Reclaiming the Past: Part 1 (Watermark)

[Nul]

Nul had sat down and listened to this explanation and what he had made. Looking at the vial and back to him he had thought "What in tartarus is a Terragon.." he thought. He had to think about this for a secound, the shield walls were tough he knew that but this potion supposedly made them tougher. As he sat and listened to Watermark ramble about it he had to complicate the situation. Sure it would make him tougher but if it changed his body that would make it tougher for him and his usualy combat style.

His horn glowed as he pulled a paper and pen off the table and wrote a note and handed it to him "Before i drink this there is something i need to know. Will it change my body physically? I have a certain fighting style and having more muscle may sound good on paper it may cause a strain on my fighting abilities" the note said as it was laid down before the zebracorn.

[Red Charge]

"Nah, it's not gonna do any of that jazz. It'll just make you somewhat... better." The zebracorn said mysteriously, "But what's life without a little mystery? Bottoms up." He said, sticking the vial right into Nul's mouth and tilting his head up, making him gulp down the fluid.

The Zebracorn then took a big step back (it was unclear whether to avoid retaliation by Nul or because he was afraid Nul might just explode from the potion) and waited. At first, nothing happened, all Nul could feel was something burning in his throat. But then, slowly, he began to feel his body tensing, like his muscles were bracing for impact from something... and that's how it stayed. His muscles felt tighter, more protective, but not at all constrictive. He didn't feel uncomfortable moving, or anything. He just felt he was more braced than he would be otherwise, if that's even a way to describe such a sensation.

Then he immediately felt Watermark's intrusive magic upon him again, scanning him to his very core.

"Ah, great, I see an increase in your body's resistance, ah, how curious! Yes, yes, so it appears for each pony type, there's different effects. An earth pony would become more hardy, a pegasus can better brave the elements and you seemed to have gain a slight magic resistance. It won't do much, but it might make the difference between horribly maimed and killed." The odd unicorn nodded to himself. Again Nul saw himself recorded in his experimentation book.

"So how are you feeling?" He asked.

[Nul]

He shuddered at the feeling as he felt himself feel a bit more ready as he would put it. Looking over himself making sure there were no physical changes. Looking up to the Zebracorn as he spoke he raised a brow as he said magic resistance. He let out a sigh a the description and nodded as he summoned a piece of paper and something to write with. When he was finished he hovered the note to his face. 

The note said "Well as fun as that sounds what about physically? What about my voice?" the note asked but continued "Also next time ASK me to get out of bed. I dont like being dragged out of bed as I dont get enough sleep as it is with my wretched nightmares" the note finished. Looking at Nul he would see his red eyes from lack of sleep.

[Red Charge]

Watermark walked up to the pony, getting uncomfortably close to him, so their snouts were almost touching. "Why... is there... another way you'd want me to wake you up with?" He asked, fluttering his eyelashes at the unicorn and giving him a big unnerving grin.

[Nul]

The stallion's eye twitched as he raised his hoof and comically pushed his head away all the while making a note "How about you just shake me awake next time" the note said as the unicorn sat back "Besides I'm not into other Stallions" the note concluded as he looked about the room. "Also you didn't answer my question" he wrote as he looked at him "And where in the blazes are we?" Nul was confused as to why he was dragged out to some house. He had orginally thought the Zebracorn lived in the garrison.

As he looked about the room he could see it was more of a lab then anything and even noted several more golem moving about the room. He wondered if he could create some but he wasn't really good in that kind of magic and would often stick to his more well used ones.

[Red Charge]

"Well, I've been doing some digging around since you first came to me Nul. It's not my place to talk about such things, but I can undo the problem with your voice. Just keep in mind that sometimes silence is necessary." The zebracorn said knowingly.

"Usually I could get such a thing dispelled, but unfortunately the only ponies old enough to even know such magic are uh, out of it at the moment and have slightly bigger things to worry about. However, I've started work on a concoction. I'm warning you that to make something potent enough to help you will take a long process of natural maturation and then distilling. So assume a month at best."

"While that's going on though, you can help us out around here. As you can see Hoofington is shaping up to become something that can protect the rest of Equestria should anything come out of the Everfree again and we need every pony helping out."

"I saw you helping Tongs, that's good, she's one of our most talented smiths here, I suggest you continue helping her out when you can." The red caped unicorn went over to check a work log, probably assessing the progression of the town's transformation.

"You can train with the militia here for the while too, but don't expect them to go easy on you. But mostly you'll be helping out around the place, that means construction, maintenance, farming, sentry duty, cleaning and any and all other kind of manual labor. Outta build you up good," He poked at Nul's muscles with his magic.

"You'll be staying here at my house for the time being, I don't want you to end up getting hazed in the barracks or whatever. If you need anything and I mean anything, you let me know. All of these water golems you see around town are wired directly to me, so if you talk to one of them, I'll be able to hear you. Also I'll ask that you don't approach or provoke the war golems, they've been made to defend themselves and Equiterians had a largely different definition of what constitutes as an assault than what we do. Already had to deal with a wiseflank and some broken hooves and I would rather not have to again."

"Since you worked hard yesterday you can have today off, your room is on the second floor, right across from the twins."

[Nul]

Nul listen to his words carefully trying to find a subtle meaning between, despite his short time here he had learned that he should listen carefully to this zebracorn. When he found no maliciousness in his words he nodded. A month he could handle that at the very least. As he listened he sighed in relief knowing that he would have a comfy bed to sleep in rather than a cot and he would have the day off. A thought however did occur, his horn glowing for a moment as he took his metal bands off and they turned into the clawed gauntlets he looked at him writing a note "If it's not any trouble could you perhaps find a way to fix or enhance these? I usually use my magic to add elemental properties to them but im no good a smith or well versed in that kind of magic." He sat gauntlets down on a desk.

"I've had them since before I lost my memories, and its honestly the only way I know how to fight with any type of weapons." the note continued. He turned to him as he spoke of being able to train with some military here and he nodded. Some good military might actually do him some good, all he had to fight were riff raff in the cities and some raiding Diamond Dogs but other then that he was itching for some real training. The task he would be performing, he would be able to handle the hard labor, farming and sentry posts. He already had some experience with the cleaning aspect.

[Red Charge]

"Eh, dump 'em." Watermark said, shrugging, "Claw weapons aren't really good for fighting monsters or anything with armor or a thick hide. You want something heavier, or longer, or thicker than that if you're gonna do any damage. Even if they were enchanted, most of the big things out there wouldn't even feel a scratch from one of those."

Watermark then started looking over the progression charts, every now and then flipping a page or updating the logs.

[Nul]

He gave him a dark look as he snatched his claws back turning them back into bangles throwing a note beside him "I didn't judge you by your appearance so dont judge my claws. These things have gotten me through thick and thin." he turned a little bit sour "Armor or not I always find a way" the note finished as he walked out his bangles clicking as he walked. As he moved up into the house from the basement he found his room.

Carefully opening the door as he looked around, looking to the bed he sighed as he walked in and closed the door and hung his cloak up. Moving to the bed he laid down to process the information of the day and the things he had experienced. Servant to a crazy pony? Check. Used as a lab rat? Check. He rolled onto his back and lifted his hoof up to look at the bangle as it clinked again, the two relics he had since he woke up memory less.

With a heavy sigh the stallion turned and fell to his slumber. He would find however that it would be short lived as a few hours later the sun rose and he groggy opened his eyes. With a slight grumble he rolled out of the bed and onto the floor. With a grunt he decides that he would check out the training yards and get some training in with the militia. Moving down the stairs he went out the front door, navigating from memory he found himself at his destination.