to help him pull himself out while the entire car squealed in protest under his every movement in protest.
After a moment, the minotaur did manage to pop himself free, and the Guards in the area had to hold back a quick wave of fear as the creature loomed over the party like a giant among hobbits. His arms alone had to have been as big around as the guards themselves and sported an immeasurable number of scars. The scars were so intensive that they almost looked artistic as they prevented natural fur from growing over the rough skin. The rest of the body looked to have been wearing the heaviest armour during whatever fights had occurred, though a great scar ran from his left shoulder all the way down to his right hip, the solitary reminder of a lesson long-forgotten. The body of the Taur was mostly brown in fur, with lighter patches showing where skin was visible and vulnerable.
All he wore for armour were a set of heavy black leather straps which held up the creature’s gargantuan shields. The shields themselves looked like they were heavy enough to crush even the largest of ponies flat, and the large gear-like grooves made the guards wonder what they were used for as they were on the longer, inner edge of the defenses.
A pair of the same bluish-silver metal leggings protected the legs, with similar metal chainmail covering the weak points in the knees and groin. These too, like the dragon’s armor, looked like they’d been forged directly around the taur as not a seam existed to be found and exploited. Following the trend, unlike the dragoness whose feet remained bare and heavily calloused, the Minotaurs hooves had been shod in massive war shoes that rose up the entire wall of the hoof to join to the chain that protected the ankles. The whole get-up looked like it was one singular piece, almost like a work of art, chiseled to his very form like a statue.
A gryphon appeared next, another female by the profile of the face and beak, wearing similar attire to the dragoness. Her chest had been encased in the same mysterious armour, without edges, and was formed to fit her own curves perfectly, highlighting her breasts and stomach muscles which were, admittedly, much smaller than the dragoness’. Still, this did not make her any less desirable to the opposite sex, were any not intimidated by her sheer presence.
“Mother of Oblivion, it’s hot out here.” the gryphoness muttered to herself as she rounded on her friends, showing the back of her slim armour and how it even formed perfectly for her wings to protrude out from under the protection of the chainmail. The meaty edges of her wings were capped with the same metal of the groups’ armour and were honed into fine, razor-sharp edges. Her back was protected by thin metal plates, while her legs were armoured in either plate or chain. How all that armour was light enough to fly in, the guards would never know, but were more than a little interested in finding out about.
A zebra of all things came next, which surprised the Guards if at least a little bit. He walked calmly and quietly, head held high but without the air of superiority that was typically found in the Nobility Guards of Canterlot. His entire body, up to his neck, was done up in the tightly fitting chainmail, making the black and white stripes under the metal seem to glisten and shimmer in the sunlight. His shoes, the only thing that wasn’t chainmail, instead were composed of thin wafers of metal protecting the bunch connected to the chain around his fetlocks.
“Everywhere is going to be hot compared to the Crystal Empire.” The zebra reminded his friend simply, his voice low, calm and collected. “You’ll acclimate soon enough.”
“Yeah, we’ll see.” the gryphoness grumbled back and stretched her arms across her body while the next passenger stepped off, looking anxiously around her surroundings. “Come on Blitz, no one’s gonna bother you here.” The gryphoness urged the one still in the train.
“Easy for you to say Karen, you don’t have the history with Canterlot like I do.” A unicorn mare hissed back, her coat bright red with a pink mane stepped out from the train car, dressed in half-plate metal armour which hid her cutie mark. As seemed to be the fashion, she was covered neck to hoof in the bluish-silver chainmail, although a leather hood sat around her neck in the event she’d need it. Her horn wasn’t anything special, in fact it barely poked out from her forward sweeping mane, a stub of a horn peaked from her mane, but was so miniscule that the guards mistook her for an Earth pony. On her hips she hauled at least six swords on each flank, each one with a different gently glowing gemstone in the pommel, from shining ruby to dark onyx.
“Don’t worry Blitz, you’re under my protection.” the white stallion smirked as he spoke. His voice was somewhat tenor and, while it hinted at his age, it didn’t show in his features. “Besides, with Maddock here with us, I don’t think anypony is going to dare try and stop you.”
The behemoth apparently named Maddock grinned and even went so far as to very gently tap the little pony on the head, as though attempting to pat her without squashing her like a bug.
“Right, yeah, of course.” Blitz mumbled as she seemed to retreat into herself. If she hadn’t been wielding no less than twelve swords total and matching armour, the guards may have mistaken her for a scared civilian taken captive by the group.
“So how long has it been since you’ve been here, Hybrid?” the dragoness approached her friend and rested a claw lightly on his back, making him look up at her with a grin. They apparently shared a telepathic conversation as the female gawked in what must’ve passed for surprise. “You’ve never been here before? Then how’d you know they’re here?”
“We’ll call it a hunch, considering who it is we’re looking for.” Hybrid, the stallion leading the group scoffed cheerfully and turned back to gazing at the city. “I must say, I love what the girls have done with the place. Very… high-end.” he added on as an afterthought before spying the pair of guards eyeing him over just as much. “Ooh, locals!” he announced and promptly trotted towards the pair, a small glint of amusement in his eye.
The entire troupe followed after their leader and, suddenly, the guards began to feel rather uneasy about the imposing squad getting approaching them. Even if they remained jovial and friendly-looking, they were still extremely intimidating; the team seemed to have forgotten entirely that every time Maddock took a step, a small trembling occurred due to always being near him.
“Excuse me sirs, might I borrow a moment of your time?” The stallion requested with a large smile, stopping just before the pair of guards.
“Very well, how can we help you?” The guard on the left responded dutifully, almost drone-like.
“Which way to the castle? I’m here to meet my daughters.” came the response. Perhaps he was related to some of the staff? Maybe a pair of guards? They wondered to themselves.
“I’m sorry sir, but if you’re looking to gain entry into Canterlot Castle, then you must relinquish all weapons you and your group are carrying.” The guard on the right explained, subtly tightening her grip around the shaft of her spear. If they didn’t want to cooperate, the pair of them really didn’t like their chances of winning a fight to disarm them. Not alone, anyways.
“Hmm, that’s going to pose some problems, then.” The face of the stallion dropped in concern for a moment as his eyes darted to the side to stare off into oblivion while he thought. The guards prepared themselves for a fight, and the unicorn on the right prepared to launch a flare into the sky to call for aid should the need arise. “Okay, then I’ll just call my daughters myself from here. If that’s not going to be a problem?”
“I don’t think it should be, no.” the unicorn replied cautiously but kept her tools at the ready regardless. The group moved away at the unicorn’s behest and took up a position in the middle of the station. The guards moved to ask the troupe to conduct their business elsewhere, however they stopped and the flare went up as the companions protectively surrounded the white unicorn who merely sat down on the ground to stare at the concrete.
“Okay, now who’s got my stick?” Hybrid called out. The guardians all seemed to pat themselves down with a hand, hoof or claw while maintaining their barrier before the zebra pulled a thin metal stick from a pocket in his outfit and tossed it back over his shoulder. The maneuver was quite impressive since the zebra and the stallion had their backs to each other, and without even a sound for communication, the stallion caught it with a hoof then settled himself down on the ground to begin carving something into the concrete.
“Sir, please do not vandalise the station or we’ll have to arrest you.” The guard warned as more of his friends galloped in from around town to surround the visitors. The stallion merely ignored the warning and kept drawing, carving something vaguely similar to his cutie mark into the ground before him with a look of pensive concentration. “Sir,” the guard tried again.
“Do not disturb him.” the dragoness warned in reply, crossing her arms over her impressive bust, but otherwise left her weapons on her hips.
“Miss, if he does not cooperate, we’ll have to take you all in by force if necessary.” The guard captain who’d arrived only a minute earlier explained with a glare, his wings flared out and ready for combat. The rest of the guards, of which there were at least two dozen in total, all readied their various weapons; be they swords, wing blades or spears.
“Do not disturb him.” The dragoness warned again, this time turning to the captain to her right. The group all remained still, showing no signs of potential aggression as they all looked rather bored. The soldiers facing off against Maddock all looked the most nervous despite the gentle aura the giant was exuding as he merely smiled and waved at the ponies before him.
“There, that’s got it.” Hybrid announced as he finished the shape and began to etch glyphs into the spaces between lines using a language that nobody had ever seen before, let alone could speak. “And… ‘Fire’... ‘Detonate’...” The stallion raised his head upwards to look at the artwork before him in mild confusion while the guards all prepared to act upon hearing the words fire and detonate.
“No, that goes over there.” he corrected himself by taking his hoof and poking at the words to make them glow. They seemed to rise up from the stone leaving no markings in the concrete below them. He moved the words over to another spot and placed them back down before lowering his head to get back to work again. “Okay, now I need… ‘Randomize’ and ‘Chroma’ modifiers…”
A bit of talking to himself while the guards all prepared to take the potential terrorists into custody, the stallion finally finished his project and stood to stare down at the symbols before him before grinning. “That’ll do it!” he pronounced proudly.
“Halt! Do not attempt to use that magic or we will be forced to terminate!” The captain shouted, but found himself completely ignored. He didn’t like that and declared on the top of his voice, “Take them down, do not let them activate that spell seal!”
The entire guard battalion charged, shouting at the tops of their lungs, while the five protecting the unicorn all drew their weapons. Maddock drew both of his shields and smashed them to the ground, rocking every pony off their hooves while the five in the middle remained standing. That gave Hybrid just enough time to press his hoof to the middle of the seal and activate it before backing up a few steps holding his ears down with his hooves.
“Fire in the hole!” he shouted as the guards all tried to break through to pile on him or break the seal itself. The six visitors all turned their heads skywards as the guards all dropped to their bellies as the spell fired, sending rockets of light upwards into the skies in a couple different colours; the rockets themselves screaming into the air with a high pitched whistle. A very, very familiar whistle.
The six all grinned as the rockets exploded into a light show, creating a replicate spell seal in the sky that looked like the seal on the white stallion’s flanks. The fireworks soon died off, the crackling the only thing left behind as the magic burned itself out into smoke.
Then, silence. But that silence didn’t last for long, however, as a mighty voice boomed out over Canterlot, “NO FREAKING WAY!”
“And there’s one of them.” Hybrid grinned in response, having earned the exact response he was looking for. The guards all backed off, looking confusedly at their captain who was looking just as befuddled. They knew that voice that just screamed out in such a manner unbefitting of their position and all began snickering at just how informal the owner had just been.
A blue streak shot out from a tower of the castle, the colour the only indication of who it may have been, even as the blur began to form into the body of a certain Princess of the Night with the most massive grin on her face. The Princess came in hard, sliding on her hooves and backside as the Royal Guard all parted ways for her slide in.
“Dad!” Princess Luna shouted as her slide turned into a great leap at the stallion in the middle who stood up on his hind legs to catch the pony who was much larger than himself. The Guards all gawked at the behavior, never mind the fact that their Princess had just called Hybrid “Dad”, as the Princess ended up laying on her back in her father’s hooves. “You’re back!”
