The Tales of Oathbound, The Mountain Hermit

"Say, Oath." Pinkie Pie chirped.

"Hmm?" Oath said, taking a bite of his muffin. He had gotten to Sugarcube Corner earlier that day. Little did he know that the others would also show up. Not that he didn't mind. He liked the company.

Pinkie looked over to him with a curious look on her face.

"You haven't really let us know where you come from or why you have such reservations about the princess. She's not done anything to you, has she?" Pinkie was surprisingly serious. Oath was flabbergasted by the blunt approach. It was something he expected of Rainbow Dash or Applejack. But least of all Pinkie.

The others were pretty interested in the two's conversation as well, as their ears perked up and they tried to be as inconspicuous about it as possible, but Oath shot them a glance and took that as their cue to leave the room.

"I... Don't want to talk about it. It's not a pleasant memory." He said, shaking his head grimly.

Pinkie wasn't swayed.

"But I wanna hear it! Pleeease? Pretty please with cherry on top?" She said, looking at his eyes with the adorableness of a pleading puppy.

"Damn her smile." Oath thought. He sighed in defeat.

"Fine. But only when the others are around as well. They all deserve to know it all. And you must Pinkie Promise me to not let anything about what I tell you be spread around. What my past is about stays between me, my friends and the princess."

Hours later, as Pinkie told the others to meet up with Oath and her at his place, they were huddled around in his meditation room. Oath had taken the liberty of getting chairs into the room. He even went as far as to conjure a cloud for Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy to sit in.

"So. You know why Pinkie called you here?" Oath said, casting a glance at each of the assembled ponies. They shook their heads. Oath looked over at Pinkie, who smiled back.

"They were pretty busy and there was a lot of commotion so I only told them to meet up here. I couldn't break my promise, could I?"

Fluttershy gasped a bit, while the others eyes widened. What was so important that Oath had made her Pinkie Promise to let only his friends know?

"Right. Thanks for that." Oath concluded, nodding at her in an apologetic manner.

"At Pinkie's request, I am now here to tell you about my past, something I never shared with anypony. And I warn you, it is not something I want to share lightly. Sometimes I wonder if I have been hiding from it, only to find it smacking me in the face." He said, looking at the ground. He lifted his gaze and walked to the center of the room, on top of the round stone pyramid. His amulet glowed in the colors of the rainbow and they slipped out of it, creating magical lightning bolts that glowed, each with a different color.

"Ooh! Floating streamers!" Pinkie excitedly said, causing Oath to roll his eyes. He was alarmed when she made a motion to touch one of them.

"Pinkie, don't!"

She ignored him as she touched it. Oath was about to fling her across the room in panic before he noticed that she was fine.

Infact, she was laughing.

"Ahahah, that tickles!"

Figures. Only Pinkie can touch a lightning bolt and say it tickles.

With a simple gesture, he gathered all the bolts into a single orb of magical power, which expanded before an image could be seen in it.

"Now that we're all here, might as well get this over with." Oath said before he began his story, the image in the orb giving an almost cinematic effect to it.

"I do not remember much about my early life. Infact, I never knew my parents. The very first thing I remember is waking up in a cave surrounded by waterfalls and mountains. It was a bleak, desolate place. A whole lot of nothing. As I walked the land, my hunger was starting to drain my strength away. Eventually, after days without food, I collapsed from exhaustion and hunger. The last thing I remember before passing out was the hoofsteps of a guard. I woke up later to find myself in the field camp of Princess Celestia's guard. I was quickly nursed back to health and I was advised to head to Canterlot. The north was no place for a pony like me to be in. Thankfully I could travel with the guards, though they were reluctant to have me repay their hospitality.

Nevertheless, it was an uneventful trip, not counting the dangers the roads contained." Oath said, shivering a bit at that.

"Once I came to the city's walls, it was clear that I was in a place where royalty lived. For whatever reason that meant I woke up without any memories from prior, it also meant that I had no idea of how to function in society. Combine that with the troubles of an adult blank-flank and you can guess how it turned out."

The others stared at him with blank faces.

"...Or you can't. Well? Long story short? I was thrown into the dungeons for stealing an apple. I regretted it as I later came to know why it wasn't acceptable to just take something from somepony without giving anything in return. The guards had shown me otherwise when they found me."

Applejack was a bit confused about what he said. She could never see Oath stealing an apple or a pie, anything! Then again she could understand how it would have come to pass.

"One fateful evening I woke from a nightmare, still in the dungeons. When I came to my senses and rose from the makeshift bed, I saw Princess Celestia standing in front of me. Fear gripped me as I was afraid of what she might do.

But instead of doing anything, she just smiled and opened the cell door.

She took me under her wing, taught me everything about how to not get into trouble, even gave me a few bits from the royal treasury to help me get started."

Twilight smiled.

"Sounds like the princess alright."

Oath continued: "But even after all the help she gave me and all the things she taught me, she asked for nothing in return. I couldn't stand to see such kindness go unrewarded. I swore to her that day that I would repay my debt to her even if it took me all my life. So I joined the Royal Guard. The first few weeks went quickly as my comrades didn't manage to keep up. My dedication and conviction made me rise through the ranks quickly. Only thing that stopped me in the end was the fact that I wasn't a unicorn. As Captain of the Guard, I would have been responsible for maintaining any and all magical safeguards and forcefields. With no magic I couldn't do the simplest of things that the Captain had to deal with daily. But months later, the previous captain had died. He was old and his magic-usage didn't really help him in that regard." Oath said, closing his eyes as he remembered the previous captain, Proud Knight, praising him after he beat his opponent in a sparring contest. An image also showed for the others to see:

"Well done, Oathbound! I'd say, if you were a unicorn, you'd probably take my place quicker than an Ursa Major could stomp a butterfly!"

