Stone Edge
"Damn it all!" Stone Edge shouted in anger, rubbing his temple in frustration. He cursed himself as his arrow flew clear off its mark. He had always had a lacking tendency with a bow, but by Luna's name he was going to hit his target. Drawing another shaft from his quiver, he brought it up to bare, stringing it and aimed it at the scarecrow across the courtyard.
Drawing in a breath, he lined up his shot and steadied his hand. The high walls of Winterneigh made for an excellent buffer from the cold northern winds outside, meaning he would face no interference from them, but he could hear them whisper as they blew through the oaken branches of the outlying forests before crashing against the stone battlements of castle.
Focusing back on the target, he pulled it back to its capacity and held his breath; he wasn't going to miss this time! But just as he was about to let loose his arrow, the sound of air whizzing by filled his ears and to his great surprise saw an arrow of unknown origin dug itself deep into the heart of the wicker scare crow.
Stone was caught off by this and jumped at the sudden appearance of the arrow. His string thrummed and his arrow flew. Stone fell back into the dirt as his arrow flew far off its mark, overshooting the stables and falling into the open window of the castle kitchen. He winced as he heard the sound of clattering pots rang out.
Regaining his composure, he looked up to the tower to find who had interrupted his archery and it was his half sister Pinkie.
"Pinkie!" He exclaimed in annoyance as he glared over towards the pink mare with bow in hoof and string still thrumming. She gave him a playful giggle and curtsy in reply before skipping over to his side.
"Morning Stone," She said in her classically joyful voice. "Practicing your archery eh?" Pinkie was in a brown and fur jerkin like all the everypony in Winterneigh that is trying to keep warm in from the harsh winter.
"Well I was trying before you target-blocked me." Stone groaned as he pulled another arrow from his quiver.
Pinkie snickered in response, "Well judging from all the places you have hit looks to me like you have hit plenty of targets." She teased.
Stone sighed, having to forcefully resist the urge to facehoof himself, "Shut up!" He said with a thick frown, "Those were practice shots. I'm going hit dead center on this next one!"
Pinkie shot him a mischievous grin and brought her nose to his, looking him dead center in the eye, "Oh yeah? Prove it!" She playfully challenged.
Stone tried to shoot his next arrow but it missed. Pinkie giggled. " Stony you don't have to be good at everything you're one of the best swordpony I know, and plus you beat Big Mac at the tournament when your went as the Ghost Knight."
Four years ago Stone went in disguise as the knight called the Ghost Knight and during that Stone could not enter because he was a bastard, so he went as the Ghost Knight and won his way through the tournament. At the end he faced off against one of the best swords in Equestria Big Mac, and before the fight Stone kind of cursed with some ghost noise: '"whhoooo Big Mac, I well curse you, well, forever, to take second place in these tournaments, forever!" It was a joke but Big Mac has ever since been taking second place As a result, The Second Knight became Big Mac's new title.
While nice to reminiscence on, none of that made Stone feel better about his lack of marksmanship. "But I need to get better at using an arrow. What would happen if I had to go to war Sis?"
Pinkie hugged her brother tight "But I don't want you to go to war! You should marry a beautiful mare and have a nice castle off the books, and bed the mare and have foals-"
"-ummm sis, you know that I am both a bastard and a kirin. Your mom would never let me marry a beautiful mare, let alone would a beautiful mare want to marry me." irin were greatly looked down upon after the Dragon War. There were exceptions, but most saw him only as a murderous kirin; being a bastard on top of that fell a step short of damnation." Oh Stoney-willy," Pinkie hugged him like a true sister would hug him " Don't be like that! You always complain about being a bastard." She smiled and put a hoof to his face. "But you know you are like a true brother to me, so come on Stone. Show me that smile that I always loved to see."
Stone forced a smile
"Come on Stone show me a real smile! Pllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllease?" Pinkie gave Stone the puppy dog eyes, which Stone could not help but smile and laugh at. Pinkie's puppy dog eyes look appeared more funny than pitiful, which made it exceptionally good at putting Stone back in good spirits.a Truth be told Pinkie had a way to trigger anyponies' living in Winterneigh laugh.
"Pinkie you always know how to make me laugh and smile." Stone didn't not like bemoaning being grim all that much anyways. Feeling particularly cheery, Stone looked towards the trodden path with a mischievous smile on his face. " Hey is, you want to race to Sugarcube Corner?"
Pinkie's face lit up, puppy dog eyes replaced by the wide, starry eyed wonder of a boy asked if he wanted to go to the candy store.
"Of course! First one there gets the cake"
In preparation, Pinkie planted her four hooves firmly on the ground, playfully pawing at the ground.
Stone also gets ready as well; he could outrun her with his draconian heritage and general masculine brute force, but Pinkie had unpredictability on her side. She could bounce around the castle, climb the tall towers, and in general be in places seemingly impossible for a pony her size and race. "Ready, set, GO!"
In a flash Stone burst forward, going through the first of the gates like an arrow through the air. Linear with only slight deviation, the path winding towards the primary Castle having a thin layer of snow on it still. Careful not to slip, Stone heaved and stole a glance backwards.
No sign of Pinkie. That could be either a really good sign, or a bad one-
Snap!
A loud snapping noise drew his attention towards the towers, from which Pinkie literally shot through the air like an arrow, or more accurately a javelin, flying over Stone and headed straight for the castle ramparts.
"No fair Pinkie!" Stone pressed harder, the clop of his hooves resounding through the air while he passed by a few sellers. One such seller, a cabbage seller, he zoomed past and nearly barreled over.
