Author's Notes. Hæ! How is everyone doing? I have not much else to say other than I appreciate all the attention this story has been getting. It has been a real blast to write this for you guys, so seeing it receive reviews and the likes is quite encouraging. Speaking of reviews, I believe it is time to answer a few.
To Midnight Moon: I know who you are, The Federation Justice. You can't trick me by changing your name! Oooohhh... There could be a plot twist. What if the "first end of the world" as these ponies call it actually came from a Fed orbital bombardment? Food for thought.
To Russet Burbanks: I think you are a bit behind the times! Unless by "soon" you meant "the initial outbreak happened about a thousand years ago." And yes, ponies are pony-made things, and so the Draugr will be agitated if a pony draws near.
To FocusedStream: That's not the plural of Jolasveinn. Just saying. But I digress! I will keep on writing just as you say! Oh, as for music... Hmmmm... Actually, the song I usually think of for this story is really unusual. I don't think of depressing or harrowing musics for this song. For me, the theme song would probably be something like "Everything's Alright" by Laura Shigihara. I feel like that song capture's the mystical wonder that will be wrought into this adventure.
To PBJNachos: I might do that... when the story is completed. One of the major components of this story (as I have stated previously) is wonder and mystery. A lot of the lore of this story will be scattered in intruiging tidbits throughout the whole adventure. If you pay close attention to the ramblings and conversations of ponies in this story, you will be able to figure out exactly what happened in the past. There truly are many things to figure out. What are the Draugr? What are the Sleeping? Who are the Konugar? What was the Skyfall event?
That is all I have for now! Now enjoy the latest chapter!
Chapter 4: Complications
Year 1000, Day 3
Einar exited Twilight's house, with Twilight and Shining Armor right behind him. It took them only an hour or so to make their way to the other side of town, where Baldur's mansion and court were situated. The king's court was nothing grand – especially when compared to the glorious proportions of the ruins of the Castle of Embers – but it was still impressive. Made completely of stone marble, the white building was at least twice the size of the average house, and twelve times as long. Guards clad in steel and Kevlar patrolled the entrance, armed with rifles.
Looking about carefully, Einar could not help but comment, "I can see that the king is not taking any chances. Has there been an increased threat of Draugr recently, or something?"
Shining Armor shrugged as he saluted to a nearby guard. "Something like that," he said, "Twelve Elding and seven Trolls were spotted in a group to the west, apparently. Seven whole Trolls. That is bad news to say the least."
Shining Armor stopped talking as they strolled up to the front door of the king's court. An armed guard standing beside the large wooden door barred their way. However, he quickly moved aside as he recognized Shining Armor. "Greetings, captain," said the guard, "What brings you here today? More news of the Draugr spotted in the west?"
Shining Armor shook his head. "No. I am doing something else of relative importance. Good day to you, solider."
Shining Armor now took the lead, trotting into the vast halls with Einar and Twilight in pursuit. In the middle of the hall they were in was a small counter with the words "info" on it. A female Earth Pony with a light gray amber coat, cornflower bluish gray mane, blue eyes, and thick-rimmed glasses sat behind the counter, flipping through a deck of cards.
"Hello, Mrs. Mare," said Shining Armor, trotting up to the counter, "It is good to see you again. I am here to drop off my sister and her friend. They have some things to ask about."
Shining Armor turned about, gave Twilight a somewhat worried look, and then trotted off, leaving Einar and Twilight to Mrs. Mare.
"Hello, youngsters, how are you today? Can I help you?" said Mare, looking at the two ponies before her curiously.
Twilight nodded readily. "Oh yes. We are here to look at some sort of forms that we need to sign to become certified Scavengers for Canterlot and Ponyville!"
Mrs. Mare bowed her head, almost in a mournful manner. "Oh. Indeed? Well, I do have some on hoof. If it pleases you, I will let you look them over. However, you will have to wait to have them considered by the council."
Einar blinked. "Is that really it? Scavengers are the tip of the spear in adventuring! Why isn't the hiring for this job meticulous and selective?"
Mrs. Mare glanced, rather skeptically, over her rimmed glasses. "Young pony, to King Balder, the term 'Scavenger' means nothing but 'insane berserker.' He does not care for exploration, and, quite frankly, I agree with him on this matter. It is too dangerous in the Lost World for anypony to go running willy-nilly around looking for relics that have crumbled to dust in the thousand years of negligence."
"But how will we know that those relics are gone and not perfectly fine and valuable if we don't look for them?" asked Twilight innocently.
