Chapter 6
[REDACTED] Pt.3

“Have you ever killed a pony?” Daisy asked while sitting on the edge of her seat, eyes wide.

“Yes,” I barely managed before the next question.

“What about a Changeling?” Bryon butted in.

“Too many to count,” I said as I shook my head.

“What about a Griffon?!” Daisy belted out, continuing the barrage that started nearly an hour ago.

“A few of them too,” I sighed as I shuffled uneasily.

“You’re not giving us numbers. So you never counted them?” Bryon asked incredulously.

“I did at first, but then I just stopped after awhile,” I admitted.

“How long have you served in the military?” Daisy asked for what I believed to be the third time.

“Seventeen years, you gonna remember this time?” I asked.

“What’s your favorite drink?” Bryon demanded for the second time.

“Water. I told you already,” I huffed.

“That’s such a boring answer and I didn’t believe you the first time,” he responded, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, one hand grasping the other in front of his muzzle. “How big is your dick?” I honestly lost count of how many times they asked that one.

“Why the fuck do you keep switching topics and asking me THAT?!” I cried out in distress. Patches knew they’d do this and I’d make sure to give him hell for it.

“Why have you refused to answer that question every time we keep asking?” Daisy asked, her tone rising as well.

“Why do you think?!” I demanded, turning my hands out.

“Do you hear that ringing too?!” Bryon yelled.

“What?” I asked as silence fell over the room.

Riiiiiing… Riiiiiiing…

I slowly turned my head toward the kitchen where Patches was making the finishing touches on dinner, on the counter he had what I could only describe as a brick with a little metal bowl on top of it. It was the source of the shrill ringing and the center of everyone’s attention.

Patches grabbed the phone and held it up to inspect the front of it.

“Tillook?” He pressed a button on it, causing the ringing to stop. “I’ll call him back later and let him listen to the answer recording I made for him,” he said with a shrug.

“Who’s Tillook?” Bryon asked, quickly turning to Patches. “You’ve never mentioned them before,” he commented before receiving an answer.

“Just some weird guy I met,” Patches paused, his brow furrowed and his mouth open as he searched for the right words. “A long time ago… Wasn’t aware he had a phone though,” he commented as he started dishing out servings of vegetables.

The deer thankfully stopped their barrage of questions and moved to the table with myself in tow. All I really recall about the food on the plate were the green beans, carrots and corn. I’m not sure how he managed it, but Patches had gotten his hands on a pineapple as well and sliced it up for dessert. It was probably the sweetest thing I had ever tasted.

After dinner I helped Patches clear the table then he decided to distract his friends with another one of his tall tales. I couldn’t really enjoy it though, I had this strange feeling clawing at the back of my mind. As time went on it felt more and more like someone was watching me. Every time I glanced out a window I caught no sign of movement, but the feeling would get worse. Maybe it was my paranoia getting to me again.

“And the best part about that particular visit was when I got to make out with Celestia and Luna!” Patches finished his story with some hearty laughter from the deer and a stern look from me. He smirked and winked at me, knowing my disapproval of the ending.

“Hmmm, almost eight,” Patches said as he looked at me. “You mind taking first watch? I’ll take over at midnight and let you sleep as much as you want,” he offered.

I flashed a thumbs-up. “That’ll work,” I said flatly as I glanced at the deer. “You two heading to bed as well?” I asked, not really caring for an answer at this point.

They both nodded and rose from their seats. “It was nice to meet you,” Bryon said as he started toward the guest room.

“Yeah you t-” I was cut off by the feeling of a hand running along my cheek and jaw, stopping at my chin. It was Daisy.

“We’ll save some room for you if you wanna sneak in later,” she said with a wink. She finally let go and sauntered off to the room.

“Heheheh, they like you,” Patches practically sang. He tapped my shoulder as he left as well, heading to the front door. “I’m gonna kick up the evening storm, keeps a few of the undesirable elements away. Plus the rain and thunder help me sleep,” he said as he stepped out onto the porch and took flight.

