private Seeds of Beginning

[Arylett Charnoa 4,919]

After some time of covering the evidence that they had been there, getting back to the tunnel they had fallen out of, and burrowing through a few other tunnels, she had finally made it into her own Gem Den. She sighed in relief as her own marking scent flooded through her nostrils, a scent she always found to be calming. This Den was smaller than the other one that her and Lunaris had been in, but was roughly as big as a small room. It even looked the part. There was very small pieces of furniture around the edges of the den, atop which there were several scrolls of parchment, a purselike bag embedded with jewels, and a few chests filled with some of her more prized crystals. The room was aglow with the light of various gems hanging from the ceilings, although this lighting was quite dim compared to the other Den.

 

Anatase went towards the bag, digging her paw within it desperately as her face contorted with relief when she finally felt the shape of what she had been searching for. She gripped its handle, and pulled it out. It appeared to be some sort of strange wand, with a particularly radiant fire ruby carved into an odd symbol on its tip. The Ruby Dog appeared to be enchanted by it, gazing at it hypnotically and rubbing the ruby on her paw pads. 

[Klopp 2,050]

The tunnels only seemed to get more cramped as the pair of them continued through the systems. But finally they reached that destination she was searching for, and it was quite an interesting little place. He was intrigued by the luminescent gems in the dirt ceiling, and the various items placed throughout. But then he saw that strange wand of hers, and was especially curious about that.

 

"So, this is your Gem Den, then? And that thing there, is that what you were looking for? What does it do? It looks important."

 

He inquisitively raised his eyebrow, as he always does when something incites his curiosity.

[Arylett Charnoa 4,919]

"Yes... this is mine," she responded as she put the bag's strap around herself and placed a few of the scrolls in it. Then she held up the strange wand prominently as she began to explain.

 

"This is a Gem Wand. It's a... digging tool thing. But... I can also use it...." 

 

Anatase began to mime writing in the air with the wand, as its tip glowed and a magical aura emitted from it. The aura took letter forms in the air and finished her sentence.

 

"...For this."

 

She continued scribbling in the air as the words kept forming before them.

 

"There's magic powers in this Fire Ruby, and it can also make a shield and explosions to make digging faster and easier. Watch."

 

The Fire Ruby Wand's tip ignited with an absolutely brilliant crimson light as Anatase flicked it in a very precisely elaborate way. She pointed it in the direction of a tunnel hole that she was pretty sure would lead them to the surface, and a scarlet blast of magic came hurtling from the crystal. It went through the hole, expanding it much wider for Lunaris to fit through, until it hit some rock and debris came flying down upon them. Anatase reacted quickly by flicking the wand again, and a rosey bubble of light formed around her. The debris harmlessly bounced off of it.

[Klopp 2,050]

Lunaris' eyes opened wide as he watched the magical floating text appear before them, lighting up the area even brighter as it appeared. Then was even more amazed at how it managed to more than double the size of an already existing tunnel. Now there was plenty of room for him to fit, with room to spare as well. It did seem a bit dangerous, with all the debris flying around, but with that shield everything should be fine, so long as she reacts quick enough.

 

"Woah... that thing is amazing! I've never seen anything like that before. Some Unicorns can do things like that, but I've never seen it come from a small gem like that."

 

He got closer to take a look at it. It looked like a normal ruby, but with some kind of energy swirling around in the middle of it. He wanted to know more about it.

 

"Where did this thing come from? Where does it get it's energy from? Do all Ruby Dogs have one of those?"

[Arylett Charnoa 4,919]

Deciding it was easier for her to explain via writing, she continued to use the wand. Hopefully, he would not comment on this, and ask her to keep using her voice. After all, these questions were rather overwhelming, and she needed to take some time to think before she could answer them. Rather than sputter around like an idiot.