“I am, yes.” Hybrid nodded back and nuzzled his daughter’s head with his snout. Before setting her down on her hooves. “And I brought friends this time.”
“I see that!” Luna grinned like a maniac, showing all the perfectly pearly whites in her mouth all at once. “How long are you staying this time, do you have to leave again?” she asked, though with the second question came a frown of mild displeasure.
“I think I can afford to spend some time here with my daughters.” Hybrid announced, making the princess squeal with delight and hop on her hooves quite like a little filly. “Come on, let’s go say hi to your sister.”
“Yes, follow me!” Luna beamed as she took off down the street with a spring in her step. The friends of Hybrid all smirked and put their weapons away as they turned from the bewildered guards and followed the stallion into the city.
~~~
“Tia, I have a surprise for you!” Luna announced with a sing-song voice as she pushed the doors to the throne room open, interrupting the court case already in progress. By the looks of it, a pair of farmers were bickering over something trivial.
Celestia shifted in her throne uncomfortably but looked up to her sister with a raise of the eyebrow. “Can it wait, sister, I’m clearly in the middle of Court.” she replied, even if she wanted nothing more than for something to tear her away from these two.
“It could, I suppose, but then you’d be making Father wait for you.” Luna teased and with those words Celestia’s eyes grew exponentially wide as she leapt out from her throne.
“He’s back?” she demanded with an encroaching grin on her face. Luna nodded back quickly before turning from the room to take off at a run. Celestia nearly took off as well, however held herself back just long enough to properly address the ponies before her. “I’m sorry, but I must postpone this until tomorrow as something of an urgent matter has arisen. We’ll take this back up again in the morning.” she hurriedly explained as she skittered across the red carpet as though she’d forgotten to turn a stove top off or something.
As soon as she was in the hall, she took off with a flash of energy, sprinting hard down the hallways after her sister while staff and guards all narrowly got out of their princesses ways in time.
Please be him, please be him, please be him! Celestia pleaded to herself as she ran. Sure, she’d heard the fireworks go off, but as it was behind her she couldn’t see the effect unlike her sister. Even Luna’s yelling hadn’t given it away, despite the fact that everypony could’ve heard the yell in Baltimare.
Nearing the private dining room that the sisters used, she could already begin to hear his voice as he chattered away with whoever else was in the room.
“No, I had no idea that this is how we’d be received. I was expecting to at least make it to the castle gates before Lulu or Tia found me.” the voice very nearly brought tears to the elder sister’s eyes as she piled on the brakes and slid into the room behind her sister who’d only just arrived and had tackled the new biped in the room.
“Father,” Celestia slid to a halt and righted herself to her hooves, looking upon the human with swelling tears in her eyes. “It really is you!” Forgoing proprietary requirement, the eldest Alicorn leapt at the father figure once her sister was out of the way, ignoring the others in the room with her; though the hulking Minotaur was certainly hard to miss. The man accepted her eagerly and pulled her into a hug that Celestia fought to equalize.
“It’s good to see you, my little Raspberry.” Hybrid grinned as the white Princess blushed at the nickname she had long forgotten (not without a lot of trying on her part anyhow) and let her drop back to the floor to regain her composure. He turned to Luna, still grinning. “And it’s great to see you as well, my little Blueberry.”
“Dad!” Luna whined at the name, rolling her head on her shoulders though she couldn’t help the grin still on her face. “I am a grown mare now, please stop calling me that!” She said even as her cheeks pinkened slightly.
“You may be getting into your third millennia, but you’ll both always be my little berries.” Hybrid stood up straight and placed his closed fists on his hips, looking heroic. “So, I hear you’ve both been busy in my absence.” he declared, the look of pride ever twinkling in his eyes as he looked upon the faces of his daughters.
“Oh? And what have you heard?” Celestia inquired as the doors to the private dining room finally swung shut and afforded everyone within peace from the outside. She and her sister slid into a couple of seats across the main table from their father who took a seat next to the dragoness. “And who’re your friends?”
“Hmm…” Hybrid hummed to himself. “Well, I heard that you all fought Sombra, Discord, Tirek and Scorpan…” Hybrid’s voice seemed to dispel the peace as Luna’s gaze shifted to the table in acceptance of the next event in the timeline.
Nobody spoke for a moment while the man merely looked upon the younger daughter of the two with regret.
Breaking the silence, “What happened?” he asked softly, directing the question to the obvious recipient.
“I…” Luna began in barely a mumble, but cleared her throat and started again. “I… grew jealous of my sister. I let that negativity overcome me and I fell to darkness.” she admitted. The Herald of the Night drew in a strong breath and looked straight at her father head on. “I have since paid for my crimes, as has my sister.” Celestia threw open her wing nearest to the younger and pulled her into her white coat in a forgiving hug.
“Where were you?” Celestia whispered, almost accusatively as she openly glared at the human in the room. “We needed your help a thousand years ago, Luna needed your help. I needed your help!”
The man sat quietly, slightly fidgeting with his hands which now sat in his lap and out of sight. The dragoness took the chance to gently place her hand on the man’s back supportively and offered a small supportive smile to her friend.
“That…” Hybrid began slowly, looking back up to the sisters. “Is a very long story to tell… One that will take many hours. If I may, my friends and I are quite exhausted from our travels. I would be more than happy to tell you both of what happened, tell you the whole story, but I would first like to get some rest.”
Celestia and Luna mulled over this request for a bit, still hugging each other, and shared glances between themselves.
“Very well.” Luna finally accepted with a nod. “And if you don’t mind, we have some friends who we believe would like to hear the story, also.”
“That’s fine. Just,” Hybrid held his hands up defensively. “Not a big audience, please?”
“That is acceptable.” Celestia nodded back compliantly and retrieved her wing from around her sister. “I shall have the staff set you all up in separate guest rooms, unless there are preferred sleeping arrangements?”
“The three of us, please.” The dragoness requested, indicating to Blitz and Hybrid. “A separate bed or mattress to be brought into our room, or maybe a conjoined pair of rooms, would be preferable.” This request, and the participants of the request involved, certainly had the eyebrows of the Princesses raised to the sky in surprise.
“And,” Celestia looked to her sister with uncertainty. “What are your relationships with each other, that you’d request the three of you in a shared room?”
“Another story for another time, Raspberry.” Hybrid yawned and stretched himself out a ways, leaning back from the table to do so while kicking his feet out underneath. Standing himself up, the act leading his compatriots to do the same thing (though Maddock still had to remain quite hunched over), Hybrid followed the Princesses out of the room and back into the halls he’d been lead down before.
Eventually reaching the rooms, the others in the group all gratuitously accepted their rooms and shut themselves in for the night, while Hybrid, the dragoness and the small mare all stood before the last guest room with Luna leading; Celestia had to return to her duties on the way.
“Thank you for your hospitality.” Hybrid ran his hand up through his daughter’s mane and soon gave a couple scratches behind her ears. The act drew a small, content humming from Luna until the hand receded and took hold of the door handles. “We really appreciate it.”
“T’is nothing, you are our father, after all. We wouldn’t be very good hosts, nor Princesses nor daughters to turn you and yours away.” Luna replied cheerfully and nuzzled into her father’s embrace, even as the royal dialect slipped in. “We are elated to have you back after so long.”
“It’s good to finally be back among the land of the living.” Hybrid teased as his roommates all smirked and entered into the room first. Before Luna could raise questions, he held a finger up to her muzzle. “Ah ah, no spoilers.”
As the man entered into the room, Luna merely smirked and turned away, looking back over her shoulder. “Good night, father.”
“Good night, my little Blueberry.” Hybrid grinned as Luna’s face went red again and ducked behind the door to avoid a scowl, shutting the door to the room in the process.
~~~
“Well, if breakfast is anything to go by, I can’t wait for lunch now.” Hybrid beamed as he strolled alongside his companions in his unicorn form, the reflective etchings on the side of his body reflecting light onto Karen and Blitz next to him. The group had most of the morning to themselves while Princess Celestia organized the visitors expected later that afternoon.
“No kidding, I didn’t think they’d actually have someone to prepare meat for us.” Karen chuckled and picked at her teeth with a pinkie claw as she walked. “Though I suppose your daughters would have to cater to Griffon dignitaries every so often.”
“Probably, yes.” Hybrid nodded back and continued towards the guard’s training wing for a bit of a morning warm up, and to also work off the hearty steak and eggs from earlier. “And how’re you feeling today, Blitz?” the unicorn glanced down to the mare beside him, bringing the quiet mare into the fold.
“Fine… I ate enough last night.” she muttered under her breath, still actively avoiding looking at the guards. She gave a weak little shutter and sighed, piquing Hybrid’s eyebrow a bit at the noticed motion.
“That’s not ‘fine’. You need more.” Hybrid announced and diverted his small party down an uninhabited hallway to look for a storeroom or something. “Karen, you wanna do the honours?”
“Fiiiine…” Karen sighed and picked Blitz up around her barrel to haul her into the empty broom closet. “Doesn’t mean I like her feeding off me.”
“Look at it this way,” Hybrid let the door close and leaned himself against the wall next to the door with forelegs crossed over his chest. “It means you get a chance to take your armour off.”
“Yeah, I know...” the gryphon groaned in reply as a blue light flashed from under the door, followed by a flash of red. “Okay, eat up. Just, don’t take too much, I still need some for myself.”
“Thanks, Karen.” Blitz’s voice, sounding slightly different, replied before the two began giving soft moans for a couple minutes. Hybrid merely stood guard over the door, waving off curious passersby who’d wander down the hall before getting an earful of the two females in the room behind the stallion. They soon scurried off with faces red and tails tucked away. Those who tried to linger were shooed off by Hybrid who gave each one a glare.
A short time passed and the two bursts of light flashed under the door, signalling that the deed was done and Hybrid could step aside. The door opened and both females exited looking a bit sweaty though their faces said they both felt great after what happened.
“Feel better?” Hybrid grinned to both females, Karen working at adjusting her breastplate while Blitz gave a hearty burp.
“Much.” Both females replied at once, giving the stallion in the room reason to chuckle.
“Good, then you can work all that off with Sen, Maddock, Vic and I.” the unicorn trotted off back towards the main hallway, leaving the women to play catch up behind him.
“It’s not like we’ll be fighting anything interesting anyways, might as well burn off the calories.” Karen agreed and took the pony’s left while Blitz happily pranced along on his right.
The trio continued down the hall towards the guard’s training wing and attached barracks. Nearing their destination, the sounds of fighting and metal on metal began to fill the hallways giving the party leader a better sense of where he was going with his friends.
A couple more corners and the hallway broke out into a large courtyard with hundreds of guards either off on the sides sparring against each other, or forming a massive ring in the middle of the open space.
Had they not been taller than most of the other creatures in the area, one could wonder what was going on, however the massive form of Maddock with his twin greatshields and Sen with her double-bladed sword stood heads and shoulders above the ponies they were fighting against.
