Chapters If you go out in the woods today...
You're sure of a big suprise
With crushing finality and great amount of relief, I struck the final blow on the stone stake, plunging a majority of its form into the tree, holding the rope twined around it quite nicely.
"Beautiful" I breathed as I looked upon my handy work. It, by all means was a nicely crafted hammock, and it better have been. I spent the better half of a day spinning vines into a strong enough rope to support my weight. Don't get me wrong, I was no artisan of hammocks, but for building my first one ever, and under the present circumstances, I couldn't help but feel a great deal of pride at my small accomplishment.
I slung myself into the cradling embrace of my woven creation with a great grunt, and a sigh as I absorbed my surroundings.
The twisted birches all around round me stood motionless in the soothing breeze that swept through my small clearing, their leaves still glistering from the dew of this morning's light rain. I couldn't help but drink in the serenity of it all, especially considering my initial reaction to this place, wherever it is. After all its not every day, the park you usually take as a short cut to your home suddenly becomes a seeming infinitely expansive wood. I was a little distressed at this realisation to say the least.
However, it never ceases to amaze me how quickly man is able to adapt to a situation. I had always heard of men and women placed in extraordinary survival situations and coming out grizzled and sometimes even maimed, but against all odds, coming out alive due to their own grit and resolve. I used to look at them and see what they did to survive. Id look at that and say "I could never do that, not even to save my life". Obviously I was wrong. One cant make that kind of assessment until its actually their ass on the line. Neither could I, because I was still basking in the glory of my latest catch.
In my first week in this forest, I was awoken every morning before the crack of dawn by a particular raven that would perch above my resting at the base of the large tree with a mushroom circle around it. Call me superstitious all you want but the circle made me feel a bit better about the possibility of lurking predators. Anyway, the raven would perch directly above me and screech and squawk till I was coerced into starting my day. Naturally I was disgruntled at this and eventually grew to hate the avian disturber.
I had attempted many means of trapping the bird so that I may dispose of it (and probably get a half decent meal out of it). However my attempts at cleverness all seemed for naught as time and time again the winged ruffian would evade my clutches, while still managing to wake me at the same time every day.
Eventually I became so overcome with frustration and sleep deprivation that I simply whipped a stone at it. To my surprise I struck the raven square in the head and it plummeted to the ground. Funny how the simplest solution can often be the most effective. It was at that time I was filled with, in hindsight, a rather frightening bout of bloodlust at the realization of my desires. I fell upon the dazed bird almost immediately, pinning it to the ground before swiftly and brutally bringing the base of my palm down with all my might and rage upon the raven's small form. With a sickening crunch, the bird folded beneath my weight.
It by no means tasted like breaded chicken, but the sleep that came with it made it seem that much sweeter.
There I hung in my hammock, picking my teeth with the wishbone of my avian arch nemesis. The fire in the clearing had gone out long ago but I did not care. I finished my hammock, I killed the raven, and it was a beautiful day in the wood. Edgar Allen Poe would be proud.
I was vividly enjoying the fact that I was allowed to sleep below my great mushroom-encircled tree till noon today, when I heard a distant noise. Humming tones, too distant to make out. A shiver went up my spine. Predators? Monster? No, Voices. Increasing in clarity. Curiosity now dominating my mind, I swung out of my hammock, grabbed my back pack, and started toward the noises.
Other people? Perhaps. Maybe they got lost just like I did. I stepped carefully as I neared the voices, still too muffled to make out, but they were on the move. I stared moving nearly parallel to them on what I believed to be an intercept course.
As I neared still, I heard not footsteps, but the clip clop of hooves on a gravel path. Horses? Whoever they were, they were mounted. Was I sent back in time? Knights perhaps? Or worse, Conquistadors? Hell it seemed just as likely, especially considering half the flora and fauna here was nowhere to be found in the north American field guide I had in my school bag. I could be anywhere.
"Hey you!"
I froze mid stride, and my stomach flipped. Every muscle in my body seized as my heart rate skyrocketed.
"Yeah you, in the bushes" said a young and fierce voice, erupting from the group on the road, whom were still obscured from view. "What are you doing?"
Oh Shit.
"Uh" I managed " I mean you no harm" I raised my voice progressively to assure they could hear me. "I'm lost, and I'm not exactly sure where I've ended up, I'm sorry if I've trespassed or anything.
"Well quit hiding in the bushes then silly" Another more jubilant voice offered.
Both of the voices so far were female. Odd, that rules out knights or conquistadors, but you can never be too careful.
"Okay, I'm going to step out of the bushes with my hand up, please don't shoot or anything." I Maintained my raised and clear manner of speaking to prevent any misunderstandings.
This elicited some quiet talks within group on the road. There had to be six of them at least. Its was jumble of faint words, some mention of tricks and traps were detected in their talk. They were suspicious of me and probably for good reason. The talking finally ceased.
"Okay" Another female spoke out "y'all come out nice and slow, and we wont hurt ya, ah promise" The voice drawled in a southern twang. " But don't you try any funny business ya hear?"
Now I was really confused. any thesis of what this group could be, had now been dissolved. But regardless, this was the moment of truth.
I raised my hands from my sides and unballed them. Exposing my palms. I took long calculated steps through the bushes. It was going smoothly till my foot was caught by a root. With a rather emasculating scream, I plummeted into the middle of the road, stopping my fall with my forearms allowing the fine gravel to dig into my skin, eliciting some surprised gasps from the road troupe.
"Son of a.." I said louder than necessary but stopping myself. Mostly frustrated by the surprise rather than the bleeding forearms.
"Oh my, are you okay" a much softer voice asked, sounding legitimately concerned.
That much at least was comforting to note.
"Yeah, I'm fine" I grunted as I returned to my feet.
Once I finished picking gravel from my arms I turn to look upon my discoverers. Standing before me was no less than six Technicolor cartoon ponies all looking upon me with concerned intrigue.
Now I'm not sure if it was the shock of this sight or my low blood sugar, though probably a combination of the two, I soon found my vision swimming. As the tendrils of unconsciousness gripped at my mind and my vision darkened further, one thought crossed my mind before my head crashed into the gravel.
I don't think we're in Kansas anymore...
Author's Note
This is the beginning of my first work of fan fiction and I'm planning on it being a long one. That said, I REALLY appreciate any feed back or constructive criticism. I will be releasing more chapters as I find the time, and I hope I can make or keep this story engaging and entertaining for people to read.
If you go out in the woods today...
My mind slowly returned to me. Realizing myself to be in a soft bed, I hoped and prayed that my previous experiences were but erratic apparitions induced by a mild overdose of cold medicine. I forced my eyes open. I shut them immediately as a I found I had a great sensitivity to light at the moment, sparking a headache likening to the power needed to shatter reinforced steel.
I groaned as my head pulsed and ached, rolling over to my side I found no relief, but found that the left half of my head had been bandaged. I explored the tight wrapping with my left hand after rolling back onto my back.
Oh crap. It wasn't a dream was it. I really had been lost in the woods for two weeks. But where was I now? I attempted to open my eyes again. My vision was clouded by splotches of unsight, and my ears had a dull ringing tone playing in them.
Damn, why does my head hurt so much? At that, visions of ponies and gravel came racing back to the forefront of my mind. Oh dear.
I was trying to make sense of what I saw before, when suddenly my vision was filled with a blurry purple and green form.
"Yo, Daniel" the voice, though muffled appeared to be coming from the blur. "you all right?"
Wait, how did this purple blur know my name?
I shook my head in an attempt to clear my vision. In addition to my headache intensifying ten fold at this, my vision did clear up enough to see a small purple and green dragon staring at me with large green eyes.
"W-what?" Is all I managed. Now realizing how dry my throat was.
"That is your name right?" The lizard said, now coming in much clearer. "That's what it says on your student ID."
Oh yeah that makes sense.. wait, why does this purple and green baby dragon have my student ID? My eyes widened. Wait, why am I in a hollowed out tree with wonderful furnishings? Why is this dragon talking to me?! WAIT, WHY IS THERE A DRAGON IN FRONT OF ME?
I was now perched halfway standing up on the bed with my back pressed against a window, with the creature still staring at me, but now somewhat more quizzically. I was breathing heavily, staring wide eyed right back at him, never once breaking eye contact in fear of what might happen next.
There was a pregnant silence.
"Rrrright," the dragon began, " Anyway, Twilight is out and she said you might be weird 'cause you hit your head or something. She should be back soon. Her and Fluttershy just went out to get some food for when you wake up... figures you do the second they leave me alone with you.." The dragon started to trail off. Really he wasn't all that threatening, But waking up with head trauma in a new and confusing environment has more than the required ingredients to make a man paranoid.
Wait, who's Twilight? Wait I should probably vocalize that.
"Who's Twilight, and why is my diet any of her concern?" I demanded, still trying to get a handle on the situation.
"Geez guy," The dragon seemed irritated at this, "She said you might be weird but calm down. You're kinda milking it a bit, don't ya think? You're safe. Quit Climbing the walls and I'll get you your clothes. Twi had me wash them, so you're welcome." the dragon shuddered as he strutted down the stairs, his tail finally disappearing from sight.
Though roughly put, the dragon's words had put me a bit at ease. Which was good now that it was brought to my awares that I was stripped down to my skivvies.
I knew it felt drafty in here.
Finally resolving to follow the dragon, I started after him. The movement stabbed me with a cruel reminder that I had indeed suffered a decent blow to the head. Just as well, the weakness and wobbling in my knees and dizziness reminded my of the fact I still had dangerously low blood sugar. I slowly stumbled after the dragon to explore the rest of what seemed to be a rather cozy little library.
Over all, once I had calmed down and eaten some bread and cheese, I realized the dragon was nothing to be feared and this place for the most part was safe. In fact, the little lizard wasn't a half bad host at all.
We got along fairly well as he regaled me with tales of his employer's quirks and comical panic attacks. Though she sounded to be a woman, or I guess pony (sill got to get used to that) of extreme intellect and apparently magical prowess (ya apparently magic is a thing to) I still joined the dragon in his good humored laughs during the tales.
The dragon, who introduced himself to me as, spike, eventually, tried his best to give me the up and up on where exactly I was. He still didn't quite know to believe me when I said I was from a different world, but he also didn't seem quick to dismiss the idea either.
He had just finished trying to explain cutie marks to me, when two mares walked in the door of the library.
The first one to enter was a lavender unicorn with a purple star emblazoned on her flank. Her dark hair with a pink streak down her mane and tail, flowed and fluttered in the cross breeze created by the temperature and pressure difference created in the newly opened doorway. She walked in with a calm and careful charisma about her, saying that she had planed for every contingency and was ready to take on her day.
The door now left agape by the unicorn's entrance left way for a timid looking yellow Pegasus to slink into library, barely allowing me a second glance before sideling up next to her unicorn friend who was finishing up a quick and quiet debrief with spike before she turned to me with a smile.
" Twilight Sparkle I presume" I spoke first. Standing up to my full stature, the unicorn only meeting me at chest level. I then bent down and extended a hand for a good old fashioned... oh yeah.
The librarian giggled at this. "Daniel I'm sure." Thankfully she got the gist of the gesture and extended a hoof. "Nice to meet you"
A great smile splayed itself across my face and I drawled in he most cliché gentlemanly tone I could manage without cracking up in laughter "The pleasure is all mine miss sparkle." I took her hoof in one hand and bent down on one knee kissing it lightly, before looking up into her big round purple eyes, and promptly bursting into laughter. The act was simply made perfect by the scraggly bushy nature-man beard I had gained from my time in the forest.
