Godly Promotion

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 9

Chapter 1 Author's Note

Welcome everyone, to my latest attempt at writing, as well as my very first time writing for this lovely fan-base.
I'm gonna be honest with you, I'm basically flying blind here, having never tried writing anything like this before, but you got to take a risk to learn.
I hope it turns out at least somewhat decent, then again, every writer does when it comes to their stories.
All I ask is for y'all to go easy on me, I still got feelings. I want you lot to tell me when I mess up or where I should improve, but I know that there are some people who take it a little too far.
That's enough out of me though, I'll let y'all judge my work now, otherwise I'll never shut up.
Oh, and just so you know, I'm my own proofreader, so expect a mistake or two until I can find someone better than I.

Chapter 1

The concept of death is a truly fascinating concept. It’s not really a hard concept to grasp, being universally agreed upon to be the end of one’s mortal life. It’s what comes after that always gets people talking.

Is there something waiting for an individual after they draw their final breath, or is it truly the end. This simple thought terrifies most people and causes them to seek out some kind of assurance of their continued existence after death.

Thus, the concept of religion was born.

Most, if not all religions, agree that there is something beyond our simple lives, that one is rewarded for their actions in their lives, be they good or bad. It brings comfort to know that there are beings out there watching out for them and possibly guiding them in their day to day lives.

I say this because I was one of those individuals, taking solace in the thought that my life actually mattered in the grand scheme of things, that I wasn’t just another person living life just too eventually disappear into oblivion.

It brought me peace while I was on my deathbed, struck with a disease I could not truly remember. My sister there with me, telling me how much I meant to her, how I helped her through her hardest times, holding my hand until the small glint of light left my eyes, my soul surrendering itself to my final resting place.

At least that’s what was supposed to happen.

I didn’t really know what I was supposed to see when I died, but they always rotated around the gates of St. Peter or a lake of fire and brimstone...I got neither.

What I got was darkness as far as the eye could see.

The silence was deafening, surrounding me while I floated there; my being failing to feel anything...think anything...perceive anything.

I merely existed.

I don’t know when I managed to regain my mind, but I never had a concept of time while I drifted in the void. Could have been a few seconds, could have been years, but I never really put much thought into it, despite having quite a long time to contemplate. It couldn’t have been that long since my mind still managed to hold itself together.

I don’t know when I decided to get my act together, my mind drawing a blank on most of the details, but I do remember experimenting a few times, flexing my nonexistent fingers and eventually creating something by complete accident.

It was around that time when I decided it would be a great idea to play God, having taken that phrase far too literally.

I remember creating a few stars at first, after getting over the very idea I could actually do that and the small panic attack afterwards. I amused myself for awhile, creating and destroying anything I deemed entertaining, but even that got old pretty quick. That’s when I decided to take it up a notch, creating planets and eventually life itself.

That was a little over...I think fifteen millennia ago.

Now the void I was once surrounded by was littered with little dots of light, stars littering the backdrop while planets of all sizes orbited around them.

The Void had become a universe, housing trillions upon trillions of stars and planets with hundreds of them hosting life in some way, shape, or form.

I had truly become a god.

To this day I still contemplate how this could have happened, how a mere mortal can be given near limitless power despite most assuredly never doing anything to earn or deserve it, never coming up with anything close to the answer, or never having any facts to back up said answer.

That’s enough about that though, don’t want to bore myself with the details, or at least the ones I can remember. Right now I let my focus drift towards the ball of dirt and water I was currently looking down upon, or up at since there is no up or down in space.

The little planet I called Solitarius, since it was the only planet in this vast universe to house truly sentient life, this life being the end result of a dice roll of genetics.

For all intents and purposes, I should have gotten a monstrosity of a creature, but the very first beings to call this planet home ended up being so simple, yet so splendid in their own way.

Fur as white and pure as freshly fallen snow covered its equine form with wings as large as an albatross sitting on its sides, covered in pure white feathers, and on its forehead, partially covered by a rose red mane, sat a long horn as sharp a freshly forged spear.

This Alicorn, who I simply named Spring, was my first sentient creation, but she was most definitely not the last.

I went on from there, creating hundreds of species of all shapes and sizes to populate the planet, giving each one the power needed to mold the planet to house their respected species.

Mountains were raised to house the Griffons, who made their nests and eventual cities on their peaks. Land was cratered and raised for the islands of the Minotaur’s and entire landscapes were burned away by the dragons, the warmth of the flames never truly leaving the earth.

Solitarius, now known simply as Equss to its inhabitants, was no longer recognizable to me after everything was said and done. The land was now pretty much nothing but a jumbled mess of continents and islands with seemingly no order in their arrangement, and it was a truly amazing sight to see.

Each race mother came to me once completing their task, seeking my guidance and knowledge, which I was ever so eager to give despite having an admittedly small pool of wisdom to call my own.

I had become a god, but I was most definitely not omniscient.

I created each being a mate and sent them off to populate their respective territories, letting them decide their own fate while periodically checking in on each one till they had deemed their jobs as complete and passing on to their final resting place, a paradise with no official name.

I watched on the sidelines as the offspring of all the races populated their respected land, the world coexisting in peaceful harmony for nearly a thousand years. Until the eventual evolving of all races achieved what all sentient beings are known for...sin.

Mistrust began to fester between the planets inhabitants, eventually morphing into disdain, and later escalating to full on hatred, with it being the most prevalent within the equine territories.

The latent magic bestowed upon the world by the mothers had taken root in all their children, morphing them to better adapt this magic into their lives, but none as noticeable as the ponies. There were no longer Alicorns like Spring, but in their place, stood ponies resembling those of Greek mythology.

Unicorns, Pegasi, and seemingly normal ponies roamed the lands, each wielding powers resembling the powers of the Alicorn’s, but at a much weaker level. This divide created mistrust within the species that led them to split off from one another, but eventually coming back together in an unsteady alliance to assure their continued survival.

The normal looking ponies, also known as Earth ponies worked the land, growing crops and feeding the population while Pegasi controlled the weather to assure that each farm got the necessary rainfall and the unicorns took it upon themselves to raise and lower the sun and moon (much to my annoyance).

Each passing day the pony races nearly go to war with one another while the rest of the world watches from the sidelines, watching but not daring to intervene and risk the ire of the other races.

Me though, I wanted to live in it, watching from the front lines as the entire pony race spit on the other, throw suspicious glances to any creature outside their tribe walking within their cities, and generally looking down on any creature except their own, be they pony or not.

I didn’t want to become a part of the problem, nor did I ever want to put myself on the receiving end of their insults. I wanted to do this so I can truly understand their pain, why they would hate one another. This was just one of the several reasons that led to craft a vessel to house my subconscious so I could live amongst them again.

They were only a part of the whole truth though because, lying under all of these reasons sat one deep seated desire I had wanted after watching the planet for as long as I have.

What I truly wanted was to once again feel mortal.

The feeling of being able to experience life outside of the ethereal level, to feel the wind against my form and experience the warmth of the sun once more. This was my only desire, and I now had the power to do so once more.

That last sentence echoed in my mind as I looked upon my soon to be new body, an ash grey Thestral stallion with a pitch black mane moving to cover one of his eyes, which stared back at me with irises like that of the purest gold, his pearly white fangs poking out the sides of his muzzle.

I looked upon the stallion with pride, letting his form imprint itself upon my memory before eventually sending him down to the planet’s surface.

I took one last look down upon the creation of my children before shutting away my mind and throwing myself down towards my vessel, not a thought running through my mind as I descended upon the planet with one simple goal in mind.

To live again.

Chapter 2

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Chapter 3 Author's Note

Wow, I never expected this story to get this much support, especially when its so close to its infancy, but y'all are just awesome.
Just a word of warning, I put in a bit of Afrikaans for immersion, have fun with that.
Don't worry, I translated for you. :twilightsmile:

Chapter 3

You know, I’ve had a lot of moments in my life where I had to wonder what could have possibly been running through my head. The creation of this planet, listening to my daughters, and pretty much everything else I’ve done up to this point.

That’s how I usually found myself in some truly strange position.

Gotta say though, nothing really compared to how I currently found myself. After all, it’s not every day you end up with about twenty spears inches from your face while everyone yelled at you in Zebrikaans.

Sure, I was already plenty use to getting cursed at in Zebrakaans since Yemoja, the mother of the Zebra’s, ended up inventing it just to confuse me after losing an argument over how to wield a spear of all things.

Petty one, my daughter was.

Now I’m sure you’re just a little confused, so let me give you a little back story.

A long time ago, back when the world was still pretty much the playground of the gods, there existed a jewel. This jewel was possibly the most beautiful thing I had ever laid my eyes upon, yet at the same time, was the most terrifying thing in all of existence.

I wasn’t sure how this crystal had managed to come into existence, what with me never bothering to actually create it and the girls constantly assuring me that they were not to blame.

Normally, I would have ignored it, seeing as how some items on this planet were created by the multitude of factors my daughters and I used to shape it, so it wasn’t out of the ordinary for things to form on their own. What did concern me though, was the simple fact I couldn’t recognize the magic that came off the thing in spades.

Both my daughters and I decided it was best for me to take the gem with me and off the planet so I could study it without risking any lives, since my creations were still mortal in a sense. Still though, not everything in early existence was nice and peaceful, and the family did tend to fight quite a bit.

As it turns out, that crystal ended up changing the children of the mothers in some way, form, or fashion.

This change wasn’t truly noticeable in most species, the changes having long been forgotten by myself, seeing as they were miniscule at best. There are exceptions to this though, mainly being the Zebra and Thestral’s.

The Zebra shamans suddenly found their potions and elixirs, as well as their poisons, to be significantly more efficient, with the effects nearly being akin to the magic’s of the Alicorns themselves, while Thestrals suddenly started to do everything but directly worship the moon itself, having had their strength and speed reach near supernatural levels when exposed to the moonlight.

Three guesses on what they wanted me to do with the jewel after finding this out.

Turns out, leaving my girls alone with each other for a century was a very bad idea. I found this out after coming back only to see a whole new piece of land of the southern edge of the Pony lands, completely bare of just about everything.

It seems that, in my absence, both Yemoja and Scáth had the mother of all cat fights with all of the others forced to contain them to their created battleground. Both girls wanted the jewel for reasons they chose not to share with me, so they ended up in an argument that escalated to powers being thrown about, completely destroying whatever so much as hoped to live in the new land, leaving me with a near uninhabitable wasteland that I couldn’t get rid of without risking a major magic surge.

Why am I telling you this? You may wonder. Well it’s quite simple really.

You see, despite the battle happening about five hundred years ago, the children of said goddesses still remember it quite clearly, meaning that relations between the Zebra and Thestrals were as close to the three pony tribes as you could get.

I failed to remember this before I touched down outside of the first village I came across, which prompted the foals to run for their homes while a small army of villagers moved towards me while yelling the word “Duiwel” at the top of their lungs.

That is why I am currently staring stone faced at a spear that threatened to gouge out my eye in an attempt to destroy my current vessel.

“Watter besigheid het u in ons dorpsduiwel?" (What purpose do you have in our village devil?) The lead stallion growled out, his spear moving ever closer, yet still remaining a respectable distance from my snout. I raised a brow and looked around myself to see about twenty other zebra with spears, as well as bows and arrows, surrounding me.

‘Kind of overkill isn’t it?’ I thought with a mental chuckle before turning back towards the zebra before me.

“Hallo vriende. Voordat iemand begin, praat iemand Equish.” (Hello friends, before we start talking, does anyone here speak Equish?) I replied, a grin growing on my muzzle while his expression went from annoyed to surprise in an instant, before immediately returning to that hard glare he showed me before.

“Wag hier demon” (Wait here demon.) he ordered, backing away to head towards the village while the rest of the village defenders kept their spears and arrows tried me, their muscles tensing whenever I so much as blinked. I just chuckled at their paranoia, having never really experienced it first hand and I, for some reason, found it extremely amusing.

Imagine the lot of them figuring out just who they were pointing their weapons at.

This is how we stayed for a good five minutes, the eyes of the village never so much as blinking, lest they risk losing sight of me. They finally backed off just a little when their leader returned, followed by an elderly zebra mare wearing everything you’d expect on a village shaman; animal bones, golden rings, and plenty of fur dye that replaced her normally black stripes with a deep indigo blue.

The unnamed leader locked eyes with me, issuing an unsaid threat while the mare closed in on me with a kind smile on her muzzle.

“Hello young one” I had to hold back a snort at that. “I am Oni, and allow me to welcome you our humble village. I apologize for the greeting, but you can never be too careful when it comes to outsiders, especially Thestrals.”

I raised a brow, but chose not to comment on the offensive statement.

“Greeting ma’am, while I can understand a little bit of paranoia, this is just ridiculous.” I replied, making the stallion growl ever so softly, receiving a small nudge by the shaman, making him roll his eyes while grumbling under his breath.

“It is as I said, my young colt, one can never be too careful.” She repeated, her eyes scanning me from top to bottom. I snorted and flexed my wings, making everyone tense slightly while a few simply stared at my wings in what seems like fascination.

I could tell that at least half of them had never seen a Thestral before in their lives, probably only here with weapons instead of questions because the past 5 generations told them how the other side was evil.

Gotta love racism, am I right.

“If you say so” I shrugged, looking towards the stallion next to her. “So, way is jou naam kind?” (What is your name child?)

