Chapter 2: The Tale of Strider

Chapter 2

"Please Princess!" Pleaded Twilight. “There are no records in the library and I am dying to know the reason."

Celestia looked at her eager student. She was hesitant on telling her what she knew about the event of Discords defeat. Officiously He was defeated by her and her sister Luna but that did not explain to her little ponies the rapid evolution that took place over the next 4000 years.

Celestia was not in the right mind set to speak to Twilight about this. She was much to focused on the repairs and relief projects that came after the changelings recent attempts to take the city. Although Twilight was a center piece in the saving of the kingdom she simply had no time for her Twilight right now.

"Twilight I am sorry but I am quite busy right now." Celestia insisted.

Twilight facial expression saddened. Celestia made the mistake of looking into her eyes. The large eyes of their species were notorious for prorating emotions and thanks to Celestia's motherly nature it was her greatest weakness.

"Very well," She sighed. "If you go to Luna and ask her about "Strider" she will tell you the story."

Twilight smile returned brighter than ever. “OH Thankyou!Thankyou! Thankyou!" She repeated not paying attention to what her skirt was showing. Celestia simply face palmed. She thought what her student would think of the unknown creature known as Strider.

"I will have to wait and see I suppose." She smiled wearily closing her eyes to rest.

THUD

She quickly opened her eyes to see a sizable stack of papers in front of her. With a sort sigh she got back to work.

*******

Twilight hurried down the halls in search of princess Luna. She searched high and low for her to sate her hunger for knowledge of the unknown. She ran passed the garden were the dancing and fun had taken place last night at her brother’s wedding. Applejack saw her run by and called out to her.

"Twi! Where you headed in such a hurry'?" She questioned in her heavy accent.

Twilight skidded to a halt and almost fell over. She recovered quickly to see the familiar blonde pony tailed mare under her Stetson hat. She was wearing her traditional casual clothing today. She wore what at first sight would appear to be a plain corset that exposed her cleavage (which Twilight was very much jealous of) but the mid-section was cut out revealing her fine toned abdomen. On top of that was a open tan leather jacket that finished just below her breasts fashioning a picture of an apple on her left collar bone. Like Twilight she also was wearing a skirt but like her jacket it was leathery and tan as well as being held up by a black belt with brass buckles. Twilight took one envious look at the farmers chest before answering her.

"I'm going to go see Luna. She is going to tell me the truth on how our specious came to be this way." She thought for a moment. "Hey you should come too with all the other girls!"

Applejack noticed how excited Twilight was. Applejack was not totally interested in anything that could be learned from a text book but she did not want to disappoint her friend. She was reluctant to agree but did so anyway. They parted ways with their tasks in mind. Twilight to find Luna and Applejack to gather the others.

Twilight was now in full sprint heading to Luna's room. The guards who were posted outside her room and began to step in the way. They stopped when they saw the look in the lavender unicorn's eyes. The burning determination that was in them screamed "If anypony gets in my way they'll regret it.". The guards then stepped aside allowing her to burst into the room. When she was out of eye sight the guards felt a new fear for Celestia's student.

"What do you thing that was about Sting?" Asked the grey unicorn.

Sting shook his head. "Don't know Ark but I'm never getting in her way." Ark shared a nod with his pegasus friend sting and resumed his guard duty.

In Luna room Twilight had found the azure princess and was explaining what Celestia had told her.

"We understand. Does thow wish to hear the tale of Strider with thy friends?" She asked. Twilight nodded and so they waited for her friends to arrive.

It did not take long for them to arrive but what was surprising is that Celestia as well as Shining Armor and his newly wed wife Candace had shown up as well. They all gathered around Luna who was the one to tell the story.

"We hear that thow all wishes to hear the tale of Strider." She began in a dramatic tone. She surveyed the room to see that only Celestia was unaffected. With a cough clearing her throat to speak normally she began again. "His tale began as sister and I fought Discord..."

*****

I was slightly out of breath alongside my sister. We had been engaged in magical combat with the god of chaos for five hours now. Thankfully the old god seemed to be having trouble as well.