I had always wanted to try something so incredibly stupid. Being stranded in another world was liberating in that way. Now thinking about it, I realized this as a great chance to start new, reinvent myself.
Obviously breaking the ice, my display did not go unheeded by the others as both spike and the Pegasus proved that my laughter and sense of humor was indeed contagious, while only eliciting a slight embarrassed blush and light laughter from the unicorn.
After the laughter died down we got down to some more business focused conversation once the peasantries were out of the way. Even the Pegasus, later confirmed as Fluttershy, had loosened up and was now contributing and assisting Twilight in her questioning of my origins and nature.
Even though the subject matter formal and functional, the manner and mood could not be more of the opposite. I found myself getting to know them better. Finding that a grand majority of the personalities currently surrounding me, were quite agreeable.
I could appreciate Twilight's inquisitive spirit and thirst for knowledge. Her obsessiveness coming off only as a charming quality to which I could relate. Perfection was indeed something enticing to strive for, seemingly ever unachievable but always seeming so necessary. I myself had a great value for knowledge as well, though more for the leverage and power it grants when utilized correctly. Though my thirst, shamefully enough, is often fueled by avarice I could still relate and found her innocent pursuit of knowledge just for that sake, charming and inspiring to say the least.
Spike was great, he was often the leveling force when things got too girly or blown out of proportion. Though only supposedly a baby, he, from what I could tell, was Twilight's grounding wire a lot of the time. I find his loyalty to his friends inspiring, and though he is just a child, probably one of the most cynical people I've met when he wants to be. Not to say he isn't genuine, at heart, he's an all round good kid, and I respect him as much as I can manage.
The Pegasus was as though all of my fears and insecurities as a junior high student were made flesh and manifested in one incredibly sweet and adorable yellow and pink Pegasus. I found her pitiable, lovable, and relatable all at he same time. Though my later years in school had lend me some charisma in respects to that I stopped giving a crap about strangers petty judgments and just did what made me happy, I can only hope Fluttershy can find a similar policy one day.
The talks were going wonderfully till I mentioned the wall around the city, I noticed through the kitchen window when I went to get a drink. Twilights face became grim and my stomach sunk.
Ah shit, should have just kept my mouth shut.
"It all started about five weeks ago" twilight began.
Author's Note
IM not gonna lie it was a great relief to get this chapter over with.
Unfortunately to keep continuity and character building in check I had to touch on a lot of the clichés you no doubt get a lot of in the human/ ponies genre. I'm talking about the whole "oh ima human they're ponies this is weird, look at al this charming awkwardness hoho!" and I hate it and I felt cheap having to write it. please believe me though when I say I have a real reason for having a human protagonist and it is relevant to the story and not just for shits and giggles..
Again, any and all constructive criticism or comments in general are largely appreciated.
New chapter coming soon with much more substance and plot progression.
If you go out in the woods today...
"It all started about five weeks ago" Twilight began.
She then looked to Spike. They exchanged knowing nods. Spike put on a smile and sauntered over to Fluttershy.
"Hey Fluttershy" Spike said to the Pegasus. "I think I found a new uh... furry little woodland creature, that I don't think you've seen before! yeah."
Fluttershy Perked up at this. Her face immediately folding into creases of genuine concern. "Oh really?" She sounded more convinced of this than spike did. "What was it doing? What did it look like? It wasn't hurt was it?"
Spike, stunned at the effectiveness of his ruse, seized this opportunity, and like a puppet master formulated what he knew would move the Pegasus. "I dunno... he looked kind of lost, maybe even scared.. I think..."
Spike didn't have time to finish spinning his yarn before the Pegasus had ushered the dragon out the door insisting he tell her where he last saw the alleged woodland creature.
This left me sitting across from the librarian. Her eyes level with mine as we stared across the room at one another. The dimly lit room offered an ominous atmosphere. It was starting to get late.
I knew I had stepped into some deep dodo, maybe overstepped my bounds, but I felt now that I had ventured there, I was going to get the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
"Sorry about that, Fluttershy is one of the few of us I haven't talked totally in depth with this situation about." She turned her eyes downward looking a little ashamed. "Its for her own good really"
"Oookay" I sighed "Lets make it like a Band-Aid and get it over with" I folded my hands and got ready for Twilights words. It was rather exciting in that respect, it was like story time, only a little more foreboding I had to admit.
"Alright" Twilight sighed and cleared her throat, seeming to steel herself still. "So, the forest you were in when we found you is called the Everfree Forest. you're familiar with it yes?"
I nodded "Yeah, spike told me about how dangerous it can be and I lived there for two weeks. So yes we're acquainted.. Is that why you guys built that wall? Cause I didn't run into anything too crazy there."
"Not quite Daniel" Twilight began "The fact that you lasted as long as you did is impressive, but anyone can if they have the right know how. For instance, the tree you mentioned that you slept under was no mere tree. Your so called superstitions probably saved your life"
"Oh" I said, feeling my face flush. Dang, I was pretty proud when I found out how dangerous the wood was from spike. I was hoping I could kind of ride on that fancy bid of luck and seem like a seasoned nature man. After all no one here would know to the contrary, and I had the beard to match it.
"Not to diminish your accomplishment" Twilight said quickly, smiling encouragingly, probably noticing my fluster at her last comment. "I'm sure you're a skilled woodsman, but you are very fortunate that did not run into many of the local predators.. or any of the woods new tenants." She looked away with those words.
Though obviously trying to spare my feelings, some of my confidence did return with that. After all even if I was resting beneath an enchanted tree during the nights, I still gathered my own food and resources from a foreign wood. And on top of all that I managed to avoid even a single encounter with a local predator. It was always my philosophy that a fight avoided, was a fight won.
"Anyways, that's just it though." Twilight began again. trying to get back to the point." It always used to be if you knew what you were doing and you kept you head down and your wits about you, the Everfree was nothing to fuss about."
I started to see where this is going. "Buuut, something changed right?" I lead slowly.
Twilight took a deep shuddering breath before responding softly. "Yeah, you could say that." She swallowed before speaking again with newfound mettle. "A good friend of ours named Zecora lived in the Everfree for many years. She was practically our expert on the place, living in her hollow deep in the woods. Her expertise on the unknown was a valuable asset on many occasions. More than that, she was a great friend." her face softened at this as she seemed to reminisce.
She chocked back a tear before clearing her throat. "Sorry" she said calmly. I don't like where I see this going. My stomach grew a fist inside it as I dreadfully awaited the next portion of Twilight's brief history lesson.
"Anyway" She began again, having regained her composure. "I was on my way into the Everfree to visit her as I had made a custom of doing every other week." She took another deep breath. "When I arrived the door had been broken down, and the lights were off inside." Her breathing became shaky and tears formed in the corners of her eyes.
Her eyes seemed to gloss over as she continued. "S-she was... in her bed, yeah..." She had tears flowing freely down her face now, her lips shaking as she spoke. "S-she uh she w-was over by the counter too.... she was everywhere..." A small sob escaped her before catching herself a bit, and trying to blink her tears away. Looking away from me as she wiped her face.
Stomach knotted further, bunching and threatening to empty its contents. My heart wrenched as I realized the full gravity of the Twilights tale. Should of picked it up from all the past tense. Her friend was dead.
I was more than a little uncomfortable at this point. I gave her some time to recuperate, after all, I was no stranger to loss.
I looked around to find something to distract myself with as she grabbed a tissue from across the room to wipe her tear filled eyes.
I glanced outside to see some soldier ponies out side talking with some folks and pointing. They seemed confused and reluctant to the soldiers words, but seemed to be abiding by whatever instructions they were receiving.
I looked back to Twilight as she balled up the used tissue and deposited it in the trash bin on the other side of the room. That whole telekinesis thing seemed handy to say the least. Guilt began creeping up on me, I spoke.
"I'm sorry Twilight" I said as sympathetically as I could leaning forward to meet her downward gaze. "You really don't have to continue if you don't want to. Its really none of my business as it is." I said still trying to meet her eyes.
She looked up suddenly meeting my gaze with an even stare. Cold and hard. It softened a bit and she spoke.
"No," she sighed. "I have to get over it eventually, crying won't bring her back." New conviction dawned in her face she then said "But it is your business, whatever killed Zecora is a danger to everyone and was no regular inhabitant of the Everfree. The main clue being that her body was... eviscerated, and not eaten." She coughed again and cleared her throat. "If one of the regular predators really had just gotten the jump on Zecora there would have been no body to find."
Her faced hardened "At least that's what I tried to tell them." Her face folded into an expression of pure anger and lament. "I tried to tell them that something like that doesn't just happen. But no, they were convinced "it was only a matter of time before a tragedy would befall someone who chose to live in the Everfree." "Twilight mocked, her cheeks now turning red with anger, and forming quotation marks in the air with her hooves.
She paused a bit and sighed, allowing some of the heat to seep from her face. "After Zecora's death I knew something was a miss. I tried to make an appeal to increase the guard around Ponyville and possibly build a wall. They refused saying I was just overreacting due to my traumatisation."
Twilight stopped for a few seconds and used her telekinesis to pick up a glass and fill it with water from the sink in the kitchen. Then she brought the glass over to her and placed it on the table.
She began again after levitating a glass of water to her lips and taking a long drink. Her eyes had become red and bloodshot from her tears earlier. "In the two weeks following that fun little political encounter, ponies started saying they saw strange figures shambling about at night. At first, only at the outskirts of the forest, but after another five days of this, a couple of ponies claimed to see these figures just outside the town, some were even looming around peoples porches, standing still as death itself" Twilight shuddered and I too found myself uncomfortably chilled. A small wetness formed in the corner of my eyes and I blinked it away. That shouldn't have spooked me as much as it did.
"Naturally," Twilight sighed as she began again. "It wasn't just mass hysteria, but was ignored just the same by the ponies with the power to do anything about it." Twilight looked down with a expression that betrayed no pain as she continue. "It took the death of two ponies for them to realize it wasn't just superstition and nerves." Twilight looked back up at me, her expression of torment caused a pang of sadness and sympathy to scorch through my chest.
"They lived on the edge of town" She began again returning her face to a more stable expression though, despite her efforts, still betrayed no feelings of hurt. "They were such a young and cute couple, like to the point it'd make you sick. But... " She took another deep breath "One morning their neighbors stepped outside and noticed the door was broken down and the lights still lit inside. Investigators looked into it in great detail. Thanks to the magic of forensics, they deduced that there were multiple perpetrators and none of them ponies. They broke in while they were having a late night meal, the man, whom was with the guard in Ponyville attempted to defend them with his weapon which was nearby at the time. He was immediately decapitated and crushed by means that are still undecipherable to this day, though they did find rotted snake flesh meshed with his own in the areas of inflicted blunt force trauma, what ever the hell that implies."
She seemed more thoughtful now in addition to her grief. "The female however, whom was a unicorn, was dragged off by the perpetrators. They would have called for a search and rescue but the forensics team found a copious amount of blood near the edge of the forest. The DNA matched so naturally it was deemed hopeless, and far too dangerous."
