The sovereign of a new dawn

After Twilight passed out, Bondrewd lifted her onto his back and took her to the little cottage that Fluttershy called home.

He knew no one was home, so he just let himself in but he was met by a sickly rabbit waiting expectantly.

But as soon as he walked in, said rabbit began to hit him with a carrot.

“How odd but also intriguing, I wonder if the beasts here are sapient?”

“Yawn* oh spike, I had an awful dream. In it Fluttershy was hurt and this masked pony had horrible weapons that incinerated the forest. Could you write a letter to princess….”

“Ahh~ you’re awake Twilight, marvellous. I was expecting to be waiting for at least a few hours for you to wake up, not minutes.”

“W-where are we?”

“In Fluttershy’s humble cottage.”

“Oh um y-yes…. Well w-we should go to the town…. To check up on Fluttershy! And….”

“Why are you nervous? I’m not going to hurt you…. Although I’m most curious about your horn.”

He went to touch Twilight’s horn but she jumped back.

“No! That’s just rude and inappropriate!”

“Oh…. Oops, so could you explain how it functions for me then?”

“Y-yes but we’d need to go to the Golden oaks library…. And you have to leave your foreleg things here.”

“Very well then.” He took them off and placed them on Fluttershy’s bookshelf. “Now let’s go.”

Twilight was dumbfounded by how easily he agreed to her demands, a little too easy if she had to say so herself. Which could only mean, Bondrewd had other ways to protect himself.

“Y-yes, I’d like to make a stop at the hospital first before I take you to my library.”

“Ahhh~ so you can check on your friend’s condition, I see.”

“Exactly….”

Twilight couldn’t make heads or tails of this stallion, it didn’t help that she could only see one emerald green eye staring at her expectantly.

The purple unicorn prodigy trotted out of Fluttershy’s cottage and the sovereign of dawn followed closely, heading down the trail they walked side by side towards Ponyville.

But as they walked down the trail, so many questions ate at her mind until it became too much to handle.

“Argh okay! Enough! Who are you really and where did you come from?!”

The masked stallion just looked at her with an emotionless expression, this only made twilight uncomfortable.

“Well I’m a cave raider of the abyss, a white whistle. My name is Bondrewd, the sovereign of dawn and as for where I came from…. I just woke up in that forest behind us this morning.”

Twilight internally groaned at the lack of useful information he gave her.

“Sigh* yes you’ve said but what is the abyss?”

“It’s a bottomless pit that has never been fully explored that is filled with artefacts and ruins of an ancient civilisation, no one’s ever found the never world’s bottom and the creatures there are just as hostile as the environment…. But the curse is by far the most dangerous challenge of the abyss.”

“And why’s that?”

“On the upper layers the curse only induces dizziness, vomiting and then bleeding but as you go to the lower layers of the abyss. The curse becomes stronger, on the fourth layer if you ascend rapidly, you’ll bleed from every orifice.”

Twilight was looking like she was ready to throw up but she couldn’t stop herself from letting him continue.

“But ascending the fifth layer will more than likely kill you if you are not careful and that is because it takes away your senses, you lose feelings, smell and balance. As for the sixth layer, ascending that is certain death or worse for it is the point of no return.”

“W-worse than d-death?”

“Yes, a loss of…. One’s self, you become something known as a hollow. A mass of twisted flesh and bone that loses all mental capacity of the individual it once was. When that happens to a cave diver, the fellow divers kill the hollowed individual as to puts them out of their misery.”

At this point twilight was horrified but just as much intrigued by this place but what Bondrewd was telling her was terrifying.

“So why?”

“Why?”

“Why would anypony go down there?”

“….I don’t have an answer…. Everyone has their reasons, some want glory, some want riches, others are just curious but we all have one thing in common.”

“And that is?”

“We are all drawn to the abyss as if it’s calling us to its depths. We can’t help it…. So is that Ponyville?”

Twilight turned around to find that the little town of ponyville was close, they were only a few hundred yards away from the town.

“Y-yes it is…. Let’s go to ponyville general, you could do with a check up.”

