The Dragonslayer

The Swamplands had not been anything unexpected. It was a swamp, a massive, thick, and muddy swamp. The land was called the Great Swamplands because this particular swamp stretched on for miles. It just kept going and going. Rumors were widely known that if one wondered in, they would never leave. That was just a rumor. Our party’s quest was far more important than a rumor.

The muddy water was a eerie and fearful shade of brown that bordered black. The trees surrounding them were all dead, their hard corpses still standing. The other swamp vegetation had begun using these corpses to survive. Dangling vines that oozed a black slime hung over the dead trees, giving the illusion that the trees actually stilled lived. That ooze ran down the trees, giving the haunting idea that the trees were crying black sap.

Half of our party had to trudge through a trench of knee high mud. Freya was lucky to just fly over the sludge. Stone was too short to comfortably get through the swamp, as a result he got to get a free ride on Freya's back. Feral and War had to dredge through it. They had no idea what the sky was like, those black creeping vines made a canopy they couldn't see past. They scent of dead rot clogged each and every breath they took it. So little light pierced the canopy, they were nearly in complete darkness. The canopy was the seal of their tomb.

"I can't see anything. Its so damn dark!" Feral complained, his legs growing tired as they pushed past the mud. He was just a bit ahead of War Bond.

"Our sense of smell is blurred, everything we smell is wrought with the odor of death." Fenrir added obviously annoyed.

"I think night has fallen." Freya stated just above them.
"That sounds about right." Ziz remarked, trying to get a grasp on how long they had already been in the Great Swamplands.

The sound of a tree branch snapping penetrated the darkness. With a huff of fire, War Bond made three torches, cloth wraps made of robes would be the only thing they had to slow the torch's burn.

"Taa-Daa!" War cheered!
"Nicely done!"

The makeshift torches illuminated the dark swamp. The swamp ahead seemed to stretch forward into darkness. The trench they were trapped in forced them into going in one direction. Large mounds of dryer dirt blocked even Freya. The trench had forced them in a single direction for nearly an hour now.

"Are even going the right way?" Feral inquired.
"It’s odd. His presence is... soft. As if he is in a deep, deep sleep." Fenrir answered, somewhat confused.

"Very deep. I can barely feel the direction he is in. Not like Levi. For her I can get some kind of range but... Greep is here somewhere, just keep heading West." Goliath answered, his voice seemingly unphased.

"I can just barely feel him to the West as well. That is unusual." Moth rumbled, Stone still on Freya’s back.

"Should we be worried?" Freya asked, already worried anyway.

"No, Greep and Lifeblood can hold their own."

"True, but still. Now of all times..." Fenrir let out a deep sigh through Feral.

"Who is Lifeblood?" War asked.

"Greep’s soulbound partner." The old one’s all answered together.

"You already know he is soulbound?" Freya stated with a flutter.

"He did it a very long time ago. But we haven't seen much of him for a even longer time." Goliath brooded.

"He and Lifeblood are... Odd. You will see. They have been together for far longer then any one of us." Behemoth added lightly.
"We have only been soulbound for... eight or seven years?" Stone pondered.
"Roughly... Nine actually I believe."

"Fenrir and I have been together for seven years." Feral stated proudly.
"And it’s been a wonderful seven years my little hound."

"Ziz and I are going to hit three years real soon!" Freya smiled brightly.
“That’s right! Only a month or two away!”

"Goliath and I have been together..."
"Three weeks in three days."
"Wow three weeks already!?"
"Nearly."

"I feels like way more than seven years..." Feral grinned…

“Whoa! Shit!” Feral stopped in his tracks. Ahead of him, a short cliff three ponies tall. The trench lead to a opening in the swamp. “Well… I’m not turning back.” With a short hop, he splashed into the muck below.
"Spending every single second together for seven years... That is... So much yet so little..."

As he trudged through the muck, Feral felt his eyes begin to moisten.
"Really Fenrir?"

"Aww Feral is crying! Thats so cute!" War teased, poorly hiding her snicker as she made the same short jump.

"Changing the subject, three weeks is a long time to get to know someone, don't forget that it is an entire three weeks. This isn't like six or eight hours a day, it’s the full twenty-whatever hours. I forget how long days actually are."

"That is very true, we have been together of a pretty long time now." War smiled.

Freya and Stone fluttered down. The new segment of swamp looked identical to the last. Only now, War and Fenrir could feel the cold muck touch their bellies.

“Hey… Feral, why aren’t you freaking out, there is water everywhere.” Freya stated as she flew just above him.

“One, this is swamp mud, not water. Two, I'm tall enough to walk through it. Three, it doesn’t look deep, just weirdly dark for mud.” He replied solidly.

Freya let out a surprised gasp. “Hey! When we were at the lake you never let us try to teach you how to swim!”

“Not my fault you didn’t remember.” Feral stated casually.
“Feral, it would have been good for you to atleast try.” Fenrir scolded.

“Feral! You made a promise!” War scolded him as well.

While on Freya’s back, Stone moved so he could give Feral a raised eyebrow.

“I need help getting past a flooded river. So I promised to try to learn how to swim.” Feral answered before Stone had to ask.

A pile a mud began to bulge upward in front of Feral. Like a brownish black cyst pushing up from the thick mud. His attention on Stone, Feral bumped into to with a squelch.

"Ewha? What the fuck!?" Feral stopped, forced to slowly step back due to the thick swamp mud.

Layers of thick sludge slid down the swamp pillar. As the sludge fell away, the body of somepony stood.

"You alright fella?" Feral moved forward, lightly tapping the unmoving pony. Still heavily covered and dripping with swamp sludge.

The pony didn't react. The last of the muk dripped away. The coat of the pony was covered in that effluvial black ooze the trees were secreting.

"Let... Me... Diiieeeee!" The pony reared, throwing his forelegs up in the air, his entire head falling off into the slimy mud below. Thick white pus spewing out the open neck hole, tiny worms and beetles crawling out the wound as well.

"What the shit!!" Feral jumped back. Reacting, he dashed around the thing as it searched for It’s fallen head.

"What the fuck! Look!" Freya shouted. Pointing out more pillars of slime that were pushing up from the muk. The cysts began to spread.

"Oh fuck. Goliath your friend is West right? We need to bail!" War nearly screamed, the cysts pushing at them.
"Yes!-"she felt her head turn and look at a specific direction."-that way! Go!"

She began to trudge through the slime as best she could. Freya kept above the muck trailing slightly ahead. Feral moved not far from her side. The sludge slowed her and Feral immensely, the cysts couldn't move fast, but did not seem to be affected by the sludge, they simply walked through it.

Freya swept down slashing at the walking rotten beings with her lance.

The Cysts walked faster then the party could run. Freya turned and kept to the air and did her best to escort the grounded ponies. She felt her stomach lurch when she sliced off a leg from one of the cyst ponies, only to have it plunge It’s open oozing wound into the muck and pull out with a completely different leg accompanied with a plethora of bugs attached.

They were trotting through a sea of corpses. Rotten and partially devoured corpses.

The party was surrounded, trapped. The Cysts were coming from all directions.

"Alright. Time to see what I can do about this." Stone stated lazily. He lept into the mud from Freya's back. His ripple in the mud turned into a wave-like tide. That wave continued forward in all directions until it became a tall mud wall. All around them, mud walls began to rise, encircling them. The ground was coated in rotting meat and life. Bugs in every part of life, eggs, larva, pupa, fully grown and confused as to what happened to their muddy home. "There is not much soil in this “mud”, I made the best wall I could. They will get through it soon." Stone explained as he climbed up onto Feral’s back. His focus was labored, like when a unicorn uses a powerful spell, or too much magic in too short a time.

Freya flew around in circles, watching as the Cysts tried to push through the wall. Already they could get a hoof or two into the mud. "We only got a few extra minutes!" She shouted to her friends. Suddenly she felt a nudge on her back. Looking up she saw a zebra stretching a hoof to her from the thick canopy overhead.

"Mahkalo! Mahkalo!" The Zebra shouted intensely.

"Umm... Guys? We got some zebras here... speaking funny talk."

"Nu! Nu! Pooku shi-maki talo tami! Mahkalo!" The Zebra shouted, screaming at the griffin.

"He wants to help us! He wants you to pull us up and into the canopy!" Feral roared to her.
"How do you-"
"I’ll explain in a minute! Those things are getting through! Stop wasting time and get us up there dammit!" Feral growled.

Freya gave a hearty nod. She shot down in a single instant, first grasping War Bond, then lifting her up to the zebra, who helped pull her up the canopy. Then Stone Wall and Feral. Up in the canopy, three zebra stood on makeshift walkways hidden up in the canopies. The walkways themselves were crafted of old dead wood made into boards.

The Zebra all wore sashes over their eyes and faces. Cloth scraps over their bodies. The First held a long katana on his back and had a blood red cloth tied on his right foreleg. The second was a Zebra mare with a bow and arrows, on her right foreleg a beige scrap of cloth. The third was a obviously younger Zebra, he had a pair of daggers some kind of holster on his neck, his leg cloth mostly stained, but still beige cloth.

"Kalisio! Mutah beelo!" the Zebra with the red cloth shouted.

