New Horizon

We had long since left Gryphus and started heading back down south into Equestria. After asking around, it turns out Griffins do have boats, but the oceans on Equus were incredibly dangerous, sea serpents, pirates, krakens, all sorts of dangerous shit. Sirens were a thing, and apparently three were banished into another dimension a while ago for thinking ponies tasted good or some shit. Griffins, either to measure their dicks, or because they couldn’t, didn’t have airships.

Equestria, sadly, was the only country in North Amareca with airships for commercial use. Airships that can carry our wagon, because I don’t want to sell it, and it has terrible resale value from mine and Blaze’s fur. Before we left for Eur Mono, Chrysalis wanted to visit the badlands, where her old kingdom was located. So we were heading towards Canterlot again.

Mostly so I can also ask about this other dimension that those sirens were sent to.

“So, Ostri,” Chrysalis said, examining the trophy I had won during that little competition in the carnival’s fighting contest. “Would you be opposed to learning how to combat magic? Against anypony without a horn to use magic externally, I feel you would be more than a threat, but you’d be hard pressed to fight a properly trained unicorn and win. Not without a lot of ambushes and surprises up your sleeves.”

Blaze chuckled. “That’s why I am here. I may not be as strong as Princess Celestia is now, not in terms of spell casting at least, but I can fight most unicorns and win with magic,” her serene smile turned sour. “And if anyone thinks hurting my literal soulmate is a good idea, I will ensure their deaths are slow and painful.”

“Plus, if I am fighting a unicorn, I ain’t taking them head on,” I unfolded one of my wings. “I’ll fucking fly off and circle around. If I catch them by surprise, I can beat their ass into the ground. A unicorn ain’t gonna cast a spell if his head gets smashed into the ground constantly,” I chuckled. “Though when that’s not an option, and you and Blaze aren’t present, having a few pointers would be helpful.” Chrysalis nodded, before snatching my wing in her mouth.

And she started preening them. Oooh, that felt good. Within moments, I was a pile of pegasus puddy, and my tongue was hanging out the side of my tongue. Chryssy giggled. “I knew you’d love that; all you male pegasi love it when a pretty lady spoils you!” She then went to groom me, getting tangles out of my mane, cleaning my fur, pulling any loose fur or hair out, and helping along with my constant shedding.

With how winter was coming around, it was now fall, my coat was starting to shed a bit more, and clump up in some places- oh fuck, Chrysalis started grooming the fur on my belly. This… I see why dogs want you to rub their bellies so much; this is heavenly. Once Chrysalis was done, Blaze started pestering her for some grooming, and that’s how we spent most of our trip:

Pampering each other, stopping so I can cook something, sleeping, or stopping for an hour or two when we saw something cool. Occasionally Chrysalis would tell a tale from when she was ruling the Hive, I would tell a fictional story from Earth, or Blaze would tell us both to shut the fuck up and enjoy some birds’ cheerful little whistles. It was pretty fun. Before we knew it, we were already in Equestria again, heading further down south, by a railroad. The train had stopped, and a small wagon with a bunch of ponies wearing a bunch of shitty masks were waving daggers around demanding bits.

“You, pony!” One of the thugs pointed a knife at me. “Get in line or I’ll gut this bitch!” That thug grabbed a filly and held the knife up to her throat. Luckily, it was my turn to be on watch, so Chrysalis and Blaze were inside my wagon, so they weren’t visible. “And while you’re at it, grab anything valuable you’ve got, and get your stupid flank over here!” Chrysalis opened the flap of the wagon slightly.

“Ostri, what is going on?” She had a sleep mask on. It was kinda cute… I may have to kiss her later.

“Don’t worry about it, but be prepared to fuck somebody up,” I said before straighting my face out. I turned back, and hopped off my wagon. “I don’t really have much of value other than my hooves and wings, sir,” I said, with one flap of my wings, I landed next to the fucker. “So, I guess I’ll just sit here-” The asshat fucking kicked me, with both of his hindlegs! I grunted, and the filly was thrown at me.

“Put’em with the others!” The stallion shouted before going off to probably round up more train passengers. The filly was shivering and whimpering, and actually buried herself into my stomach for cover until we were promptly moved up into a circle of other hostages.