“Really? But I’m not hurt badly?”

“You might not be but we got to get you registered.”

“Okay.”

Twilight walked into the town and immediately began to receive odd stares from the residents thanks to the equally odd stallion trotting behind her.

She honestly couldn’t tell if he could be trusted but he saved her friend Fluttershy, so how bad could he be? She wondered.

Meanwhile Bondrewd allowed his eyes to wonder unrestricted. Thanks to the crack in his mask, the town’s occupants were able to make eye contact with him, even if it was uncomfortable to do so.

Some done it by accident, others done it out of Curiosity and a few done it to be polite but all received the same fascinated look from the masked stallion.

And all had the same unsettling feeling when his singular exposed green, dead eye looked back.

If asked the residents of Ponyville could never decipher what hid behind his eye but they all knew one thing, this stallion wasn’t like them.

Twilight picked up her pace as the hospital came into view, Bondrewd noticed but didn’t move any faster. He continued to take calculated steps through the street.

The purple unicorn rushed into the building and straight to the front desk, she Immediately began to asked frantically about her beloved friend Fluttershy’s condition.

Nurse Redheart calmly explained to her that said pony was in stable condition and in room 012 on the west wing of the hospital.

She asked if she was able to visit and Nurse Redheart confirmed that she was allowed visits at this time.

Forgetting about Bondrewd, Twilight thanked the Nurse and power trotted towards her friends room.

Then the large stallion walked in and just like all the other residents of Ponyville, nurse Redheart was unsettled by his presence.

He casually walked up to the front desk and removed his large, heavy and iconic overcoat to reveal a armoured waste coat underneath.

But what caught Redheart’s eyes was the patch of crimson that was barely visible, she knew what it was and so she wasted no time.

“Goodness gracious, you’re hurt! follow me and we’ll get you patched up in no time.”

“AAAAhhh~ splendid.”

She lead him to an unoccupied room and asked him to remove everything so that she could get a better look at his injuries.

Without hesitation, Bondrewd complied and began to remove everything but his helmet.

Nurse Redheart was about to tell him to take it off but then she noticed the gaping slash wounds that was on the right side of his stomach.

“Oh my Celestia…. How in the Tartarus did you walk here with this?”

“….painfully but it didn’t affect my pace that much if I’m being honest with you.”

“It’s a miracle that you didn’t get disembowelled.”

“Yes it was, I wasn’t expecting the timber wolves to fine the cracks in my armour, even if it was by chance….”

She was surprised by his level of calmness but found concerning that he seems impressed, it could be explained by him being in shock.

“This is going to hurt quite badly, please try to keep still Mr….”

She finally realised that she didn’t know his name.

“It’s Bondrewd, my name is Bondrewd.”

“Oh um well Mr Bondrewd, this will hurt a lot.”

She put some disinfectant and poured it on a cotton ball, then she began to clean around the edges of the wounds. She felt bad when the stallion winced in response but she had to stop any infection and kill any leftover bacteria in the area.

His hind leg kicked out when she began to clean the inside of the wounds but he did not cry out in pain or grit his teeth. Instead he just watched with that singular green eye observing from the crack in his helmet.

“So how do you plan on repairing the damage tissue?”

“Ehh…. Well I’ll begin by removing the damage tissue because we can’t stitch that together, thankfully the cuts aren’t too deep or hit anything important so I’ll just stitch and wrap it up, then prescribe you to bed rest for 4 weeks.”

“Is the bed rest mandatory?”

“Sigh* no but I’d really recommend it mr Bondrewd.”

“I’ll consider it but I must find Twilight, I believe she’s currently checking on her friend.”

“Oh yes but why didn’t she tell me you were hurt…. You haven’t told her, have you.”

“No and I don’t plan on it but she did mention something about getting me registered here, you see I’m not from around here so I don’t have any medical records.”

“I see, well it looks like you’re off to a great start.” She gestured to the now clean wounds.

“I take it that you were being sarcastic.”

“Sigh* yes I was.”

Meanwhile in room 012.