“My cellmate in prison hailed from the Great Swamplands. He taught me his tribe’s language so we could have some kind of secret code to talk in. I taught him how to speak more of our language and how to read.” Feral explained inside his head. “Oh and he wants us to put out the torches.”

“Kalisio!” The Zebra Leader shouted again.

War inhaled heavily, her fire returning to her.

“Whoa.” she mumbled.
“Trick of the dragonkin.”

"Hutomati calo! Divanana kula...."
"Travelers! Fancy tricks will not stop them...

In the darkness, the party just rested for a few moments in silence.

“Potic majo ktyu.” The Zebra mare’s voice stated just above a whisper.

“Umm… This is going to sting?” Feral elaborated in his mind. “I’ll ask what she means.”’ They heard somezebra take a deep breath.

He didn’t have to ask. A second later his eyes began to burn as if a lemon had just been squirted directly into his eyes. He felt his face get pulled into a soft furry chest.

“Tami soo nook kikijo. Yo mathifa gol? Fin tome dokrkojo. ” The Zebra Leader stated.

“The powder grants sight in the darkness. Do you speak my tribe? You seem to understand.” Feral had quickly become an impromptu translator.

“Tu fin mal dah. Ze mah ha.” Feral muffled under the mare’s chest.
“I do indeed. These other’s do not.”

“Tas soom goosha maki goto bla. Tome bana sum gotoko Xebara. Blasha monshh dola.” The Leader stated.
“We’ll talk more about this when we reach of village. Xebara will give you all sight. We must be silent now. The Flesh Puppet’s cannot follow us back. We must wait for them to disperse.”

The Zebra mare named Xebara let go of Feral. Moving toward the next pony she would be “giving sight” His eye’s still stung, but he could see. Everything he was seeing was a pale shade of green. But he could see clearly in the dark. Xebara repeated the process for the others. However, she licked Stone’s eye before blowing the powder.”Shini cuma kali.” She whispered that “It hurts less this way.”

The Leader kept peering into the swamp below the canopy. He held a hoof up, signaling to the group to both remain still and silent.

“Can we really just trust these Zebra.” Goliath asked harshly.

“Well, we already let them save us and that mare Licked. My. Eye. I think we might as well trust them.” Stone Wall gave a shiver. He enjoyed being able to see, but the eye lick was just weird.

“Plus if they try anything funny, I am one hundred percent sure that we can take them.” Freya thought positively.

“We did already escape from a pegasi cult. I think we can can escape from Zebras.” War grinned. She enjoyed the recent memory of her running into a wall, and the wall falling down instead of her.

“These folks are usually kind enough. I’m sure we’ll be fine.” Feral thought with a hint of caution.

“Hey, Feral. Would you kindly ask what those things… those Flesh Puppets were? And if there is a way to kill them.” Stone remarked gently. “We need to get past those damn things, and that muk slows us down too much.”

“Yeah, I kept stabbing and slashing those things up, but they didn’t stop.” Freya added less gently.

“And I can’t fight those things with claws, I’d rather not get that close.” Feral growled under his breath.

“Once we get back. We don’t want to track those things back to their village.” Ziz gave the thought.

After a solid twenty or thirty minutes passed, time was difficult to tell due the near complete darkness, The Zebra Leader pointed with his head, and the zebra team began to lead them to their village. They entered the Great Swamplands from the southeast. They needed to head more West, they moved northwest. Not entirely the wrong direction.

The wood pathways appeared old and fragile, but was extremely soft and didn’t creek or crack. The black ooze that utterly coated the canopy dripped all over the wood and branches. It was an odorless substance, but silky to the touch. An odd fluid. The tree canopy was nothing but those thick black branches and vines. The vines coiled and twisted with each other, creating a thick black wall from all directions. The vines however could be relatively easy to move out of ones way. The wood paths were tied to the higher and firmer branches. A misstep could send them back into the swamp below.

“Datsi, mahga too.” The Leader stated. “Mina soyka jo Toruk, mina soyja Xalik.”

“He said it’s safe to talk now, His name is Toruk and the child is Xalik.”

“Dalk mosk ku. Mina soyka Feral Silver.”
“Thank you for the help. I am Feral Silver.”

“Feral Silver… So yuk toma kalik toma soh jah ka.” the leader stated.
“Feral Silver, we believe in helping those who need it.”

Feral had to keep playing translator as they traversed the canopy. Xalik only spoke once to explain that the path was made to be intentionally confusing. Toruk took over his explanation, stating that the maze is needed to keep intruders from finding their village and the Flesh Puppets from flooding the path if they ever found a way to get up into the canopy. Xebara added that it was like having many doors to escape from if necessary.

The party finally reached the village after a long trip. They made it a good distance closer to Greep. But they would need to stop at this village first.

The zebra village was small, smaller than expected. A tree top village, it hung in the canopy. Tiny huts sheltered zebra from the ooze dripping from above. The zebra all seemed to go about their own business not paying any mind to the newcomers. The village had odd looking bulging “things” hanging down from the higher parts of the canopy, they assumed these pods were hanging fruit of some kind. A large number of rather large bats sat in stacked cages, to fat to do much else. The village children stuck to the pathways, firmly under the eye of their mothers. Armed Zebra stood with a higher eye view, they stood on pieces of wood that were positioned higher than the lower levels. The village seemed very peaceful, they had adapted to their very strange way of life quite well.

"Xalic tommah sokij Xelatath." Toruk ordered.
"He just ordered the younger guy to find and bring someone named Xelatath."

Xalic gave a solid nod and trotted away.

At some point Xebara had picked up Stone Wall and placed him on her back. He said nothing, enjoying the perks of being seen as a child, he didn’t have to walk through the mazed canopy.

Toruk looked to the party in silence. For the first time, even in the odd lame green color, War could see the age worn into his face and body. He was definitely older. That much was clear.

After only a few minutes, Xalic returned with a new Zebra. This one had dreadlocks and a spear on his back. The cloth in his leg a dark blue. Like the others most of his body was hidden in cloth.

"I am Translator, I welcome to village. I am Xalatath." He spoke, smile on his face.

"Xalatath... mook jah kal." Toruk stated, with a flair of his hoof he and his team left, Xebara setting Stone down with a sad smile.

"Handle this."

"That was infestation team. Work on keep Flesh Puppets away. Good they reach you in time. Swamp slows us whose hearts still beat." Xalatath explained. "You must be tired, Swamp no place for beating heart. We have much food and drink, take what you need." the zebra explained openly.

"Thank you kindly. We need very little, and will not be a burden." Feral nodded.
"We really have no need for it, but we should stop to eat to show our respect." Fenrir added

"We greatly appreciate your generosity. Truly we do." Freya smiled.
"We should be quick, we still have a long way to go." Ziz didn't want to wast anytime.

The party was led around the small village, they were given cooked bats, tiny sacs full of a foggy liquid that seemed to be water, and tiny purple lumps that came from the hanging "fruits".

War was the first first to drink the liquid, oddly enough she was surprised that it tasted exactly like strawberries.

After a good deal of time, somewhere in the range of thirty to forty minutes, Xalatath was about to leave the party to their own devices.

"We must get through the swamp if we are to reach Greep, I believe he is at the center of the swamp. Those puppets are going to need to be dealt with." Goliath boomed.

"On it." Feral stated proudly in his vocal mind.

"We really appreciate the help. Not that we don’t like you’re village or anything, but we should really get going. First we need to know what we’re up against. What are those things down there? Is there anyway to kill them?" Feral inquired on Goliath's behalf.

"Those things down there be Flesh Puppets, they cannot be slain. They are undying. The best that can be done is to lead them away. The Infestation teams do just that. Then chop off limbs and heads. Then getting around very hard for them. But leaving this place would be foolish without escort. You lot do not know this swamp." Xalatath stated, his friendly demeanor shifting quickly to a much more serious one.

"If they are so bad, why don't you just all leave?" War asked not understanding what could compel a race to live in a land full of the undead.

"This is home. We have lived here for eons, since the very first of moon cycles, only a few hundred moon cycles ago did those monster show themselves, and darkness trenched us. But we make do. We find a way." Xalatath smiled with a pride for his village.

"We must hurry. This is a nice village but we need to find our friend." Ziz hurried.
"Hey, we need to get to the West. Near the center of the swamp. Would you be able to help us there." Freya cut in.

"That place is full of puppets! It is too dangerous! You cannot go there!" Xalatath scolded.

"We will be fine. Now that we know that we can stop them, or at the least slow them down for a little while." War added

"Why you wish to go there!? Them monsters are worse in the deep! Things that creep and crawl through your meat. Monsters like twisted, sick jokes. Cruel shapes of things that once roamed. That is place where nightmares are born!" The Zebra warned, he moved his hooves around nervously.

"We have... A friend we think is in there, we need to find him. The sooner the better." Feral argued.

"If he made it that far he dead. I guarantee it. I am sad at your loss but he is gone. No point dying too! It not worth it." Xalatath glared.

"Your are sure he is alive right?" Stone asked what the others were thinking.

"Yes, he is fine. Just not conscious. We’ll need to wake him up is all." Fenrir answered.

"Its hard to explain, but if we can just get in there. Your canopies can be a wonderful help in speeding the process along. If you can just lead us there you can help us out immensely!" War elaborated with a light hoofstomp.

