Chapters View Online
Chapter 1 Weapons of Mass Destruction (Rewritten)
Author's Note
Hope you enjoy!
This has been my first attempt at writing anything in 4 years so I'm a bit rusty.
Have a nice day.
[Edit] This chapter will be re written in the future. If you are seeing this then it hasn't happened yet. If I'm being honest here, I couldn't read this chapter again. There is just so many things off with it. But do not worry, all chapters after this will slowly get better.
[EDIT] 26.8.24 The chapter has now been rewritten, now to do it for the rest of the chapters.
Chapter 1 Weapons of Mass Destruction (Rewritten)
Two moons hanged in the sky, one white and one green. They both casted a dim light down on the ground below their celestial bodies.
The clashing of swords, shouts of pain and the occasional war cry echoed throughout the planes. It was a grim sight, hundreds of corpses laid in the dirt, trampled on by mutated beings of pure chaos and the dirty rat men that infested these plains.
This sight of two clashing armies was reflected in the cold eyes of a single man that stood atop a hill, his eyes gazing over the hideous carnage. He held his serrated sword loosely in his right arm, while in his left he held a dark metal staff, with an ornate skull resting atop it.
A dark cloak rested upon his shoulders, slightly flowing in the soft breeze. Said cloak was attached to a hulking dark plate armour. This armour looked incredibly heavy, but the man moved as if he was surrounded by the most expensive silk instead of the menacing dark blue armour of chaos.
His helmet was of simple yet sinister design. It had a few small slits around the mouth area, just under the two eye sockets. Currently two small dark blue flames burned through the helmets eye sockets and slightly flickered in the wind. Two horns jutted out of his helmet as if in a desperate yet useless attempt at reaching for the heavens themselves.
From his shoulder plates two small spikes jutted out into the skies, a dark spike protruded out of both of his vambraces like a blade, they looked like they weren’t merely for show. The armour around his fingers ended in sharp points which meant that he could still fight even without a melee weapon.
His greaves ended in sharp spikes just above his knee in an elegant yet deadly manner, his boots shared the same design as his greaves as they ended in sharp points. It was as if the entire armour was made to be a weapon.
If anyone were to approach this figure, they would immediately feel the air around them growing colder and almost suffocating. It was as if the mere presence of this man could strike fear into anyone near him.
But some fools would still try to approach him and push their luck.
“Oh, Valgith D’avenirr.” A pitiful and frail voice spoke from behind him. The man ripped his gaze away from the slaughter happening below him as he turned to face whichever fool decided to open their stinking mouth.
The sight of a frail and starved man with long black hair came into his view. The only clothes he wore were what looked like scavenged clothes from some humanoid corpse. They stinked to high heaven and were stained with multiple different liquids. In his hands he held a thick book the size of his forearm. It looked as if he was struggling to hold it. But he didn’t dare drop it, never. He would know what followed if he did.
“Y-y- your g-grimoire.” He held the locked tome above his head. His bone thin arms shaking as he did. The tome was made of some kind of tough grey animal leather with a symbol on the front, it was of a circle with multiple spikes protruding unevenly out of it. The spine of the book was reinforced with some kind of metal, and on the fore edge rested a metal lock keeping it shut.
“You are late.” The deep voice emanated from within the dark helmet. For a second the trembling man thought he saw the small flames in his helmet narrow in frustration.
The man bowed himself even deeper, his long dark hair brushed the dirt underneath his ruined boots. “I- It will never happen again.” He weakly replied.
The frail man's heart felt like it would leap out of his chest as he heard sound of heavy metal boots traversing towards him. As Valgith got closer to the man he noticed that his entire body started shaking in fear. He paid it no mind.
He let go of his serrated sword which in all logic should have dropped into the dirt, but instead slowly floated in the air next to him. His sharp gauntlet grasped the tome lovingly. The moment the grimoire left the hands of the trembling man he dropped down to his knees, his forehead touching the dirt. If one listened closely, they could hear near silent mutterings of a prayer to a higher being.
Valgith spared one last glance towards the man before turning his back to him. “Get out of my sight.”
Without sound the man left. It was as if he was afraid that a single sound would make the chaos sorcerer turn around and smite him with his serrated blade or do something even worse.
With the man now gone Valgith manipulated the purple winds and guided them into the lock. A small click emanated from it.
Opening the tome he sighed in apparent satisfaction. His gauntleted fingers flipped through the pages, until it landed on an empty one.
His gaze slowly drifted up, back to the fight. He scanned the surrounding battlefield for something. It didn’t take long for him to find what he was looking for. The corpse of a rat man that looked to be wearing a wizard cloak.
He let go of his grimoire and this too floated next to him, he then reached underneath his cloak, grasping at the small pouch that was fastened to his back. From within he took out a single long feather, which he crushed in his palm. A small glow of magic emanated from his arm that travelled to the broken feather.
Disregarding the now useless feather with a flick of his finger, his boots slowly lifted from the ground. He effortlessly flied above the battle, both his grimoire and sword followed him through the air. He then descended and landed next to a pile of corpses. A crunch echoed out from beneath his boots, as he looked down, the lifeless eyes of a rat man slave gazed up at the sky. He lifted his boot to see where he accidentally stepped just to see an imprint of his boot upon its neck. He stepped over the unnamed corpse and closed the distance to the wizard.
The wizard rat was a bit shorter than the average human, its beady little eyes stared lifelessly towards the sky. A metal staff lied next to it, covered in blood.
The rat wore a very simple grey cloak that covered it entirely, the only other notable thing about its clothing was the small satchel that was slung across its torso. Two small horns jutted out of its skull, just above its eyes.
How it had died was obvious, a hand axe was buried in its neck, a charred and severed hand still grasped onto the hilt.
Valgith stood near the corpse and without a word raised his arm towards the wizard, which in turn slowly raised up into the air where it slowly rotated in place.
Then the small brown satchel seemingly moved on its own. It flew from the body of its former master into the gauntleted palm. The moment it was in his grasp the corpse fell back into the blood-soaked dirt with a splat.
He opened the satchel and looked inside. A small book rested inside, with a few magical reagents. He pocketed anything useful and then raised the book into his view. He then opened it and quickly skimmed through it, he saw a few glimpses of spells and notes about them which caused a small chuckle to escape his throat.
He brought his own grimoire closer to him and raised the dead wizard's book next to it. Then he unceremoniously slammed the book into his own grimoire where the smaller tome seemed to melt into his own. As the book slowly got smaller it seemed that the grimoire thickened slightly as new pages materialised into being.
As the book was halfway melted into the grimoire a screeching sound emanated from somewhere behind Valgith, this in turn halted his process with the tome as he let go of both the books, reaching for his sword. This had an unfortunate effect the grimoire spitting out the tome, flinging it into the air. While it was still in the air it melted into a pool of black tar like liquid that splattered across the dirt.
The blue flames in his eye sockets turned red and seemed to increase in volume. “YOU INSOLENT FOOL!” A shout full of rage emanated from the deepest parts of his core as he turned to face whoever was foolish enough to interrupt him.
As he turned, he saw the sight of a rat man rushing at him. This rat was completely covered by a dark green cloak. A small bell was attached to its neck that chimed with each step it took. It held a mace too big for its size in both of its hands. Small green pieces of warpstone jutted out of the head of the mace.
The rat man wasn’t that close to Valgith, which in turn gave him enough time to ready his sword.
He didn’t need magic to kill this insignificant rat that was foolish enough to even attempt to attack him.
His grimoire moved behind him and snapped shut with a click as the book locked itself.
“Kill kill chaos thing!” It screamed, raising it’s mace above its head in a predictable manner.
Valgith simply stood still as the approaching rat man screamed.
Five meters. He disregarded his staff which stayed floating next to him.
Two meters. He could count every single thumb sized pimple on its nose. The rat man's hideous maw grinned.
One meter. “DIE DIE!” The rat man swung his mace.
Valgith raised his left hand, catching the mace while it was swinging downward at his upper body. The crazed screaming stopped as the rats eyes widened.
With a simple stab Valgith’s serrated blade pierced the stomach of the rat. It tried to pry its mace out of his grip, but even when it put all its strength into the action the mace did not budge. It coughed, a small spray of blood scattering on Valgith’s armour, staining the dark armour with blood.
Valgith pushed the mace out of his hand, this in turn made the entire rat man fall backwards from the weight of the weapon. The blade left its stomach with a squelch as it fell backwards and with a splat it impacted the mud.
A sliver of anger remained in the red flames as they slowly turned a back to their original dark blue colour.
With an irritated sigh Valgith turned to face the main battle as his eyes gazed across the corpses for any other wizards.
Not spotting anything of significance his gaze hovered over to the main front line. Hundreds of followers of chaos stabbed, cleaved and impaled various rat men.
The flames over his eyes narrowed in frustration as his staff floated back into his grasp.
He pointed the staff towards the front line. He was at an angle where if he decided to cast a big spell it would mostly impact the rats.
A small fire suddenly sprung to life at the tip of his staff. With a few arcane words and a forward thrust with his staff, the once small flame lit up into a surging fireball, now thrice the size of a humanoid head was sent flying towards the mass of rats. A trail of smoke followed the fireball as it hurled onward. And with a giant explosion, multiple rats were flung in every which direction, some with all their limbs attached and some without.
This battle would have long been over if the forces of chaos would have taken out the skaven weapon teams, such as the ratling gunners and the warpfire throwers early in the fight. It looked like the last plan of the Skaven was to shield the weapons teams from all sides while they do all the main damage to the army Valgith accompanied.
As the forces of chaos slowly pushed the frontline towards their weapon teams, Valgith spotted something interesting near them. A skaven that seemed like another wizard. He was maniacally laughing next to a few warpfire throwers while casting spells. Flashes of green lighting impacted a wall of heavily armoured chaos warriors, all sent by the skaven wizard.
Valgith noted that the wizard seemed to be of a higher position than the one he saw before, evident by the black armour that it wore.
Not soon after Valgith saw the wizard, his staff glowed with a purple aura, he then pointed the tip of his staff towards the wizard. Not soon after the wizard seemed to stop it's manic laughter as it grasped at it's chest. The brown fur that were exposed slowly turned white as the purple glow on Valgith's staff increased in size.
The staff the skaven wizard held glowed with a green colour before he fell down. One of the skaven next to the wizard seemed to rummage through it's former masters stuff before scurrying away.
Valgith did not know what spell the wizard had cast but he cast a few defensive spells nonetheless.
It didn't take long for him to see what was the result of the spell. A cylindrical object fell from the skies above, Valgith felt a sinking feeling in his stomach.
Then the object impacted the ground.
Another spell readied on his staff but before he could cast it, a giant green explosion shook the ground, causing his concentration on the spell to brake. As the green wall of fire enveloped over him, he felt the winds of magic violently explode from his staff. Both the intense blast of a miscast and the green fire overwhelmed his senses until all went black.
Slowly the darkness faded and he heard the pleasant sound of birds chirping, wind rustling the leaves of trees and his slow breathing underneath his helmet.
His limbs felt off, as if every single on of his bones had been broken, rearranged and then healed. With a slow groan his eyes slowly opened, the sight of a forest floor greeted his eyes. Tall trees reached up into the heavens and their leaves blocked most of the sunlight, casting the forest below in shadow.
"How am I still alive?" The moment the words escaped his lips, he knew something was wrong. Gone was the intimidating and deep voice of the feared man, replaced by that of a small child.
He tried getting up from the grass floor, but found it to be more difficult than it should have been. As he tired to rise and get both of his feet underneath him, he fell backwards and landed back on to the grass with a thud.
"What in damnation is going on?" Valgith questioned, irritation clear in his voice. He finally took a look at his surroundings, he spotted his serrated sword lying on the grass next to him, but he couldn't spot his staff nor grimoire anywhere.
He then took in the forest in more detail. He noted that he was clearly in a different place that he had been in mere moments ago, his eyes scanned for any immediate dangers around him but he found none.
He then lowered his gaze at himself, but he froze when he saw himself. Where both his arms and legs would be, he now had hooves. He still wore his armour but it had been transformed to fit his new body. He turned his neck and noticed that he could turn it a lot farther than before, he could easily see his back. Another thing he noticed was that he now had a pair of bat like wings folded on his sides, it seemed that the new form of his chaos armour covered the top of his wings, shielding his new bones from all forms of damage.
"Am I a horse?" He could do nothing more than ask the obvious in his befuddled state. He raised his front hoof up to his face and he inspected it in great detail. "A horse that can talk."
He had heard of weird tests that the chaos gods liked to pull to make their followers prove themselves, but he had never heard of them turning their followers into pegasi. Usually if they wanted to mutate their followers they would look a lot more horrific, and their tests usually consisted of proving one's self in battle than just turning someone into a horse and dumping them in some forest.
Was this a test? Or was it something else entirely? He did not have enough information about his current situation to come to any form of conclusion.
Valgith grunted as he stood up once more, this time taking to account the fact that he was now a quadruped. Standing up was the easy part, now he had to figure out how to walk.
He took a step forward, then another and then he fell flat on his stomach. An irritated growl escaped his throat.
He got up once again and tried again, this time he was able to take three steps before falling over.
The next hour or so passed with much of the same, Valgith took a few steps forward only to fall back into the grass. Chunks of the green blades stuck to his armour, dirtying the otherwise dark blue equipment. But eventually he got the hang of it, he was able to walk once more. Emphasis on walk, every time he tried to run he'd fall face first into the dirt.
Now that he had mastered the incredible feat of walking with four legs, he had to figure out how to pick up his sword.
Valgith thought about using his hooves at first, but quickly disregarded that idea. It would obviously be impossible to pick something up with hooves.
The next idea that popped into his mind was to use his mouth, but that idea felt humiliating, so he disregarded it. Another idea popped into his mind, he could simply use magic, there was one problem though. He wasn't sure if he could cast spells in this new body, if he could, his new body would certainly make it a lot harder to do so.
A dreadful thought ran across Valgith's mind at the inability of casting spells. So he had to try, if he didn't even try then selling his soul for magic all those years ago would've been in vain.
