Memories: Chronicles of the past

‘Well, this day sucks.’

Loyal sighed as he had to skip town once again; he just had no luck at this kind of thing. But so what? He loved to fight, and he didn't see why this was such a problem.

Loyal imitate the voice of the Mayor who just kicked him out

"Loyal Hoof! It is not polite to openly fight ponies in the library!" Mayor Star Light had told him. "You will submit to authority or else!"

Granted, telling the mayor where he could shove authority may have not been his finest moment, but still. This was the third town this month!

Loyal sighed, he looked around slowly at the tall trees around him.

Where the hell am I?

Loyal stopped for a second and sat down to get his internal compass going, he was so quick to get out of that last town that he forgot to pack.

Nothing I could do about that now, Loyal thought to himself as he got up and continued walking

‘Ba! Who needed that town anyway? I have me as company! Who needs other ponies?’

Loyal's life was always like that: enter a town, stay for a bit, get into a fight, and have to gallop away before he got himself arrested. Rinse, and repeat.

‘I'll never understand other ponies! I'm great company! Not to brag but I'm well built, fairly intelligent, and very good in a fight.’

And none of that was a lie. Loyal was a very strong earth pony, very well-built and quite bright...His biggest flaw was his love of fighting, the thrill of hitting and getting hit; it made his heart skip a beat. In fact, to be brutal, most of his flaws stemmed from there; he was quick to resort to violence and very unsocial, as he knew getting attached would just make it harder when he had to skip town a few weeks, or days, later.

‘I'm running out of places to go…’ He thought glumly to himself. He had been almost everywhere in Equestria, yet had never found a place that was good enough to call home. Well, you know, home enough not to get into a fight there.

‘Dad would be SO proud of my life.’

Loyal sighed, hanging his head. It had been a few years now since he left Manehatten to explore the world, and left his family behind. As a colt, he grew up rich and pampered, which he hated. It wasn’t because he was spoiled, but because he felt bad for ponies who were not like him. Sadly, his sympathy came across as arrogance, and he was picked on. And when you’re picked on, you learn how to fight. His family was always concerned when he came home with a black eye and a smile on his face.

"Boy, what happened to you!?" his father would say.

"I went to a tea party, he would reply sarcastically. “What do you think? I got into another fight,"

"Who keeps doing this to you?!?" his father would say,

concern and anger in his voice.

"Not telling," Loyal would say with a shake of his bruised head a proud smile still on his face.

"Why not!?" His father would shout at him.

"Because then you would put a stop to it." And with that he would walk upstairs and go to sleep.

After a few months of this, he got his cutie mark. He used to look back at his flank with pride, a smile flitting across his muzzle as he studied the golden horse shoe surrounded by circles to symbolize his hoof giving a black eye to whoever messed with him. He was so proud of it.

His father, the fancy, wealthy business-pony...not so much.

"I don't understand it! Your special talent is being a hooligan!" his father shouted at him.

"Sounds like you understand it, Dad," he would say back calmly.

He still remembered the day he left, he really did like his dad, but he wasn't going to kiss flanks just to make someone happy, his mother was always the quiet one, she always backed off when my dad I had our fights. Still he couldn't help but miss her, AND her signature brownies... but the day he left was the biggest surprise he had had in a long time, that was when his father gave him 500 bits, hugged him and whispered thirteen words that still followed him to this day...

"When fighting a unicorn, go for the horn so they can’t use magic." He pulled away and winked at his son. Loyal always wondered what that meant; was that a friendly piece of advice his father had looked up on how to fight...

Or was telling his son he wasn't so different from his old man after al-

*Growl*

A sudden noise, a quick reaction, but not quick enough.

Loyal felt himself being knocked to the side as a large wolf-like creature attacked him. It had jet black fur and glowing purple eyes.

And it looked hungry.

Don't panic...Ahhh screw that!

"You want to go you sad excuse for a wild animal?!?!" Loyal Hoof announced to the wolf. It seemed taken aback by its prey’s lack of fear.

"RAAAAAA!!!" Loyal yelled and he tackled the wolf and began hitting it over and over again.

