The OC's presented in this chapter were given, with permission, from Lankore to be added. With two more interesting characters to this humble world is worth the extra thought. I hope you enjoy them as much as I am. /)*Brohoof*(\
Amissus backed away from the building and trotted. He wondered what happened and listed the events: Twilight went to the same stellerscape as him, Celestia helped her transform into an alicorn, and she came back to Ponyville in a glorious show.
Is that how I became an alicorn, through magic?
He only continued walking after the thought; he knew that his meditation wouldn't get him answers. Hoofstep after hoofstep was his current philosophy, away was his destination. A cloaked unicorn accidentally bumped him as they walked past each other. They exchanged apologies and continued on their separate ways, but something made Amissus look back as he walked away; there was a large green dragon walking beside the cloaked pony.
…
Amissus wandered into an older part of town, the kind where the buildings could be debated over whether to demolish them to make new homes or to place historical markers. But in either case, the town was deserted, homes hung open, and Amissus was the only pony there.
He found a house that was mostly intact and went inside. He closed the door, which skidded across the raised floorboards, making it difficult to shut. When the door rested in a protecting position, Amissus looked around the main room. It had no furniture except a rug that was eaten away by moths and rats. A fireplace was against an outside wall, but it had no wood to start a fire. He looked to his right through a doorway leading to a kitchen; it too was barren of any furniture. He walked forward, up the stairs, to a bedroom. It had a dust covered bed with a quilt blanket.
Upon approaching it, he sneezed from the dust, which made more dust erupt from the bed, making him sneeze again, and it continued in a cycle until the whole room seemed dusted. It was at least two minutes until his nose settled down. He lay down on the bed, making a futile attempt to become comfortable on the torn apart mattress. The day's events withdrew his last bit of will to stay awake, and Amissus fell into his dreamworld.
…
"Secrets…secrets protect the innocent; secrets link the farthermost corners of the world. Yet secrets ruin and secrets dominate. Secrecy will fade and restore the thinker, the worker, the meek, the fighter, the obsessive, and the carefree. Secrets preserve and terminate. Yet you are the one who knows without knowing, the one bearer of light and shadow both, to make you the vessel of secrecy."
…
Amissus threw himself out of bed, hitting the floorboards hard as he vomited. His dream consisted of only a single phrase, but his violent reaction spoke its power. He turned over onto his back, gasping for air. His lungs filled, but let out some in a cough, which carried blood with it. He turned onto his side, spitting the remainder of the blood and vomit onto the wall, leaving a red smear. He settled into this position, resting from his sleep.
"Why can't you just tell me?!" He shouted to nonexistent ears.
He started crawling towards the stairs, progressing upward to a walk as he reached them. He descended the steps, but his legs gave out halfway, leaving the rest of his body to fend for itself against gravity. Amissus let out a yell of frustration and pain at the bottom of the staircase. He threw his legs back under him and kicked the door down.
He snapped motionless as a freezing gale slapped him, sobering him from his wrath. It was so early in the morning; the Sun's light wasn't even waking over the hills. The clouds were sparse, letting glimmers of light breach through. Amissus no longer felt his pain, either from the fall or the dream. It was a healing sky, and he soaked its splendor into his heart. He admired the night, the stillness and the coolness of the world in the shadow was a landscape unique from the one that the Sun brought.
The designer of night is truly a unique and beautiful soul.
He decided that his day had begun and began walking, not caring where to, as long as the moon and stars were with him.
…
His mood became gloomier since the Sun took the night from him. His presence in the market was noticed, but he became used to it. He had a few bits from the Apple family for working a few days ago. He bought two apples with some of it; nothing else seemed to interest him. He walked to the edge of the marketplace, and on the wall of a store there was a poster:
The Equestrian Guard!
Protecting the innocent and the lands, why not give back? Talk to a recruiter today about our skill building opportunities and information on specialty branches!
There was a picture of an Equestrian Guard in a suit of thick metal armor between the title and script.
"I don't think they'll let you join, Amissus dear." A familiar, elegant voice told him.
He turned to see Rarity, Applejack, and Fluttershy.
"Pray tell, Rarity?" He asked as he took a bite of one of the apples.
"Because you're an alicorn; I don't think that they have a branch for your variety of pony." Applejack said, taking his other apple that was floating around his head. "And what would they think about an alicorn who could grow plants?!"
So I can farm…that opens up another possibility for me.
"I can't stand the thought of ponies fighting; even with words I find it upsetting." Fluttershy said, stepping back when Amissus snatched the apple from Applejack's hoof.