He raised his front right leg, pointed at his sword and he tried to channel the winds of magic to his will, surprisingly the simple technique that he had mastered long ago did nothing. The blade still laid in the grass as if it was taunting him.
The raised hoof came down with a stomp, disturbing the dirt underneath his leg.
"What? This is impossible! I did everything right!" Valgith's childlike voice trembled, he had indeed done everything right, the focus on the object, the channeling of the spell itself and the manipulation of the winds of magic.
He raised his front leg back up to point at the sword and tried to cast the same telekinesis spell again. The blade didn't move, it simply laid on the grass.
Another growl escaped his throat as he stomped his leg in the grass again. Hot rage boiled inside of his blood.
"Tzeen! Was my sacrifice not enough? Have my actions offended you? I gave my life to ruination and this is how you repay me?!" He yelled at the heavens, he felt his forehead heat up but this did not stop his wrath. "I dedicated my life to chaos and you turn me into a horse as some sort of reward?" A wrathful scream erupted from the deepest parts of his core, following closely behind it was the release of the heat on his forehead. Somehow in his rage, Valgith hadn't seen the mass of dark energy gathering on his horn, something that he hadn't spotted before. In a violent blast, a black flamed ball of fire shot out from his horn and it burned through the trees above him. It hurled across the skies, Valgith followed it with his eyes until it was too small to see.
He stood still for a few moments, his anger slowly turned into contemplation.
'This is progress, however for some reason the winds of magic do not respond to my attempts at controlling it, yet I could still cast a spell, even if I do not know what kind it was, or how I even did it' Valgith tapped the base of his helmet in thought, the sound of metal meeting metal echoed out.
Now that he had thought about the winds of magic, Valgith realised that they weren't even blowing in this region. It felt way more calm than normal, it was almost as if the winds of magic didn't reach into this place. Something that would be quite unlikely.
'Well I think that finding out how to cast spells again is pretty high on my priority list, but first I have to figure out where I am.' He brought his hoof down from his chin and walked to his sword. He grimaced, as the only way he could pick up the sword, was to use his mouth.
He sat down for a second to raise his helmet with both of his hooves, when the helmet was removed from his head, the illusion of blue fire in the eye sockets of the helmet faded away. As his head was fully freed from the helmet a mess of dark hair fell down and obscured his vison, an irritated growl came from his throat yet again. Valgith preferred to keep his hair relatively short, to not obscure his vision in the heat of battle but he didn't have time to waste on a haircut right now. He stood back up and laid his helmet on his back, he tried to balance it in a way that it wouldn't drop down into the dirt. He quickly noted that he could shift the position of his wings slightly so the helmet wouldn't fall. He did so, and took a few steps towards his blade, happy that he could be sure that the helmet wouldn't fall while walking, he shifted his attention towards his blade.
A sigh escaped his lips as he slowly bit down on the metal handle of the broad sword, compared to the new body of his, the sword looked like a greatsword. Somehow the broad sword in Valgith's mouth wasn't unbearably heavy, he could carry it in his mouth with little effort.
'Now all I need is to find civilization or any other landmarks.' Valgith thought as he picked a random direction and started walking.
Rainbow Dash was taking a pleasant nap on one of the clouds above ponyville, a small smile on her face as she dreamed. The soft cloud felt nice to lay on, until it wasn't. The cloud under her suddenly vanished and she fell a few meters towards the ground, until she fully woke up from her nap, and took flight mid air to not impact the ground underneath.
"What was that?" Rainbow exclaimed in surprise. She looked around for her cloud or anypony who could have destroyed it, but as she looked behind her, she saw a ball of dark fire moving away from her, she realised that this ball had been incredibly close to hitting her. She also just noticed a faint trail of smoke that it had left in the air. Rainbow looked back, seeing that the trail of smoke originated from the everfree forest.
She realised that this might be something dangerous, and she decided that the best course of action was to fly to the golden oak library, talk with Twilight and tell her all about this situation. Surely she had answers to what she just experienced.
In a flash Rainbow took off, flying towards golden oak library, leaving a rainbow colored trail behind her.
Arriving at the library, she flew down to the door and knocked twice before letting herself in.
"Twilight you won't believe what I just saw!" Rainbow exclaimed while slightly hovering above ground, her wings flapping.
Rainbow spotted Twilight inside the oak library, the unicorn was reading a scroll, but not just any scroll, it bore the mark of a royal seal. Rainbow also saw a mix of worry and determination on Twilight's face.
"Everything okay Twilight?" The blue mare asked.
Twilight looked up from her scroll. "The princess said that there was a giant surge of dark magic coming from the Everfree forest, Rainbow can you get the rest of the girls here? I need a bit of time to prepare."
Rainbow did a quick salute and in a flash was already above ponyville, heading towards the rest of the element bearers.
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Chapter 2 Sweet Dreams and Sweet Worries (Rewrite In Progress)
Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter. Chapter 3 The Hospital-ity of the New World
The smell of antiseptic hit Valgith's nose as the fog over his mind slowly dissipated.
His eyes opened and then quickly closed as the bright environment of the room assaulted his eyes.
A few seconds passed as he didn't move. The only sound he could hear was mechanical beeping to his right and parts of a muffled conversation coming from somewhere in front of him.
He opened his eyes again and let them adjust to the light. He slowly scanned the room he was in. The ceiling and walls were painted white but at the bottom of the walls there was imagery of flowers and grass. A few other small beds were in the room with him but they were all empty. Each of them had a bedstand next to them. He spotted two doors in the room, one of which was in front of him and behind it was the origin of the muffled conversation.
A singular window sat to his right, letting warm sunlight into the white room.
Valgith spotted a few small wires coming out of the machine, a few of which ended up on one of his forelegs.
A moment passed until he realised that something was missing, more specifically his armour and sword were both missing. A quick glance at around the room confirmed his fears. He did not spot his equipment anywhere.
Emotions of rage and worry entered his mind. He quickly got out of bed, the small wire that was attached to his leg was ripped off and the rhythmically beeping machine suddenly started making a constant beeping sound as the line on the monitor went still.
It was only a few seconds that he was able to stand, before one of the two doors to the room was swiftly opened, and two ponies rushed into the room.
A white furred pony with a pink mane and tail. She had a red plus mark on her flanks and she was the first in the room, a look of worry on her face.
The second was a purple unicorn with a dark blue coloured mane and tail, both the mane and the tail had a stripe of purple colour that traveled through the hair. She had a star marking on her flanks. She looked equally as worried as the white pony.
Both of their faces relaxed as they saw him standing next to the bed.
"Oh thank Celestia." The white pony said.
The purple one released a sigh of relief as soon as she saw that everything was okay with the young colt.
"You really shouldn't be up, you drained yourself pretty hard yesterday. You really should go back to bed and rest." As the white pony talked Valgith simply stared at the two ponies.
Talking ponies.
It wasn't the most bizarre thing he had seen but it was up there. Valgith's thoughts drifted to how he looked and if he looked similar to these two. Oversized eyes, small frames and overall non intimidating looks. If he wasn't a pony himself he might even call them cute.
Both of the larger equines had faces of worry due to the small colt simply staring at them. They both exchanged a look and then the white pony took a few steps towards the colt.
"You know that we aren't going to hurt you right? You're safe here." The words cut Valgith out of his thoughts, only now noticing that the white mare had taken a few steps closer towards him.
Valgith looked the white mare in the eyes and asked.
"Where am I?" His gaze unflinching.
"You are in the Ponyville hospital. Do you know where your parents are?" She asked. The question was ignored by Valgith.
"Where is my equipment?" He tried sounding intimidating but the childlike voice that came out of his throat was anything but intimidating to the two mares.
The white mare had a look of confusion on her face as she turned to face the purple one. The purple mare however still maintained the look of worry.
She took in a deep breath and asked.
"Can you tell me where you found that armour?"
He knew where his armour came from, the trade of the chaos dwarves was highly important to all chaos forces. The chaos dwarves made all his armour and weapons after all. But he thought against telling the truth. It would seem that neither of the mares knew who or what Valgith was, and he would prefer to keep it that way.
"I found it in the woods." The purple mares eyebrow raised at Valgith's answer.
"Give my equipment back to me." He demanded.
Her eyes narrowed. "Do you know how dangerous that armour is? It's practically leaking dark magic!" She exclaimed.
Valgith feigned surprise at her words. "Dark magic?"
"Yes, and a powerful kind at that. I find it a bit hard to believe that you simply found it in the Everfree forest."
"I found it in a.... Castle." The statement sounded more like a question.
"What we're you doing that deep in the Everfree? You could have gotten hurt." The purple mares gaze softened.
Valgith took a deep breath before opening his mouth.
"I somehow found myself in that forest. I have no Idea how I came to be there. I spent a week there before I found the castle."
Small frowns could be seen on both of the adult ponies in the room as they listened to the colt talk.
"I found some kind of hidden room in the castle and behind it was the armour and a sword. I decided to wear the armour because I thought it looked like it would help me survive in the wilderness. I didn't know it was a bad thing to do so." Valgith tried his hardest to appear innocent as he explained his story to the two mares.
Both of the mares exchanged a look, before the white one spoke up once more.
"You're safe here. No pony will hurt you here. I hope you know that." She gave the colt a gentle smile.
Valgith simply nodded at her.
An awkward silence settled into the room for a few moments. Neither of the two mares knowing what else to say. Fortunately the silence was broken by Valgith.
"So, I assume that I will not be getting the armour back?"
"No." The purple mare answered.
"Besides I can't give it back to you even if I had it. I sent it away." She stated.
Valgith wanted to yell as loud as he could but quickly got his emotions back in control.
"You sent it away? Where?" He asked, a hint of anger could be heard in his voice.
Oblivious to the frustration and anger of the colt in front of her, the unicorn answered him. "To Canterlot."
Valgith's eyebrow raised a bit at the name, he had never heard of this Canterlot place.
"By the way, what happened to that sword you mentioned? I didn't see you with it when I found you." The purple mare asked, a questioning look formed on her face.
"I put it back where I found it. I didn't have anything to carry it with after all." The purple mare nodded at his words before the room fell into silence once more as she seemingly slipped into deep thought.
This time the silence didn't last long as the white mare spoke up.
"Alright Twilight, the visiting hours are coming to an end and the colt needs his rest."
While Valgith wanted to object and tell the two mares that he wasn't a child he hold back his tongue and looked down at himself. He noted the fact that he had a childlike voice and the fact that he was smaller than the two and came to realise that he was in fact a child. A small groan escaped him as he realised he would have to go through childhood again. At least he wouldn't have a bad childhood the second time around. At least if he had anything to say about it.
Braking out of her thoughts, Twilight nodded at the white mare and turned to leave before turning her head to look back at Valgith. "Oh, I forgot to ask your name."
The white mare looked at Valgith as well, expecting him to answer.
"I go by Valgith D'avenirr. Just Valgith is fine." Both of the mares had a look of confusion on their faces.
"Valgih D avenir?" Twilight asked.
Valgith sighed. "You can call me Val if that is simpler."
Twilight nodded. "I'll come by tomorrow to check on you." She stated before leaving Valgith and the nurse alone in the room.
For a moment Valgith wondered why the ponies were so nice to him, before he was ushered back to bed.
"I forgot to introduce myself, I am nurse Red Heart." The white mare stated. "There's some food for you on the bedstand next to you if you get hungry. I have to help a few other patients. So I have to excuse myself." She turned to leave before quickly looking back at Valgith. "Oh, and I advise that you stay in bed."
Valgith nodded and the white mare left him alone in the comfortable bed.
Silence filled the room as he was left alone with his thoughts.
'Why was I asleep?' He thought.
He guessed that the transportation, him acquiring a new body, the constant telekinesis spell that he had been casting and the short battle with the wooden wolf like creatures, made him collapse in exhaustion. It would make a mortal man collapse, but not him. It was impossible, the constant flow of chaos in his body should have destroyed all humanity that once stirred within him. He shouldn't feel mortal needs anymore. He shouldn't be able to sleep or even feel tired.
A growl from his stomach ended his thought process. He looked at the bedstand next to him, a tray sat on the wooden piece of furniture. There was a sandwich, an apple and a glass of water laying on the tray.
"When did I eat last?" Valgith thought. "I'm sure that it was decades ago. But why do I suddenly feel hungry once more?" Valgith's brow furrowed in confusion.
Nothing made sense. This situation that Valgith found himself in was something completely out of his league.
Another growl from his stomach reminded him that it wanted food.
Valgith's horn lit up in a blue aura as he picked up the apple. He noticed a small ache at the base of his horn from casting the spell but he didn't think it was anything serious. He inspected the apple for a few seconds and then took a small bite out of it. His eyebrows raised slightly as he chewed, the taste of the apple was unlike any other he had eaten in the past.
Valgith quickly ate the apple to the core. He then deposited the leftover core and stalk of the apple back to the tray. The sandwich lit up in his magical aura and he brought it in front of him. He noticed that the sandwich had flowers in it. A questioning look crossed his face as he lifted the upped bread slice to reveal yellow flowers in between the slices of bread. He gave a quick sniff of the food in front of him and grimaced at the smell. He returned the sandwich back to the tray and picked up the glass of water.
He took a small sip out of the glass, however he didn't swallow it but allowed himself to swirl it in his mouth for a few seconds. Not noticing anything wrong with the water he proceeded to drink a bit more of it before putting the glass back on the tray.
Valgith decided that he wouldn't be lying in bed, wasting time. He decided to check the other door in the room, opening it he was greeted with a bathroom, made fit for smaller beings like himself.
He noticed that the place had plumbing. In the cities he had visited before, plumbing was mainly only in wealthy cities that belonged to more technologically advanced races, like the dwarves or humans. Most of the backwater towns that he had visited didn't have plumbing. He guessed that this Ponyville place he currently was in, had a decent amount of wealth.
He noticed a mirror above the sink and decided to look at his new self for the first time.