The stallion glared at me again, his eyes locked with mine, not a word being shared between us, until his eyes turned to his shaman, receiving a nod as an answer to his unasked question.

“Obasi” he muttered, making my ear twitch and a smile to reappear on my face.

“Obasi, ter ere van God.” (In honor of God.) I nodded, his anger once more replaced with surprise, which stayed on his face for much longer than before.

“You seem to have a good grasp on our language, young stallion. This is something not many outside of the Savanna’s are able to claim.” Oni said with a smile of her own.

‘Well I’d hope I knew the language my own daughter invented you old nag.’

“I spent several years with a zebra high priestess, learning the language of Zebrica while also compiling information on Yemoja and the all father.” I told her, already having that whole story set up before even achieving planet fall.

Oni blinked in surprise, her head tilting in question before she smiled again and motioned for me to follow her into the village. Not expecting a verbal response, she turned on her metaphorical heel and made her way back towards the village center.

Kind of had no choice whether to follow her or not, what with a spear suddenly jabbing me in my flank.

I gave the stallion that poked me a quick glare, with him just grinning back and poking me again. I snorted and followed after the elderly shaman with Obasi now at my side while the rest of the village dispersed to go about their normal day. The soldiers were still there though, following close behind with their spears held close, but still keeping a respectable distance, all but Obasi however.

“Enige nader en ek sal my eie idees trek.” (Any closer, and I'll come up with my own ideas.) I said with a chuckle, making the zebra stallion’s cheeks turned just a little bit redder and the distance between us to grow ever so slightly...little victories.

The trip through the village was short, but uncomfortable. Not a word was said between any of us and even the village seemed to grow silent, the feeling of eyes burning holes in my skull never leaving me. I swear I felt another pair of eyes locked on my flank, but that might have just been my paranoia...and ego.

We eventually reached a large building in the middle of the village with a pair of zebra mares situated in front of it. Both were kneeling before a fountain with the statue of a very familiar zebra mare sitting on top.

“I see you have a statue of Yemoja, good to see a village that still acknowledges their ancestral mother.” I happily stated, looking upon the statue of my daughter with a fond smile on my face. It was actually a quite accurate depiction of the mare, all the way down to the emblem of the rising sun on her flanks.

“Yes, not enough of our people remember the mother outside of the folktales passed from generations before.” Oni sighed, moving to stand beside me and knelt down, muttering of few words in Zebrikaans.

“We are the last true village to worship her as the old ways dictate.” Obasi said out of the blue, making me blink and turn to him with a raised brow.

“So you could speak Equish this whole time?” I said with amusement clear in my tone, much to the stallion’s annoyance. He grunted and moved past me, kneeling to pay his own respects to Yemoja just as Oni was finishing her prayers.

“Tell me, my young stallion, do the Thestral’s still worship their ancestral mother?” She asked me, moving to stand next to me to give the stallion time for his prayers.

“They have all but forgotten of Scáth...they rely on their own power and the blessing of Primis.”I answered, making the shamans calm smile morph into a troubled frown.

“That is...concerning” she stated, remaining silent as Obasi returned to his full height and gestured for us to enter the building next to the fountain, both us following him in while the rest of the guards dispersed, two still following us in and positioning themselves next to the doors.

“Welcome to the temple of Primis outsider.”

I grunted in acknowledgment, letting my eyes wander the spacious room in front of me, consisting of several wooden pillars lining the sides to separate the alters from the main hall, each side lined with small tables holding assorted foods and statues that were likely artifacts I ended up forgetting about over the years. Torches lined the soft red colored walls to leave not a speck of darkness in the building as they shined down on a crimson colored rug that served as the sole decoration of the heart of the building leading to a small bronze statue depicting a representation of myself.

'Dammit Yemoja.’

It seems that the Zebra mare helped spread the rumor Athína started all those millennia ago. Why they did it, I will never find out, but it still bothers me to this very day. Granted, I didn’t exactly have a form back when they were still kicking, so they pretty much guessed after watching me create the animals that couldn’t talk. They automatically went with the first animal I created, which just so happened to be a fox with a few too many tails.

Thus, the Kitsune version of me was born.

Don’t get me wrong, I got nothing against it, but thanks to them I have a Kitsune model in storage waiting for me to finish up and use if I ever want to give the planet a collective heart attack.

We moved to stand by the statue with the shamans moving to sit before the statue with her back to us, her and the stallion next to me muttering a few words of thanks before returning their attention to me.

“So, what brings you to our humble village outsider?” Oni asked me, her eyes closed for some reason. I chose to ignore that, making myself comfortable on the floor while Obasi set next to me, still a little close in my opinion, then again I haven’t dealt with physical social contact in a long time so I don’t exactly know what is considered uncomfortably close anymore.

Is it weird I can smell his coat from here?

...Moving on.

“Your village specifically, nothing.” I said with a shrug. “It was simply the closest form of civilization I could find in the Savannah.”

She nodded, offering me a small peace pipe that definitely held cannabis, making me grin ever so slightly. I took it from her and offered it to Obasi, much to his confusion.

“That reminds me, do you know where the closest seaport is from here; I need to find my way to Equestria.” Obasi, who was currently taking a hit from the pipe, immediately sputtered and coughed, a hoof beating on his chest. Oni wasn’t much better, her surprise evident as she stared at me like I was crazy.

“Wh...Why would you want to travel to the land of the ponies? They argue and fight with each other almost every day.” She practically shouted, making me shush her with a grin, pointing towards the statue of me, making her hooves fly up to cover her muzzle.

“No shouting in the temple of Primis shaman.” I chuckled, taking the peace pipe from the still struggling stallion before taking a hit with a serene smile on my muzzle.

“And the answer to your question my dear shaman.” I paused, releasing the smoke, feeling pleasant warmth in my chest. “I wish to see that clusterfuck for myself.”

Oni fixed me with a glare, receiving a smirk in return, Obasi just growled.

“You would do well to respect the house of Primis outsider.” She voiced, her glare not letting up even the slightest. I simply rolled my eyes with a small chuckle.

“Very well...spoil my fun.” I said with a laugh, the last part being muttered under my breath. “Now I would hate to impose, so I won’t. I know you and your people want me out of your village, so simply point me towards the closest seaport and I will be out of your mane.”

“I can do this, but we still have much to discuss.” Obasi stated, catching my attention as my eyes turned to his, only to see his eyes looking over my wings with curiosity and interest, making the shaman laugh slightly before she took another hit from the pipe.

“Calm now Obasi” she soothed, making the male blush ever so slightly. “Do not mind him outsider, he is the leader of the warriors of the village, but he is still a colt. He has always been curious of other creatures that inhabit our planet, but he always puts his duties first, before everything else.”

That would explain his proximity to me, as well as how his eyes continuously glanced in my direction when he thought my back was turned. After all, there’s nothing wrong with being a little curious, especially when he’s basically stuck in a village with little to no variety in its population.

“I was the same way when I was in his position, stuck in one place for years before moving on to experience the world around us.” I turned to the stallion and grinned at him, my fangs clear for him to see. “Go ahead and indulge yourself my friend.”

Without another word, my wing shot open towards him, making the colt jump in surprise with a small yelp leaving his muzzle. I kept up my grin while watching him slowly relax, his eyes wide open in surprise narrowing into a glare, before his eyes once again landed on my wings, making his soft green eyes sparkle in wonder.

Oni laughed softly, her eyes drifting closed as if in prayer, while her smile persisted.

“I will send one of my apprentices to fetch a map for you, as well as prepare a room for you. I know how the children of Scáth feel under the light of the moon, but no creature should travel across the coast at night.”

I tilted my head slightly, my ear twitching in curiosity.

“You would offer a room to an outsider? ...Consider me surprised.”

“The teachings of Yemoja are clear, treat others with respect, should they offer you respect in turn.” She replied, the pipe in her hoof being returned to its pot while an apprentice of the shaman came to fetch it, offering me a scroll before taking the pot away to the back of the shrine.

“Now I must apologize to you young one, but I must return to my duties.” She told me while returning to her hooves and bowing her head in my direction. “Obasi, lei asseblief die buitestaander na sys kamer en ontmoet my dan in my huis voordat hy na die wereld van drome vertrek.” (Please lead the outsider to his room and then meet me in my home before leaving for the world of dreams.)

“Ja sjamaan.” (yes shaman) He replied, bowing his head to her before returning to my wings, his nose rubbing against the leathery appendage.

Oni just laughed and moved to follow her apprentice, leaving me alone with Obasi, who was starting to get a little too close for comfort. I let him be though, content to simply let him indulge his curiosity for awhile.

“I apologize for this, but you are the first Thestral I have ever met.” He told me after a few minutes, breaking the silence between us that had sat there for so long.

“Think nothing of it.” I replied, moving away from the stallion and stretching out my wings before turning my full attention to him. “Now if you would be so kind, could you please lead me to my accommodations for the night, I need to study this map as well as gather my thoughts.”

I was answered with a nod as he rose with me, moving to the door that was now vacant, the two guards having gone home after the shaman left.

“Follow me, and do not stray.” Was his order, garnering no protest from me.

“By your lead.”

Chapter 4

Despite the hostility I received when I first appeared in this quaint little village, the room I was given was quite lovely. It didn’t hold much in terms of furniture, but the bed was surprisingly comfortable, and the view over the moonlit ocean was quite beautiful.

It gave me plenty of time to relax and run through the information I had and study the map to familiarize myself with the villages and cities that dotted the coast of the Oshun Sea. Turns out, I ended up in a quaint little village they called Kabo, which was actually as close to the city of Iram as you could get, meaning I only had a few short miles standing between me and my ticket to Equestria.

Once I did get there, that’s when the hard part begins.

If the zebra there act how they did here, I would likely have more luck crossing the Sea itself instead of boarding a ship that just so happened to be heading there. Only problem with that though, was the simple fact that the middle of the Sea pretty much had a storm cell running along its entirety almost twenty four seven, making it pretty much impossible to navigate it through flight.

This storm, if I recall, was courtesy of one of my daughter’s demons known simply as Erebus. Wonder what happened to that guy.

I may be an immortal, and while this vessel was extremely hardy, it was still killable, and I was in no hurry to test out its electrical resistance.

Sure I could just split the storm itself, but then I’d end up screwing up the magical field and ruin somebody’s day, so I didn’t have a lot of options. The only other way would be for me to travel to the land of the griffons and head through the Endlos Ocean, which stretched for hundreds of miles, to reach Equestrian borders. I could also teleport there I guess, but I didn’t come down here just to teleport around. There was also the risk of a random creature catching me after or before the teleport, meaning I had to explain away the fact a Thestral just cast a teleportation spell...maybe I should have been an Alicorn, would have scared the hell out of the ponies.

Hindsight is twenty/twenty.

I can’t exactly pray for an easy out either, what with whatever being higher than me in the celestial food chain probably losing interest in me a long, long, time ago.

Meaning I was effectively screwed, how fun.

Now’s not the time for thoughts like that though, I had more pressing matters to attend to, which basically consisted of every foal in the village staring directly at me the moment I opened my door.

Young and old, big and small, all were there, and every single one of them had the same look in their eye that Obasi had back in the Temple of me.

“...” I blinked and kept staring.

“...” They stared right back, neither party moving a muscle, the staring contest continuing between me and the collective of children...and then I made the mistake of twitching.

Then they were upon me.

I don’t remember what happened next, my vision consisting of nothing but black and white, but I remember opening my eyes again to a familiar face smiling down at me, which just so happened to be the guard who had the gall to poke me with a spear yesterday.

“Sorry for the young ones, they seek entertainment any way they can.” He chuckled, holding a hoof down towards me, which I gratefully accepted.

“Quite alright, not my first time dealing with foals.” I replied, dusting myself off and ruffling my now aching wings, licking off a bit of dirt that found its way on the appendages. The guard chuckled and adjusted the spear at his side, which somehow escaped my attention. “So, name?”

“Imari” was his answer, making me nod.

“Loyal...interesting.” I grinned, moving past him and the ocean of foals still surrounding me.

“You seem to know the meaning behind our names, why is this?” Imari asked curiously, following along behind me while the children continued to watch me and run around us, generally just making sure I was within their sight.

“I spent years studying your culture; I know a thing or two about your naming customs.”

‘After all, your several millennia old grandmother and I created them.’

“I still find it hard to believe you found a high priestess of Yemoja, much less got her to teach you our ways and customs.” He replied, shooing away the overly curious foals as we kept up or trek towards the temple. I just shrugged my wings in response, looking back at him after a moment.

“I find it hard to believe you speak Equish so well. You don’t even have that subtle accent Obasi does.” I commented, making the guys grin widen, while his eyes seemed to dim ever so slightly.

“I was raised by the village shaman; she taught me everything she knew about the world, including how to speak to the ponies, should I ever encounter one.” He answered, his chest puffed out while my sensitive hearing caught I slight uptick in his heart rate.

Weren’t many happy memories there it would seem.

I didn’t say anything to him after that, letting him mull over the sudden influx of memories, offering a small pat on the shoulder. He gave me a grateful smile, letting the silence settle over us as we kept on our way, several zebra giving Imari and I a nod and curios look, respectively. I received a glare or two as well, but nowhere near what it was yesterday, meaning the masses of the village didn’t see me as much as a demon and more like a mild curiosity.

Amazing what the word of a shaman can do to tribals.

