The world you know and love is not here, not yet, Discord rules Equestria slowly expanding his chaotic borders across the planet. He slowly marches towards total control of the world and every pony within it getting closer with each year. It seems as though no one will stand against him and his armies of chaos. But there are parts yet untouched by his madness, havens tucked beyond his evil reach. It is here that the last remnants of an ancient religion live far apart from each other spreading the teachings of harmony. The last remnants of the religion are planning a meeting in a long lost place. They will arrive soon but they will not arrive alone, travelling with them are their pupils.The students are clueless about the reasons behind the journey along with the existence of their guardian’s religion, even though they have been taught it their whole lives. Brave Heart is one such pupil, a light brown earth pony with deep brown eyes and dark brown hair. The biggest worry on his mind is normally how he will get his cutie mark, but soon his special talent will be furthest from his mind as his destiny is reviled to him.
Chapter 1
The mountain pass was cold, the wind blew wildly, howled as it chilled Brave Heart to his very core. He took deliberate steps following the hoof prints in the snow made by his elder. Brave hated this, he has no problem with the snow, but they had been hiking for what felt like days. Though brave would never say it he missed his home, a little log cabin in the middle of a meadow with forest all around him. He never thought he would leave that place to go to some meeting with his father’s old friends. He lowered his scarf from his face and uncorked his canteen to take a drink, only to have the liquid stopped by a solid chunk of ice. He sighed and looked at his teacher who was looking back at him with an amused look on his face. “I told you to keep your canteen close to your body. Now its ice isn’t it.”
Brave squints at his elder and nods annoyed that he was right about the water. He only chuckled deeply and trotted back to Brave uncorking his own canteen offering it to him. Brave Heart gladly takes it drinking the very chill water deeply, he shivered as it went down his throat. Brave smiles and passes the canteen back “Thanks Pa” he says quietly only to receive a smile and nod before his mentor turned and continued up the mountain pass. Brave Heart quietly fell in behind his elder. He looked at his surroundings taking note of the types of plant life around him, or more of the lack of plant life around him.
“Pa? Why aren’t there any trees around? No bushes, no nothin, just rock and snow.” He noticed his father’s ears perk up. “Well Kid.” ‘Kid’ he always called him Kid never Brave Heart never son just ‘Kid’. “I imagine it’s because we are so high up, but we should be heading down soon so you should start to see plant life.” Sure enough within another ten minutes of walking he began to see thin trees and bare bushes stripped by the wind.
The two continued down the pass until they came to a wide area opening up to a frozen lake surrounded by high cliffs on either side, one cliff had a slit in it leading to the next part of the pass. By some stange magic the wind didnt blow as strongly in the valley as it did in the pass, it was still snowing but the snow fell straight down insted of at an angle. Perched high on one cliff was a small circular hut supported by wooden beams placed into the cliff face; smoke slowly rose from a chimney on the roof. Brave looked at his mentor as he set down his pack pulling out a small bundle wrapped in paper.
He looked at brave “ Do you know what is in that hut?” he looked confused and shook his head “That’s a griffons hut and I suspect he’s collecting payment to stay in his valley, common practice with griffons but there’s a way to deal with them without losing all of your money.”
Brave noted as he again reached into his pack pulling out a gauntlet with a length of sharp metal on it. His father proceeded to strap it tightly to his right front leg then tested it, retracting and extending the metal by flexing. It finally dawned on Brave what it was, it was a sword, him and his father were both earth ponies normally no match against a griffon with their sharp talons. But that changes when a sword is put into the equation; though he can’t fly he is able to stand his ground against a flying opponent.
Brave was confused, why can’t they simply sneak past the griffons hut and continue through the pass. His father pointed up towards the sky as if reading his mind, the sky was turning dark, night time was coming they would need to find a place to make camp.
“If a fight breaks out I want you to head back towards the mountain pass we just came through. I won’t be able to watch my back and protect you against a griffon. If your hidden I can focus better, am I understood?” Brave nods “I want to hear you say it Brave.”
Brave stammered, “Y-yes if something happens, ill run and hide.” His father nods at him satisfied.
Brave was still a bit stunned, his father just called him by his name, not Kid. ‘This might get really bad’, Brave thought. He took off his own pack in order to be able to run faster in case of an attack. His father lowered the scarf from his muzzle and lifted his head high.