I followed him out to the porch and watched him swoop down over the river, dragging his wings over the water’s surface to scoop up moisture. He rose into the air with what looked like bubbles of water on his wings, trailing bits of cloud and drops of water. Once he had centered himself over his house and climbed at least a thousand feet I felt the pressure drop and a massive cloud began to form overhead. It rumbled softly as it grew at an insane speed, Patches knew what he was doing when it came to weather.

I could definitely feel eyes on me as I watched Patches work, and they weren’t his. I scanned the close treeline but couldn’t see anything moving. I still felt the direction of the gaze and focused more on that area of the forest. I slowly scanned from right to left, remembering to slow my eyes as I scanned every shape between the trees. Nothing.

Patches landed in the yard with a forceful flap of his wings, displacing enough air to halt himself momentarily before touching down. He walked over to me with a smile. “Storm should stay up until my turn to watch starts,” he said. He paused, his eyes flicking over my body then glancing out the direction I was looking. “See something you don’t like?”

“Not yet,” I admitted. “But I can feel eyes on me, do you think they lead something to us?” I asked, pointing my thumb over my shoulder to indicate the deer.

“Nah, my house doesn’t move, the storm doesn’t move, the bodies I hang up as a warning don’t move. The vamps know where I live and some are still foolish enough to come knocking,” he smiled out at the trees. “And if they want to come try again, they’re welcome to,” his smile took a wicked turn as he issued his challenge to the forest. The storm brewing overhead rumbled dangerously as some small in-cloud lightning lit the sky.

“You see anything?” I asked as I looked back out to the trees. “Or hear anything with that weird wing trick you do?”

Right after I finished my second question I heard the snap of his wings and his feathers ruffled. He closed his eyes and “listened” with his wings. “There’s definitely something out there, two bodies about two hundred meters out,” he opened his eyes as he finished. “Don’t know if its a hunting pair or a scouting party. I kind of pissed off a nest about two weeks ago when I killed one of the masters in charge of it. So if these two are part of the nest we might be seeing more of them later,” he finished as he went back inside.

“Shit,” I muttered as I followed him back in. “You have a firearm that won’t break my shoulder if I use it?” I asked, knowing better than to ask him for his rifle.

He opened a dresser and pulled out a large handgun. “Forty four, long barrel, six cylinder, hollow-points. Accurate at range and will tear the head clean off of just about anything,” he finished with a smirk. “Smart of you to take the ranged weapon, you never know what’s out there,” he trailed off as he looked out the window, the soft patter of rain started on the roof. He handed me the pistol as well as a speed loader for the revolver and set a box of rounds on the coffee table with a wink.

“Rain’s gonna play hell with visibility. Anywhere I should be to watch for em?” I asked as I looked out onto the porch, then back to Patches.

“You can sit in here if you want, just don’t fall asleep. I’ll keep my wings alert tonight and should hear anything walking through the rain toward us,” he explained as he headed down the hall.

“Alright, see you in a few hours then,” I called down the hall as he entered his room.

“Seeya,” he returned as he closed the door.

I toyed with the revolver for a few minutes, checking the sights and feeling the balance. I unloaded it and took a firm shooting stance, I allowed my joints to find supported positions and minimized my body’s sway. I slowly squeezed the trigger and dry-fired the weapon a few dozen times to get a feel for how much pressure was needed to fire it. I practiced using the speed loader while looking out the window. That part didn’t go so well. I ended up missing the cylinder entirely and sent rounds rolling across the floor.

“Shit,” I hissed as I knelt and quickly plucked up the fallen rounds. I quickly placed them in the speedloader and practiced just using the damned thing while looking at it. It took a few tries to get it right and I figured I wouldn’t be able to do it properly under duress anyways.