The creature that greeted him in the mirror was a small pony. A dark blue coat, black mane that fell in front of his left eye and a dark blue horn that protruded from his forehead, the horn slightly curved backwards and it wasn't as long as Twilight's horn. A visible scar could be seen on his face. It started from his chin, and went vertically across his face, travelling through his mouth, leaving a small gap where anyone looking at it could see a part of his teeth. The scar continued up towards his left eye where it ended on his brow.
His gaze lingered on his scarred lip for a moment before he opened his mouth and noticed that while he was in the body of a herbivore, he had a few teeth that looked like they belonged in a carnivores mouth.
"Hmm, an omnivore, if I had to guess." Valgith mumbled and he closed his mouth. His sight drifted over to his eyes, the right eye was a dark red while the left was completely black. A mutation. The black eye gave him a special kind of sight.
He turned and let him see the rest of himself in the mirror. Two leathery batlike wings rested on both his sides. He also noticed that only his biggest scars were visible. One on his back that traveled between his wings all the way up to the middle of his shoulders, where in his old body his trapezius was, and another that went up his front left hoof and stopped at the knee.
He had a few other minor scars but it looked like his fur obscured them.
Valgith noticed that he did not have an odd marking on his rump, like the two mares he had talked to had.
"I wonder what that means." Valgith turned and checked his other side for any odd markings and saw none.
He then felt the urge of mother nature calling him and he finished his business in the bathroom.
He entered the room he woke up in, and walked to the window on the other side of the room. He saw that it seemed to be day but then the sun started slowly falling under the horizon. Then from the same direction the moon rose high into the sky.
Valgith could do nothing but stare in shock at the spectacle. His jaw nearly hit the floor. He had never seen anything like this. Numerous rules of existence itself were shattered right in front of his eyes.
All he could do was stare at the moon in silence. The longer he kept looking at the moon, he could see minor details that differed from the mannslieb he remembered.
It took him a few moments to recover from his shock. He decided that the best course of action was to shove that information into the deepest parts of his mind and ignore it for now.
His thoughts drifted back to the conversation he had with the purple mare called Twilight and the fact that she didn't know about his weapon when he mentioned it.
"Perhaps it may still lie in that forest." Valgith thought. "I can focus on retrieving my armour later, first I need to find my sword."
The idea of sneaking out at night to retrieve his sword was tempting. But Valgith wasn't a fool. He knew what dangers could lie in the dark forest.
Valgith started running basic plans of action in his mind. He tapped his hoof to his chin in thought.
A few minutes passed by until he formulated a simple plan.
"I can't just run away, they would make search parties looking for me. The best course of action would be to play along with what they think of me. If they think I'm a child then I will just try and pass off as one, until the attention on me lessens and I can search for my equipment in peace." It was a simple plan but it was a decent one for what he could think of in such a short amount of time.
He turned away from the window and went back to bed. He saw that the bedstand had a drawer in it, opening it he saw a few books and comic books that laid inside.
His horn lit up as he picked up the first book in the pile and brought it in front of him. On the cover was a yellow coated mare with a black mane. The title of the book read Daring Do and the sapphire stone.
Valgith raised an eyebrow at the cover. The mare was grasping a vine, in the waters below her was some kind of lizard that reminded him of a Kroxigor. The mare, he assumed was Daring Do, wore a shirt and a hat. Valgith pondered the usefulness of the clothing when the ponies had fur. A stylish choice maybe?
He opened the book and began reading.
___
The night turned to morning and a certain purple mare awoke in her bed.
She got up from her bed and greeted her still sleeping assistant.
"Good morning Spike. It's time to get out of bed." The only response was Spike mumbling into his pillow and saying something that sounded like 'five more minutes.'
Twilight only smiled as she turned and headed towards her kitchen, where she decided to make breakfast. She was going to make pancakes today, it was the weekend after all.
In her process of making breakfast her thoughts drifted to the day before, to what she found in the everfree and the colt that she and the rest of her friends had found. A slight frown made itself known on her muzzle as she thought about him. What horrors the poor colt had gone through, simply imagining somepony doing that to somepony else was enough to send shivers down her spine, much less do that to somepony as defenceless as a colt.
Though the dark armour he wore was also worrying. Was it some kind of dark artifact? Was it mind controlling the colt? Did it force him to do things he didn't want to? Or was she currently overthinking too much?
Twilight was broken from her thoughts as spike entered the kitchen.
"Morning Twilight." The still half asleep dragon greeted her, rubbing his eyes a bit.
Twilight pushed her worries out of the forefront of her mind as she responded.
"Good morning Spike, I made pancakes." She offered a few of said food to the groggy baby dragon, who took a few and placed them on a plate he had picked up.
"So... What's on the to do list today?" Spike asked while coating his pancakes in syrup.
"Princess Celestia said she was going to be visiting the Ponyville hospital later today. She wanted to personally talk with the colt we found in the woods yesterday. She also wanted me to accompany her. Otherwise we don't have anything planned."
"Princess Celestia is coming here? I'd think you would be worrying and overreacting about it." Spike questioned as he broke multiple food etiquette rules by shoving pancakes down his throat.
"Well I did, but it should only be a simple and quick trip to the hospital. The Princess asked to not make a big scene about it."
"But?" Spike simply asked.
A look of worry flashed through Twilights face, a look Spike was all too familiar with. "I just can't help but worry, it's supposed to be a quick and simple trip. What if something goes wrong?"
Spike rolled his eyes as he simply went back to devouring his pancakes.
_________
Valgith had read through half of the Daring Do book he found when the sun started rising above the horizon.
He had noticed that while the book did grab his attention in a few parts he noted that it was very tame. At least compared to the books he had read back in the fated place. This book was all about thrilling adventures where no one died or was horrifically maimed. It seemed that this was a children's book.
Valgith was currently laying on his stomach with his legs tucked underneath him, in the white hospital bed. He had the book open on the bed.
Noticing that the sun had risen, his horn lit up as a blue aura surrouded the book and he placed it back in the bedstand.
He could hear approaching hoof steps walking towards his door. The door was quietly opened and the head of nurse Red Heart poked through the crack. When she saw that Valgith was awake she stepped into the room.
"I didn't think you'd be awake this early. Did you sleep well?" The question gave Valgith pause, was he supposed to sleep every night? He had gone so long without the need for sleep that he had all but forgotten how often he used to sleep.
'Did children have to sleep every night?' Valgith thought. He felt weird calling himself a child once again, when he hadn't been one for decades.
"Yes, I slept well." He courtly replied.
Red Heart nodded and walked to the foot of the bed Valgith was laying on.
"Now, I need to make a physical examination to see if you are healthy. It's nothing to worry about. Just relax on the bed and I'll do the rest." Thinking that it would be better to allow the mare to do what she had to, Valgith simply laid on the bed as she went on her inspection.
She poked Valgith in a few places all the while asking if she was hurting him. She brought some kind of device that she placed on his chest, a metal circle that had a tube extending out from it, which split halfway. She put the small tubes over her ears as she seemed to listen to something. She nodded, and then switched to checking his eyesight. As she looked into his eyes Valgith could see visible discomfort on her face.
"If you don't mind me asking. What happened to your eyes? They aren't... How should I say this? They aren't normal." He could hear the slight discomfort in Red Hearts words as she inspected his entirely blackened left eye.
"It happened in battle." He simply responded. Though it did not improve the mood of the mare in front of him. In fact it seemed to make it worse.
"Battle? There hasn't been fights this gruesome in Equestria for hundreds of years." A deep look of worry seeped out of her.
'A place without conflict? How would a place like that even exist? Do they not know what is currently happening in the rest of the world?' His brow furrowed a bit at the thought.
"Could we continue on with the inspection?" Valgith steered the topic away from his scars. Red Heart nodded and did a few other checks of his body as well as inspecting his wings and horn.
"Well it looks like you are otherwise completely healthy." She nodded as she finished scribbling notes on to a notebook she had brought with her.
In times like these Valgith was glad he didn't have any noticeable mutations, it would have been hard to blend in with others if one had an unnatural amount of limbs or eyes after all.
"Looks like you will be getting out of here later today." A small smile appeared on her lips, not a sinister or even a fake smile that Valgith was so accustomed to seeing, but a genuine smile.
It made Valgith feel weird, like something was wrong. He didn't like that feeling. But deep down in his most guarded parts of his heart he felt a spark of something.
"Are you hungry? I can go and get some breakfast for you." Valgith yet again wondered why these ponies were so kind towards a total stranger.
"I could do with another apple." Thinking about the apple he had yesterday he felt his mouth water a bit.
Red Heart nodded and she left the room, leaving Valgith alone with his thoughts yet again.
'What should I do after leaving.' Valgith pondered. The thought of retrieving his sword was itching at the back of his mind. But eventually he yet again decided against it. He had no armour, no weapons and a very limited amount of magic. So he decided to gain a bit more strength and get more comfortable with casting spells in this new body before heading back into the forest.
Red Heart was only gone for a few moments until Valgith heard her hoofsteps returning.
She held a tray with her mouth. In which two red apples rested atop it. Valgith raised his left brow at the sight. An action which was not seen by Red Heart as his mane covered that part of his face.
She walked to the bedstand next to his bed and laid the tray down next to the old tray. Valgith noticed a small frown on Red Hearts muzzle as she saw that the sandwich hadn't been eaten.
She picked up the old tray and balanced it on her back.
Valgiths horn lit up as an aura of dark blue surrounded one of the apples, he brought it closer to him. It floated in front of him for a few seconds as Valgith inspected it and then he took a bite out of it.
Looking back at the white mare he saw a that her face was full of astonishment. Valgith wondered if he had done something wrong until she spoke up.
"How are you even able to cast spells? It would normally take close to a week before anypony suffering from magical exhaustion could cast spells again."
'Anypony?' Valgith's eyebrow raised slightly at the word.
"I guess I'm different." Valgith had a few ideas why he was, but he wouldn't exactly want to run his mouth and tell everyone how he was different.
Red Heart paused for a second, as if realising something.
"Ah, of course. I somehow forgot about you being an Alicorn. We don't get many Alicorn patients here. I guess it slipped my mind." She had an apologetic look on her face as she talked.
'Alicorn?' Valgith was yet again met by more information that he didn't know. 'I really need to find a library to read up on all these new creatures.'
"Speaking of Alicorns, Princess Celestia informed us that she would be visiting you today. She should be here in about half an hour."
'Princess Celestia?' Yet another unknown piece of information, Valgith thought that this was all the more reason to find the nearest library and read up on everything about this world.
"Why would a Princess visit me?"
"Well, you are a Prince are you not?" This question threw Valgith for a loop. Him? A Prince? How would anyone come to that conclusion? Was it the way he looked? For all he knew it could be any reason under the sun.
He really needed to find the nearest library.
After a second of silence his thoughts raced on ways to make this an advantage for himself. He could say that he was a Prince of a far away land. It could prove to have it's own advantages. But it would come with a few disadvantages as well, politics being the main disadvantage. Valgith never really liked politics, he preferred to research magic instead.
There were a few things that would stick out in his lie if he were to say that he was royalty. Like the fact that Valgith had no idea how royalty acted, especially equine royalty.
In the end Valgith didn't think it was the best idea to say that he was royalty. The negatives outweighed the positives.
"No, I am not royalty." The simple answer caused a confused look to be thrown his way.
"What do you mean? Aren't all Alicorns royalty?" Red Heart asked.
"Apparently not." Red Heart took a second to look him over, as if trying to see if he was being truthful. After she was done she sighed.
Red Heart excused herself and left Valgith alone with his food once more. A few minutes passed as he savoured the rich tasting apples.
When he was finished Red Heart entered the room once more and smiled as she saw that he had eaten.
Valgith heard more hoofsteps behind the door that Red Heart had previously entered from. He heard multiple ponies walking towards his room. Multiple of them sounded armoured.
When the clear sound of armoured hoofsteps entered his ears he jumped out of bed and approached the only safe exit that he could think of. The window. He stood next to the window, trying to look interested at the sights beyond.
Nurse Red Heart's eyebrow rose at the sight of the colts actions but then she turned her attention towards the door behind her when it opened.
A male pony with white fur walked into the room. He wore gold plate armour that covered a good portion of his fur. His helmet completely covered his mane and a white ploom stuck out atop his helmet.
"Announcing the arrival of Princess Celestia." The armoured pony firmly stated.
Not even a second after he guard had spoken a tall white pony stepped into the room. Behind her stood Twilight with a clipboard and quill floating in the air next to her.
The white pony stood higher than any others in the room. Valgith had to look upward just to see her properly. Her coat was a pure white, her multicoloured mane flowed as if there was some kind of magical wind that only effected her mane, two great wings rested on her sides and a long pure white horn jutted out of her head. Valgith spotted the image of a sun on her rump.
The second thing he noticed about the Princess that stood in front of him was the aura she emitted. Waves upon waves of pure harmony seemed to radiate from her. It made Valgith sick, then the sickness turned to a feeling of peace and comfort. Then the sickness surfaced again. The same feelings kept repeating themselves over and over while he stood next to the window. His vision blurred from merely standing in the same room as her. The absolute purity that emanated from her didn't seem to effect anyone else in the room except him. Nor did it seem that anyone else even saw the magical aura that she emitted.
"I've said this before Iron Shield. You do not need to announce my presence everywhere I go." The sweet and motherly voice that the Princess spoke in had a similar effect as her aura.
"I apologise Princess, but everypony should know when you arrive so that they will be ready to bow before you." The Princess simply smiled and shook her head gently.
After the guard spoke Valgith finally got control of himself, if only a little. The waves of sickness and calm still continued but he could hide it.
Now that he had gained some control back he finally spotted that Red Heart was bowing before the Princess. Valgith however did not bow. Instead he simply chose to stand next to the window and not move a muscle.
He saw a few guards that accompanied the Princess, they all looked exactly the same. Two of them stood still, guarding the outer side of the door. The door closed before he could see further out.
Valgith could see the first guard that had entered to room had taken post next to the door. The guard eyed Valgith. He could swear that he saw the guards eye twitch when he didn't bow.