Mrs. Mare simply readjusted her glasses and pulled out a couple pieces of paper and some fountain pens. Giving them to Einar, she said, "Fill out the basic information form and the commitment form. I will let the council know that you two wish to become certified Scavengers. I do believe you may be lucky, for there has been something of a lull in the council cases recently… and so you may get in earlier than a week."
Einar beckoned to Twilight, and the two ponies trotted over to a small wooden bench situated the left marble wall. They plopped down and started to look over the forms.
"I… I think we may be rushing this," murmured Twilight, "We just decided to be Scavengers minutes ago. Einar… If we sign this, then we pretty much get kicked out until we find something valuable."
Einar sighed. "You're right. But… But do we really want to recede into the regular, monotonous comforts that await us back home? I thought about this a lot now, and... well... I know it is dangerous, but I personally have hit a wall in life. I can't spend another second in my past life, doing nothing but counting down the days until that insufferable pony Trixie returns to sell us those precious Lost World books at exorbitant prices."
Twilight lightly tapped Einar on the shoulder. "You're right. I couldn't either. Let's go exploring."
Einar flashed Twilight a soft smile before returning to looking over his forms. There were many generic questions on the pieces of paper he held. Questions like "What's your name?" and "Where do you live?" However, there was one question that caught his eye. It read: "Where do you plan to regularly scavenge?" Holding the fountain pen in his magical grip, Einar quickly filled out the form. The pen flicked back and forth in a blur as Einar rushed to complete the papers before his courage completely gave out. His name? Einar Constellation. Where he lived? Star Landing Street, Canterlot. Where did he plan to regularly scavenge? The City of Coulin. Einar gently set aside the basic information form and began to read the other piece of paper he had, the commitment form. This form simply swore him into always giving twenty percent of the Lost World valuables he found to King Balder, ruler of Canterlot. Einar did not really care. He would give away everything as long as he got a hold of those books within Coulin. They would unravel so many secrets about the Lost World and the time-shrouded past, and that was worth a thousand pieces of gold. In a flash Einar had signed this form as well. Einar quickly glanced to Twilight, and saw she was doing the same.
The moment Einar finished, Mrs. Mare trotted up to them and said, "I alerted the council of your presence, and, interestingly enough, they said they could have you before them this instant. Come along, it seems you're doom… Er… I mean your future job… will be coming sooner than you thought."
Mrs. Mare gently took Einar and Twilight's Scavenger forms in her mouth and guided them to the end of the entryway hall. At the end was large ivory doors with a guard posted beside it. The guard slowly shoved one of the massive doors open, and Twilight, Einar, and Mrs. Mare slipped through. The trio found themselves in a large, circular, marble room, with high benches and a rather large podium. It looked quite like a round courtroom. However, the room itself was actually sparsely occupied, with only a couple head guards, elders, and scholars sitting about languidly. In addition to that, it seemed as if King Balder had decided to take a day off from work. A rickety old pony, situated behind the large marble podium, leaned over and beckoned to Mrs. Mare. The mare handed the elder, who took the papers she held in his mouth and laid them out before him. He looked over commitment pages quickly, and then looked at Twilight and Einar in an almost disbelieving fashion.
"You two wish to become certified Scavengers, correct?" he asked slowly, almost as if he was checking to make sure they knew for what job they were even planning to enter.
"Yes," said Einar, who was actually starting to feel like the whole idea was beginning to sour. However, after a moment he quickly bucked up. He didn't want to keep living the life he had been. "Yes, we do wish."
"Indeed," muttered the elder. He practically tossed aside the commitment forms and looked the informational forms. There was a pause, then… "Interesting."
Twilight's ears perked up. "I beg your pardon, sir?"
The elder glanced at the two ponies down below him curiously, and then beckoned over another elder to him. The two old ponies engaged in a heated whispered conference before the first elder disengaged and turned back to Twilight and Einar.
"This is quite odd, I will say," said the elder, "But… there is a problem with your forms."
Einar blinked. "What?"
"You see," said the elder, almost apologetically, "You say here that you plan to scavenge the city of Coulin, which is on the north side of the Foal Mountains, beside the forest of the Hollow Shades."
Twilight nodded. "Yes…?"
The elder scratched the back of his head and continued. "Well… A long time ago, just before King Balder, there was an addendum created for the Scavenger regulation book. There had been an event of several loner Scavengers that attempted to travel to the icy lands of Anora that never returned, and so the predecessor to King Balder added a rule stating that any pony planning to travel farther than the southern ranges of the Foal Mountains or the northern lines of the San Palomino Desert must have about six companions. A team, if you will…"
Einar's jaw practically hit the floor. Coulin was past the southern ranges of Foal Mountain, and that meant he needed five other teammates aside from Twilight? That was practically impossible. The elder dipped his head to Einar and Twilight and handed back the papers.