“Swords are better anyways, adrenaline just makes them hit harder, not harder to use,” I grumbled as I set the speed loader aside. I had prepped it with additional rounds from the box anyways.

The next two hours were very uneventful, with the only disturbance being what sounded like sex coming from the guest room. I remember getting a chuckle out of the sounds, it eased the tension of the night a little. A little after ten things started to get pretty bad.

I could feel more eyes on me outside, every scan of the treeline revealed nothing new. I could hear whispers coming from the corners of the room, everywhere was well-lit so I didn’t have to worry about a sudden shadow step intrusion. However I couldn’t find the source of the whispers, it seemed like they were moving around the room. Anywhere I wasn’t looking, they would whisper from.

It was maddening, it went on for at least an hour. A hiss, a click, a scratch, a buzz of papery wings, could I smell chitin? I trembled slightly as I tried to clear my head, peeking out the window again to search for any potential intruders. The slight haze caused by the rain made the treeline more difficult to see than it had been before. I think some clouds were blocking the moon as well because it looked even darker out than it had been before. I could feel countless hungry eyes on me.

A flash of lightning lit the small clearing, revealing dozens, maybe even a hundred Changelings. All of them snarling, fighting to get past each other, posturing for a fight, challenging me.

I staggered back and tumbled away from the window with a gasp. I quickly righted myself and looked back out to see the clearing was once again empty. I shook my head with a groan, something out there was fucking with me. A second bolt of lightning hit just a few feet from the house, causing me to jump back. I could see the glint of light off a pair of eyes in the tree right before the flash blinded me momentarily. When I could see again, well…

I was standing in a tunnel, it was hardened sand that had been turned into concrete by that weird stuff the Changelings used. Scraggly pillars reached from the floor to the ceiling, worn carvings completely covered them. Many had holes that closely resembled those in the limbs of starving Changelings.

“We gotta get that bomb into the egg chamber,” I felt myself say as I nodded to Matchstick and pointed farther down the tunnel. “Torch anything that isn’t us!” I barked.

The pyromancer obliged eagerly, sending a massive wave of flames down the tunnel eliciting several high-pitched shrieks. Several of the Changelings ‘popped’ when water under their chitin expanded into gas and popped the armor off them.

“Woohoo! I love that smell!” The unicorn cheered as the flames died down.

“You are strange pony,” Blizzard Wind said to him, his thick accent and heavy voice echoing almost as loudly as Matchstick’s shouts.

“Move up,” I ordered as I stepped forward into the scorched tunnel. I pushed a charred Changeling out of my way who had somehow died and gotten stuck standing. The ceiling of the tunnel had cracked and grains of sand were sprinkling themselves on top of my helmet. In spite of the intensity of the flames that had just torn through the tunnel, I felt oddly cold…

“My goodness, you’ve been through quite a bit…” A silky smooth voice drifted through the back of my skull. “I’ll be certain to help you let go of all of it,” the voice cooed as I continued onward toward the Queen’s chamber.

A deafening roar and a rush of air past my head pulled me from whatever foul hex had ensnared my mind.

I was standing in front of Patches’ house, the sand on my helmet had in fact been rain. I was soaked, and my ears were ringing from whatever had made that awful noise. I was close enough to the treeline to make out what was left of what I would later discover to be a Master Vampony. Patches had heard me, grabbed his rifle, rushed outside, and put a round from that cannon of a rifle through the vampony that had grabbed hold of my mind.

Her remains were spattered several feet in every direction, even halfway up the trunk of the tree she had been under. As my eyes further adjusted to the dark I made out several more shapes in the dark. Vamponies, all of them seemed just as startled as I was that the Master’s torso had just exploded.

I felt a very large arm wrap around my torso and lift me from the ground. I started to struggle, disoriented by my deafness and sudden vertigo. Upon realizing the massive arm belonged to Patches I latched onto the limb, my legs feeling like unresponsive putty.