In this awkward silence Red Heart left the room, taking the tray with her. Leaving only a guard, Princess Celestia, Twilight and Valgith in the white room.
Valgith looked up at the tall Alicorn in front of him. A warm smile could be seen on her muzzle.
"Hello Valgith. It is good to finally meet you. I have heard quite a bit of you from my student, Twilight." She spoke in a gentle and reassuring tone.
As she spoke he heard the sound of quill on paper, this seemed more of an interrogation than a simple visit.
"Where are your parents? They must be worried sick searching for you." The princess questioned.
No one in this room could expect the brutally honest bluntness that left the little colts mouth when he answered.
"They are dead." Three simple words broke the smile on Celestias face. Her face changed into a look of shock and then into sadness.
The quill stopped mid sentence as Twilight looked at Valgith with a face of sadness.
"Do not pity me. They both died long ago. I have all but forgotten them."
"I am sorry but I cannot help but feel sad that such a tragedy would happen to someone as young as you."
A minute passed in silence as the Princess and Twilight tried to regain their composure as Valgith stayed quiet.
After a bit more time passed it seemed that Twilight and the Princess regained their composure. Then the silence was broken by Valgith.
"I'm interested to hear why you would visit someone like me."
Celestia had a small motherly smile on her face as she answered.
"I simply wanted to see the Alicorn colt that suddenly appeared in the Everfree forest."
Valgith wasn't that dumb. He knew the Princess had an ulterior motive for being here. Perhaps she wanted to see him herself, to see if he would be a threat to her subjects. Or to confirm her suspicions of him being a creature of chaos. Or perhaps to question him on his equipment.
A few other theories floated in Valgiths mind as he stayed quiet. He felt like the Princess was staring into his very soul when she looked at him.
"Well, now you've seen him." The pure bluntness of Valgith caused the motherly smile on Celestia's face falter a bit.
However Celestia quickly regained that smile and she asked.
"Do you happen to know anything of the armour that you wore?" A question that Valgith had expected.
"No, I do not."
Celestia took a step closer.
"Are you sure?"
As she approached the feeling of sickness strengthened. It felt like Valgith was about to vomit up what little food he had eaten.
"Positive." His voice sounded weaker. He could feel parts of his fur becoming damp with sweat.
'Was this her plan? To somehow torture me with her aura?' Valgith had a hard time even thinking straight. His body told him to get as far away from the tall mare as he could.
The motherly smile switched to that of worry as Celestia looked closer at Valgith.
"Is something wrong?"
Valgith could not take it, he had to get out of here. The only clear escape he could think of was the window behind him.
Valgith took a step backwards, moving closer to the closed window. In response Celestia took a worried step forward, inspecting the colt.
As the Princess took a step forward Valgith had jumped backward, he willed his wings to open, to push himself away from the approaching Princess and build up more speed. He was in the air for only half a second until his back impacted the window behind him.
The last thing he saw before he fell was the looks of complete shock on everyone in the room.
The window shattered as Valgith fell through it. He could feel pain on his back as he fell from the second story window.
Valgith spread his wings as he tried to slow his descent but it was for naught. His back impacted the ground hard and he felt that something on his back lodged itself deeper into him.
Valgith grunted in pain but quickly got back up on his hooves. He quickly picked a direction to run away from the Princess and her sickeningly pure aura.
He saw a dirt path that led into the nearby town so he decided to take the opposite way, away from the town and back into the forest.
As he started running he could hear worried shouts coming from behind him. All the while the sickness at the bottom of his stomach grew worse.
He could feel warmth spreading from his back as it travelled down to his hooves.
His leathery bat wings flapped as he ran, giving him small bursts of speed.
The dirt road underneath his hooves quickly changed to fresh grass as he ran off the well traveled path.
As he kept running he heard the sounds of approaching hoofsteps.
Valgith quickly glanced behind him and saw two armoured guards following him.
Valgith fixed his gaze back in front of him. He was nearly there, if only he could get past the treeline he could hide away and not have to deal with the Princess.
With every step he felt the sickness traveling up his throat. He needed to get to the forest, he needed to lose the guards, he needed to escape.
Valgith ran past the treeline, passing by gloomy trees and fauna. But he couldn't hold the sickness inside of him forever.
Valgith turned his head behind him to see if the guards were still following. As he expected they had gained some ground on him. Now that they were closer he noticed that while they both looked nearly exactly the same, one of them had a horn while the other didn't.
Valgith's coat had turned a darker shade as it was entirely wet with sweat. Likely due to the sickness and the awkward running.
Valgith tripped over an exposed root that poked awkwardly out of the dirt. His stomach hit the ground first.
The moment his stomach hit the ground Valgith felt the bile exit his stomach.
Valgith had trouble seeing anything in front of him. It was like he couldn't move his head. He felt another round of vomit exit his mouth. Splattering across the dirt and his front hooves.
Both of the guards stopped a few meters behind him. Neither said a word as they simply watched Valgith clear his stomach.
The third round of vomit didn't look natural. It was a black, viscous sludge that clung to his lower jaw as it splattered on in the dirt. A slight sizzling sound was heard as the black sludge seemingly melted the ground underneath it.
The smell that came from the sludge was unlike anything the guards had ever smelled. The scent of vomit, gore and rot clung to their noses.
Both of the guards took a step back in a mixture of worry and horror. They covered their noses with one hoof as they simply watched the spectacle in front of them.
After vomiting the black sludge Valgith felt like he could finally move his head, if only a little. He turned his head to look back at the two guards that had been following him.
Both of them took a step back as they saw the face of the small colt they had been chasing. Black veins could be seen through his fur that raced all across his face. The entirely black eye had turned a tinge of green and his right eye, which normally had a red iris had also turned a sickly green colour. The white of his right eye had black veins running all across it.
His mouth had a bit of the corrosive black sludge dripping from in between his teeth. The guards also noticed that the colt had a bunch of sharp canines in his mouth.
A line of tears trailed from his eyes, no doubt due to the vomiting.
The area was near silent, the only sound that could be heard was the panting of the colt as he tried his best to recover from his sudden sickness.
Both of the guards did not approach and stayed silent as he colt breathed deep.
'Armour.' The only thought that ran through Valgith's mind was that he needed his armour back. He didn't know why but he felt like he would feel so much better if he was wearing it.
"Uhh... What do we do?" Valgith heard one of the guards speak to the other.
"We bring him back of course." The unicorn guard deadpanned.
"Hey colt, why did you run?" The earth pony asked, offering a hoof towards Valgith. "And what in Celestias name was that."
"Question him later dumbass, can't you see he's hurt?" The unicorn looked Valgith in the eyes and asked. "Can you walk?"
Valgith responded with a grunt as he ignored the offered hoof and stood up on his own.
Through shaky breaths Valgith responded. "I'm fine."
Valgith looked down at his hooves and noticed that his dark fur had patches that were a darker shade. He inspected the darker patches of fur and noticed that it was blood. His gaze slowly crawled up his leg and up to his back, where he saw a giant shard of glass lodged in between his wings, in the same spot his old scar was.
"Great." He mumbled.
"Let's get you back to the hospital." Valgith slowly followed the two guards. He was too weak to run, and if he did, he knew he would just be captured again.
As the group headed back towards the hospital, they failed to notice that the black corrosive liquid started to slowly move deeper into the forest.
Author's Note
Hope you enjoyed the chapter.
If you see any spelling errors please inform me and I'll fix them.
Anyway, happy new years everyone!
Chapter 4 Meet the gang! Part 1
The white furred ears of a bunny flicked to the right, as the sound of rustling leaves caught it's attention. It's head turned to face the direction of the sound, as it stopped it's movement.
It's ears listened closely to it's surroundings. Turning every which way. It's head quickly gazed all across it's surroundings, trying to spot anything out of the ordinary.
The forest was relatively quiet, the only constant sound was the faint rustling of leaves in the wind.
The bunny stood still for a few more seconds, until it was sure that it was safe to move, and started moving towards it's favorite stream.
Moving through the gloom foliage of the Everfree, it didn't take long for the small bunny to find the stream. Pushing past the leaves of a thick bush, it's adorably round eyes saw the soothing sight of a lazily flowing stream, surrounded by great healthy trees, and a small opening in the foliage that led directly to the stream. The calming atmosphere of this small stream seeped into the small bunny. With practiced ease the bunny hopped over to it.
The sounds of water flowing, the wind blowing against it's fur and the pure smells of the forest, was like a small slice of paradise for this small critter. It joyfully lowered itself closer to the waters surface.
As the crisp fresh water made contact with it's taste buds the bunny began greedily drinking from it. As it drank it's fill, the small bunny realised that the water was sweeter than it remembered. It was so unusually sweet but it couldn't stop drinking.
It began to drink in excess. The water tasted absolutely divine, nothing in this world could ever compare to the amazing and heavenly taste of this seemingly normal river. It felt as if this water was accidentally spilled from a cup only meant for seraphic beings.
Absolutely lost in it's excessive gluttony, the bunny didn't realise that it's fate had already been decided.
______
The sound of shattering glass was deafening. All the ponies in the room stood still in shock, only braking from their stupor when they heard a muffled thud coming from beyond the window.
Hearing the shattering of the window two solar guards barged into the room. They both located the Princess and rushed to her side.
"What happened Princess?" Both of the solar guards had taken defensive stances around her in a few mere seconds, their gazes shot all across the room, looking for anything hostile or out of place.
The sight of two of her guards made her turn towards them. "Valgith jumped out of the window. I need both of you to see to it that he isn't hurt and to bring him back here safely."
The two guards saluted and left as quick as their hooves could carry them.
"Iron Shield." The solar guard perked up at his name being called.
"Yes Princess?"
"Could you step out of the room for a moment. I have something important to discuss with my student." Iron Shield nodded and stepped out of the room, closing the door behind him. She then turned towards her loyal student, the usually pleasant smile on her face was replaced by a serious expression, one that made Twilight feel like she just did something wrong and was facing a disappointed parent.
"Twilight, have you noticed anything weird with Valgith?" She usually wasn't so blunt in her approach, but this felt like it was an important enough subject to not beat around the bush.
"N-no. I can't say that I have." She was a bit hesitant to respond, as if she was afraid that one wrong word from her could have disastrous consequences.
Princess Celestia's stern gaze softened a bit. "Twilight, I'm not angry with you. It's just that this situation is very unusual. I just want to know if you have spotted what I did."
Twilight's nervous attitude calmed down a bit. "What did you spot?"
Celestia hummed in thought. "I'm not quite sure myself. When I approached Valgith he seemed." She paused for a few seconds, seemingly looking for the right word to use. "Odd." She approached the shattered window and looked outside. A sight of two royal guards chasing a small injured colt greeted her eyes. A small frown appeared on her muzzle.
"He doesn't trust us, and by merely looking at him I can see that the feeling is valid. He has had some very distressing experiences in the past." She sighed. "But that's not all, when I approached him the air around him felt different. Colder and somehow uninviting."
Twilight's brow furrowed in confusion. "I can't say I've ever heard of something like that. What could cause such a thing?"
"Do you remember the armor that he wore when you found him?" Celestia turned her head away from the window to face her student.
"Are you saying that the armor had something to do with it?"
"It could be, I've never met anypony with such an aura of gloom. It could be a side effect of the armor. Perhaps he might be under the effects of the armor."
"Are you saying he's possessed?" A tone of worry escaped Twilight's lips.
"Not necessarily, It would be obvious if he was. What I mean is that the armor could have a slight influence on his actions. Like just now when he ran away from me."
"So what can we do to help him?" A determined look appeared on her face.
"It seems that I will need to study the armor back in Canterlot. Meanwhile I want you to look after Valgith, and send me a letter if you see anything worrying about him or his actions. Otherwise you can keep sending me your discoveries in friendship."
"I will not let you down." Twilight spoke in a tone of confidence.
Celestia smiled, that sweet motherly smile gracing her lips once more. "Good."
Suddenly a small flash accompanied by a popping sound took the attention of the two ponies. A letter had appeared in between them. It was levitating in the air at head level.
A yellow aura surrounded the letter as Celestia brought it closer to her. "Excuse me for a second."
She then opened the letter and began reading. As her eyes traced the lines of ink on the paper her eyes narrowed a bit. "It seems there is some urgent business I need to take care of in Canterlot. I'm sorry to cut off our talk so short but I have to get back as soon as possible."
______
Valgith turned his head to the side and spat out more black liquid out of his mouth. It made a slight sizzling noise for a few seconds as it melted away at the fresh grass, exposing parts of the soil underneath.
Both of the guards stood a bit further back from him, due to the terrible smell emanating from Valgith's mouth. It was like an invisible cloud that smelled of rot, gore and stomach acid that followed him every step of the way back to the hospital.
Every now and then a small hiss could be heard, as Valgith sharply inhaled in pain. The guards had offered to carry him back to the hospital but he had refused their help.
The small group stepped out of the treeline and into the open field. The hospital could be seen in the distance.
Now that Valgith wasn't being pursued, he took in his surroundings. The very healthy green grass, the small dirt path that lead from the hospital to deeper into town and the clear blue skies above.
He took in a deep breath through his nose. The scent of flowers, earth and the black sludge hit him.
'How do the Nurgle worshippers do this?' He frowned as the thought, he felt uncomfortably dirty, but compared to the worshippers of Nurgle this would be the cleanest they would ever be.
Now that he thought about it, he never felt dirty before. Of course he had felt dirty while he was still mortal, but after accepting chaos he never felt bothered about his non existent hygiene.
His eyes slightly narrowed in thought. 'Could this new predicament be the reason for this?' He looked down at his hooves, before huffing.
He glanced back towards the two guards escorting him. Both of them still following a few meters behind him. Both of them holding one hoof in front of their noses, trying to block out the smell.
From the corner of his vision he could see the shard of glass still protruding out of his back. He made a small grunt as he tried moving his wings, every small move he made with them caused a jolt of pain.
'If only I knew how to fly, then I wouldn't be in this mess.' He silently cursed his nonexistent flying skills as he continued walking.