Pushing into the ring with Karen and Blitz following behind him, Hybrid took up a spectator’s spot on the edge and sat himself down to watch the carnage. While Sen, Maddock and upon closer inspection, Vic, all fought near the middle of the ring back to back, many injured guards were pulled away from the edges of the ring to be taken to the infirmary.
From the looks of the combatants and the guards cheering from the edge, it didn’t seem like there was any other nature to the fights beyond just basic -though apparently injury-inducing- training. There was no evidence of malice from… most… of the guards watching or preparing to jump into the fray and the faces on the dragoness, minotaur and zebra all gave away their great pleasure at finally finding something to fight against for the first time in months.
“Go Sen! Teach those guards a lesson!” Karen cheered for the dragoness, pumping her fist into the air gleefully and getting right into the swing of things along with the guards all cheering for their buddies.
“Maddock, you’re getting slow!” Hybrid teased, earning a pair of earthquakes when Maddock slammed in shields into the ground to stumble his opponents. Maddock afforded the unicorn a moment with a returning nod of recognition before bringing the geared edges of his shields together to form the impenetrable wall he favoured to narrowly avoid an attack from an impressively large battle axe.
“Have you been hit yet, Vic?” Blitz called out to the zebra who seemed to ignore her as he flipped and danced around his own squad of guards, if it weren’t for the verbal reply he gave her.
“Only once, no more!” Vic shouted back as he delivered a swift punch to the side of the head of one guard, before twisting his body and flipping himself into the air to land on the back of another guard and bring his left rear hoof down on his back to bring them both down.
“I seem to remember a blow to your side.” Sen taunted during her parry and thrust of one blade’s edge which sparked against a Lieutenant’s chest armour. “Count your failures properly, Victor.”
“Glancing blows,” Vic took a moment to roll sideways from a crossbow bolt before pouncing on the shooter. “Don’t count.”
“They count.” Vic’s friends all called out together, serving to give the zebra reason to let out a groan but resigned to his fate.
“Fine! I’ve been hit twice!” The hoof-to-hoof fighter announced before delivering a flurry of blows to the crossbow wielder and put him to the ground unconscious.
“Then you know what that means!” Hybrid shouted with a grin and Karen gave a smirk and a nudge to Blitz who blushed heavily in return. “You get to feed Blitz for the next two days!”
Vic, having temporarily run out of opponents, turned to face his leader with an uneasy frown. “I know, I know…” He turned to look at the blushing mare next to Hybrid. “I’m in the suite two rooms down from Sen and Hybrid.
“Okay…” Blitz mumbled back, but gave a firm nod to show she’d understood. Of course, she wasn’t not looking forward to spending time with him, but having been made the punishment for Vic’s failures during combat certainly didn’t agree with her.
A thought shared with her from Hybrid turned her red fur to an even darker colouration as her mind was filled with all kinds of images concerning her and Vic. She let out a cry of embarrassment and dove to the ground, covering her head with her hooves while Hybrid merely grinned with a tongue stuck out between his teeth before turning back to the fights before him.
“Atten-tion!” a remarkably powerful voice cut through the clash of steel and blue metal, snapping the spectating guards to attention while the fighters all had to break away from their opponents to do the same with their weapons at the ready.
While the crowd of guardsponies split to allow someone through, Hybrid took the chance to step onto the field of battle with Karen and a nervous Blitz motioning for his group to fall in.
“Records?” Hybrid calmly inquired of his friends while the new pony discussed matters with the others present.
“Twelve down, four injured, not critical.” Sen reported dutifully with her arms crossed over her chest and her weapon collapsed and stored on her lower back over her tail.
Rather than reply verbally, Maddock had to sit himself down to count on his fingers before holding up the sign language taught to him for twenty-two down, eight injured and nothing critical.
With a sigh, and noticeably avoiding eye contact with Blitz, Vic gave his report, “Eleven down, two injured, nothing critical and two hits.”
“So forty-five down, fourteen injured and nothing critical.” Hybrid bobbed his head lightly in recognition and approval. “Good job, all of you.” he awarded them their praise, Vic included, before turning to greet the sounds of a pony approaching their group.
“I swear, if you hadn’t just spent the last few months in the Empire retraining my guards, I’d have thrown all of you in the dungeons for disturbing the peace.” Shining Armour announced with a light chuckle and bumped hooves with Hybrid before moving to shake hands, claws or hooves of the rest before stepping back a way to address them all.
“Prince Shining Armour, a pleasure to see you again. When did you get in?” Hybrid inquired lightly and sat back in Sen’s lap once she’d sat down behind the pony and let her wrap her arms around his barrel in a hug, resting her head on the stallion’s shoulder.
“This morning, actually. You all got in last night?” Shining replied and sat himself down as well, prompting the rest of the blue-armour clad to sit as well while the Royal Guardsponies all got back to training themselves.
“Yeah, last evening, thereabouts anyways. Briefly reconnected with the Princesses which was nice.” Hybrid shrugged as casually as he could with a dragon’s head resting on him.
“Cool, cool. So what’re you all doing today?”
“Storytelling, apparently. His daughters are inviting some of their friends here to listen in so we’re just waiting and killing time while they show up.” Karen explained from the left of the stallion being cuddled.
“Oh?” Shining’s eyebrow rose at this. “Would you mind if I sat in on some of these stories for a while?”
“Not at all,” Blitz replied for Hybrid who nodded agreement. “We’re not looking for a large audience, however.”
“Of course, of course. I just wanna meet with somepony, if the Princesses are bringing who I think they’re bringing.” The Prince replied and stood when Hybrid did. The rest of the group all rose and dusted themselves off before the pair of stallions lead the group through the training guards and back into the castle itself.
“How’re Cadance and Flurry?” Blitz inquired from near the back of the group, having to resort to projecting her voice forward to be heard.
“They’re both good, Cadance is still tired as always.” Shining gave a sigh as his own child fatigue swept over him.
“Such is the life of parenthood.” Agreed Hybrid, who nodded appropriately and turned down a hallway towards the private dining room where he was due to meet his daughters and their friends. Having been so long since last seeing his daughters, he’d become eager to see who they’d become friends with.
“Heh,” Shining gave a half chuckle as he glanced to the stallion walking abreast to him. “I suppose you’d know all about raising alicorn children, wouldn’t you? You’ve certainly been alive long enough.”
“Actually, no. I do know what it’s like raising two unicorn fillies who knows every way to get underfoot, however.” Hybrid smirked back in response as he turned to enter the room that the Princesses had set up for the group. “It’s how they got their nicknames.”
“Oh, yeah, those.” the group sat down to Shining Armour’s words and got themselves comfortable while a pair of servants entered to take food or drink orders if anyone wanted anything while they waited. “Did you know that those nicknames got leaked to the media and had to be outlawed upon penalty of life-imprisonment?”
“Really?” Hybrid raised an eyebrow enthusiastically at this bit of information and lit up his horn as he sat himself down on the bench. Casting his spell, Hybrid made the transition from pony to human again and finally situated himself comfortably.
~~~
“Father, I hope we haven’t kept you waiting.” Celestia announced the presence of her, her sister and the newcomers who all piled into the room with wide eyes at the term used by their Princess. The human turned in his seat, lifting a leg to lay it across the bench to lean over to look past Karen and Vic to welcome the newcomers.
“Not really, no.” Hybrid gave a single wave to the sisters before standing to address the other ponies entering into the room. “Who’re these ladies?”
While Luna swept past Hybrid to give him a quick hug with a wing before taking her seat, Celestia looked down at the six little ponies next to her with a fond smile.
“These are our friends from Ponyville, a little town nearby.” she began her introductions with the white one. “This is Rarity, the Element of Generosity.”
“A pleasure to make the acquaintance of the father of the Princesses.” Rarity swept herself into a low bow before rising back up to move to the bench Luna sat on.
“Pinkie Pie, the Element of Laughter.” The pink one was Celestia’s next choice for introductions and the human found himself suddenly carrying a massive pink blob of fur and excitement.
“I can’t believe I get to meet you! It’s so great to meet you and I hope we’ll get to know each other and become fast friends!” Pinkie announced before giving the man a bearhug around his neck. She was quickly released and joined her friends at the table.
“Friendly, isn’t she?” Hybrid grinned and turned to the orange one with the blonde mane and stetson.
“She can be a hoof full sometimes, yeah.” The mare with a southern accent replied before stepping up to offer a hoof bump. “Ah’m Applejack of Sweet Apple Acres and the Element of Honesty.”
“A pleasure to meet you, miss Applejack.” Hybrid first bumped his fist against her hoof before taking it in a shake. Parting ways, Applejack took a seat next to Rarity at the table.
“Officer Cadet, Rainbow Dash of the Wonderbolts and Element of Loyalty.” Celestia introduced the next mare who stood proudly with chest puffed out. Blue fur, heterochromatic mane and tail and a huge grin on her face.
“Good to meet you, Officer Cadet.” Hybrid stood himself up straight and gave his own salute to the pegasus who saluted back with a wing before offering a handshake. Rainbow took to her wings and stuck her hoof into his grip and shook herself, giving a firm squeeze in the process.
“You don’t look like the princesses dad, what are-” Her complaining was cut off almost instantly as Hybrid squeezed back, almost causing pain to the pony but held just short of doing so. “Dang! You’ve got a grip on you!”
“Three thousand years of wielding every weapon known to your kind and some known only to mine will do that.” Hybrid beamed and let the mare go before drawing a small circle in the air with his left hand. Completing the arcane quickly, he applied it to the mare’s foreleg and Dash gasped at how quickly the pain resided.
“What was that?” Demanded a little purple alicorn who quite literally launched herself at the man, taking his hand in her hooves to examine it. “Do it again!”
“Arcane Writing?” Hybrid raised an eyebrow at the mare before turning to Celestia. “Isn’t that still basic magic?”
Shaking her head with a slight frown, “Arcane writing and glyphs have become a dead artform in the last thousand years. This is Princess Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship and Element of Magic. She was also my most prized student.”
“And you didn’t teach her to write Arcane?” the human’s comment went mostly unheard, save for those with superior hearing like the Princesses and Hybrid’s troupe.
“She was a unicorn, afterall.” Celestia half-shrugged as she attempted to make an excuse for not teaching her the more powerful magics of Arcane Writing.
“So? Vic’s a zebra, Karen’s a Griffon, Senlei’s a Dragon and Maddock… Well… Maddock is Maddock…” A hand was held out to the group watching from the table and all eyes went to them to watch each one draw an arcane glyph in the air. While Vic’s and Karen’s glyphs were blue of differing hues, Sen’s was green while Blitz wrote a red glyph in the air with her hooves, foregoing her horn.
Maddock merely beamed a smile and waved from the end of the table where he sat comfortably on the floor. Pinkie took that as an invitation and suddenly appeared on her back in Maddock’s lap. Maddock seemed pleased by this and took to lightly petting the pony, stroking her mane and tickling her belly to make her laugh and snort in entertainment.