Within moments we were back inside, Patches unceremoniously dumped me on the floor, slammed the door, and worked the bolt of his rifle, chambering a new round. The ringing was slowly clearing from my ears and I could almost hear the casing hit the floor.

Patches was looking at me and saying something. I tried my best to read his lips, and it looked like he was asking if I was ok. I nodded and gave him a thumbs-up as I looked toward the hallway. There was no way the deer had slept through that deafening sound.

Sure enough, Bryon came scurrying out into the hall closely followed by Daisy. Their cloven hooves scratched dully against the floor as they ran to Patches, I couldn’t understand any of the shouting but Patches pointed and they both ran into the storage room.

The ringing in my ears finally faded and I could feel my equilibrium returning. As I rose to a pair of shaky hooves Patches nodded at me and smiled.

“Glad you’re still in one piece! Can you hear again?”

“Yeah, thanks for the save. I owe you one,” I responded as I rubbed my forehead. “feels like someone took a hammer to my head,” I groaned.

“Yeah they’ll fuck your head up pretty bad with that mind control thing, plus the shock of standing in front of this thing when it fires probably didn’t help either!” He said with a laugh. “Two masters down, pretty sure there was just one more in that nest and maybe a dozen total of the rest. I seriously doubt the whole nest packed up to come attack us,” Patches mused. “They would have left a few behind to tend to whoever they have prisoner,” he stated.

“They keep prisoners?” I asked uncertainly as I checked the revolver Patches had handed me earlier. It was thankfully still loaded, at the same time the idea of holding a loaded gun under the control of one of those things was not comforting.

“More like livestock,” he muttered. “They keep them to feed off of them, apparently they have sex with the ones who behave really well too. They make sure to only bite once so they can keep their prisoners from turning.”

Daisy and Bryon came running back into the living room, both of the deer had armed themselves. It was nice to know Patches was well-prepared for this kind of thing. Daisy had found herself a shotgun along with a bandolier full of extra shells. I almost let out a groan at Bryon who had armed himself with a .22 LR.

“Bryon what the shit?! That’s a training rifle!” Patches shouted.

“You know how I feel about these things!” He complained in return, holding the rifle away from himself like it could go off at any moment.

The little argument came to an abrupt end at the sound of multiple loud snarls, I recognized the sound as gargoyles transforming. Three of them were shambling out of the trees into the clearing as they underwent the apparently painful transformation. I could hear their skin ripping as they changed, their eyes glinting in the dark as they reflected the light coming from Patches’ house.

“Aww fuck that noise!” Patches yelled as he ran out the door TOWARD the gargoyles.

“Patches what the fuck they’re gonna rip you apart!” I called as I ran out after him, aiming the revolver at the gargoyle farthest to the left.

“If they get too close to my house they’ll fuck it up and I am NOT going to spend a fucking fortnight on repairs AGAIN!” He shouted angrily as he brought the rifle to bear on the beast to the right, it hadn’t finished the transformation yet. The rifle let out a massive roar of noise, the muzzle flash lit up half of the clearing, and the cloud of smoke from the rifle extended several feet.

The result was instant, the round hit the beast where the collarbones meet and removed the creature’s head. The one on the left had just finished its transformation while I was distracted by Patches’ rifle. It wasted no time and lunged at me, arms outstretched and mouth open in a twisted snarl.

Thankfully the rest of my body was still in its original stance, the revolver still aimed at the beast. I squeezed the trigger, knowing exactly how much pressure it would take to drop the hammer onto the round. The kickback from the hand cannon was far greater than I had anticipated however and when I flexed to stop the revolver both of my forearm blades deployed.

The round caught the beast in the mouth and punched a hole clean through the vertebrae in its neck. This did not stop it from flying forward and crashing into me. The impact knocked me off my hooves and I felt myself fly almost a meter, the impact with the ground knocked the wind out of me.