'How am I going to explain myself?' Valgith scoffed. 'Running away from royalty like that, you fool.' As his thoughts echoed in his mind, he noted that he was approaching the hospital.
He could already see through the first floor windows. A few ponies inside spotted him walking towards the building. Quite many looked worried.
The doors of the main entrance swung open and a single pony ran outside to meet him.
"What were you thinking?" The purple blur stopped right in front of him.
"You could have-" Twilight's words were caught in her throat as her eyes landed on the sharp piece of glass jutting out of his skin.
Valgith simply raised his eyebrow at her. "I am fine, I've had worse."
"FINE? You have a giant piece of glass in between your wings!" Twilight's horn lit up and a purple aura surrounded Valgith.
A sudden feeling of weightlessness overcame him as he was lifted from the ground. On instinct he channeled magic into his horn and tried to overpower Twilight's telekinesis.
As his horn lit up, the magic aura around his horn wavered for a few seconds until Twilight spoke.
"Don't even try that Val, you'll just end up exhausting yourself."
Realizing that he couldn't overpower Twilight's magic he resorted to words instead. "Put me down this instant. I can walk perfectly fine."
Twilight started moving him towards the hospital in her magical grasp.
"I don't want you to get hurt more than you already have. You made us all worried."
Valgith exhaled sharply through his nose. "I can walk by myself. I am not some helpless creature."
The doors to the hospital opened as Twilight entered, Valgith floated just behind her.
A solar guard passed them both as they entered. Saying something to the two following guards before they all departed together, leaving the hospital from the front doors.
A couple of unnamed doctors and nurses saw him, and ran up to help him.
Valgith scowled at all the worried ponies around him. He didn't need their help. He was perfectly fine without them.
Though all of his protests against needing help, the doctors and nurses seemed to ignore him.
He was moved back into the same room he was in previously, the window he jumped out of had been somehow repaired.
Twilight was left back on the first floor, and he didn't spot the Princess anywhere. A small part of him was glad that he didn't have to meet with her again.
The doctors found multiple smaller pieces of glass in his wings, and all across his back, which took longer to remove.
It took about half an hour for the doctors to find and remove all the pieces of glass, disinfect the wound, clean him up and wrap up the wound in bandages. After all that was done, a basic slow healing spell was cast on the wound, to accelerate the healing process.
After the time was up, he was left back in the same bed to recover.
Not even a minute passed since the doctors left and the door was opened yet again. Behind it stood a certain purple unicorn.
She seemed to breathe a sigh of relief as she stepped into the room.
"The doctors said that you will make a full recovery. Just don't go jumping out of any windows anymore."
Valgith answered her with a low hum.
"Did the Princess leave?" A simple question, answered by a simple nod.
"She had something very important come up in Canterlot and had to leave. She hopes to hear that you are well."
Valgith let out a breath that he wasn't even aware he was holding.
"So... Why did you jump through the window?"
As much as Valgith hated to say it, he had to act like what he was currently viewed as, a child. He couldn't tell them the truth, so he told her the only lie he could think of at such a short notice. Swallowing his pride he opened his mouth.
"I was scared."
"Scared?" Twilight parroted. "Of the Princess?"
Valgith nodded.
"But why would you run? You could have just said something."
Valgith's face turned into a grimace.
"In my experience you either run or fight. If you do neither you are as good as dead, there is no time for a peaceful conversation."
After his words the room fell into silence as Twilight seemed to be in deep thought. Neither said a word for a few passing moments, until Twilight spoke once more.
"Where are you from?" A simple question, with a complicated answer. "You talk like the place you are from is very violent. There hasn't been fights in Equestria for a thousand years. At least not fights violent enough to leave scars like that." She pointed towards Valgith's scar ridden face with her right foreleg.
'How could that be? The ruinous powers are everywhere, how could these ponies not have experienced even a single fight in a thousand years? She must be lying.' Valgith's thoughts were a endless maze of questions. In his relatively short experience here, he has not seen even a single scar on any of the ponies, albeit he has only seen a handful of them. But statistically, at least one of the guards should have some kind of visible scar. Scars were are a very common sight in any city or town he had visited. Be it from battles or even something as simple as occasional farming mishaps. Nearly every single mortal had scars, but somehow these ponies had none.
"I am from the Empire." Valgith stated, as if that would explain everything to the mare.
"The Empire? Where's that?" Confusion was written on Twilight's face.
"You don't know where the empire is?" Twilight shook her head at his question. "In the old world." He stated, which caused her to shoot another confused look towards him.
Valgith sighed. "Do you have a map? I'll show it to you." At his request, in a flash of purple light, accompanied by a popping sound, a scroll appeared next to Twilight. She unraveled it in her magic and took a quick glance at it before turning it towards him.
Valgith was about to point to the part of the map he knew all too well before he paused.
Looking over the map he did not see the Empire. He did not see Lustria, Naggaroth or even the eyesore that is Ulthuan. Instead the map was showed him land he had never seen before, cities he had never even heard of and oceans that didn't exist.
"Is this some kind of joke?" Valgith lifted his gaze from the map and looked at the mare in front of him.
"What? Is there something wrong with the map?" She turned the map around in her magic and looked it over. "I don't see anything wrong with it."
"That's entirely wrong, it shows absolutely nothing of the known world." Valgith snatched the map out of Twilight's magic with his hoof and looked over it once more.
As Valgith took the map, his left eye which hadn't moved a single time since he woke up in this body, suddenly changed. In the pitch black a slightly glowing blue slit pupil appeared. At first it moved in lighting speeds as it gazed all across the room, as if taking in it's surroundings, before landing on the map in his hooves. The blackened eye did this all on its own while his red eye looked at the map.
"What is that?" Twilight suddenly asked, braking Valgith out of his inspection of the map.
His slit eye gazed up at the mare all the while his right eye stayed on the map. "What?" He asked, one eye still glued to the map.
"What happened to your eye?" A hint of worry and confusion could be heard in her voice.
"Do not worry about it." His slit pupils glow slowly faded, and his eye turned back to the normal pupil-less black. He raised the map up to his face, blocking the sight of Twilight out of his view.
'Strange, does she not know a single thing about chaos?' Every city he knew of would have already either thrown him in the dungeons or tried to kill him.
As his gaze was fixated on the map in his hooves he didn't notice Twilight slowly creeping towards him until she was right next to him, how did she move so silently with hooves? It was as if she simply materialized right next to him.
Jolting away from the mare his face scrunched in to a frown. "What are you doing shyish?" His temporary anger faded to surprise at what he had let slip.
Valgith froze, he had accidentally spoken in dark tongue. If they didn't know that he was a follower of chaos before then they would definitely know now.
He had an unfortunate habit of speaking in dark tongue when surprised. It had brought some trouble to him in the past.
He was ready to run if she showed even a single sign of aggression towards him. Instead her face seemed full of childlike wonder.
"Oh, what was that? Do you know other languages? Oh, I mean of course you do, if you're not from around here. What language was that?"
Surprised at the lack of aggression, Valgith let himself relax a bit, all the while Twilight was asking him questions.
"Do you not know what language that was?" Valgith cut through Twilights near endless questions with one of his own.
"No, I couldn't even mention a single language that sounds anything like it."
Valgith's brow furrowed in thought, but he wasn't able to think long before the purple mare asked yet another question.
"Could you tell me what you meant when you said that word? 'Shyhiish'?" She tried imitating the word but horribly mispronounced it.
It looked like Twilight wouldn't take no for an answer, it seemed she was one of those people that wanted to know everything about anything that interested them, something he could appreciate.
A small hint of a smile tugged at the corner of his lips.
"It means many things but in this context it translates to, purple"
"Fascinating." Twilight had acquired a quill and a scroll from somewhere, she mumbled something while writing down notes.
"Are there any other words that you could teach me?" The hunger for knowledge could be seen in her eyes.
"Tduigu-Uis. It is a greeting." Twilight's gaze drifted back to her scroll as she furiously wrote down more notes.
"Did I write them correctly?" She turned the scroll towards him, showing her notes. The notes about black speech was written in some magic language that he couldn't recognise but somehow understood. It seemed to take small bits of many different magic languages that he knew of, creating an interesting blend of them all.
Another thing he noticed was that the black speech itself was written in the same magic language as the notes, instead of it's normal runes. It was obvious that the black speech would never work if it wasn't written as it's base runes.
An idea popped into Valgith's head. A very risky idea but it was one he decided to entertain anyway. He decided to write down some black speech for her. If the ponies did not recognise the very distinct written language of black speech, then he would know that these ponies likely had no idea about chaos, and it's accursed language. However if they did, then he'd simply have to add this small town to his list of places that he shouldn't visit and to leave immediately.
It was a decent way to see if his suspicions hold true. There was no way these ponies didn't know what chaos was, right?
"They are somewhat right, but let me show you how they are properly written down." Twilight simply smiled, the unending hunger for knowledge could be seen in her eyes, clear as day.
The quill she had in her magic levitated closer to him, before the purple aura slowly turned a deep blue as Valgith took it in his telekinesis, and went to writing down the black speech.
As the quill moved on the paper, twisted and chaotic runes appeared. The very ink that was used to make marks in the paper seemed to slightly shift and move on it's own. A feeling of guilty pleasure ran through his spine as the runes came to being, it was as if he was doing something really bad, and it felt so good.
It didn't take long for him to write two simple words on the piece of paper. As the quill came to a stop Valgith's eyes remained glued on to the paper for a few seconds as he simply listened. The only sound he could hear was Twilight's soft breathing in the near silent room.
Slowly he turned his head towards the mare. As his gaze met her face he noticed that she was still staring at the runes.
Valgith cleared his throat, an action which broke Twilight out of her stare.
"I've never seen letters like that. They are so fascinating." A small sparkle appeared in her eyes.
A small smile tugged at Valgith's lips.
If the close confidant of the Princess does not know of even the basics of chaos, that every single mortal should, then he was right.
This would make his presence here a lot more safe. While he would have to hide some parts of himself, at least he wouldn't need to be constantly on edge, awaiting for an incoming blade to stab him in the neck while he least expects it.
"I'm glad you find the language interesting." He handed the scroll back to Twilight, which she in turn took in her magic and brought it to her face. It was a miracle that the paper didn't burst into flames due to how intensely she was looking at the runes.
"I want to know everything about this language. Can you teach it to me?" The scroll was slowly levitated down just enough that her eyes could be seen.
"I could teach you." Valgith could practically hear her smile. "But it wont be for free." And then it faltered.
Both the scroll and map were quickly rolled back up and vanished with a small pop.
"What would you want? I could teach you something that you don't know, or maybe I could bring you some books from my private collection."
Valgith hummed in thought. 'I need some time alone to think about my current predicament, and formulate a proper plan. Perhaps a place of relative silence and privacy could help with that. Information would be a great boon as well, but money is important if I am to blend in with the locals.'
He was about to answer but then realised something.
'What about this new body? Do I need a reliable source of food and drink? Do I need to sleep once more? There is just too many unknowns.'
"Perhaps some money would be of use, seeing as I do not have a place to stay, nor do I have any food. Say, do you know of any inns here?"
"Inns? We do have a hotel here if that's what you mean." She paused and suddenly averted her gaze. "But you could spend a few nights at my house. I've got a spare bedroom."
"What? Why?" Valgith was taken by complete surprise. He had never been willingly invited into anyone's house before.
She looked back at him with a smile. "Why? Because it's so interesting talking with you, and that's not even counting in the fact that you'll teach me an entirely new language. You can stay at my house for a few weeks if you teach me that language, you can consider that as payment."
'This is suspicious. No one would offer something like that so willingly. Did she have an ulterior motive?' His face did not reveal is doubt.
'But this could be an opportunity. She doesn't seem to have any ill will towards me and that could always be exploited. Not to mention she is a confidant of a Princess. Having someone that important on my side will always be a good thing. I'll just have to keep my guard up for a little longer and be weary of any tricks she might pull.'
It didn't help that he actually didn't have any kind of say in this. He would have to accept the gesture to get into her good books, and if he refused she could very easily overpower his weak body by a simple telekinesis spell. He had to simply accept her kindness with open arms and go with her, at least for now.
Valgith opened his mouth to reply to Twilight but paused as a new thought entered his mind.
'Wait, since I am an orphaned child now, how come no one has even talked to me about moving me to an orphanage? Has everyone just collectively forgotten that important fact?' He questioned that odd fact but chose not to mention it.
He cleared his throat. "I accept."
"Great!" Twilight chirped. "Oh, I almost forgot. The doctors said that you are free to leave, just leave through the doors this time."
Valgith dropped out of bed, the sound of his hooves impacting the ground echoed in the room. "I'll take note of that."
"Would you like a tour of Ponyville? Seeing as you probably haven't been here before." Twilight asked, a small smile tugging at the corner of her lips.
"I'll take the tour." He agreed, it would be good to know the layout of the town he would be staying in for the foreseeable future.
"Great! I have an idea where to go first." A small smile graced Twilight's lips.
As the door swung open and they entered the long hospital corridor, a familiar voice kept echoing in Twilight's mind. A kind and motherly voice that could calm any being under the sun. " I want you to look after Valgith."
The rest of the walk to the main doors of the hospital passed in relative silence, only sometimes interrupted by passing doctors and nurses.
Pushing the glass door open and stepping outside once more, Valgith took in a deep breath through his nose. The sight of Ponyville rested out in front of him. As they both started walking deeper into the town something caught his eye. Specifically the residents of this town. Ponies walking, talking to each other and some even relaxing in the shade of some trees, carefree and oblivious to the horrors just beyond their borders. They all acted as if they had no idea of the current affairs of the world.
Valgith slightly narrowed his eyes at the sight. Did they truly not know about the coming doom? The spread of chaos has nearly taken hold of the entire world. How come these ponies aren't preparing for war, or at least to defend themselves. The more he focused on the residents of this town the more information he seemed to spot about them. Many of them were unfit for battle. Pudgy midsections, weak looking muscles and the wastage of time were the first things he saw. None of these ponies looked like they could win against even a single lesser daemon.
