[WAVE]
GaruuSpike
Edited by Beige Monkfish
--1--
Colorless phantoms surged across the forest floor. They seemed to possess no height, which allowed them to effortlessly hide within the deep bermuda and remain invisible to those who regarded the landscape with an oblivious eye. Quiet, precise and deliberate, the only indication of their presence was a subtle curving of the grass beneath them.
With a snick, a small object tore through the damp air and embedded itself into thick, fertile soil. The quietest of frustrated grunts concealed itself under the gentle whisper of leaves as a zephyr rolled past. He had missed. With a flick of his elbow, another steel-tipped wooden rod aligned itself with the red line on his hunting bow.
"You're fast, but there is nothing I can't hit," he taunted, his green eyes silently darting across the coarse grass and analyzing it for the slightest hint of his enemy. He couldn't see them, but he could hear them; the creatures seemed to whisper to each other in a language long-forgotten as they skated across the foliage.
His ears perked. There! With grace, he loosed another projectile at a nearby patch of grass. When the distinctive sound of metal piercing flesh met his eardrums, his beige muzzle scrunched up in distaste. A horrible, gurgling, otherworldly scream echoed through the dense tree trunks as an enormous purple flame erupted from seemingly nowhere, before the incandescence faded away as quickly as it had appeared. No scorch marks were left on the grass beneath.
That's two. Celestia, I hate these things.
They had come as they had always come: at every setting of the sun. They had taken lives, both those of the innocent and those of the guilty. Their motives were unclear: no one knew why they came, or what they wanted, but it did not matter to the hunter – the deaths had to stop.
He was not paid much for his efforts, although he did receive basic supplies for no charge. Food, shelter, water, things like that. Him, and the ally he had gained during his 'career'.
"I still don't know how you're able to detect them so easily, Sharp," said a delicate female voice, followed by a sharp crack and a brief illumination of the landscape. "...Damn. I missed."
He cleared his throat. "I've always been good at picking out details."
Crack. "Uh huh... Damn it, that bugger is too–Aagh!" she yelped as a knife of frigid air slit a gash in her front leg. She pressed on it with her other, which almost caused her to lose her balance as her blood discolored her fur a mossy purple. Her head whipped around, and another bolt of crackling violet electricity shot out from the tip of her horn, igniting another purple flame to accompany the resulting screech.
Drawing her injured limb to her chest and standing on her three good legs, she stumbled and almost fell to the ground. With no pressure to halt the bleeding, the crimson liquid flowed freely down her wounded leg and dripped off the elbow.
Sharp Eye immediately wheeled around and darted to his comrade. "Dawn!" he shouted, reaching into his backpack with a hoof and extracting a thick grey rag. As he cleverly made use of his teeth and hooves, the makeshift bandage was soon secured tightly around his friend’s blue leg.
Dawn grunted as the coarse fabric scraped across the open wound, but did not complain. They had only been given rudimentary medical supplies instead of the luxury of soft, comfortable, actual gauze.
Hearing a faint whisper from behind him, the beige pony immediately drew his weapon and turned to shoot an arrow into what appeared to be mere grass. Like all the others, the hidden creature exploded into a ghostly fire.
Grrgh... I can't keep this up. That's four... There usually aren't more than four. I'm running out of arrows, and Dawn is hurt...
Falling back to his hooves, he looked up at the sky. It was getting darker, which wasn't good. The creatures had always attempted to enter the town at dusk, and supposedly could not enter once night fell, but their power grew as Luna’s moon rose higher in the sky. A pony that wandered into the forest at night was likely to be killed before they could blink.
"Dawn, our shift's over, let's go."
"Shift? But, nopony else-"
"I was being sarcastic." He made a movement to grip her uninjured front leg, but stopped upon realizing that it would cause her to fall down. Instead, he simply flicked his head in the direction of Ponyville and began a hastened trot. Dawn limped after him, but walking was difficult with only three legs.
Whispers erupted from behind them, and Sharp picked up his pace. Unfortunately, the blue unicorn was unable to keep up.
"Sharp...! D-don't leave me here!"
Halting, the beige pony backtracked to his friend before extending himself under her and hoisting her onto his back. He bent his knees before launching into a gallop, hoping to outrun the ominous hush that seemed to close in on his position from all directions.