"Gotta be quicker than thaaaat!" Pinkie teased, bouncing along the ramparts with a clear shot towards the stone building of sweets and oral pleasures.
Stone galloped with what strength was left in him, the scales on his body seemingly burning with his muscle's exertions, only to have a pony walk into his path, mere meters from the front door. The granite colored pony looked towards the oncoming kirin with a bored expression.
"Oh hey Stone, I was just looking for you-"
No room to dodge, Stone attempted to vault over the mare. Just as his body got over hers, another body forced his downwards, completely slamming him onto the pony and defeating his attempt at winning the race. After a briefly tumble and roll on the ground, Stone stopped a mere feet from the bouncing, triumphant Pinkie, who gleefully gloated over her victory.
"I won I won I won!"
Angrily Stone looked towards the obstacle pony, who merely rose and shook herself off, her brown fur dress with the emblem of a Timberwolf with a rock atop it hardly damaged by Stone's less than gentle landing. Recognizing her to be his sister Maud, Stone rose to his hands, shaking some of the dust from his body.
"Maud, what were you doing in the middle of the road?"
Maud blinked, unfazed by the dragon head's bared teeth. "Father has an important message for PInkie and you, and sent me to get you. What were you doing sprinting in the middle of the road?"
"Racing of course silly!"
Stone rolled his eyes, not quite feeling his sister's cheer. "What is it the short version?"
"Father has picked your matches."
Their matches? As in, it was not just Pinkie who was getting betrothed? Despite Maud's fairly dry speech and lethargic body language, the well of excitement from earlier returned within Stone's chest. Now even he felt giddy, despite putting together that Pinkie had probably jumped off of him to land in front of the entrance to Sugarcube Corner.
PInkie paused for a moment, looking towards Sugarcube Corner and then back to Maud. "Do we have to go now?"
Maud blinked. "Yeah."
Stone likes his half sister Maud, but sometimes, Stone could not tell if she was happy, sad, or simply disinterested. She was dressed like any Northern lady should, but Maud could equal Stone in a swordfight; she was not to be taken as lightly as the average damsel..
Stone's thoughts of being bested in a sword fight by a mare dropped his spirits, and his personal vision of his prospects. If anything, their father would only give him some dame from the pleasure house to marry, hardly better than nothing." It will be a long winter before I got married," He muttered grimly.
Maud looked at him with a head tilt so light only a keen observer would even notice it. " What was that Stone?"
Stone's eyes went wide as he realized that he had been heard." Ummmmm nothing it's just it me and my wife well have a long winter together hehehehehe."
" Awwww Stony would love to spend all winter with his wify" Stone did fool Pinkie but Maud still heard what Stone said out loud but she did not care at all.
Maud's unblinking stare seemed all the more indfiferent when she fully leveled her head again. "Let's go then."
They followed Maud inside the castle which was kind of grey and had the some wolf far on the walls which is mostly used for winter because the ponies don't eat meat but Stone does eat meat which he gets weird looks from other ponies.
The two then followed Maud inside of the grey castle, mildly decorated with some wolf furs. The benefits of being a meat eater among straw eaters was that such pelts rarely had their fleshy former bearers go to waste; that didn't keep the odd pony from eyeing him whenever he ate said meat in front of them, but Stone had never had issues eating with a small audience of concerned onlookers. As long as no unusually equine bones pop up anyways.
At end of the entrance hall there were a bunch of guards, all of whohad different banners. One such banner as that of the House Umbrum :a shadow over a red shield. The guards of this banner stood near a long door. This door opened, out of which came two ponies who wore so much black that some might be led to believe that the red shield of their symbol had been added just so that it could be seen at night, and not because the Umbrums actually wanted any other color in their symbol. One of the ponies entering the hall was a unicorn with a silky black mane a black fur coat black armor, and sharp green eyes. The other was an earth pony witha curly black mane, black eyes, a black leather jerkin with the Umbrum symbol woven onto it, and an evil smile that Stone could not get out of his mind.
"Weelllll if it isn't the the bastard of Winterneigh himself!"
Stone wanted to punch him, but Maud put her arm around Stone's good swinging arm and shook her head. " But that's, ok I am a bastard myself, so we are both bastards of the North. So put her there!" The young earth pony put his arm out to shake Stone's hand.
Stone bregrudgingy accepted this gesture and shook. " It's a pleasure to meet you. Who, are you exactly?"
The pony looked at him like with that smile having grown larger since the meeting of their hands. " My name is Shade, bastard son of Lord Sombra himself! This here is my father, Sombra, Lord of House Umbrum!"
Stone did not recognize Sombra but it was said that he was a very cold pony. He at least looked the part, a scowl affirming that he had seen the kirin that was said to walk these very halls.
Pinkie came up to both of the Umbrums and said, "Oohhhhh hey Sombra and Shade are you here to party?"
Sombra continued to scowl at Stone even as he addressed Pinkie. "Sorry Lady Pie we cannot; we are heading back to the Dark Fort. But maybe another time Come along Shade." Sombra bumped into Stone as they passed with almost enough force to knock the kirin to the ground.
Shade's smile lost its touch of evil, instead adopting the scowl of the wearer's father. " Heheheh you know, there is a thing about being called a Lucky Bastard you know and you are one, but your father will tell you when you talk with him. But know this also; I am also a lucky bastard." Shade's eyes narrowed." I am just not going to be as lucky as you, this time." Shade refrained from coming into contact with Stone on his way past, perhaps not wanting to test his own luck with the lucky flesh eating bastard of the land he currently walked on. Or maybe he felt it more dramatic that way; either way, Stone felt puzzled at the whole thing, for how could a pony bastard be any less lucky than a kirin bastard?