"It's a nice day today, isn't it?" Twilight attempted to strike up a conversation to not make this tour awkward.
He didn't answer, but continued walking beside her, his eye was slightly glazed over as he was lost in his thoughts.
Twilight took note of this and turned her head fully to the right and looked at him, then turned to look at what he was watching so intently.
The road they were traveling on just happened to pass by a red single story building, atop the gabled roof hanged a green bell. Many a foal was playing near the building, sitting around in the swings or running around the playground. Then a sight of a pink pony appeared on the roof, she stood just below the green bell before she unceremoniously stuck her head into the bell and began banging her head inside of it. The impact of a head striking the bell made a pronounced chime that echoed out to the nearby foals. Many of which groaned, ceased their fun and begun making their way towards the building.
Valgith had been inspecting all of the residents of the town, lost in his own thoughts until the bell broke his concentration and caused his head to turn to the source of the noise.
"What in the-" The sentence died in his throat as he was so caught off guard by what he saw. The speed of the chimes had quickened as the pink pony kept on hitting the bell faster and faster, in spite of the lack of foals outside.
Valgith exchanged a look with Twilight. She smiled apologetically.
"Is this a normal occurrence here?" His right eyebrow raised a bit.
Twilight simply chuckled. "Well, no. Except if it's Pinkie. It's only weird if she isn't up to her weird antics. Speaking of her, I have to excuse myself for a moment." She turned away from him until quickly turning around once more. "Oh, and one more thing." She pointed at the red building. "This is the Ponyville schoolhouse." It seemed that the tour was still going smoothly.
Valgith watched Twilight make her way up to the schoolhouse.
Twilight stopped a few meters before the building in an angle where she could still see the pink mare banging her head inside the bell.
"Pinkie!" Twilight tried to catch her attention but the incessant chime never slowed down.
"Pinkie!" Yet again, no response. In fact it felt like the chime was getting even faster.
Deciding enough was enough Twilight's horn and the bell lit up in quick succession. The bell stood still, the seemingly insane mare still hit her head to the side of the bell twice before realising that the chime had stopped.
"Pinkie! What are you doing?" Twilight yelled up to the pink mare.
"Oh hiya Twi!" A pink head popped out of the bell. Attached to her head was a pink ball of cotton candy, or was that just her mane?
"What's up? Except me." She chuckled at her own little joke. "Get it? Because I'm up here and you're down there." She brought one of her front hooves up to her face to hide yet another round of muffled laughter.
Twilight was unamused by the joke. "What were you doing up there?"
"Oh, Cheerilee asked me to ring the bell at exactly one o'clock, so here I am!" She gave Twilight a big smile that seemed a bit too wide for her face.
"But what are YOU doing?" She put special emphasis on the word "you".
"I'm here to show Valgith around. He's new to town and I thought giving him a tour of Ponyville would be a great opportunity for him to meet some new ponies, and give him the locations of all the most important buildings here."
A ghasp escaped her lips. "Is he finally awake? Oh, I have to say hi to him." She quickly looked down towards the play area, her eyes fixated on a slide that was angled in a way that could be of use in her current situation.
She lowered her stance, her head and forelegs lowered, however her back legs didn't lower which made her rump stick out in the air. It looked like a predator ready to pounce on unsuspecting prey.
"Uhm, Pinkie? What are you-" Twilight couldn't even finish her question before the pink ball of cotton candy jumped from the roof.
"Weee!" She shouted while plummeting towards the slide.
Twilight couldn't keep her eyes off of the dangerous act her friend was performing.
In a gravity defying stunt Pinkie landed atop the slide perfectly before casually sliding down the slope.
"That was fun!" She simply smiled as she came to a stop at the base of the slide.
"That was very unnecessary." Valgith stepped next to Twilight.
"Well that's Pinkie for you" She casually answered.
In a flash Pinkie was gone from the base of the slide, somehow appearing right next to the odd duo.
"Hiya Vallie! I'm Pinkie Pie but all my friends call me Pinkie! It's so nice to meet you! I can already feel that we are best of friends! Did you know I'm friends with all of Ponyville? Oh, Did you know I bake the best cupcakes in Equestria? Well maybe not the best, but at least top five." Her forelegs surrounded his torso as she scooped him up in a hug.
"How wonderful, what's next? Are you going to tell me that Morrslieb is made of cheese?" He deadpanned.
"What's that? Is it a cheese wheel? Oh oh, is it a bread made of cheese?" She let go him go from her overly affectionate hug by dropping him back on all fours. Then she sat down, crossed her forelegs and rubbed her chin with a hoof as she hummed in thought.
"Oh I know! It's a candy made of cheese!" She smiled wide, expecting to be correct.
Valgith was at a loss for words, what was she even talking about? He shared another look with Twilight and she simply responded with. "Pinkie is Pinkie. Don't question it."
"Uhm, no. It's the the green moon." The wide smile was replaced with a questioning look from the pink mare.
"Uhh, Vallie I don't think there is a green moon."
He quickly checked the sky for any chance of seeing the elusive moon. He knew that on most days and nights it wasn't visible, but decided to take a look either way.
The sight that greeted his eyes was a slightly cloudy blue sky, with Morrslieb nowhere in sight.
He averted his gaze from the sky, focusing on the two mares in front of him once more. "Just because you haven't seen it doesn't mean it doesn't exist."
Twilight took a step forward. "There is no scientific evidence of a green moon. This is the first time I've heard of anything like that."
'How would that be possible? They would have to have seen it at least twice a year. Morrslieb always appears on Hexensnacht and Geheimnisnacht.'
"Do you have a different name for it? Ghyranek? Dark Moon? Black Moon?" From each name both of the mares shook their heads.
"I can't say I've heard any of those names. What about you Pinkie?" The pink pony shook her head once more.
"Nope! Ghyranek sounds like a funny word though. Ghyranek, Ghyranek, Ghyranek. Ghyyraaneeek." She played around with the word in her mouth, saying it in many different ways.
Valgith was starting to get irritated by this pink fluffball. "Can we get back to the tour?"
"Oh right, yes. We should get back to it, unless we want to do the tour in the dark."
"Where are you headed next?" Pinkie finally stopped repeating the same word.
"Well I had planned on visiting sugarcube corner first. Maybe get a small snack before completing the tour." When Twilight mentioned food a growl escaped from both Twilights and Pinkies stomachs.
Both of the mares blushed a little. "It seems neither of us have eaten yet." Twilight pointed out the obvious.
"Nope, I'm actually on my lunch break. I thought about using it to help out Cheerilee."
"You do know that you don't need to ring the bell for half an hour, right?" Twilight cocked her brow.
"Ehm, no?" An apologetic smile graced Pinkies face as she shrugged.
Twilight simply sighed.
"Let's get going." She led the way, walking deeper into town. Right beside her Pinkie was hopping along, somehow it seemed that from each hop a small spring like sound effect could be heard. All the while Valgith took to walking a bit behind them.
Author's Note
Sorry for the wait. Got a lot of projects recently and they have been taking up my time more than I thought.
If you spot any misspellings in this chapter I hope someone will point them out. I'll fix them right away.
Nevertheless hope you all enjoyed the chapter.
Oh and for the people who don't know or didn't google:
Chapter 5 Meet the gang! Part 2
The world was consumed in pain. Oh the exultant pain. How come had it never experienced this kind of feeling before?
It was blissful, it's mind was muddled by the excess of agony and pleasure.
Its lungs burned. Oh how sweet that burning pain was, how enjoyable, delectable. The euphoric burn felt like a blazing bonfire was lit in its very lungs. Only when it felt that it's lungs were on the brink of collapse did it lift its head from the water.
It wanted more. No, it needed more. This water wasn't enough. It needed something more than this.
It craved something red, viscous and simply delectable.
The all white fur of the once majestic animal had turned a grayish pink. Large patches of fur were missing from its once beautiful figure.
Water dripped down from the creatures face, a face once elegant, now marred with hideous mutations.
Its once gorgeous eyes now spoiled a deep pink, slit pupils frantically gazed over the surrounding woods, like a predator hunting for its next meal.
Its once flat herbivore teeth now mutated into a maw of razor sharp canines. It's previously flat tongue slithered between its teeth in a snake like fashion. As the split tongue liked over it's canines, a deep black sludge slowly dripped down its maw.
The once small critter had grown. Now standing as tall as a pony. Its torso had grown into a bulky mass of muscle, the legs had elongated to thrice the size of what it once was. The feet of the creature now sported sharp claws, that it dug into the dirt.
A deep guttural growl escaped the hideous creature's maw. A sound that hadn't graced the ears of any creature of this world before.
But in another it was an omen of the terror to come.
It breathed in deep before a screech of pure blood lust escaped its vocal cords.
It was time for a hunt.
________
The small group of two had been walking for about fifteen minutes. Twilight had taken the long way to sugarcube corner in order to show more of Ponyville to Valgith.
Pinkie had stayed for a bit and talked to the two until realising that she needed to head back to her shift.
Twilight had shown the locations of the most important places here in Ponyville. Like the marketplace, town hall, the Ponyville schoolhouse and the general direction of Sweet Apple Acres.
As they were nearing sugarcube corner she pointed to another sweet shop to her right.
"And that's the shop that Bon Bon runs." The average looking two story building had a sign just above the door. Inside it held a picture of some kind of wrapped up piece of candy. "She mostly just sells hard candy."
"But this" She then pointed at the huge gingerbread house that aesthetically clashed with the surrounding town. "Is sugarcube corner, they sell all kinds of pastries here. It's Ponyville's bakery, they sell a lot of baked goods here. You have to try some."
Valgith hummed in acknowledgement. He had stayed relatively quiet during the tour. He had been observing the town and it's multiple shops. To say that he was unimpressed was an understatement.
The very first thing he noticed was that there was an abundance of recreational businesses. There was at least five different candy shops within this one town. Not to mention the concerning lack of blacksmiths, armouries, defensive walls and guard posts.
He had seen a single smithy in town but it was very small and the few glances that he took inside, he didn't see any armour, weapons or defensive equipment being made. Only farming tools and some building equipment. In all honesty he was disappointed with the lack of any military equipment.
Not to mention the non existent guard. Usually there was at least a few squads of guards posted in even the safest towns.
By his estimations this town should have at least twenty or thirty guards patrolling all around the day. Only fools would leave their towns unguarded.
"How about we take a quick snack before finishing the tour? I'll pay for it of course." Twilight turned to look at Valgith, a small smile on her muzzle.
"If you so wish." In all honesty he wasn't that hungry even though he had only eaten an apple in the morning, which he had thrown up.
As the two walked into sugarcube corner the sight of the pink ball of cotton candy, also known as Pinkie Pie greeted them from behind a counter.
The inside of the shop shared the same theme as on the outside but had more elements which reminded Valgith of a normal building. It was filled with various candy decorations that he had never seen before. Underneath the counter was bunch of foods that he had never seen before, each topped with a swirl of some kind. All behind a thin layer of glass on display.
"Heya Twi! Heya Vallie! How are you doing? It feels like we haven't talked in weeks!"
Valgith raised his right eyebrow in a questioning manner. "Didn't we just talk?"
"Well of course we did silly! But I just want to talk to my new alicorn friend, I've been thinking of so many things to ask you when we met again. It felt like foreeever." She elongated the word forever, and spread her forelegs wide above her head.
Valgith turned his head to Twilight, who in turn simply shrugged.
"I wanted to know if you've ever eaten that Ghyranek cheese? I want to know what it tastes like." An innocent smile was plastered across Pinkies face.
Valgith fought the urge to groan. "Morrslieb isn't made of cheese, and there is no such thing as Ghyranek cheese."
Pinkie simply shrugged and continued on as if she didn't ask that question. "So what can I get you? A cupcake? A cake? A bunch of cookies? What will it be?
Twilight pondered the question for a few seconds before answering. "I think I'll have a blueberry muffin." She then turned her head to address Valgith. "What would you want?"
"I am not entirely sure. I've never had any of these-" He paused for a second, as if thinking of what word to use. "Pastries before."
Both of the ponies froze. But neither did for the same reason.
Twilight had a look a surprise on her face before she slowly turned her head towards the pink mare. Valgith followed her gaze and what he saw made him ponder if he had said something very bad.
The hyperactive pink ball of cotton candy now stood eerily still, her pupils the size of pinpricks. There she stood for nearly a minute. She didn't even blink once, as if the earth shattering information that she just heard made her brain forget the fact that her eyes needed moisture.
"Did I say something wrong?" A puzzled expression spread on his face.
Twilight didn't take her eyes off Pinkie. "She's never reacted like this. I'm not entirely sure how long she'll even be stuck like that."
"WHAT?!" Pinkie finally shouted, her pinprick sized eyes getting slightly bigger. Her entire body jumped into the air. Her bouncy hair seemed to morph into spikes that jutted out in every which way, as if she had just been hit by lightning. And just as fast, they morphed back into the bouncy mass that they once were.
Then without a word she vanished into a room behind the counter and reappeared just as fast, this time a plate of multiple different colored food items resting upon a plate.
"You have to taste every single one of these cupcakes, and then we move to cakes, then eclairs, donuts, pies-" It was a miracle that anyone could make out any coherent words at the speeds she was talking. It was as if she was trying to brake the world record for the most words said in a minute. In the middle of her ceaseless talking she shoved the pastry plate so close to Valgith's face that it was a miracle that none of the cupcakes splattered on him.
"Uhm..." He didn't even get to say anything before a cupcake with red frosting was shoved into his mouth.
The taste was indescribable, the cupcake was so sweet that it overrode any other taste it might have had. Accompanying the overwhelming sweetness was a sensation he had never experienced before, tooth ache. His back teeth ached from the amount of sugar he was forced to ingest.
Valgith turned his head and coughed up parts of the cupcake. Bits of cupcake flew out of his mouth and splattered on the floor.
After trying to clear his throat of the blockage, he glanced at Twilight with watery eyes.