 

"All gems have magic within them. But some gems have more magic in them than others. It takes special extraction methods to find the right gems. And... they also extract magic from lesser gems and infuse it into more magical ones like this one, then put it on a stick. So that we can cast spells," She paused for a moment to let her achy paw rest, but trying not to let him see her pain, before continuing. "Not everyone has one or can use it though. You need to be able to do the motions to make the magic happen, and that's not easy for everyone. It takes a steady paw."

[Klopp 2,050]

Lunaris read the words, trying to make sure he read them all before they disappeared. He wasn't the fastest reader around, but he was able to take it all in. He was worried he might not be able to though, and was wondering why she would choose to use this magical floating text rather than her own voice. That seemed like it would be much easier and faster, after all.

 

"Okay... so you must have practiced quite a lot to be able to use it so efficiently. I guess you must have had that thing for a long time. Anyways, I'm curious why you are writing with it so much. Isn't it easier just to tell me what you want to say? I might misread something like that."

[Arylett Charnoa 4,919]

She floundered for a bit, her mind trying to process what kind of response was appropriate. But things moved too quickly in this world, and her mouth already replied with the disappointed acquiescing thing to avoid problems.

 

"S-sorry... I'll stop now," She could've explained why, could've admitted that she was a horrible talker whose voice should never be heard, or even that it was more difficult to explain things with her voice. Yet she didn't. Because it was pointless. He wouldn't understand.

 

Feeling so ridiculously awkward about something that should've been simple, she merely pointed up to the hole she had expanded and climbed up it without another word.

 

It didn't take Anatase long to go through the tunnel. Most of it was smoothly paved out by the Flare she had shot up. She crawled up more effortlessly than normal, until she hit the soft surface soil. The Dog hesitated, hearing... some rather unpleasantly loud noises. It sounded like people shouting angrily, coupled with the thunderously loud vibrations of what seemed to be galloping hooves. 

[Klopp 2,050]

After taking a moment to look around at the dazzling gems some more, he turned to the tunnel and began climbing through it. It was certainly much easier than before, and there was much more room to work with. If spelunking through the ground would be like this in the future, he would love to do some more of it. Maybe find some gems of his own. He was imagining finding a very large sapphire, bright, shimmering and-THUD!

 

He was too busy lost in his thoughts, he didn't notice Anatase had stopped and he climbed straight into her backside.

 

"Woah! Uh... woops... sorry."

 

It was then he began to hear the sounds from above. The shouting and the stomping. He started to listen closely and he could make out what one of the ponies was saying, though muffled from all the dirt above them.

"We were trying to leave, but you damned Dogs started bothering us before we could even take down our tents!"

[Arylett Charnoa 4,919]

"Eeee!" Anatase yelped and squealed as her head poked straight through the fragile soil and through to the surface. The sight that met her was not pretty.

 

It seemed that she had poked her head not more than several inches away from a stand-off - Ruby Dogs and ponies standing straight across from each other in opposition. Some ponies were galloping around, dodging stones that were being tossed by cackling Dogs. Others were merely glaring and shouting back at their opposers. She could hear some distinct insults... insults that made her feel the sadness she had managed to push down rising up again. Her kind was only proving how rude they were...

 

One unicorn stared what appeared to be her mother straight in the eye, deflecting a stone that had been tossed at her back at the old Dog.

"This is ridiculous." She scoffed rather snottishly. "My magic could easily wipe all of you out! So why don't you stop provoking us and back off? You... inferior loathsome beasts!"

[Klopp 2,050]

Lunaris couldn't really see what was going on, but he could certainly hear it. Things were escalating, and those ponies were getting quite infuriated. The Dogs... well, it sounded like they instigated this whole mess, which honestly wasn't a surprise at all. As the shouting continued, Arylett's mother could be heard shrieking over the rest of them.

 

"I don't care about your magic, you ponies have no right to be on our land! Get out of here, and don't come back! I can't stand having your kind of filth on our sacred ground!"