“W-why are t-they doing th-this?’ The filly whispered, burying herself back into my side.

“Some ponies… They're just terrible people,” I calmly said. I don’t know why, but… It wouldn’t feel right to leave this kid alone until I can somehow resolve this issue, and also find her parents. “Just…” I hummed. I could try some first responder tactics to keep the kid calm until I can find her parents. “What’s your name?” The filly didn’t have a cutie mark, was purple, and had a dark blue mane with a pink stripe going through it. If I didn’t know any better, I would assume this kid was related to Twilight Sparkle in some way; she was even a unicorn.

“M-my name… My name is Midni-night,” whispered. “Wh-what is your name, mister?”

“I’m Bald Ostrich, just some guy traversing the land. I’m a bit of a wanderer,” I started rubbing her back with one of my wings. “Where are your parents?”

“...When one of the bad ponies tried to grab me, my parents jumped to my protection. Both of them were hit with magic and didn’t get up afterwards,” she whispered. “Will they be okay?” Oh. What the actual… Okay.

“Point me the unicorn that hit them,” I coldly said. The filly pointed at a bright yellow unicorn, a knife was his cutie mark, the same one that was threatening to gut Midnight. “Okay, I am going to ask you a question… Do you know who Queen Chrysalis is?” The filly flinched. “Well, good news, she’s not evil anymore, and she’s my marefriend. Right now, she is hiding in my wagon alongside my pet magical fox, right now I am waiting for them to make a move,” I sighed. “I… have reasons to believe that your parents aren’t okay, kid, I’m not even going to sugarcoat it, I don’t think they will be getting up at all any time soon.” The filly whimpered and started crying, her snout buried into my chest. I ignored the feeling of snot in my coat. “I’ll protect you, I am going to keep you safe.” The same unicorn, walked up to what were likely his accomplices, two earth ponies and a pegasus. I hummed, before nudging the filly. “Okay, once that unicorn approaches us again, I want you to get behind me. Once he goes, this whole operation will be a piece of cake.”

It felt like hours, just sitting around, waiting for an opening. Throughout that time, more ponies were brought in, cowering in fear. Midnight was slowly getting herself back together, but I knew she was probably going to be depressed, and be broken for a while… Losing your parents sucks; I never even had parents and I could guess how poorly that would go. Once the unicorn, the same, yellow asshole, got close to us again, I nudged Midnight, and she got up and got behind me. The yellow unicorn sneered at me. I just sat there, staring dumbly. “Hey fellas!” The unicorn pointed at me after getting his buddies’ attention. “Have any of you idiots checked this asshat for weapons?” Wow, they only now thought of that. When the unicorn didn’t get the response he wanted, he growled before he started searching me for weapons.

When he got close to my left wing, where I usually kept a knife, I got a tiny bit uncomfortable, before he grinned; he found the knife. You see, I think he would usually be mad, but this knife was old as fuck and pretty ornamental. It had an obsidian blade, to match Luna’s night when we were still dating, had a golden hilt, with a gem of some sort in the pommel. Down the center of the blade was a silver line for stability in the weapon. If I remembered correctly, it was an old Lunar Guard weapon. Given that I was basically a general back in the day, it would make sense for me to wield a knife of some sort. The unicorn looked it over with a grin. “So you do have something valuable on you after all!” He pointed the knife at Midnight. “Now, tell me, does your wagon have anything else that’s valuable in it? If you don’t answer, I’m throwing this into that filly’s skull!”

“Yeah, there’s a huge bag of bits in the wagon, lemme take this kid with me.”

“That ain’t a goat, you blind, bucking idiot. Now show me that big bag of bits!” The three of us walked up to my wagon, before the yellow asshole convulsed a couple of times, before an audible snap could be heard. The fucker crumpled to the ground. Chryssy stepped out, looking pissed the fuck off. I grabbed my knife off of the unicorn before turning to the filly. “Midnight, I want you to get on the wagon and hide there until me and my marefriend are done, capeesh?”