As Twilight met his gaze she realized that his left eye had changed once more, this time it wasn't a slightly glowing blue, but a red slit pupil that had appeared in the black eyeball. She also noticed that while the blue one seemed to be erratic in its movement, this one seemed to be locked on to Pinkie Pie, no matter which way his head turned the eye seemed to only be fixated on her. She decided that now wouldn't be the best time to ask him about the changes in his eye, she had all the time in the world to question him later.
"What-" He coughs again. "By the ruinous-" Yet another round of coughing takes over him. "Iakash-"
"You don't like it?" Pinkie physically wilted at the sight of him coughing to clear his throat of the invading cupcake. Seemingly somehow not noticing the change in Valgith's eye.
Twilight walked next to Valgith and patted his back. "I don't think he even got to taste it Pinkie. You really shouldn't shove food down other ponies mouths. It could be dangerous." She gave a sympathetic look at him. She saw that the red slit pupil had vanished, leaving his eye void of a pupil once more.
Valgith breathed in deep. "I think I've had enough of these cupcakes."
"B-but you didn't even get to taste all the flavors, or the other pastries. " Pinkies lower lip trembled and her eyes watered, something about her face reminded him of a puppy.
"Pinkie, he'll have all the time in the world to taste all of your pastries. He doesn't have to eat them all now." Twilight saved him from the pink mare.
And just like that, the seemingly sad Pinkie smiled, all traces of the tears in her eyes were gone.
"And I have the perfect plan on how to get him to eat all of my pastries." She whispered while rubbing both of her front hooves together.
Twilight turned to face Valgith once more. "So, what do you want? You need to eat something." Valgith was about to say that he wasn't hungry until he remembered the delicious apple he had this morning.
"I'd prefer an apple."
"Well, we can go to the market. I think Applejack is there right now, she's been awfully worried about you too."
"Who?" Valgith wiped some moisture off his brow.
"Oh right. I didn't tell you." She shook her head. "Me and my friends were the ones who found you in the Everfree forest a few days ago. Applejack was one of them, so was Pinkie."
A sheepish smile spread on her lips. "I kind of promised to bring you to all of my friends when you woke up. They all have been worrying about you but couldn't come to see you at the hospital. The tour was supposed to be an excuse for them to meet you."
"So you're going to show off your new pet are you? I can't wait." Valgith's voice dripped with sarcasm.
"Pet? No no no, they just want to know that you're okay." She looked like she might have taken slight offence to his statement.
Valgith sighed. "How many of these friends do you have?"
"Five. There's Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack and Pinkie Pie. But you've already met one so we have four left." She sheepishly smiled.
"Well, let's get this over with then." Valgith nodded towards the door.
As they turned to leave Twilight faced Pinkie one last time. "Bye Pinkie, see you later." Pinkie simply waved at them from behind the counter before quickly disappearing into the room behind her.
The walk didn't take long, Twilight had shown Valgith the general layout of Ponyville which meant that he didn't have any trouble walking into the decently sized marketplace.
"Who are we looking for?" Valgith turned his head to face the mare next to him.
"Her." She pointed her left front leg towards an orange mare with blonde hair and a stetson, who was currently running an apple stand. Multiple apple based foods rested atop the stand, and a cart full of apples was parked next to it.
Applejack handed a small bag of apples to a customer before she saw the two, a smile spread on her lips.
"Hey Applejack! Hows business?" Twilight stopped next to the stand.
The farm mare tipped her stetson at the two. "Ah can't complain. Business as usual." Her eyes slowly turned towards Valgith who was deep in thought, trying to remember if he had heard such an interesting accent before.
"Happy tah see that you're all healed up. Me and the girls were getting mighty worried." Valgith's brow slightly furrowed, why would they be worried about him? They barely even know him.
Putting his inquisitive thoughts aside, Valgith replied with a simple nod.
"Now, ah doubt that all y'all wanted to do was to say hi. So what can ah do for y'all?" She moved forwards, slightly leaning on the stall counter.
"Valgith here said he wanted an apple, so here we are. "And with a small pop and a purple flash of light a small bag appeared in her magic, the sound of coins clinking inside told him all he needed to know about the bag.
Two gold coins floated out of the bag and landed atop the counter. With another flash, the bag of coins was teleported out of sight.
Applejack turned around and grabbed two delicious looking red apples from the cart next to her, and handed them over the counter.
During this Valgith had been eyeing the stall, a question had popped up in his mind. Why would Applejack sell apple based pastries here, when there is a big bakery just a few hundred meters away?
"I cannot help but ask, why would you be selling these pastries just outside of the bakery? Isn't that just bad for business?"
"Now that I think about it, I don't think you've ever sold anything else than apples here, except on special occasions. Is there some holiday I've forgotten?" Twilight teleported a calendar and started going through it.
"Zap apple season is coming up, but it should be ah few weeks away." Applejack took a few glances around the small group, as if checking no one was listening. She leaned in a bit closer to the duo and whispered. "You see, Its Granny Smith, she's been up all night for the past few days just bakin pies. Ahm not sure what's gotten into her but shes been makin two dozen apple pies each day. We couldn't just keep on eating em' so we had to get rid of em' before they went bad. Its like she's gotten addicted to makin em'."
"Addicted to making apple pies?" A very confused look crossed Twilight's face. "I've never head of something so weird. Is she okay?"
"Ahm not sure. She talks a lot more about them pies than normal, while ah know that its not that weird, but its not healthy to be making that many pies a day. Just yesterday Big Mac and ah had to drag her out of the kitchen just to get her into bed. Not gonna lie, ah am kind of worried about her." Applejack sighed. "We really need her for the comin harvest. She takes care of the whole jam part of the zap apple jam, and without her we wouldn't be able to make enough jam for everypony. Ah just really hope this won't effect the harvest, we really need that money this year, the barns been creakin somethin fierce."
'A sudden addiction.' Valgith hummed in thought. 'She could have come into contact with chaos recently. I cannot do much more than speculate right now, I would have to see her to confirm it myself.'
"You can ask me and the girls for any help you might need. We would be happy to help." Twilight offered a sincere smile towards her friend.
"Ah appreciate it." As the conversation ended it was as if Applejack suddenly remembered that Valgith was standing right there, next to her. She slightly chuckled. "Hey uh, Val-gith was it?" He nodded once. "Ah hope that you won't tell anypony else about what y'all just heard."
Valgith blinked, he didn't think that information was that big of a deal to hide it from everyone, but then again he has only been a pony for a few days, he sure as hell didn't know what was socially unacceptable around these parts. Maybe talking about someone else's obsessions was frowned upon.
"I won't." The orange mare looked like she wasn't entirely convinced.
"Ah'd feel a lot better if you did a pinkie promise, but you don't have to if you don't want to." Valgith rolled his eyes.
'A pinky promise? The childish thing children did to attest the truth?' But he doesn't have fingers to do a pinky swear. What else would they mean by a pinky promise?
"What is a pinky promise?"
"It's ah promise you never brake." Then suddenly Pinkie Pie appeared out from behind the stall with an uncharacteristically serious face.
"Never." She menacingly whispered.
Valgith was about to say something before Pinkie spoke again. "Never ever ever." She then slowly disappeared beneath the apple stand. All this happened while Applejack had a smirk on her face, it might have been due to the flabbergasted colt in front of her trying to comprehend how he hadn't noticed Pinkie following them.
Valgith rubbed his forehead with a hoof before sighing. "And how do you perform this pinky promise?
Applejack went through the motions of showing how a pinkie promise is made. The well known words accompanied her actions. "Cross mah heart, hope tah fly, stick ah cupcake in mah eye."
Valgith had a feeling that he had heard a different version of this pinky promise, but for some reason couldn't remember how it sounded. He chose to ignore that feeling for now.
After applejack was finished she looked like she was waiting for something. He sighed and performed the pinky promise, motions and all.
Applejack smiled. "Ah appreciate it pardner."
Twilight took both of the apples that now rested in a brown bag and handed them to Valgith, who in turn took them in his telekinesis. "Thanks for the apples Applejack, but we need to get back to the tour. I'll see you later."
"Ah right. Bye now." Applejack tips her stetson and leans a bit back.
The next hour passed like a breeze. Twilight showed the remaining shops and important buildings that they didn't see earlier. Including Carousel boutique, an antique shop, a bookstore, something called a fan shop, quills and sofas, the spa, a simple cafe and the train station. The more Valgith saw of this town the more he was on the lookout for any kind of security. To his disappointment he saw none. It was as if the whole town didn't have even a single guard.
"And this is Fluttershy's cottage. She is one of my friends who found you in the Everfree." She pointed at a small cottage near the Everfree forest's treeline. It looked more like a bush that was converted into a house than a normal structure. Many a creature was casually lounging around the house, from bunnies to birds. Valgith also could have sworn that he saw a glimpse of a bear behind one of the windows of the cottage. At least one pony in this town had some kind of protection.
Valgith hadn't met any of Twilight's friends yet. They all were strangely absent from their homes. He didn't know if they were all avoiding him or if they simply didn't know that he was awake and had other plans.
"Good to know." Valgith slightly nodded, his gaze drifted from the cottage to the forest near it. "Did you find me in there?" He pointed his front leg towards the gloomy looking forest that aesthetically clashed with everything surrounding it. Its like the sunny and happy terrain ended the moment it made contact with the Everfree's treeline, and was turned into something one would see in a Sylvanian forest, if the Sylvanian trees had more leaves.
Twilight seemed hesitant to answer him. "Uhm, well yes. But nopony is allowed to go there. Its very dangerous." She then turned to fully face him. "And I hope you never go in there again. It is very very dangerous in there. Do you understand?"
Valgith snorted. "I won't."
He turned his head towards the town. "Is the tour over now?"
"Yes it is. But we need to head to sugarcube corner one last time before we can head home. I need to pick up a few things from there first."
Valgith agreed, Its not like he could just say no. He could be overpowered easily in his current state, so he had to play nice for now.
The walk back to the overly sweet looking building took around ten minutes. A time which mostly passed in near silence, occasionally interrupted when Twilight tried asking him about his past.
He only answered with vague one sentence answers as to not reveal too much about himself.
While all of this was going on he was also looking around the town. It seemed like something was off, it was too quiet. The kind of quiet that reminded him of the moment before battle. It was as if the whole town rigged some sort of ambush. This realization had the effect of his nerves increasing. His gaze meticulously focused all around himself, but he could not spot even a single pony out and about. It was as if the whole town became a ghost town in the few minutes that he was on the outskirts. The endless questions that Twilight threw out were not helping either.
"Is it supposed to be this quiet at this time of day?" The sudden tone shift from mild dismissiveness to a completely emotionless voice spiked a surprising look from Twilight.
"No, not usually." A slight smile tugged at the corner of her lips. A fact that didn't go unnoticed by Valgith.
To say that he wasn't on edge would have been a lie. His eye gazed all across his surroundings at lightning fast speeds, even the blue slit pupil had shown up in his blackened eye. Both of his eyes seemed to be scanning the area, his slit eye didn't align with his normal red one even once, making him look a little silly but he couldn't care less about appearances right now. For all he knew his relatively new life could be in danger.
He wasn't sure why the ponies of this town would plan to ambush him like this. He hadn't done anything to them. Except if they suddenly knew what he was. His eyes narrowed, did they finally catch on?
He slowly turned his head up towards the mare next to him. The small smirk that was on her lips was gone, replaced with a kind looking smile. She was looking at the building ahead of them, a familiar one. The bakery where that Pink menace worked.
Valgith saw that the lights were off, strange. He doubted that the bakery would be closed in the middle of the day.
He grew even more suspicious at the fact that Twilight didn't stop after noticing the seemingly closed bakery.
Perhaps the ambush was inside the shop? Not the place he would have picked but he's certainly seen worse places to set up ambushes.
His walking speed slowed down, now trailing a bit behind Twilight. She didn't seem to care or notice that fact.
The space between them grew even more until Twilight stopped in front of the building and turned around.
"What are you doing? Come on, its just a few minutes." Twilight beckoned Valgith towards the slightly ajar door of the bakery.
Before he could even take a step a purple glow surrounded him and he was picked off the ground once more. His horn lit up just like it did the last time he experienced this. His magic fruitlessly tried to overpower the purple aura but in the end his level of magical power was no match to his purple executioner.
As his slightly limp body slowly floated towards the building his face turned emotionless. He steeled himself for his inevitable death. If this is how he died he wouldn't give them the satisfaction of seeing his reaction to the pain, he will take it in his stride and go out like a true warrior.
In no time at all he floated past the purple mare and was deposited onto the wooden floor of Sugarcube Corner. Somehow it seemed that the interior of the building was pitch black. This however did not block him from seeing inside, as a small blue glow emanated from his blackened eye. The blue slit eye appeared once more, it frantically gazed all over the dark room, instantly spotting the multiple tens of ponies simply staring at him.
"SURPRISE!" Each and every one of the unknown ponies yelled at the top of their lungs. Accompanying the ear shattering screech was the act of someone turning the lights on. These two near instantaneous acts made Valgith shut his eyes, and his ears practically glued to his skull in a vain attempt to block out the loud sounds. This was accompanied by a high pitched ringing in his ears.
The moment before he was completely blinded he had grabbed a chair in his telekinesis and quickly brought it in front of him, using it as a makeshift shield from all the ponies.
He then slowly opened his eyes, squinting at the bright light. What greeted him was the pink mare he had met earlier that day. She was currently sitting on the upturned chair that was levitating in front of him. It also looked like she was talking but he didn't hear a word that she said, the ringing in his ears deafened all other sounds.
He rubbed his ears for a few seconds, the ringing slowly faded away, being replaced by a lot of talking. He placed the chair back down when he realised he wasn't going to be viciously attacked.
"- you were like." She pulled off a face that looked as if someone had blinded her completely. "And I was like." She then mimicked what she did the moment after the lights had been turned on.
Twilight stuck her hoof over Pinkies muzzle, muffling her rambling. "Pinkie, you blinded the poor colt. I'm starting to think that having a surprise party wasn't all that good of an idea after all."
Pinkie then quickly rushed over to Valgith and gave him a tight hug. "I'm sorry Vallie! I didn't mean to. I was so exited on planning all of this that I didn't even think if you wanted your party to be a surprise or not."