“GRIFFON I WISH TO SPEAK TO YOU COME OUT OF YOUR HUT!” he shouted towards the hut high on the
cliff.
For a moment Brave thought that the griffon had not heard him, but was quickly proven wrong when the front door burst open and a winged figure flew out at great speed towards his father. Brave shrunk back thinking that his father was going to be attacked, but the griffon landed before them in a whirlwind of kicked up snow and air. His father stood there like a statue not even phased by the scare tactics.
“Well, well, well what do we have here?” spoke the large beast. “A young snack of a colt and his dear father, oh how precious.” The griffon eyed Brave hungrily “what is it that brings you to my humble valley.”
Braves mentor stepped in-between the half hawks gaze and himself “eyes on me bird, your business is with me not him.” The griffon cocked its head to the side and grinned slightly, “indeed it is pony what is it that you called me down from my warm perch for.”
The large earth pony glared at the feathered being “we need a camp site for the night but I have no bits to pay any sort of toll for your valley.”
The griffon feigned concern “oh dear me then that means. Oh no that means you can’t stay in my valley.” He put a claw up to his mouth in fake shock. “It shall be night soon you may freeze. Tsk, tsk what a shame… well good luck to you.”
The griffon turned to leave “WAIT” he turned back annoyed “look no bits means you can’t stay in my wind sheltered valley. Now unless you want to fight me for it, which would not be a good choice on your part, you need to leave my valley.” He hissed
“I have something better then bits griffon.” The beast looked skeptically at the pony “I’ve noticed that your lake is frozen over, bit difficult to fish with no holes in the ice. I can’t imagine your wife and kids are too happy with that. But how happy would they be if you came back with fresh dinner?” With that Braves father unwrapped the paper covered package, revealing four uncooked fish.
The griffon eyed the fish greedily, apparently snow and what little plant life around wasn’t agreeing with him too much. He snapped his beak and shuffled considering his options, eyeing up the pony he decided fighting him for the fish wasn’t worth the effort. “Fine pony you win you may stay for the night, but I expect you to be gone to before noon tomorrow.”
He held out a claw and the pony shook to seal the deal then handed over the fish, the griffon then snatched the food up and flew off towards his hut. Brave looked at his guardian amazed, then a question rose in his mind. “How did you know to bring the fish?” his father simply looked down at him and winked.
“Come we need to set up camp.” And with that brave and his father began to unpack and prepare for the night.
Chapter 2
That night brave and his father huddled close to avoid the sharp cold of the night, the fire his father had made was slowly dying down. On the cliff up above, the griffons hut stood light flickering inside, a shadow was cast on the window and the light promptly extinguished. Snow slowly drifted down from the dark sky as brave looked at his mentor. His father looked tired, the bags under his eyes made him look older then normally, and the shadow cast from the fire didn’t help much either. His elder sat quietly looking into the smoldering embers of the once roaring fire, face scowling, the lines under his eyes were sunken in a bit. His father said he was 35 last time brave asked, but he looked far older, ancient almost as far as the young colt could tell. Maybe that was just brave’s youth speaking, but brave did not think so. His father had always told him that for his age, he was smarter than most young colts, brave mostly attributed this to the way his father brought him up. Living out away from the major cities brave never officially went to school, but he was by no means a fool, his father had taught him to read write and to use his brain to solve problems as well as his brawn.
Brave wasn’t big yet but his father told him that he would be big and strong when he grew older, and brave believed him. He knew he wasn’t big so brave prided himself on being quick and nimble, always just beyond his father’s reach when they played. His father would chase him around the house trying to cut him off or block his path. They would play hide and seek, brave quickly learned how to find spots that were hard to reach or hard to see for the old stallion. By far though braves favorite game wasn’t actually a game, his father would bring out training swords and they would duel each other. He had no idea where his father learned to swordfight but where ever it was he was really good at it. Brave often imagined his father in shining armor rescuing a fair maiden from a snarling dragon, belching fire left and right only to be brought to justice by his dad.