"That far out?! Then the puppets reach our canopy! No! Them things down there, can get to our village if they find the canopy paths! Horrible nightmare things they are! You saw that mare Xebara, her young son was taken by one of them… it was made of… rotting meat, looking like a snake but wore the faces of our dead. Our heartless friends! Our family long dead!" Xalatath tried not to yell. Still other zebra in the small village began to look their way.

"Okay! Take us there, then we will lead the puppets away from the canopy! Like just drop us off, you leave, we get our friend and make our way out!" Feral tried to get something from him at all, getting a taste of his reactions.

"No! I will not take risk! I am not dangering all my kin for one of yours." the zebra argued.

"Alright, Alright.” Feral decided to use all his skill of persuasion. The thief knew exactly what to say now. He knew how to get something from the zebra. “Listen. At some point, we are going back into the swamp. Be that to leave the way we came, or to go get our friend and keep on going. We could do that with you escorting us, making it faster and safer, or we go without you, into the swamp all slow and dangerous. In a few minutes, My friends and I are going to go through to the center of that swamp. With or without your help."

Xalatath hesitated "...You would really endanger all your lives? Just to find one who is surely dead!?"

"This is a special circumstance. Our end goal is really important. That and he means a lot to us." War started moving her breastplate armor, as if setting it before a long journey.

"I... I will not help you kill yourselves. That is not something I wish to be part of." the zebra still hesitant.

"Then at the very least, do you have any recommendations?" Feral grinned.
“He’s in.”
“Are you sure?”
“I'm sure.”

"Don’t do this." Xalatath said with a sigh, and a longing look.

"Besides that?"

"... They follow flame... Those things... They seek out fire. The big ones... They are harder to stop, but fight them the same. slice them into bits, bury them if you can..." Xalatath looked at his for a moment. “Damn it… Fine I will take you part way through the canopy. But please… this is suicide.”

“Maybe it is for others… but for us… Well, We’ll be fine.” Stone Wall put a tiny hoof on the Zebra. Xalatath gave the "colt" a odd look.

“This as far as I go. I will not risk anymore.” Xalatath whispered. Stopping, he pointed down at the swamp with a hoof.

“Thank you for taking us this far.” Freya gave him her signature smile.
“We really appreciate it.” War shook his hoof.
“Until we meet again.” Stone smiled from atop Feral’s back.

“Xalatath. Demija hunok twah jah moha gotha meno suta. Zemano… Zemano groosda mutana. Zemeno domaja uhrah-ha…” Feral stated brooding.

“Falakalo muyasha Feral… hunok majah. Zemeno thralla gajia hosoomba.” Xalatath replied after a standard.

“What was that?” War asked with a little laugh.
“Something I owed that Zebra who taught me that language. His private affairs.”
"Fenrir?"
"You know I shall keep my pup's silence."

Feral made an odd gesture. Tapping his chest, then his head and eye. Xalatath did the same thing simultaneously. With a nod. Feral was the first to jump down through the canopy. The rest of the party following him soon after.

With a rather loud and messy splash in the mud. The party looked about for the Flesh Puppets. None had revealed themselves. Yet. Freya flapped into the air, Stone was pleased with staying on Feral. The party pushed westward. Moving slowly, they kept a nightvision powered eye out for the monsters that could be lurking near by.

“What was all that at the end their Feral.” Freya thought, not wanting no make any unnecessary noise.

“I already said, Not any of our business. Really not even mine. I just got stuck in the middle of it.” he thought back.
“He doesn’t want to talk about it.” Fenrir defended.

“That’s fine too.” Freya gave him a grin.

With a moan. The first cyst began to push upward through the swamp.

“I’m… sorry!” The Flesh Puppet moaned as it lunged toward Freya, who quickly shot upward. Feral pushed the thing forward. Freya’s lance strike was quick. She took off it’s head, but that did not stop it. A second swing took a leg, as did the nest three. The torso just sank in the muck as they pushed through.

“Easy enough.” Freya beamed.

“Umm. In small number yes.” War stated as she sped up her pace immensely. Feral and Freya turned and saw the horde of Flesh rising through the mud. “Run! Gallop! Just keep moving!” Goliath added.

The party had no choice but to flee. They were outnumbered and surrounded in seconds. More focused now. Stone began to make short hoof jabs from atop his furry friend. As he did the mud in the swamp water pushed out. He was able to knock them over from a safe distance. The mud at any of the creature’s hooves shoving them down.

Freya played bodyguard, anything that got too close was sliced into pieces. Her lance and power of flight allowing her to do so from a safe distance. Their back up being War and Goliath lobing a fireball in the opposite direction. The Flesh would immediately chase after it. Some would even let themselves catch on fire.

They kept this up for a long time. For a solid hour the party kept at a high speed. Stone and Behemoth’s jab’s pushing the Flesh down. Freya and Ziz slicing through them if they got close, and War with Goliath’s fireballs pushed away the attention of a large group. The Flesh came at them endlessly.

However. While not stopping, the number of the creatures did begin to slow. Probably not by chance, at the same time they saw something straight ahead of them. What looked to be a giant wall of fog. While not far away they still had a ways to go to reach it. What worried them the most was that the closer they became to the fog. The less Flesh Puppet’s seemed to be attacking.

Before long the fog was only a few minutes or two away. The Flesh had stopped it’s chase. The party took the moment to catch it’s breath. As they did, they noticed their surroundings for the first time.

“Hey, this swamp is actually mud. Look it’s brown! Not… whatever color it was before.” Stone stated with a grin as he noticed the swamp below.

“And look these trees actually look… green?” Freya gasped.

“Okay… this fog just got way freakier.” War stated with more fear then she would have liked to show.

A great and powerful moan filled the air.
“NO MORE PLEASE NO MORE!”

A giant cyst began to push through the black mud just a few yards away.

NO MORE

Rotting gray meat slid out of the muddy tomb.

KILL ME

The size of four Freyas, It rose.

LET IT BE OVER

Appearing to be made entirely of severed heads, the twisted body looked like a both massive but thin frog. As the “frog”’s “eyes” opened, hundreds upon hundreds of loose eyeballs sat meshed together. Some glazed over, others not. Each head screamed out obscenities. Each head cried for death.

“Fucking shit…” Feral cringed.
“A real abomination.”

“How the hell do we stop that thing!” Freya wanted to scream.
“Fuck just look at it!”

“That’s fucking disgusting.” Stone held back a gag.
“Agreed.”

“The dead should be allowed to rest in peace. This thing is more than a monster. It needs to be killed.” War gritted her teeth. She felt a chill rush down her spine. It’s utterly putrid odor sticking to her throat. Her goosebumps crawled.

“Set it ablaze. We render it into ashes.” Goliath snarled.

Static clicked at Freya’s feathers.
War let out a puff of smoke.

“Feral, Don’t move. It’s time for a little teamwork.” Stone stated, real mud beginning to slide over Feral’s body at a haunting pace.
“I was about to say the same thing.” Feral grinned.

“Alright. Feral and Stone. I trust you can get that thing’s attention?” War somewhat asked, but more over ordered.

“You got it boss.” Stone remarked
“No problem.” Feral was glad to finally get to be part of the action. Mud building over him layer after layer.

“Freya, you ready?”

“Born ready.”

“The one-two punch guys. The one-two punch.” War grinned. Freya’s body moving over hers.

In a matter of seconds, Feral and Stone had transformed into a mud golem big enough to rival the Flesh Frog. Stone dried the mud into a crisp and hard outer shell. Their Golem began to charge the Frog.

END ME

With a slam, the Golem rushed into the Frog, which stumbled. It tried to grasp the Golem, but Stone disconnected anypart that it touched. They slid out it’s “hands” every time. War and Freya had vanished.

The Golem made a few attacks. Punching and kicking the frog. It slowly began to fall apart however. From the Frog’s attacks and the dripping ooze from above, the Golem would not last long.

After the Golem took it’s last attack, Stone had it shoot out Feral and himself. Ejecting them into the real mud beside the wall of fog. The Frog did not notice the lance now in it’s back. Mud golem sloppily holding the Frog in place.

RAAGAAH

Placed there by a stealthy griffin, it didn't notice. Instead, it closed in on the two it had been fighting. Dragging with it the melting husk of the Golem.

Freya let out a flap and a bolt of lightning, which held the Frog in place. Feral and Stone were in the mud, which Stone safely grounded. The lightning stopped the beast instantly.

“One.” Freya smirked.

The frog shook and trembled violently. Electricity flowing through out the meat, stunning the nightmare. All of those eyes couldn’t take the voltage and began to burst. The meat was being cooked by the electric blast that flowed freely through the dead meat.

BURN

“TWO.” Stone shouted. Feral and Stone both throwing their entire body upward in a full body uppercut. A large hard mud hoof did the same just underneath the Frog, the mud hoof slugged it’s body upward on to two legs. Electricity still flowing through it, the Frog was stuck on it’s two back legs. Belly exposed. The Golem still holding on tight.

BUUURN

A giant thick hot pink fire ball collided with it’s underside. Pushing the Frog far back and setting it ablaze. With a pink burst of flames, the Frog was wrapped in pink flames. It wanted to sink back into the murky sludge below, but Stone's Golem held it up, keeping it from sinking away. Together the Golem and the Frog blazed, burning away into ashes.

