Justice

A/N I am sorry for the (what I consider) super long wait on this chapter. I have been very busy lately, but I should be returning to my normal updating schedule soon. Here is chapter 13.

I wake up to the usual suffocating pink hair.

The usual sticks and cloth from our shelter.

The usual stiffness from lying on the ground. T

he only thing that was different this morning was the stench of the bog. I get up, and crawl out of the shelter. Even though it is morning, it isn’t very bright outside due to the thick fog. There are twisted trees everywhere, and the ground is mostly marsh. The frogs and various insects create a solid wall of noise. I hear a rustling sound behind me, and I turn to see Fluttershy slowly step out of the shelter.

“Good morning!” She says to me with a bright, cheery smile that completely contrasts with our surroundings. I turn back around and say nothing, a frown etched into my features.

She trots in front of me and asks, “What’s wrong? You seem depressed this morning…”

I quickly reply, “I just don’t like this place. The swampy terrain will make fighting difficult, and the fog really hampers our vision.”

This was a half-truth.

While those thoughts are concerning me, another thing is pressing heavily on my mind.

My relationship with Fluttershy.

I have decided I will tell her right now, before I can chicken out again.

“Fluttershy, find somewhere dry to sit, I need to tell you something…”

Fluttershy gives me a concerned look, but then sits down on a tree root right beside our shelter.

I sit down just a few feet away from her on a rock.

Before I begin, Fluttershy asks, “Why don’t we start a fire? It’s cold with the fog blocking the sun…”

I say, “Can you smell the methane gas in the swamp? In the right places, a small spark could set off a explosion. Not worth risking it.”

“Oh…” she says quietly.

A few minutes pass in relative silence.

I finally muster up the courage to begin, and I say, “Fluttershy, I need to talk about-”

BANG!

A flash of green fire appears only inches away from my face. I fall of my rock in surprise as a letter falls next to me.

Only the letter is different.

I stand up and while doing so, I pick up the letter and examine it. The usual ribbon that holds it closed is gone, and the paper seem to be slightly torn in some places. Extremely concerned by this point, I open the letter. I immediately notice three things.

There are tears stains dotting the paper.

The words were scratched oddly onto the paper, as if something other than a quill was used.

And finally, the words are written in blood.

I read the message. “Ty, Fluttershy, something really bad has happened to Twilight! She has gone insane! She broke into the library and forced me to tell her everything about where you are and what has happened! She is coming for you! The Princess did something horrible to her, and now she wont stop until she finds you. She locked me in my room without any paper or ink, but I found this piece under my bed. I used my own blood to write this using my claw as a quill. Please, do something about Twilight! I’m begging you! She may be acting insane, but I don’t think she is completely gone yet. Please try and save her!”

The message ends there.

Fluttershy sees the look on my face and asks, “What is it? What’s wrong?”

I quickly tear up the paper and drop it into a puddle of water beside me.

With how delicate Fluttershy is, I know I can’t let her see the letter.

I put on a fake smile and say, “Nothing is wrong. Just Spike rambling on as usual.”

Thinking that I had no reason to lie to her, she decides to drop it.

“So will he be sending breakfast?”

“Um… no I don’t think so.”

“Oh, alright…”

We finish the last of our apples, and I ask Fluttershy, “So do you know exactly where the Hydra is?” As I ask about the Hydra, something in my mind nags me, as if I am forgetting something important about it. She replies, “Well… last time I encountered it, before it was turned into one of Discord’s guardians, it was just a  few minutes walk from here.”

I stand up quickly in alarm, “What do you mean just a few minutes away?!?! It could have woken up and attacked us while we were sleeping! What were you thinking setting up camp here?!?!”

She looks down and immediately starts sobbing.

I instantly regret my outburst.

“Fluttershy I am really sorry… I didn’t mean to yell at you. I was just alarmed that we were camped so close to it…”

She stops sobbing, but is now shaking a little.

“Fluttershy?” I ask in concern upon seeing her shaking. “Are you alright?”

I bend down and put my arm around her.

“Fluttersh-”

I am knocked into the mud by a hoof to the face.

I put my hand over my face and cringe as I realize my nose is bleeding. I look up in complete bewilderment at an enraged Fluttershy.

“How… how dare you… You hate me but you don’t have the decency to say it.”

My bewilderment grows exponentially.

What happened to her? Her color is normal, so where did this come from?

“Fluttershy, whats going on?! What are you talking about?!”

“You know what I’m talking about!” She screams at me. “You hate me… Whenever I do something nice for you, you act uncomfortable like you don’t want me around! Over the past few days I’ve caught you about to say something several times, but you never will say it!”

I am completely dumbfounded at this point. How long has she been stewing over this?

She pants for a moment after her outburst… and then says in a  quiet, sad tone, “I thought you loved me… but all this time you’ve been trying to work up the courage to tell me that you despise me…”

In shock I say, “Fluttershy, that’s not what I’ve been trying to say at all!”

Her anger instantly flares up again. “Then what!?!? Tell me you haven’t been trying to say that you don’t love me!!!”

I open my mouth to speak, but then I slowly close it.

That basically is what I was trying to tell her.

I put my head in my hands, mentally cursing myself for letting it come to this.

“Fluttershy, I-”

I am interrupted by an earth-shattering roar.

I whip my head towards the sound, and I see four reptilian heads advancing towards me over the tree-tops. “Fluttershy, leave. Now.”