They still kept their distance though, only the parents coming anywhere close to retrieve their offspring. I couldn’t help but feel a little saddened by this, but I couldn’t really expect a whole village to warm up to me overnight, no matter what the shaman told them. I definitely had to make sure I come back after I dealt with the ponies, make a trip around the villages of Zebrica. Maybe I’ll make a Zebra vessel and see what happens, be a good reason to brush up on my alchemy.

“So, the shaman never told us your name.” Imari said, making my ear twitch as I looked back to him.

“I doubt she would have, after all, she never asked for it.” I cheekily replied, showing off a fanged grin. There was a moment of silence between us, the zebra simply staring at me with a raised brow.

“Mind sharing?” he asked, making me chuckle and return my sight in front of me.

“Names Ash.” I replied simply, making the stallion nod with a grin.

“A fine name, but I’m sorry to say I do not know the meaning behind it.”

“There isn’t one, it’s just a name.” He blinked in surprise, tilting his head slightly. I just chuckled at his confusion. “Not every name has a meaning behind it my friend, my names just a name, pure and simple.”

Imari simply nodded, probably already learning something from this little conversation. Now that I thought about it, this was probably his first time talking to anyone outside of his species. After all, zebra rarely if ever leave their villages, and the ones who do tend to keep themselves in Zebrica. This basically put him on the same level as a child in the aspect of his curiosity, ever eager to learn about the world around him.

Speaking of children, these little things were still here by the dozen.

I will admit that I’m thoroughly impressed that a village of this size could support so many of the little buggers. Not a single one looked all that unhealthy, outside of a few skinny ones, but they still looked far from starving. And each one held that look of curiosity and wonder that slowly drew them in.

This is what led to me holding a number of the little guys and girls on my back and under my wings while the rest circled me, asking me question after question about Thestrals and any information I could provide about the other races of the planet.

Imari got a kick out of this, even going so far as to help a foal situate themselves on my head, the little filly proceeding to flick the part of my mane hanging over my eye.

“I see the children found you early today” I heard the raspy voice of Oni say as we closed in on the temple we met at yesterday. I chuckled and softly nodded, not wanting to disturb the now sleeping foal on my head.

“They’re a curious lot, that’s for sure.” I replied, moving to lie down in front of the fountain of Yemoja, and proceeded to put on my foal blanket.

“They do not hold the same hatred of fear in their heart as the adults do; they only seek to understand a world that is still new and exciting.” She nodded, moving past me to talk with Imari, leaving me alone with the herd of foals, a few sitting in front of me and play with my mane.

“Geniet u uself?” (Enjoying yourself?)

The foals nodded eagerly, moving closer to play with my ears while another poked my fangs softly. I just chuckled and laid there, letting them do their own thing for a while. I might have fallen asleep under the literal blanket of foals, having felt the extreme warmth of several dozen bodies leave me while Oni and Imari grinned at me, Obasi next to them with a knowing smirk on his muzzle.

“Sorry to wake you outsider, but I imagine you would like to reach Iram before nightfall.”

I hummed in the affirmative, picking myself up from the ground and stretching out, feeling several satisfying pops in my back and wings, making Obasi wince for some reason.

“Yes, I have to thank you elder, not many would house a stranger, especially when our races have such a strained relationship.” I told her, bowing my head in thanks.

“It was no bother my dear Ash” I felt my ear twitch “We might not have made the best first impression, but you have been nothing but respectable to us since you have arrived, we only saw to return that respect in kind.” Obasi suddenly looked a little uncomfortable after she said this, making me quirk a brow curiously.

“Yes...I must...apologize for my actions when you arrived.”

“Oh think nothing of it” I told him quickly, waving away his worries with a wing, giving him a grin as I moved forward to give his shoulder a small nudge. “Friends?”

Obasi blinked in surprise, but let a smile work its way on his muzzle as he held out a hoof towards me, which I bumped immediately.

“Yes, friends.” He nodded.

“Neat, hopefully I have this much luck with the Equestrian’s.” I said with a chuckle, moving to give the shaman and guard a hoof bump as well.

“Head north from here Ash, look for the Primis statues, they will lead the way to Iram.” Oni said, bowing her head, Imari doing so as well. I nodded, looking towards the north, seeing nothing but miles of savannah with a small dot in the distance.

“Thank you for your hospitality shaman, may Primis shine his light upon you and Yemoja watch over you always.” I bowed to her and the others, my wings snapping open and vaulting into the air, taking one last look at the village of Kabo, before shooting towards the City of Iram.

Chapter 5

The City of Iram, the Atlantis of the Sands...I wish I had something good to say about it. I really didn’t though, not a single thing I wanted to say was positive. Sure I didn’t find a spear suddenly shoved in my face, but if looks could kill I would have burst into flames just from looking in this cities general direction.

I had been everything but directly attacked after setting hoof in this place, but I probably wasn’t too far from that either. At least the other races besides the zebra only gave me a cursory glance, while the ponies simply studied me like I was the most fascinating thing on the planet.

I didn’t blame them though, not many Thestrals travel out of their lands, so I’m likely the very first bat pony they had ever seen. The Griffons and Minotaur’s paid me little attention, most either ignoring me or going so far as to give me a wave and a smile. The zebra, well I don’t think I need to tell you what they did, definitely didn’t help that they were the majority in this city.

I didn’t care though, walking through the cobblestone streets with a smile on my face and pep in my step, which seemed to piss off the zebra even more. Their hatred definitely showed, especially when I tried to peruse the market out of curiosity. They were still willing to sell me stuff, but their prices were something beyond extortion. There wasn’t even all that much to see either, just a series of buildings and stalls with something that was probably supposed to look nice and decorative, but just came off as tacky.

This cities only saving grace in my eyes was a temple of Yemoja near the center, but it was in a sorry state after years of disuse. I was not at all happy after that, which probably didn’t help me in my discussions with the harbormaster.

It turns out that violence was no longer the answer.

I remember attacking the insulting bigot after he punched me in the muzzle in an attempt to end the argument we were having that started out as a simple discussion over his extreme prices, eventually leading up to the two of us getting into an actual shouting match on what constitutes as a fair price.

I had all the money I could possibly want, but I still want my prices to be fair dammit!

One thing led to another and the two of us ended up in a one sided hoof fight, me being too worried about killing him to hit back, which quickly drew the attention of a pair of passing guards, leading to the second time I had spears pointed at me by angry zebra.

I wanted to say I handled the situation with the grace and dignity befitting my station, but things rarely if ever go the way I really wanted them to.

“Sir, put down your weapon!” One of the guards shouted at me, not one of the original pair but one of the other several that came running after I handled the situation.

Turns out that these guys were tougher than I originally thought they would be, only getting a broken jaw instead of a missing head in the case of the harbormaster. The armor of the guards was definitely subpar at best though. Seriously, I punched one of them and the breastplate practically exploded, didn’t even really try.

Maybe I should cut down the power I use...for the next vessel.

Now I had an entire squad of guards pointing spears and crossbows at me, all while onlookers watched on in curiosity, a few coin bags being exchanged between some of them.

Seems this was a common occurrence.

Back to the guards though, which I’m happy to claim haven’t attempted to skewer me like a kabob yet. They weren’t all that far from it, though, the ones with crossbows seeming especially antsy; can’t imagine why though.

“I don’t have my weapon, this is his” I replied, pointing down to the unconscious guard, whose face was covered by scraps of metal that used to be his helmet. The one shouting at me blinked before raising a hoof, making the archers tense. Seems these people don’t understand the term excessive force. “It won’t work.”

“Fire!” he yelled, dropping his hoof, signaling his archers to loose their arrows, all four of them heading directly towards me...only to bounce harmlessly off of my chest.

“Told you” I chuckled, twirling the spear and planting the tip into the wooden dock. The guards just stared gob smacked, the spearman quickly regaining their resolve and pointing their weapons my way again.

The archers stayed exactly how they were.

“DEMON!” Then they charged, the four of them thrusting their spears in unison...where they all snapped in half on contact.

Good thing I made this body stab proof, sure it makes things hard to explain but oh dear me was it funny.

“Anything else?” Now the spear wielders were frozen, the archers now moving in their place, but only two of them choosing to reload their crossbows while the others moved to clear away the civilians, making little progress moving said statues.

The guards did start moving eventually, the leader somehow mustering the courage to point his used to be spear at me, then looked at the broken stick, back at me, back to the stick, then back to me. I just raised a brow and said nothing, merely raising a hoof and gently pushing the broken stick back to the ground.

“Now how well do you think that would have gone friend?” I asked him, watching his muzzle open and close a few times, not a word leaving him, until he dropped the stick and backed away into the group, starting to order his comrades in Zebricans, all of them looking about ready to bolt.

I just rolled my eyes and cleared my throat, remembering a phrase my daughters used to calm their children.

“Esse tranquillitas, filii mei, patrem vestrum, vigilias super vos simper” (Be calm, my children, your father watches over you always) I let out a breath and calmed my heart, looking into the eyes of the stallion and watching as his breath slowed and the others of his squad dropped their weapons and felt their legs tremble to avoid bowing to me.

It’s been awhile since I’ve used the voice of the Father, which everyone in infant Equss oh so lovingly called it. Last time was when I had to keep a world war from happening back when all of Equss was arguing over water resources.

This is how the fresh water ocean was made. It was a pain in the ass keeping it separated from the salt water oceans and making sure no country could claim it, but it saved me a lot of headache.

“You have nothing to fear from me child.” I walked towards him and placed a hoof on his shoulder, feeling his muscles relax as his fellow soldiers quit fighting their instincts and bowed down before me. “Calm your heart, still your mind, all will be fine.”

The stallion smiled and joined his brothers in bowing. “Thank you Father.”

Oh boy, this is what I was afraid of. The voice of the Father was as close to mind control as you could get, without actually going all out on said individuals psyche. It puts them at ease, like a child who was being comforted by their parents, leaving them highly impressionable. It only lasts for a few minutes, so they’ll be fine.

“Arise; there is no need to bow to me.” They did so without a second thought. “Now please take this stallion to the nearest doctor, then tell your captain he is accused of assault, do not mention me.”

All of them saluted and moved to grab the harbormaster, dragging him away through the crowds, who were no doubt affected by the voice.

“The rest of you, go about your day any forget any of this ever happened.” All of them bowed and cleared out, resuming their lives while those too far away looked on in curiosity of what had just happened. I decided to join the crowd as well, letting a sigh escape me after watching the dock workers get back to their work.

There weren’t any ships docked in the harbor today, nor did I know when they would show up thanks to that bigoted harbormaster. Guy didn’t even keep a log for the ships coming and going, meaning I had to literally guess since the Zebra were still none to happy with me.

This meant I was basically stuck here till I could either weasel out the information from one of the dock workers, or maybe the harbor master when he could talk again, or for me to just get to the point of saying screw it and teleporting to Equestria myself. Maybe if I had gone ahead and done that before I would be dealing with this, but then I might miss something.

After all, it’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey.

...I think I just died a little on the inside.

You can’t change the past though, not without major repercussions, so I was kind of stuck there unless I got lucky or turned the cheats on. Meaning I needed to find a place to rest whenever I decide to take a break in stalking the harbor.

‘This shouldn’t be too difficult’ I remembered telling myself...about three hours ago. I still heard it on constant repeat after the first three inns I checked, then the next three, and so on. Turns out money can’t always get you what you want, at least my money can’t.

The coin I had was good, but it was still counterfeit, and the prices these innkeepers wanted to charge would send their entire economy in free fall. This just proved to piss me off more to the point where one of those inns was no longer there, it’s over there...and there...and there...still not sure how I got away with that

Point is I was probably sleeping outside tonight.

I still had hope though, hope in the one last inn in this city, The Drunken Huntsmare. I stood there staring at the sign, feeling an odd tingling in the back of my head and a small pinch in my knee, but eventually just shrugged it off and let myself in. What greeted me was a quaint little space with nothing in it but a few chairs lining the walls, several animal pelts decorating the room, and a simple wooden counter, empty save for a few assorted fruits and a small candle.

The zebra mare behind the counter was quick to perk up from her dozing, her eyes blinking rapidly to clear away the drowsiness as her cobalt irises trained on me.

“Hello stranger, welcome to The Drunken Huntsmare.” She greeted with a smile, making me stop and blink in mild shock. I must have been stuck there for awhile, because the girl actually started to look worried. “You okay over there?”

I blinked before shaking my head to gather myself. “Sorry, haven’t gotten this far before in this city so you kind of threw me off guard.”

She stared at me in confusion, scratching her head with a hoof. “What do you mean?”

I can’t tell if she’s messing with me or not. She definitely seems to be genuinely confused, which just made me confused. I gestured to myself with a hoof, making her raise a brow, and making my hopes rise ever so slightly.

“You do know what I am right?”

“Yeah, a Thestral, so what?” she shrugged, checking something behind the counter before turning her attention back to me. “Coin is coin, not like I’m going to turn away a paying customer over something as insignificant as species.”

I have never wanted to hug someone so much before in my entire existence. I couldn’t help but smile and chuckle a little to myself, eagerly making my way towards the counter with an actual smile on my face.

“Congratulations, you are already better and smarter than every other innkeeper in this city, trust me, I checked.” She chuckled and leaned against the counter, twirling a key in her hoof...somehow.

“Good to hear, no doubt I’m cheaper too, only three coins a night.” She informed, planting the key on the counter and sliding it my way, while I fished out three coins and placed them on the counter.