"Where's the rest of the crowd?" He asked.
"Oh, their off somewhere, planning Twilight's Coronation: Pinkie with the party itself and Rainbow with the weather." Rarity told him.
"And…let me guess…you're going to designate the dress, you with the food, and you're going to have a 'bird choir?'" He said smirking and with another bite.
"That's right." Fluttershy confirmed.
"A bird choir…really?" he let his suspicion roll out.
"I'm joking; they always have a royal band and choir preform for a coronation." Fluttershy said, giggling.
Amissus smiled and chatted with small talk, eating his apple and starting his second. He noticed a cloak and a horn standing a length away, watching them. He studied the stallion, noting his color and mane and his small reactions to the group's activities. He was deep red and had a fire colored mane; he perked his ears when Fluttershy spoke.
That can't be the unicorn from last night, is it?
He was certain that he was wrong, but an undeniable presence reinstated his suspicion. A green dragon, almost as big as he was, joined the stallion.
"…and when he came down from the hill calling my name, agh, it was horrendous." Rarity was speaking of an event of a past admirer.
"You don't let up on any bit of detail, do ya'girl?" Applejack claimed to Rarity.
Amissus shifted his focus to them, saying "Listen, I have to go…I'll be…around."
"Don't forget Twilight's Coronation!" Rarity reminded him.
"I'll get the day, some other time perhaps." He said as he left them around the corner.
He circled back around the building, tossing his two apple cores into a flowerpot, and spotted the red stallion and dragon talking to each other by the store. When the group left, the stallion and dragon went the opposite way, looking back once. Amissus followed them, he normally wouldn't do this, but he felt something inside him telling him to follow.
…
When the two stopped, Amissus had found himself back in the previous part of town. He spied on them, each word amplified to a wary shadow.
"Now what, do we just pick a house and that's it? I hope we get a fireplace, and at least some food." The dragon asked, walking to an abandoned storefront.
"Cool it, girl; something's not right. It's almost as if we're being watched…" The stallion looked all in the wrong places, he never spotted Amissus.
"Here we go with the paranoia again; you need to get over yourself. You're Burning Heart, master of pyromancy, Gracer of Desirability! You could set a heart afire as well as a building!"
"Shh…not so loud Spines, they might hear." He told the dragon.
The dragon started to whisper to the stallion, and when the stallion moved closer to her, Amissus shifted like a ghost to the other side of the street.
"Did you see that?" The dragon told her partner.
"Oh, another joke; haven't you gotten your fill today?"
"No, I'm being serious Burn. I swear I saw something."
"Now who's being paranoid? Come on; let's find a house that actually has a roof."
The two continued walking down the beaten road with Amissus close behind.
…
Stopping at the house that Amissus woke up from earlier, the stallion commented on the mess of splintered wood.
"What do you think happened here? It looks like the door just…exploded off the frame."
The dragon gave her insight. "Look, the hoofmarks. Somepony wanted out."
"Let's see if there's anything we could use inside."
Entering the home, they started to salvage from what was left of the house; the stallion in the living room and the dragon in the kitchen. Amissus watched them from the side window of the living room.
The dragon shouted from the kitchen, "Did you find anything? There's nothing in the kitchen."
"No, nothing but an old rug; maybe a piece of the good part would be useful as patching material? But that's it in here."
"Do you think there's something upstairs?"
"We can look."
They climbed the stairs as Amissus flanked them from behind, waiting at the door for them to enter the bedroom before making another move.
"Look Spines! Hoof-prints in the dust; whoever came here was here recently."
Amissus, with barely a sound, climbed up the stairs and was looking at the backsides of a cloaked, red stallion and a green dragon looking at where he spit his blood on the wall.
"What the…blood on the wall?" the dragon pointed out.
Amissus spoke out of his silence, "I'm afraid that's my mess."
Spinning around, the two jumped at the sight of the alicorn who followed them from the market.
He continued to speak, "The blood, the door, the prints in the dust…all my mess."
The unicorn's horn glowed a bright red and fireballs surrounded him like boiling planets orbiting a star. The dragon extended her claws and spread her wings, hissing at Amissus while showing her fangs.
Well, this isn't how I wanted our first meeting to go. He thought calmly.
"Who are you and what do you want?! Are you with them, come to destroy me like the others?! I keep telling you ponies that it was an accident!"
Amissus was about to speak when he was cut short by an inferno flying to him.
"But one less pony hunting me down is all the better for me!"