Relaxing a bit as she was making for a conclusion to her tale she said "At this point the issue could not be ignored, people had been brutally murdered and all evidence pointed to something or rather some things, lurking in the Everfree Forest. The result is the wall and guard patrols you see now."
"hmm" I hummed curiously "If its so dangerous, why were you and your friends walking through there?"
"We were actually on our way to Zecora's old place to stake out for a night when we ran into you" She said a little shamefully. "it was a silly and dangerous endeavour and probably could have very well gotten us killed. I was just so desperate to get answers and sick and tired of making no progress. I mean just because you build a wall around the town doesn't mean the problem is going to go away!" She exclaimed raising her hooves in the air "There is literally no better analogy for a Band-Aid solution than that. ..lets just say you were a welcome distraction."
It was at this time the door to the library swung open eliciting a jump from Twilight and I.
Spike and Fluttershy entered the library. Twilight shot spike a curious look after he had closed the door behind him.
Spike pick up on it and offered his explanation. "Unfortunately we couldn't seem to find the creature because a good soldier came and told us that we should head back to our homes and stay indoors for the remainder of the evening."
"That's strange" Twilight said "Since when are they enforcing curfews? I didn't hear anything about it." Twilight cocked her head waiting expectantly for spike to provide some clarity.
"Your guess is as good as mine" Spike shrugged.
Suddenly and surely a great amount of shouting could be heard from outside, they sounded urgent and likely military.
"what's going on out there" Twilight asked looking disgruntled as she marched toward the door.
She swung the library door open to reveal a troupe of white soldier ponies marching by at brisk speeds toward the west wall. The door frame was suddenly filled by a tall stallion with a red fringe atop his golden helmet and pale blue eyes.
"Miss Sparkle" he began his husky voice carrying into the library. "It'd be best if you stayed inside ma'am:
"What is going on sergeant-major?" Twilight nearly barked "Report!"
"The Pegasus patrols say they saw some big movement heading toward the town from the west ma'am." The large earth pony barked back with disciplined and rigid posture. "We're mobilizing and preparing for the worst."
Oh dear.
"Good work, Kathol" Twilight saluted "As you were soldier!"
The Major Struck a powerful salute before turning and trotting to catch up with the regiment he was responsible for.
Twilight closed the door and started for the stairs up to her room.
"We better get ready to entertain guests" She said quickening her pace. "I've got a bad feeling about this."
Author's Note
I had much more fun writing this chapter, I prefer allowing myself to fall into a slower pacing and being able to appreciate the content I'm displaying.
As always any constructive criticism is HUGELY appreciated as well as any comments in general.
A new chapter will be released soon. I'm slowly making these chapters longer, but ill try to keep them relatively small to allow for consistent content updates and reading convenience. This may however change in the future when I get deeper into the story..
If you go out in the woods today...
Author's Note
Sorry for the incredibly late update. The death of a close family member has a way of eating up your week...
On a brighter note, I proudly present the newest chapter, Please enjoy and like always, any constructive criticism, or comments in general are hugely appreciated! :)
Evanescent Jubilee
"Wait, what's going on twilight?" Spike called after the unicorn as she ascended the stairs to her quarters. After not receiving a response and Twilight disappearing from view, the dragon scampered after her up the stairs. This left me alone with the Pegasus with only the sounds of the movements of soldiers and the raised voices outside to fill the air.
Trepidation would have been an apt word to describe the expression painted on the yellow Pegasus next to me, if not a bit of an understatement. Her eyes shifted uneasily and she seemed to retreat into herself further as time passed. Though I wished I could have comforted her, I was wasn't looking much better.
This whole situation stunk of uncertainty. As I stood, as still as I could manage, in the room with the other pony, waiting for the return of the librarian, I couldn't help but acknowledge the heaviness of the air. Whether it was just my panic, or if the air had actually become thinker was not in the forefront of my mind at that moment. What was, was the new and loud singled out shouting that had replaced the hustle and bustle of the soldiers.
The constant reassuring sounds of mobilization and been replaced by two distinct and faint voices that, upon further careful listening, appeared to be in some sort of exchange.
My damnable curiosity piqued once again, I took this opportunity to go outside and check out the situation.
As I made my way to the door the Pegasus squeaked small protest, protest which I ignored. I don't care what they say, ignorance is not bliss, not for me. I wasn't going to sit in the dark, unknowing the nature of my fate, but awaiting it just the same.
I stepped carefully through the library door into the street.
The entirety of the Ponyville guard had gathered around a single area of the wall. Earth pony soldiers gathered at the base of the wall and more on top of the wall, a grand multitude of ranks, all bearing pikes and spears. Pegasi hung in the air, visibly in formation on the other side of the wall, apparently surrounding whatever it is that came from the forest.
My thoughts were then torn from me by a voice that cut through the air.
"Surrender yourselves you witless curs! would you really be the impendent factors in your own destiny? Your perfection is at hand! Administered by the honourable Sarcomere Bound who has taken the immeasurable burden upon himself to be the herald of your ascension. Would you dare disgrace his sacrifice? Could you truly be so short-sighted?" The voice was harsh and torn. It reverberated in in tight wavering tones that chilled my bones. Though cruel and inhuman, the voice spoke clearly and cut flawlessly through the air, which was now becoming stifling. "Whether by your submission, or by force, your simple forms will be destroyed, freeing you from them. They will then be harvested and perfected so they may free others. Regardless of your compliance, you all will die, and ultimately, with your help, your world will fall silent."
Sergeant-major Kathol, stood tall above the other ponies atop the wall, apparently being the one handling the ensuing negotiations. He belted back at the voice.
"listen, its not about destiny or perfection or whatever bullshit your were just spouting off, the simple fact is you've made it clear that you and you're little troop of girls scouts are here to hurt the folks of this good town." He paused to take a breath. "Naturally my company and I cannot allow that. So why don't you just turn tail and run back to your maggot writhing mothers while you've still got the legs to carry ya."
"Very well" The voice responded. "Never a smooth process, but necessity has a simplicity about it. You truly believe your existence to be the greatest priority? Prove your devotion and quell the tide of change. If you will not have reason, then prove that your way is best. Test your strength."
With those words the air seemed to darken further. I coughed as I practically choked on the air now.
I was taken from my efforts to breath as a great howling bellow erupted from the forest beyond the wall. It resonated through the air and hung heavy in it as the cry dragged out for what seemed like minutes.
Finally, the air fell silent.
Again the air was pierced yet again, but this time by a cry much louder that climbed in volume, pitch, register, and unfortunately proximity as it dragged out.
Stomping foots steps came crashing, quickening in pace as the cry climbed to ear-splitting heights.
"Incoming!"
I didn't have time to see who shouted before a great explosion enveloped the wall, engulfing the area in smoke. From the smoke not a second after impact, emerged a horrible colossal necrotic beast that resembled much of the features of a Minotaur. Still carrying much of the momentum it no doubt used to tear through the wall like a piece of wet paper, it tore through the ranks of dazed soldiers at the base of where the wall once stood, with much of the same ease.
Now completely clear of the smoke, and still running strait in my direction I now noticed probably its most notable characteristic, definitely one that would start conversations at parties. It was on fire. The beast scorched with brilliant blue and red tongues, leaving a great sulphurous contrail in its swath.
Now realizing I was in direct line of danger I snapped out of my daze and ran from the centre of the road and dove to the far side of the library.
My next thoughts were knocked clean from my head as I lay cowering on the far side of the library. A great deafening crash blotted out all other sounds and with ringing ears, only the sensation of ballistic splinters and showers of other debris were recognised by my sensory.
For what seemed like an eternity, nothing changed. I lay there on the floor, curled into a ball, only wishing I could close my eyes tighter. The only thing reminding me I was alive was my racing heart and the constant pain of the debris that had no doubt become lodged in my back.
Finally overcoming my fear, I forced open my eyes lids to behold the aftermath.
Once my vision blurred back into focus, I could see a book shelf immediately in front of me. Dust was heavy in the air, and choked me when I finally gave in to inhaling, not realizing i had been holding my breath.
I rolled over onto my side to witness the giant gaping hole that was once the other half of the library. The lobby, now nicely viewable from the street, hung crooked and twisted at the shock of its other half being carried off without so much as a "good evening".
Another sight caught my gaze as I lay among the scattered wood chips, that had been launched in all directions at the sudden departure of half the tree. Yes, indeed, a purple pile lay sticking partially out of a bush on the opposite side of the street. I rose to my feet, my back groaning in protest. As I ducked under the burning library sign to get closer to the no doubt incapacitated librarian, I looked to where the beast had left a blazing trail through the town.
There it lay, three more houses torn asunder in its wake and left to burn in its swath, before it's final destination had been reached. It now lay collapsed, halfway through a burning building, mearly a smouldering ashen skeleton.
It seems he burnt himself out.
Crouching down at the bush where the librarian lay, I turned my head to where the beast had come.
The burning hole left by the beast was now occupied by all manner of horrifying necrotic abominations shambling their way into the town. Any guard that had survived impact were now quickly being dispatched by the towns new visitors.
Though most notably among the decrepit band was a man. Standing tall, waltzing past the others with posture that demanded respect and unquestioning obedience. Determination and obsession practically dripped from the form as it strutted into full view from the smoke and flames of the wall. His piercing luminescent green eyes, seemed to absorb his surroundings with a ravenous thirst. His face, scarcely painted with darkened receding flesh that seemed to stretch and strain as he belted out with fleshless teeth that glinted in the evening light.
"Fan out an dispatch these fools, and keep your eyes peeled for the key" It was the voice from beyond the wall. This.. thing possessed the voice from before, and admittedly was much more intimidating without a two foot thick stone wall between me and it.
Now realizing once again the urgency of the situation, I snapped my head back to the motionless twilight, and desperately tried to rouse her to wake.
"C'mon Twilight we gotta move!" I was practically screaming at this point and this probably wasn't the smartest idea. Stress has a way of impairing judgement.
I looked back to the wall to see the bone-man standing much closer, his dark, Gothic style half plate, glinting as he rose up an ,admittedly intimidating, long bow and drew it back, aiming with a determined stare I am not likely to forget... ever.
As the roped arrow was launched and the tension released from the bow, time seemed to stop as I froze like a deer in headlights. I put on a stupid face and realized it was probably the last one I was going to make as the strange arrow lurched toward me.
It was then a great flash of light came cracking like the lightening of a thousand storms and split the arrow in twain, the hooked and spined head of it twirling off course and clipping my ear as it flew past.
With a rush of wind likening to an airliner jet and probably the same force and speed, an alicorn as black as night itself descended like bolt of lightening, planting its powerful hooves with a deafening crack that echoed through the night air.
The bone-man narrowed his eyes, then cracked a most wicked grin, that would definitely only be possible for someone with his amount of facial tissue.
"Luna." the Corpse's voice crawled in my ears as it spoke in that same inhuman tone. "Its been too long."
"Wilhelm." the alicorn spat back. "Not long enough."
"Well we wi..."
Wilhelm was cut short by a crackling bolt launched from the alicorn's horn, which promptly stuck him directly in the face, launching him back through the smouldering hole in the wall.
Several seconds later, a steaming, smouldering, Wilhelm stepped over the debris back into the town limits. His face was completely baron of flesh, however slowly but surely the same dark straining muscle tissue crawled back into place upon his still scalding skull.