“Finally, we have the Element of Kindness, Fluttershy.” Celestia pulled Twilight down from the man and nudged the butter yellow mare forward. The girl gave a small shriek of fear and sunk back behind her mane, avoiding eye contact but kept in place regardless.
“Miss Fluttershy, a pleasure to make your acquaintance.” Hybrid knelt down to decrease his profile as much as possible and held out a hand in offering of a handshake. Granted, he could’ve been mistaken for offering for Fluttershy to sniff his hand like a dog would, but no one thought that… Especially not Blitz.
“Uhm, hello… It’s nice to meet you…” the little mare’s voice had to fight tooth and nail to be heard through her mane as she lightly placed a hoof in the offered hand and let him gently take it to give a shake in greeting. As soon as it was released, the pegasus zipped away and to the table, sitting next to Rainbow Dash and Twilight who visited with the Prince, across the table from Vic.
“Right, unless there’re more coming?” Hybrid clapped once, gaining everyone’s attention as Celestia took a seat between Luna and Twilight across from where Hybrid would sit. Everyone counted themselves over and shook their heads. Standing behind where he’d soon sit, he placed his hands on Sen’s shoulders. “Then let me introduce my friends.”
Taking the cue, “I am Senlei Arame, I joined Hybrid’s group one thousand, four hundred, thirty seven years ago. I specialize in dragon magic, Arcane Writing and two handed weapons.”
“You’re immortal too?” Twilight inquired with eyebrows raised. Sen nodded, as did the others save for Blitz who merely shifted in her seat. “How?”
“No spoilers, please.” Hybrid grinned and moved left to place his hands on Vic’s shoulders.
“Victor Nevara, I joined the group three hundred, ninety-two years ago. I specialize in Zebrican alchemy, Arcane Writing, and I’m a close-quarters, hoof-to-hoof fighter.”
Moving further left, Hybrid stood next to Maddock and Pinkie, placing a hand on the behemoth’s arm.
“This is Maddock. He’s incapable of speech so I taught him Sign Language two thousand eight-hundred years ago. He specializes in extra-heavy weapons like his shields on his back.” Hybrid explained, earning a boop on the nose from Pinkie when she rose up to do so.
Moving back towards Sen, Hybrid placed his hands firmly on Karen’s shoulders, making her sigh at her turn having come.
“Karen Felicity.” Karen began, resting her head on a fisted claw which posted off the table. “Specialized in Griffon Aerial Tactics and Combat Maneuvers, Arcane Writing and I spent thirty four years in the Griffon Secret Service for the belated Emperor I helped assassinate. I joined the group over seven hundred years ago.”
“You were Griffon Secret Service?” Rainbow Dash gawked at the gryphoness with wide eyes and an open mouth. Karen nodded without making eye contact, more interested in her claws.
“You were a part of the Emperor’s Assassination?” Luna raised an eyebrow as Celestia didn’t look all that impressed with this information. Karen nodded again in reply. “The one that started that civil war?”
“That’s the one, yes.” Hybrid nodded back and stepped up behind Blitz who squeaked under Hybrid’s touch. “And finally, we have Blitz.”
“Hi…” the mare mumbled, Fluttershy being among the few who actually heard her due to their own training dealing with their own shy pony. “I’m… Blitz and I specialize in…” Blitz stopped to look upwards and upside down at the human at her back, silently inquiring. A telepathic conversation, and she continued, “I specialize in illusion magic and disguises. I’m also trained in Arcane Writing but I haven’t mastered it yet. I’ve been with Hybrid for thirty-seven years.”
“It is a pleasure to meet all of you. I am glad to meet the ones that my father has come to trust.” Celestia shifted in her seat a bit, looking directly to each of the visitors before returning to her father’s face. “So, what story will you be telling us?”
Considering his options, Hybrid took his seat between Karen and Sen, “What do you want to hear?”
“Oh! Tell us about those armours!” Rainbow requested, shooting up to her hooves almost immediately.
“Tell us about how you’re all immortals!” Twilight requested, getting to her hooves as well. Hybrid raised his hands, calming the ponies as they made their requests all at once.
“Tell them about how you met my sister and I.” Celestia calmly requested, settling the requests indefinitely. “Tell them our origin story.”
“Ooohh,” Hybrid grinned eagerly, “You want me to tell them all the story of The Day of Black Sun.” That name alone shut the other ponies up. The man stretched his legs out under the table, using them to keep himself anchored in place while he leaned back with arms behind his head. “Yeah sure, why not.”
A burst of magic and a large stack of paper appeared before Twilight, complete with quill and inkwell. “Ready!” she announced, already with the dipped quill set to the page.
“Alright, well I suppose the story begins just over three thousand years ago.”
Arc One: Day of Black Sun, Chapter One: Part One
Author's Note
I'm trying to get back into writing, and I've had this project on the back burner for a very long time. Don't know why, but something wanted me to try and pick up at least one of my projects, so I'm hoping that this'll kick things off and I can restart some of my dead ones here...
That said, I really, really really need something to go on. Feedback drives me, shows me I'm not doing this for the lulz and someone actually likes what I write...
Arc One: Day of Black Sun, Chapter One: Part One
The sun was high, my adolescent body drenched in sweat from the work I was doing and the harness holding me secure certainly wasn’t helping to cool me down. I drove another nail into the timber I was sitting next to with the air-nailer I had brought with me.
~~~
“What’s an air-nailer?” Twilight interrupted as she looked up from the first paragraph on her page.
“It’s like an automatic hammer that fires the nails into the wood with either pressurized carbon dioxide gas, or some other kind of pressurized gas.” Hybrid explained briefly before turning back to the memories he was watching in his mind.
~~~
I had been working on this particular bit of framing for the last couple days with the help of the other framers on the crew. As such, we were currently four floors up and without much in the ways of floor joists under us, it was quite a fall when I lost my balance while moving along the framework.
The harness, while it was supposed to have saved me from death, had apparently been equipped with a faulty lanyard because it snapped when I hit the point when I should’ve stopped in the air. As such, the lanyard broke and I plummeted to the earth.
Now, I don’t know if I had actually died when I hit the ground, then came to Equestria or if I was suddenly teleported to safety before I hit the ground, but either way, I blacked out.
I woke with the strangest sight, the furry muzzles of five ponies all staring at me while I laid on my back. You must keep in mind that this is not normal for my world, not even in the slightest, so you’ll have to understand when I say that I woke up screaming like a little girl.
Yes, yes, laugh it up. You try falling to your death one minute, and then waking up in a dank, dark cavern with five alien faces hovering over you watching you breathe.
Right, so anyways, my moment of hysterics passes and I’m able to finally address the aliens above me. They all part enough that I can at least sit up and try to rub some feeling back into my face.
Doing so warned me that I was still wearing my harness and work belt, and that only… Half of the stuff that were in the pockets were still there. While I still had my twenty-two ounce hammer and a couple pockets full of loose nails and a pocket of strip nails for the Air Nailer that was nowhere to be found, I was however, missing the air-nailer like I said, a couple pencils and my chalk line. I did, somehow, end up with a hand saw, which was nice. Bonus, I even had my little military surplus pocket multi-tool.
“Sec, tea muu’la tig nev’ohra?” one of the ponies spoke, dropping my jaw at the ability for tiny horses to actually speak. Granted, I couldn’t understand a word they had just said.
“Git, tig neo vey sig nev’ohra.” another pony replied, looking up from me to the first one who’d spoken. The voice was definitely male in nature, while the first one was mostly female. He looked down to me and seemed to address me full on. “Tome’negara, nev’ohra?”
“What?” I asked in confusion and lifted a hand to scratch at the back of my head. “I don’t understand you.” My words seemed to have had the same effect on the horses that their speech had had on me as they all gasped and stepped back a few more steps. I took the opportunity to examine my surroundings, and found them lacking.
I truly was in a cave, a dank, dark cave that smelled like mildew and… well, nothing pleasant, let’s just say. There was, to their credit, a pool off a ways illuminated by torchlight in which I spied a couple ponies bathing.
“Where am I?” I asked in vain, already aware that I’d never understand anything the ponies said.
“Suetetia Cale, en fid.” the first pony, the female, replied amazingly enough.
“You can understand me?” I asked for clarification, apparently taunting the gods as she tilted her head at me like I was speaking a foreign- oh, wait. “Right, of course you can’t.”
One of the horn-heads who hadn’t yet spoken illuminated their horn (I totally wasn’t about to piss myself for the sudden light show) and shut their eyes for a few seconds. They aimed their horn at me and the light began to condense on the tip of the horn before firing their load off in my face.
Stop snickering.
The light struck me, stop laughing, and began to seep into my eyes,
~~~
Hybrid stopped to wait while the ponies all tried to collect themselves from where they’d fallen over in their seats, with Celestia and Luna trying to hold back snickering of their own behind their hooves. Maddock looked clueless, Blitz’s face was bright red, Karen was chuckling and patting the human on the back while Vic and Sen merely sat and waited patiently.
“Did,” Rainbow began to pull herself up from where she lay on the ground, tears in her eyes. “Did any get into your mane?”
“Very funny.” Hybrid remarked and rested an arm on the table and his head in his hand.
“Did- did’ja spit or swallow?” Applejack asked, raising an eyebrow of Hybrid as she pulled herself up from the floor.
“It was kind of rammed down my throat, thank you.” And with that line came an entirely new fit of raucous laughter from those gathered at the table, though for their credit, Celestia and Luna both held it in. “When you’re all finished, we can continue.”
A few minutes and a couple glasses of water later, those who had been laughing were situated again but noticeably avoided looking at Hybrid lest they break into giggling again.
~~~
Anyways, the light sunk deep into my head and must’ve done something, because all of a sudden, I could… Kind of understand them.
“Can… understand… now?” The female began again, speaking slowly as if that would ever actually help. I simply stared at the mare, mouth shut but eyes wide as my mind tried to fill in the gaps.
“Maybe, but can you understand me?” I asked in reply and earned a quintuple of nodding horsey heads. “Cool, then let me ask again, where am I?”
“Mountain, cave.” Was all I could really understand through the gibberish I still heard. That was the weirdest thing, I could hear them talking their weird language, but I heard what sounded like English in my head…
“Okay, I gathered that, but where on Earth, am I?” I tried the question again, hoping to get the question through their thick skulls this time.
They replied with a single word and tilted head, suggesting to me they had asked me about the planet name.
“Yes, Earth. You know, the planet we all live on?” then a thought struck me. “Or… The world I’m supposed to live on…” I went silent with that thought, considering the implications that came with it and let the ponies discuss something in their language.
The female approached me again, either looking imposing or like she wasn’t fond of looking at me. I couldn’t blame her, I thought I was sitting in shit.
“You dangerous?” She asked while the other ponies around her took off to do their own thing. Having not given an answer, she tried again, “you dangerous to us?”
“I’ll be frank with you, after that little light show of yours, I think you’re more dangerous to me than I am to you.” I admitted with a sigh and adjusted my toolbelt a bit so that it hung off my harness a little better and so that my hammer and saw didn’t fall out of their loop or holder.