“Indeed you are, seeing as how I could use the coin that the others were charging me to buy a house.” I told her, watching her cringe and slide one of the coins back towards me.

“I’ll make your first night a bit cheaper; no doubt you’ve had a time in the city.” She said with a smile, making me chuckle and slide two coins back to her.

“No thanks, I have the money, and this little conversation is already the best part of my hopefully short stay in this city.” She raised a brow but didn’t refuse the money, sliding the coins into a container behind the counter.

“Short stay huh, where you heading?”

“Equestria” I readily answered, making her stare at me in surprise. She blinked, but eventually just shrugged and move back to lean on the counter, one of her hooves hanging over the side while her other held her head up.

“Wow, only ones going that way are the ponies themselves, can’t imagine why you would want anywhere near their lands.”

“I have my reasons.” I chuckled, snatching the key with a wing. She shrugged again and went back to dozing behind the counter.

“Room seven, breakfast is at eight, dinners at seven” she muttered, making my ears twitch and my smile grow as I left for the rooms with my hooves quietly clopping on the wooden floor. Doing my best to not disturb the already snoozing mare, and whoever was most likely already asleep, I made my way towards the designated room and making myself at home in the comfortable atmosphere of the room. .

I couldn’t seem to get the smile off my muzzle, my mood going right back up from the depths of hell just from the smallest sight of acceptance from a creature that would have most likely been raised to see my current species as an enemy. Reminds me why I don’t just erase this planet, because I sure as hell have plenty of reasons to start from scratch. Not like my daughters would blame me, even their love and tolerance has a limit, which actually concerned me from time to time.

Putting the potential genocide of Equis to the side for now, I still had things to do tonight. Hopefully I don’t mess this up, very delicate process, high chances of possibly blowing a hole in the building...or the planet, but necessary risks.

I let my mind clear as my consciousness left my vessel nearly instantly, my consciousness warping into the void and into the vast emptiness of space. I quickly looked back at the planet, letting out a mental sigh in relief at the absence of an added hole in the planet.

‘Okay, I got five hours till dawn, plenty of time to get everything I need done.’ I told myself, opening up my little pocket dimension and looking down at hundreds of unfinished projects. ‘Now I just have to freaking find it...joy.’

Chapter 6

Day five, still no ships heading towards Equestria and it seems no one is willing to disclose the information I needed to find out when they will. The dock workers are of no help, seeing as how they completely forgot about the incident with me and their harbormaster and went right on back to treating me like pony Satan. Little discouraging but I found plenty of things to pass the time while I waited for something to happen.

That lovely innkeeper, whom I later learned was named Amara, was a pleasant conversation partner that was all too eager to learn about the other races. The patrons of her little diner were all to happy to join in on the conversation, keeping me thoroughly distracted and my anger in check while enduring the constant jeers and glares of the cities populace. I was even able to catch up on several projects I put on hold during my exile, most all of them consisting of objects and vessels meant to mess with the planets populace, have to get my kicks somehow.

Still though, I was never a good player of the waiting game, and I was bound and determined to keep away from time magic in order to fix the problem. I learned quickly that you don’t mess with time after my first few centuries of this god gig, having created enough butterflies in the time stream that it basically took the multiverse and chucked it into the blender, leaving my section of reality a jumbled mess so great that it’s basically being held together by duct tape and wonder glue.

On the bright side, I can now traverse the multiverse, which I abused the hell out of for a good hundred millennia. Turns out there’s an infinite amount of my universe that spans all of time from creation to beyond the death of existence...still thinking on that one.

That’s a story for another time though; right now I needed to focus on the here and now of this universe, which mainly consisted of me angrily slurping my broth while the other customers kept as far away from me and my scowling face as possible. They quickly learned that I was a very pleasant fellow to be around for a friendly conversation, all except the zebra, they can go screw themselves. On the other note, they now know not to mess with me while I had a particular look on my face, especially the zebra, which were quick to vacate to either to their rooms or out the nearest window.

Most of you might be wondering why I was so angry right, well it definitely wasn’t due to the insults or anything like that; I have much more patience than I let on. I can take the insults in stride and go about my day, usually, but there are still several things I will never condone.

I didn’t want to get all that involved with anything in this city, seeking only to hitch a ride on a ship to equestria and see what mess they have going on over there, but boy did that plan fall through fast. In less than a week I had been involved with numerous attempts of thievery of my saddlebag, hiding from the local guard, and making sure that several criminals found their way in dungeon cells.

This city needed a hero, but they sure as hell didn’t deserve it.

I still left the guard plenty of breathing room so they could try and actually do their jobs, but they were still pretty worthless, meaning all the work I put in essentially amounted to nothing, which only left me pretty irritated, not the kind of mindset to have when walking thought a city bent on villainizing you.

It was during that pissed off stroll that I found my way in an alley to try and get back to the inn faster, only to end up stopping in the middle of said alleyway, my ears twitching as my keen hearing picked up the sounds of quiet sobs further down the alley.

I couldn’t let my curiosity go unsated, so like any normal person, I went to investigate. What I found made my blood boil and any thoughts of my earlier anger extinguished and rekindled with righteous fury.

Sitting there in a pile of trash and old rotting cloth was a small zebra foal. The colt was covered in dried blood and bruises, reeking of something I couldn’t quite place, but would have definitely killed a lesser man.

He was still conscious, staring at me with eyes conveying nothing but pain and fear, making my heart ache at the mere sight of him. He was healed almost immediately afterwards, the sight actually bringing a tear to my eye as my anger was pushed to the back of my mind and my compassionate nature took over.

It took quite a bit of coaxing to get him out of the box, even more for him to climb on my back so I could bring him back with me to the inn, where he was immediately whisked off to my room for a proper bath, Amara coming in soon after and, after plenty of encouragement, helping me clean him up and having her cooks set him up with a proper meal.

This is how I currently found myself sitting in the dining area of the inn, hiding away in the farthest corner from the door, while the colt rested at my side with one of my wings draped over his back and a small bowl of vegetable broth in his hooves.

He had been nursing his meal for a good half hour, not saying a word as he constantly scanned the room with his eyes always lingering towards the door. I didn’t bother him while he did this, merely pulling him a little bit closer against my side whenever I felt his muscles tense from someone entering through the door.

“How is he doing?” I heard Amara ask me, coming back with another round of soup for us all. I just shrugged and pushed my now empty bowl to the side. She smiled sadly and sat down across from us, giving the colt a little wave and a smile, to which he responded by doing his best to hide under my wing. I gently nuzzled the little guy in response.

“It’s alright, she won’t harm you.” I assured him, letting my eyes connect with his as my frown was quickly replaced with a comforting grin. He nodded softly before going back to his meal. I sighed and gave the mare an apologetic look while rubbing the colts head a little. “His name is Adasi, in case you were wondering.”

She nodded and started to sip on her meal, humming appreciatively, before finally turning all her attention to me. “Any luck with the harbor today?”

I shook my head and blew a on the mane in my eye before setting my new bowl down, letting my head rest against the table instead. “All I got today was another five or so guards called on me by one of the more paranoid members of your species. Nothing against you Zebra, but I really don’t like the ones in this city, present company excluded.”

“Oh trust me, I get it” she said with a chuckle. “It was a headache getting this Inn set up and running, nearly cost me an arm and a leg in permits.”

I actually asked her about that after the third day of staying here, where I learned many interesting facts about this city. Turns out no one had it easy in this city, not even the ones born and raised here. This city was out to get everyone equally, no matter the species or gender.

I made a note to come back here after I was done with Equestria, maybe shake the city up a bit before going about on my merry way. For now though, I just needed to handle my business here and move on, but now I had another problem to deal with. Granted, this is a problem I couldn’t just ignore, but it was still a problem none the less.

Now I had to figure out what to do with the kid, not trusting myself to take care of him and not wanting to bring him anywhere near the people I planned on meeting, especially the Unicorn and Pegasi, Earth ponies were a bit of a gamble but I didn’t like the odds.

“No doubt, especially when you run an inn with only a cook. How is Afia today?”

“Not great, she’s at odds with her mate again.” She sighed, taking another sip of her soup. “She left her home after a pretty nasty argument, didn’t tell me what it was about though.”

“She has my sympathy, and while I have never had a love interest myself, I know how difficult they could be.” After all, even the mothers had relationship problems, but why did I always have to play mediator.

“Now there’s a surprise” the mare giggled, looking me up and down with a mischievous twinkle in her eye, “I might not be into Thestral’s, but a stallion like you would definitely turn heads.”

“Oh trust me, plenty of creatures fantasize about me (trust me, I know they do, and sometimes its freaking weird), but I was far too busy with other things to pursue a relationship.”

Not that it would be difficult to change that. Zeus and all those other gods did it all the time, even if they were fictional, so there wouldn’t be much stopping me from doing the same. Never into that kind of stuff though, after all, it’s much more satisfying to actually work for it.

“Does your little trip to the pony lands count as one of these little things?”

“Yes and no, I'm not that interested in relationships, but still open for when the feeling takes me.” I said with a shrug before giving her a grin of my own, “Enough about me though, how about you? You definitely would not have any trouble attracting a suitor, so how come you’re still unwed?”

“Are you joking, I have enough problems with the inn, you think I would have time to go out and find a male of my own!” She mock yelled, throwing a hoof out towards the dining area, which currently stood empty save for the three of us and the cook in the back, the restaurant section of the inn closing after she brought out our food.

I rolled my eyes with a chuckle and shook my head in amusement.

“Besides, I believe in love at first sight, so I’m still waiting for The One, thank you very much.” she huffed, her forelegs crossed over her chest and her head thrown to the side. I felt a quiet rumble on my side, along with a soft giggling, making my grin turn to a natural smile.

“Yet you sit in this inn all times of the day, wasting away behind a counter while your dream stallion is out there, experiencing so many unfulfilled relationships, languishing every night of how he wishes he could find that one mare that would treat him right, how could you be so cruel Amara!?”

“But Father, I don’t want to go outside!” She cried, banging her hooves on the table, doing an excellent impression of a toddler lever temper tantrum.

“That’s enough out of you young lady!” I told her, making her continue her act, much to the colt’s amusement. Then she suddenly stopped dead, every ear at the table swiveling towards her hoof, attracted by the cracking of the wood, and then we watched as a small portion of the table simply fell off.

“...Oops.” she muttered, her ears against her skull in mild irritation.

“And that is why you can’t have nice things.” I stated, somehow making little Adasi continue his little giggling fit. Seems he was easily amused when he wasn’t bloody and starved, he was the perfect match to the mare across from me.

“Now that we filled our humor quota for the day, I feel like you need to go ahead and close your shop, its past midnight.” I pointed out the window next to our table, leading the mare to look at the moon that was currently high in the middle of the sky.

Yeah, that’s one part I kept from the freaking unicorns. You may be able to raise and set the sun and moon, but I’ll be damned if I let either of them set in the east dammit. Did it myself once and my OCD promptly broke my mind and fixed it for me.

“Indeed, also means it is far past my bed time.” She sighed, gathering the now empty bowls and moving towards the kitchen while I picked myself up and grabbed Adasi, tucking the colt under a wing while he remained silent with a small smile plastered on his muzzle.

“Then I won’t keep you, but I want you to remember a little of what we said tonight, you need to take a break every once in awhile.” I told her, passing her through the door and towards the stairs. “Working constantly isn’t healthy, my advice, either find someone to run it for you every once in awhile or get a helper to lighten the load.”

She looked at me for a moment before finally sighing and turning towards the kitchen door. “I will put some thought into it...thank you for the advice.”

I nodded and offered her a warm smile before bidding her goodnight and making my way towards my room.

“She seems nice,” the colt under my wing finally voiced his impression of the mare I called my friend, well out of ear shot of his fellow zebra. Yeah, I had to give him an enchanted necklace to let him understand Equish, his voice coming out sounding dual-tone.

“Yes, she was the first zebra in Iram to show me any kindness, also one of the first beings that I could call friend in years.” I said with a nod, nudging open the door to my room and placing the colt on the bed before moving towards an open window on the other side. “I hoped that the number would have been higher, but I also forgot about the relationship between our two species.”

“I could be your friend!” He was all too eager to say, seemingly ignoring the harsh reality of his current situation. I could have been wrong to assume though, not actually knowing the circumstances of his past state since he seemed to deem it unnecessary to share them with me, not that I really blamed him. Still though, for being found on the side of the street maybe inches from death, he had a particularly happy disposition when he was just with me.

“Would you now?” I asked with a smirk, watching his head nod rapidly in response, pulling a chuckle from me. “And why is that?”

“Well, you’ve been really nice to me since you found me, and you look totally awesome. I never asked, but what are you exactly?”

Ah children, no tact whatsoever and ever eager to learn, reminds me of the old days.

“I am a Thestral, young Adasi, a combination of pony and bat, which means,” I took a dramatic pose and threw a wing over my muzzle, my eyes narrowing on him while my vocal cords shifted to be as gravely as possible, “I am Batpony!”

Childish? Yes, Fun? Definitely.

The colt definitely thought so, his face morphing into a large grin as his childish giggles bounced around the room. I soon joined him in his amusement and moved onto the bed to sit beside him, his head resting on my foreleg while his giggles petered out and the room was bathed in silence.

Adasi seemed all to happy to let the silence hang, his will to stay awake having gone out after I set up a small fire in the fireplace, which he promptly laid down in front of and left for the dream world. I didn’t follow behind him, staying up and doing my best to figure out a solution for the colt and his living situation.