“Punch.” War felt the smile on her face.

“That went well! Haha!" Feral laughed.

“Wonderful control of the Golem Wolfy.” Stone placed himself back on Feral's back.
"That isn't easy to do."

“Great teamwork. A great leadership War.”

“Astounding combo! We work well together.” Freya smiled that smile of hers.
"That was smooth flying."

“Now that the Frog is disposed of. Hurry. In to the fog. We are very close!” Fenrir hurried the party along.

“Whoa… shit.” Stone Gasped.

Inside the fog, the party found Greep. Deep, Deep within the fog. There sat an altar. A stone altar. It sat on a small bundle of soil that pushed over the silky water around it, the green grass looked clean and moist. Surrounding that altar, a massive collection of bones. Bones from nearly every animal imaginable, rabbit, snake, deer, pony, dragon, wolf, falcon, even bones that the party did not recognize, just bones. Skulls of everything that contributed to the bone piles also sat within the stack. Piles and piles of dry, white, brown, tan, sanded, and haunting bones. Some brittle, others still looked strong. Sitting on the altar, pure white equine bones wrapped gently by a thin black veil. No trace of meat or even a scratch upon the bones. They sat perfectly set as if particularly placed by someone. Thin green vines had wrapped around them, holding them in place as if keeping them still. Astoundingly, their sight even returned to normal. They could see just as if it was day in this fog, but only near the altar.

“Greep! Wake up!” Goliath roared out of War. But the bones didn’t move.
“Greep is those bones!?” War said shocked gazing at the pearl white bones.

“That is what Lifeblood and Greep look like when they sleep.” Fenrir replied casually.

“They… look like bones?” Feral questioned.

“Indeed.” Behemoth nodded.

“You say it so casually.” Stone was still in surprise, he pondered for a moment on what kind of creature Greep could be.

“It is casual. No real concern besides the fact they won’t wake up.” Ziz stated, as Freya moved in closer to the pile of bones.

“Those two will not wake up on their own.” A new voice pierced the fog. The party immediately looked around for the source of the sound. A Zebra sat causally. At the edge of their vision. He was wrapped in a dark red wood colored cloak. His mane cut short and made to stand up looking like the trunk of a tree. A bandana was twisted around his head. On each of ears, four earrings dangled, each looking like a tiny and sharp knife. Tied on his front legs, two odd looking rods.

“You aren’t from that village.” Feral growled, his body ready for a fight.

“No. I certainly am not. My tribe is not stupid enough to live in zombie infested territory. It is a divine miracle that no kingdom near this place has not razed this place to the ground..” The Zebra laughed.

“Who are you and what do you want?” Freya stated with a serious face.
“And what do you know about those two?” War added looking just as serious.

This is a development
Stay calm.
Be ready, we don’t know what this one wants.

“I know they can’t wake up. If they could, they would be here right now.” The zebra stallion remarked, leaning back cooly.

War Bond gave him an angry violent looking glare, partly due to Goliath's will.“How do you-”

“Do realize that if you have any plans to wake these two you all will need me."- his voice did not wane, nor did his words, he knew the language well, not like Xalatath. -"My tribe has been soulbonding for generations. I can tell you what is wrong with the pile of bones. I may not know your plan. What those things are. Or who or what you are. But if you have any intention of hurting me, any plans you have may run into a snag.”

Press him.
He knows things.

“Explain yourself.” War grimaced.

With a deep sigh, the Zebra stood up.

“My tribe sent me to investigate why so many Mythos are now traveling together. Mythos being our word for those ancient being you are all tied to. I figured this would be the best place to meet you... Well the safest. You wont hurt me if I am the only one who can give you the chance to wake these two.”

“You know about them?” Feral gave the zebra a vile and angry glare.

“In particular? No. But I can feel them. They hang like black clouds.” He gave an annoying grin.

How does he know what is wrong with Greep?
Does he know how can we help them.

“We won't hurt you. Not unless you aim to impede our goal.” War stated level-headedly.

“I will help you if you answer my questions. Why are you all together now? Why is there another group of Mythos gathering near here? And why are there even more gathering in the far north?”

The Dragonlands! Atlas is building his army! He really does mean to bring a war!

The worst has been confirmed. We must stop Atlas now. The sooner the better.

He can sense the others. Perhaps he would make a useful ally. Speed this all up a bit.

His knowledge of soulbonding could come in handy.

Tell him what he wants to know, it makes no difference to us, we already have to stop Atlas, what is a tribe of Zebra.

“We aim to stop the beings in the north. An ancient dragon Mythos named Atlas plans to raise an army and end the lives of all non-dragon life forms. We need our friends together so we can stop him. The other group nearby is working for him and trying to stop us. We need to get these two up. This pile of bones is our friend apparently, and he is asleep and will not wake up, If you can help us, please do. We were given this quest by Princess Celestia. We could really use you on the team. If you wouldn’t mind.” Freya said in a single breath. Her eyes and face dead serious.

The zebra sat on that for a while. He looked to each member of the party. Then gave a sigh. Moving toward War, he stretched a hoof.

“My name is Abvol of the Haemon Tribe. I will aid you all in your quest. However, if I find out you are lying, you will sleep like these two.”

“We are glad to have your help. Don’t worry. We aren’t lying. Now. If you wouldn’t mind keeping your part of the deal.” Feral slicked out.

“I will keep to my word. These two are trapped in their minds. My tribe has created a special powder crafted from rare roots that can send the soulbound into that state of existence.They have been in this place for a long while, chances are it is my tribe who did this to them, and I take it upon myself to aid you for what my kin did long ago. There in the melded minds they must face their innermost demons. Both of them must overcome whatever demons they may have if they are to ever awaken. I can send three of you into their mind to aid them, Three being, one without the soulbound partner, and the other with their other half. Simply said. Only three, total, can go. Any more can break the sleeping one’s mind.”

“War Bond, You Fenrir and Feral go.” Goliath order, his voice echoing from War’s mouth. This however did not get any reaction out of Abvol.

“Wait! Why us!?” War asked surprised. No one else seemed to question Goliath’s judgment.

“Greep will want to see a friendly face, his closest friend was Fenrir. She has to go. Feral because he also has a silver tongue, and talking maybe needed for those inner demons. You go under my will. Yell at those two if you have to. Fenrir is the kind one. Feral plays the middle ground and you play the angry one.” Goliath gave his reasoning with a straightforward attitude.

“But you are way better at being mad then I am!” War stated, not entirely sure why she part of her did want to go into the pile of bone’s inner and darkest mind.

“Exactly, now go! I am going to stay here and make sure the new one is trustworthy.” Goliath stated, moving War’s sight to glare down Abvol, who once again did not react to Goliath.

“Go War, We can handle things here. Don't worry.” Ziz stated. Reeling Freya to move in her direction.

“Besides, you are the most level-headed out of all of us.” Freya added with a grin. She gave War a pat on the back.

“Yeah, we are going to need you in there. I’m pretty psycho incase you forgot.” Feral thought with a laugh.

With a smile and a breath from his nostrils, Abvol smirked. “I assume you lot are talking it over?”

Feral stepped forward. “I will go, with me is the Mythos Fenrir. The Great Wolf. We will go. Be warned. If this is some kind of trick, The agony you will feel for any kind betrayal to me, or any of my friends here, will be so excruciating that you will pray for death for the rest of your life, which I assure you, will be a very long time.” Feral glared straight at Abvol. Their eyes locked for a moment of silence.

“Turn out to be sincere, and he’ll do the same to your enemies that betray you… He means well.” War smiled mildly. Not sure what to make of Abvol just yet.

“I am glad to see I have made such a passionate ally. By the way, I feel I must warn you. Fail to wake the two trapped, and you will be trapped with them.” Abvol added calmly.

“Already figured as much. Thats good. I work best under pressure.” Feral gave War a grin.

“I will be going as well. Just me. Not my Mythos.” War added proudly.

“For the record. Mythos sounds way better than Old One Feral.” Fenrir commented.
“It really does.” Ziz agreed.

"We'll talk about that when I get back." Feral grumbled.

Abvol pulled out a small pouch, then a second one. He trotted to Feral first. “Take your hooves and place them upon the sleeping.-” Feral lifted his claws, and Fenrir clutched the pearl colored bones on the altar. “-Or claws that works too. Now take a deep breath...” Abvol smiled. Opening the pouch, a small amount of light pale green powder sat. With a puff Feral took a deep breath of the powder cloud. Almost instantly. He fell limp, unconscious.

Abvol repeated the process for War Bond. However, he used a pale purple powder instead. The sensation of the powder rushed her head. Everything seemed to stop and blur. She felt herself separate from Goliath the same way she did when they go to that weird plane of existence.

“Where am I?” was the very first thing I thought in this strange place. This mind I sojourned into with a wolf and half a dragon. A place deep within the mind of two beings I had never so much as seen... Either we were in such a rush we made a few mistakes, or that Zebra played us. I decided right then that it was too late to worry about that. I'll let my friends who stayed behind deal with that Zebra, and I will focus on getting these two to wake up. Fenrir must be worried, she has known that Greep hasn't been moving, and to see him asleep despite her being so physically close... Hell, Behemoth came to us after all. This guy-er... thing can't even wake up...

