The Tales of Oathbound, The Mountain Hermit

While visiting Fluttershy's cottage one day, Oathbound was a bit perplexed by a few things.

Lately, some of his belongings were under the habit of disappearing when he was not looking, only to reappear some time later from the most unexpected locations. Twilight Sparkle merely dismissed it as Oath being forgetful.

But Oath knew that something was wrong. Somepony, or something was playing tricks on him.

Sighing to himself, Oath blew the thought away from his mind. Fluttershy needed some help with some of the new critters that had taken residence in her backyard. She needed a carpenter, Oath came over. He didn't really have a cutie mark for carpenting, but he knew enough about it. Some ponies had taken to calling him the Colt-of-all-Trades, which always made him chuckle.

Knocking on the door, Oath waited for Fluttershy to open it. Soon enough she came, thankful for the help.

"It's really nice of you to help me out in this, Oath. I'll make it up to you somehow, I promise!"

"Don't fret about it, Fluttershy. Anything for your friends."

With that, he passed through the house and exited from the back, seeing a couple of creatures looking at the gray stallion with the blue pack that contained a hammer, some nails, bits of wood and the like.

"Now, which one of you needed a house?"

Angel hopped on over and showed a small family of bunnies that were looking at a hole on the base of an oak. It had collapsed under the weight of the growing tree.

"I see. I think I can figure something out."

Reaching for one of the bits of wood, Oath was surprised to see that the hammer was missing. Disregarding it for the moment, he returned to dig with the piece of wood so the hole could be fixed. The bunny family helped, but the hole was still very small before they all were exhausted.

"Seems like it is not so easy as I thought... This is going to take a while."

Eventually the job was finished. By the time the hole was fixed for the bunny family however, most of Oath's tools had disappeared. Scratching his head as he wondered what could have happened to them, Fluttershy came out from the back door, a hammer and some wood carried in her mouth. She put them on a nearby table before she spoke.

"I found these while I was cleaning inside. You really should be more careful with these."

"Seems so. However, I didn't even leave them inside. Something has been moving them." Oath said in a slightly annoyed tone. He had originally suspected Angel of being the culprit, but the rabbit was there with him the whole time.

Putting a hoof on her mouth as her pupils shrunk, Oath could have sworn Fluttershy muttered something before she disappeared in a flash.

"What did I say?" He said, looking at the back door. The bunny family voiced their confusion in response.

As time went on, the disappearings stopped. Knowing that something was definitely wrong, Oath thought that he could probably look around in Fluttershy's house when she was not around.

Slapping himself on the face, Oath sobered up.

"What are you thinking, Oath!? She is your wife! There's no way she would keep any secrets from you! It's gotta be something else." Taking comfort from the fact that she wouldn't keep anything from him, Oath decided to take a patrol around the town, more to clear his mind than actually being worried about the townsfolk.

However, as he was nearing the end of his patrol route, a thought formed in his head. It was strange, something he wouldn't have ever thought, as if it would have been introduced to his mind by some foreign presence.

"But... What if there are some things even she can't tell me?" No matter how hard he tried to get that thought out of his head, he couldn't. It lingered in his mind, as if forgetting it would cause disaster. Deciding that perhaps it was best to just be sure, Oath redirected himself towards Fluttershy's cottage once more.

The house looked as tranquil as ever. The door was open though, suggesting that Fluttershy was in a hurry to the town for some reason. Stepping inside, Oath looked around. From the corner of his eye, Oath saw a flicker of movement, up the staircase. Galloping up, Oath was to see something he was never prepared to see. Not in her house.

A goat's horn jutted out from its head alongside an antler. A lion's paw. A hawk's talon.

It was Discord. In Fluttershy's house. Immediately his axes flickered to life as Oath steeled himself.

"Discord!"

Unfazed by the magical power the axes emanated, Discord just gave a sigh.

"You know, you really could have just stayed unaware of my presence. It was so much fun playing those tricks on you, at least admit that." Starting to laugh, Discord almost bent double as he continued:

"You- you should have seen your face as you looked for that hammer! Ahahahhaa!"

"So it was you who was causing all my stuff to disappear." Oath snorted.

"Me indeed, old chap, glad to see you are still the good old detective like you were back in the old days." The draconeequs said, a puff of magic heralding the appearance of a magnifying glass which Discord used to look at Oath.

A voice echoed from downstairs as the door closed.

"I'm home!"

"Hmm, looks like things are about to get a little more interesting. Ahah!"