"Now Luna." Wilhelm Growled "you know how much I hate when you do that."
"That's Princess to you, worm!" The alicorn belted as she launched another bolt at Wilhelm.
My eyes were drawn to the flashing glint of steel, as I had not notice the Zweihander gripped in his right hand which was now in full swing. With impressive strength and dexterity, Wilhelm manipulated the giant steel blade to intercept the bolt launched by the Princess.
The blade did just that and more, Not breaking the swing or momentum of his blade, Wilhelm directed his now glowing and crackling Zweihander with a flourish, crashing it into the ground in front of him.
With a snap and a flash, the street in front of him spasmed and convulsed into a great, roaring, shock-wave.
Suddenly a great flash of purple light erupted from beside me and bloomed into a brilliant sphere that encompassed Twilight, the Princess and I. The shock-wave crashed and broke upon the barrier like a mighty wave upon the rocks.
Once the dust had cleared, I looked to my left to see Twilight standing with her hooves planted firmly, an unwavering mask of concentration plastered upon her lavender face.
"Heh, cute" Wilhelm quipped.
Wilhelm raised his sword above his head slowly, crackling again as bolts of lightening began arcing from it to whatever the energy whips could tap and charge with their unstable energy.
Just then the Sphere protecting us expanded at break neck speeds stopping just in front of Wilhelm's nose-less face, prompting him to pause, the energy of his blade fizzling suddenly as his eyes widened.
Twilight opened her eyes to the astonished bone-man, and allowed a smirk.
Twilight clenched her eyes shut and gritted her teeth as her horn flashed, and with that the Sphere flew outward at speeds likely to humble lightening itself. The field quickly dispersed, and with it, the towns party guests.
Twilight was standing next to me panting. I turned to her.
"What the hells was that?" I asked exasperated, my voice betraying no amazement.
Still panting, Twilight managed between laboured breaths. "I suspected it might be undead, so I studied up on some wards and turn undead." She looked up and smiled. "Better to be prepared right?"
"It was still indeed impressive Twilight." Luna interjected. "But it wont be enough, they will be back eventually, and they've already proven us to be ill equipped."
"Can't we get reinforcements from Canterlot or something?" I tried.
"I will do my best to ensure Ponyville receives the aid it requires, but it wont be enough, we need an ace." Luna stated, obviously racking her mind for anything of relevance.
"But who could possibly defeat that mob of flesh?" I asked, admittedly disheartened by the utter destruction reaped by the undead troop.
A look of epiphany dawned upon the princess' face. She looked to Twilight. "I am the Romancer, the passion that consumes the flesh." Luna quoted.
Twilight Gasped "Of course!" She practically squealed. "SPARK PLUG!"
Who?
If you go out in the woods today...
"Precisely Twilight," Luna Said. "However as much as I wish I could stay and help you in acquiring his aid, I am afraid I have other matters to attend to. Give Spark this seal and you should have no problem receiving compliance from him." Luna levitated small red circular stone out of her saddlebags and gave it to Twilight. "I wish you all the best of luck." With that, Luna left as quickly as she had appeared. Soaring off into the distance back to the Canterlot Castle, I couldn't help but look after her wistfully.
"Okay," Twilight started "First off," She looked to me. "Where are Spike and Fluttershy?"
My Stomach sunk and my eyes widened as the realization struck me that I had completely forgotten about them. Twilight seeming to pick up on this fact widened her eyes in fear and apprehension.
She ran into the gaping lobby and yelled back at me. "I'll check in what's left of the library, you check the surrounding area in case they were launched like I was."
Obeying the librarians orders I began frantically searching the area.
We spent the better half of the night searching high and low for any sign of them.
There I sat, with my back against the Library's tree exterior, the librarian not five inches away from me with her head in her hooves, still the occasional sob escaping her. The morning sun had just started casting its light into the sky. A luminescent orange glow resonating in the sky, contrasted only by the silhouettes of the morning weather ponies shifting the clouds in preparation for the scheduled weather for today.
It had taken many stages of sorrow, denial and even hysteria at one point before we had resolved to "take a break" from looking for Spike and Fluttershy. Of course when I say resolved I mean after me talking her into it. Once I had gotten her to sit down with me I think acceptance finally hit her. She immediately broke down in tears, realizing, no doubt, that chances are, they had gotten grabbed, and that didn't bode too well for them.
There was far too much to think about, I didn't mind letting Twilight weep over her missing friends, it at least was an opportunity for my overstimulated and overtired mind to scan over the absurd events that had come to pass in the last couple of hours.
My mind abuzz with thought, the morning was soon looking upon us with its full glory.
Who was this Wilhelm character?
What connection does he have with the princess?
Why and how was he a human?
Who is "Sarcomere Bound"?
What relation does he have to the corpse brigade?
How does an undead human come to harbour such notions of grandeur?
Every question I posed seemed to give way to three more.
When I was beginning to fear that the exponential increases of confusion would fry my brain, my thoughts were torn from me by Twilight nudging me.
I turned to her to see her rising from her laying position next to me and wiping her face.
"C'mon" She said with a level yet sullen tone. "Spark Plug should be arriving here on his way through to Canterlot, we're gonna need his help if we're gonna hope to even stand a chance against Sarcomere."
My mind jumped at this.
"Wait what?!" I practically blurted out. "You know about this Sarcomere guy?"
"Only from what I read in some old Canterlot court records" She spoke back as she began walking. I sprung to my feet and rushed to catch up to her, hungry for answers.
Now walking in pace with the librarian, she elaborated."Sarcomere Bound was an extremely talented unicorn with the unique ability to manipulate and even materialize muscle tissue using magic. Naturally this had a lot of application at the time and was in high demand due to the ensuing war with the griffins at the time.. He was employed as a sort of super medic. He could even improve upon the injured, usually having them coming out of his medical tent stronger than their first day on the battlefield."
"hmm spike didn't mention there were any wars around here." I said slightly perplexed. You would think that would be something to mention.
"He probably wouldn't have bothered mentioning it." Twilight began "seeing as it happened over one thousand years ago."
"what?" Now utter confusion gripping at my buzzing brain."what does that mean then, how could he still be alive?"
"Well that's just it" twilight said as she veered slightly toward me to avoid an oncoming cart. "No one really knows what happened to him."
The librarian let out a large lingering yawn. I, almost completely out of reflex, reached out and grabbed her and lifted her on the the other side of me, just in time for a speeding cart full of soldiers to come barrelling through the space the librarian had occupied seconds before.
"Thanks". She said through the last of her yawn. The night of stress had taken its toll on the librarian. "Anyway, I was intrigued by this individual at the time, so I did look a bit further into the court records."
Twilight veered into my stomach suddenly, winding me,
"Oh, uh sorry," She said, shaking her head. "We've gotta go left here."
"Its fine" I replied breathlessly. I checked to make double sure that no more carts were sweeping by as we made our way across the middle of the road. Once we reached the other side, I walked around to the right side of Twilight to keep myself between her and the centre of the road. "Sorry, you were saying?"
"hmm?" Twilight perked up at this. "Oh right! sorry." She wiped her eyes. as she returned her hoof to the dirt path, the sheen of wet fur on said leg caught my eye. Oh, she's still crying, I hadn't even noticed. A sudden guilt began lapping at my stomach. I mean she was masking it very well in her voice so I didn't even think to look at her face.
I've gotta remember that even though Spike and Fluttershy were just new acquaintances to me, they were probably really close friends to Twilight. She needs more time to deal with this than we have leisure of unfortunately, and she knows it.
Still, she seemed to be holding up okay. She still knows what she needs to do, and she still seems competent for the most part. Only time will tell I suppose.
"Like I said" Twilight resumed. "I looked more into it and found that Sarcomere was retired from duty not long after the war ended. Once the war ended his line of work was no longer in high demand, and the muscular enhancements he could provide were considered immoral and were frowned upon by politician and common pony alike. Eventually there was legislation passed to prevent any sort copy cats arising and Sarcomere was "retired" by the court."
"However his talent, innovative thinking and inquisitive spirit earned him the favour of the princesses" Twilight Continued, using her magic to straighten a few strands of her admittedly matted mane. "They granted him the position of Court Magician, and allowed him study in private with the castle's research materials and resources at his disposal."
"This was not the end of it though" Twilight said. "I looked further, and apparently as time went on Sarcomere began more controversial and invasive test and proposals, some even sounding outright apaulic and insane. The princesses began to worry and warned him not to outstepp his bounds. They even removed his privileges a couple times. One of his pleas that had been recorded had mention of him rambling of some supreme beings he claimed to have discovered. This of course was not received well, and he was suspended from his privileges. However, during this suspension, he broke into his labs and in the dead of night conducted an experiment which no one would have believed. When the guards arrived they saw Sarcomere standing in the labs, with the late mr. Abernathy standing in the room. The abomination fell upon one of the guards ass they entered. The undead was dispatched and Sarcomere was arrested for necromancy and direct defiance of the princesses. Sarcomere was eventually excused by the princesses due to how much progress he had been making in the medicinal field, but was to move his lab into a different area of the castle where he would be under strict supervision during his studies.
"hmm the princesses seemed pretty lenient toward this guy" I mused.
"Well in addition to him being a great alchemist, magician, and doctor he apparently was also a very charismatic and pleasant individual with a very strong sense of morality only rivalled by his curiosity. He got along well with the princesses." Twilight said with hints of admiration in her voice. "That is probably why the princesses were so concerned by his strange state. Thought it does seem that his virtued curiosity was his undoing. Yet again, during clean up of the lab, one of the technicians found evidence that would suggest that Sarcomere was attempting illegal magics again, however when the guards arrived at his residence, he was gone, and later that day it was reported that six graves had been raided the night before."
Twilight stopped and turned to me. "and he's never been heard from since."
"Nice, so you're saying we're dealing with an ancient necromancer who has somehow managed to stay alive all these years, that now wants to kill everyone for some reason." I stated, barely believing my own words.
"Well he would definitely have a motive" Twilight said turning back and continuing on her path. "Outdated, misunderstood, unappreciated out cast out for revenge, it wouldn't be the first one."
Its true, in all the cop or homicide movies I've ever seen that's the same formula for all the twisted villains.
Twilight was looking a bit more like herself now. Though her eyes were still blood shot from tears and sleep deprivation, the conversation seemed to be a good distraction from her missing friends. Its probably best if I keep the conversation going. Gotta keep her attention focused on the mission, cant let her mind wander.
"So, who is this Spark Plug guy anyway?" I asked, legitimately curious.
"He's practically the father of pyromancy." Twilight said with hints of excitement. "He travels all around Equestria helping people and seeing what there is to be seen. Or "Bringing light to the darkest corners of the world" as he would say. He's... a little arrogant to say the least."
I looked at her with a sideways grin with an eye brow raised.
"Don't get me wrong" Twilight said quickly. "He immensely powerful and talented, the only problem is he knows it..."
I laughed at this, eliciting a small smile from Twilight.
"There he is" Twilight said, sounding slightly exasperated.
Standing at the end of the street talking to a couple of mares was a burgundy unicorn wearing a brown and tattered cloak which flowed and hung down to his hooves. His jet black mane was longer than most stallions and had a reckless frazzle to it. A pair of tinted goggles hung from his neck which one could assume would protect his eyes while executing his no doubt fantastic displays of pyromantics. He spoke to the mares with a façade of casual indifference and his body language only exaggerated that fact.