Fluttershy looks at me and hisses, “We will finish this conversation later.”

With one last glare, she flies off.

I sigh and turn back to the approaching Hydra.

I get up out of the mud, shake myself off, and summon my armor.

My feet immediately sink into the marshy ground. I quickly send my armor back, and I pull myself out of the mud.

“Crap, I can’t wear my armor because the ground is to soft to support the extra weight…” I mutter to myself. “Looks like I’ll just have to be careful and not get hit.”

I quickly realize how difficult that is going to be as the Hydra finally steps into the clearing in front of me. The Hydra is at least five stories tall, and its four hissing heads are going to make sneaking up on it impossible.

“How the hell am I gonna kill this thing?” I worriedly wonder. “Those necks are pretty thick as well… it may take me two slashes to cut completely through them.”

Again, I feel as if I am forgetting something. I shake off the feeling as the Hydra charges towards me. One of the Hydra’s heads lunges for me, but I dodge and it hits the marshy ground. Right before it pulls its head back, I draw my sword and quickly slash at it.

My sword bounces off the scales.

The painful vibrations travel up my arm, and the Hydra quickly recoils it’s head. Seeing me holding my arm in pain, the four heads laugh.

“Alright then, time for plan B.” I say aloud.

I hold my right hand towards it, and I summon my blue aura sword. The Hydra quickly stops laughing and takes a step back in fear. I smile and rush forward. With my mind, I hastily communicate with the Element. “How long can you extend this sword?”

The Element replies, “As long as you need it.”

“Good, make it long enough to cut through all four heads at once.”

“It shall be done.”

The aura sword in my hand elongates to twenty feet, and due to its ethereal nature, I don’t feel any extra weight.

The Hydra is in a full retreat by this point.

But it is too slow.

I catch up to it, and with a single sweep I decapitate all four heads. They each fall to the ground and disappear in a cloud of dust. The body falls down with a squelchy thump into the marshy ground.

I smirk, turn around, and begin walking away.

I hear an ominous hissing sound, and I turn around.

Eight heads are quickly growing out of the Hydra’s body.

I face-palm as I realize how stupid I am.

This was what has been bothering me all day, cut off a hydra’s head, and two more replace it. How could I have forgotten that?

In seconds the eight heads are fully formed, and the Hydra gets back up on its feet. It turns around, and all eight heads roar at me.

I do the only sensible thing left at this point.

I run like hell.

The hydra chases after me, and because I am hampered by the marshy terrain, it slowly gains on me. My shoes keep sticking in the mud, I trip on sticks or rocks, and all the while the Hydra is getting closer. The swamp gas burns my eyes and lungs, and eventually I just collapse. I roll over and I see the Hydra looming over me. The Hydra’s eight heads smile, and I see it’s glinting sharp teeth. I try to stand up, but a bubble of swamp gas bursts right beside me and the fumes send me into a coughing fit.

“Well that’s just adding insult to in- wait a minute. Gas. Fire. You have to burn a hydra’s neck after you chop the head off to kill it! This is probably going to get me killed, but at least I will take it out with me…” I rise to my feet, and smile.

The Hydra’s heads all give me a questioning look.

I hold out my right hand, and my aura sword appears in it. The eight heads smirk at me, as if daring me to do the same mistake twice. I quickly extend the sword, and in one swift motion I chop off all eight heads. The stumps immediately begin hissing and sixteen heads begin forming. I return my aura sword, while summoning my shield and armor. I start to sink into the ground again, but this time I ignore it. While holding the shield in my left hand, I draw my kilij halfway out of the sheathe so I can use the metal for a spark. With my free right hand, I pull my piece of flint out of my pocket.

“Sorry Fluttershy, but our conversation is going to have to wait.”

I strike the flint.

Fluttershy’s POV

“Arrgghhhh…. I’m so frustrated…” I mutter aloud while pacing the border of Ponyville and Froggy Bottom Bog.

“But I am also worried” I think.

“While we couldn’t finish our conversation, he went to fight that big scary Hydra by himself… I hope he is alright…”

My anger over the secret he has been keeping from me slowly dissolves and is replaced by worry.

“Oh why did I have to be so mean to him… I thought I was over that!?” I fret aloud.

“Please be oka-”

BOOOOM!!!!

A large shockwave sends me tumbling even farther away from the border of the swamp. When my ears stop ringing, I look up at where the explosion came from. A large mushroom cloud is settled over the heart of the swamp.

“T…Ty?”

My eyes begin tearing up.

“TY!”

Twilight’s POV

“Gotta get him gotta get him… Celestia wont like it if I don’t get the human this time… gotta get him gotta get him.”

I hum to myself as I trot happily towards the swamp in my madness induced stupor.

I see a bright flash of light, and a few seconds later I hear a loud explosion. I look up towards the swamp and see a mushroom cloud hanging over it.

“Hehehe… Friendly mushroom.” I chuckle to myself. “Gotta get him gotta get him.”

A/N Well first off I realize this is a pretty weird chapter, and it is kind of short. The good news is that I will be updating regularly again, and that things are going to get a lot more interesting from here on out. If anyone gets the friendly mushroom reference I’ll give them a shout-out in the next A/N. Twilight has pretty much lost it, but she is still in there. You’ll find out exactly what happened to her in the next chapter. The next chapter wont have much for action, but the emotional stuff will more than make up for it. Please review if you have any questions or comments, like always. Thanks for reading!