He was grateful that he had been born an earth pony; the other two races seemed to not have the endurance that he was blessed with. He was strong, he could gallop fast, and he could take a beating. As he ran, deep cuts began to appear on his legs as the whispering grew ever-louder. The pain made his mind buzz, but soon enough he tore out of the forest at full speed, almost knocking over a group of citizens.
He slowed as the pain from his wounds finally reached his brain, each step throwing gasoline on the scorching flames in his legs. Dawn set her hooves on the cobbles, a white glow coalescing around her horn as she gently lifted Sharp into the air.
"D-Dawn... I can walk. Put me down."
The blue unicorn shook her head as she carried him into a nearby building. "No, you're hurt."
He was laid onto a large bale of hay, the white aura around him dissipating. Thick grey rags swarmed him, wrapping themselves around every cut and pulling tight.
Heavy clops came from nearby. "Oh... You're back," a voice deadpanned. Sharp let out an annoyed sigh, recognizing the voice. It was an elderly grey pegasus with a large white mustache, moistened to the tip with shaping gel. His expression seemed to be locked in a perpetually dissatisfied glare, and his voice matched.
"Good evening, Mr. Harmen," Dawn greeted, bowing as best as she could on three legs. "We have dispatched the creatures."
"I will arrange your bedding and next three meals," Harmen replied automatically, turning to leave. Sharp's eye twitched as he glared at the ceiling. After weeks of working as the pegasus's 'underling', he had grown to hate him. Harmen acted similar to a very impertinent robot. Every night when he and Dawn came back from fighting off the attacks, Harmen spoke to them as if disapproving of their efforts, and in an irritatingly flat tone. But Sharp couldn't really complain; the pegasus was his boss, and gave him basic life necessities on a day-by-day basis. One day, he hoped to own his own house, and not have to listen to that bigoted piece of-
"Sharp?" his friend's voice asked. "You've been quiet."
"I am so sick of him," he hissed through his teeth.
"He's really not that bad."
"You're just saying that because you aren't forced to put up with him. You can just go and live with your grandmother."
Dawn shook her head, her unruly purple mane swishing back and forth. "No, I've already told you that she wants me to work for my keep."
Sharp snorted. "I'll believe that when I hear it from her."
"You can ask her yourself tomorrow; she tells me she may have found out where the creatures are coming from, and wants us to pay her a visit." The blue unicorn smiled at him, her purple eyes shining. "Grandma is really nice. I think you might like her."
The earth pony blew a strand of brown mane out of his face. "Uh huh." He shifted to get into a more comfortable position. "I've kinda been wondering... Who are your parents? Like, direct parents?"
He was met with a blue frown. "I... I don't want to talk about it," Dawn muttered, taking a seat. Purple irises scanned the floor for a moment, welling up with small tears before they were blinked away.
"Hey, hey, I'm sorry," Sharp apologized, hearing the quiver on his back rattle as he sat upright. "Just forget I asked."
A sniff. "Okay."
The thick clopping returned, and a large mustache peeked from behind the doorway. "Your dinners are ready. Please come to the mess hall." Harmen's tone was unwelcoming, as if entirely sarcastic, but Sharp forced himself to ignore it and stood up. This place sucked. But at least the grub was good.
--2--
Sharp eagerly wolfed down the steaming dish of baked potatoes in front of him. It was infused with several pounds of cheese, lettuce and seasoning, and the vivid flavor allowed him a temporary escape from dull reality. This was actually breakfast, despite the type of food customarily being served for supper. Light shined in from the window of the wall, the blistering heat of the summer sun playing a role in keeping his food perpetually warm. He was unable to test that theory as his plate was licked clean in a matter of minutes.
Dawn ate much more slowly than him, choosing to sit in a place where the light did not reach. She seemed to not like the light, preferring the darkness. "Wow, you're a fast eater," she commented, gawking.
The beige pony chuckled through a grin. "I prefer to not waste any time," he joked. His friend blinked a few times, before setting her jaw with a glare.
"Are you saying I'm slow?"
Sharp's grin fell off of his face, and he shook his head with two raised hooves.
"Good," the unicorn snipped, returning to her meal.