When he notice our approach spoke a few quick words and waved the mares off.
"Hello Spark" Twilight said, dawning an obviously forced smile.
"Hey Twi, looking ravishing as always." Spark quipped with a smirk. He then looked to me. "Hey big fella how's the weather?" He then turned back to Twilight, waiting for a reaction.
A flash of rage manifested as only a glint in twilight's eyes as she continued. "Look we need your help Spark, the town and possibly all of equestria is in danger."
"Yeah, I saw the hole in the wall." Spark began. "Though I'm sure its nothing you cant handle, now if you'll excuse me." Spark plug began walking past Twilight, who promptly reached into her saddle bags and retrieved the seal and levitated it in front of Spark Plug.
He stopped. "Where did you get this?" he asked flatly.
"From Luna" Twilight replied, allowing a smirk to burn a hole in the back of Spark's head.
Spark took it and placed it in a pocket in his cloak. "Okay I'll help you." Spark said exasperated. He turned to face twilight and I. "What's the problem?"
My stomach grumbled audibly, which caused two heads to turn to me at once.
"hehe" I Laughed dryly. "Could we perhaps discuss this over some lunch?"
Author's Note
Ho boy. I have literally no good excuse for this stupidly late update. I finally managed to get my grubby hands on a copy of dark souls 2 and it pretty much ate up all my free time for the past two weeks because I'm a weak willed nerd with a passion for dark souls. Anyway I'll try not to make this a trend.
As always any constructive criticism, or comments in general are hugely appreciated! :)
If you go out in the woods today...
Author's Note
Wow ya, this chapter took me a while to write. I found that this was literally the one part of the storyline I had neglected to plan to the letter like the rest of the story, so I had to spend some time brain storming to make sure this worked, and it finally did. It's done and I proudly present to you chapter 6 if my counting skills serve me.
As always any constructive criticism, or comments in general are hugely appreciated! :)
The Calm Before
My stomach gnawed and churned in itself, a constant and maddening pain as I waited for the menus to be brought to us.
I had pretty much tuned out the ensuing conversation between Twi and Spark seeing as there was no new information being exchanged as Twilight was bringing him up to speed on the situation. It was nice that Spark was withholding most all of his passive aggression and snide remarks, probably now realising that this was no joke. At least he was grounded in that sense.
The restaurant was nothing to behold. We sat in a booth with I next to Twilight sitting across from Spark and a dull light hanging above the table. I turned back to the conversation after having given up trying to spot the waitress. I looked across the table to Spark. He seemed legitimately enraptured by Twilights recap, his golden irises seeming to burn with intensity in the dim lighting as he absorbed her words.
Just as I was considering dosing off for a quick nap, a voice cut across the room. It sounded familiar, I looked to see its source.
I looked to see three ponies approaching the table with relief plastered on their faces.
"Twilight, thanks Celestia you're alive." The orange earth pony was the first to speak in the same southern tones I remember from the road.
Twilights face brightened and she rose to meet her friends. She gave each of them a brief embrace.
"We saw the dreadful state your home was in and we thought the worst" The alabaster unicorn added.
"I knew some walking dead guys wouldn't get you." The prismatic pegasus remarked with a façade of cool confidence.
"Thanks girls." Twilight said, now looking much more at ease with her friends near."I'm just really glad to see you all okay." She looked around briefly. "Where's pinkie?" She said her face creasing with concern.
"what do you mean?" The pegasus asked, her face filled with bemusement. "She's right..."
Twilight looked to her left to which the pegasus had gestured. She immediately lurched back in surprise as she found herself face to face with a vibrant pink earth pony. How long was she standing there? Come to think of it, I have no recollection of her ever entering the room. Weird.
"I'm so super duper glad to see you're all right!" The pink pony exclaimed leaping forward to embrace her friend.
Twilight shook her confusion away with a wag of the head and returned the embrace of her friend. I couldn't help but get a little sucked in to the incredibly sappy scene unfolding before me. My heart warmed and for a while, almost forgot about my ravenous biting hunger... almost.
Speaking of which, what kind of service is this? This restaurant is... practically empty.
As I looked around it became apparent to me that the eatery was closing down. Curious, I excused myself from the reunion and approached a member of the establishments staff who was putting the stools atop the tables. A pale blue earth pony mare turned to me, looking slightly up at me with round pink eyes.
Admittedly they were quite striking, I hardly noticed her royal blue mane with a silver stripe leading down its length.
"Uh hello" The mare ventured, looking quizzical. "Can I help you?"
I shook from my stricken state. "Oh yes." I said quickly. I cleared my throat. "Why are you guys closing down?" I asked. "Its only just after noon I would guess."
"Yes" She said turning back to putting up the diner stools. "The guard is recommending that everyone "remain in there residence" tonight because the pegasus patrol say they saw something headed toward the town again."
"What?!" I nearly blurted out. So soon? I saw Twilight launched their squad a couple clicks out at least with that ward blast. They must really be determined.
"Yeah" The mare continued. "Can't be good news." She looked back to me. "You folks are welcome to stay if you got no where else to bunker down. I gotta stay here and watch the shop anyway."
"yeah, yeah sure." I said only half paying attention as a left her company to return to the group of friends.
The group was still talking away about the events that had transpired in the past day, I'm assuming Twilight mentioned the missing status of Fluttershy and Spike as there were some sorrowful but hopeful expressions that could be seen around the group.
I approached Twilight from behind and gave her a tap on the shoulder when I felt she was at a passive place in the conversation.
She turned to me with the remnants of a smile from the pleasant conversation still residing in the creases of her face. Seeing my stone faced expression though, it quickly dissipated.
She excused herself from the group so we could have a word in private.
Even away from the group she spoke in hushed tones. "What is it Daniel, is something wrong?" Twilight's voice was quiet but audible to me over the conversation on the one end of the restaurant. It's good that Spark was able to keep the rest of the friends distracted and engaged in twilight's absence .
"yes" I said flatly.
There was a brief silence with Twilight staring at me expectantly.
"well?" She finally hissed.
"Right sorry." I shook my head. "They're on their way back already, they've been spotted by the pegasus patrols. A curfew is in effect."
"Nonononono" Twilight sputtered. "Not again, not already." She looked at me with panic in her eyes. "We don't even have a plan yet what are we gonna..."
Twilight's word were cut short by an all too familiar bellowing cry which tore through the air.
Twilight's expression of panic flopped into a mask of pure terror as the cry waned and echoed through the, now admittedly stale, air.
Two more cries rang out, of similar nature but of different orientations.
The cries waned as the first did till they fell silent.
The restaurant had fallen eerily silent in the absence of the cries.
No one dared to move a muscle.
Just as Twilight shifted slightly toward a window, all three cries retuned in all their terrifying glory, obliterating the air with the full might of their screams in unison.
Everyone in the restaurant crumpled to the floor covering their ears from the wrath of the charging beasts the town had known all too well.
Though my hands were gripped firmly over my ears as I writhed on the floor of the restaurant, another voice wormed its way into my ears. A familiar and terrible voice.
The voice of Wilhelm swam clearly in my ears.
"No Quarter!" His voice harsh as ever, rang out with gut wrenching finality.
Wilhelm was back, and he was prepared.
Finally, the screams reached their climax followed by the three distinct shock waves of impact.
Oh no.
I remained on the floor in admittedly quite a panicked state. This can't be happening again.
My panicked thoughts were shaken from me by Twilight. "Get up Daniel" she whispered harshly.
I rose up and looked around to see that everyone had retreated to some hiding place or another within the restaurant. I then saw Twilight who was peering through a small window by the staircase. She spared me a quick glance, then waved me over with a hoof.
I got to my feet and swiftly but softly swept up beside the librarian.
"What's the situation" I breathed in a soft subdued tone. I didn't have to speak too loudly seeing as her ears were literately inches from my mouth as I struggled to look through the same window as the librarian.
She suddenly ducked down and took me with her as stomping foot steps which shook the ground approached.She looked me in the face and gestured up toward the window.
"That's the situation." She almost seethed.
I slowly rose to the windows level once the foot steps had ceased.
I peered out of the small round pane to see a giant magnificent flaming Minotaur abomination standing in the centre of the road, flames flowing off of its ashen scarred tissues.
The beast twitched and I instantly fell back down to the position at Twilight's level.
"Yeah," She said. "And they're not burning out this time, they've torn though the entirety of the towns guard now and their still burning bright."
How long was I on the floor? I guess I've never been too good at controlling panic once I reach that point. I've sort of got a threshold for that sort of thing and this whole situation is pushing it.
"And what's worse, I think that Wilhelm guy is kicking around." Twilight exclaimed in hushed and panicked tones, as if she feared he'd hear her at the mention of his name. "I mean did you hear that when the beasts were charging?" She looked on me with panicked expectancy.
"Yeah" I breathed. I looked back up to meet her gaze. "The voice right?"
"Yes" She said shivering. "Its like he was right..."
"In your ear." I completed in utter understanding. "I know."
My ears were suddenly filled with the roar of the beast outside. I immediately cupped my hands to my ears in reflex to the pain in my drums.
They were much louder up close.
The beasts charged outside as stomping foot steps could be heard outside. Soon after a sickening crash could be heard with the frenzied screams of the beast.
I rose back to the level of the small round window pane. I looked upon the beast standing in the middle of the flaming wreckage of a building. It stood stark still, almost like a statue surrounded by adoring plank wood observers set ablaze.
"Well there goes Sofas and Quills" I heard Twilight whisper next to me as she gazed on in solemn despair.
Not very clearly at first, though surely and consistently I could hear in growing clarity the familiar light clanking of metal which would only herald the proximity of one man-corpse.
Wilhelm.
Along with the cacophony of clinks and clanks of his armour, the grinding sound of his Zweihander could be heard dragging in the dirt behind him. I listened on in stunned silence, as though I were waiting for death itself to come and claim me. For the moment I forgot all about the ones surrounding me, in my mind I was utterly alone as I despaired in silence.
We're all going to die, painfully and fearfully, writhing in our own misery as the greatest of our fears fall upon us with swift indifference to our cries and pleas.
There is no hope.
I felt a cool tear tread down my face as horrors of futility and inevitability tore at my innards.
I was shaken back to reality by Twilight pushing me against the wall below the small window, just as Wilhelm peered in with his glowing green avaricious eyes.
Narrowly escaping the gaze of the ultimate pursuer, I held my breath, dedicating every muscle in my body to remaining as still as possible.
For what seemed like aeons the bone-man's green projection could be seen being cast about through the window in search of anything worth his ire. Eventually, the faint green glow faded away, and after a fair amount of time, I rose back to the window to look after what would, at a moments notice, end me.
Wilhelm strolled along the street, still dragging his sword in tail. He continued for decent while at a pace that seemed to fit his leisure.
He then stopped suddenly.
He turned and dropped his sword, facing the town post office.
He cracked his knuckles, then his neck, audible even from this distance.
Then like a bolt of lightening, his entire body sprang into action. He kicked the door in with a swift boot and charged in.
A symphony of clamour could be heard from the post office.
A great crash.
Ear piercing screaming, then silence.
I looked on in utter horror waiting for any other sounds to give an inkling as to what had or was transpiring.
Finally, a small clamour could be hear. Then the voice of a child.