I was in a building. Well, the stone walls and... no the cobblestones walls and floor gave it away, along with all those torches on the wall. The rug carpet was nice enough.

Honestly I figured the inside of a mind would be different… I expected... less. Structure? Looking around. I was in a really long hallway with like… a billion doors. Literally, like a billion doors! They just kept going and going. The fucking hallway went on for miles. As far as my eye's would see.

The next thing I noticed with my very first step. That was that I had hooves. Not claws. Fuck! That means no Fenrir. No Fenrir means my smell and hearing are way down! And with War Bond no where in sight I was on my own. Shit! I really hate it when I don’t have Fenrir’s sense of smell and hearing. On top of that I was on my own. Damn.

The next thing I had to do was to check my surroundings for War and Fenrir. That made me more annoyed, since I can normally do that with a sniff and a raised ear. So I looked in both directions of the hallway. No one. Just doors. Shit. I needed to try some of these doors, there were a million anyway, maybe one of them had something useful, or War or Fenrir could be trapped in one of these rooms. Opening them couldn't be too horrible. Part of me felt like I was making excuses to open the doors, no idea why I'd do that, but I still had this weird feeling in my gut. Who knows, maybe I was just curious.

I tried the door. Nothing special marked the door. It looked just like the other infinity doors. Always trickier with hooves. Why the hell we ever invented knobs in the first place I’ll never know. With a twist the doorknob rotated. Unlocked. Good. With a light shove, the door rolled open. It did not open into a room.

What the hell, this was unlike anything I had ever seen. It was Goliath, but he looked all young. He was speaking, it was as if I was looking through eye’s of someone else, just like when Fenrir takes over our body.

“-Can’t do things like that. I… You aren’t bad or evil. Do not listen to her.” Goliath was talking to whoever’s eye I was looking through.

“Are you sure? Am I not… evil?” a tired voice spoke.

Goliath let out a smokey breath. After a short pause. “I’m no good at this… But… I know you aren’t evil. But in the end, only you can decide whether or not you are a good… you. Do you understand?”

The eye’s I was looking through looked down, long dark cloths wrapped around body I couldn’t fully see. “I… Yes.”

With a slam the door shut in my face. I was forced to my ass. I just sat… thinking about what I just saw. Alright.. I am in Greep and Life Blood’s mind. That was obviously one of Greep’s… memories? I looked at the seemingly infinite hallway. Each door must be a separate memory. Would they be in the order that they happened? I have no idea how to get the hell out of here…. ? Fuck.

War Bond shook herself awake. Immediately she was face to face with a wolf. She recognized the way fur blended into different colors. “Fenrir.” She smiled to the wolf.

“War Bond. I can’t find Feral.” Fenrir replied nervously.

War was still in the daze of her waking, she took her surroundings in for a moment. She was in a very shallow pond, more of a big puddle really. Around her was a thick, and dark blue forest. It was as if she was looking at a forest from a great distance away, but the trees didn’t become more clear as she got closer, so being up close didn’t remove the haze around them. They all seemed blurred and blue. For some reason unknown to both of the girls, Fenrir was just a might bigger then War Bond. Big for a wolf. Small for a Mythos.

The words Fenrir had just spoken set in a minute or two later.

“What do you mean you can’t find Feral?” War asked, the gravity of someone being lost in a mind setting in.

“I can’t find him. I do not smell him, I do not hear him… He isn't around here at all...” War Bond was sure she sounded worried, she knew Fenrir was trying to hide her concern.That probably wasn't good.

“That… might not be good.” War stated, a bit worried herself, a lot was happening fast.

“Let’s prioritize, if we find Greep and Life Blood, they can help us find him.” Feral stated, the slightest bit of hesitation on her tongue fading. She masterfully hid her worry.

“Alright, that is a plan but… where do we go? How do we find a Mythos in a soulbound mind?” Where are we? What can we even do here? Is it dangerous?" War asked, hoping that she could offer help of any kind.

“Perhaps we were hasteful in pouncing on this so soon. We will have to play this by ear. That is a saying correct?” Fenrir’s hindsight kicked in.

It felt like I had been walking for hours. The sound of my stupid hooves clippity clomping with every step poked me in my brain, it was fucking annoying as hell. I tried not to think. My mind wandering isn’t good. I tend to get… worse. "It’s okay in battle"- I repeated to myself. -",but lapsing into my battle tendencies here could be very bad. Don’t think. Don’t think. Don’t think."-I kept repeating that in my head over and over again. -"Don’t think. Don’t think." As I walked and walked, I tried to focus on my stupid hooves. For an instant. I remembered… a mental image. A bad one. That was all it took without Fenrir in my head to keep me in check.

A pony, face caved in. Covered in blood. I remember the kill. The rush I got. That ultimate fucking satisfaction from when a hoof bashes so hard the bone caves in or breaks! The splash of hot blood on my face! I let out an orgasmic moan unintentionally. Getting a hit in at that perfect angle, so their eye pops! That glorious, amazing, utterly fucking fantastic feeling when you feel the life drain from their body with every hit, kick, stab, or slash! IT GETS ME SO RILED UP. I CAN’T TAKE.

I threw open the first door I felt. I needed to get my mind away from all the bloodlust.

I was relieved when I saw her face. All my lust vanishing almost instantly. Fenrir looked at Greep’s face here. She looked noticeably younger, but I recognize my Fenrir anywhere.

“Okay, How about this? I promise that if he ever yells at you again, I’ll be here for you. I already scolded him, so he will probably apologize next time he sees you. You know how he gets.” Fenrir was talking in her nice voice. The voice she uses to try to comfort her friends. She’s done it for me a lot so I recognize it pretty well.

“That… is okay. Fenrir… I am worried. Yes.. I mean... He wasn’t wrong. Everything he said was… right…”

“Gr-”

“You can't deny it. I am not… like all of you. He was correct.”

“No he was wrong. But even if he was correct, that doesn’t make him right.” Fenrir explained.

“But-”

“No, Listen to me. We all know how you are. You do not have a problem you… your just different. That doesn’t make you wrong. Or terrible. He was mad. You know it hasn’t been very long since… that. He hasn’t been the same… He’s only had a few centuries to let it sink in. He just let out his anger in the wrong place, he had no right to say those terrible things.” Fenrir made a face I actually had never seen her make before… but I recognized the ticks. The facial ticks. She was sad. She was distraught. That was the same face a heartbroken mare makes...

“...Fenrir... honestly… do you think I am a monster?”

“No. You aren’t a monster.” She said, that sad heartbroken smile still on her face. I bothered me that she made that face but has never told me about anyone that would give that face to her… who could give her that face.

Greep gave a short laugh. ”You’re still thinking about him aren’t you.” I guess he could sense it too.

Fenrir just looked at Greep… There was a long, long silence.

“Of course… I love him.” she said with a sigh that was partially a laugh.. What the fuck! She loved someone! How could she not tell me?! How could I not just find out!? Was she keeping secrets from me?! How many more could she have?! My mind rushed unable to handle that information properly.

“You fell in love with him? Would you mind telling me why?” Greep was speaking too calmly. I wanted answers. I was freaking out.

“I have no idea… just somewhere along the way… I just realized it. His smile. The ways he tries to show he cares. How he has always been there for me… But this isn’t why I am here, we aren’t here to talk about why I am in love with Goliath, I am here to tell you that those things he said were wrong, no matter what.”

The door slammed in my face. But I couldn’t move… Fenrir… My dearest and closest friend, she was family, she a part of me... and she was in love with Goliath… I realized how wrong what I had just done was. That might have been something the two only shared with each other. And I invaded that memory. I was looking into the deepest part of Greeps mind. I had no right to be there. I sat for a long time in pure utter silence. Then I just started puking my guts out.

After I ran out of vomit, my head cleared up pretty good. Then I made a realization. I could figure out what direction to go! If I opened another door, and saw Fenrir again depending on whether or not she looked older or younger I could determine both whether or not these memories were in the order they were made, and if I was going into older or newer memories! But that would mean invading the privacy of Greep again…

Wait a minute… Even if I did figure all that out. Would the exit be at where the memories started, back in the older memory direction? Or would the exit be where the newest memories were being placed?... Fuck! Just pick a direction then I guess! Good I wanted to be angry, I didn’t want to think about Goliath and Fenrir.

I ended up deciding to just keep going in the direction I was already going in. Might as well just keep going right?

The hazy forest was a labyrinth, a maze of trees locked War Bond and Fenrir in a blue haze. Nothing was clear. The two walked together, they had been wondering lost for some time. Simply moving with the hopes of finding someone. They found no one thus far. No sounds, nothing but a foggy hazy.

“We’ve been wondering for a long time. We are pretty lost aren’t we?” War asked, looking to Fenrir as she walked.

“Indeed, I hope we can find someone soon. I’m worried. Time may go at a different rate. We may have been here for roughly an hour, but it is impossible to tell how much time has passed outside of this mind.” Fenrir explained.

“Do you really think time might be traveling different in here?” War had never experienced anything like this. She looked to the She-Wolf Mythos for guidance.