I know he can't come with me, but there was no way in Hell I was leaving him in Iram. There was no guarantee any kind of orphanage or caretaker in the city would treat him right, and he wasn’t going back out to live in the streets, especially since whomever and whatever left him for dead was still out there.

I did have one idea, but I had no idea how they would react.

I briefly wondered if I should leave him with Amara, but that mare was addicted to her business, not to mention she very well might not want to have a family in the first place, at least until she got her personal life together.

I let out a frustrated sigh and placed the colt on a pillow in front of the flame, adding the necessary fire proofing enchantments and making sure it would stay on fire a few more hours before moving towards my bed and letting my body fall on the straw mattress while my consciousness stayed standing. The process of leaving my vessel went much better than last time, not even leaving scorch mark’s this time.

Now for another ability of mine that was pretty rusty at the point, dream walking.

You heard it right, you dream, there could be a chance that I’ll be there, which always unnerved my daughters and sons, meaning I did it quite often. Probably why it only took me about a minute to run through the process and enter the dream world, the sight of hundreds upon thousands of dream gateways greeting my vision.

...Now that I think about it, I probably could have done this to begin with to learn the info I needed...DAMN YOU HINDSIGHT!!!!

Chapter 7

So, I got good news and I got bad news. I'll go ahead and get the bad news out of the way and say that I have officially lost any and all hope for this city. The incident with Adasi was basically the pin drop that started the avalanche, which just kept getting worse after spying in on the dreams of the multitude of individuals calling Iram home. Greed, lust, corruption, even gambling was made up most of the dreams I saw on my search of the dreamscape.

Hell, this place was a freaking City of Angel’s.

Yeah, out of all the things I forgot over the millennium, that’s one of the things that stayed. Not any experiences mind you, but certain terms and phrases stuck through the test of time.

That’s not important though, the point was that this city was in dire need of a reset. I would more than happily level the whole place if it weren’t for people like Amara and Adasi keeping my holy wrath from crashing down on this place like the Abrahamic God with Sodom and Gomorrah (Don’t ask how I remember that, I don’t know either).

This just made me want to get out of this city even more than I already did. Luckily I had more luck on that front, learning quite a bit of information that night, all thanks to a Pegasus sailor that happened to be staying at Amara's inn for the next couple of days.

This gave me plenty of time to discuss my solution to Adasi's problem with the mare, to which she readily agreed with while the colt just went along with whatever I said. This is how I found myself back at Kabo, but this time with far fewer spears in my face.

I stayed in the village for a couple of days, spending plenty of time with the village people that didn’t still see me as a demon, especially the shaman and Obasi. Whenever I wasn’t with them I was helping Adasi settle in to his new home, the villagers all too happy to take him in after I informed them of his situation.

The other foals were happy to have a new playmate while Adasi just looked happy to see other zebra his own age, seeing as the younger population of Iram was scarce at best. In fact he was the only filly/colt I was able to see outside of those that were already in their teens and helping their families with either their business or every day chores.

Kabo was much different in that regard, the children possibly outnumbering the adults and giving the little colt plenty of new friends, along with a new parental figure in the form of Obasi.

Yeah, I was plenty surprised by that.

Turns out those two hit it off pretty quick, Obasi apparently having a deep love of children, which I learned after Oni traded plenty of tales with me over the village campfire with several other villagers and another dozen sleepy foals that traded their attention between their parents or Obasi or I, Adasi choosing to rest himself between my forelegs.

The colt seemed to want to spend plenty of time with the head guard zebra, but he was obviously still inclined to stick near me, even starting to call me Uncle Ash. Little quick on the draw on his part, but I definitely wasn’t complaining.

The colt ended up triggering some old instincts in me that I hadn’t made use of since I created my sons and daughters, making my decision all the more difficult to make, but I knew what I had to do.

It was a painful goodbye on both our parts, my instincts fighting me the entire time while I nuzzled the colt that found himself attached to my neck. I wasn’t worried for him though, I knew the character of the one to be his caretaker, and I could tell I could trust him with this task. That’s what kept me going back towards Iram and back to the Amara's Inn.

It’s not often I partake in alcohol, but I felt that it would be appropriate for the night. Not like I can get drunk, trust me, I tried back in the early third century. How the girls got access to alcohol at that time period, I’m still trying to figure out. I sure as hell never taught them about it, so they were obviously hiding things from me that remain hidden to this very day, partially for lack of me trying to find them.

Let them have their secrets, daddy always find out eventually.

This stuff was a lot weaker though, so I eventually turned myself into quite the spectacle, at least in the eyes of the mortals. After all, it’s not every day you get to see a Thestral knock back enough alcohol to kill a hydra.

I think I was on my twelfth mug before Amara threatened to cut me off, until I challenged her to a drinking contest that ended up with her on the floor, along with another dozen patrons that decided they would have more luck against me.

If this is what happens whenever I decide to drink, my time on this planet was going to be quite interesting. I just wish I actually could get tipsy, but I gave this body the ultimate liver for a reason, which meant I was basically just drinking for the taste.

Luckily that Pegasus sailor decided to stay and watch instead of participating, meaning I could have a halfway decent conversation with the mare, who identified herself as Wind Swept.

Pony naming conventions were strange.

Anyway, the mare agreed to take me to her captain tomorrow to discuss the option of hitching a ride with them to Equestria, which was pretty easy when you show more knowledge about sailing than she could ever hope to have.

I actually was given quite a bit of authority over the crew, much to their apparent displeasure, which I later solved with another series of drinking contests. After all, if it’s one thing sailor’s respect, it’s a stallion that can hold his drink.

All in all, it was actually shaping up to be quite a pleasant journey, with everyone on board in high spirits and the ones who weren’t sorted themselves out with the near limitless supply of rum they carried on board. Every one of the ponies on the crew were actually very respectful individuals, nothing like how they were stereotyped since the first ships set sail.

I was actually having a lovely conversation with the captain Deep Coast about the goings on across the planet, as well as gauging the current state of Equestria. Course it probably wasn’t a great idea to ask a ship captain employing every tribe of pony as part of their crew to answer questions I planned to reserve for the hardcore tribalist's.

It was during one of the more heated conversation topics of the evening that our chat was put on hold by the cabin boy bashing the door open and all but hauling the captain out of her chair while the winds coming through the open door turned this place from organized chaos to displaced clean, seeing as how literally everything not nailed to the floor was thrown against the back wall or out the now open window.

Meanwhile, I just sat there in my perfectly stationary chair and sipped a bit more of my tea, watching the chaos through the still wide open door of the captain’s cabin.

“Seems we hit the storm cell,” I said, pouring myself another cup of tea while leaning back in my chair. “How fun.”

Ten minutes, that’s how long it took for everything to go FUBAR. Seriously, you would think they’d be able to make the trip both ways no problem, but it seems even the most experienced crew on the five seas panic at the sight of a hurricane mixed with the granddaddy of all thunderstorms. It was actually kind of sad seeing a somewhat seasoned crew on their knees praying to me while the rest run around like chickens with their heads cut off.

And trust me; it was as funny as it was sad.

Deep Coast did not share in my amusement, her eye twitching so subtlety that I wouldn’t have noticed if I wasn’t standing right next to her.

“So, does this happen often?” I asked, raising my voice to be heard over the storm, seeing the Unicorn’s ear twitch while her look of disbelief turned into pure anger as her teeth came together so fast I think she cracked a tooth.

“Try and keep us on course, I have to get these sorry lads organized.” She ordered, jumping down the stairs of the helm and running across the deck while slapping anyone she came across. I just chuckled and took hold of the wheel while watching the show unfold.

“OY, YER SEASONED SAILORS, STOP PANICKEN LIKE A BUNCH OF HAPLESS FOALS!” I heard the crimson mare shout from somewhere on the deck, having lost sight of her due to the heavy rainfall. Thankfully, the crew was pretty easy to get organized thanks to her timely and violent intervention, meaning we likely wouldn’t sink in the next ten minutes.

Not that I really blamed them for their panic, seeing as how the chances of them dealing with a storm of this intensity was pretty low. Only reason it was this strong was because of the overabundance of magic I bled off, which mixed with the ambient magic in the air to create what amounted to a category three hurricane.

“COME ON YE WEE BASTARDS, ALL OF YOU HAVE BEEN THROUGH WORSE THAN THIS!” She yelled before kicking a sail line, triggering the enchanted crystal inside and making it rise on its own.

That’s another thing she had going for her. Her crew was pretty useless in a crisis, but this mare could probably sail the ship on her own if she wanted to since half of the enchantments keeping this thing sailing were her doing, meaning she was likely powerful enough to do everything this sorry lot was doing and more.

It was actually pretty impressive to watch, the now very frantic mare moving around the ship like a squirrel, grabbing the ropes and letting herself be pulled up to the riggings to help the rigging monkey ponies, or whatever it is they call themselves.

That’s right, this mare went full Assassins Creed, and I could not have been more proud.

Ropes were cut, knots were tied, and several ponies fell from the riggings and into the arms of their pegasi crewmates. Now when I say fell, I actually meant that the captain yelled they were taking too long and promptly chucked them from the riggings like a shot put.

Kind of wish I had some popcorn, it was just too funny, which led to me getting the stink eye from several crew members after I made my amusement known.

“GET OFF YOUR PLOTS YOU LAZY BASTARDS, LAST TIME I CHECKED, AIN’T SINGLE ONE OF YOU FAT ENOUGH TO FLOAT!” I yelled through my chuckles, making all of the ponies watching the spectacle leap to their hooves and move to adjust, pull up, or just straight cut away the sails.

The last were reserved to the Pegasi for obvious reasons, can’t have any ground pounders flying off into the horizon with a makeshift drag-chute.

“DUMP THE WATER OUT OF THE SHIP YOU IDIOT’S!”

“AYE, AYE, CAPTAIN!”

I watched this go on for several minutes, the captain running around the ship like a demented hamster while the crew tried to keep up with her, failing miserably. It was definitely entertaining but after awhile, it was just plain painful to watch.

I heard my mortal given name again, my ears twitching and swiveling to the side, hearing more prayers directed my way, making me role my eyes and reaffirm my hold on the wheel. Then my eyes widened in recognition when I heard the voice again, realizing that this wasn’t just another .crew member praying for their safety.

I turned around to make sure I was hearing right, and low and behold, Deep Coast herself was on her knees, her forehooves held together in the classic prayer pose, meaning even she wasn’t use to storms of this caliber, just my luck.

‘Gotta do everything myself’ I sighed again and looked up at the storm, my eyes flashing for but a second, and then the rain lightened to a small drizzle, the waves calmed, and the clouds faded to a simple overcast with a little bit of sun shining through.

Yeah, can’t make the storm go away entirely, but I can still mess with it on a smaller scale without messing up operations this planet has that even I don’t understand. Even the demons can get their last laughs sometimes, even when power like mine was involved.

“You can stop pissing yourself captain” I calmly stated, seeing that the mare still hadn’t risen from her kneeling position, even when a few of her crew slowed and looked to the sky in confusion and awe.

I snorted and dragged one of the helmsman over and planted him in front of the wheel so I could head over towards the frozen equine, my hooves clopping noisily from right in front of her, making her flinch before she actually realized what was happening, her whole body perking up and she looked past me and to the sky with her jaws open wide.

I just raised a brow and closed it for her. She slowly turned to me, her confusion still quite clear.

“Start doing your thing captain, we still have a few hours left before landfall.” Those were my parting words to her before I leapt from the deck and flew up to the unoccupied crow’s-nest content with meditating for the few remaining hours while the crew tries to either figure out if this was truly divine intervention, or if they would just ignore it altogether.

We reached landfall after another three hours of sailing, the winds working in our favor and shortening the trip by almost two hours. Thankfully none of the important stuff was lost in the storm, at least anything that couldn’t be easily replaced. The crew was tired and weary when we pulled into the port of Mannulus Bay, eagerly shambling off of the ship on shaky legs while the dockworkers started unloading cargo and filling out the necessary paperwork to log in the ships arrival.

I just stayed up in the crows-nest, looking around at the port town with intrigue, seeing a multitude of species running around and none trying to kill the other, seeing as how this little section of the Pony lands wasn’t connected to the main kingdoms, meaning they truly were forced to work together to survive.

Don’t get me wrong. They weren’t on good terms by any extent, but at least they weren’t throwing racial slurs around like they were going out of style. They seemed to mostly just ignore each other while keeping their conversations short and to the point, all business and nothing else.

At least they didn’t have rallies like the griffons back in the days of the Shiba, or their god queen as she liked to be called. Now that was an interesting twenty years, especially when she actually tried to summon me so she could attempt to kill me and take her “rightful place” as the ruler of the universe, stupid twat.

Let me tell you though, this little port town was a testament of what the ponies can achieve when they were together, albeit reluctantly. It was far smaller than Iram, but the architecture put the sand city to shame, what with their actually being building that still had paint on them, as well as a multitude of wares around the markets that were actually priced at a reasonable amount. Heck, I got a few free samples from the food vendors just by letting their foals, who were there to assisting with sales and advertisement, get a good look at me. One even offered me a mango.

Yes, the rumors of Thestral’s and mangos were very true, and I probably fueled a few stereotypes while I was there.

Aside from that though, it was nothing like Zebrica, that’s for sure. No one looked at me with suspicion or hatred, no that was reserved strictly for the other pony subspecies but not towards the other creatures walking around, still progress.

