Pyroneus Dawnlight: The Gatekeeper of Worlds

Chapter Six

The Stranger in Ponyville

The passage back to Ponyville was much quicker this time, due to the fact the Royal Guard was flying us straight back instead of the train winding around the mountains. It gave me a chance to stretch my wings, which was a plus. The view of the mountains from the air was nice and clear, strangely there were no clouds to block my sight. I noticed that most of what I could see was fairly flat land, but I could tell it wasn’t artificial; the land was just really level all over Equestria. Forests were splashed all around the cities, there was a swampland to the east of Ponyville, and off in the distance to the south there was a desert, barely visible. The guards pulling the chariots dropped the others off at the edge of town so as not to cause a commotion. The short walk back was quiet. There weren’t even singing birds.

Too quiet.

“STOP!” I called to the others, just in time, as an explosive detonated just ahead. It was placed on the side of a tree, which promptly fell over, right where we would have been standing. Twelve robed figures rushed out from the trees and started shooting at us with what appeared to be heavy, multi-barreled machine guns that were mounted, two each side, on their backs. Thankfully the tree had given us a lot of cover; those guns would have shredded the rest of them to bits. Bullets flew past and glanced off my hide as I yelled to them, “GET UNDER THE TREE!”

The girls dove forward and filed into a small opening in the side that had been a large bird’s nest. The hooded figures kept on firing, and as one they converged on us and started to close in. Tactically, I could see no way out of this without losing someone. Or at least, that’s what the odds would have been had I not been here. Fire sprang up several feet tall in a wall of heat around the fallen tree. Any bullets that got through were nothing but slag. Over the roar of the blaze I heard the guns stop firing, barrels whirring down from their high speed spin. A voice called out from the other side.

“We have you surrounded. There is no way out, just give up.”

I called back to them, “No way out? That’s what you think!” Teleportation was not my strong suit; in fact it was the only form of magic I am capable of performing that was extremely taxing on my power, even for a short period. This was going to be one hell of a magical miracle.

“We know you can’t teleport yourself very far, and you won’t risk losing the Bearers. Now I won’t say it again. Give. Up.”

How did they know that?

With a sly grin and a bit of enthusiasm, I said, “And who said they were the ones about to be teleported?” A loud pop, and all twelve gunners vanished, leaving us alone there. I dropped to my knees, breathless from the effort. My head was swimming in colors, splotches of bright and dark lights racing across my vision. The wall of fire flowed out of existence like water down a drain. I dropped from consciousness once again as the girls rushed over….

………………………………………....

I awoke in the library of Ponyville, surrounded by girls. “Oh good, you’re awake. I was hoping that you wouldn’t be out for long. You’ve only been unconscious for around a half-hour. We sure were taken aback when you just keeled over like that.”

Twilight spoke with very little concern. I guess she’s realised I can’t be hurt that easily. Hopefully that will save us some grief in the future. “Teleportation is not a magic I have mastered.”

“Where did you send them to?”

Good question, where did I teleport them? “Hmm, I believe somewhere called White Tail Woods. I saw it on the map in the meeting room, first place I thought of.”

She stepped around the bed to stand near my face. “Do you know who they are? They seem to know a lot about you.”

“No, I do not know who they are, or even how they know so much about me. I am not a very well-known being, nor do I have any living enemies. This turn of events is strange indeed. I think the only reason they know so much is because they want to get to you six. They know my weaknesses so they can exploit them.” I sat up, then immediately dropped back down as the world spun around me, bright colors flashing in and out of view.

“You have a concussion, or at least you have the symptoms of one. My equipment won’t tell me anything about you. I’m not entirely sure as to how you got it, because you weren’t struck in the head, but you definitely have the symptoms.”

My eyes closed, I said, “Yeah, I have a problem with headaches. Considering all the knowledge the multiverse contains, it’s an awfully small place to store it all in one man’s head. Even I can’t remember everything right away. There are some things I don’t want to remember.”

For a moment, my mind drifted to a place, long ago, where I was happy, a place that, for a while, I called home. I thought of the bright, cloudless days, the wind blowing softly against my neck. And then, I remembered her. The sunlight glinting off of her hair, the wind whipping it about wildly, yet somehow gentle. The look in her eyes as she stared at me, telling me silently I was loved. Then came the fires, the unending screams of a helpless man as his world was shattered before him. I shook my head, not wishing to return to that memory. It ended far too horribly.