“In one’s mind, anything may be possible.” Fenrir replied with grin. A soothing smile.

“I guess, I’ll take your word for it. You know these two better than I do.” Her attention focused on Fenrir, she nearly ran into a tree. She brushed up against that tree roughly.

The tree hazed heavily. Fogging in, it hazed to form a spectral image of two ponies. Tall, as if the two were looking up at them from the ground.

“What are we going to do! What if this broke the chain! Our people have spent centuries working for this, and we might have ruined everything!” The first figure stated with a panicked voice.

“We might not have. Everything might be fine! The ritual still might work, even if it doesn’t, we might be able to blame somepony else. We can figure something out! We still have time!” the second figure’s voice was still very panicked.

With a glimmer the tree fogged back up. Hazing heavily, it returned to a it’s foggy and blurred state.

“What... was that?” War asked, full of confusion.

“I have a faint idea… One moment.” Fenrir walked to another tree. Then gave a forceful push with her paw.

The tree repeated the same process. Glimmering into the specters of several hooded pony. All of them tall, looking down at the wolf and the dragonslayer.

“This cannot be!”
“This isn’t what was supposed to happen.”
“This is wrong!”
“No! Why! Seventh son of a seventh son of a seventh “son”! The prophecy can’t come through if it’s a girl!”
“The child can’t be a girl!”
“How did this happen!”

The voices came all at once in a hysterical panic.

The tree faded just like it did last time. Blurring into the fog once more.

“I believe these could be some kind of… memories?” Fenrir stated uneasily.

“What makes you think that?” War raised her eyebrow. “Kind of a long shot don’t you think?”

“What else could they be?” Fenrir stated seriously.

“I have absolutely no idea.”

“Come now, War Bond. We should not be here. Let us keep moving.”

I was getting really tired of all the nothing around me. I was tempted to open up another door. I wouldn’t be breaking too many rules would I? Along the list of my wrong doings, this wasn’t too horrifying. I tried to justify my curiosity. I didn’t want to... lapse again so soon. There were plenty of other motivators.

At the end of my ear, I heard crying. Soft… gentle sobs, just at the edge of my hearing. I slowed myself down, and stepped lightly, hating how much more noise hooves made then soft padded claws. I was still able to track down where the crying came from. With a push the door open the memory began.

I watched from Greep’s eyes yet again, as he spied on two clothed ponies and a tiny picnic basket. Everything was covered in snow. White were all around . He hid behind something… probably some trees. He watched the ponies from the shadows.

“I… we can’t do this can we?” a mare’s voice stated sadly
“What other choice do we have?” a stallion stated with a morbid tone.
“This is wrong…”
“It is, but it’s us or her.”
“She’s my daughter… she’s your daughter…”
“She’s our daughter… I know. This isn’t easy for me either, but we have to do this.”
“... this is wrong…” The mare cried softly…
“We will be exiled. One life for both of ours. We can always have another.” The stallion tried desperately to justify whatever it was they were doing.

Wordlessly, the two set the picnic basket down and trotted away. After the sound of their steps faded away, we moved toward the tiny basket. The crunching of snow marking each of our steps. Greep peered in the basket. A tiny white unicorn filly sat in the basket, bundled up like a rare treasure. Her fur and mane matched the snow.

“Oh! Hello tiny baby. I thought you were food. Ponies usually put food in baskets like that one.” Greep’s offputting voice stated flatly. The filly just turned her head curiously at us.

I heard a puff of laughter as Greep stared at the infant in silence. “Ponies normally get fear when they look upon me. Funny. I can stab fear into any heart, but you don’t even seem worried little tiny baby.” Greep just continued looking at the tiny thing.

“I wonder where those two ponies went. They just left you here. Odd. Some ponies can be weird… Wait a moment. What if you are food! What if they want to eat you small tiny little baby! No wait, cannibalism is usually looked down on. I was scared there for a moment mini small tiny little baby.” Greep kept talking to the thing as if he expected to talk back to him.

“Wait. Don’t you ponies get cold. With all this snow you could freeze! If I didn’t know any better, I’d think those two left… you……. Uhhhmmmm. Oh no.” Greep finally broke eye content and began to look around. Nothing but forest trees and snow. “Oh no… Well ummmmmm….”

Greep looked around more. Much more frantically.

“Alright! Do not worry teeny mini small tiny little baby. I’ll help you. I can raise a pony baby by myself! Well… probably.”- he looked back at the infant who was now reaching up, trying to touch him. -“Hey, Baby, do you think you’ll be okay with me?.”- The baby just kept trying to touch him. Babbling softly. -”Yeah… me neither. But it’s okay… I have an idea.” His face went down low. Lightly touching the forehead of the confused infant, who took advantage of his closeness and began poking his face. I remember that… he is binding his and the baby’s souls… That baby had to be Life Blood. With a bright light blinding both me and Greep, the door closed.

A small thud landed right next to me. Looking over I saw a small pure white unicorn mare, huddled on the floor. Her face was a feverish shade of red. She hid her body behind her legs. Eyes wide she gazed at me. That can’t be Life could it? She was so very white, like snow white.

That is when I saw the black aura from her horn. And my throat begin to tighten. No! She’s strangling me! I have to focus, I might do something I will regret if I lapse now! I struggled, glaring her down. My body began to move on it’s own. NONONONONONO! I began moving closer, each step made her flinch. My mind flooded with mental pictures, all of her bloody, bloody mangled body. I lusted for her blood. I wanted to stain that white fur with her blood.

MY body threw itself forward, tackling her and pinning her down under me. My throat throbbed in pain, and the lack of air began to burn my lungs. NO, NO, NO DO NOT HURT HER THINK OF SOMETHING ELSE ANYTHING ELSE!

I did just that. I did something to get my mind off bloody murder and all of the amazing things it made me feel. I slammed my face into hers and pressed my lips against hers as hard as I could. My eyes locked with hers. I felt her grip on my neck loosen, I broke both of our concentration. She dropped the spell in utter shock. I grinned, standing and falling to my side. I gave a hard and painful swallow, then a equally painful series of coughs.

“Sorry, about that…” I cracked out. The mare was somehow even redder in the face now. Is she sick or something? I hope I didn’t just infect myself. Her eyes were full of tears. They streamed down her face.

“You…. bastard….” she whimpered, still hiding herself. What the hell is with this mare? Why does she keep doing that?

“I said sorry, you didn’t let me explain. You went straight to choking me!” I growled at her.

“So!! Y-You just stole my innocence!? What are you demon! How did you invade this place! Or are you just another nightmare!” The tears still pouring down her face.

“Stole your- The kiss? It was just a kiss! And I’m no demon! I’m here to help!” I tried to explain.

“Just a kiss!? Are you not satisfied-” she let out a small gasp, more tears began to stream”- You aim to force yourself on me foul demon!?” She squinted hard, trying to get her horn to strangle me again I assumed. She couldn't get her horn to spark.

“What!? No! Stop that! I. Am. Not. A. Demon! I'm a... relatively good guy!” I shouted.

“Liar!” She shouted back.

“I’m here to help!” I felt myself growling. My tail instinctively lifted. Ears slid back. I knew anger wouldn’t help, I was mad anyway. This was not the first time I was called a rapist and didn’t like it the first time either.

“Help what?! Help yourself to my supple flesh you foul demon!” Her horn began to glow again. Shit.

“Stop! For the last damn time! I’m here to help you!” I grabbed her face, I stared into her face, eyeing her. Forcing her to lock eyes with me, tears stopping, her spell dropping again as her face burned bright red. “Look into my eyes! I am not going to rape you. I am not going to hurt you! I want to help you wake up! If you don’t stop trying to strangle me, I’ll… kiss you again and again and again! Now tell me if I am fucking lying!” I toned down what I was initially going to say. This one had extremely less swearing.

With that I threw her away from me. Sitting down properly, I looked at her. She was breathing heavily, sitting up more but still hiding her body like she had some hideous deformity on her body. Her face was much less red now, but still a tinted pink. She stopped crying at least. But still sniffled her snot. Her mane was a messy and unruly mop. She looked like she had been crying for a very long while.

“You aren’t lying… But you are still pervert.” she replied softly.

“How am I a pervert?” I asked, feeling by bruised neck.

“How?! You pinned me down and stole my kiss! ” She yelled at me.

“Compared to what I wanted to do, consider yourself lucky.” My comment made her redden again, I didn’t realize how that kinda hurt my “I am not a rapist” argument until after it left my mouth. “Not like that! I wanted to kill you! Murder you! I don’t want to get into the details, that wouldn’t be good for either of us.”

“Are you really here to help?” She eyed me suspiciously. I was upset, I needed to start controlling my words again.

I rolled my eyes. “How can I prove I wanna help you? Listen, all of that nastiness could have been avoided if you just talked to me instead of trying to strangle me!” I wanted to growl.

“Sorry, but when I see a stallion I have never seen before in my life, and I am completely naked, I freak out! Especially since were in my mind, and my mind is melded with someone else’s!” She argued.

“Naked? We are ponies, we don’t wear cloths! I don’t even like to wear armor!” I laughed. She just got more red somehow!

“See! You are a pervert! What kind of modest pony walks around with the world looking at her bare flesh! Her soft fur exposed!” She yelled at me some more after that but I tuned her out. Instead, I thought about Fenrir, and how she would handle this…. I waited for her to finish her lecture.