"I am very sorry, but if you are set on going anywhere near the city of Coulin then you must find yourself a team of five others willing to make the journey. Come back then…"
Without another word the elder beckoned to a guard, and Twilight and Einar were escorted out.
"How did it go?" asked Mrs. Mare as Twilight and Einar trotted by her in a rather dejected manner.
"Apparently we need five more ponies to go with us if we want to go to Coulin," replied Einar quietly.
Mrs. Mare winced. "A rejection, then? Don't feel too bad. I personally never thought much of Scavengers anyway. They spend so much time around Draugr and the Sleeping that they are no better!"
Einar and Twilight exited the building, and found Shining Armor was waiting for them as well.
"Everything okay?" he said, cocking his head to one side curiously at the sight of their faces.
"We need to find five other ponies if we want to make the trip to Coulin," sighed Einar.
Wincing, Shining Armor said, "Oh well. It was a nice try."
"Wait a second though," said Twilight after a moment of silence, "Why does everypony assume that due to the fact we need more teammates we will never get them?"
Einar glanced at Twilight, his eyes full of disappointment. "Twilight, I have spent my entire life in Canterlot, and I know for a fact that everypony here has little to no interest at all in going to the Lost World. In fact, everypony knows enough about how silly we look when we babble about ancient books that they would simply laugh even harder if we attempted to recruit for our team."
"Wait another second Einar, who said anything about having to recruit from here?" replied Twilight, making a soft innuendo.
There was a moment of silence… and then the realization of the full meaning of Twilight's statement struck Einar, and his heart was filled with hope again. His eyes brightened.
"Twilight… You're a genius! Of course! We don't know anypony in Ponyville, so perhaps there might be five or six ponies there that have a brave spirit and willing mind!"
"Um… Hey, sorry to play devil's advocate here," interjected Shining Armor, "But 'brave spirit and willing mind' aside, I am fairly sure no pony anywhere is willing to go on a crazy adventure to Coulin without pay."
Einar winced, but then almost immediately came up with a solution to that problem. "We could pay them on expectations. They will receive a percentage of whatever we find in the Lost World."
Shining Armor pulled a face. "Slightly more convincing, but I am still fairly sure that any pony willing to join you on a mad dash to Coulin on expectations will still have to be as mad as a hatter."
"No problem whatsoever! There are plenty of ponies like us out there… Obviously… Probably… Maybe… Probably not…" said Twilight, her voice slowly trailing off.
Einar poked Twilight gently in the shoulder. "Don't lose your hopes! If you do, then I won't be too far behind in ditching as well. Come on, you got me stated again, so we need to keep up the momentum. Let's go, we need to plan out a trip to Ponyville… Who knows how we are going to get there…"
Shining Armor sighed. "I suppose I can't convince either of you otherwise… So all I can say now is that I will support you. Heck, I'll even pay for your trip! It's not like I wasted my every last cent on ancient books…"
Einar winced. "Please, I'm still torn over this whole thing; those comments are going to only make it worse."
Shining Armor rolled his eyes. "Einar, if you want to truly do this, you are going to need conviction! In fact, you are probably going to need a lot more than that… after all, getting to Ponyville is not for the faint of heart."
Twilight pulled a face. "Ooohhh… You're right."
"Yeah," continued Shining Armor, "Imagine all of that Lost World land between us and Ponyville. We should be able to procure a trip via the military trains though."
Twilight seized Shining Armor in a hug for the umpteenth time. "Thanks big brother! You're the best!"
Shining Armor grinned. "Oh yes, praise me more."
Einar rolled his eyes. "Yes, thank you, Shining Armor. Where would we be without you?"
"Okay, I'm good now," chuckled Shining Armor. "However, before we do anything, you two are going to get some rest. Now that you both need me, I am putting my hoof down on this matter. While you two are out I will see what I can do about arranging the trip."
"Fine," sighed Twilight, "I guess we need 'sleep' anyway."
Einar could not help but smile a bit at the way Twilight's muzzle wrinked at the word "sleep." Almost as if the term was something of a swear word.
Year 1000, Day 4
Einar slowly opened his eyes. He was lying upon the same couch he had found himself sleeping upon the previous day. Light was streaming through a nearby window. The color of the beams was rather red and orange, suggestion it was just after daybreak. At this moment Einar heard whispering coming from the second story of Twilight's house. It his friend was talking with her brother; most probably about the trip they were attempting to arrange to Ponyville. Groaning, Einar rolled off the couch and practically dragged himself up the stairs. Einar quickly rapped on the door to Twilight's room as he rubbed his eyes. The door was flung open a second later.
