It was just another calm and quiet evening as Zargan walked along the back roads of the outskirts of Ponyville. Apparently, they were having some kind of festival that had been going on all day long, it was a once in a while thing. While Applejack and a few others had invited Zargan to the festivities, he felt that it wouldn’t have been right for him to join. At least, not yet anyway. He was still a stranger to these lands, let alone this world. And being part of something steeped in tradition didn’t feel right to him when he had no right.

He did notice however, that the moon was awfully brighter and larger than usual, so he assumed that this change in the nightly orb in the sky must be part of the whole thing, as the sun had also been rather brighter today as well. When it first rose. “Maybe one day when I make a name for myself n’ have had more time in this world, I will start attendin’ the events when I feel at home. If I am here that long, that is. Who knows, I might end up headin’ back home at some point.” he said as wishful thinking crept into his mind. While he didn’t particularly mind it here one bit, he did miss his dwarven brothers and sisters.

While the dwarf was in his thoughts of home, a rather tall. A cloaked individual strolled past him heading towards town. He shifted his eyes toward the figure, looking them up and down. While the cloak was hiding most of their form, he couldn’t help but notice the dark regalia on their hooves….very dainty hooves in fact. “Ah, good evnin’, lass. Heading into town to enjoy the festivities?” he asked as he stopped, the figure stopping as well. “Heheheh, you could say that. What are you exactly? I have never in all my time ever seen a creature such as yourself. Then again, I have returned after a…shall we say long, long trip away from this land.’.

Zargan chuckled before nodding “Then ya wouldn’t know much about me. I am just a humble dwarf is all. One thing led to another and here I am, stuck in this world. I really don’t feel like I belong here, though. So I am doin’ what I can to make a livin’ and work as hard as I can for my keep.”. The figure turned their head towards Zargan before speaking once more “Oh? A stranger in a new world are you? I can only imagine the isolation you must be feeling. You and I are two of a kind. While I am not new to this world, I feel far lonelier than I ever have. But, that all changes tonight…” she said as she watched Zargan reach into his own cloak. The dwarf pulls out his flask and holds it up for a moment as a toast “Well then, my dear. Here’s to ya.” he said before taking a swing of the ale he had stored in it before putting it away.

“Oh, and one more thing before you go…” she said as she turned around fully to him before she flung a large ball of magic energy at him. He widened his eyes before quickly deploying his tower shield out of thin air and slammed it into the ground just in time for the magic to hit it and disperse, the pushback making him grunt a bit as he slid back a couple of inches. The hooded mare chuckled wickedly before she lowered her hood, revealing a dark flowing mane and black fur with evil ice blue eyes who looked upon the dwarf with amusement and a little bit of awe “My my, quick on your feet and capable as well. You would do amazing as my personal knight…” she said as she slowly started to approach.

Zargan peeked from behind his shield with a rather unamused look on his face, the dwarf’s trusty warhammer appearing in his other hand as he then bashed the front of his shield a couple of times with it “Ya know, this isn’t exactly the best way to make friends…” he said in a rather annoyed tone. Without saying another word, she flung another ball of magic at him. But this time, Zargan’s eyes flashed blue for a moment before he charged forward with his shield, breaking through the flying orb of magic and heading straight for the mare’s center of mass. While she was shocked to see him just obliterate her magic, she was quick to take to the skies by jumping up and showing off her dark wings which seemed to glimmer in the moonlight.

Zargan stared up at her with narrowed eyes before giving a single “hmph!” with a smile on his lips before he suddenly began to have his armor cover his body more rapidly than it had the first time. His flight jets immediately bring him to the same level as her now before the helmet quickly forms from the neck up and sealed around his head, the v-style slants for his vision shining to life as he exchanges his tower shield for his trusty pistol. “Ya require wings…I don’t,” he said as his voice became more metallic in his armor. As he watched her seemingly make a dark metal sword appear from nowhere, he chuckled before making his pistol vanish and a smaller version of his tower shield appears. And in his other hand, he sends his hammer away and makes a new toy of his appear in its place. A rather odd looking blade…or many small blades it seems.