“I’m sorry.” I said, hating the fact that I just pulled a Fenrir. She just stopped, she started looking at me with a odd look.

“I am sorry for kissing you. I am sorry for stealing your innocence. That was not my intent. I tend to have… murderous tendencies when I fight. I didn’t want to hurt you, so I did the first thing I could think of that wasn't violent. To be honest, I think it is super weird that a kiss means that much to you. And that you don’t want me to see you naked. But… we are obviously different and I apologize. It was still wrong for me to do, and I am sorry.” If Fenrir was here, she’d giggle at that I did this without her telling me to do it five times first. As a final attempt at apologizing I turned around, focusing on a wall instead of her.

“I’m sorry too. I probably should have tried talking instead of going straight for your throat. You are still a pervert though.” I heard her from behind me. Yes. Progress. I think. She wasn't like any mare I had ever met.

“Hate me later, Now then. Can you please wake up now so we can leave?” I really hoped that we were done here and could just somehow leave.

“I can’t.”

“What?”

“If I could just wake up, I would have a long time ago. But I can’t.”

“Why not?!” I nearly growled again.

“I don’t know.”

I gave a deep sigh. “Well… let’s try to figure this out.”

Outside. The fog around the party was beginning to thin. Just barely, it was definitely still there. But they were now able to see a small distance around them. The change was a bit scary, but just barely noticeable.

“Is he okay?” Freya worried.

“He is fine. His throat may be a bit sore, it looks like something was strangling him. But he seems fine now.” Abvol replied, leaning over Feral.

“Do you know why he just finished twitching madly a few minutes ago. That came out of nowhere.” Stone Wall and Behemoth’s meshed voice was still a bit off putting.

“No. I do not. Do not forget, anything may happen in a mind. Especially the mind of a Mythos. Only through their will can the three be harmed.” Abvol replied again, stoically.

“Is there anyway for us to help them? They have been in there for a while.” Goliath pondered. War Bond’s body sat as if she was awake. Her eye’s open and everything. Goliath was simply in control of her body now.

“I doubt they will be able to hear us if we try to tell them anything. The bones are in a very deep sleep.” Abvol replied honestly.

Stone was audibly sniffing. “Do you smell that? Like a hint of rotten eggs or something ugh.” He sat up and moved to his fellow standing friends. Climbing up and onto Freya’s back.

The other prompted a similar sniff. “It’s definitely there, but it’s not that bad.” Ziz commented.

“I do not trust that odor.” Abvol mulled that over… “We should be on the look out. Perhaps the undead lurking outside the fog grow near. Hungry for new flesh.” the zebra worried aloud.

“If that’s true, then these guys better hurry and get Greep…” Behemoth groaned.

“We cannot rush this process. Only the wind knows what horrid nightmares they could be facing.” Abvol placed a hoof on the tiny Stone’s back. “Worry not of your friends. They will return shortly.”

Stone gave a yawn. “Oh yeah… I should explain some things… about me being a colt.”

Fenrir and War Bond moved along the forest floor. Still hoping that they were moving in the right direction.

A splash of water turned their attention.

A small puddle of water sat surround by trees. The water rippled from the center. Prompting the girls to investigate.

They approached it in a arid silence, the hazed forest all around them. The dark foggy blue tinting every color.

They approached and looked to the water. It’s reflection returning as the ripples slowly faded.

Their faces appeared in their replications shown in the mirror of water.

Along with a skull of a dragon.

They immediately dodged back. Looking to the tree’s that were just above them.

The black robes mostly wrapped and hid a shapeless figure. Almost completely hiding whatever lied behind the robes, the robes revealed the tips of bones poking through. Save for the hood. A hood was up, the same dirty jet black color of the robes. Forcing it’s way through that hood was the massive skull of dragon. Long stretching bones that faintly resembled a length of knotted arm bones from various creatures clutched the top a of a tree with freakish “digits of bones”. A second “arm” hung low. Clutching a rusty harvester’s scythe. The shadow like robes hid the entire lower body and torso.

“Greep.” Fenrir said with a touch of excitement and joy.

“That’s Greep! It’s like I am staring at death himself.” War nearly yelled.

“You aren’t to far off there missy.” a tired raspy voice spoke from somewhere behind the skull of the dragon.

The shapeless entity dropped with a literal bone crunching snap. The entirety slowly moved toward the girls. No trace of footsteps below it’s robes. No utterance of sound either. It soundlessly moved closer and closer. Harvester slowly gliding closer and closer, poised to strike.

“Greep. Calm yourself.” Fenrir ordered.

“I’ve been trapped in our mind for nearly two hundred years. Explain how you two are here, or I start harvesting.” The shapeless being replied with hauntingly raspy voice.

“It is I, your friend Fenrir. This is Goliath’s soulbound partner, War Bond. Now enough, calm down.” Fenrir ordered again.

“You expect me to just believe you?” Greep laughed, silently moving closer.

“A very long time ago, I made a promise to you. About a dragon friend of mine.” Fenrir stated, more annoyed than anything else.

Fenrir immediately found herself wrapped up in a very tight embrace. A kind, if a bit pokey, hug.

“Fenrir! Delightful! You’ve come to help me haven’t you!?” Greep tilted his head back, the dragon skull falling away into the hood. With a forward tilt, the hood slid forward and only darkness peered forward.

War Bond looked at the sight in disbelief. Not fully understanding what was happening. Greep completely shifted his tone.

“You are War Bond, yes?” The hood turned in her direction.

“Yes. Goliath’s soulbound partner.” She replied quickly.

The shadow that was Greep engulfed War in an equally passionate (and pointy) hug.

“I apologize, I have been here for a long time, please understand my confusion. I am Greep. Oh about my comment earlier, you see my name comes from what they local pony-folk started calling me. I am the Grim Reaper, or rather, The Grim Reaper is me. Based of my image I mean.”

“Oh…” War Bond was washed with an incredible feeling of unease. Grim Reaper she realized.

“Now then. We need to find your little one.” Fenrir explained. “As well as my own.” She added after the fact.

“Your soulbond is here as well? I cannot wait to meet him!” Greep moved as if he was excited. It was hard to tell if he really was excited due to the lack of… most physical features. "Life Blood is this way, follow me."

I glared at this cobblestone wall something fierce. l couldn’t think of anything to help this damn mare. I couldn’t even tell if she was still here. Turning around risked her freaking out again, and I need her to trust me. My hearing was shitty, and my smell was basically non-existent compared to what I was used to. I was really pissed.

“You still there?” I growled unintentionally.

“Yes. Haven’t moved.” she replied to me.

“Good.” I need to think of something. My way of thinking isn’t getting me any ideas. Let’s see what she has thought of. “Any idea on how to get out of here?”

“I’ve tried everything I could think of already. I’ve tried waking myself up in every way possible, going to sleep in even more ways, and so on. I’ve opened nearly every door here. Nothing. Now way out. Were trapped here demon.” Her words didn’t help my mood any.

Alright, Fenrir has gotten me this far, what else would she say… She’d want to talk to that Abvol Zebra...wait a moment… Abvol... she keeps calling me a demon... demon.. he said something... about...Inner demons! That’s right!

“You wouldn’t happen to have any inner demons would you?!” Part of me was hoping for some literal demons, I like hurting things a lot.

“Inner demons? What do you mean?” she was confused... she had no idea what inner demons refers to... can't get a break now can I?

“Like a problem you don’t want to face. Something like… shame! Are you ashamed of anything?”

She didn’t reply. At all. That’s right. She probably doesn’t trust me… at all. I guess that whole kiss thing might have been more trouble than it was worth… Alright. Fenrir has gotten me this far, so now keep going with that. Fenrir… she would probably… try to comfort her, get her to open up by telling her something she is ashamed of… hmm. I don’t want to do that… but what other choice do I have… Shit… Oh well. All or nothing is how I like to play anyway.

“Alright. I think it’s safe to say I am not one of your favorite ponies right now. But, I had an idea. I am going to give you an example of some inner demons. My own experiences with my demons…” I waited to see if she would react or say anything. She didn’t. Any normal mare should have said something. None of my knowledge of mares would work on her, I fucked up my first impression too much. That plus she didn't act like any mare I knew.

“Well I am starting then…” I had take a pause… I actually was unsure on how to start. “Back when I was a colt… a long time ago… Well… Let me back up a little more. My parents, for some reason I will never know, left me for dead when I was a colt. Didn’t even have a cutie mark. My only memories of them are of them arguing and drinking... mostly the drinking. I don’t know who they were, or what their reasons for abandoning me were, but they did it. I was a smart kid though, I learned how to keep myself alive. Mostly off the back of others. To put it simply, I stole… everything. Food, water, toys, money, you name it. I stole it.”

“You just stole things from random ponies?” she asked intently. At least she was listening.

“I had to learn what to do, and I had to learn to survive that way. Not like I could get a job or anything, I was a kid. By the time I old enough to realize what it was I had been doing that whole time, or how wrong stealing is, no pony wanted me. I was the local thief. So I embraced it, I was a really good thief, so I got better. Stealing got easier and easier. When I was old enough to get a job, I didn't want to work, I had stealing. One day, I decide to find some new targets, move to a different town. I run into some rival thieves, two brothers who were abandoned like me. As it turns out, most thieves are a lot like me. Now I had partners in crime. We ransacked everything we could for our own gain. My friends grew from from two to four, then five, and eventually seven. We became a band of thieves, looking to get out rich.”