The female stepped up to me and nosed at the hammer, then around to my right to nose (carefully avoiding the teeth in the process) the saw before looking up at me expectantly. “What are?”
Pulling the hammer from it’s holster, I showed it off a little to the pony. “A hammer. It lets me build things.” Switching the hammer for the saw, I paused as I noticed the pony wince at the sharp cutting teeth of the tool before holding it so it wouldn’t be a problem. “This is a saw, it lets me cut hard things.”
“You build things?” the pony tilted her head at me yet again in question but seemed to be somehow impressed. I nodded, which prompted the next question, “You build… dangerous things?”
“No, I just… build things…” I shrugged back and put my tools away where they were supposed to go.
A little rumbling coming from my body told of needs yet unsated and I groaned in protest as I felt the feeling of my stomach tighten under the need for sustenance. A sigh from me and I looked down upon the miniature horse thing only slightly pleadingly.
“I don’t suppose you could supply me any food, could you?” I felt my question be enhanced by yet another churning rumble, only adding to my weak and defenseless appearance.
“See Caretaker. He cares for lone ones.” The mare replied, pointing with her hoof off to some other part of the cave. I followed the gesture and found a stallion with wings standing amongst a group of mostly really small ponies, presumably the children, with only a few adults in the mix.
Taking my leave with a nod of my imaginary hat, the pony I had been talking to took off to do her own thing while I approached the Caretaker; my tools swinging around and creating a little racket as I did.
I noticed upon quickly looking over the other ponies in the cave that there were only two or three of the ones with wings, and maybe nine or ten with the horn while the rest of the… hundred or so with neither.
I did notice that there was a small part of the cave that had strange lights glowing blue hovering on top of posts surrounding what looked like small growing plots. I wouldn’t call them farms or even gardens, it was like the farmer had merely dug a hole in the ground and dropped something random into the hole to see what would happen. It was here and at similar spots in the cave that most of the default ponies gathered.
Putting those thoughts aside for the time being, I approached the Caretaker and noticed him look up at me as I approached. Many of the littlest ponies all stopped chattering away over their vegetable meals to stare up at me with wide eyes as I loomed over them like some kind of monster.
“You need food?” the winged one in the middle asked, already reaching into his side pouches to look for something.
“If you can spare it, yes.” I cautiously stepped through the masses of little chromatic bodies until I stood before the Caretaker so I could kneel before him, make myself a little less threatening.
“Preference?” He asked, glancing up at me from his bags as he paused his rummaging.
“No coconut or…” My eyes caught the sight of a pair of fillies, one white with a pink mane and the other blue almost entirely, munching away on a hoofful of what looked like wheatgrass. “Or grasses of any kind. I’m not built for that.”
The pony spoke some word in his language as he drew out a raw potato which still had it’s roots firmly attached to it’s white skin. Offering it to me, I took my multi-tool and opened the little knife so I could cut a piece of the vegetable off and inspect it. Aside from the fact that the meat of the potato was red -not something uncommon on my world, we had these kinds of potatoes as well, though the skins were usually a different colour- the potato seemed perfectly fine so I bit off a nibble and tried it.
A moment passed and I wasn’t dead, writhing in pain or vomiting so I supposed that meant the potato was safe for me to eat. With a ‘thank you’ nod, I took my meal and exited from the group to find a rock or something I could sit on.
By the time I had broken off the roots from the vegetable and had finished the little bit that I’d cut off, I had decided that I would probably want to cook the vegetable over a fire or something, make it a little more palatable to my stomach.
Foregoing finding a rock to sit on, I instead navigated towards a fire that a couple ponies were laid out on their sides around, chatting away in their language. As I couldn’t understand them from how far away I was, I figured that whatever was done to me made it so that I had to be within a certain range for the translation to arrive in my head.
My approach did not go unnoticed, I must say, for as soon as the ponies facing towards me noticed my approach a warning was issued and the ponies nearest to me opened a spot, almost herding behind the ones across the flames from me.
Taking a seat by the fire, I took out my multi-tool’s knife and jammed the knife blade into the potato lengthwise before holding the potato over the flames. I’d have preferred a long stick or something, but this would have to do.
The ponies muttered to themselves, thereby establishing the theory that instead, the ponies had to be addressing me for me to understand them rather than the proximity idea from before.
~~~
“How has that changed throughout the millennia? Have you learned our language that you don’t need that spell anymore?” Twilight held her hoof up to break in and ask her question once she’d finished writing her last paragraph.
“Nim, orenba thek norestes tiv thim.” Hybrid replied with a huge grin, making Celestia and Luna both raise their eyebrows at the response given. When Twilight merely stared at Hybrid like he’d grown a second head, he translated himself, “Not exactly. See, here’s a fun fact that I bet you never knew: you’re all speaking English.”
“Your native language? How?” Rarity intoned her thoughts next, looking as confused as Twilight was. “I thought this was always our native language.”
“Nim.” Hybrid shook his head firmly. “You’re actually all speaking my language and your native language from when I arrived have fallen into the rankings of dead words. Matter of fact, Albionic is the basis for which Arcane Writing is formed.”
“Why did we change to your language?” Twilight pulled out a separate sheet of paper to begin her new notes on the new topic. “If you were the visitor, the alien, why did we give up our traditions to accommodate you?”
“I don’t know.” Hybrid shrugged back nonsensically. “I think it had something to do with my language being much more… open? Creative? Lengthy? English allows us to explain ideas a lot more than Albionic can, but Albionic has the little extra bonus of turning words to magic. English can’t do that.”
“Do you remember, Twilight, the motto for the School of Gifted Unicorns?” Celestia turned to look down at her ex student with a small smile.
“Sure, Nev’ohra sem let thek, Nim vor’nattel, nim urruba, nim yeresta.” Twilight recited perfectly, before her eyes went wide when she made the connection. “That’s Albionic?”
“It is, yes. Roughly it means, ‘We are friends of the truth, not its enemies, nor the darkness, nor do we fear the unknown.’ A very fitting motto, if you ask me.” Hybrid replied with a nod and his arms crossed over his chest, resting on the table. “Anyways, shall I get back to my story?”
“Yes, please.” Luna nodded agreeably and resettled herself comfortably.
~~~
It wasn’t long until one of the ponies who’d moved out of the way to let me sit nervously approached me, gaining my attention with a nicker.
“What doing to vegetable?” she asked, glancing from me to the potato on the knife slowly heating up.
“Cooking it. Potatoes raw are slightly too hard for my tastes, so I cook them to make them more edible.” I explained and flipped the root crop over to start on the other side.
“Can… do with other things?” she asked next, pulling a carrot out from somewhere I wasn’t too sure I wanted to be made privy to.
“Sure, find a stick and you’re good to go.” I shrugged back and pulled the potato away from the flames to poke at it with a finger and judged that nothing had actually happened to it yet.
A surprisingly straight wooden stick suddenly appeared at my feet, with another stick resting on the ground next to the carrot to my right.
“That works.” I judged agreeably and pulled the potato off the knife and jammed it onto the stick. I did the same for the carrot, spearing it in its side before setting both vegetables directly into the flames with the stick braced against some rocks and under my feet to hold them in place. Some of the other ponies in the group seemed to get the idea and did the same with their own foods, though the pony trying to toast her sheaves of grains found out the hard way that not everything cooks.
A half hour later and the smells of a few potatoes, carrots, some broccoli of all things, and some apples hovering over the fire began to fill the cavern. We’d accumulated a small crowd of curious, before they all worked things out for themselves and began experimenting on their own.
By the time that I pulled my potato and the mare’s carrot off the fires, the entire camp had started cooking their food once they’d all gotten a crash course on what burned and what grilled from their superiors around our little fire pit.
The mare with her stick between her hooves stared at the steaming carrot, wondering if the blackened skin was still safe to eat and glanced up at me for instruction. I merely held the stick in one hand and carved out a piece of potato with my knife so I could eat it that way.
Soft and surprisingly sweet. Much more agreeable than before. Having found that I wasn’t dead -again?- the ponies all looked to relax a little and continue their own cooking while I ate in silence. The mare with the carrot took a tentative bite off the tip of her vegetable and nearly spat it out again due to the heat, if the fact that she was trying to keep the piece of hot vegetable moving around in her mouth was any indication.
Not long after, the rest of the herd had completed their cooking and their meals and soon most ponies were grouped up into their families to nap off the nourishment. It was at this point that I gained a true understanding of the Caretaker, and what the first mare had meant when she said ‘The Lone Ones’. A small group of children had all huddled together to nap, no signs of parental figures around. Even the Caretaker had gone off to group up with the other to winged ones nearby.
A small pang to my heart at the sight of the lonely children, but the logical side of my mind told me that it wasn't my business, and so I took off as quietly as I could in an echoing cave to explore and maybe see if I could find an exit.
My walk seemed to take me only deeper into the cavern, and my journey halted abruptly when I nearly walked off the edge of a sheer drop into a black void below. It was through sheer willpower that I didn’t shit myself right then and there; the memory of falling to my death with something that was supposed to have saved me but didn’t, was still fresh in my mind. Scooting back away from the ledge on my hands and knees having fallen to my backside, I took a few minutes to calm myself with the sound of calcite dripping from ceiling to floor.
Okay, I began to think to myself, How the hell did I know that pit was there when it’s dark as shit in here and I forgot a torch? I light-heartedly chuckled as I searched my pouches with my hands for the little flashlight I hoped was still there. It wasn’t there.
Dammit… I sighed to myself and relied on my natural night vision -which didn’t work since there was no little light to use- to make my way back towards the sleeping ponies.
I somehow managed to get to them, with only a few slips and falls whenever I’d run into something or trip on a rock, but the sight of a hundred sleeping ponies was a welcoming sight to behold. Approaching a lit torch that rested between a couple rocks nearby, I took the source of light and returned to spelunking in the passage ways I’d already somehow navigated.
The main corridor of the cave went on for quite a ways before ending in the pit of death, however it did have a few splits or indentations that held nothing of any value but did oftentimes hold shimmering stalagmites and stalactites that reflected the light of my torch off it’s wet surfaces.
As I delved deeper, I became more and more aware of how close I was holding my torch to my body as I soon couldn’t hold out any longer and my bare arms began to quiver and shake at the nearly negative temperatures I had subjected myself to.
That suffering seemed to have been worth the pain because as I travelled down one stoney hallway, I began to see a faint glowing blue light ahead of me. Curious, I continued on, doing my best to ignore the cold as it drew colder and colder the further I went in.
By the time I rounded past what was apparently the last corner, my breath was rolling out in a dense fog and I had hugged the torch to my body without actually burning myself as I folded my arms across my chest to keep somewhat warm.
Ahead of me lay a fairly small room of sorts, more of a dead end than anything, and in the center of that room sat what looked to be some kind of plinth surrounded in glistening snow and ice. On that plinth, the source of the bright blue light originated and shone brightly, nearly blinding me in addition to probably putting me into early stages of first degree frostbite.