He smiled wickedly under his helmet before sending magic through the odd weapon before the many small, sharp blades started to run around in the groove where the edge should be, the sword making a rather loud and terrifying sound as they rotated around the weapon “Say hello to my newest daughter, Natasha.” he said as he held his shield up in front of him, ready to move or attack at a moments notice. Nightmare Moon didn’t show it, but there was a hint of fear inside of her as she watched the mechanical devourer of flesh rotate in the moonlight. “By the moon…that is no ordinary sword. That monstrosity could rip through me with ease should he land a hit on me. I think I may have picked a fight with the wrong pon-...creature on my first night back.” she thought to herself as she finally noticed the amount of magic radiating from him. If this terrifying amount of magic was truly his, why wasn’t he using it on her? Little did she know, that while he could not cast spells, his inventive mind came up with ways to utilize this massive reservoir of power.

Not waiting on them, he powers his suit jets forward with the chainsword’s blades revving at full throttle. She was quick to throw up a magical barrier just as he was coming at her with an overhead slash, the chainsword making contact and grinding relentlessly against the barrier, forcing sparks to form a falling stream from the contact. “Come on, lass! Ya wanted this fight! Ya either surrender and tuck ya tail between ya legs and flee…or I send ya off into shredded meat to the ground! Which is it gonna be?!” he asked as he continued to bear down hard on her barrier. In his mind, he was really hoping she’d pick the second option. While he was enjoying getting combat data from this, something about this mare was…oddly vulnerable. Behind that wicked glare, showed the eyes of a scared child or the eyes of someone still relatively young and inexperienced anyway.

“Please, go home, young one! You know as well as I that given your power, you aren’t ready to face down someone who has lived his whole life in combat to survive and adapt!” he said as he continued to rev the chainsword against the barrier, the sphere beginning to crack and crumble under the pressure of his strength and the fierce rotating blades. She shut her eyes and let out a cry of anger before the sphere broke and sent out a massive shockwave, pushing the dwarf back a good distance before she vanished into a puff of dark blue smoke and flew off towards the Everfree Forest “I will make a strategic retreat for now..! But mark my words, I will be the one to bring you down, I swear!” she said as her voice echoed in the sky towards him.

Once she was far enough away, Zargan let out a sigh of relief before his chainsword and shield vanished while he lowered himself back onto the ground before his jets cut off. He lets his armor recede back into its gauntlet form before he takes out his flask once more and takes a long drawn out swig from it “I am assumin’ that she is somehow related to the ruler of this land. Gotta love family squabbles of politics and power, somethin’ I want no part of.” he said as he began to make his way back to his underground home for the remainder of the evening, not knowing the event would unfold later that night.

–A Few Days After–

The dwarf was in his Canterlot shop just hammering away at a couple of commissions he had gotten from a few more of the castle guards and a couple of traveling mercenaries when there was a knock at the front door of his business. He blinked a few times before carefully placing down his hammer after a few more strikes and placing the blade in the water to cool so it would hold its shape. He takes off his smithing gloves and places them on the countertop next to the till before making his way up the stone steps.

Once there, he opens the slot and spots no other than the large white furred princess herself. He arched a brow before closing the slot and opening the door fully now as he gazed up at her with a neutral stare. “Somethin’ ya need, lass?” he asked in the most casual way. The mare stared at Zargan in disappointment, but the disappointment wasn’t for him. “SOMEONE wishes to apologize to you for what they did a few nights ago, doesn’t she…?” she said as she looked over her shoulder to someone hiding behind her.

Zargan arched a brow again before he saw a dark blue alicorn mare step out from behind the taller one. Right away, he knew exactly who she was once he saw those teal blue eyes gazing at him with worry and slight fear. “Well…?” asked Celestia as she held a hand out toward the dwarf who was a little surprised she was punishing her sister this way. The smaller mare reached up to stroke at her flowing mane nervously before speaking quietly “I-I am..s-sorry for attacking you the other night. In short, I was just upset at events from the past, and I took it out on you. P_please forgive me.” she said as she bowed her head slightly as her eyes fell to the ground. Clearly, she has had time to think about her actions, and her apology seemed sincere even though she wouldn’t look him in the eyes.

Zargan grabbed at and stroked his beard for a moment before motioning her to come down to eye level with him. She blinked a few times before squatting down slightly before a firm, but gentle chop of his hand landed on the top of her head which made her squeak a bit and flop onto her rear. While the impact of the chop didn’t really hurt, she still let out a whine as she fell on her rear. But right after, a gentle hand fell upon the top of her head as he began to pet and stroke her mane affectionately “All is forgiven, young one. I hold no hostility towards you. However…” he said as her ears perked up at that last word. “I do believe in order for the lesson to sink in, she should come and help me in my shop here in the early evenin’ hours for at least a month. Nothing too strenuous. Just a couple of hours for the next thirty days is all. Assumin’ this arrangement works with ya big sister here.”.

