A Hero Untold

It was allegedly spring, but the air was cold. The sun shone, however. The weather was calm and quiet in the morning sun. Wolfram had waited until his father left for work the day after he had learned of his pursuers. He left a note, explaining what little he felt safe to, and assuring his father that it was no fault of his. Wolfram needed to leave, because he had managed to make a series of unfortunate mistakes, and he worried his presence would endanger the city around him.

He was now just leaving the city. Despite the circumstances of his departure, he felt light on his feet, and brimming with excitement. Something that wasn't inherently bad was finally happening to him, and it wasn't within the confines of the city. His pegasus blood must have been what made freedom feel so nice. He never realized just how limiting the city was, until now. The air was fresher, the sun was brighter, and the life was livelier. Wolfram was happy.

He had packed light, as he always did. Never taking more than he was sure he needed. He would rather have to work a little to find more supplies than carry around extra baggage the whole way. His inventory consisted of a lined denim jacket, due to the odd weather, a few days of food, his target was nearby, and some hidden light armour, for he preferred bulk over weakness.

He was headed southwest for the nearest small town, Ponyville. He had heard plenty of stories about the place. Supposedly it was home to the wielders of "The Elements Of Harmony" which had the power to vanquish evil through simple friendship. Wolfram was doubtful, he had never been able to stop evil without knocking a few heads together. That was not the reason he was going there, though. He had been given a task to complete, and it was something to do while he evaded his enemies.

Not to mention the reward. Amp must have had more money than Wolfram realized, because she offered him a lump sum of eight hundred bits to return the artifact she wanted. 'A marvel of metal work. The alloy must be something impressive, because I haven't been able to replicate it from text.' She was looking for an ancient sword.

Wolfram's wing had already healed mostly, the shot Amp provided must have worked. Wolfram was worried it would take at least a week, and even then still be weak. But to his surprise, his wing was fully functional over night with a large dinner. Emphasis on 'large,' he ate more than even ]he usually would. His father was impressed, or repulsed. One of the two,

Wolfram knew a train ran from Canterlot to Ponyville within a matter of hours, but he wanted to walk. Not only was it the safer route, for it was unpredictable, but he enjoyed the prospect of being out in the open for once. Perhaps he would sidetrack a bit, and give himself some time to enjoy nature.

Besides retrieving whatever relics and legends Amp sent him to chase down, Wolfram wanted to find some leads on his enemies. Particularly the cult. If Amp didn't know anything about them, then he would have to find the information on his own. No record or book had anything Amp didn't.

Wolfram was to walk for several hours before he stopped. His wings were no good for long range travel, he was too heavy for endurance flying. So he had only made it about a third of the way before he stopped to eat. The sun told him it was around eleven in the morning. So it was early an early lunch of bread and apples.

He ate slowly, and soaked in the peaceful light of the open road. Trees at his back, and hills in his view. His breath showed up in the cold air. Now that he thought on it, there hadn't been a proper summer or spring in an awful long time. Last year had been at least a little chilly all throughout. Now spring was holding on to the sting of winter again. Odd, the weather ponies must have had some reason for it. They were usually very well orchestrated.

Wolfram worried not any longer, he had finished eating and that set his mind to the horizon. Quite literally. He could not see very far, the terrain was not completely flat. So he made use of his newly healed wing, and flew straight up to get a gauge on his position.

The world sunk below him, and his view stretched farther and farther. He was not much higher up, only thirty meters or so, but it gave him a clear view all the way to the town he was going to. The river between him and it was not to wide farther north, so he made a note to angle a bit to the right. He didn't want to go over on the bridge, he would rather keep his name and image out of public until he had to reveal himself.

Beyond that, the town seemed unremarkable. From this distance it looked like nothing but a bunch of houses and small businesses bunched together. Oddly enough it was on the border of the feared Everfree Forest. Wolfram had not heard any stories regarding it's dangerous placement. But perhaps it at least brought some excitement to a small town once in a while.

He quickly became tired from hovering, though. It was a lot harder that soaring, which was enough work by itself. He floated himself back down to earth and got to marching again. All of a sudden he was happy that he did not actually bother getting horse shoes, on the soft natural terrain it would have been very frustrating.

Off he was again, following his imaginary path, for lack of a real one. He would soon arrive in Ponyville, and he would be able to get to doing something productive.

Guard duty was abnormal today. Ferrous had been assigned to a special post, revolving around the upcoming wedding. The Captain had chosen him specifically, said it was because he needed guards with etiquette. Ferrous wasn't sure if that was an insult to his guarding abilities, or a compliment on his behaviour. But either way he had been given an abnormal post which involved a lot of idling around during wedding rehearsals.

This was favourable, Ferrous usually felt like he wasn't protecting anything at all. When he didn't feel that way, he felt he was trying too hard to protect what he was protecting. This job ensured that he was protecting something important, and that he need not try too hard. After all, what kind of monster would attack someone on their wedding day?

The captain, and groom to be, was certainly worried though. He had been working full time on holding up a barrier around the entire city. Ferrous wasn't sure that it was the best time to be having a wedding if the city was under direct threat. He had no say in it however.

Ferrous spotted the captain making an approach.

"Sir Shining," Ferrous saluted.

"At ease, Ferrous. I have something to ask of you." The Captain sounded worried, and curious at once.

"Sir?"

"You have contact with the Earth Pony, Amp DeGroot?"

Ferrous confirmed.