"Too bad you won't live long enough to see it!"

Charging at the draconeequs, Oath was surprised when his strike did not connect. Instead he hit thin air as Discord disappeared elsewhere.

"You really should be more careful with those. You could hurt somepony."

Disregarding the statement, Oath charged once again. Once more his axe missed it's target. Fluttershy appeared from the staircase and gasped so loudly that Oath looked at her.

"Stand back Fluttershy! I'll deal with Discord!"

Charging once again, Oath stopped as he heard his wife cry out.

"STOP! BOTH OF YOU, STOP!"

A confused look on his face, Oath came to a screeching halt as he looked at Fluttershy, who was looking at the ground.

"I... I have some explaining to do."

"You WHAT!?" Oath said, banging his hoof on the table in the backyard.

"It's true. Princess Celestia wanted me reformed, so Fluttershy was given the task. I would say that having a friend truly is a way of making even a master of chaos change his ways. It's not exactly something that I would call ideal, but even I can make compromises."

"I didn't want you to find out like this, Oath... Please forgive me. I wasn't sure about how you'd react to him after he told me of what happened between you two."

Fluttershy was regretting that she had kept Discord's presence a secret, Oath could see that. He calmed down somewhat. The thought of Discord being there, however, did not do much to ease the situation. Reformed or not, Oath had clashed many times with Discord's minions, sometimes even with the draconeequs himself.

"I know what you are thinking about, Oath. I have changed my ways since then. But you gotta admit, it was fun, wasn't it? All these little bits of chaos that I caused, too bad that you had to end them all though." The lion's paw of the draconequus stroked the beard that was attached to the head of the master of chaos.

"Chaos was not something the princess wanted. I had my task." Oath said through gritted teeth.

"Oh sure, but can't you at least admit that some part of you wanted to see what would happen if you let this one piece of farmland have chocolate rain for a day or two? What's a field of corn turning into poison joke, hmm?"

Oath's face was slowly turning red as his anger rose.

"But really, you DID do something that allowed this one bit of chaos to survive to this day. You would know, you ARE living proof of it."

Confusion reigned across the two ponies as they looked at Discord, who covered his mouth as if he would have broken a Pinkie Promise.

"Oops."

"What do you mean, Discord? Tell me." Oath demanded.

Sighing once more, the draconeequs rose from the chair and looked over the fence overlooking the meadow flanked by forest trees.

"Since you are so willing. Remember how you were always protecting the princess back when you were still Captain of the Guard? Let's just say that... I wanted to try some extreme measures, so I had my minions try and assassinate Celestia. You running out of the castle and towards the Badlands was hilarious to watch though."

Pupils shrinking to their absolute minimum, Oath watched the draconeequs as Discord winked at him. The taboo that was his past came crashing down on to him, every excruciating detail of that night remembered as if it would have happened moments ago.

A dark, unassuming night sky left the stars out of sight in the clouds as Oath walked on the battlements of Canterlot Castle, his armor contrasting his gray skin. Just one more patrol before his shift would be over. The shadow of a pony went behind and past him, Oath not being aware of its presence. As he reached the guard tower where his personal belongings where stashed, he took off his armor and prepared to go to bed when suddenly the door was thrown open as a guard came in, urging Oath to come to the royal bedchambers. The words still hung in his mind:

"Captain, you must come quickly! Her Highness, Princess Celestia, has been attacked!"

Knowing that they didn't have time, Oath threw the pieces of his armor away as he dashed through the door and jumped down from the battlements. The guard stood there aghast looking at Oath as he broke his fall with his magic and galloped towards the bedchambers. As the captain of the guard reached Celestia's side, the princess wasn't looking her best. Her mane flowed like it always did, but it was in distorted waves. Her hooves were roughed up and her right cheek had a cut. A small trickle of blood flowed from it, but a napkin sweeped it away. The local apothecary was summoned and he was treating the princess' injuries. But Oath was more concerned with the assassin, who was nowhere in sight.

"M'lady, are you all right!?"

"I am fine, Oathbound. The assassin tried, but I can take care of myself. But he escaped."

Slamming both his hooves on the floor as he lowered himself down on to his knees, Oath cursed.

"I should have been here!"

"There was nothing you could have done except your best, Oath. I do not blame you for what happened."

"My best was not good enough..."