 

He was trying to look past Arylett, but it just wasn't something that could be done in his current position. However, he decided it might just be best to avoid this situation altogether, and get out before anyone spotted them.

"Anatase, let's just go back and find another place to come out. It wouldn't be good if any of them spotted us."

[Arylett Charnoa 4,919]

The Ruby Dog nodded as she tried to retract her head into the ground, but found herself spotted by the snobbish unicorn just as she was leaving.

 

"Oh, how quaint. You're trying to sneak up on me! It may have worked on one of these dunderheads, but it sure as Tartarus won't work on me!"  The mare aimed her horn at Anatase and released a magical burst of energy. She managed to put her head back into the ground before she was struck, and the beam grazed the top of the hole, causing the ground to rumble unstably. The unicorn snarled in frustration and started unleashing more blasts at the ground, trying to get at Anatase as Ruby Dogs in the area howled in anger and charged to attack the ponies. Soon, a full-on brawl had broken out.

 

The ground vibrated extremely violently, with rubble beginning to rain in on their heads from the combined effort of the unicorn's blasts, the pony's hooves, and the Dog's charging. Anatase quickly summoned the bubble around her and Lunaris to immediately deflect the avalanche, but it flickered unstably by being hit by enormous rocks.

 

"This won't hold out for long! We have to get out the ground and out of here... please, fly us away from here!"

[Klopp 2,050]

It wasn't time for any sort of hesitation. He was hoping to get out of here without being spotted, but this at least allows them to get out quickly. He had been careful before, trying to prevent a cave-in, but now it was inevitable, so he just forced himself underneath Anatase and charged upwards and out the hole, with her on his back, of course. But he didn't stop there, he started to run and gain some speed, then spread his wings and started flapping. It was a bit strenuous with the added weight of a Dog, but he could manage well enough. It seemed everyone froze at this strange turn of events, and Anatase's mother began screaming immediately.

 

"Ana! You are ruining everything again! You stupid girl, I should let the ponies hit you with their magic! Maybe then you would finally listen to me!"

 

Her shrieks echoed through the mountains, but Lunaris just kept on flying. Soon enough they were out of reach of them all, and it seemed they were in the clear.

 

"Whew... that was ridiculous. Are you okay, back there?"

[Arylett Charnoa 4,919]

The events wizzed past her at the speed of light, with the poor Dog being unable to perceive what exactly happened. It was just some loud screams, lights, and the bright shine of the stars above... she had to rub her eyes from suddenly being exposed to them again. Luckily though, it was still dark, so it wasn't as bad a contrast as it was to stick her head out of her burrow during the day.

 

"Y-yeah... I'm... okay... w-whew..." She almost reclined backwards from the dizziness, but realized that they were far above her comfort zone... floating in the air... something that she had never really done before, and something that she did not find pleasant. Anatase was always afraid of heights, but this... this was far worse. She clung onto Lunaris' neck with her claws, grasping at his feathers. His wings beating against her sides against the wind only made things feel more unstable. 

[Klopp 2,050]

As she gripped him with the force of a thousand alligators, her claws dug into his neck a bit and caused him a fair bit of pain.

 

"Ouch... do you think you could ease up a little? It's hard to fly while I'm choking to death."

 

He obviously assumed she didn't like this whole flying thing, but for the moment it would be the fastest way out of the situation. And unless a Pegasus followed them, they wouldn't have any problems if they were in the air.

 

"Sorry if this is uncomfortable... I'll land as soon as we are a safe distance from the chaos. I know it doesn't seem like it, but you are safe up on my back. My wings can catch you if you slip to either side, and my tail can stop you from falling behind."

[Arylett Charnoa 4,919]

Chapter 2: Canterlot (Visit it and speak to Starlight Diamond)

 

"I'm... sorry. I just don't leave the ground very often... obviously," She chuckled awkwardly, still feeling highly uncomfortable despite his assurances. Although she loosened her grip slightly, she tightened it right back up once a wayward breeze blew on by. 