"Permission to speak freely, sir?"

"Go ahead, son."

"It's great to serve under such a great leader like yourself."

Twilight nodded at that.

"I knew Proud Knight. He was like a grandfather to me, really. I didn't see him that much, but he always had these wonderful stories that I would listen to for hours and hours on end. Shining Armor was also quite enthusiastic about those." She added, giggling.

Oath smiled.

"He will be remembered like a great person like him deserves to be. Regardless, that same day I was invited to Princess Celestia's quarters. I put my best face on as I wanted to honor the invitation as best I could. Perhaps it was just a part of me that was still scared of the princess somewhat. Anyway, when I entered the chambers, I was given an amulet that she placed on my neck." He said, toying his his sapphire-encrusted neckpiece that glowed at his touch.

Rarity was exstatic. Even though she already knew that Princess Celestia had given Oath the amulet, it was still such a thrill to know that her friend owned an amulet that was technically priceless. And it was enchanted too!

"When it came to rest on me, I felt power coursing through me. Not only that, but I gained the basic knowledge of how to work magic. Once the stream of power and knowledge receded and became nothing more than a steady trickling flow, I thanked the princess. She asked me if I wished to become captain of the guard. If this is how she wanted me to repay her, then that was how it would be. It was also at that moment that I gained my cutie mark." Oath added, the orb above his head showing an image of his cutie mark, a golden shield criss-crossed by two light-blue axes.

"At first the younger guards were not really thrilled about an earth pony taking the role of captain - tradition had always dictated that the captain must be a unicorn, but they wouldn't disobey Princess Celestia. It took me some time, but I gained their respect. One day, while I was patrolling with a fellow guard on the ramparts of the castle, I saw a huge expanding rainbow, coming from Cloudsdale. At the same time, there was also a purple light coming from the room in the palace where they test unicorns for enrollment in Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. Moments after that I saw a full-grown dragon burst from the roof!" Oath said, showing an image of it in the orb. The others gasped.

"A rainbow? Expanding!? Oath, I think you saw the same rainbow that we did! A sonic rainboom!" Pinkie said, gasping again.

"I was the one who made that!" Dash said, puffing her chest.

"The purple light that came from the testing room was me! And the dragon that burst from the roof was Spike!" Twilight said, really getting into the spirit of the story. Oath looked over at her for a moment before he nodded.

"Yes, the princess told me about that later on, though I am a bit surprised. I never expected it to be the same Spike I see today. I saw you later that day, you were quite exstatic now that you had your cutie mark." Oath said, grinning.

A squee came from somewhere as Twilight smiled awkwardly.

"That day was quite something indeed. But... The joy of that day was not going to last. A week later... A week later somepony attempted to take the princess' life." Oath said, burying his face in his hooves.

"WHAT!?" The rest of them said in unison.

"I was out in the ramparts. It was late in the night and I was about to turn in. One of the guards burst into my room and told me that Celestia had been attacked. When I found her I was horrified. She had scrapes and bruises here and there and her mane was flowing erratically. She was breathing heavily and she had a cut on her cheek. Fortunately she survived."

"B-but who would do that!?" Twilight was semi-panicking.

Oath shrugged.

"I don't know. But I failed her that night. I couldn't bear the pain of failing to do my duty, of seeing the one who taught me so much be hurt like this even though I pledged to protect her. I ran from Canterlot, crying all the way until I reached Ponyville. Taking residence in the library for a day, I used my magic to create a hidden room from which I could be roused if I was needed. After it was done, I sent a letter to the princess details on how to open the room. After that, I left for the Badlands. I became a hermit who refused food and drink and any attempts at consolation if they knew who I was. The dragons mostly left me alone since I made no move to harm them. Years passed as I simply meditated in there, trying to find justification in my actions, only to fail. But... It was not to last. For one day a magical stream of power found me and I identified it as the call from the horn I made and enchanted."

The others understood.

"That's when you came to Ponyville, right?"

"Yes. I was under the delusion that only Canterlot was capable of defending itself in a crisis and so I assumed that Ponyville had been wiped off the map by the time I got there. My clouded mind thought that what I saw when I first arrived was a cruel trick. How it warms me to know that I was wrong."

The others giggled.

"You know, that was not a bad story, points for originality." Rainbow Dash said, stepping off the cloud as Oath made the memory-revealing orb disappear.

"Gee, thanks." Oath said, smirking at her. He turned to the others.

"Alright everypony, thanks for letting me get this off my chest. For that, we're gonna eat out tonight! All on me!"

"Oh! Oh! I want cupcakes with sprinkles!" Pinkie said as she bounced around.

"Ah'll go with sum' simple grub." AJ said as she started walking toward the door.

"I'll just have a strawberry smoothie... If that's okay with you I mean." Fluttershy said, hiding her face behind her mane.

"All I need is a good book to read while eating and I'm good!" Twilight said matter-of-factly

"A simple salad would be lovely, I am a bit famished." Rarity said, throwing back a bit of her mane that was blocking her view.

"One big ice-cream scoop for the fastest flyer in Equestria!" Dash said as she accidentally kicked the cloud, making it evaporate and almost causing Fluttershy to drop to the floor. Thankfully the married pegasus managed to stay afloat. The rainbow-maned speedster gave a sheepish smile at her friends who were looking condescendingly at her.

"Ehe... Sorry."

And so the rest of the evening was spent with happiness in their minds and hearts.

"Perhaps I should have let them know of this earlier..." Oath thought to himself before he dozed off.