“Capeesh,” Midnight whispered, before she started squealing. Blaze had grabbed the little unicorn, before proceeding to wrap her body around the foal. There was only a slight whimper of fear before Blaze started massaging the kid. Midnight immediately melted into the kitsune, a relaxed smile took shape; that’s the first time she’s smiled since I told her about her parents. Chrysalis had a small smile on her face, before turning to the group of ponies at the train. She transformed herself into a unicorn, an inconspicuous one, and we both headed into the group. I noticed the pegasus hovering around, waving a crossbow around, so I grabbed my knife and flew, as fast as I could, into the fucker, shoving my knife into his head all the while. By the time I had skidded to a stop, a disguised Chrysalis threw two, very not alive, earth ponies wearing masks on the ground. “Is everypony okay?” She asked.

“...There are a few injured,” one of the conductors shivered. “A few dead,” he shuttered. “But we are alright!”

“How… Did a few dudes on a wagon manage to capture a train?” I asked.

“The train broke down and we had to fix it,” of course. “Thank you for saving us!” The conductor bowed. “Everypony here owes you their lives! They were a moment away from sicking that unicorn on us!” I then noticed a hole next to the group, big enough to hold… a lot of dead bodies.

“Quit that bowing shit; just be happy y’all are alive, alright? Go find the ponies who were unfortunate enough to fall victim to this squad of assholes, and pay your respects for them,” I sighed. “C’mon Chryssy, let’s go check on the kid we now own, I guess.” Without another word, the two of us moved to our wagon to check on Midnight, and figure out what the fuck to do with her after all of this. When we got back onto the wagon, the filly was napping, using Blaze as a bed.

“All the stress from today got to her,” Blaze smiled warmly. “She is absolutely adorable, by the way, traumatized, but sweet. I’ve read her mind, so it was easy to get past her barriers. Right now she needs to be comforted, so let us rest here for the night, and wait to figure out what to ask her, and most importantly, what to do with her in the morning.” The kitsune sighed. “I hope we keep her; I love taking care of children no matter what species that child belongs to. It happens that midnight is rather sweet, and very cute, so I especially do like taking care of her,” the kitsune shook her head. “And the bastard that made her an orphan is dead, correct?” I nodded. “Good, monsters like that do not deserve to live.”

I woke up nice and early the next day, the train was still under repairs apparently, since it was just sitting on the railroad. Given there was apparently only one train in all of Equestria, that probably wasn’t a good thing, but whatever. What wasn’t whatever, was when I got a fire going to cook some breakfast, somebody from the train, probably a kitchen staff judging from the food cart they were pushing, came out. I was halfway through opening a can of chili, because ponies had that, but it wasn’t good chili… Okay, it was good, but there was no meat in it, which sucked. Oh well, the last thing I needed was to have the runs on the road. “Sup,” I offered my can, having a second one ready to feed Midnight should she feel hungry at all. “Hungry?”

“N-no sir, we were just going to offer you and your travellers some breakfast as a thank you for what you did yesterday,” the stallion sighed. “You came at a good time sir, those bandits were getting impatient.”

“I didn’t do what I did because I’m a good person, I’m absolutely horrible, I did it because they got in the way. Then I wanted to make them pay; they killed a girl’s parents right in front of her. I hate two things, myself, and murderous assholes like me. I don’t think I deserve anything… But leave the cart here, I’m sure some of the people I’m traveling with would like some pancakes.”

“...Okay,” the stallion went back to the train, probably to keep on working, leaving the cart.

It had been nearly an hour since the food card was left, so I took the pancakes and started reheating them on the fire when Chrysalis, Blaze, and Midnight stepped out. “Howdy,” I offered the plate of pancakes to the filly. “You gotta eat up; you aren’t gonna starve on my watch. Even if you don’t think you want to eat, your body needs to, and I’m sure nothing’ll cheer you up more than some pancakes and syrup!” I think I did a good job at convincing her, since Midnight immediately sat down, and dumped the cup of syrup over her food when I gave her the plate. Midnight’s tail wagged a little. You know, for a kid who watched her parents get killed in front of her, she’s doing pretty well.

I think. So, once she was done eating, Chrysalis the empty plate on the food card, and used her magic to send it back to the train. “So, what now?” I asked, turning to Midnight. “I… know you aren’t exactly happy about what happened,” I rubbed the back of my head. “Fuck,” I took a deep breath. “Do you have any relatives who are willing to take care of you?” Midnight shook her head, her ears flattened a little bit, and she looked a little sad. “No aunts?”