"nononononoooNO!" The voice screamed.
The scream became more clear as its source came careening through the air, out the gaping front door and slammed into the side of the opposite building to the post office. My stomach sank at the bone crunching impact.
I looked to see what had been thrown.
A pale purple filly with large golden eyes, and an equally golden mane, lay coughing and hacking as she attempted to recover from the cruel force that had afflicted her. She attempted to return to her feet and almost made it to a wobbly stance when Wilhelm came bolting out the door at breakneck speeds.
As swiftly as though it were his Zweihander he was manipulating, he stooped and grabbed the filly by the neck with one bony hand and hoisted her up then thrust her against the wall. The filly cried out in pain, then gasped for air and freedom in the unwavering grasp of Wilhelm. Wilhelm narrowed his eyes at the filly and stared her in her fearful eyes, watching on in bitter determination. It went on for what seemed like minutes as Wilhelm slowly tightened his grip on the fillies neck as her breathing and screams became more raspy and erratic. The grip was now drawing blood from the fillies neck as Wilhelm's boned claws dug into her nape.
Suddenly a small crunch was heard. The noise hit me before I could recognise what had happened. All I saw was Wilhelm's closed fist around the fillies neck as she made a few last futile attempts to fill her lungs with air through her crushed trachea before her eyes fell still and a single drop of red could be seen drip from her lip.
"Dinky... no" I heard Twilight cry softly from beside me.
A wide grin fell upon Wilhelm's face, he stared the lifeless filly in the face for literal minutes, seeming to relish in his work.
Suddenly, he whipped the lifeless filly to the ground kicking up a puff of dust upon impact.
Wilhelm, coolly strolled back over to his Zweihander, stooped to grip it and returned to his path after swinging his Zweihander up to rest upon his right pauldron.
Still, stunned by what I had just witnessed, I stared on in shock and awe.
A soft groaning danced upon my ears as I saw a grey pegasus mare crawl from the hanging doorway of the post office. Her blonde mane matted and bloody, one of her golden eyes was bruised shut and bled profusely. She crawled on in agony and determination toward the filly. As she entered full view of me, it became apparent why she was crawling. Her hind legs had been broken and mangled.
She finally reached her destination, took the still filly and cradled it in her arms. She sobbed audibly and hung her head.
"oh Celestia... Derpy, no" Twilight cried with even more futility than before.
Suddenly, a whistle could be heard off down where Wilhelm had gone.
Even more suddenly a skinless hound leapt into view and snatched the lifeless filly from the mare, the mare cried out but it was cut short by another dog that tackled the mare, latched on by her neck and swiftly twisted it. With a sickening crack, the mare fell limp. The bone-dog carried the filly off in its mouth back where it had came.
Another dog came and assisted the one with the mares neck still in its skinless muscled jaws. Together the two dogs carried the mare's corpse in the same direction.
A sob escaped Twilight behind me, to which I reacted by slapping my hand over her mouth to silence her as another dog remained right outside the window. It twitched at the sound of Twilights sob. It began sniffing around. It turned suddenly and tapped its head against the window, staring directly at me with hollow, unseeing eyes sockets. It was blind. But it may have heard us.
I stared into it, not daring to move with my hand over Twilight's mouth, frozen with fear.
Faintly, but just loud enough to be heard, the dog growled.
If you go out in the woods today...
Author's Note
Well despite it taking me an entire month to write this painfully short chapter, I am happy to finally have it done. I present to all it may concern, Chapter 7.
Though that is always one of those things I'm insecure about, I read a lot of other fanfiction and am always in awe of how much content they produce and how long and epic their stories are. Always make me feel silly when I take three weeks to produce 2,500 words.
Anyway, as always any constructive criticism, or comments in general are hugely appreciated! :)
Fulmination
Through the clouded windowsill the blackness of the dog's eye sockets stared back at me in utter stillness. Allowing the creature no advantage of sight but promising utter horror to its victims in it's soulless shrouded caverns which once housed an innocent canine mind.
Still frozen with the librarian's breath breezing across the edge of my cupped hand, I simply hoped and prayed that the growling had not been the hound on the other end of the glazen wall separating us, which seemed thinner by the moment.
My prayers went unanswered. The beast growled yet again in a low resonating tone, causing my stomach to seize and twist. My muscles tensed as the rumbling growl drawled before fading back to a deathly silence.
It felt like minutes in a statue contest with an undead mutt. Not really all that fair of a contest when put in that context. That said, I was in an admittedly precarious stance in the moment that I froze so it was only a matter of time.
With a light thump I stumbled into a more balanced position and immediately flinched. With my eyes scrunched shut, my ears rung as they strived and struggled to listen for any inclination as to if the noise had been heard. Indeed it had.
Again a low growl came through the window, louder than before. Again growling a bit louder, this time punctuated with a bark. I jumped at this and both Twilight and I stumbled back from the window, our eyes wide with terror. We had surely been discovered.
Suddenly a rustling came from across the diner. The prismatic pegasus leapt over the bar counter and made a beeline for the front door.
"Rainbow No!" Twilight hissed.
Heedless to Twilights words, she uttered just loud enough to be audible.
"Make it count guys." Her tone solemn and determined.
She tore through the front doors with a slam as they struck the sides of the exterior. Immediately the hound leapt back into a loaded position toward the new threat, this time unleashing a flurry of grotesque barks, yelps and howls. The pegasus immediately, without a sparing glance, took to the sky with a great crack.
The mutt instantly took to pursuit on the ground. Twilight and I rushed to the window to watch her fly off to the sky, when suddenly six more skinless mutts came bolting past to where the first had gone, broadcasting their own brand of ear grinding symphonies.
Looking back to the sky, Twilight and I observed as the pegasus ducked and dodged around what seemed to be some decrepit buzzards hanging in the sky, closing in on her with ghoulish gait.
Soon more could be seen, closing in from seemingly every corner of the sky. The air space quickly becoming cramped, the pegasus began striking them from the sky with powerful kicks. The buzzards left inky contrails in their absence upon being struck and spiralling to an unscheduled decent.
She seemed to have control of the skies due to her impressive aerial prowess, till a bellowing screech rang through the air as a massive black feathered buzzard gusted overhead into view. Leaving great inky contrails streaming off the tips of its primaries, they remained heavy in the air as it made its way at threatening speeds toward Rainbow.
The pegasus quickly noticed the new competition and began evasive manoeuvres as the great boned beast lunged and snapped its colossal beak at what it believed to be its target. Whiffing and coming in contact with only its own jaw, the beast snapped shut its maw and over shot its target as the pegasus expertly dodged the great buzzard.
Stooping into a wide bank the beast began making its way around for another chance at its prize. Rainbow was visibly becoming fatigued at this point, fear and anxiety began to ball up in my stomach. Suddenly a crack and flash came off down the distance and with that Luna was visible barely in the distance quickly approaching from Canterlot.
Suddenly a titanic chorus of pegasi took to the skies behind her in a brilliant cloud of white and gold.The great mass headed by the princess of the night began to accelerate as they took to a more solid formation.
My heart leapt in both awe and relief as the fulminations of the oppressed appeared before my weary eyes in true form and manifestation.
The host of pegasi broke off and headed to take care of the towns new occupants while the princess herself flew at astonishing speeds to assist Rainbow with the disposal of her avian pursuer.
The pegasi fell upon the town as the enraged screeches of the Minotaur abominations could be heard. The third Minotaur which had been absent from my mind was still standing stark still within the wreckage of sofas and quills. Then suddenly a small troupe of no more than six pegasi soldiers swept by and struck the beast each in various places.
The beast instantly sprang to life and charged after them, vocalizing all its rage with its patented bellowing cry. I twisted to look after it through the window. The beast continued in pursuit till it reached an intersection where it was immediately T-boned by a much more significant flock of pegasi. They struck the Minotaur in unison and with enough force that its head whipped around from the sudden side impact.
With its head primly gazing between its own shoulder blades the beast fell limply to the ground, a delayed reaction to the new state of affairs pertaining to the integrity of its spine. The beasts flames slowly licked off and dissipated, leaving only an ashen skeleton to smoulder in the intersection.
An ear pinging crack tore my gaze back to the sky. It seems there was still very much an aerial dog fight ensuing in the admittedly darkened and overcast skies. It seemed that Rainbow was able to keep the buzzard occupied with her bright colours and dizzying aerial manoeuvres whilst the princess fired all manners of destructive magic at the beast.
The buzzard shrieked with skull rending intensity as another bolt blazed a path through the form of the beast. Turning on the bolt's caster the princess began her own brand of evasive manoeuvres.
Though the princess was by no means lacking in grace or speed in her evasions, it was becoming more apparent that Rainbows dizzying spectacles were more necessary then for show as she was forced to telleport on several occasions to evade the relentless bird's maw. Her manoeuvres becoming visibly more desperate as the bird's brutality seemed to intensify, Rainbow took this opportunity to cut into a vertical climb.
Disappearing into the gloomy cloud layer Rainbow remained obscured from sight for a time. I looked on with horrified anticipation as Princess of the Night narrowly evaded yet another ravenous snap from the boned maw of the necrotic horror. This time however instead of its usual lazy bank it would employ to allow re-engagement, the buzzard whipped back it's massive head and folded it's wings, flipping onto its back it then spiralled as to turn its breast back to the ground before wafting out its massive black wings.
Luna, having expected a recuperation period was visibly caught off guard by the charging bird. I had fully and completely thought this would be the end of the princess as she froze like a dear in headlights, my head ringing with the frenzied shrieks of the shrouded buzzard.
I thought her fate sealed when my fixed attention was spirited away by a sudden blast, blowing away the cloud layer with an awe-striking prismatic disc which spread at unthinkable speeds, as a much faster approaching projectile left its spectral contrail to mark its path strait through the blackest beast's form.
Suddenly all of the sounds of what had transpired hit me at once, giving me perspective to the speeds at which the spectacle had just occurred, my ears ringing with the full wrath of the defeated cries of the buzzard as it folded and plummeted to the ground.
I was taken from my stunned state by Twilight nudging me urgently. Right, crap. Rainbow had just been risking her ass out there to buy time for us to get in a better position and all we've been doing is staring with our thumbs up our asses. So much for "make it count". There is still time at least.
Twilights made her way toward the door.
"C'mon everyone." Twilight called. "Now's as good a time as any to...
My heart stopped as the door frame was suddenly filled with an all too familiar figure with his signature tool in full swing. Astonishingly, Twilight reacted at speeds which would humble even the young flyer. Just as quickly as Wilhelm had appeared , Twilight extended a ward to meet the blow halfway.
A gut wrenching clang rang out as twilight was launched backward, her feet still planted and dragging as she slid to a screeching halt, inches from the diner counter. She quickly extended the barrier to block the door way, encompassing most of the building, the strain of doing so leaking out in her facial expression like blood from a gaping wound.
Wilhelm immediately began savagely beating at the librarian's barrier with his oversized blade, yelling unintelligible aggressions at the party inside the building. Each strike visibly weakening Twilight. We could all see this was not a permanent fix to this extremely dire situation.
We needed a plan, fast.
Spark almost immediately rushed over to Twilight.
"Okay" Spark began, having to raise his voice a bit to be heard over the mad ramblings of the bone-man outside, despite the ward being mostly sound proof. "We obviously can't stay here so when I say go, you're going to drop the barrier. Understand?" He stepped to look her strait in the eyes his eyes riddled with suppressed panic.