Rising up and looking at the princess, his face twisted in anger, Oath stormed out of the bedroom as he went to his chambers in the guard tower. His armor was quickly donned as he went to redo his shift, working that much harder to keep any more troubles at bay while he ordered a city-wide search. The night slowly turned to day as Oath still kept on going back and forth on the battlements.

Eventually, he looked at the morning sun, which burned its image on to his retina as he stared at it, unflinching. After a moment, he looked away in a flash of pain and held his hooves on his eyes, as if it would help with the pain. It only made it worse. Eventually he could see again and he went to get rid of his armor. He donned his cloak that was handcrafted by the royal tanners, golden leaves forming an image of his cutie mark, a shield crossed by two axes. He went to the throne room, where the princess was getting ready for the first audiences of the day.

Stepping up to the princess, Oath kneeled before the alicorn, who was confused.

"Lady Celestia. I have come to say my goodbye to you and all the ponies that I have befriended in your fine city. I served you for a long time as your lieutenant and captain of the guard, but last night showed that my time has passed."

He presented his badge that the Captain of the Guard usually wears on his shirt - the armor has an emblem on it to depict it but in public it was necessary to wear it so ponies would know who he was.

"I leave this honorable duty to one that can do it better than I have. I was not capable of protecting you, Princess. I broke the promise I made when I joined the guard. I promised I would let no harm to come to the royal family, no matter what. I broke that trust. I deserve not the honor of basking in the sun's warm glow."

The alicorn was startled and walked towards the amulet-wearing pony, who stepped back.

"Please, Oathbound! Think what you are doing! I am not blaming you for what happened. We all make mistakes. I want you to stay!"

Staring into the earth pony's eyes, a hint of red clear in them, the princess' pleas were left unheard as Oath responded:

"I shouldn't have made a mistake."

With that, Oath turned and ran, straight out the castle and out of Canterlot, tears falling down his cheeks as the city receded into the distance and he ran towards the south. A pegasus was laughing maniacally on top of one of the clouds that littered the sky before the draconeequs relinquished control over his minion.

Discord. It was Discord that drove him into exile. It was him who ruined his life. It was because of him that he failed his duty. It was because of him that...

All the pent up emotion of years long past came barreling down on him, crushing all resistance as Oath snapped. A vile beast had been awoken. And it was out for blood.

A great roar issued forth from Oath's throat as he looked high into the heavens for a long moment before he shot a look at Fluttershy. His eyes, silvery under normal circumstances, took on a reddish hue as his mane was slowly turning into an evil parody of his original colours in a subtle manner, of a purple mane and an ebony-black coat. His amulet was turning black, fading into his skin as a horn started to poke from his forehead before breaking the skin, coming to a proper horn's length. It crackled with red lightning.

"You. You kept this a secret from me, when I had thought that nothing was to be hidden. I trusted you, Fluttershy. Seems like I was wrong all the time. The princess was wrong. All this harmonious living has been nothing more than a lie."

The draconeequs stepped in between Fluttershy and Oath, the stallion raising his eyes to meet Discord's gaze.

"And you. You destroyed my resolve as easily as you could have crushed me in single combat. You tried to kill the princess. You made me fail. You drove me into exile. YOU. SHALL. PAY!!!"

With that, Oath charged, his axes flickering to life, more powerful than before. Instead of the blue color however, the axes had turned blood red. If it were not for Discord's magic, Oath would have cleaved through both the draconeequs and Fluttershy. The yellow-skinned pony and the master of chaos appeared near the former's house in a poof of confetti and butterflies while Oath was left to the back yard, his rage seeming to consume his sanity, taking it out on nearby furniture.

"Oh my, that pony sure needs anger-management classes."

"W...w..what's wrong with him?" Fluttershy said, shivering.

"Everything, I'm afraid. His negative emotions seem to have possessed him." The draconeequs said it so casually that it was hard to believe that Oath had just tried to cut them down.

"I... I need to speak to him. He'll listen to me." Fluttershy said, managing to put a hoof in front of the other before Discord stopped her.

"Nononono, Fluttershy, this is not so simple. Infact, if I were to hazard a guess, he is beyond saving."

"I am not leaving him alone like this!" The mare said, her face steeled in determination. Her face quickly softened as she realized what she had just done.

"I mean, if that's okay with you."

Facepalming, Discord pointed a finger at the town.

"If you think you can help him, then you need the Elements. Go on, I'll keep him... occupied, while you are gone."

"Please don't hurt him, Discord."

"Pff! I am the master of CHAOS, not doom, death and misery! Now go on, chop chop."