“Girls, can you step out for a moment? I need to talk to him alone.”

I heard the door open and, after a few seconds, it closed again.

“Are you alright? You have that same look on your face from before, at the guard barracks. Is there something you need to talk about?”

My eyes snapped open, and I leapt from the bed. “NO! No, I cannot go back to that time, I just…… I can’t…… not after what happened.” I was desperate, my eyes darting about, looking for an exit, anything to escape reliving that nightmare. From the corner of my vision, I saw a window, small, but wide enough to get through. I leapt for it, opening it with my head.

“Wait! Come back!” yelled Twilight, but I didn’t care, I needed some time alone.

I spread my wings, flying faster than you could see. I headed south, picking a spot I had seen on the map, somewhere called Froggy Bottom Bogg. I figured with it being a swamp, nobody would be there to see me. I raced out, past a clocktower on the edge of town, and over Everfree. To my left, a fair distance away, I could see the area where I had crashed, trees leaning against one another in a ring of blackness. Even farther behind that, I saw what appeared to be the ruins of a castle, covered in moss and vines, run down over the years by brush and animal activity. I kept on straight, flying towards a large ravine known as Ghastly Gorge. I stopped shortly before I got there, in the area known as the bogg.

I set down on a relatively dry patch of land, looking around for any eavesdroppers. When I was sure there were none, I dropped to the ground against a lone willow tree and let the pain in my head wash over me. It drowned away the ache from remembering that horrible day. It’s not like you can forget that sort of thing, but when I put my mind on other events, I can avoid it for a while. But a tragedy like that is not something you can just forget. It stays with you, it haunts your very being, until it finally consumes you.

What seemed like hours passed as I composed myself into some semblance of organized chaos. The birds in the swamp trees chirped happily as they went about their daily lives, the frogs, for which the area was aptly named, croaked songs to each other, and the wildlife glowed with happiness. But at the center of that happiness, concealed by its warmth, I sat drowning my thoughts, a fountaining wound of pain and sadness for which there was no bandage.

As I finally felt the ability to move, I wrenched myself away from the ground, and heaved my broken self to a standing position. The area was very quiet, and it was getting rather dark. It was mid-afternoon when I left.

Had I really been here that long? I need to keep my emotions in check; I’m very unaware of the area around me.

I started back to town, walking this time. The trees got much thicker as I walked, and I could almost see the direction I would head to find the heart of the forest taking shape before me. Soon I was hopping around fallen logs, dodging bramble bushes, and climbing steep inclines to get to higher ground.

I reached a small clearing, completely covered by the branches of the surrounding trees, but large enough to walk around in. It appeared to be a spot a few small trees had previously taken root in, because there were slight depressions here and there marking where roots had run deep. The area must flood in the winter, because soil erosion was a very apparent event. The ground was soft, and my view of the sky was completely blocked. If not for my glowing red eyes and abilities with fire, a passerby would never even know I was there for the level of darkness pressing in around me. It was perfect for stealth. Be that as it may, I still enjoy keeping the area I am in bright whenever possible.

A branch broke to my left, but I passed it off as a mid-sized animal. Then another one broke, and a much heavier footstep was behind it. My head whipped around, peering into the blackness. It gave way as the fire around me grew much brighter, illuminating a small deer. It appeared to be frightened of me, and ran off deeper into the woods. I sighed, “I really need to stop being so paranoid, I’m going to end up with a twitch like Twilight.” I turned around, heading once more towards town, and smacked right into something a fair bit larger than a deer. It was a humanoid, fairly short, but tall enough to knock us both backwards.

“Ow!” it said, and the voice I heard was female and very……. familiar? I stood up, and as I did so, the voice called out again, “What’s the big idea knocking me over like that?”

It wasn’t one of the girls come looking for me, and I hadn’t met anyone with a voice like that on this planet, so who was this? I lit the area so as to see who I had smacked into, and my body froze. The most beautiful woman I had ever met was lying before me, slowly getting up.

She looks just like her.

RUN. RUN AWAY. STOPSTARINGRUN. DONOTSPEAK.

“Well, what do you have to say for yourself?”

It can’t be……. I shook my head from my thoughts. The girl was standing, looking right into my eyes. “I….. I…..”

“You ought to be more careful! A fella as big as you could hurt somebody, bumping into them like that!”

“I……. I……..”

“Is ‘I’ all you can say? Geez, I figured someone as…… odd lookin’ as you would at least be able to talk right. Didn’t your parents teach you how to talk to someone?”