Approaching the plinth and stepping up to the source of light, shivering the entire way, I gazed down at the little trinket that rested on a sort of frozen stone altar and carefully reached out to touch it. My arms protested the entire time, the feeling of my joints having likely frozen and were now probably cracking under the action of movement sent raging spikes of pain coursing through my body up until I actually touched the little thing.
Then suddenly, warmth. My body thawed, the room thawed and proceeded to flood the floor, and the light died down to nothing. I took the opportunity to almost devour the torch in my possession, trying to claim every last scrap of heat it provided so that I could speed up the thawing process in my body.
Taking a seat on the warming stone dais with the torch in one hand, I took a better look at the new little thing I had found and held it up to the light. A small golden pendant with a perfectly round cut sapphire, about as big around as my palm, hung off a bluish silver metal square link chain.
Setting the pendant down on my knee, I ran my hand over the stone and wondered how, or where the cold had come from. I was semi familiar with enchanted items having played a good couple video games, so the thought that there may have actually been magic involved in this thing was certainly one of the first few hypotheses I had.
Okay, well there’s certainly nothing happening with it right now… I thought to myself as I stood and draped the chain over my head with a single hand. Continuing the thought as I dropped the pendant down the front of my shirt, Might as well hang onto it, maybe those horse things might know what it is.
Backtracking the way I’d come, I re-entered into the main passageway that lead both to the pony camp and also the Sparta Hole in the opposite direction. For lack of options, I took the track that lead back to the little settlement and this time passed through the encampment to the other side for hopes of actually finding an exit.
To my pleasure, the only other passage leading out from the settlement did, in fact, lead to an exit. As it so happened, I found myself having emerged from the side of a very high mountain. It was also about mid afternoon, if the sun above was any indication. On the very horizon, only just peeking above the edge of what I could see, looked to be a rather large moon on the rise.
“Huh,” I grunted to myself and stared out into the expanse below me. Trees. Massive trees for what had to have been at least a couple kilometers, then open plains beyond that. “Well that’s certainly…” I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to call the sudden landscape to be a surprise, after all, what would I have been expecting? “That’s new.”
To my left, cave wall. To my right, a narrow passage apparently carved right out of the stone of the mountain itself. With a facial shrug of the mouth and eyebrows, I decided the best course of action would be to try the path and see where it would take me.
Setting the lit torch down on the ground near the mouth of the cave, it’s light still going so I knew where I had come from and where to return, I took off down the stonework pathway as carefully as I could.
By the time I had reached about the base of the mountain, the sun hadn’t moved but I knew from my internal clock that it had taken at least a couple hours to hike down from the mouth of the cave.
About halfway down, the treeline had began climbing up the face of the mountain, so I at least had some shade from the scorching rays of the sun above. In addition, there were also the occasional bush or varied plant life that had sprung up and apparently flourished in the forest.
There also looked to be a good number of tracks leading towards the path up to the mountain, and only a couple pairs that lead away from it. With nothing else to do, I opted to follow the tracks leading away to see where, if anywhere, they lead.
The gentle wind carried with it the aromas of pine needles, fresh grasses and the sounds of birds and bugs that buzzed or made other, strange sounds. The sun, having been hidden away behind the trees, was much more bearable and I found myself cooling a little -while the sun that did manage to get through kept me from becoming too cold.
The subtle crunching of plant life under my steel toed boots was a welcome change of pace to the sounds of the cave, or even before that, the sounds of heavy construction. I was by no means a nature-lover, I had spent most of my natural life in a city or town of some degree, so I always had the buildings and noise pollution to keep me company. Out here, there wasn’t really anything that I found familiar, and through that I found some semblance of peace.
As I delved deeper into the forest, I was lead towards a relatively small clearing in the middle of the trees, with many bushes lining the edge and a pair of vaguely familiar fillies zipping around between the foliage. I could hear the squeaks of their cute little voices, but couldn’t understand what they were talking about even a little.
Getting a little closer, I stuck to the treeline and merely observed, simply to try and get an idea of what it was they were doing. The white furred one poked her head out of a bush nearby, her mouth flapping and stained red as she looked out over the meadow for her sister. A noise from her mouth and the blue one popped out of a bush a dozen feet away, her muzzle somehow stained even darker blue and even had splotches of it in her lighter blue hair.
~~~
All eyes were suddenly on the oldest princesses, who both blushed to themselves but nodded to the silent question.
~~~
What are they eating? I wondered to myself, trying to get a little closer without being detected however a snapped branch stopped me short and my eyes became pinpricks. The ponies apparently heard the same thing and their heads shot towards the sound coming from the forest line with fear in their eyes.
They weren’t looking in my direction. They weren’t even looking in the direction of the mountain cave.
The two of them carefully climbed out of their bushes with berries clinging to their fur, or staining them, and approached the middle of the meadow with eyes trained in the same direction I was facing, directly away from me. From the treeline came a massive black bear lumbering towards the two ponies in the middle of the meadow.
I don’t know anything about bear attacks! I thought to myself in the few moments of clarity before panic would begin to set in. Just, don’t run! Don’t run! I urged myself and began to back away slowly while making mental notes about the largest of trees I could… No, they were all pretty barren and I wouldn’t be able to climb them. Then the reminder that I wasn’t alone out here stopped me in my retreat.
Those two were probably going to die.
That bear was likely hunting them, they were going to die and I was going to run away.
They’re not my problem. They should have been watched by their par- Those two were part of the Caretaker’s group, weren’t they? They don’t have parents.
“Fuck!” I hissed to myself and while the girls both slowly backed away in fear, I stupidly stepped forward out of the trees to try and establish myself as more more fearsome predator to the bear.
I was going to die trying to save a pair of little horse things I hadn’t ever even met. At least I had weapon options…
Arming myself with my hammer, spinning it so the claw was forward for good penetration, I opened my mouth and spoke, “Hey there, buddy. You looking for a light snack?” I mustered up the best fake grin I could as the fillies spun around with eyes even wider as they found themselves pinned down from both sides, only one was a bear and the other was something they’d never seen before armed with something else they’d never seen before.
The bear finally noticed me and seemed to narrow its eyes at me, as though warning me off from his potential snack but he persisted and drew nearer.
I stopped and the girls chose me as the relatively safer option, bolting behind my legs to use me as a wall. Or decoy while they escaped if I proved ineffective in combat…
“Why don’t you go pick on something your own size?” I suggested a little louder and with hand clenched around the grip of my hammer to keep the sweat from making it slip out of my grasp. The bear seemed to take this idea into consideration as he reared up on his hind legs, now towering over me by a good couple feet.
“Right…” I mumbled to myself as I stared up at the aggressive bruin. “I suppose I am something more your size, aren’t I?” I gave a sigh as the beast dropped back down onto all four and charged at me and my apparent charges, roaring at me in the process.
I spun on my feet and swept the kids up off the ground, only to launch myself into a shoulder roll just as a black paw came down where I almost was and hit the ground.
“Don’t run.” I warned as I set the two shaking fillies down on the ground, not entirely sure if they could understand me anyways, but at least I felt better having given them both my warning. I addressed the bear once again and evaluated my chances of living, even with my weapon.
The bear, having slid past without a meal on its claws, had to take a second to collect itself and attack again, giving me enough time to lower myself into a vague wrestling stance.
I was going to wrestle a bear… Yeah, I was going to die.
Anyways, against all odds and better judgement, I managed to take hold of the charging bear and stretched my legs out behind me, thereby putting my entire weight down on the creature’s head. The subsequent grounding gave me just enough time to bring the head of my hammer down on the back of the head of the creature under me with all the strength of seven years of framing afforded me.
The strangest thing happened when I hit the bear, by the way. See, when I hit it the first time with the hammer, nothing extra happened. I just whacked it with the hammer and raised the weapon up to do it again. The second time, I brought it back down again to do as much damage as I could while on the bear’s head and imagine my surprise when a flower of ice erupted from the strike, sort of enlarging the head of the hammer for me for a third strike.
A strike which never came as the bear managed to lift itself back up and threw me from it’s back over its shoulder with an accompanying roar. I hit the ground and bounced a few times before landing on my back in quite a bit of pain although thankfully the saw had been thrown free of my belt and as such, I didn’t find myself with a longer ass crack.
I was given only a second of internally bawling before the sight and sound of a charging bear had me roll to my left a couple times to avoid death. Ending up on my chest, I stood and was about to avoid when the mammal swung out at me and knocked me away with its claws, cutting deep gashes into my chest and cutting a couple straps of my harness all at once.
“Mister monkey!” I heard the two fillies scream as I ragdolled across the ground a little before coming to a stop on my back with a groan while my nerves all screamed at me to just lie there and die. “Nim yeresta!” No idea what they said, but they said it with such conviction that it was absolutely empowering.
I rolled over and pushed myself up to find the two horn heads firing little beams of yellow and blue light at the bear, striking it in the side though it only seemed to irritate the behemoth.
“R-” I coughed up a mouthful of blood and had to clear it out before I could continue. Great, internal bleeding now… “Run!” I shouted as best I could despite my weak voice. I hauled myself to my feet with the hammer almost slipping free from my grasp, but the adorable faces of the fillies with their conviction to save me kept the weapon from slipping. “I’ll hold it off!”
“Nim! Nim!” the slightly larger white one shouted back and fired her horn again, striking the bear in the paw which only served to cause a little sizzle as I willed my legs to move faster and faster.
With a roar of my own, I lifted the hammer up over my head in both hands and put all my strength into the temporarily distracted bear and brought the hammer head down on the neck of the bear.
I was weak, I was dying, and the hammer flew from my grasp when it hit the meaty flesh of the bear when it turned to end me all at once. It head butted me, charging through me and into a tree where I was forced to let out a very manly squeak upon contact with the trunk.
“Nim!” both girls screamed out in fear and anger as I slumped to the ground, too battered to fight any longer. The two of them both took aggressive stances and charged their horns with as much magic as they could muster before pouring it all into the bear as a pair.
The bear seemed to have lost all interest in me as it suddenly whirled around on it’s new aggressors who’d just barreled in from the forest line, only a half dozen coming in from above on wings of fucking angels. Or pegasi, they work too.
“Worry not, we help. We save.” a voice shouted into my ear, though it sounded more like a whisper in the ear that they had spoken into. I wasn’t sure, it could’ve been hallucinations but I swear I saw most of the herd from the cave rush into the meadow with the hornheads glowing with power.
“Save-”
~~~
“‘Well, obviously you didn’t die, because you're right there.” Rainbow complained as Hybrid took a moment to pull a mouthful of water from the glass that had been put before him. “So, is that it? That’s how you met the Princesses? I thought you were their father?”
Swallowing, “I am, but that’s only a little part of how I met my daughters. As you may recall, I never gave names, nor did I ever call them my daughters.” Hybrid remarked simply and placed one hand on his lap while the other gently played with his glass. “Anyways, no, I didn’t die from that little event. Besides, I haven’t even brought up The Day of Black Sun.”