With that, Discord disappeared in a flash that left behind photographs of him singing in an opera, of holding a huge meatball on top of a mountain and of swimming through the sea in a suit made of porcupine needles.

Looking at her house with a worried face, Fluttershy eventually gathered her courage and galloped towards the town, towards Twilight's library. Fortunately the others were already there. Twilight was the first to notice her as she came running towards them.

"Oh hey Fluttershy! You came just in time, hopefully it won't be too much to ask you if you could help me with these books."

The unicorn loaded some books on to her hooves and the pile kept on rising and rising as Fluttershy tried to get her to listen. Eventually the weight was too much and she stumbled to the ground, the books lying around in a haphazard manner.

"You could just tell me if there were too many..."

Soon enough the situation was explained to the others as they looked at Fluttershy disbelievingly.

"I don't think Oath would do such a thing, Fluttershy. Even if Discord was his old enemy, he knows now that he is reformed, doesn't he?"

"I don't think he believes me..." A tear came up from her eyes as she looked at the ground.

It was like a forbidden line was crossed and Twilight recoiled as the tear fell down to the ground. Soon enough she told her that they would help and the Mane 6 donned the Elements of Harmony. The party was assembled and they headed towards the cottage. An evil aura hung about the perimeter of the house as sounds of battle could be heard, with the occasional giggle, oddly enough. A demonic voice cracked the giggles with the fury of a raging tempest.

As they hurried to the back yard, they found Discord fighting Oath. One of the stallions axes flew towards the draconeequs, almost touching Discord before they were turned into a bouquet of roses, which he grabbed and sniffed.

"You have to admit that these flowers are very fragrant, especially during this time of year." Each one of the flowers turned into floral imitations of Discord's face as they all laughed.

Oath's voice was crackling, almost demonic: "Those flowers will wither like your power is waning. You have gotten soft, Discord."

"Wanes, waxes, who knows the difference nowadays."

As the stallion prepared to strike again, Fluttershy cried out.

"OATH! STOP!"

Turning his gaze towards the collection of ponies that looked at him with wonder and worry, Oath snorted.

"The betrayer returns. You may hide behind your friends, but you shall die next. But for now, stand back. Your turn will come soon enough..."

Rarity stepped up.

"Come on now, Oath. If you are going let evil take control, at least make yourself look good while you are at it! You're looking absolutely horrendous!"

Ever the diplomat, Twilight thought as she stepped up.

"Oath, we know that you are angry at what has happened, but won't you please give Discord a chance? He's not evil anymore!"

A laugh came forth from the pony that had attacked Fluttershy and Discord.

"A chance?" An axe flickered to life.

"You don't deserve a chance."

Sighing, Twilight looked at her friends, each nodding before the power of the Element's began to work. A rainbow-coloured beam shot towards Oath, who threw his axes in front of it and held on. Eventually the beam died out and Oath still stood.

The Mane 6 were horrified by what they saw. Not to mention Discord.

"Surprised? Don't be, I am as much in harmony with myself as you are with eachother. Before the weakling feelings of love, compassion and joy were thrown away, I was not sure what I was meant to do. I may have tried to fool myself, but deep down inside I knew there was something wrong." An evil laugh came forth as Oath looked over at Discord.

"Infact, I should thank you, Discord. Your actions have shown me what I really am. I am bound by the weak constraints of good no longer!"

He pulsed with red energy as he shouted out to the world:

"I! AM! OATHBREAKER!"

Axes began to appear from thin air and flew in random directions, cleaving trees, embedding themselves in the ground, the walls of Fluttershy's house and almost hitting the ponies and draconequus but their combined powers meant that they came to no harm. Oath's cry of rage kept the storm of magical power flowing for a long while, seemingly unable to run out of breath, but eventually he had to stop.

Oathbound couldn't see anything other than the red background which surrounded him, with spots of inkish black moving around and about.

He could hear whispers, in a voice which he recognized as his own.

"I'm a failure."

"I should have not left the princess' side!"

"I didn't deserve to be released from that dungeon."

"Much could have been changed and the past would not have come to pass."

"I ruined my chances. I deserve no less."

"I don't deserve to live."

"NO! What's done is done! It is my duty to make it right! For I swore so! Even if I must ignore my own needs and wants, I shall redeem myself!"

The voices became silent. Instead, he could hear another voice.

His wife. She was sad.