 

The Ruby Dog didn't say much more along the journey, just trying to sort everything out. It was odd that her mother was so... eager to get rid of her. What happened to some illusion of parental love? Even if she was a bitch, she was acting very strangely... usually, she wanted to cling onto Anatase suffocatingly out of some warped sense of family honor and to "convert" her to the normal ways. But to outright throw her out for what was a fairly typical wrongdoing...? She was prone to yelling out meaningless threats though... perhaps it was nothing. That creature might regret it later. But this time... Anatase was gone. Really... gone.

 

With someone she barely knew...

[Klopp 2,050]

After flying for quite a while, Lunaris was beginning to get tired. His wings weren't use to the extra weight, but they were surely far enough from the ponies and Dogs to be safe. He slowly ascended to the ground and landed, much more gently that he had when he first had her on his back. He slouched down to make it easier for her to climb off his back.

 

"There, now my wings can have a bit of a rest. It'll be a while before we get to Canterlot, but before that I was heading towards Neighagra Falls. I still plan on going there, unless you don't want to. I think It would be a good break from all that dirt and chaos."

[Arylett Charnoa 4,919]

Anatase nodded vacantly as she stumbled off of his back, then sat down and looked off into the distance.. She wasn't really thinking about anything in particular as she grasped dirt between her fingers, crunching at it unconsciously. That flying in the air left her kind of dazed for a few moments, until her brain started up again. 

 

It was awkward to be alone with him. She didn't really know what to say even though there were a few questions in her mind. Most of them seemed rude. So she thought she'd go with the most obvious for the situation, even if it was the one she was probably least curious about.

 

"What is... Neighagra Falls?"

[Klopp 2,050]

It didn't really come to him as a surprise that she didn't know what Neighagra Falls was. He hadn't even really heard of it himself until fairly recently. So of course someone who lives in the ground, isolated from other civilizations wouldn't know about too many places. Hopefully she has at least heard of what a waterfall is.

 

"Oh, Neighagra Falls is a massive waterfall. There is another mountain that is a ways off from these ones here, and a whole lot of rainfall collects there. It flows into a large lake, which constantly overflows down a very large cliff and into an even larger lake. I've heard that it's a very impressive sight. You can go swimming in the lake at the bottom, and lots of couples get married there apparently."

 

He stopped himself from rambling on. He does have a tendency to talk a bit too much when he's interested in a subject. But he is always excited to visit new places, so he was trying his best to convince her to go there with him.

[Arylett Charnoa 4,919]

"Yeah... I figured it was a waterfall. Sounds... interesting," The Ruby Dog twitched nervously. At this moment in time, she didn't really know or care where they went. The entire world was a gigantic undefined blob to her and words had little meaning or context.

 

Anatase realized that she still had her purse strap on and put down the bag, pulling out a small book out of it. She scribbled a few things down with her wand and turned it away from Lunaris, hoping he wouldn't ask questions. Being forced to speak like this was getting frustrating and she longed to speak through the only means she was coherent. But of course, he didn't like that. A lot of people didn't. She wished there was just some sort of giant connected network of people where everyone spoke through text.

 

As wrote down her lines eloquently and rehearsed them a few times in her head, she said a bit more.

 

"So you're a griffon, right? I've never seen anything like you in my books. And... that's what you most resemble as a mammal-bird hybrid."

[Klopp 2,050]

At first he was confused as to why she was puling out a book. Was it a journal or something? She was using that staff again to write in it, so it must be. But then she asked that question and he couldn't help but chuckle at her guess. It happened time and time again, and now even someone whose had little exposure to the world assumed he was a griffon. But it's the same mistake everyone made, so it didn't really bother him at all. Besides, whose ever heard of a chamrosh?