"And then what?" Twilight seethed through gritted teeth, meeting his gaze with one eye, while the other remain clenched shut.
"I'll hit him with the best I got. Then we make a run for the Everfree." Spark stated.
"Are you nuts?" She forced the words slowly.
"Look, we obviously can't take Sarcomere head on so we'll infiltrate the forest find his lair or whatever." Spark was essentially yelling at this point, much louder than he needed to at that. "It's not a perfect plan but its all we got, so are you all on board?"
Spark looked around to meet solemn nods all around. He turned to me and I raised my right thumb in confirmation. He was right, It wasn't a perfect plan, they rarely are when your imminent death is literally knocking at the door, but at least it was a plan.
He looked back to Twilight, lowering his head to meet her one eyed gaze. "Okay?" He asked desperately.
"F-Fine!" Twilight barely managed.
"Okay" Spark breathed. He stepped to the side of the librarian and faced toward the occupied doorway. He seemed to visibly loosen up as he wiggled each part of his body. Finally he took a deep breath the dipped his head to slip his dangling goggles snugly onto his face. He twisted his head one way and another, audibly cracking his neck. He then bowed his head and mouthed something I couldn't quite identify.
"Three" He began suddenly. "Two" Every one in the room was walking cautiously into position, preparing to haul flank at a moments notice. "one" I too sunk into a loaded position, directed straight at the door, trying desperately to swallow the lump in my throat that seems to appear at even the mere thought of the figure pounding at the barrier. "GO!" Spark shouted.
The barrier dissipated and Wilhelm's latest swing met nothing but air, crashing into the floor boards of the diner. Immediately it became uncomfortably hot in the room. A massive pillar of brilliant flame filled the door way launching Wilhelm into the building across the way. With a splintering crash Wilhelm fell deep into the building across the way which was now moderately alight with flame from the residuals of Spark's beam. Hard to believe a horn could produce that much heat.
There was brief hesitation and pregnant silence as the smoke cleared. Twilight was the one to initiate despite her drained state. Spark took off in kind and that was all the signal I needed. I unloaded my legs into a full on sprint.
Skidding out into the middle of the scorched street, I dropped my right hand to shift my weight into the sharp right turn to orient myself toward where Twilight and Spark had gone. Followed by four other mares, I sprinted with all my might to catch up with two ponies in front of me. We were making a mad dash for the hole in the wall.
I looked over my shoulder as I ran to see the orange earth pony, the alabaster unicorn, the pink earth pony, and the blue diner mare all in tow. To my great dismay a smouldering Wilhelm came stumbling out of his ashen hole and rolled into the middle of the street. Slowly making his way to his Zweihander I turned back to the road ahead and yelled.
"We might wanna go a bit faster!" As I said this the four ponies in tow were now right next to me galloping at full tilt. Not wanting to look behind me I started thrashing at the dirt with my legs even harder, possibly the hardest I ever had.
We were quickly approaching the wall. With a swift leap I vaulted over what was left of the wall in the destroyed section. We all looked on in stunned silence as a seemingly endless hoard of undead equine and beasts were making their way out of the Everfree in a wide berth closing in on the perimeter of the town.
"H-How is this possible?" Twilight exclaimed woefully.
And it was then it dawned on me. "Because, he's been collecting corpses for the last thousand years."
We quickly turned on our heels, I was the first to vault back over only to meet the gaze of Wilhelm who was not fifty meters away with his sword gripped tightly in hand.
"Turn back" I yelled in desperation. I vaulted back over.
The hoard was quickly approaching and Wilhelm was just around the corner.
"What do we..." Before I could finish my panicked thought a great crack left my ears ringing and a blast kicked dirt into my face. When I recovered from my flinch, my arms moved to reveal none other than the Princess of the Night herself, standing in all her majesty. "Luna..." The name escaped my lips.
"There's no time." Luna said as she cast her crackling horn to the ground as a shape as black as the void thatched itself onto the ground beneath us and spread to encompass all of us before giving way to a black liquid pool which began to allow us into it with not a breath to spare.
Within no more than two seconds we had all sunk into the void, and as I remain completely submerged with all sensation slipping away from me as even orientation became obscured to my recognition, I simply relished in the absence of all things.
Alas, it was not to last though.
As though I were spit up by death itself, I came crashing back to reality with the horrible burning of my lungs to greet me. The pain intensified tenfold with each growing second. I rolled over and vomited black liquid onto the floor. I rolled onto my back to meet eyes with a magnificent white alicorn with a sparkling spectral mane which flowed on unseen currents.
The alicorn spoke in a serene and benevolent tone.
"Good evening Daniel."
If you go out in the woods today...
Author's Note
Every millennium on the brightest blood moon in the year of the platypus, another chapter with rise from the darkest depths.
Respite
I lay there on the floor, every atom of my body feeling uncomfortably foreign to my senses, as I stare up into the soft eyes of a regal alabaster alicorn. My lungs began to burn yet again, realizing myself not to be breathing I attempted to inhale. I promptly choked and proceeded to hack and cough violently.
I turned to the side as to not spit in the face of this new found watcher. I coughed and hacked as the pain in my chest became intolerable. Each cough casting more of the abyssal fluid onto the floor, I soon felt my stomach convulsing and again I vomited onto the admittedly ornate marble on which I was situated. However my location, my observer, or the nice marble floor I was painting with the black fluid was not in the forefront of my mind. All I cared about was relieving the fire burning in my lungs.
I coughed and hacked a few more times as I felt a viable airway being formed. Taking gasping, desperate and gurgling breaths, I slowly returned to my previous position on the now more noticeably hard floor, It was quite uncomfortable. Laying once again on my back, much more at ease now that air was flowing freely into my lungs, I sighed in relief as all seemed right again.
I turned my gaze back to my observer, who now was wearing a bemused expression.
"Feel better?" The alicorn asked, her voice able to contain but not obscure the mirth hiding in her grin.
My cheeks became hot as I realized that I did not even know who my observer was and yet I had taken the liberty of vomiting all over their nice marble. Spike had told me that alicorns were a big deal and in fact the diarchy consists of two alicorn sisters. Now noticing the glint of the golden crown atop my observer's head I began putting all the pieces of the puzzle together. Having every orifice of your body invaded and rendered unconscious has a way of slowing your mental faculties.
I coughed and attempted to clear my throat. An attempt to speak came as another cacophony of gurgles. Becoming irritated at this time I used all of the energy I could muster to summon a great wind from the depths of my defiled lungs and forced it out my trachea in a mighty gust. My throat now clear of most obstructions I swallowed before attempting to speak again.
"Sorry about your floor." My voice was weak and not much more than a whisper. "You're one of the alicorn sisters, correct?"
"Indeed, I am Princess Celestia, and welcome to my castle." She spoke in practised precision, every tone pleasant and inoffensive. " You needn't worry about the floor, a mess is always to be expected when Luna uses that spell. I am just glad that you are okay."
Slowly a familiar feeling washed over my body, in a careful and awesome wave of a peculiar contrast of sensory. Ah yes I could feel. Much more clearly now, I could feel the texture of the marble as my body pressed against its unyielding mass. I could feel the softness of the warm, blanket-like, air that seemed to fill the great hall I occupied. I could even feel the subtle air rushing from the subdued breaths of my royal watcher.
I found myself hit by an unexpected wave of relief at the realization of the return of my full sensory faculties. I suppose until now I had never really realized how much I valued my acute senses and observation. Not to boast, of course, but I had always prided myself on such things.
Almost in a blissful state at the realisation of my safety and the gradual return of my senses leaving me in a somewhat euphoric state, I looked to my extremities. More specifically my right hand. My hand seemed to gleam in the light of the grand hall. My normally pale skin had seemed a good few shades more white, understandable all things withstanding. I stared at my hand with a familiarity one would share with a close family member, or an old friend.
My pale extremity laying there like that of a dead man, I reflected on just how many times I almost died in the past two days alone. "Quite a few" I remarked silently, and from this came an almost manic pride. I had avoided many a grizzly death, and that in my books, was a victory.
A smile spread across my face, and I willed my right hand to move. At first it remained as dead as it looked. Then the digits twitched, and curled as my will dictated, the joints grinding under the weight of my mind. My body had grown unused to being driven, and seemed almost contemptuous of my command. No matter, my body will get over it. I'm not dead yet.
It was late. Or I assumed it was. It had to be late. I had been laying there in wide eyed restlessness staring at the wall across from my medical bed for what had seemed like a millennia. My back was turned to the slightly open door. The only window in the room was at such an angle that did not allow me to peer out. I could only Imagine what view it would offer, as the nurse had insisted I get rest immediately. She was a rather insistent caretaker, though lacking in some of the pleasantries one would expect, she did seem rather frazzled and no doubt over worked from tending to the wounded from the attempted liberation of Ponyville, so I understood her shortage of patience.
The curtain to the bed behind me was drawn and I could only assume was occupied by a soldier far more deserving of it than I. My brain buzzed with a restless energy that barely allowed me to close my eyes at times. Probably the most non-constructive energy imaginable, the kind which was devoted to no thoughts, or contemplations. My mind was essentially blank, crying for stimulation. My body groaned and writhed, begging for the much needed rest to recuperate from its abuse.
I bowed to my mind's command. After all, I had always subscribed to the idea of mind over matter. My body could wait a while longer.
I slowly arose from my resting. My teeth pressed on one another as I fought back against the urge to cry out at the pain of my movements. I strained to put the pain out of my mind and focused on getting to the curtained window as I took staggering strides towards it.
I pulled back the window curtains, hoping to be greeted by an uplifting scenic view of the mountainside estate known as Canterlot.
My eyes were greeted with the dead silence of night. Not a single movement could be seen in the cobbled streets below. A cautious silence lay heavy in the air, as though even the night in the city did not belong to its inhabitants. Upon the horizon, great bellowing trails of smoke and gases spiraled into the clouded and dark sky. Fires and infernos were the only stars to be found as distant townships were found to be not but fuel for the ire of the undead onslaught.
My pain faded into obscurity as I soaked in the severity of the scenery I was beheld to. It did not exactly paint the picture of a war we were winning. A grim wave washed over me as I too shared in the sore passivity of the city.
We were living on borrowed time.
I turned away and tried to push that well out of my mind. Inevitability has a way of clouding one's judgement. Nothing is inevitable. Nothing is certain.
I saw outside the door to my room, a sign on the wall of the opposite side of the hallway. Pointing to the right it signified "Lounge and General Commons." "That looks promising", I thought. I made my way to the door, making light on my feet as to not rouse my shared residence from his or her slumber.
"Thought the nurse told you to rest." A husky voice prompted me to nearly leap out of my skin. I turned to my right to see a familiar face behind the curtain after it was drawn back with a strong hoof.
The sergeant major from Ponyville lay sprawled out in the hospital bed parallel to mine, his left hind leg suspended by a pulley and casted in thick wrapping. His face was hard and half obscured by the bloody wrapping around the left side of his head.
I was left speechless as I tried to draw words to justify my actions or even just express my exasperation at seeing him alive. His face softened and he gave a light chuckle as the edges of his lips curled upward into a rather pathetic, but genuine smile.