Now I can only hope I can find a hotel here at as good a price as before, might even indulge in one of my rarely practiced pleasures.

And yes, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

Chapter 8

You know, I always paid a bit more attention to the ponies then I did any other race. They were the offspring of my very first creation; they tended to be a bit more interesting when compared to all the others, and even after thousands of years of watching them they still confuse me.

They are the only race that somehow still manages to function when one entire subspecies hates the other two, and vise-versa. Sure they don’t have it great, what with the constant increase and decline in their economy every fifty or so years, but they still somehow manage to keep it together.

The Griffons and Minotaur’s run on clan systems that constantly fight one another for territory or political standing and the Zebra seem to go through national leaders like drunkards go through ale at a free bar night. Don’t even get me started on the others, what with the Thestral’s ignoring everyone and the Yaks threatening war with anyone they meet. The only ones I can’t figure out are the Changelings, but that’s just because it takes too much time and energy to find the little buggers.

That being said, they were still quite annoying to watch. Even at a port town so far from the three capitals of the pony lands, there being three because they weren’t united enough to actually agree to a united capital, there was plenty of hate to go around. Like I said before, they weren’t holding rallies, but they were probably one cross comment away from coming to blows.

That’s why the usual cheer of a tavern at night was basically non-existent, meaning I was forced to listen to hushed whispers and glares shared between all of the patrons, which is why I couldn’t actually enjoy myself at said tavern, deciding to instead go to the beach and meditate under the moonlight.

It was actually quite peaceful, save for the occasional pony walking by and promptly screaming when they saw my now glowing eyes watching them go by. This went on for several hours, the screaming of the ponies attracting even more ponies, which caused even more screaming, and so on. Course there were a few who didn’t scream, choosing to take a single look at me and turn to either intrigue or immediate hostility, but neither of them actually acting on their instincts and eventually going on their way.

Of course though, when there are many individuals in the same place, there are outliers, meaning one of them actually did bother to act on this. This individual stuck around when others had long ago went on their way, choosing to sit at a comfortable distance while keeping their eyes on me, barely even flinching when my eyes met theirs. After our little stare off, I decided to let them be, going back to my meditations while keeping one ear trained on them at all times.

This is how we stayed for a little over an hour, neither of us moving the entire time until I let a small smirk show, looking over at the pony with a single opened eye.

“Most would have left after at least thirty minutes, much less stayed and kept silent for over an hour. I must admit, you have my attention.” I told them, watching them flinch ever so slightly before shaking their head and rising to her hooves, walking out from the shadows of the palm trees and into the moonlight, revealing their form to my eyes.

Her fur as white as snow itself, mane as pink as tulips, but her eyes were what caught my attention the most. One was a light cyan, reminding me of a clear pool of water, not yet tainted by mortals while the other was the same shade as her mane, and both held that spark of curiosity in them.

“I am nothing if not patient.” She started, sitting down next to me and looking back to the moon. “After all, impatience is most unbecoming of somepony of my profession.”

Oh dear, that’s something I wasn’t going to get used to. These ponies were weird in many regards, including their language. Seriously, I saw a map of the pony lands and promptly burned the map to the point where there weren’t even ashes left.

So...many...puns.

“What profession is that, if you don’t mind me asking?” I asked more out of courtesy than actual curiosity, having already taken a good guess of her talent from her flank mark, a magnifying glass over a shimmering star.

“I am a scholar that focuses on the study and application of magic.” She stated, pride clear in her tone.

‘Called it.’

“Yet you choose to spend over an hour with a being believed to not have magic unlike Pegasi, and another species at that...not counting the two hours you watched me in the tavern.” I said with a chuckle, making the mare blush and rub her leg with a hoof.

“Sorry, it’s just that, you’re the first Thestral I’ve ever seen outside of books and the occasional painting in the library back at the capital.” I raised a brow and tilted my head slightly.

“The capital, you mean Olympus?” Now her head was the one to tilt. “That was the original name of the mountain your capital is situated on; I think you ponies call it The White City now or something like that”

“You mean the Gleaming City.”

“...Should have just kept Olympus” I muttered and turned back to the moon, focusing on that giant rock in the sky. “But it definitely could have been a worse name.”

“Agreed” she replied with a nod, “But how do you know about the mountain, most Equestrians don’t even know the name of the Unicorn Capital, much less the mountain its situated on.”

“I didn’t know your capital name, but I do know that mount Olympus was where the first Alicorn was conceived by Spring and Bor, which led to it being blessed by Primus as a holy site.”

True story, but Spring and my son Bor practically begged me not to strike down the ponies when they decided to build a city on the mountain, meaning there was now a capital sitting on the birth place of my first grandchild.

The things I did for those kids.

Her eyes widened at my response, a grin growing on her muzzle.

“You know of the story of Mythic?” she asked, an air of excitement in her tone. I nodded and let out a small breath, watching the vapor cloud into the chill of the night.

“Yes, better than most if you could believe it. I’ve read the story and the legend you ponies put behind it and I remember laughing my ass off about it.” I chuckled. It was little more than one hundred years ago when I read it, and since then nothing has been discovered and nothing has changed.

Seriously, they made the kid out to be some kind of legend that went around slaying demons and sleeping with every mare in existence, even his own mother, I mean what the hell. At best the kid was a disappointment that accomplished absolutely nothing and laid around all day while making sure the wife I created him kept popping out foals like a Pez dispenser. The only reason I even created a wife for him in the first place was literally just to keep the species growing, and honestly she was not happy with me.

I know it’s bad to talk about your grandchild in such a way, but I actually had nothing good to say about him.

“What was wrong with it, the story of Mythic is an inspiration and something all unicorns should study, everypony should want to be like him.” She replied; confused about how I could call their historians wrong.

“I won’t tell; it’s important for you ponies to keep your delusions.”

“But why?”

“Because it amuses me.” I watched her eye twitch ever so slightly, and proceeded to pat her head with a hoof, to which she responded by swatting my hoof away and giving me a seemingly well practiced glare.

“Not funny Mr...whatever your name is.”

“My apologies, it would seem that in our excitement of meeting one another, we failed to introduce ourselves.” I started, getting to my hooves and giving the mare a small bow. “My name is Ash, no more, no less.”

“I am Mystic Dawn, heir of the Dawn family fortune and lead researcher in the Gleaming City Institute of Technology and Magic.”

…One hell of an introduction Miss Over-achiever.

“Impressive, not something you would go around advertising, but who am I to say.” I told her with a shrug.

“One must have pride in their lineage.”

“One must not also label themselves as a tempting target for kidnapping.” I stated, sitting back in the sand and returning my sight to the moon. “How much do you think a noble mare with ties to a prodigious university would go for these days, couple thousand?”

“I have no fear of bandits or raiders stealing me away, my personal guard would drive them off long before I even knew they were there.” She replied with a huff and a nod. I simply looked back to her, then behind her, then all around.

Not a being in sight.

“Did the unicorns create an invisibility spell while I wasn’t looking?”

“What are you talking about; he is right...over...”

Five seconds to let her brain catch up...and there’s the panic. It was quite impressive as well, going from just fine and dandy to chicken with its head cut off in less than ten seconds. Her head turned this way and that at a speed that should have given her whiplash, her breath picking up and her pupils shrinking to pinpricks.

Seems she knows the dangers of traveling alone in Equestria.

That’s when her attitude did a complete one-eighty and her panic was replaced by a look that is the picture of calm and collected. “Well now, it would seem I’m out here tonight with no protection.”

“So it would seem.” I agreed; giving her a small smirk and watching the redness dust her cheeks. She fidgeted a little before letting out a sigh.

“Would you please escort me back to the inn, I fear walking back on my own.” So now she has fear huh, can’t really blame her. I wouldn’t walk through this city on my own if I wasn’t god himself. Not because of the crime mind you, having long since learned that the bay city had a superiorly lower crime rate when compared to Iram, despite being one of the towns that allowed intermingling of the races.

“Sure, got nothing else to do” I answered with a shrug of my wings, earning an appreciative smile from the alabaster mare. “Now come on, I could use a pint.”

“By your lead.”

“So tell me, what is it that you study back at the Capital?” I asked my new drinking companion, taking another swig of my ale while Mystic swirled her wine in her magical grip before taking a small sip of her own.

Thankfully the inn had a twenty four hour full liquor bar for reasons I didn’t quite understand, but was not at all complaining about. The mare was far to stressed and needed something to take the edge off, even if the wine was one of the weakest ones on the menu.

“Anything and everything.” She replied, setting her glass to the side and relaxing in her chair. “I mostly specialize in life magic, but have dabbled in the more basic and lesser known fields.”

“So a jack of all trades researcher, that must be fun.”

“Oh Primus no” she giggled.

Still getting used to hearing my name like that.

“Over a dozen unicorn researchers arguing with one another while the scribes and interns sit in the background and read their research journals, wondering how long it will take for at least one of them to run out of air.”

Yeah, that sounds about right. Researchers were the same across all species it would seem, never agreeing with one another and/or constantly doing all that they can to undermine or disprove the others theories. In fact it seemed to be the same for all researchers, no matter the field, even the historians.

Trust me I’ve read my own bible, almost none of its right.

“Ah yes, one of the few traits that all species will always share.” I chuckled, raising my now empty mug, then frowning and looking into it with a single eye.

“Indeed, but I believe it’s all worth it in the long run, especially when I find something that can completely change our very understanding of magic. Did you know that just last week, one of the head researchers was actually able to open a small portal to the past?!”

My ear twitched.

“We were actually able to catch a glimpse of the creation of the planet itself.”

My eye twitched.

“If we apply just a bit more magic into the spell, we could possibly even unlock the secrets to time travel!”

“Burn the research and kill the researcher” was my immediate response, quite a bit more tame than my original plan would have been, but we don’t need the mortals to figure things out too quickly. I was actually quite impressed with myself, seeing as how I wasn’t currently teleporting to the institute and wiping it off the face of the planet while screaming obscenities for the entire world to hear, literally.

Why was I so angry you might ask, well its actually quite simple. You see, about five thousand years ago before I was finished creating the planet, I felt a small energy disturbance. It was miniscule at best and irrelevant at worst, but I could never figure out what it was because it had appeared and disappeared in literally a fraction of a second.

Now most normal people would have ignored it and moved on...we have already established that I’m not a normal person. I actually spent at least five years before giving up on finding it, and the answer to the thing that’s been bugging me for millennia was just thrown in front of me.

Talk about unsatisfying.

“Are you crazy?! It could advance our understanding of history by centuries and could even let us recover spells lost or destroyed by time.”

“You could also destroy the entire space-time continuum by fucking with something you shouldn’t be.”

“That’s why were studying it so thoroughly before running trials. Were making sure we completely understand the spells before attempting to recreate the scenario.”

Is she for real, I’m serious, is she actually trying to justify messing with the time stream.

“It’s time travel, there is no understanding it, and it’s not something you can just play with. You are messing with one of the fundamental laws of the universe that mortals weren’t meant to fuck with.”

Now she’s looking at me like I’m crazy. Look at me all you want woman, I set those blockers up for a reason and there is no way in hell I’m letting you figure out how to break them. And seeing as how I haven’t seen any of the idiots that call this planet home anywhere in the early stages of the creation, I think I did my job pretty damn well.

Mystic was now thoroughly annoyed with me, if that look in her eye was any indication, and decided to cut that conversation off before it got too far off the ground.

“Be that as it may, it is not my place to tell the headmistress what should or should not be researched.” She huffed, crossing her forelegs and throwing her head to the side with her eyes now closed. “Besides, you would need the support of a third of the research committee and support by either the board of education of Queen Platinum herself.”

Oh just lovely. Knowing those educated idiots, they thought the possible destruction of the universe was a small price to pay to find something that could amount to a child’s research paper. They’ll certainly never find something worthwhile in the process, trust me; Equestrian history is actually pretty boring. At one point I actually thought I might throw these little equines a curveball and maybe start a plague or something.

It’d be a good way of culling the herd.

In the end, I just said screw it and watched them all go about their daily lives until it turned into a reality television show, small bits of comedy that might be good for a chuckle, but mostly just turned on for the background noise. Better than the uncaring void of the ethereal realm, even if by only a little.

“Well then, I’ll go about my life and pray to God I don’t wake up dead because you lot made the world go poof.” I sighed, downing the rest of this piss poor excuse for ale, my good mood now gone. “So, where’s that guard of yours anyway? I thought they would have found you by now.”

“He’s most likely asleep, he had a long day yesterday; he was practically dead on his hooves when we arrived.”

“Understandable, guarding can be hard work, but I can respect a stallion that’s willing to work for a living.” I said with a nod, leaning a hair closer to her and resting my chin on a hoof. “I’ll be sure to-”

“DEMON!”

Just like that, there was a war axe where my head used to be. I blinked in mild surprise before shooting into the air, barely avoiding being tackled by a light grey stallion that basically tore though the table and chair like they were made of straw.

I blinked again and he was back on his hooves and already prying the axe from the wall, making the sound of metal grinding against stone assault my ears, making me cringe.

Super hearing is a blessing and a curse it seems.

“Do not move Lady Dawn, we shall destroy the demon!” he bellowed, reeling back and throwing the axe again. His aim was actually pretty decent, would have definitely hit me from the air was I anyone else.

“Well, that escalated quickly.” I hummed, dipping away from the flying chair that followed soon after the axe.