"Why don't we just call this a draw?" He asked with a wicked smile.

I said nothing and neither did my sister. We just kept our eyes looked on Discord waiting for the next move like a game of chess. That's when it happened.

A tare in the sky appeared. It was a swamp green and I assumed it to be one of Discord's ploys. I charged a spell of my own and aimed it at him but stopped when I saw he had a confused look on his face looking at the hole in the sky. My sister shared his confusing and I soon to did as well.

The green tare slowly drifted to the ground. It then spat something out and closed immediately and disappeared. Unfortunately Discord was the first to react to the foreign entity.

"Hellooo~" He chimed. "You still alive?" He received no response. Discord shrugged placing a finger on the creature to begin draining his magic. This he did receive a response from. With reflexes I had never seen before the creature planted a heavily clothed of what I assumed was a leg into Discord's nose. Discord let out a small groan of pain while the creature performed a series of flips towards us.

Celestia and I scattered when it landed were we once were. To my surprise as well as my sister's it stood completely upright. The only feature we could make out from his body that was completely covered in black robes and leather padding was that it was tall. It also had a strange case on its back as well as some kind of spear I had never seen. The creature then side stepped to avoid a bolt of lightning from Discord. As he did so he caught it in his left hand and sent it right back at him. Discord effortlessly dodged it but was still just as surprised by the creature as we were.

"As long as I live and breathe I will not tolerate my magic reserves being drained." It spoke in a deep masculine voice.

My sister and I were stunned by his speech but unable to say anything.

"Well that's too bad because I need your magic to beat these pesky sisters." Discord declared pointing at us.

The creature then turned his hooded face to us. "Is he your enemy?" He asked. My sister was the first regain her composure.

"Yes he is." She nodded.

The creature nodded. "Let us join forces." He said walking over to us.

"Why?" I asked. "Thow hast just met us. Why fight with us?"

The creature bent down and picked up three unicorn skulls that had laid there. “It’s an old saying were I'm from," He said after placing one skull on each shoulder. "My enemy's enemy," he placed the last skull over his hood. "Is my friend."

*****

"Wait a minute." Interrupted Rainbow. Everypony stared at her. She had been quite up until now which in itself is a miracle but she had also enjoyed the story. "Why did a creature who knew nothing about you that just popped up out of nowhere decided to help you?" She asked. "And how does this affect how we changed to upstanding creatures."

"To this day we do not really know why he helped us." Luna said.

"Why ever not?" Asked rarity. "Did you not ask?"

This time Celestia answered. "There was no chance to." Everypony stared at her waiting for an explanation. "He died shortly after the battle with Discord." Everypony gasped.

"May I ask how he died?" Spoke shining Armor.

"I was getting to that in the story." Luna hissed. "Well since your more interested in Strider now I guess we will skip to the end of the battle with Discord."

*****

My sister and I had just sealed away Discord thanks to the help of our mysterious friend. However we rushed back to him. Discord had done something to the case he had on his back and he was rolling on the ground in pain.

"Are you alright?!" My sister shouted taking a place next to him.

"No I'm not but that's not important." He coughed up some blood. "You need to listen to me."

"Luna get one of the healer at camp he needs medical attention!" I was about to leave but he grabbed hold of one of my legs.

"NO!" He sputtered launching blood into the air. "You can't save me now." Celestia and I looked at him with our own words we wished to tell him. "You see that small split container beside me?" He motioned with his head. We both nodded. "Inside that container that serpent thing shattered on my chest was mutagen."

Celestia nor I knew what that meant so he elaborated.

"It's like a plague." Our eyes widened in unison at the word. He saw our understanding and continued. "I originally developed it to rid my world of these monsters called ghouls, but I never finished it so in this state it will kill everything."

"What?!" My sister shouted in anger.

The creature rolled over to one side and vomited. A mixture of blood and stomach fluids formed beside him. "In my back pack is a cure. It's a blue liquid the only one I have take it and administer it to the nearest reservoir." He paused breathing in deeply. "It will help stop the mutagen from killing everything but there will still be side effects that I can't predict." He let out a gasp of pain.