'This was all a party? My party? So I worried for nothing.' His tense shoulders relaxed and he sighed in relief. Then his eyes narrowed slightly in response to a warm feeling sprouting from his chest. He quickly glanced at where the feeling originated but didn't see anything out of the ordinary. 'Again with this feeling. What is it?'
Just as quick as it came, the feeling left. Deciding that it wasn't anything of note he ignored it for now and looked at the pink mare still hugging him.
"Wait, my party?" While trying to push the pink mare off him, his gaze drifted towards the crowd behind Pinkie. Practically the whole town was here, he honestly wondered how this many ponies could even fit inside of this building.
"Well duh!" Pinkie gave Valgith one more squeeze before letting him go. "It's your welcome to Ponyville and it's so good to see you all better party!" She then pointed towards the far wall where the name of the party was written in pink cardboard letters. It read "We come to Ponyvi e."
Pinkie shrugged, as a small smile spread on her lips. "I didn't have any L's, so I had to go with what I got."
Valgith's eyebrow rose in a questioning manner but he decided to say nothing.
"That's enough of talking. Lets get this party started!" Suddenly music started playing, and the crowd that had formed near him and Pinkie started to disassemble, as many of the ponies went to mingle with other guests or headed towards the snack tables.
In a flash he noticed that Pinkie Pie had left him for the snack table, chomping down on a few cupcakes.
Valgith felt something touch his back, turning his head he saw Twilight nudging him forward. "Go and have some fun. It's your party after all."
He breathed in deep before taking a single step forward. And that was all he could take before he was swarmed by a crowd of foals. Instantly many of them started asking him questions. Ranging from how he got his scars and all the way to if he was the first thestral alicorn. A look of surprise was written on his face, he didn't even notice any of these foals approaching yet here they were. He tried to look back at Twilight but noticed that she was gone. He scanned the room and quickly spotted her, all the way at the other side of the building, by the snack tables. With a sigh he started answering the questions of all the foals without telling too much about himself.
While answering all the endless questions he noticed two fillies at the back of the crowd, whispering to each other. One was pink with a light purple mane and tail with a white stripe flowing through them. He also spotted the tiara that she seemed to be wearing. He wondered if she was royalty of some kind. An image of a tiara rested on her flank, now that he looked at the other foals he noticed that a good chunk of them didn't have these images on them.
The filly next to the tiara wearing filly was gray, with a mane and tail of slightly lighter shade of gray, a pair of glasses rested on her muzzle. Light blue necklace made of beads rested on her neck. He also noticed the image of some kind of spoon on her flank.
Most of the foals had left him alone at this point, running away to play or to ravage the snack tables. Only five other fillies remained, three of which he hadn't seen before, and the other two who were the two seemingly royal or otherwise rich fillies, that had sat at the back of the crowd.
"Hey you don't have a cutie mark!" A high pitch voice exclaimed. Turning his head towards the sound he saw a white colored unicorn filly pointing at him. Her mane was a mix of pink and light purple. Next to her were two other fillies one a pegasus and the other a normal pony. The pegasus was orange with a purple mane and tail. And the normal pony was yellow with a red mane and tail. A red bow sat atop her head.
"Oh no you don't." A slightly bratty voice came from opposite to the group of three. Turning his head he saw the filly with a tiara walking confidently towards him. "I saw him first. He's going to be my friend, and he wont join your lame club."
"Our club is way cooler than anything you've ever had." The orange pegasus shot a glare towards the pink filly.
"I highly doubt that." She sneered before turning her head towards Valgith and offering him a smile. "I'm Diamond Tiara, and this is Silver Spoon." She nudged the grey filly next to her. Valgith could see that she was staring at the scar on his face.
"Wow." Silver Spoon muttered under her breath, her eyes were locked on to his scar, it was as if she couldn't look away.
"Valgith D'avenirr. A pleasure." He gave the two a cordial nod.
Diamond Tiara smiled. "At least somepony here has manners. Unlike a group I know." She then shot a slight glare towards the three fillies, who in turn matched hers tenfold.
"Ah don't think joinin' them is a good idea Val-gith." The red haired filly had a bit of trouble saying his name. "They're just trouble."
"Don't listen to them friend. We are angels compared to them." Diamond Tiara gave the best innocent look she could pull off at Valgith. "Now how about you become our friend instead?"
Valgith could feel the tension between the two groups of fillies. His eyes narrowed a bit as he looked over the group of three. From a cursory glance he didn't spot anything extraordinary about them, just simple commoners. He would gain more if he became friends with these two fillies next to him instead.
He cleared his throat. "I must apologize but I am not interested in your club." He then turned his attention towards Diamond Tiara. "Sure, we can be friends."
The group of three visibly wilted at his words. Diamond Tiara had a huge smile on her face as she watched them leave, eventually stopping by the snack tables on the other side of the building.
She then turned her attention back towards Valgith. "Now that they are gone." She started walking around him, as if inspecting him from all angles. "I sadly have to leave. I have some things to do at home, I have my own birthday tomorrow and I have to make sure daddy gets everything right for it. You are invited. Be at my mansion at twelve tomorrow. I have to go now, bye." She started walking towards the door before she realized that Silver Spoon wasn't following. Turning around she quickly walked next to her friend and whispered into her ear. "Come on Silver Spoon, stop staring at him."
This woke the gray filly up from her daze and her cheeks flushed a deeper shade of gray. Then both of them left sugarcube corner in haste.
'Well, that sure was something.' Valgith rubbed his forehead, he had not expected any of this. This day felt like it was an entire week. He furrowed his brow, he felt a headache coming along.
He sighed. 'Well, better get this party over with.'
He turned his attention towards the party. The most notable things he could see were a few party games that many of the foals were playing. Games like pin the tail on the pony and something called Twister. There was more games but Valgith didn't really pay them any mind.
His stomach grumbled, a feeling that he wasn't all that used to having back. It would seem that the apples that he ate weren't exactly enough to satisfy his hunger.
He passed by a few groups of ponies to get to the snack table. Just as he arrived someone called his name.
"Valgith dear, it's good to see you all well." A voice he didn't recognize spoke. Her voice was smooth and had an air of nobility in it. Though by the sound of multiple hoof-steps he had a hunch that whoever approached him wasn't alone.
Turning around he saw a group of four consisting of three unknown mares and a small lizard like thing. It kind of reminded him of a skink, only less ugly and somehow smaller.
The mare who he thought spoke had a white coat and purple mane. Her fur looked like it was very well kept. His nose slightly stung from the perfume that he could smell off her. She didn't smell bad at all, however the amount of perfume that followed her made his new nose scrunch up slightly. His eyes also spotted the horn on her forehead.
The two other mares were both pegasi, one was butter yellow with a pink mane and the other was cyan blue with a rainbow mane. Valgith doubted that the rainbow coloration was natural. The yellow mare stood a bit behind the white unicorn, peering at his face from behind her mane. He could see that her eyes were locked on to his facial scar.
"Friends of Twilight I presume?" He cocked an eyebrow at the group.
"We all are. We also were the ones that found you in that simply dreadful forest. Well, minus spike." The white unicorn replied, slightly turning her head towards the purple and green lizard.
"I think proper introductions are in order then. I am Valgith D'avenirr." He put his right hoof to his chest as he introduced himself.
The white unicorn smiled. "My my, what pleasant manners. I am Rarity, the owner of Carousel Boutique, if you ever need any custom made clothes come and visit."
The lizard waved with his small clawed hand. "I'm Spike, Twilight's number one assistant and the only dragon around here." Valgith's eyebrow rose at the information, this small little lizard was a dragon? He'd have to be extra careful around him. More so when he grows up.
The cyan pegasus that was hovering in the air flipped her mane back a bit and struck a heroic pose in the air. "Rainbow Dash, the coolest pony in all of Equestria." Valgith simply rolled his eyes at her antics.
"I'm Fluttershy. I do hope you're okay." Her voice was barely above a whisper, he had to strain his ears a bit to hear her speak. It was obvious that she was concerned about his scars.
"I can assure you I am perfectly fine." Fluttershy nodded at his words, her head peeking out a bit more from her mane than what it previously was.
"We're sorry for not being there when you woke up." Fluttershy's whispered.
The image of 6 unknown ponies and a small dragon staring at him the moment he woke up in an unfamiliar room entered his mind, in all honesty he was glad nothing like that had happened.
"It is fine." He courtly replied.
A pink mare suddenly emerged from behind a small group of ponies, she hopped over to Valgith. "Vallie! Come play some games!"
In all honesty he didn't feel like playing some nonsensical party games, all he wanted was to be left alone for a while. "Pinkie-" He didn't even get to finish his sentence before he was pulled through a crowd of ponies and deposited onto a white square mat with four different colours.
He sighed and robbed his forehead. "What is this?"
Seemingly not noticing the small amount of annoyance in his voice she happily replied. "Twister!" She then picked up a small circular object with images on it. A single clock hand was attached to it. She spun it once and waited for it to land on a colour.
"Right front hoof on yellow." She looked up to him expectantly. Valgtih simply looked at the huge smile on Pinkies face and then at the white mat. He had never played this kind of game before but he quickly picked up on how it was played, with slight reluctance he placed his right leg on to the colour yellow.
"Great now it's my turn!" Pinkie spun the clock hand once. Then a sudden ghasp escaped her lips. "I almost forgot." She then quickly disappeared behind a crowd of ponies, and appeared back right where she left in just a few seconds. This time a small lizard was sitting atop her puffy mane.
Pinkie then hopped next to Valgith and presented the small lizard that was lazing around in her mane. "This is Gummy! Say hello to Valgith!" The green lizard slowly blinked at him.
A slight look of confusion graced Valgiths face as he looked upon the lizard. It reminded him of a smaller version of the creature on the cover of the book he read earlier.
"Hello." The lizard blinked once more, not reacting to his greeting. Seemingly taking that as a good enough introduction Pinkie hopped back to the circular object and placed Gummy next to it.
"Gummy is on spinning duty." She then looked at the spinner and checked what she had to do on her turn.
"Left back leg on blue." She happily stated.
The next half an hour or so was spent playing multiple party games with Pinkie. Every time he was about to say that he had enough the mare had pulled him to yet another game. They played twister, pin the tail on the pony and a few other games, until Pinkie thought they had played enough, and had pulled him back to the snack tables.
Valgith sighed as he approached the multiple tables with food. His stomach grumbled yet again, reminding him of the fact that his attempt at getting food earlier was interrupted. He eyed the multiple different kinds of baked goods that rested upon the tables. A pleasant sweet smell entered his nose which in turn elicited yet another grumble from his stomach.
He had never seen this many different pastries at one place before. Then again he didn't need to eat for decades so this was the most food he might have seen in years.
A small pastry was enveloped in a dark blue aura as it slowly floated towards him. It looked like one of the cupcakes that Pinkie had tried to feed to him earlier but this one didn't have anything on top of it. He took a small bite out of it and a slight smile formed on his face as the taste spread on his taste buds.
Valgith saw two large blue eyes peeking from behind the snack table, a mass of pink surrounded said eyes. As soon as Pinkie saw that Valgith had spotted her she jumped out of her hiding place. "Do you like my chocolate chip coffee muffins? I wasn't sure if you liked coffee or if you liked something a little more sweet so I made both." She pointed at a few other muffins on a different tray next to the coffee muffins.
"You made these for me?" He asked with a look of surprise. A warm feeling yet again bloomed in his chest.
"Yepperoni! I always make something for the celebrated party pony." She then hopped around the table next to him and whispered into his ear. "If you want any more muffins just ask Gummy. He'll make more." She then hopped off to join some other group in playing some party games.
Valgith looked back towards the table and he spotted the small lizard looking at him with one eye, the other eye was looking at some of the baked goods near him. His tongue slithered out of his mouth and it unceremoniously landed on his own eye.
A small smile tugged at the corner of Valgiths lips.
The rest of the party went by quickly. In all honesty he had gained some modicum of enjoyment from it. He had started the party on a negative mood but slowly he had grown to like it. The atmosphere had brought his mind back to a time long lost. A short period in his life where there were no worries.
Soon the party ended, and many ponies headed for their homes. He had said goodbyes to each of Twilight's friends that came to visit him before leaving the party with her and the small dragon.
The small group of three arrived near a house made out of a tree. A sign with a book icon stood out of the dirt next to the entrance. If Valgith had to guess it was the town library, and the place he presumed he'd be staying at for the time being.
His guess was proven right when Twilight opened the door and let the small group inside. Instinctively Spike headed up the stairs, he gave a slight wave and a "Goodnight." as he disappeared behind a door.
"There's a spare room next to the kitchen for you. I'm sorry if it's a bit messy, I haven't had the time to organize all the books that are in that room." Twilight sheepishly smiled as she led Valgith through the kitchen and into the spare room.
It was a relatively spacious room but the many books that laid in huge stacked piles made the room appear smaller than it should. Past the books a lone bed sat in the corner. Next to it a sturdy wooden desk sat, many a book was resting atop it. A single window rested above the desk, letting moonlight shine into the room.
"Thank you." Valgith politely nodded at the purple mare.
"Goodnight Valgith." She smiled back and slowly closed the door.
'What an eventful day.' He thought.
His eyes gazed across the books that were laid all across the room. He didn't feel all that tired so he decided to see if he could find any useful books that could answer his questions about his current predicament.
He spotted a few books that piqued his interest. Mostly books about geography and a few books of pony history. He took them all to his new bed and he laid down, and he prepared himself for a long reading session.
Author's Note
"Iakash" means "Lock or obstacle"
Holy mother of god. This took way longer than I thought.
I've planned some more interesting stuff for the next chapters so look out for that.
Also sorry for the slow updates, school/work has been kicking my ass recently. I should be able to write more consistently on summer vacation. Anyway hope you enjoyed the chapter and criticism is always appreciated, as long as it isn't out right mean.
I'll see you all next month. (Or in two months
Chapter 5.5 The Solar Sister
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