The redness began to crack. He could see the backyard of the animal caretaker, scorched and cleave marks all over. He realized what he had done.

He had to fix this.

A moment of silence passed before a murmur could be heard, nopony unsure of the source. The volume rose, until the pony behind it looked at Oath, tears falling down her cheeks. Fluttershy spoke to Oath, who raised an eyebrow.

"I'm sorry, Oath. I'm so sorry. I should have told you. Please. Please forgive me."

The eyebrow lowered as she continued.

"I was afraid of what you would do if I told you. I didn't know how to say it, I didn't want to hurt your feelings."

Oath's face was changing visibly, a crack forming in the red iris that had taken over his eyes, a silver colour breaking forth from the crack.

"Fluttershy... I..."

Suddenly his axes disappeared as he put his hooves on his head, as if it would explode from the inside. He yelled in pain and his voice was indecisive, the demonic voice seeming to disappear only to appear once again before disappearing once more. Eventually Oath looked at Fluttershy, his eyes shuffling color between blue, green, red and silver while he spoke, struggling to say the words.

"Fl-Ghhhrrr-Fluttershy! Use... The Ele-GRAAAGH...E..lements! Quickly! I can't con-AAARGH!!! ...control myself much longer!"

Knowing this was the pony that they knew, the six mustered their power once again. Once more a rainbow-coloured light streaked towards Oath. This time it hit it's mark.

He writhed in pain as the evil essence came out of his mouth and flew away into the sky in a black smoke cloud, leaving only Oath suspended in the air by the beam of harmonial force as his horn retracted painfully, his amulet reappearing. He now looked like he was happy, hanging in the air as he was. In his mind, Oath could feel all the sadness, dark thoughts and everything negative he ever experienced fade away. As the beam died out, Oath fell to the ground, unconcious. Fluttershy rushed to him, her face red from all the tears she had shed that day. Rainbow Dash was looking suspiciously at the dark cloud as it flew away. She considered going after it, but decided against it.

"Oath! Oath, please wake up! ...If that's okay with you, I mean."

Discord stepped next to her and put his talon on her shoulder.

"He is fine, he just needs to rest."

As soon as he said that, Oath began to stir.

"...Or not." The draconeequs said, rolling his eyes.

As he raised his head, holding a hoof on it as if he was having a headache, he looked around. A smile formed on his lips as he saw Fluttershy's face.

"Fluttershy."

"Oath..."

Tears began to fall once more as she embraced his husband, who was taken aback by all that sudden emotion.

"Whoa. Why the tears?" Twilight raised an eyebrow at that.

"What are you talking about, Oath? We just saved you!"

As Oath looked in Twilight's direction, he was surprised to see the Mane 6 all wearing the Elements of Harmony.

"What? But I don't..." Pressure in his head began to cause pain.

"I... don't remember... It's all a red blur. Like a horrible nightmare. Of death, destruction, chaos."

As soon as he said that, he realized they were not alone. He saw Discord next to Fluttershy.

"I... remember fighting Discord in your house, Fluttershy. Then you told us to stop and we came here to the back yard... I didn't believe you when you said that you had been reformed, Discord."

"Yes, you did make quite a ruckus about it."

"But... Now. Now it makes sense. Why would the princess let you roam free otherwise? I... Believe you."

Oath rose up and stepped in front of Discord. Swallowing his pride, he stuck his hoof towards him.

"I apologize. For any and all insults towards you. I hope we can... start over."

'I have all the time in the world, I can start over as many times as I want.'

As the stallion and draconeequs shook hands and hooves, Fluttershy smiled.

A lesson was learned that day: The power of friendship can overcome even the most ancient grudges.

But the dark pony who had caused this pain and misery was not done with his rampage yet.

A nearby hill overlooking the cottage that the creamy-yellow mare called home had a black cloud descend on it, slowly taking the shape of a pony. Upon the completion of his transformation into a pony, he gasped. He was leaking black liquid from multiple places which fizzled when it hit the ground, causing the grass around it to die, though the wounds were rapidly healing. He looked at the group down below, his eyes flaring.

"I'm not done with you, Oathbound. You can be sure of that. Like it or not, I will make you suffer. If I can't make you do it to yourself, I'll just take you out another way. One way or another, you will die by my hooves." The demonic voice that came from the pony said.

"Just like you wish it to be. You will die by your own hooves. For we. Are one."

With that, the dark stallion smirked and slowly began to back away.

Equestria has not yet heard the last of Oathbreaker.