Celestia nodded to me and I found the small vial and took off.

When I returned I found a small dome around the creature. My sister was trying to heal him. I walked over to her and asked how he was doing. Before she could answer the creature did.

"I told you it's too late for me." between breaths. "All you’re doing right now is making me more comfortable while I die." He laughed.

"How can thow laugh at a time like this?" I asked tears filling my eyes.

"My name is Strider." he said. "You can call me Strider and to answer your question our species has always been crazy." He laughed again. "Can you do me a favor?"

I nodded allowing a few tears to hit the dirt.

"Go into my pack and grab a metal looking L. It will have a trigger like a cross bow." I did so and passed the strange object to him in my magic grip.

He looked weak but had enough strength to retrieve the object. "Listen just because you administered the cure for the mutagen does not mean it won't do anything. There will be side effects that I cannot predict but it won't kill you."

We both nodded in understanding him. He nodded and put one had into a pocket pulling out a small scroll. "I have a feeling my student will one day end up here." He slowly raised the sealed scroll that was covered in small specks of his own blood. "If he does please give him this." He then placed the small L against his temple taking one last look at us. "I'm sorry." He pulled the trigger causing a loud noise and a portion of his head to erupt into a fountain of blood.

*****

"And from there on the side effect of the mutagen was all of the intelligent species on Equis to evolve into bipedal forms."

Everypony was quiet. The tale proved to be both interesting as well as disturbing. Twilight somewhat regretted wanting to know the reason for their evolution but she had a new problem. Know she wanted to know more about this "Strider" and his student.

"What about Strider's student?" Twilight asked. "Did he come here to?"

Everypony refocused on Luna who shook her head. "Strider's student never came. We assume that he never will, it has been four thousand years after all." Luna looked into Twilight's eyes which seemed to still have questions about Strider. "Would you like to see the items he brought with him?"

Twilight's face brightened as she nodded wildly. Even the other elements were excited to view the objects of a creature that had such a massive impact on their species.

Celestia let the elements to a secret passage where they parted ways with Shining Armor and Cadence. Shining Armor was still exhausted from the mind control he was under from yesterday and needed rest.

Celestia and Luna let the elements down ancient corridors into a an equally ancient room. In the rooms center was a large metal casket with a sign above it that read "Here lay Strider. The pony who paid with his life to fix one mistake."

After Twilight read the sign she joined her friends who were looking at the items around the room. She first joined Rainbow who was admiring what looked like a lance. Rainbow was too busy drooling over the weapon to even bother reading the sign. Twilight took it upon herself to read it aloud.

"This is Strider's weapon, originally thought to be a spear but was later classified as a lance." Twilight looked at the blade which made the light dance along the wave pattern edge of the blade. "The master crafted blade is as long as a sort sword but has the same density of a great sword, and is sharp enough to cut other blades in two." Rainbow let out a squeal of joy. "The lance also doubles as a magic magnification staff for Strider who was assumed to have enchanted it."

After reading aloud Twilight fully examined the weapon. The curved blade was short and quite wide with a beautiful wave patterned that ran along the blade's edge. The gleaming blade was attached to a red shaft that was decorated with intricate green stone work. Twilight had to hand it to Rainbow the weapon was truly impressive.

Twilight left Rainbow with the lance and carried on to rarity. She was over standing in front of manikin in a combat ready position wearing Strider's clothing. By the look on Rarity's face she disagreed with his choice in attire. Before she could begin to point out what she disliked about it Twilight began to read the sign out loud.

"This was the clothing that Strider both lived and died in. Before being placed here it was found that the clothing is highly resistant to rain, tarring, and magic. The tough material is unknown to all of pony society and is believed to also be enchanted,"

Twilight looked up from the sign into the mask under the hood. The mask was the most bizarre one she had ever seen. For one it was almost completely blank save for one marking one the left side of the face. There was also only one eye slot on the right side in a swirl pattern. The rest of the outfit was not much more welcoming. From the hood down to the hem of the heavy cloak it was black and like the sign said make out of unfamiliar material.