“Silence, son of Seth!”

Now he had my attention. Seth, the false prophet of the night, and the single most hated Thestral in the history of Equss. He went about killing thousands in the name of the Nightmare, a demon that fed off the pain and suffering of everyone on the planet. Thankfully Seth and the Nightmare were dealt with by a band of merry knights calling themselves the Knights of the First.

See, not all crusades are bad.

Unfortunately, they weren’t exactly in the best shape afterwards and were forced to disband, or at least I thought they did. From the way this boys screaming and yelling, I guess the ancestors of those soldiers either kept the thing running in secret, or split off into smaller cells.

He also must not think that over two hundred years have passed since that little incident.

“Silver Shield, calm yourself!” Dawn shouted, attempting to pry the table from his magical grip and causing it to veer off course and slam into the bar counter, thankfully missing the drinks.

“Do not interfere my lady, we will not let this demon control you any longer.”

...What?

“We do not know how he has gained your trust, but you must stay away from him at all costs.”

I rolled my eyes and dropped back down from the rafters, watching the armored unicorn charge at me and raising a hoof to block the one now inches from my face. His surprise was short lived as he quickly tried charging up a spell, but instantly shouted in pain after I smacked his horn with my other hoof. Sweeping his legs from under him, I sent him kneeling while holding tightly onto his fetlock.

“Gotta say, been a long time since I met a member of the First Order.” I chuckled; tightening my grip and making him cringe in obvious discomfort. “Can’t say I’m impressed.”

“Say what you will demon, at least we have our honor.”

Oh for the love of, this guy was an idiot.

“You are aware that there were Thestral’s in the original order, correct?” I asked, watching him grit his teeth, but raising his head to look me in the eye.

“Lies, the order would never accept one of the night clan into their ranks.”

“Counter-point, the order is dead.”

“You cannot kill that which is blessed by God!”

“Wanna bet?”

“ENOUGH!” I heard Dawn shout, then felt something smack the hoof holding the stallion in place. I looked over at the mare with a single brow raised, meeting her glare with little concern.

“Release him, now!”She commanded, receiving a long moment of silence before I just shrugged and let him go, watching him back away from me while nursing his sore fetlock. Mystic moved to help him, but he held up his uninjured hoof to halt her while keeping his glare locked on me.

“Sanctum erit tibi Dominus in flamma daemonium.” (God will cast you into the holy flames demon) He growled, earning a glare of his own from the now irate mare and a smirk from me.

“Doubtful” I stated, retaking my seat and pulling my whiskey out of my saddlebag while Mystic tended to her companion, who I guess was supposed to be her bodyguard. I leaned back and watched the two quietly talking to one another, taking a swig every so often while watching the stallion cower down from a mare half his size that was obviously quite pissed off with him. Even the bartender came over to get in on the tongue lashing after walking out and seeing his tables and chairs either across the room or in pieces.

Eventually the two let Silver Shield slink off with his tail between his legs while Mystic gave the brown colt a hoofful of coins before making her way towards me with a sheepish smile on her muzzle.

“I’m so sorry about that Ash, I had no idea Silver had such an extreme prejudice against Thestral’s.” she apologized for the stallion, tentatively taking a seat and crossing her hooves on the table. I shrugged and took another sip of whiskey.

“No issue, just wish I knew your bodyguard was a Knight of the First Order.” I watched her head tilt in confusion. I stared at her for a moment before snorting and downing the rest of my drink. “Of course he never told you.”

“What are you talking about?”

I didn’t answer, just sliding the empty bottle away from me before getting back up and flexing my wings.

“Ask Silver, I’m done for the night.” I told her, making my way up the stairs, eager to do a little research into the Order remnants and possibly a little trip to the Gleaming City.

Maybe I won’t cause too much chaos......oh who am I kidding, it’s me.

Chapter 10

Gotta say, the last week with these two has been, without a shadow of a doubt, one of the most boring weeks I have ever truly experienced. I expected more than just questions from Mystic, even the occasional death stare from knight in shining tinfoil, but I guess that was too much to ask.

The second day on the trip was filled with beautiful scenery and the sweet silence of the open road.

“So is it true Thestral’s eat insects?”

“Everyone does, you just don’t know it.”

“Is your species nocturnal?”

“Yes.”

“Are certain members of your species immortal?”

“Only if they contracted Vampirism, but the dark disease died out nearly five hundred years ago.”

And by silence I mean questions flying left and right from our resident smart pony, a notebook and quill floating alongside her as we walked with Silver only a few feet behind us, no doubt keeping his eye out for any dark magic’s or what have you.

Least he didn’t try and kill me in my sleep, but that’s probably just because he didn’t want to upset his boss.

This carried on into the second day, then the third. The fourth was actually quite interesting because we saw a squirrel.

This is why I never liked open world games.

You could never really tell where you were either, what with the land of Equestria being built specifically for ponies, meaning it was miles upon miles of plains and forests with the occasional mountain range near the middle. This rendered the map basically useless because ponies suck at cartography even when there were landmarks.

It wasn’t until the eighth day on the road that the mountain the Unicorn Capital was situated on came into view, the sprawling city of Olympus, or I guess it’s called the Gleaming city now, sitting on the wide tip of the spire.

“We should be coming up to the base of the mountain early in the morning.” Mystic shouted, her eyes trained on me as I lazily flew circles around the pair. I hummed and trained my eyes on the city, looking across the city and lingering on the larger and more important looking buildings.

“Think they’ll let me in without a fuss?” I shouted back, watching a few carts go back and forth from the main gate.

“Doubtful, the order would never let in a son of the dark spawn.” Silver retorted, making it the very first thing he’s actually said we started this trip. I chuckled and looked down at him with a half smirk.

“Doubt they’d even be able to stop me, even if they tried.” I muttered before closing my wings and falling to the ground, landing right next to the silver stallion, much to his obvious displeasure. “Besides, I’m sure my natural charisma will have them eating out of my hooves.”

The stallion simply snorted before he pulled ahead, leaving me alone with the academic again, and I could already hear the quill on paper.

“You know what, you two can keep walking, think I’m going to fly the rest of the way there.” I stated quickly and shot into the air, eager to escape from the inane questioning on the most mundane aspects of Thestral life.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy her company, especially when she focused on her questions about history, but that girl was question after question for the entire week.

I was impressed she could actually keep the questions pumping out.

Still though, I did like a chance to rest my voice, haven’t used it much for a good few centuries after all. Plus I’d like to get there sooner rather than later because I get bored far too easily.

“Don’t take too long, I might get lonely!” I shouted, flapping my wings and shooting forward towards the city.

“Halt stranger, what business do you have in the city?” I could feel the horns pointed at me before I even got within shouting distance of the gate. Most would have seen this as a bad sign, but I was just glad I wasn’t dealing with magic blasts yet.

I said nothing, still a good distance from the gate; they didn’t like that, a warning shot attested to that. I stopped real quick after that, didn’t want to cause a race war on my first day.

“I will ask again bat, what business do you have in the Capital?” The same guard asked, his spear leaning down to point towards me.

“Relax, just wanted to explore the city.” I told him, flapping my wing and knocking off the dirt the blast knocked up. He huffed and looked to his partner, gesturing with his head for the guard to go towards me.

“I need to see you passport please.” The colt said, holding out a hoof towards me. I just raised a brow before shrugging and reaching into my bag and pulling out a fake passport, enchanted to be plenty authentic in his eyes.

“Any reason you need a passport to enter a city that likely receives plenty of hoof traffic?” I asked, retrieving the pass after he confirmed he thought it was genuine.

“Don’t rightly know sir, all I know is that the queen wanted the city on lockdown ever since the Princesses birthday.” He answered with a shrug, “You would need to talk to the captain for any more details.”

“Any idea where I can find the captain?” I got a headshake in response.

“I’m just a rookie sir, they don’t tell me anything yet.”

“Fair enough, have a pleasant day.”

“You as well sir.” With that, he turned around and resumed his position at the gate while the pressure of several spells left the air. I didn’t receive much more trouble after that, not that I had any reason to since Equestrians were actually pretty tolerant of other species as long as they weren’t of the tribes.

‘Still easier than I thought it would be’ I told myself, traveling down the cobblestone road towards the main road, several houses lining the streets with plenty of Unicorns going about their day. Kind of strange to see all of the ponies out and about during a lockdown, but not out of the ordinary, after all, have to work if you want to eat.

I continued down the road, watching the locals and guards mill about, giving me the occasional glance, but more or less ignoring me while shopkeepers advertized their wares, a jeweler and a slightly disheveled mare argued over the price of a necklace, and a small herd of foals ran down the road, chasing a small ball.

All in all, it seemed to be business as usual for the city, making me wonder just what could have happened to get the local royalty scared.

“Okay, now I need to find the research institute.” And see what else the mortals have been up to, don’t trust they’d keep themselves to trying to mess with the space-time continuum. For all I knew, they were researching black magic to try and get a leg up on the other tribes...again.

‘God knows what happened last time.’ I thought with a small chuckle, looking up and taking a breath, tasting the smell of flowers and baked goods in the air, alongside the heat of a forge and the pounding of a hammer from the blacksmith.

That’s when my ears perked, hearing a faint background noise slowly getting louder the closer I got to the town square.

Then I smelled the smoke.

“Please, for the love of me, don’t let this be another rally.” I sighed and sped up, now noticing the smoke on the horizon.

Knowing the way these ponies worked, it was likely going to be a repeat of the fire worshippers back in the Minotaur country, back when they burned the widows of their warriors as sacrifice to their Queen.

A plague put a stop to that real quick.

Course it also made their entire country collapse but you can’t really blame the disease for that one, was actually the fault of the civil war that followed after the little power vacuum I left.

They’ll recover though...maybe.

Anyway, now the smell of smoke was almost overpowering as I walked from the street and into a wide open courtyard, seeing a small crowd of ponies shouting as one, showing the most unity I have seen from the pony race.

“What the bloody hell.” I muttered, looking around at the burning pyres surrounding the circle, alongside a small podium in the middle, where a hooded pony was standing to the side while a Unicorn guard stood by the front with a small scroll in his magic.

That was probably the captain of the guard here, seeing as how his armor was actually made out of steel instead of bronze like the others that walked the streets.

“To all citizens of the illustrious capital of the true pony race” he started while I flew up onto a nearby wall to get a better view. “We have gathered here today to render punishment upon the one known as Lilith Amsel.”

He raised a hoof towards the black furred Pegasus pony currently chained to the floor of the podium, a burlap sack covering her face and a strap literally locked around her wings.

‘Oh this ought to be interesting.’

“The charges listed here are long, and all are quite severe, but they all pale in comparison to the attempted regicide of our beloved Princess, Princess Platinum the third.”

That set the crowd off, their taunts and jeers escalating as my brow raised while I watched the guard move over and yank the sack from the mare’s head, revealing her soft green eyes to her adoring audience, her face the very definition of stoic.

Even as hundreds of insults sailed her way, along with a piece of fruit or two, she remained silent and unmoving.

“Lilith Amsel, for charges of attempted regicide, as well as a dozen additional crimes that I will not bother to list; you are sentenced to death by hanging!” He shouted, quick and to the point. “Your sentence shall be carried out at dawn tomorrow, until that time; you shall remain here so that all may see you and the results of your failure.”

And just like that, he was off, making his way past the hooded pony who took one last look at the captive before following. The only ones left were two guards who kept the crowd from exacting their own form of justice, not for lack of trying of course.

“Well, this just got interesting” I whispered, tilting my head in curiosity before settling in to watch the ponies come and go throughout the market, watching the accused mare stand stoic through the insults, never once breaking her posture, even after getting hit in the face by a rotten apple.

For hours she stood there, not moving, barely blinking, and never uttering a single word.

‘Pegasus Special Forces, only possibility.’

No Pegasus other than the Bolt Strikers could remain this stoic under this amount of pressure. They were specifically trained since birth to be the best the sub-species had to offer.

This begs the question though, what were Pegasus Special Forces doing in the Unicorn capital?

There was no way the flyers would risk a civil war with the ones controlling the sun and moon, and there’s not a Pegasus alive that would attempt regicide outside of direct battle, their honor wouldn’t allow it.

This required investigating, which is what led to me meditating on this post till the sun had set, waiting for the crowds thin out until the witching hour had hit, leaving the streets mostly empty, save for the glow the guards torches as they patrolled the streets.

My eyes focused on the two guards as they stood there, one leaning on his spear, obviously already asleep, and the other struggling not to follow his partner into the dream realm.

“Pathetic.” I sighed, waiting for the patrol to exit the main square before slipping into the shadows and sneaking my way towards the podium, watching both the guards and the still standing mare. My hooves silent in my approach before the guard still awake was suddenly yanked under the podium, which for some reason had sheets hiding the bottom from view.

The mares head snapped towards that direction before she looked to the other guard, but saw that he was already gone.

“What in Primus’ name?” she whispered watching the torches go out and plunging the square into darkness, save for two glowing yellow eyes staring directly at her.

“Well hello there” I said with a grin, my fangs on full display.

Then she screamed.

“By the maker you got some lungs on you girl.” I chuckled, placing her still restrained form beside one of the raised podiums dotting the roof I now found myself at. “You didn’t so much as flinch for nearly six hours and you scream right when I show up.”

“Well I apologize, I wasn’t expecting a bat pony of all things to show up and drag me off to parts unknown.”