“No, my aunt and uncle treat me terribly, and my cousins just bully me whenever I visit them. Please don’t make me live with them,” she paused for a moment. “You aren’t going to dump me off at an orphanage are you?”

“...No. I grew up in one of those shitholes, kid. Trust me, nothing breaks you down more than sitting around, knowing nobody gives a shit about you, and getting kicked back into the dirt when somebody comes to adopt a kid, and you aren’t the kid they choose to adopt,” I shook my head. “I ain’t letting that shit happen to you,” I offered my wings. “I know I’m gonna be a shitty parent; I’m swearing like a sailor in front of you, after all. So I’ll make you an offer,” Midnight trotted up and nuzzled herself into my side, and I laid my wing over her. “You can stay with me and the crew,” I pointed to Blaze and Chrysalis. “Those are the crew, say hi.”

“If you call us the crew again, I am going to slap you,” Chrysalis interjected.

“...Never mind, forget that last bit about ‘the crew’. But you can still come with us,” I rubbed Midnight’s back. “And if you find somewhere you’d rather be than with me, you can tell me, and I’ll give you enough bits to keep you afloat until you find your footing. And if you choose to stick with me, hey, more power to you. I just don’t wanna send you back on that train, or send you out on your own, or just dump you here and hope you don’t die. For one, I’d feel like shit, secondly, that isn’t fair to you.” It also helped that Midnight, as Blaze said, was adorable. Plus, us orphans gotta stick together, eh?

“You’d let me stay with you?” I nodded. “Well… you would keep me safe, right?”

“If something gets to you, it’s because something already killed me, Chrysalis, and Blaze. I’ll treat you like you’re my own daughter, and I will fight to the death for you.” I chuckled. “Though, don’t take after me; I’m a horrible pony.”

“No you’re not! You saved me from those bad ponies!” Midnight got kicked a hoof out from under my wing, making me chuckle. “At least, you’re better than those mean ponies, so that has to mean something, right?” Midnight’s eyes held that childlike wonder, and it’s a wonder as to how… her parents got killed in front of her. How the actual… God, I gotta give this kid credit; I wouldn’t know what to do with myself if that were to happen to me.

“How… are you taking everything by the way? I know I couldn’t handle what you’re going through at all, not at your age at least,” I asked.

“Well… it hurts, but my Daddy always told me to keep moving forward, no matter what happens to him or Mommy. He said I would be doing them no favors if I were to give up and die if he or Mommy got killed. In fact, he said that no matter what the circumstances were, Daddy would willingly give up everything to make sure I live another day… and that is exactly what he did,” Midnight whimpered. “It hurts a lot, but I don’t want to fail my parents after they gave their lives up for me. And you’re giving me a chance, and you’re willing to take care of me! So that’s a good reason to keep going, right?”

“...Man, I wish I had your outlook on life,” I nuzzled Midnight. “Well, I hope you like seeing Canterlot or Ponyville; me and my marefriend were planning on heading there before we had to Eur Mono,” Midnight’s face lit up.

“I always wanted to go to Canterlot! Did you say Eur Mono? Can we go to Prance while we’re there?” Midnight got up and pranced around, going on about being able to dress up and be pretty like one of the Princesses. Ah… It is going to hurt like a bitch when I tell her that I hate all four Princesses, but I also don’t have to tell her that. “So what’s the hold up? Let’s get going, Ostri!” She headbutted me and my heart came back to life just to die again. This filly is definitely the cutest thing I have ever seen.

“Hey now, I still gotta eat my chili,” I said, holding my still half full can. This was meant to serve three people, and I ate about one and half people’s worth of chili in one go. My stomach kinda hurts now. I closed the can, and Chrysalis sealed it with her magic. “Aight, let’s get on the wagon, and you can tell me all about you, Midnight. What you like to do, all that fun jazz,” Midnight hopped up on my back, and I carried her off into the wagon. Chryssy and Blaze followed suit, and we were moving again.

I am going to be a terrible, adoptive father.