~~~
The feeling of weightlessness was the first thing to greet me this time. Opening my eyes, I found I was lying on my back staring up at the ceiling of the cave and I could only lie and wonder how I got back here. Moving my hand to clear something from my face told me I was floating in a pool of water as the sound of moving liquids and tiny droplets struck me on the nose, giving me something else to wipe from my skin.
Turning my head to get a sense of where I truly was, I found that while I was still in a cave (not the same cave as before, nor in a section of cave I’d explored in my wanderings), I was mostly alone if it wasn’t for the two little forms of the two fillies I’d helped save floating nearby on their own backs with eyes closed and forelegs crossed over their chests.
The pool that the three of us were floating in was certainly large, had to be at least thirty feet in diameter though looking down past my shoulder had me wonder if the pool seemed to only be a foot deep, or if it was a trick of the eyes brought on by light reflections originating from… somewhere that made me think that the bottom of the pool was only a foot down. That being said, the two fillies were floating on their backs like otters near to each other, but far enough out of reach of me that I’d have to tap into my imaginary olympic swimming skills to reach.
“Hello?” I called out, swishing the water around with my hair as my voice echoed around the room, bouncing off every stone, ceiling and floor. “Is anyone there?”
“You not wake yet.” The whisper was that of one of the fillies near to me, but I couldn’t quite tell which one. “Injured bad, sleep more.”
“Oh okay.” I breathed out in a single breath and closed my eyes once more, clasping my hands together and laying them across where I remember the bear’s claws raking across me. The action provoked a thought to me: what had happened to that injury, exactly?
Opening my eyes again, I glanced down at my bare chest I found three things: One, I was completely naked and that the water felt great on my bare ass, and three, there was only a trio of diagonal scars running from my left shoulder to my right side. Only the thing was, the scars themselves looked like they were the only remains of maybe a small knife barely cutting the skin; they didn’t look like a massive bear claw had nearly gutted me.
“How am I completely healed so quickly? Presuming that it has been a quick healing?” I asked next, remaining perfectly calm in this serene environment.
“Waters of Life, heal everything.” Came the response from the second filly floating near the first. Sisters, perhaps?
“Waters of Life, huh? Sounds like some kind of legend if you ask me.” I sighed and went back to merely floating in the water. “How long have we been in here?”
“Long time.” The first female replied in short form; though, of course, the words she spoke were almost three times longer. “Someone comes find us soon.”
“Got’cha.” I mumbled back and settled in to float in silence some more, not a care in the world.
What felt like at least two hours later, water ripples lapping against me roused me from my nap and nudged me away from the origin a little bit with each crest. The ponies near to me seemed to be talking about something, and if my “Alien Translation and Communications” skills were anything to be proud of (hah!), I could sort of (not-really) make out the confusion and vague worry in their voices.
“Is something the matter?” I kept my eyes closed and remained unmoving while I spoke, though a few more gentle waves broke over my left arm and side as the two females supposedly moved in some way.
“Late. Should not gone long.” The white one explained, though I only pinpointed the voice’s owner when I turned my head and opened the eye that wasn’t suddenly immersed in water. The blue one was barely breaking the surface, the bottom half of her muzzle under water and the top half dry as she paddled around the pond contently.
“So… where are the adults?” I wondered out loud next, no longer able to rest as my mind was filled with wonderings about who left us here, why no one was coming back, and where my clothes were. At least the water was cold enough that I wouldn’t have to teach a pair of children about biology.
“Don’t know.” The white one replied as she and her friend began swimming towards the shore. I flipped over onto my chest and hissed to myself as my scars began to sting a little bit in the water, but swam the pace regardless and identified my possessions sitting on some rocks nearby to the shore.
With a huff of effort mixed with relief, I aimed myself towards the new destination while the blue one hit land and pulled herself out. Shaking herself off like a puppy, the blue one was left with fluffed out fur and water sprayed everywhere, hopefully not having landed on my clothing.
While the white one joined the blue one, I hastily pulled myself up and over the lip of the pool and skittered across the floor in long strides to grab my underwear and pants, pulling those on first before doing anything else. Of course, doing so meant that both became soaked as I hadn’t been able to dry off. Without much in the way of options, I used my shirt to dry the rest of my body and took a moment to check out my new chest scars.
Slinging my toolbelt around my torso and doing up the buckles, I draped my shirt over my shoulder like some silly runway model and addressed the two with me and found them mostly dry, ready to go and waiting on me.
“Any idea how long we’ve been here?” I asked, looking around for the medallion that I’d had been wearing. I found it in one of the tan leather pockets of my tool belt and draped it over my neck as well, centering the medallion over my scars. Had to say, it looked pretty cool for such a simple and effeminate thing.
“Long time. Come, we go.” the blue one requested this time, waving towards an open section of the cavern with a hoof while her friend lead the way. With nothing else to go off of, I nodded and followed after while doing everything in my power to try and mentally record every little detail in my mind about where I was.
The cave soon ended with a window to the outside, and given by the shadows on the ground, I figured we’d had to have been in there for a whole day, or not long at all for the shadows to have apparently only moved a little bit since I’d first left a cavern.
“So, what. We were in there for a full day?” I wondered aloud and braced myself on the edge of the cave opening with a hand to the wall to peer out into the surrounding landscape. It took me a minute or so of trying, but I was able to orient myself to where I approximately was.
If I had it correct, I must’ve been about a kilometer away from the cave opening where the other horse things had set up camp which would’ve been on our left at the moment.
“Guess half day, close to sleep time ad best.” The pink hair glanced around for a path down and soon found the closest thing to a path being a straight shot down a rough hill that looked ready to slide at a moment’s notice. She approached her companion and spoke to her in their language for a bit before the two lined up at the edge with clear intentions to jump and slide down.
“Okay hold on,” I cried out and swept down to scoop the two up off their hooves, carrying them by their barrels like a pair of footballs. “I still have so many questions, and there’s got to be a safer way down that just sliding down…” I glanced down at the treacherous slide. “Down that...”
“No choice, must fall.” white one replied, hanging completely limply in my arms while her friend looked to be preoccupied with examining my hand and arm; she kicked her hooves out a bit and caught them on my pouches, ensnaring herself almost completely.
Noticing her fighting, I lifted her up and out of the pouch before returning her to a more secure carry under my arm.
“Fine, then i’m sliding. My pants will keep us from getting injured all over again.” I announced and worked myself to a seated position with my legs hanging over the near-sheer drop-away. Adjusting the girls so they were both over my chest, just in case I’d have to curl up and roll down, I inched forward with hesitant trepidation and drew in a deep breath.
The girls both stared down the trip with eager grins and shifted around in anticipation, though the fear was still gripping me from earlier.
“God, fucking dammit.” I whispered to myself and took the plunge, bucking my hips forwards until I didn’t have anything to buck forwards onto.
The girls whooped and hollered while I held in most of my screams of terror. I did have the sense of mind to keep leaning backwards with my legs bent to act as a buffer for anything large that I could either push off of to avoid, or almost jump over given the angle at which we were sliding.
Honestly, it felt like I was in some kind of video game, avoiding large boulders or the stray bush which defied the laws of nature and grew through a crack in the rocky surface. I did seem to hit the interim level when I came to a halt on a tree trunk, landing with my feet and coming to an abrupt halt, breathing heavily.
“Why stop?” the girls both giggled in my arms, but it was the blue one who spoke up to me with those adorably blue pleading eyes
“I’m getting sore from taking all those rock hard boulders in the ass.”
~~~
The girls were all, once again, on the floor laughing their asses off with Celestia and Luna both giggling away like schoolgirls at the very early memory. Hybrid had to sigh to himself as he caught what he’d said to make even Sen smirk at him.
“Okay, ya had to have done that’n on purpose!” Applejack gasped from where she’d fallen over, her hat having been thrown aside in the landing near to Rainbow who was too busy busting a gut to even breathe.
“No, that one was accidental.” Hybrid mumbled to himself, rubbing at the back of his head with a hand while he swirled the trickle of water left in his glass. He muttered something to himself under his breath before taking a lungful of air to calm himself down.
“Anyways,” he continued,
~~~
I suppose it was through grace alone that the two girls didn’t seem to understand the innuendo I’d let slip and decided to keep it that way by never speaking of it again. Anyways, after a few minutes of rest and massaging my ass to restore some feeling and ensure that my pants hadn’t ripped in the process, I took another deep breath and leapt from the trunk of the tree with the girls once they were ready again.
The rest of the slide was just as the same, a game of avoiding the larger, dangerous objects and occasionally stopping to restore feeling in my ass before continuing. Soon enough, we finally came to a rest and as an added bonus, I hadn’t lost any of my tools in the process.
Setting the ecstatic girls back down, the both of them hopped around chanting “Again, again, again, again!” over and over again before I sighed and held my hands palm out to settle the two.
“Maybe later, okay? We should find the rest of your kind. And, you both still owe me some answers.” I announced, pushing my hands into my jeans’ pockets all too casually.
“Food?” The little ball of blinding white asked eagerly, suddenly hopping up to prop herself against my right leg while the blue ball of adorable propped herself up on my left shin.
“I’ve got nothing, best I can do is maybe help you forage for food.” I replied with a show of empty hands. The two fillies took these words to heart and shared a glance, an unintelligible word, then took off into the forest. Throwing a hand up after them in exhaustion, “Really?”
With a shake of the head, I planted my hands down protectively over my tools and took off after a light jog behind them, intent on trying to keep some kind of pace with them as best I could. The two youngsters eventually disappeared into the treeline out of sight, however the squealing and general horse-sounds kept me going in the vaguely correct direction.
To my surprise, I found myself breaking out of the treeline where we’d been attacked by the bear, if the dead bear carcass was anything to go by anyways, and it took me a moment to identify the movements in the nearby bushes as bodies wriggling around in them rather than the wind rustling them.
“Okay,” no names, right. “You two, wherever you are,” I worked at projecting my voice out a ways without raising it, just in case anything else wanted to come and make for a repeat of… however long ago the bear attack was. “Let’s not forget this is hostile territory.” I added as I approached the prone body of the bear and gently kicked it with a foot to see if it’d move.
Nothing, thank god. Passing around the corpse, I approached the bushes and nearly lost myself right then and there as I finally made out what the girls had been staining themselves with earlier.
The wonderful sights of blueberries and raspberries. Granted, the Raspberry bushes, for as full as they were, was currently being assaulted by a tiny white miniature horse and the blueberries were being equally ransacked by the blue one.
I had nearly lost myself in the wonders of the berries as I began working at picking the ripest of the raspberries from near the top of the bushes, which were all as tall as I was standing at five foot nine, and stuffing the ones that didn’t make it into my mouth into my pouches before moving onto the blueberries to raid their stores just as equally.
“Food?” the girls both poked their heads out of their respective bushes again, their muzzles stained red or blueish purple according to their snacks. Sure, mine was probably nearing the same level of colouration, but I still had a way to go before I was as red as the Raspberries or Blueberries themselves.