“You were the leader of a gang of thieves?”

“Yes and no. We were all young. Still what adults would call kids. Our early and mid teens. But we did do quite a bit of stealing. When we hit a rich ponies mansion, using the plan I created, I found myself with my cutie mark. I got it really late all things considered…-” I was silent for a while longer… trying to plan my words. “- Still time moves on, and we got older. When we reached young adulthood, we were still stealing… only thing was, ponies are a lot harsher on adults. In a single day, everything changed. A quick pickpocket turns south, knives get pulled and a fight breaks out. One brother knives the guy threatening the other brother. Blood everywhere. We go from thieves to murders in a matter of seconds. We now had the law pulling for us. And as these things turns out, the dead pony was a member of the Guard. We were never going to get away with it. They got us all in a matter of days.”

“All of you?”

“Every single one of us. We spent three days locked in a cell together. Then on the morning of the fourth day… I wake up alone..”

“What happened to your friends?”

“That was what I wanted to know. I start screamin’ “Where the hell are my friends!” the night guard looks at me, he was ending his shift... and he looks pissed, like he knows something’s up. He tells me. “Ain't got no friends kid.” I took it the wrong way… Start screaming more. Mean shit, about his mother and family. He turns around and starts talking. “Round these parts, just a few days ago, when you lot all got caught, some raider bandits came stollin’ by. Took a lot of men to stop them. Fewer nights ago they escaped us.” He goes on telling me how thirty something civilians were killed, more were raped and beaten, about fifteen guardponies wound up dead, even more were injured, and my “friends” made a deal.”

“What was deal?” she stated, from the sound of her voice, she really liked my story.

“That I end up the law’s bitch. Those fuckers scapegoated me. They walk away free ponies and I get pinned with everything… everything. Shouldn’t have even bothered with the trial. I was guilty the second I walked in that damn court room. That Guard knew what was happening to me was wrong. He tried to help, but I told him not to. I didn’t want him to lose his job or something. I was sentenced to sixty-three life sentences. They weren't going to execute me, the whole fucking town wanted me to rot in the worst fucking jail possible. That was exactly what happened. I was sent to Black Reef Prison."

"Black Reef Prison?"

"A penitentiary located at the bottom of the ocean. Magic kept it from getting crushed by the sheer water pressure. No real light could reach it. It is mob rule, you do your best to find food and drinkable water, and stay away from the real psychos and murders. And it was cold. So cold you prayed you get enough to drink so you could piss yourself for a second of warmth.”

“By the Gods…” By the Gods? That one was new to me.

“That place... turned me into a monster. Those... murderous tendencies of mine started there. I hated those “friends” of mine. I spent years in that prison. I longed to get out so I could rip them apart. I spent years hating and wanting to violate them. Hating my parents for abandoning me. Hating the only ponies who had ever called me their brother. Hating everything… and everyone That prison rotted me. Rotted my core. Turned me into a twisted abomination of hate, anger, and more hate. I was trapped in that dark horrible place of sheer terror for years…”

“But you are out now?”

“I escaped, but that’s not the point. You see, one night I realized something. All my hate. All my anger. All the time I spent fantasizing about my revenge… none of it mattered. None of those things changed anything. Chances were, I was going to rot down there. No amount of anger would get my parents or my old “friends” in there with me. I would never get my revenge. And with all I stole, I didn’t deserve any. Funny thing is… If they had asked… I mean, if my "friends would have asked me to take the blame... I would have done it for them. I would have taken the knife in my back… For them.. before they betrayed me… I would have done anything for them, they were like family. Heh. Guess there is such a thing as too much loyalty. Anyway. My point is… As soon as I said “fuck it” and let everything just go… I felt better. Don’t get me wrong, in there I was a fucking lunatic monster, but when I forgot about the anger and hate… It just kinda… went away. Not dwelling on any of it… saved me. I had to let all that hate and baggage lose… and it was like this tremendous weight just lifted off of me. I don’t know what happened to you… or what you’ve been through. Nor do I have any right to. But… if you can… just… try to forget all that... shit. Just let it all go. It helped me… maybe it will help you.”

My eyes opened and I found myself eyeballing a Zebra. Abvol was inches away from my face.

“Abvol?!” Fenrir and I shouted simultaneously. Our voices mixing and making us sound badass. Abvol jumped back, smile on his face.

“You awaken!” he grinned ear to ear.

“What the hell? I’m awake?” I heard War Bond speak. Good, for some reason I was worried that only I and Fenrir had woken up.

“It is good to stretch these old bones!” I heard in a raspy voice.
“Hello to all of you.” Life’s voice spoke.

Looking to them. The two stood on the altar. She was almost the same, but she appeared now to be part bone, and part badass. She was the same white mare, but her body was wrapped up in this weird eerie moonless night level black cloak. Where it pressed up had, only bones seemed to push out. Like it rubbed up on her skeleton itself. Her mane was just as mashed and messy. On her back, a small harvester’s sickle… Oddly enough… and I am embarrassed to admit it. But seeing her there… looking like a badass half skeleton warrior maiden… She was the most beautiful thing I had ever had the pleasure of looking at...

The party as close as close as it could be without actually being complete.

The party was getting excited for the future.

However before they could celebrate the arrival of their new friend. Something lurking in the fog wanted to intervene.

“It’s back…” Freya whispered. Apparently something had been prowling on them for some time.

In the edge of the fog, something dragged lumbering feet.

“We should deal with this thing.” Abvol voiced.

“What is it? That Frog from earlier?” Feral asked.

“Think bigger… think worse.” Behemoth and Stone voiced.

“Undead Dragon.” Goliath answered.

The rotting head of a dragon pierced the veil of the fog. The wretched odor of the monster would have been vomit inducing this close, but the party had been around the reeking of death for some time now.

“One-Two Punch?” Freya asked.

“We might need more. All together now!” War and Goliath’s voice smoothed together. “Freya. Hold it still. Feral. Agro! Stone. Crunch it! Life Blood, just fuck it up however you can!”

Freya flapped her wings, electricity sparking from her, she took to the air.
Justice in clenched by her teeth, War ran in straight at the dragon. Hard dragon scales forming over her body.
Feral dashed swiftly, his body feeling natural once again.
Life Blood grinned, dashing, her body soundlessly drifted swiftly toward the dragon.
Stone grinned madly.
Abvol stayed back. Letting the Mythos handle the monster.

Being the first to close the distance toward the Flesh Dragon, Feral acted first. He dashed around the creatures front claws. Using it’s limited sight and the fog to his advantage, he kept just out of the beast’s attacks. Just dodging the swiping and stomping claws by the edge of his fur. Knowing he could do little actual damage, he instead took the creature’s attention.

Air to her advantage, Freya reached the thing next. Promptly focused on catching the wolf pestering It’s legs, the dragon couldn’t notice the thunder bird just above it. She positioned herself perfectly.

Stone clapped his hooves.

War twisted her neck, spiking Justice upward.

Life Blood closed in, the sickle stretching out into a long scythe. She moved the tool behind her body using the shadowy grip of her horn.

In a single motion smooth motion. Feral dodged back, leaping and tapping the Dragon’s chin with a claw, prompting the beast to lower it’s body in an attempt to bite Feral in two. Before it could attack, Freya’s lightning zapped through it, holding it place. War Bond kept running sword up. Stone stomped loudly. The earth’s churning rumbled loudly. The floor began to shake. Life Blood kept moving on, her horn glowing, and scythe beginning to dance behind her.

War Bond reached the creature. Justice slicing the monster from chin to tail, black goo, organs, and puss streaming out. Some of which sizzled and smoked from the lightning still coursing through it. War Bond’s dragon blood kept the lightning form really hurting her. When she stopped she stood beside Life. Who had similarly raced across the dragon. Her scythe shredding the soft and tender meat that years of rotting created. The Dragon’s neck was also slashed wide open by that scythe. Stone Wall let out a deafening bellow, and the earth split beneath the dragons legs, pushing it’s legs out, he stretched the fresh wound War had made. Splitting the entire dragon in half. It's gore falling in the fissure that Stone smashed closed.

The party swiftly regrouped. Proud of their kill.

“Now!” Goliath used the situation to get things moving. “To the West, once we reach the ocean. Our party will be full. Together all enemies shall fall behind our might. The foul Atlas and his Army shall fall, and the world shall be saved!” He continued proudly.

War felt herself let out a mighty and proud roar of victory.
Freya and Ziz let out an equally proud song.
Feral and Fenrir let out a long victory howl.
Stone and Behemoth bellowed more.
Life Blood and her Grim Reaper just let out terrifying cackle, accompanied by the clink of bones.

“I cannot move west.” Abvol replied.

“Bu-”

Before the party could react, he continued.

“I must report to my tribe what I have witnessed here. I will return to you all with time.” With a grin. He slid into the fog. Disappearing.

The party couldn’t wait for him. Their journey was not over. They still had much to do.