The earth pony shuffled his hooves as he waited for his friend to finish, occasionally checking his front leg for a nonexistent timepiece. Reaching behind himself, he brought his bow in front of his face, examining the hoof-carved woodwork. In Ponyville, archery was really more of a sport played primarily by unicorns. He had endured many scornful laughs and raised eyebrows upon signing up for the activity, as earth ponies were thought incapable of properly holding a bow or shooting an arrow. It really wasn't that difficult; he just had to stand on his hind legs and aim with his two front hooves. He could grip the bow and the arrow by simply bending his hoof joints and holding them in the resulting crooks.
He was fairly certain he wasn't as good of a shot as the unicorns, but his aim was good enough for him. He had ranked third place out of twenty in his most recent archery competition, which had earned him some respect, but recently he had been using his bow for something more important: killing the strange hostile spectres that invaded the town every day at sundown. They had begun their attacks only one week ago, but had already taken the lives of six ponies. Their window of opportunity was very small; they had approximately thirty minutes before they were pulled back into the Everfree Forest. But they were fast – isolating and killing a single pony was not a difficulty for them.
They seemed to be from some other world: along with being almost entirely invisible, they did not leave a corpse upon death, instead burning away in a ghostly purple blaze. They did not come in large numbers: they were usually seen in packs of three or four, at least from Sharp's own experiences. But when the sun sank below the horizon, and the forest became dark, they swarmed. The Everfree Forest was dangerous at night to begin with, but with these near-silent monsters roaming about, it was deadly. One unfortunate stallion had been cleanly sliced in half two nights ago, his body found near the entrance of the forest the next day. Strangely, several witnesses said that there was no blood.
He had not been hired to take care of these demons – he had volunteered, as had Dawn. The two had not known each other beforehoof, but had forged something resembling a friendship during their seven days together. Sharp played his part in the town's defense with his meek bow and arrow, and Dawn played hers with her strange proficiency (and infatuation) with lightning magic.
"Are you done yet, Dawn?" he sighed, before he was silenced by an indignant growl. Beige hooves shuffled once more. "Uhm..."
"Excuse me, but I prefer to pace myself while eating so I don't get stomach cramps!" a voice hissed from the darker end of the table.
"Okay, okay!"
A good fifteen minutes passed before the ocean-blue unicorn had finished her meal, a glowing napkin daintily wiping her muzzle. The other pony in the room had rested his head on the table in the direct path of the sunlight, and the back of his neck burned with a phantom fire. Fortunately, the heat seemed to pull him away from the world and cause the hooves on every clock to move faster.
"Sharp?" He felt two hooves shaking him. "Sharp...?"
He let out a groan, removing his head from the stream of sunlight and committing genocide on the red-hot insects that swarmed his mane. "Are you done now?" he asked.
"Mhm."
Sharp blinked several times, feeling butterflies in his stomach as a translucent white blanket gently lifted him into the air. "Wha-... Hey! Put me down!"
"No, your legs are still hurt. Don't try to tell me otherwise; I could hear you whimpering on the way here."
The beige pony snorted. "Fine." Sometimes he wondered if Dawn cared a little too much about him.
After notifying Harmen, the two hunters exited their 'apartment' and began their journey to the abode of a certain elder mare. Sharp was not walking, but once he realized how very far away Dawn's grandmother lived, he was glad that his partner was carrying him. Unfortunately, being held by magic felt almost like falling through the air, having absolutely no leverage on anything and no ground beneath one's hooves. It was tolerable for a few minutes, but after a while the lack of solid ground was enough to drive a pony insane.
"Be still, Sharp, or I'll drop you."
"I'd like that, actually!"
An irritated sigh was heard.
"Dawn, put me down!"
"Do you think you can walk half a mile?"
"..."
"I didn't think so."
After another half-hour, Sharp was twitching, convulsing, reaching for the earth beneath him. He wasn't sure if it was due to him being an earth pony, but he felt that he needed the ground. He could no longer stand it being just out of reach.
A grunt came from nearby, before the earth pony was reunited with the dirt he cherished. "Okay, we're here."
Green eyes gazed upward, beholding what looked like a massive complex constructed half out of bricks and half out of clouds. A beige jaw dropped as multiple pegasi flew in and out of windows, some hovering and chatting, others relaxing on the white masses. "Your grandmother lives here?"
A sheepish grin was cast his way. "Uh... Yeah, my grandmother is a pegasus... So is everyone else in my family, well, except for me. Even my parents were pegasi, before they..." Dawn shook her head at the ground.