“Oh yeah, definitely food.” I grinned back and stuffed another handful into my pouches. The girls seemed to pick up on what I was doing, and soon began depositing hooffuls of their own pickings from the lower branches into my pouches.
As a thought, I tried an idea. Picking up a raspberry, I held it up to the red-muzzled one and got her attention with a snap of the fingers. “Raspberry.” I enunciated slowly and clearly.
“Mastanema.” she replied with a tilted head, wondering what I was getting on about.
“No no, Raspberry.” I tried again, hoping she’d get it.
“Ra-. Rasp… Rasp-nema?” she tried, her words coming out strangely and blended with her own language.
“Rasp,” I began, separating the words this time. She repeated it slowly, looking at me with wide, uncertain eyes as though a child who was simply mimicking sounds rather than pronouncing words. “Berry.”
“Bawwy.” the little tike repeated as best she could, a firm nod of the head showing confusion or confidence.
“Berry.” I tried again, parroting myself now.
“Bewwy.” yet again she repeated, yet again failing ever so slightly, though she was slowly getting it.
“Ber- -ry.” I drew the word out this time, separating it into syllables in hopes that that would work.
“Ber…” she began, lifting my hopes. “...wy?” I dropped my head and lightly flicked the sweet little treat at the filly, making it bounce off her nose and to the ground.
“Raspberry.” the little blue one surprised me completely as she echoed the entire word perfectly, almost verbatim. I dropped my jaw and looked down at the blue one who held a fat, ripe blueberry up to me in her little hoof. “Raspberry.”
“No no, that’s a Blueberry.” I grinned and switched students, now squatting before the younger of the two. Raspberry seemed to lose interest in the english lessons and went back to foraging, using my pockets as her storage units.
“Buu…” she began, and I held a finger up to pause her effort.
“Blue, bloo, bluu.” I started over, at this point just making funny sounds to try and find something that caught on with her.
“Bluu..” she droned out, testing the sounds with her mouth and a little adorable frown before looking back up at me. “Blueberry?” she asked with a raised eyebrow of confusion. I cheered and pumped my arms into the air in victory.
“Yes! That’s a Blueberry!” I replied, sweeping the little thing off the ground and into the air, swinging her around like a toddler. She squealed at first, then got into the swing of things and began giggling much like a toddler would’ve done with her little legs splayed outwards.
“Blueberry! Blueberry! Blueberry! Raspberry!” she chanted almost like a mantra, before I set her down at the insistent prodding by the other one.
“Bloooooberry?” she almost got it, so close! But most heart wrenching of all was the look on her face, the kind of look like she was searching for approval, for recognition from someone older than her, someone who cared. Good god I nearly died of a heart attack right then and there.
“So close,” I began with a grin, setting the one in my arms down to go back to my attempts with the older one. “Not so long, okay?” I requested. Her sister came down and joined her friend, sitting down next to me like my little assistant.
“Blue,” she recited, getting a similar response from the white, pink and red one. “Berry.” Perfect recitation.
“Blue, berry.” the older tried again, before putting the two together. “Blueberry.” I let out a celebratory clap and a massive grin became fixed on my features at the successes we were making. She pointed at the blue girl, and tried again. “Blueberry.”
Close enough, I say. Pointing to herself, she thought a moment, furrowing her brows in contemplation before looking up at me. “Raspberry?”
“Sure, you can be a Raspberry.” I grinned and ruffled the mane of both girls before looking down at the blue one. “And you can be a Blueberry.”
“Raspberry,” Blueberry pointed to her friend, while Raspberry pointed to the other.
“Blueberry.” she announced, earning a giggle from each child as I gave a celebratory Yes in exclamation.
For the next half hour of collecting berries, the two of them repeated the word every time they either picked a berry, deposited a berry into my pouches, or deposited a berry into their mouths.
As the day grew long, and the sun didn’t move, my pouches filled to capacity and we stood full and grinning like idiots. Sitting on nearby stones to digest, the girls seemed to get the idea of using my own trick against me and both circled around to face me.
“You teach us names, we teach you names, yes?” Raspberry requested eagerly, looking to Blue for an agreement which she got.
“Sure, go for it.” I gave an agreeing nod, just in case and got comfortable where I sat.
Pointing to herself, “Alia.” Why didn’t this translate with whatever was in my head? Oh well, that made this easier. Pointing to Blueberry, “Aylin.”
“Alia,” I was genuinely surprised to find that these words were so easy to say, though I made sure to gesture towards the correct child per name. Alia nodded affirmatively, and I swung to gesture towards Aylin. “Aylin.” she nodded as well.
“Alia et Raspberry,” Aylin explained in a mixture of languages. “Aylin et Blueberry.” we all nodded agreement and sat back at our simple victories.
“What does Alia and Aylin mean?” I wondered aloud, mentally wondering if they could explain. Both girls merely remained silent, however they each shoot a hoof straight upwards, then looked up to aim a little better. Alia aimed towards the sun, and Aylin had to work a little harder at finding, but eventually aimed at, the moon.
“Oh, Alia is sun, Aylin is moon?” The puzzle only pieced itself together after a minute of silence while I thought to myself to try and figure out what they were actually pointing to. Could’ve been the sky, could’ve been the trees, could’ve been some random insect that Aylin was pointing at and I wouldn’t have gotten it.
As it happens, my guesses were spot on and both girls beamed at how quickly things were progressing. Clapping their little hooves together at our victories, we soon began spending the next couple vague hours (seriously, what the hell is with the sun not moving?) pointing at things and teaching each other our languages.
By the time we had decided to return to the pony camp (that’s another thing I was taught, they’re called ponies. Alia and Aylin are both unicorns, which I should’ve picked up on immediately, thinking about it now), we had learned enough things that we could point out most forest items and name them in both languages. The climb up the side of the mountain was just as eye opening as we began identifying things like rocks, boulders, mountain, cave, passage, goat, mountain lion (that was a long way away and I had to describe with charades) and other things.
Soon enough, we came across the mouth of the cave and delved inside, already feeling the cool air of the underground cavern through our bodies given that we were no longer under the influence of the Alia.
“Alia and Aylin,” Aylin began, in english, as she stared at the ground in thought. “Est sis… ters…” she explained, motioning between herself and her apparent sibling. I listened with rapt attention as she and Alia spoke about their situations being Lone Ones. “Famia,” I corrected her on this, “familia,” close enough, “attacked, protect Alia, protect Aylin.”
“I’m so sorry, it must have been terrible.” I replied with fullest condolences, placing my apologies on the backs of both heads with my hands as we walked deeper into the cave.
“Don’t remember, too young.” Alia sighed as she plodded alongside me, opposite her sister. “Barely speak.”
“Oh, I see, so you’ve never had any kind of parents that you remember?”
“Nim, ven shet torestaneb Gol’steq lin vec.” Alia explained, telling me that for as long as they could remember, the Caretaker had been their stand-in parental unit. Speak of the devil, the first group we could see as we entered into the main settlement was the group of children playing in the area around the Caretaker who was busy helping aid a filly who looked to have scraped her knee on something.
As before, the same croppings of random plantations sat where they had been however long ago when I left, a dozen fires strewn about the gargantuan room with circles of ponies visiting around them.
“You two!” I could actually understand the Default pony mare as she trotted up towards the three of us, though I suspected she was talking to Alia and Aylin. “Where have you been?”
“Cave of Health.” Aylin reported in English, dropping the mouth of the mare who’d come to get them. She looked up at me, and I shrugged in reply. She scowled, setting me back a step at the sudden hostility as she pulled Alia and Aylin away from my with her hooves. “You left us there, remember?” the translations were coming in much fuller now as I’d been taught the translations by the sisters.
“You speak in it’s tongue! This is unacceptable!” the mare insisted, scolding the two for picking up a few lessons and spending time in education. There’s a twist, huh? “It is dangerous! It fights brown demons! It can hurt you!”
“He saved us from the bear.” Aylin returned sharply, yanking her hoof away from the mare as did Raspberry.
“Nim, We saved you from the demon, he was nearly killed! He is not suitable for staying!” Oh, I did not like where this was going. I narrowed my eyes and made to follow, try to protest, intervene or protect myself, however a small gathering of about seven or eight ponies, three who were unicorns, one who was a pegasus and the others were defaults, appeared and halted my approach.
“I have to help those two!” I insisted, holding a hand over their heads to indicate to the girls who were being led away, almost forcefully as they too began to protest and pull away though their strength did not match their elder and were dragged towards the Caretaker.
“No, you must go, stranger. You bring your strange ways, you force your dirty language upon those two, you carry an instrument of destruction with you.” The apparent herd leader explained with darkened eyes and a lowered head, as tough preparing to charge me. The group collectively lowered their heads or spread their wings, all with just as grim looks on their faces.
Let's see if this would turn their minds, “Nim, seo thek nim nev’ohra!” I shouted, earning a surprised gasp from those nearby and even from those who were further away who could hear me from their positions. “Seo thek vor’nattel!”
“Do not dirty our tongue with your foul mouth, creature!” the leader roared, rearing back to her rear hooves and flailing her forelegs about to force me further backwards. “You are no friend of ours! Begone!” and with that, the entire group forced me backwards the way I’d come, towards the mouth of the cave.
A look over their angry shoulders showed a pair of teary-eyed fillies named Alia and Aylin being hauled away by the mare.
What could I have done? Should I stay and fight? Should I have tried to reason with them? What could I have done, but willingly leave the cavern, leave the girls behind who’d taught me so much in only however many hours? I didn’t want to, but what were my options?
So, I left. I kept my head held high and my back straight. I don’t know what possessed me to do so, but at the last moment, I spun on my heels, dug into my pockets and extracted one Raspberry and one Blueberry, then chucked those motherfuckers as hard as I could. The girls apparently saw me do this and broke free, sprinting hard after me but came to a stop where the berries landed and watched through bleary eyes as I took my leave from the cave entirely.
~~~
The room was silent, not a sound was heard as Hybrid looked over the solemn faces of the girls he’d only just met. Gone were the smiling faces, the laughter, the joy. Celestia and Luna looked to be only a little better, clearly remembering the memories just as the storyteller was, only from their own perspectives.
“So…” Twilight’s voice was barely a whisper, but it still sounded like standing next to a jet engine. “That was how you met the Princesses? But, at what point did you become their father? Why were their names Alia and Aylin?”
“Alia and Aylin are both their Albionic names. I didn’t realise until much later that they vaguely meant Celestia and Luna.” Hybrid explained, just as low-toned but sounding just as loud. “They didn’t become my daughters until much, much later.”
“I do hope that the story picks up a bit after your… departure…” Rarity hopefully looked up from her teacup.
“Not for… Oh, I’d say about three years.” Hybrid sighed and leaned back, putting the depressing thoughts aside, no matter how often they’d come back to haunt him. “I wasn’t allowed to see Tia and Luna for three years, even though I’d set up my own camp at the base of the mountain, in the patch which earned them their nicknames.