"I'm just yankin' your chain kid." The sergeant said. His eyes narrowed for a moment, "I remember you from the library. Hope this whole situation doesn't sour you're view of this place, its really quite nice most of the time, If you can deal with the obvious social matriarchy that is." the sergeant chuckled, which descended into a rather harsh fit of coughing.
I cringed a bit as his coughs became more brutal before tapering off. My curiosity overcoming me once again I ventured "How exactly did you survive? I mean I saw you, you were on top of the wall when the first Minotaur hit."
"I'm tougher than I look." The grizzled stallion raised an eyebrow at me as a smirk crept across his face. "Well that's no small statement" I thought to myself. I allowed a laugh and the large stallion joined me. "Go on now" The Sergeant motioned, "I'll cover for ya if the nurse comes back, I'll say you had to piss or something."
"Thanks" I said as I slipped out the door and headed to the Lounge.
Not far down the castle corridor I found the door to which I had been seeking. A simple wooden door lay before me, labeled "Lounge and General Commons."
I grasped the brass door handle and pushed. With little resistance, the door swung open, giving way to reveal a greater room than others I had seen. The ceiling towered some 20 meters doming at the top with a large chandelier hanging from its apex. Luxurious furnishings and lounge chairs lay about in scattered locations, divided only by large book cases containing all manner of books, and trinkets. The upper level was visible from the level I was situated and had ornate carved banisters weaving across the railing securing the upper level, allowing one to peer down onto the main commons from above. "Some Lounge," I thought. It was practically a library, I couldn't imagine what the actual castle library would look like.
My attention was drawn to movement across the Lounge floor. Spark Plug strode out from behind one of the book cases, a book enveloped in his golden field of influence, levitating along beside him as he approached a sitting cushion. He turned to me, a smile spread across his face, and spoke.
"Hey," He seemed genuinely happy to see me, if not a little tired. "What brings you around here at this hour?"
"Just wandering, couldn't sleep," I replied. "Though I could ask the same of you," I added, a smile heavy in my face.
"You caught me," Spark threw his head about in mock exasperation. "I've been secretly planning to defect to the enemy side, thought maybe Wilhelm would give me a deal on my decapitation, maybe even let me keep my genitals!
I winced as I chuckled with Spark.
"What is with that Wilhelm guy?" I queried, the last remnants of my smile still lingering, but slowly being overtaken by a thoughtful skew. "I mean, I don't see too many other humans around here."
"Yes," Spark replied, sharing my puzzled mug. "I did notice you two shared a few physiological qualities, and no, he is in fact the only other human in recorded equestrian history."
"That's a grand statement," I said raising an eyebrow.
"Yes, well Twilight and I spent quite a bit of time looking into the annals of history searching for something on our old buddy Wilhelm, since the princess seemed to know him so well." Spark elaborated as I walked over to take a seat on a cushion across from him. "While searching we found an event roughly two thousand years ago described only as the Sepulchral March. That sounded promising so we found other source materials under that name in the royal library.
"Really," I said, an eyebrow raised. "Annals of history, Royal Library, aren't you two connected."
Spark shrugged at this. "I've been around, and Twilight's the protege to the princess in addition to her brother being captain of the guard, not a whole lotta red tape left between the two of us."
"Okay, sorry, go on." I said, waving a hand, as I settled a bit more into the simple cushion obviously not made to accommodate someone of my anatomy.
"Right, well," Spark re focused. "We found mention of a similar situation we find ourselves in now. However, unfortunately even with our sources being from the royal library itself much of the specifics of the event were either redacted or expunged so all we really gathered is that there was a large threat to the state long ago and it was headed by someone known as Liluth the Terrible, and was aided by some creature called Wilhelm, who was described as a large, bipedal, sapient creature with foreign armaments, sound familiar?"
"Okay," I said rather confused. "Then who is this Liluth character?"
"We have no idea," Spark said flatly. "Twi said she'd ask the princesses when she gets the chance."
"Cool," I said passively. I began to twiddle my fingers, looking about the gorgeous room, thinking of a next topic of conversation. Spark by all means seemed like a pretty cool guy, though he seemed a trifle more intelligent then I would have expected from a traveling blow torch. "So where are you from? If you don't mind me asking." I ventured, genuinely curious. "Were you born here in Canterlot?"
Spark looked up from the book he was reading. "Oh no, I was none so fortunate. I was born in a town to the far north. It was a heavily industrialized town run by an earth pony aristocracy who were quite opinionated." I looked at him quizzically. "By opinionated I mean blatantly racist against unicorns. They felt that they had been oppressed and marginalized by the unicorn dominated society, so they were essentially working to make the unicorns the working class instead of the earth ponies. "
"Brutal, how long did that go on for?" I asked, a little astonished, considering how progressive this place seemed.
"Quite a while," Spark remarked. "I spent my childhood working in a factory as a welder, where I got these actually." Spark batted the goggles hanging about his neck. Something was off. Spark was speaking of this in a calm demeanor, maybe even a little softly. Which was strange, because so far it's usually been either gaiety , sarcasm, or obvious disdain. I wonder... Though I suppose it is none of my business. After all, nothing terribly romantic ever happened in a factory.
"I'm assuming the working conditions weren't great either eh?" I ventured, my face sympathetically skewed.
"Yeah, you could say that." Spark remarked. I decided to drop that line of thought. "What about you?" Spark struck me from my reverie. "You got a family back home?" Spark asked, setting his book on a nearby table with his influence. "Gotta be missing them eh?"
"Eh," I shrugged. "My parents had always prepared me for the world the best they could, they always pushed me to go out of my comfort zone and stuff like that. They got me to take survival courses, recreational sports, even encouraged me to play instruments; they say it helps with memory and is preventative of Alzheimer's, which is in my genes unfortunately." I skewed my face again, before snapping back to attention. "Anyways, plus I was already living in my aunts basement because she lives close to the University I attend... attended, so I had pretty much already said goodbye." My face distances again. "Probably pretty worried about me though."
I look back to Spark who is looking at me with a pitying bemused expression. "Yeah, doesn't seem like you miss them at all there tough guy." I roll my eyes.
"What about you're family?" I asked. "You got someone waiting for you when you get back from your grand adventures." I said waving my hands in mock drama.
"Naw, my parents didn't come home one night when my sister and I were little, and we still have no idea what happened to them, though it was probably a factory accident, and seeing as the factory is in no way accountable, they probably didn't tell anyone. Ponies disappeared all the time in that town." Spark remarked, his voice resounding with traces of lament. "My sister and I aren't on the best of terms either; different values I guess you could say."
"I see," I said. "Sorry, It's really none of my business."
"No, you're good, Dan." Spark said, smiling a bit now. "We're friends right? We all got our problems, but weight seems lesser when shared. I appreciate you actually taking an interest in the first place. Most people just assume I'm a traveling hick that sets shit on fire. I mean, the praise I do get is nice, but it's never genuine, or for me, It's for what I did." Spark continued a little bitterly.
"Yeah, I know what you mean. It's often the price of success." I remarked sympathetically.
"I'll tell ya what though," Spark started. "Since you took the time to listen to my crap, if you ever need to bitch or vent, I got you're back. Just don't expect me to take you seriously one-hundred percent of the time, because I find more often than not, when someone's bitching, what they actually need is a kick in the ass." Spark chuckled.
"Thanks," I laughed.
We talked a bit more, about places he had seen and people he had met, including a very colorful story about a griffon bar maid he had a run in with far west; Kinda wish he had excluded some of the details. Having just finished telling me a joke he looked to the doorway as I chortled to myself.
"I think that's for you," Spark said looking past me. I twisted to look behind me, seeing a very cross looking nurse standing in the door way.
She lead me through the hallways at a brisk pace back to my residence, me following sheepishly behind.
"My job is hard enough without you sneaking off at night to Celestia knows where," The nurse ranted. "You know how many royal pains would jump up my ass if you wandered off and keeled over under my watch, I'd be out of the job faster than you could say pink slip; or worse, imprisonment." She looked back to me. "Do you really think I need that kind of garbage on my plate?"
"No ma'am," I said. "Sorry." The white coated mare, turned the corner into my room, her blonde mane tied in a tight bun beneath her small white cap.
I entered the room as the nurse changed my sheets and prepped my bed again, a nice gesture despite it all. I looked to Kathol.
"Sorry kid," the sergeant said apologetically. "She threatened to fill my I.V. with water instead of morphine if I didn't tell her where you were."
I smiled at him and waved a hand dismissively. "And I would have too," the nurse said as she finished assorting my resting. "Damn fart always makin trouble."
A high mischievous laugh came from my left. "We both know you're sweet on me Bessie," the sergeant quipped. "So what're ya thinking, Zapapplebees for our first date? Or you can take this cast off and we can get right to it if you're hurting for bits, I am a gentleman after all."
The nurse rolled her eyes. "Get stuffed, good sergeant," the nurse said sweetly. As the nurse was exiting a sudden pressure in my lower gut became very apparent.
"Wait," I said after the nurse. She turned around to face me. "I gotta take a piss." Her face deadpanned. "Actually this time!" I said urgently.
The nurse sighed. "Left down the hall, first door on the left." Her face hardened, pursing her lips and widening her eyes. "Celestia help me if I see you anywhere but here next..."
"I got it" I said raising my hands defensively before slipping through the door past her toward the bathroom.
The bathroom was confusing, and I am fairly certain I didn't use it correctly, but I suppose that is for the custodian to worry about. I looked myself in the mirror. My hard features, cast shadows on my pale face. The nurse was nice enough to shave my face for me at my request when I was first recovering, and she had done a nice job indeed. The bruising bags under my eyes gave me a deathly appearance. I had always had a unwelcoming appearance, which often leads people to be caught off guard by my overtly jovial manner of speaking and interaction in a mundane setting. I try my best to be pleasant, whether It's in spite of my heavy presence or not I'm not sure, but this whole endeavor has definitely been testing that. Though these horses probably think I look strange regardless of how I stand on human standards of appearance. I seem quite a bit thinner than usual in my tattered white T-shirt. Definitely some muscle waste at my lack of protein. The wound across the top of my otherwise smooth head is still healing rather slowly, I need more zinc intake.
I finish washing my face and I head out the door back to my room.
Upon returning to the room, Kathol was already out like a light with his I.V. going. Wonder what he said to the nurse.
I nestled into my soft resting and nodded off into oblivion.
I walked along a distorted and familiar path, detail obscured to my recognition, and the absence of such not understood by myself. As I walked still, familiar shapes manifested in impossible spaces of which I find natural. Faces, forlorn and eyed of void. Their black eyes follow me down my path. Houses, mundane and horrifying, to invoke such terror at the shadows of former forms. The one Derpy with her loved little one. They stared and utter, "Would you save us?"
I continue. The lost soldiers, as if frozen in the wake of myself, stare too, uttering the very same, "would you save us?"
Families, loners, soldiers, painters, rulers, freaks , outcasts, oppressors, all look on, and utter their pleas at their struggle, their life, their utterly unique experience and understanding, again they utter, "would you save us?"
The path ends with a door. The door opens to reveal my family, my mother and father sitting in my living room, my brother sitting in the recliner across from them. They look to me and smile.
My eyes open to see the wall across from my medical bed. I'm not going to try to understand what I just saw right now. It is early, too early to awaken, but too late to return to my slumber, so I wait.
Wait for my call.