Sharp raised an eyebrow, opening his mouth to ask why she wasn't a pegasus, before realizing how rude the question might be. Ponies born a different race than their parents were often uncomfortable with the subject. Instead, he coughed into his hoof and began a slow trot to the front door.
The door swung open to reveal a small bleach-white pegasus colt with a dark mane and an enormous chipper grin that seemed to completely divide his face. "Dawn!"
"Hey there, DB," the unicorn greeted, bending down to happily nuzzle the little foal. "Is Grandma home?"
"Yeah, she wanted to see you," he replied with a smile as he backed up to allow entrance to the two. Sharp quietly shut the door behind him, gazing at the interior of the house. It was surprisingly homely, the polished wooden walls and floor calmly lit by two windows. Bookshelves lined the walls, and multiple soft-looking chairs were present.
"I kinda wonder why Grandma likes books so much," the little pegasus mumbled to himself as he led the two older ponies through the house and up a set of stairs. The steps seemed to alternate between stone and cloud, and the earth pony gulped as he cautiously took them two at a time, avoiding the cloud stairs. He knew that only pegasi could walk on clouds, and was afraid that he'd suddenly fall through. Dawn mimicked his movements, so it was safe to assume that his fear was correct.
They eventually ascended to the second floor, which was constructed out of a patchwork of wood, stone, and cloud. Sharp watched his hooves as he carefully followed the young pegasus in front of him, making sure to not step on a cloud.
Beige ears perked as they picked up on a soft, loving, elderly voice. "...on the farm of my great-aunt, back when I was young. My great-aunt, back in her day, bucked those apple trees day in and day out, shaking apples off of them to sell to the inhabitants of Ponyville. Now, Ponyville was really small back then, not quite the big city it is today..."
"Grandma?" Dawn asked, peeking in the doorway. An elderly pegasus smiled back at her, a mare of beautiful lavender with a mane of dark green, indigo, and purple, dulled with age. She was surrounded by four young pegasus foals of different ages.
"Hello, Dawn. Did you come to visit, or are you too busy to stay and talk with this old hag?" The old mare laughed to herself. "You remind me of my maternal grandmother. When she was your age, she always moved fast and didn't have much time for anything."
The blue unicorn smiled as she approached her elder, burying her face in the multi-hued mane. "I know, Grandma... You always told me about how she left a colorful trail wherever she zipped off to."
"Oh, yes... But that was never really my own style, no no," the lavender pegasus mused. "I always stayed with my paternal grandmother. She used to read books to me when I was a foal, and told me to stay out of the beakers and flasks around her library, but..." She grinned. "I never really obeyed her in that respect."
Sharp had taken a seat nearby, feeling slightly awkward due to four sets of eyes on his flank, which was emblazoned with a majestic golden bow and arrow. He shifted, trying to get comfortable as he listened to his hunting comrade catch up with her grandmother.
"Did I ever tell you how much you look like her?" the older pony asked, her red eyes shining. "Especially your mane... It's almost exactly the same color, although you don't comb it quite as much as she did."
The earth pony took a closer look at the blue mare in question; her mane was more or less a deep purple with a single pink stripe running through it. It was rather unruly, as if she didn't quite care how it looked.
"Yes, Grandma... You've told me." Dawn chuckled. She snuggled with her grandmother, taking comfort in her presence for a moment. "So... You wanted to talk to me?"
The old mare's eyes unfocused for a moment, as if deep in thought. "Oh, yes, about the creatures..." Stretching her wings to wring out a few cramps, she stood up and picked out a book from a nearby shelf with her teeth. She held it open in her hooves, scanning the lines within. "These creatures... I think they may be from Tartarus." Four young gasps were heard. "Vile creatures, with an insatiable bloodlust. Living proof that what you can't see can hurt you. I don't know how they could have escaped, but from what you've told me, Dawn, I assume they have taken refuge in the forest. They are weaker in the sunlight, since Tartarus is dark, but when night falls..." Red eyes drifted to the younger pony beneath them. "Dawn... You don't hunt in the forest after dark, do you?"
A blue head snapped up in surprise. "U-uhm..."
"If that job of yours puts you in that kind of danger, I'd rather you live at home. You never needed to move out, anyway... You're always welcome here with the rest of us." The lavender pony smiled.
Sharp's eyebrows rose. "Dawn, I thought you told me-" He was interrupted by a shush. Wait... Why would Dawn lie to him?