Luna looked up at Celestia with pleading eyes before the white alicorn nodded in agreement with Zargan’s proposal “Wel, so long as she can skip the weekends. I don’t want her personal time to be taken at least.” she bartered on her sister’s behalf, but that it was a wonderful idea. “Fair enough, then we can just tack on another week to make up for the weekends then,” he said before holding out a hand to Celestia. “Deal~,” she said giving the dwarf’s hand a firm shake. “Besides, I don’t want to take her weekends away anyway. I hear that there is a special kind of holiday comin’ up in a couple of weeks. I heard it was called….Nightmare Night, I believe. Where the young ones get to dress up in costume and participate in fun but spooky events. All while fillin’ their bags up with all kinds of sweets.”.

Celestia nodded assuredly “Indeed, a little tradition my sister here created a long, long time ago. This will be her first one in a thousand years. I know she is excited for it to be upon us.” she said while looking down at her now smiling sister who was trying her best to pout because of her predicament. But, the idea of celebrating her favorite holiday is what prevented her from being upset now. “And will you be joining the other citizens for the festivities this time, Zargan? I was told you were not spotted the whole entire day or evening of the festival when you ran into my sister.”.

Zargan sighed softly before shaking his head “Two reasons why I will not be participating. One, I am not a citizen. So I do not have the right to join in on such things. And two, I haven’t been here long enough in this realm alone to be allowed to join in such merriment. The fact that you felt it necessary to drag your sister here and force her to apologize is more than I deserve already. So no, I will not be joining the fun.” he said before he heard Luna quietly beg “P-Please come? If I can show you how hard I can work the first two weeks, will you please come?”

Zargan’s eyes unfortunately met with hers at that moment. Those soft teal eyes were now big and watery as they stared up at the dwarf pleadingly, the princess even laying it on thicker with a few sniffles added in. The dwarf was pretty much cornered now. And with an exasperated groan, he drags his hand down his face and sighs “Alright, alright! I will go. But ya better believe I am putin ya to the grindstone, lass! Ya won’t last the full thirty days!” he said as he then looked up at Celestia “And her first shift begins later tonight at five pm sharp. She better not be late.”.

When Luna first showed up, Zargan was surprised that not only did she come by thirty minutes early, but got right to work on the most mundane and boring tasks he could think of to really test her patience. And she took to doing them without a single complaint. While he didn’t show it, he was very pleased with her work ethic. Perhaps just because she was royalty didn’t mean she didn’t know how to pick up a broom or duster occasionally.

Zargam had her stop for the last ten minutes of her shift to let her rest for the evening, he knew that she had other duties to attend to after she was done here. As he was hammering away once more on one of his commissions, he couldn’t help but notice she was eyeing a particular weapon on his wall. A rather large and menacing scythe that looked like it was wielded by the grim reaper himself. He smiled under his beard before speaking without looking up from his work “Ya know, I might be willin’ to part with that free of charge if ya come in for the next twenty-nine days and work as hard as ya did today.” he said before he watched the sparkle flair up in her eyes with those words.

“R-Really….REALLY?!” she asked as she bounced on her hooves and swayed her tail with great excitement. Zargan simply nodded as he continued to work before noticing that her time was up as the last bit of sand in the hourglass he had made specifically for her time here ran out “Anyways lass, time for ya to head on out. Ya served ya evenin’s worth here for today. Get home before ya sister starts to worry. Stay safe.” he said before getting right back to work.

Luna blinked a few times as she looked over at the hourglass. Was it truly time already? She didn’t know why, but she was a little sad to actually leave this amazing shop now for the day. Was she actually starting to…like working here? Surely not! She…was just tired was all, that was it! Her freedom was at hand, and the exit was right there! However, as she stood at the threshold that led toward the stairs, she hesitated. She placed a hand on the wall as she stood at the bottom of the stairs and looked back at the working dwarf. She was about to say something, but after a minute, decided not to. Not yet anyway. But she would definitely be back tomorrow, he could count on it.

Author's Note

Yes, I threw in a chainsword this chapter. I have been playing lots of Space Marine 2 and said "You know what? I want one." And here we are. While I have him create a jet-powered great hammer? Who knows.

Also, for those who are curious as to what his power armor looks like, I got ya covered.