Fluttershy was conversing with her friends and was overall in good spirits despite her leg being wrapped up.

Rainbow Dash was boosting about their fight with the timber wolves, completely oblivious to the others that were just relieved that the butter yellow pegasus was going to make a full recovery.

That’s when Twilight trotted in un-announced.

“Heya sugar cube, it’s about time you got here so where’s pinkie and tall dark and mysterious?”

“Um yeah where’s Bondrewd Twilight, is he okay?”

“Pinkie went to plan a party and Bondrewd is…. Oh no I ran off without him when Nurse Redheart told me where you were Fluttershy.”

“Oh I hope he’s not scared on his own, I know I would be in a new place not knowing anypony.”

“Pssttt relax Flutters, I’m sure he’s fine. Not everypony is as scared of meeting new ponies as you are.”

“I have to agree with Rainbow here dear, I’m sure a capable stallion as him will be just fine, don’t you agree Twilight?”

“Heh heh heh, this is bad….”

“And why’s that.”

“You don’t understand, he’s dangerous! Like super dangerous and I was supposed to watch him! Oh no what if he attacks somepony? It’ll be all my fault, what will I tell princess Celestia!!!”

“Oh but I don’t think he’ll do that, he’s a nice stallion. He did save me after all.”

“Yes but he could just be using us to get to Ponyville and I led him here and left him unsupervised….”

Twilight began to hyperventilate as all the worst case scenarios played in her head but it was Rainbow who brought her out of her panicked state.

“Yooo! It’s fine, if he’s evil then we’ll just use the elements of harmony to turn him to stone or whatever. We’ve faced far worse than some mysterious stallion that came from the Everfree forest.”

“Y-yeah you’re right Rainbow Dash, I’ll alert the princess and tell her everything we know.”

“B-but we don’t know if he’s a bad stallion.”

“But Fluttershy, what if.” Applejack cut her off with a stomp of her hoof.

“Now y’all that’s enough, we can’t live off what ifs. We might know nothing about him but we can’t just say he’s trouble.”

“Sigh* do you remember that beam of light that took out two of those timber wolves?”

Everyone nodded but Fluttershy, who looked down at her hooves didn’t.

“Well I found out that he did that, thankfully he left the weapons responsible for it at Fluttershy’s cottage but…. I’m worried about any other weapons he has hidden.”

“B-but he used them to help, d-doesn’t that count for something?”

“I understand where you’re coming from but we can’t just ignore it, so who’s for sending a letter to the princesses.”

All but Fluttershy raised their hoofs.

“I’m sorry dear but I’m with Twilight here.”

“Same here, if he’s trouble then we’ll beat him up.”

“Ya understand that i can’t take the risk of giving him the benefit of the doubt, i mean what does he need those things for or even the mask.”

“Then I’ll send a letter to princess Celestia and princess Luna, hopefully they can decide if he’s safe to stay here.”

“I-I don’t know, he doesn’t act evil….”

“We see your point but we have to put the residents of Ponyville first Fluttershy.”

“Oh okay I guess…. It just doesn’t seem right to suspect him to be bad just because he can protect himself, Bondrewd said that his weapons are designed to help explore the abyss.”

“Even so, that begs the question. Where did the abyss come from? Because it definitely wasn’t in the forest before.”

“I don’t know twilight, but I’ve seen it and the animals that I could see flying around in it were alien compared to anything we have here.”

“But how does that excuse his equipment?”

“Well it doesn’t but there has to be a reason, I’m sure if we ask he’ll answer.”

“He did seem to comply so I guess we should ask first.”

“If ya think that’s a good idea Fluttershy, then I think we should.”

“But if he doesn’t comply, then we’ll get to kick his flank.”

“Oh Rainbow Dash darling, we shouldn't resort to violence so quickly. It might be a private matter, so please allow those who are better suited to negotiating take the lead.”

“Huff* well if he tries anything, I’ll beat him up.”

“I’m sure there won’t be any need for that Rainbow.”

“Okay so why are we standing around y’all, let’s go find him.