“Pa?” brave says quietly, “where did you learn to fight… with a sword that is. You’ve trained me for the past year to fight and defend myself but never told me how you learned. I’ve always been curious but never bothered to ask, and well, when I saw your sword I had to know.”
His father took a deep breath thinking about what to say, “I learned while traveling with my old master, his name was Keen Eye a Pegasus, we travelled the world together for nearly twenty years.” He frowned at the fires embers, “The world is a violent place and I had to know how to protect not only myself but those I love. So he taught me to fight and not only fight well but smart, to fight using my brain instead of my brawn like I’ve been doing with you. He once said to me, ‘Stalwart you have to always expect the worst to happen, pray for the best to take place, but be prepared for both’.”
Brave thought about what his father had said for a moment, “Is that why you had the fish with you as well as your sword when you talked to the griffon?”
“Yes. I hoped the griffon would take the fish as payment, but I was fully expecting a fight and all that it would entail. Looking ahead for situations like these will keep you on your toes, you can’t be prepared for everything, but the more variables you eliminate the less will go wrong.”
Brave thought hard on what his father had said, “pa have you ever had to use your sword?” Brave looked up to where his father was but he was no longer there, instead he was within the tent laying down for bed. ‘I suppose that’s a question for another time.’ Brave thought to himself. He collected the rocks that were sitting near the fire, placing them on the ground then his mat over them to keep him warm at night. He pulled his blankets over himself and slowly drifted off to sleep, dreaming of his father slaying a fire breathing dragon.
The next morning brave awoke to find his father already awake; he poked his head out of the tent seeing his father already packing both their bags. He sat on his haunches and yawned stretching out the night’s stiffness. He then noticed a wooden bowl with oatmeal in it as well as an open canteen of water, he smiled and picked up the bowl proceeding to scarf down the food greedily. After he was finished he drank from the canteen, capped it and went to join his father in breaking down camp.
“Thanks for breakfast Pa.” his father grunted in response. “Is there anything you need me to do?”
“Yeah why don’t you roll your matt and blankets so we can break down the tent.” He responded.
Brave nodded curtly and proceeded to roll his makeshift bed. As he stepped out of the tent he saw something strange, his father standing in front of him wooden sword drawn staring down at him, his father then tossed a sword to brave. Silently he strapped the sword to his leg, eyes not leaving his father, he tested it, making sure the wooden blade extended and retracted smoothly. Then without warning his father attacked swinging at his head, brave ducked and launched off to the right avoiding his father’s reach, brave kept his blade retracted in order to move faster. He knew he couldn’t match his father in skill or strength so he had to fight with his speed, agility, and mind. He turned to retreat but as he started to run his hooves slipped on the snow layering the ground. He extended his sword and rolled onto his back just in time to block the sword coming down onto him, his father stood over him driving his weapon down towards him. Brave blocked and drove the sword into the soft snow, and then he reared back with his hooves and drove them into his father’s chest launching out from under him. He quickly got to his hooves and began running looking for some sort of advantage. He looked behind him and saw his father getting closer, brave also noticed something it was much more difficult for him to run in the snow then it was for his dad. Braves legs were thin and he was shorter it took more energy to run in the snow and he was getting winded.
‘If I keep running I won’t have enough energy to fight when he catches up to me,’ brave thought to himself ‘but if I stand and fight ill still lose I’m no match for him even on a good day. There isn’t really a way out of this situation.’ Brave skidded to a stop turned and swung were his father would be hoping to catch him off guard. No such luck, his opponent parried and then tucked his shoulder hitting brave launching him a few feet into the air were he landed with a thud. Winded brave stood shakily, anger boiled in him and he breathed steam out of his nose, glaring at his opponent they began to circle on of each other swords extended. Brave made the first move scooping up a hoof full of snow and throwing it at the larger pony, then swiftly closing the distance swinging at center mass, only to be parried and sent to the side. They circled again throwing prodding jabs at one another, until brave thought he saw an opening he lunged forward with his sword only to feel his sword pass by and hit nothing but air. He didn’t have time to disengage he felt his leg get pushed towards the ground and the all too familiar touch of wood on his next.
“You are dead kid, you got a either too eager or too frustrated. Both you need to work on keeping in check.” His father said
Brave sighed “I doubt I’ll ever beat you.”
The victor laughed “most likely.”