"You're awake! Finally!" exclaimed Twilight, ushering the rather groggy Einar into the room, "Shining Armor was explaining how we were going to get to Ponyville."
Shining Armor nodded. "Yeah. I will start over. As you should already know most public train transportation has been shut down ever since the amount of Draugr in the southern ranges increased exponentially. However, I was able to work past that and got you two tickets on a military-personal-train train."
"Really?" said Einar, blinking in surprise, "You can do that?"
"I am the Captain of the Guard. I have many privileges," said Shining Armor, smiling, "and since I cannot convince you two not to journey into the Lost World, I can at least protect you two up to that point. The ride will be somewhat uncomfortable, but it will be safe. I have complete faith in the military railroads. According to a military radio report, a pack of Trolls were spotted in the Everfree forest. King Balder, though he doesn't really care for Ponyville, still needs to show support for the town, and thus he is sending over a battalion of soldiers. Cleansers, I think. Anyway, since you both are here I think it is appropriate to mention that I have the tickets I mentioned earlier with me."
Shining Armor used his magic to gently pull out two slips of paper from his military saddlebag. He handed one to Twilight and one to Einar. "The train leaves in the next five hours, so I suggest you get packed up… not that either of you can really pack up that much…"
Twilight's face practically exploded with happiness. She whirled to Einar and exclaimed, "I'll start packing! I suggest you go do the same!"
Einar – who could not help but feel extraordinarily excited as well – nodded vigorously. "I'll rush home and get ready as well. I will meet you here in four hours or so!"
Einar turned tail and galloped downstairs and outside Twilight's house. At breakneck speed he rushed down the street, turned the corner, and took a sharp left. His house was at the corner. It was a small abode (about the same size as Twilight's) but was indeed cozy and very sturdy. However, despite the fact that the neat yard and even white paint gave the building the illusion that it was a place for a tidy pony, it was indeed not. The inside was a complete mess. There were indeed about twenty of the Lost World books were lined carefully on a clean mahogany desk… but that was where the cleanliness ended. Maps, scraps of paper, writing material, magnifying glasses, and book-renovating tools were scattered about the floor or piled into heaps. On the far left wall the window had been boarded up so that Einar could stretch a large canvas across it. The canvas was covered in ink notes… all of them relating to the Castle of Embers… and all of them neither coherent nor devoid of simple nonsensicalness. Einar stumbled in, tripped over a large telescope (which he used extensively to study the moon shards that remained distant and mysterious in the night sky), and then dragged himself up to the desk, the only clean piece of furniture in the entire house. As always, one of the foremost thoughts within his mind was of books.
"I need to bring the book we just got," he muttered, "Oh… and here is the one we were reading when we found out about Coulin… This one talks about Draugr, I should bring it too… Here is a good one as well!"
Next thing he knew, Einar was carrying all twenty books via magic. Sighing, he reluctantly put down the fifteen ones he deemed marginally less important. He then swiftly trotted upstairs and grab pretty much all the other things he thought were important. Winter clothing, a knapsack, cooking utensils, his father's old revolver… Einar sighed when he looked at the revolver. He remembered his father teaching him how to use to, and he remembered his father using it against the two shadowy creatures, and he remembered one of the shadows falling before the others tore him to shreds… Einar shuddered and shook off the thoughts. He packed the revolver beside the books he was taking, and quickly tucked in some revolver bullets as well. Einar glanced about, and then realized he was done. There was not much that he had, and there was not much he really intended to take with him. Almost all he had was stuff he had purchased for himself or Twilight tooled specifically towards fixing books, studying the moon shards, or observing the Castle of Embers. That was it. All in all, he had only managed to fill up two pairs of saddlebags.
Shrugging, Einar pulled out on of the older books on the city Coulin and began to read. The words were garbled and smudged, and many phrases had too many words in an old forgotten dialect, but Einar pressed on nonetheless. Seconds passed, then minutes, and then finally hours. Einar glanced up and his heart jumped. He had only a couple minutes before the four hours he had designated for packing was up. Einar put the book in one of his saddlebags, levitated the two pairs of bags upon his back, and began to make his way outside.
Translations:
Hæ. (Hi.)
Author's Notes. Einar and Twilight need five more ponies until they can begin their adventure? Who could those ponies be? I am pretty sure you guys know what is coming up next. But until those developments come to pass, please review! It is always good to let me know what you think of where the story is heading, even in the initial stages of development. If you leave a review, I will give you a Scavenger certification form... if you're into that sort of thing. Not many ponies are apparently. Oh, one last note: the rifles that these ponies have are not at all advanced. When I was writing about them, I was thinking of rifles like the Lorenz Rifle and the Henry Repeating Rifle. Nothing fancy or contemporary.