Amissus jumped out of the way, rolling across the floor and getting back up, eyes still on his attacker. But the dragon roared and a shockwave tore apart the wall behind him while also launching him into the street below.
He didn't open his wings in time and slammed to the dirt below, showered with planks of wood and shards of glass. He recovered and fled from the area as the rest of the wall came down. The house was on fire and the dragon glided down from the hole she had made. The unicorn flew down also on wings of black and white feathers coming from under his cloak.
Another alicorn…this is another twist of events, if I've ever seen one.
Amissus didn't need this fight; he was still aching from the week before.
"I'm not hunting you! You looked familiar so I followed!"
"Lies, all of it!" The stallion lashed out with a wave of fire which spanned out, setting the buildings on either side of the road ablaze and leaving Amissus directly in the blunt of it.
As the heat began to overwhelm him, his horn cast out a protective barrier before the flames licked his hide, deflecting those that would've hit him into the opposite direction.
"Wait, Burn! He's not attacking; he's playing on the defensive. Maybe he's telling the truth!"
The battle stalled as Amissus and the other alicorn stared each other down. The pyromancer broke the stare and looked over to the dragon.
"Of course he's on the defensive, because I'm attacking! That's how we fight!"
"Maybe you're right, but maybe you're not! If he's not attacking back, then doesn't that mean something?"
"That's how they pull us in, Spines! That's what they do, remember?! They play mind games until your wrapped around their hoofs, and then they crush you!"
Amissus shouted to communicate across the distance, "If I wanted to fight, I would've attacked by now!"
"See, I told you!" the dragon affirmed that his message had gone through.
Amissus did the same, "And besides, how many alicorns have been sent to hunt you?!"
The buildings around them smoldered into rubble slowly as the embers gave the sky a reddish hue. The pyromancer lowered his wings and slowly reset his footing, horn fading but kept a faint trace of magic.
"Alright, I'm coming over to you!" Amissus shouted to them to declare his motives. He took step after step forwards through the flaming street.
When he was but five paces from them, he saw a building to the left begin to collapse. He flew quickly and snagged them out of the way of the falling rubble. They got up when the stones and smoldering wood lay still.
"Let's…get out of here…agreed?" Amissus suggested.
"Agreed." The other two said together.
They all ran from the old town, letting the smoke rise to alert the rest of Ponyville to a fire.
When they reached the peak of a hill overlooking the battlefield, Amissus asked:
"So…" He caught a few more gasps of air after running the entire way, "…alicorn, huh?"
The pyromancer did the same, and after his breathing settled, he told him, "Yeah."
…
Under a spanning oak, overlooking the countryside, Amissus sat with the support of the tree's foundation. The stallion and dragon were having a lunch of various herbs and leaves that they'd gathered from the surrounding bushes and plants.
"Would you like some?" The stallion offered some of the food.
"I've just eaten, thank you." Amissus told him, turning down the offer.
He wouldn't have thought that he would be sitting with a pony that, fifteen minutes ago, was going to roast him alive. He felt that he should still be fighting, but the vista before him left his muscles at ease and his mind wandering. Whilst casting out for answers, his train-of-thought hinged on a question.
"Any reason why your wings are a different color than your coat?"
"I don't want to talk about it." He told him, not averting his sight from his plate.
"Alright." He didn't press the issue; he instead switched the subject.
"Do you mind if I ask about the dragon?" He asked, motioning to the dragon looking off into the Everfree Forest.
The stallion rallied the dragon's attention, "Spines, you want to talk awhile to him?"
"Sure Burn, I'll talk."
"Spines? Burn? Those are your names?" He asked the dragon as she sat next to the stallion.
"Burning Heart, and his steadfast assistant: Spines."
With names to faces, Amissus gave them his story.
"I'm Amissus: I found myself lost, made my way here, and now I search for who I am."
"You don't know who you are?" Spines asked, surprised.
"Nope, and to be honest, I don't really mind if I never find out."
Amissus leaned forward, increasing the focus on his words.
"You said something about ponies hunting you down?"
Burning Heart again walled him from the answer, "It's related with my wings; I don't want to talk about it."
Amissus rolled his eyes, ignoring his indisposition. He leaned back to his original position, comfortable against the bark.
"Spines, we need to go. Let's pack up and see if there's anything else around this town."
The dragon walked over to him and helped pack up the remaining things still spread out on the ground.
When the items were collected, they started to walk towards Ponyville.
Amissus called to them, "If you want something to do, a coronation is coming up soon."
They continued to walk, leaving Amissus unsure if his message was received.