 

"A Griffon? Heh, I used to think so, but I'm actually a chamrosh. I don't really know much about my species, but I was at least raised by griffons. They always said I was one, but it didn't take me long to realize that I had little in common with them, aside from a few physical features. By the way, is that some kind of journal you have there? It would be good to have one as we travel."

[Arylett Charnoa 4,919]

"A chamrosh? Yeah... definitely never heard of one of those," She responded vaguely, noting to herself that he did look much more pleasant and friendly than the griffon illustrations she had seen. It was a form that she was doodling at this very moment, tracing those wings and pleasant-looking fur. Since ponies turned out to be... rather rude, maybe she could become a chamrosh instead...

 

"But I don't like flying." Anatase blurted out, in continuation of her thoughts. Embarassedly, she shifted gears back to the question he asked her.

 

"A journal? No, it's just a book," Her tone this time was rather blunt, a little too sharp for her liking.

[Klopp 2,050]

He a bit thrown off by the random flying comment, but he just assumed she was probably thinking about his wings and how they were flying before. She probably would rather stick to walking.

"You don't like flying? That's okay. We can just walk. And about that book, if it's not a journal, what's it for? You're writing something in there, it can't just be nothing."

 

Perhaps he was prying too much? Sometimes his curiosity got the better of him. If she didn't want to tell him, that was her business. But he thought to himself, it doesn't hurt to ask. Maybe she would tell him, or better yet, show him. The contents were sure to be interesting.

[Arylett Charnoa 4,919]

"Oh, we don't have to walk... if you prefer flying... we can still do that,"

 

The moment he commented on her book, she snapped it shut and put it away. Wait, that was too blatant. He would interpret it doubtless as a highly unwelcome gesture. 

 

"Well... it's nothing important. Just some pictures and stuff," Why did she even bother pulling it out right now? She should've waited until she was alone. When would she be though? How long would it take? Would she ever be? What if he left her all by herself...? She didn't know how to fend in this confusing world! And people hated her because of the way she looked...

 

Her mind was racing, as though she were in a trance of thoughts for a bit. But she was still hideously aware of his presence, and found it stifling. She was rarely with someone else for this long. In attempts to look too distracted to look at him, she gazed up at the sky for a bit. Luckily, there was something there to look at... a flock of pegasi flew overhead, their chatter briefly filling the area. 

 

"...And... those stupid Diamond Dogs... we put them down all right!" Laughed a rather hearty-sounding male voice.

 

And just like that, there were gone. Of course they were, and of course she had to hear the worse of it. She felt an unpleasant poisonous sensation welling up within her... 

[Klopp 2,050]

"We don't have to fly, I-"

 

He was cut off by the Pegasus hollering above them. He looked up to the sky and spotted a flock of them. Or were they called a herd? That didn't matter, the point is they were being assholes, and it would no doubt be bothersome to Anatase. He looked back down and could easily tell by her expression that he was correct. His immediate response was to console her.

 

"Don't listen to those Ponies... there will be many others who will accept you, I promise you that. They just... had a bad experience with your tribe. They would like you if they got to know you, I'm sure."

 

He thought the only way to really cheer her up would be to introduce her to some who wouldn't judge her just cause she's a Dog. So he tried to hurry her to come to Neighagra Falls as quickly as possible.

 

"I'm certain we will find Ponies like that in Neighagra Falls, so let's get there soon!"

[Arylett Charnoa 4,919]

She merely shook her head dismissively. His words seemed a bit empty to her. Did he even really know anything about her anyway? How could he make that judgement? This was something that would have to be proven.

 

"Let's go. We can fly, trust me," Although she tried to hide her negative feelings, they had this rather nasty habit of seeping out so obviously. So she would just not have to talk as much, and try to keep those facial expressions as neutral as possible. Anatase cautiously hopped onto Lunaris' back, nearly falling off and grabbing onto his hindquarters for support. He had to deal with being underground which was definitely out of his element, so she would have to deal with being in his element. It was only fair.