“Would you have preferred to hang?” I asked, smashing the lock of her chains, not eliciting even a flinch from the mare that just witnessed me smash pure steel.

She rolled her eyes and wiggled out of her binding, ripping off the rope and stretching her wings to their fullest, letting out a few pops and a relieved sigh.

“Whatever, I guess I owe you one huh?”

“I would say so” I nodded, walking to the side and looking back at the square. “You can start by explaining what Pegasi Special Forces are doing in the Unicorn capital.”

“What?” She asked in what sounded like genuine confusion. “What are you talking about?”

“Don’t play dumb with me child.” I turned back to her with narrowed eyes. “You have the look of a soldier, and not a regular hoofpony either, if the way you were standing during that little mob meeting back there was any indication, and we both know that no regular Pegasi would have any reason to be anywhere within a ten mile radius of this mountain.”

“So I will ask again, what are you doing here?” She didn’t answer me after that, her eyes shifting left to right until they focused on me.

And then her hoof flew at me.

“Motherfucker!” I yelled and threw my hoof back at her, launching her into the pillar while nursing my now throbbing eye. “My one freaking weak point, son of a whore!”

Definitely confirmed, I can very much feel pain, and I apparently left my eye out of the upgrade list. How in the hell do I manage to forget the freaking things, they only take up about half my face.

“I’ll fix it later” I growled and turned back the mare, watching her struggling to get back onto her hooves with her wing hanging limply on the ground beside her. I growled again and grabbed her by the neck, picking her up and pinning her against the wall, making sure those hooves didn’t find any other weak points I might have forgotten about.

“You got five seconds, start talking!”

“Go plow yourself.” She coughed, staring me directly in my good eye with a look of pure determination. I snorted and smashed her into the pillar again, seeing a few cracks forming from the impact.

“Your very presence here gives the Unicorns grounds for starting a war, and I highly doubt any of your leaders want one when the three tribes are so reliant on each other, so your either a rogue agent or the commander or your little faction has gone full fanatical, which is it?”

“Lieutenant Lilith Amsel one one seven ni-”

“You’re not a POW, quit with that rank and file shit.”

“Fine then, sod off”

“Just answer me you stupid mare, why are you here and why are they charging you with attempted regicide?”

“Cause their speciest flankholes that tried to kill me for doing my job” she shouted, making my ears perk up for any attention that may have drawn. Hearing nothing, I returned my attention to the panting mare.

“And your job was?”

“Courier.” Now she had my attention, not often you get highly trained soldiers delivering your mail.

“Bolt Striker I presume?”

“Retired.”

I nodded and released her, taking a few steps back while she regained her balance, her right foreleg never touching the floor and her left wings still hanging loosely to her side. I sighed and closed in on her again; taking her wing in my hooves before she could react and popping it back into its socket, covering her mouth to silence the scream of pain she released.

“By Primus, the buck is wrong with you?” she growled, stepping away from me and slowly flexing her wing. I shrugged and sat back down, pulling a bottle of decent rum from my saddlebag and offering it to her.

“Here it’ll ease the pain.” She stared at the bottle for a moment before snorting and turning her head away from it. I rolled my eyes and took a swig before returning it to its place. “Whatever, now start explaining to me how you got a regicide charge put on your head.”

“Simple, politics at its finest.” She sighed with a shake of her head. “Somepony attempts to kill the Princess and I just so happened to be in the city at the time.”

“Because no loyal Unicorn citizen would ever attempt to kill the daughter of their beloved leader.”

“Exactly, so that’s why they instantly jumped that conclusion and slapped the chains on me without a shred of evidence.”

Yeah, ponies do tend to do that, part of the herd mentality. Get a group of them together and make one believe the sky is green, and every single one of them will eventually believe the same thing.

From the sound of things, someone else knew that to, so they likely waited for the opportunity to kill a member of the royal family and start a war that’s decades in the making. Worse thing is that she didn’t have any evidence to back her story up, and I would still take her word over Platinum’s.

“Well shit, I wanna say I feel bad about threatening you know, but you did kind of sock me in the eye.”

“Sorry, I’m still not thinking straight, haven’t slept for the last few hours and its starting to get to me.” I nodded and turned away and looked back to the square again, having noticed a sudden increase in lighting.

“Looks like your new friends know you escaped now.” I chuckled, looking back to see she was already gone, making me laugh more. “Should have called you lot the Shadow Bolts, always did have a knack for pulling that ninja vanish crap.”

My smile vanished almost instantly afterwards, hearing the guards shouting orders to their ponies.

“If the city wasn’t on lockdown before, it sure as hell is now.” I muttered and watched them run out of the square and down the streets to start their sweep. “Seems to me that things just got a lot more interesting.”

Chapter 11

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Chapter 12

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Chapter 9

“So let me get this straight.” I started, pinching the bridge of my snout with a hoof.

Don’t ask me how without fingers; just think happy thoughts till the question goes away.

“You want me, a stallion you have known for literally less than a day, to come with you to the Gleaming City because you want to, what, study me?” Mystic smiled sheepishly in reply while her body guard stared at me from his spot mere inches behind her.

I stared at her for a solid minute before sighing and walking out of the inn, deciding that it was way too early in the morning to deal with this shit. I may be immortal, but even the creator needs his beauty sleep.

“Fine, whatever, was heading there anyway so I could rip a researcher a new one.” That’s when I rounded on her and held a hoof towards the brick house called Silver Shield. “But if he starts anything, he’s going to be getting there a hell of a lot faster than the both of us.”

He just growled in response, quiet a sound to hear coming from a pony.

“Silver.” The mare warned, making the big guy shut up real quick under her glare, before turning to me with a smile on her muzzle. “Not to worry my new companion, Sir Shield will be the epitome of honor and courtesy won’t you Sir Shield?”

The boy grumbled, muttering a few choice words under his breath.

“Speak up boy, got something to say, say it.” I told him. A smirk now plastered on my face. He growled again and hefted his silver battle axe over his shoulder, reflecting the sunlight off it as well as his armor, which was silver as well.

Why oh why am I not surprised?

“Silence your tongue you impertinent foal, or we will remove it from thine muzzle.” He threatened, voice low and eyes sharp.

“Didn’t you already try that once?” I chuckled, flexing my wings and turning back around to resume my walk. “Freaking Knights Templar, thought the last of you lot were killed back in the purges.”

Turns out that size does not always equal speed, because Silver was nearly two heads taller than me, yet he was able to fix that axe under my neck almost as soon as I finished that statement.

“We said silence!” he growled again, pushing the edge into my throat. I just sighed and grabbed the handle before twisting it around and punting him away with a one hoofed buck, sending him crashing into a pile of wooden crates.

“As I said before, I’m not afraid to make you the first unicorn to achieve flight.”

Freaking holy knights, they always had a stubborn streak about them, never learning when to just call it quits when they constantly fail to complete their objective. Sure it kept them going back when they were fighting actual demons, knowing that hell-spawn didn’t need to rest like they did, meaning that battles were normally drawn out till the last of the darkness was purged.

Sadly, it seems that this mind-set remained the same over the years, meaning that Silver Shield would likely never let go of his prejudice towards Thestral’s, despite the fact that he most likely has never faced one in battle. I couldn’t just get rid of him though, not without starting a full on race war in the process, or at least having a bounty put on my head.

After all, I learned that I was very much wrong about the First Order.

As it turns out, they only part timed as demon hunters now, the rest of their job was to guard the rulers of the pony kingdoms, or would it be queendoms since all of their rulers were female.

Semantics aside, that’s one hell of a promotion. I had to ask myself how I missed something like that, might have even answered the question of why the ponies were the first ones to basically ignore their ancestral mother and father and focus on me alone.

That’s when I felt a hoof lightly tap me on the nose, bringing me back from my musing and having me focus on a lightly frowning Mystic and Silver, who had a much deeper frown.

“Sir Ash, are you even listening?” she asked, poking me once more for good measure.

“Nope, what’s up?” She just pointed at the axe, which was still held tightly in my fetlock. I hummed before shrugging and tossing it towards him, watching him catch it before throwing it across his back and hearing its holds click into place.

He huffed and limped forward, favoring his left side while Mystic watched him with concerned eyes. I huffed and followed after him, keeping my distance and hearing the clip clop of Mystic hurriedly following.

“I’m so sorry again Sir Ash, Silver is usually never like this. He has always been so calm and collected.” She said with a sigh, staring at the leading stallion. I just shrugged and trotted on, honestly just ready to get this over with.

Not that I don’t enjoy the company of an actual person after spending the last few millennia with nothing more than my thoughts and one way communication, but I had kind of gotten used to the solitude, what with the last actual conversation I had was with Spring before her and my other children ascended into paradise.

Sometimes I wish I had followed them.

I will say that a knight of the First Order was definitely a lesser of two evils. At least they praise me instead of proclaiming me as a false god like the children of Borreal, which was a cult created by someone I actually bothered to contact for fun.

It wasn’t much, just a small glimpse of a future war that could have been prevented if they bothered to pay attention to the details. But I tended to overestimate mortal intelligence and I was reminded why I never liked giving them advice.

Turns out, not even three days later, he started studying dark magic to try and prevent the war from ever becoming a thought, but he forgot the most important rule of dark magic.

You don’t fuck with dark magic.

He ended up becoming the very first being to ever succumb to the dark arts without the aid of a demon, eventually starting his own war that, while thankfully less devastating than the original one, still killed hundreds and ended with the birth of the Cult of Borreal, named after the unicorn himself.

“Sir Ash, are you alright?” My ear twitched before my eyes turned to regard my companion, sending a questioning look her way. “You seem distracted.”

I shook my head offered her a small humorless laugh. “It is nothing, merely letting my thoughts wander?” I smiled, grabbing my whiskey from my saddlebag and taking a larger than normal swig.

“That cannot be healthy.”

“It isn’t, but it helps ease the pain some of my past actions left me with.” This wasn’t a total lie, the metric shit-ton of alcohol in this one bottle won’t get me buzzed, but it helps remind me of my daughters when they were still young and stupid.

Those were simpler times.

She gave me an understanding nod and leaned into me a little, the equine version of a hug on the move. I gave her an appreciative nod and nudged her with a wing, hearing a small growl from ahead, meaning our goodly knight was still paying attention.

“That’s enough depressing thoughts though; we need to focus on the road ahead.” I pulled out another map, mentally stabilizing myself so I wouldn’t burn this one, and let my eyes wander across the page. “On hoof, the trip should take about a week...at least I could, but the two you would probably add about three days.”

“Art thou nsinuating we would be unable to keep up?” I heard Silver growl, he seems to do that a lot, while twisting around to glare at me. I walked up to him and snorted before flicking his nose with a wing and walking by him.

“No amount of training on the planet could put you at my level colt.” I heard the axe clips come undone before dainty clip clops and hushed whispers made them click back into place, making my smile grow.

Poor boy was whipped

Their quiet conversation continued, my mind selectively tuning them out while letting my thoughts wander again. Not about anything important, but Silver’s speech reminded me to check on my translator later. It’s worked fine so far, so it either didn’t register for him, or he laid it on so thick it literally just said screw it and tried its best. I’d worry about it later, right now I need to figure out if I should actually stay with these two or ditch them overnight.

Wouldn’t feel much guilt and I would get there a hell of a lot quicker, but that means I had to talk my way into the research department of several racist unicorns and find a very specific researcher, not that difficult but more work than I would like.

At the same time though, I could get Mystic to take me directly there and point out said researcher, all while possibly getting me an audience with either the research committee or the board of education.

Hell, I’ll get an audience with the Queen herself if I have to; it’s one of my freaking thrones after all.

In order to do any of this though, I guess I have to stick around with these two...joy.

“Come on you two, I want to be out of sight of this city before nightfall.” I shouted, noticing them falling slightly behind already. Their ears perked and Mystic said one last thing to her guard before moving to catch up, leaving the stallions eye twitching but following his boss’s lead.

Yeah, I started regretting letting these two follow me less than two hours into the trip, not in the way I had imagined though. Silver was actually okay as a traveling companion, nice and quiet while only sending me a death glare every other five minutes. It was annoying, but at least he didn’t stop us every ten minutes to study a new species of flower on the side of the road like our lovely little Dawn did.

It was amusing at first, seeing that academic spark in her eye as she set about studying every little detail of plants and animals that were actually quite common in the coastal areas of Equestria, but were likely quite rare in her mountain home.

After a while it lost its charm and I started telling her everything about every single thing that caught her attention. It sped us back up but I can officially say that it was the most I had talked since creation.

Course this made the mare sad and Silver mad, lovely combination if you want a giant Unicorn trying to give you a lobotomy with a throwing knife. Where he kept it I will never know, but on the bright side Mystic was no longer sad.

One lecture, one death threat, and one bruised ego later, we continued on our way until we hit a forest and stopped for the night, my companions eager to set up camp while I grumbled about mortals and their lack of stamina.

“You cannot truly be trying to say you are not tired Sir Ash, we have been walking since sunrise.”

Seems I was grumbling a bit louder than I had wanted...whatever.

“I don’t get tired Lady Dawn, never have, and I doubt I ever will.” I replied, flying up to the trees and proceeding to hang myself upside down by my tail, watching Silver as he set up the fire and mats of his boss and then his own, frequently giving me the stink eye all the while.

I just rolled my eyes and cocooned myself in my wings, letting my consciousness fade away, not at all looking forward to the headaches tomorrow would bring.