"It's hideous." Said Rarity unimpressed.

It was this time that Rainbow had pried herself away from the lance and was beside Twilight. When she heard what Rarity said she took one look at the outfit and gave her a disappointed look of her own.

"What are you talking about? This outfit is totally awesome!" She protested. "What do you think Twilight?"

Twilight took one last look at the unwelcoming figure. Like Rarity she was by no means impressed by the look but her inner egg head thought that it was very interesting. She thought it best not to answer and carried on to the next section of the exhibit. Rainbow gave a shrug and followed her like a museum guide with Rarity in tow. Twilight began to wonder if this was going to be a future museum exhibit being the way it was set up with the signs. Celestia must be taking steps to make this public.

The next stop had the current attention of Pinkie Pie. She was staring intently at the small black smooth surface of the rectangular device. Pinkie saw Twilight approach in the corner of her peripheral vision. She quickly turned her head to see Rarity and Rainbow with her. She smiled her signature toothily grin, finally having someone to verbally assault.

"Hey Twilight! What do you think this is? I think it's a space time warp generator. OH! How about a teleportation device, or even-"

"It looks a lot like a P-Phone to me." interrupted Rainbow.

Everypony pulled out their P-Phones to confirm the comment. Twilight found that Rainbow was right the object was almost the spitting images of their P-Phones. Before Pinkie Pie could suggest anything else Twilight continued being the good museum guide.

"This item was found in the back pack of the creature. The item was found to be a storage device for pictures and music. The current amount of songs on this device is 1,302. The P-Pod and P-Phone were all based off of this 'I-Pod'."

Twilight continued down the displays reading each and every one too her friends as they came. When she read the sign that told the elements of the device he used to take his own life she cringed. The small weapon was a cold grey that appeared to have seen much use in it's time.

Twilight even saw other bizarre contraptions that had rather vague descriptions. One such item had many harnesses like a rucksack and four folded metal pipes. The sign said that when these pipes were fully extended they were five meters long and had two joints each.

Eventually they worked their way to the last two displays. One was the scroll that was intended for his student that never arrived. It was sealed with wolf paw stamp and had dry blood on it. The other was The container that was split open releasing the powerful mutagen. In between the two stands was a large sign.The sign spoke of Strider's effects on Equestria. Twilight deemed it necessary to read out of respect to the deceased Strider.

"Strider's arrival in Equestria had many strong and vast impacts. His mutagen granted ponies of all races the use of fingers that made previously difficult tasks for earth ponies far easier and offered all ponies the ability to created finer arts and technologies. Even Strider's technology bumped Equestrian Tech ahead five hundred years. Because of this we please ask that everypony take a moment of silence after completing the tour. Equestria would not be the same without him or his sacrifice."

Everypony closed their eyes and hanged their heads. Even Celestia and Luna did so after Twilight finished reading. During the Silence Luna let a single tear drift down her face and scatter on his coffin.

***** Extra
Memory Lane

Walburn opened the medicine cabinet, it was the last thing he had to pack up before he could leave with Alex. He took a anylizing look at the contence before he started grabbing potions, pills, powders, and a many different colored herbs. He was trying to only take what was usful convineint or rare.

He took one more bag of pills knocking something onto the counter below. He quikly stuffed the pills into the proper pouch and looked at what he had knocked over. A small smile spread across his face when he saw the small limp little man.

Walburn brought up the frail body closer to his face. It was the first body he had made for his friend Rade. His mind swam in the past memories with his friend. The times in this body were he would dance and perform other acts to make me laugh were warm and welcoming. But these memorirs brought forth the time were his father and mentor Strider had left without a word. Walburn stood there rooted in front of the almost empty cabinet. After a short while his smile returned.

"I can make room for you." He said carefully placing the small body under his belt.

Author's Note

A little bit of a morbid chapter but there is still one or two more before the true comedy sets in.