Loyal wasn't book smart, he wasn't even that street smart, but if there was one thing he could do, it was fight. He relished the experience, he was quick on his hoofs and easily dogged the wolfs attacks and countered them, time seemed to slow down as he hit blow after blow. Other were born to lead, others born to help others.

But this is what he was born to do, and he enjoyed every minute of it.

The wolf however after taking blow after blow, slashed a large cut on Loyal’s belly, causing considerable pain. After that it was a losing battle; the wolf seemed to become quicker and stronger than before.

'Well this is great! I’m gonna die a lonely death in a forest because of a wolf! Great end to my life! Ah well, might as well go down kicking.'

And that's exactly what he was doing as the wolf pounced on him. The kicks had little effect, except for a lucky kick in the belly. The wolf instantly hurled all over the ground (and on Loyal).

'Greaaat, now I'm going to die in wolf puke as well!'

Suddenly the wolf stopped attacking, his eyes turning back to normal. He simply ran off.

"YEAH, YOU’D BETTER RUN!" Loyal shouted after the animal as he slowly got up.

Loyal then sat down again and inspected the hurl of the animal, and saw a small purple shard lying there…it was just lying there...

Ha ha! There is my next house payment!

Loyal bent down and picked up the shard and instantly heard a voice.

"You...are not like the rest..."

"Who's there!?" Loyal jumped up and looked around.

"They died...how interesting...you could...fend off my attacks, you…found my weakness..."

"I'm warning you, who are you!?!" Loyal was starting to become aggravated by this annoying voice.

"The light will come and cover the land. The shadows shall be pushed aside. The night will come when the sun will not set, a hero will rise...and three shall hold their own; truth and reality will be warped, ponies will be tested, and the hero will win, the hero will always win..."

"WHO...ARE...YOU!?!?!" Loyal screamed

"The hero would always win...Now we have you..." the voice spoke in an almost excited tone at this last part.

"Why me?!?" Loyal was really angry now, angry Loyal was not a very intelligent one.

"Because the heroes will always win...but we understand now, to beat the light…"

"WHO ARE—"

"The shadows need heroes too." And with that, Loyal had enough.

"Whatever, I don't care!" Loyal began to leave. However, he suddenly saw something that made him stop: a large bag of bits was just sitting there.

"The bits are yours if you will do one simple task," the voice said calmly

‘Bloody...ga...I need the money...’ And that was true; every time he moved, his living conditions got worse and worse, making his new start worse and worse. But with those bits...his new start might finally be a new start...he would finally be able to be somepony...

"What do you want?" Loyal said anger being replaced by impatiens.

"A simple task: go to Ponyville and wait. You will know when you are needed when the light begins to come..."

"And I get this bag of bits?" Loyal asked to confirm what he was hearing.

The voice cackled. That creeped him out. "Yes...IF you follow your part of the deal...DO we have a deal?"

"Fine, ok, I can do that!" Loyal grabbed the bag of bits and looked, pleased by the amount inside. ‘Finally, my new start begins here...’

"Good now- Ga, I must go...Remember, when the li-" The voice cut out mid sentence and Loyal stood there for a long time waiting for the voice to continue or for a pony to jump out and laugh at him, saying it was a joke, at which pont he would proceed to beat that said pony to near death.

'Well, I guess I'm off to Ponyville... Hopefully this "light" comes before I get kicked out...'

And with that Loyal Hoof walked off not understanding what just happened…

...or what would happen in the days to come.

Loyal now resides in Ponyville in a small, bleak house near Sugarcube Corner. Every day he goes through the same boring old rut: he will get up, go to work as a door to door sales-pony, then around lunch head down to Sugarcube Corner and get a cupcake from the overly excited pink pony who works there. Then he waits, waits for the light to come over the land…or something like that. His life is fairly simple, and he has succeeded in not fighting anypony for the whole time he has been in Ponyville. He is very unknown in Ponyville. Well, except for that sugar-high pink ball of energy in Sugarcube Corner.

But, of course, he knows that it’s only a matter of time before whatever is going to happen happens...

And he already has two bags packed and ready to go.