YES. SHE TOO IS AFRAID OF YOU. SHE IS NOT SPECIAL.

“I… I do not have parents. I never did.”

YES. CONTINUE TALKING LIKE A MACHINE. SHE WILL LOSE INTEREST.

“Well, somebody must have taught you manners.”

“No, I have nobody. I prefer solitude.” She looked a bit shocked at that.

“Nobody? How can there be nobody that taught you how to act? Everybody has somebody.”

“Not me.” Memories of that far away time came flooding back, and my eyes closed. I turned my head away to hide the tears. “Not anymore,” I said, stifling the sound of crying.

SHE HAS HURT YOU. LIKE ALL THE REST. LEAVE NOW.

“Oh, oh I’m so sorry; I didn’t mean to bring up anything painful for you.”

“No, I am the one who is sorry. I should have been paying more attention.”

She was just like her in every single way, down to the tee save for the wings, and yet….she had a much kinder nature to her, more natural than her. This girl seemed more real, more……

Perfect.

TOO PERFECT. THIS IS A TRAP. WHY AREN’T YOU RUNNING?

My emotions were past the breaking point, I just had to tell her, remind her… but there was something holding me back.

“Do you live near here?” It was a long shot, and she needed to hear this.

“I- well I-”

“Please?”

Her expression was one of mixed reluctance, she seemed to not want to go with me, but at the same time she did.

“Sure, why not?”

My nerves finally had a moment to rest. I relaxed all the tension I had been holding in my stomach, and the knot that had formed there ebbed away. I sighed, and said, “Oh, thank goodness. Shall we?”

“Yeah, I don’t wanna spend very long in this forest. So where do you live?”

“Well, I don’t exactly live there, but it’s where I’m staying. It’s a town called Ponyville.”

“Ponyville, huh? I know where that is. I was just there this morning. You wanna fly there, or shall we walk?”

“I think I’ll fly, if you can keep up.”

She looked me dead in the eyes. “You questioning my speed, Mr. Big-and-bulky?”

Everyone has their little moments where their pride kicks in; their competitive side begins to show off. I stopped, a pointy grin on my face. “If you wanna race, then yes, yes I am.”

“Oh, you are on, purple boy!”

She took off, blasting through the tree cover above at lightning speed. Wow, she is fast. I spread my wings, taking chase, and quickly caught up with her.

“Not bad, scaly. Question is, can you keep up?”

She sped through the air, getting faster and faster, and suddenly she blasted through the sound barrier, a cloud of numerous colors blasting away from her. I slowed down, almost stopping. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Then my competitive nature took over again. So this is the famous “Sonic Rainboom” is it? Impressive, but still not enough to out-fly me. I sped up, flying faster and faster until the air around me burst out with colors just like hers. But this was different. This time, the colors were dark and sinister, shades of red and black that seemed almost like living shadow. They wrapped around trees, swirling through the leaves. I rocketed past her at lightning speed, passing her in less than a second. The shadows engulfed her, and then dispersed into the air, as if they had never existed. I glanced back, only to find I had knocked her out of the sky. She fell, graceful and slow, towards a sharp rock face that jutted out from the river below. I stopped hard in the sky, gravity threatening to crush me flat. I didn’t care; I couldn’t lose her, not now.

“You mean, not again,” said a voice in the back of my mind.

“No, it isn’t her, it just can’t be.”

“Don’t lie to yourself; you’re only interested because they look alike. She probably doesn’t even care about you, or even want to be near you.”

“No, th- there’s something different about her-”

“Stop lying, you are risking injury to yourself for somepony you barely know. Just let her fall.”

“But it was my fault she fell-”

“WHO CARES?!”

“I DO, AND I’LL SAVE HER IF IT KILLS ME. I HESITATED ONCE BEFORE, AND IT COST ME DEARLY, BUT SHE IS DIFFERENT, NOW SILENCE!”

The voice, that little part of me that always makes me act selfish, died, its argument lost in the fury at my body’s attempt to protect itself by sacrificing her. I shot backwards, pouring on speed. Not 5 meters from the ground I caught her, but my speed was too much to pull up above the tree line. I held her tight with my right arm and wrapped my wings around her body as I smacked into a tree, broke through it, and knocked over a second, which proceeded to get caught in a third. The impact of ground buried us deep under the soft earth, and we layed there for a long time before I felt the strength to get up again.