I could hear Patches chambering the next round in his rifle just as the last gargoyle pounced on him. He cursed loudly and managed to block it with his rifle, shoving the creature away then delivering a powerful kick to its chest which staggered it further.

I was struggling to get out from under the body lying on me when the gargoyle spotted me, the other food source pinned to the ground. It must have seen an easier kill because it immediately barreled toward me.

I worked my pinned arm out from under the dead gargoyle, my heartbeat in my throat as I aimed the revolver at the charging beast.

A blur of red struck the creature’s legs and knocked it to the ground.

“I’m over here you dumb fuck! You don’t get to change who you’re fighting just because he’s an easier target!” Patches bellowed angrily. That red blur had been his wing, and it had used the momentum of the strike to coil around the gargoyle’s leg. He dragged it across the ground toward himself then spun around rapidly, snapping his wing in a wide arc out and up. He released the beast and sent it flipping end over end straight up into the air.

He was looking straight up, his right wing cocked back like a snake getting ready to strike. I was tugging my leg out from under the gargoyle’s corpse when the one he had hurled into the air began its tumbling descent. It flipped end over end like a coin, like an angry, howling, slobbering coin. His wing turned into a blur as it snapped up and caught the gargoyle across the small of its back.

The creature folded cleanly in half around the edge of Patches’ massive wing, its spine let out a sickening snapping sound. I was amazed that its skin had stopped his wingblade, but the force of the impact was more than enough to do the damage it needed to.

He dumped the paralyzed creature onto the ground as it gasped for air, it was strange to see a gargoyle moving so slowly. It was disoriented by the sudden loss of the use of its legs but it rapidly regained its breath. Its arms swung aggressively as it tried to move and resume its attack.

“Oh for the Ancient’s sakes,” Patches groaned as he turned and aimed his rifle. “Just roll over and die already.” The roar of the rifle silenced the creature once and for all.

“There were more than just these three out there,” I said to Patches as silence fell over the clearing once more. The only sound left was the patter of rain and the occasional rumble of thunder. “Where are the rest?” I asked as I looked back out into the trees.

“Probably just a few bats,” Patches said as he snapped his wings and closed his eyes, ruffling his feathers to listen for them. “Four of them… No five, a quintet of cowards,” he said with a chuckle.

He chambered a new round into his rifle and stared out into the forest with a grin. “Isn’t that right?!” He bellowed, his voice echoing off the trees. “Y’all are a bunch of cowards aren’t ya?! Hiding behind these big dumbshits who don’t know an elbow from a hole in the ground! Go on home and tell your Master he’s a cowardly little shit with a bunch of cowards under his command! He MIGHT forgive you for yet another failure to kill me!” His taunting continued for several minutes before he finally hit a nerve.

A bat shadowstepped into my shadow, immediately grabbing my wrist to point the revolver away from himself. He lunged forward and tried to bite my neck, wrapping his arm around me as he did so. I tucked my head down and slammed my helmet into his muzzle as hard as I could.

He let out a yelp as blood from his nose and mouth smeared across my helmet. I caught a glimpse of one of his fangs falling from his muzzle as he staggered back. My revolver momentarily forgotten with an enemy this close, I flexed and my left forearm blade sprang forth as I swung for the creature’s neck. My blade met no resistance as it cut through the air and nothing else, the bat had shadowstepped away.

Patches meanwhile had skewered one of the bats on his bayonet and was laughing at it. The blade was just below the bat’s heart, leaving about a foot of space between the barrel of the rifle and the bat’s heart.

“I got you! Any last words?!” He laughed as the bat clawed at the barrel of the rifle, trying to get off the blade so he could shadowstep. A panicked expression on his face as he looked up at Patches. “Oh wait, that’s right! I don’t want to hear any from you!”

When he squeezed the trigger and fired, the blast blew the top left of the creature’s torso apart. A blank look of shock mixed with fear was all that remained on its face as it fell over backwards, its arm spiraling away through the air with a trail of blood in its wake.