"Ah, hay. It's hard to ask. I usually wouldn't even think of it, but with Canterlot's safety on the line..." He trailed off.

"What is it, sir?" Ferrous was genuinely worried now.

"Well, the shield's been taking a lot out of me. I need to know if there is some way to... Enhance my magic."

"If anypony's got the solution, it'll be Amp. I swear I'll keep this strictly off the record, Shining Armour."

"Oh, man. I hate to sound informal, but you are the best, Ferrous. You'll get me contact?"

"I'll try, she's a bit timid when it comes to officials, but I can convince her."

Shining Armour continued to thank and praise Ferrous, far beyond social obligations requested. It began to make Ferrous uncomfortable, but he had no right to leave before his superior. He waited it out, and occasionally tried to null some of the praise until the Captain left.

The rest of the day was uneventful, Ferrous caught a glimpse of the bride to be. She seemed angry, almost sinister. It must have been the stress of planning a wedding under threat of an invisible enemy. Ferrous thought it completely reasonable, he would probably be the same in that position.

When his quiet shift was over, he went straight to Amp.

"You said what?!" Amp shouted at Ferrous.

"I just told him that you might be able to help, Amp. No need to worry." Amp did not agree with the last part.

"You 'Just' told the captain of the guard I could solve a problem using illegal substances?"

"Well, when you put it that way it makes me sound wrong." Ferrous avoided the rhetoric.

"That's because you are, Ferrous. He's probably just trying to catch me with something I shouldn't have."

"Look, I know the Captain. He isn't that sort. He really has the city's best interest in mind, not commendations. Heck, he's already in charge of the entire defense. There are barely any superiors to recognize his further success in the first place."

Amp sighed in anger.

"All right, fine. I'll talk to him. But I'm going armed, and if anything goes wrong, I can't guarantee he will make it out alive."

Ferrous ignored that last clause, hoping she was just saying things to spite his decision.

"Good, so you'll seek him out?" Ferrous asked.

"Yeah, I'll find him." She was still clearly angry.

However, she had no further argument. She slammed a large steel door in Ferrous' face, and got back to work quickly.

His journey had ended quite a bit earlier than he was expecting. Wolfram was almost hoping to be able to trudge in to town at night, so he wouldn't have to handle all the greetings and such. He did not dislike interaction exactly, he just disliked where his own tongue usually led him. Into the ditch, with any hopes of friendship following it.

But alas, the sun was still high in the sky, it could not have been later than five. Perhaps he could make it to some establishment for dinner, he was not in the mood for any more travel food. Not in the mood for any more travel, actually. It had started out rather whimsical, but it eventually became tiresome. His legs ached, and his stomach was empty. Not a fun way to spend an afternoon.

The ponies around him were quick to notice the stranger in their town. Wolfram tried to look as brooding and large as he could. Hoping that appearance would keep the sociable at bay. His hopes were wrong. He looked back forward after observing a bird which was feeding from the ground, by the hooves of a fairly aged mare. His vision was suddenly ensnared by pink.

"Hi, what's you name?" The pink asked.

"Who's asking?" Wolfram tried to sound angry, but his etiquette betrayed him. It sounded more casual.

"I'm Pinkie Pie!" The pink was now at his side. Following him closely. For he had sidestepped and walked past it.

"That's great." Wolfram said, trying his best to sound rude again. The pink was impervious to his attempts.

"Thanks, but you still didn't tell me who you are, silly!"

Wolfram sighed.

"Oh! Let me guess your name! Is it John? Grey? Steel? Steve? Chaser? Giant?..." The guesses went on for some time.

"You aren't going to guess it. It's not native." Wolfram said, trying to shake the conversation.

"You aren't from here? Well I know you're not from here, here. But you aren't from anywhere near here? Are you from Manehatten, or... The Everfree Forest?!" The pink gasped in utter terror at her thoughts.

"No, I'm from Canterlot. My family isn't though. I'm hungry, please leave now." Wolfram was more direct this time.

"Oh, you're hungry? I work at a bakery! You can go there for food! And I can come with you, and you can eat lots and lots of food, and I can talk to you, and learn your name and everything about you!"

"Forget I said anything. Please leave." Wolfram was very direct this time.

"But I still haven't learned your name! Why are you so silly?" The pink would not seem to leave. Wolfram gave up.

"Alright, fine. My name is Wolfram, I'm from Canterlot, I was not born in Canterlot. I do not know where I was born. Happy?"

"Yes, but that's not all I wanted to know." The pink was pushing a little to far, in Wolfram's mind.

"What else did you want to know?"

"Can we be friends?" She asked joyfully. Unaware, or uncaring of Wolfram's attempts to shake her.

Wolfram was silent for a while. He wasn't sure what just happened. He stopped walking, only now realizing the almost dwarfish size of the pony compared to him. He looked down at her, and thought she almost looked like a child. Certainly he couldn't deny a creature so small and innocent something as simple as friendship?

"Uh, okay. Yeah, we can be friends. Pinkie Pie was it?"

"Yup! Are you still hungry? Oops! You told me to forget! I'm sorry, forgive me?" The pony seemed very strange.

Wolfram had almost forgotten himself. As though on queue his stomach made an audible protest to his previous denial of food.

"Forget I asked you to forget, I'm actually very hungry. Now where was this bakery of yours?"

And so they both headed off to the place known as "Sugar Cube Corner," Wolfram didn't like sugar cubes on their own, an odd trait among ponies, so he hoped that the bakery did not live up to its name.