I caught movement out of the corner of my eye and turned a little too late, a bat lunged and kicked out with his leg and swept me off my hooves. He swung his wing down at my face, I caught the glint of light bouncing off metal. A wingblade. I had just enough time to move my forearms in front of my face and use my armor to block the blade. The force of the blow caused me to hit myself in the face. Better than a blade chopping it open.

I felt the pressure disappear as the bat raised its wing and swung it at me again. It just kept hitting me so I couldn’t move from my defensive position, judging by Patches’ cursing, he was dealing with one or two more of them. My arms weren’t strong enough to hold the wing back, so I decided to use my wings.

I brought my wingblades up and blocked the next strike, the bat stared angrily at me and growled. It was at this pause that I realized my revolver had gone missing. I dropped it when I was tripped. I put up as much resistance as I could, struggling to hold back the powerful appendage. He grinned and let out another growl, realizing he had outmatched me in strength.

Then his right eye exploded.

He let out a wail of pain and stumbled away from me, falling over on the ground as he did so.

“I DID IT! I HIT SOMETHING!” I heard Bryon yell as I scrambled onto my hooves and prepared my blades.

The bat rolled over onto his back just in time to watch my blade sink through his neck. He grabbed my forearm and pushed weakly, gagging and choking as I severed his trachea. Blood bubbled out of his throat, mouth and nose. It foamed as the air he tried to breathe mixed with it.

“They say the only way to kill you creatures is to cut your head off or destroy your heart. It would seem that oxygen is still pretty damned important to you too,” I growled coldly as I forced the blade through the vertebrae in his neck. With a snap his resistance ended and his muscles slackened, his fingers slowly relaxed and let go of my arm.

I removed my blade from him and took a moment to call back to the house. “Damn good shot!” I called with a wave.

I turned back to Patches just in time to see him swing his wingblade at a bat that was flying over him. His blade caught the bat in the left shoulder and sliced through its torso, exiting just above the right side of its pelvis. His wing extended straight up toward the sky.

“YEEEEAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!” He bellowed as he was showered in the thing’s entrails. “FUCKING NASTY!” The last two bats took advantage of the distraction and latched onto him. They were both about to bite him.

There was a blinding flash of light and an ear-splitting crack as lightning struck the wing that was pointing toward the sky. I’m not sure how the fuck he did it, but Patches redirected the shock into the two bats that had grabbed him.

Both bats fell off him, stunned by the shock that had just coursed through them. He then proceeded to beat them with the butt of his rifle, but he restrained himself and didn’t kill them. He dragged them to the edge of the clearing and pushed them into sitting positions against a tree. Then he waited. I found my revolver and walked over to him, keeping it trained on them.

It took a few minutes but they eventually came to, Patches made sure they wouldn’t go anywhere by sticking his wingblades into their legs. This elicited cries of pain from the two.

“Bite me and you die!” He yelled, aiming his rifle at the bat I wasn’t aiming at. They both raised their hands slowly. I could hear ice creeping into his voice as he continued. “I want you to go back to that stupid little nest of yours and tell your master everything that happened here. If you come back again I will crucify both of you, then I’ll skin you and leave you outside until the sun comes up. Understand?” The shine in his eyes was gone, he wasn’t lying.

They both nodded slowly.

“Good, I’m gonna let you go. Don’t try anything stupid.” He said, punctuating the final word with the removal of his wingblades. They both yelped in pain again and slowly rose, keeping their hands up.

Patches motioned with his rifle and let both of them leave, they slowly limped off into the woods.

“I’m surprised you let both of them go after everything that just happened,” I commented as a new idea came into my mind. I’m pretty sure Patches was thinking the same thing too. “How many vamps does it take to send a message?” I asked as I looked back at the shrinking pair.

“One,” Patches said as he took aim with his rifle.

Author's Note

I can't believe I made a Mulan reference.
-Jake