"Grandma, I told you, I don't want to live off another pony for the rest of my life!"
"You aren't living off of me if you're helping to pay the bills," the elder mare corrected, wrapping her neck around her granddaughter. "And you never needed to move away."
"Grandma, part of my payment is actually food and housing. And I still need to know more about those creatures."
"Ah, yes..." The old pony unwillingly returned to her book. "Actually, I've been unable to find any more information on them. There have only been a few recorded encounters in Equestrian history. Perhaps you could check the Main Ponyville Library. I'm sure the pony that runs it would be eager to help you."
Dawn broke away from her grandmother, standing up. "You know, that's actually a good idea. Thanks, Grandma," she chimed, trading smiles with her relative.
"Not a problem at all, Dawn. I only have so many books in this little library of mine, most of them given to me by my grandmother... I think she used to run the Main Ponyville Library back in her day, actually..." The aged mare trailed off, looking up at the ceiling.
"I'll see you soon, Grandma." Dawn smiled again as she left the room. Sharp briskly followed, eager to escape the four sets of lasers that had almost burned holes into his flank. In his haste, he absent-mindedly shoved his hoof into a cloud that made up a section of the floor, and fell straight through to the room below with a yelp. Although it jarred him to strike the floor with his back, he reasoned that the pain was greatly inferior to what it would've been had he landed on his cut-up legs. He rolled over and stood up, just in time to see his partner rushing towards him.
"Sharp, are you okay?" she asked as she looked over him with the scrutiny of a surgeon. He nodded calmly, walking to the front door and passing through without another word. It was quite awkward having a multitude of young ponies enviously gawking at your cutie mark.
He was unable to take more than a few steps before he was again tugged into the air by a phantom force. He released an irked sigh, but was ignored. Dawn, eager to expand her knowledge of her hunting target, galloped the entire way back to the large city that was Ponyville. It had used to be a small village, but over the course of a century it had grown into a large complex composed of many tall buildings. The careful planning that had gone into the architecture suggested it was a sort of circular grid city, but was far from the labyrinth that one would expect from a metropolis of this size – the duo experienced no difficulty locating the library that Dawn's grandmother had suggested to them.
--3--
There were many libraries in Ponyville, but the largest and most diverse one was located inside the enormous tree downtown. Magic had kept it alive despite it being hollowed out, and had allowed it to grow to a truly massive size. It had six floors, complete with windows and furniture that caused it to feel more like a house.
A blue hoof quietly rapped on the hinged slab of wood that served as the front door. Hoofsteps were heard from inside, before the door swung open to reveal an intelligent-looking white unicorn mare. The bifocals balanced on her snout shifted as she smiled.
"Oh, welcome!" the librarian greeted, her deep-blue eyes shining. Her mane, like electric-blue silk with a single pink stripe running through it, swished as she turned around to lead the two into the tree-building. Dawn stared for a moment, realizing that her own mane possessed the same pink stripe, before shaking her head. She brought her injured partner inside, gently lowering him to the floor as she closed the door behind him.
"Did you come to check out a book, or perhaps return one?" the white unicorn asked as she levitated a few titles off of the massive bookshelves that ran from the floor to the ceiling.
Craning his neck, Sharp surmised that the room must have been at least twenty feet high. "Uh, maybe. We were wondering if you had any books on... erm... the creatures of Tartarus." He shuffled his bandaged hooves, wondering if he had asked the right question. He wasn't entirely sure if the librarian would know what he was talking about if he mentioned the creatures that had been attacking the town at dusk. Despite being dangerous, most ponies didn't even know about them. Perhaps that meant that he and Dawn had been doing a good job – nopony would know about the creatures if nopony was being affected by them..
The white pony blinked. "Mythological creatures? Those books are on the sixth floor. Please, follow me." The three traveled up five winding flights of stairs, Sharp grunting from the burning pain in his legs, before arriving at the sixth level of the building, a room that was not quite as tall as the others. The beige stallion began to feel lightheaded.
"You know, these books were the favorites of my great-great-grandmother, the first pony to run this library for an extended period of time," the librarian mused to herself as she skimmed over the titles of the shelved books, searching for a tome that would satisfy her customer. "Back in her day, this library was very small. She used to run it, before she... well... before she got a... better job. I should send her another letter – maybe she'd approve of how well I've been doing this month."
Sharp simply raised an eyebrow at the white unicorn. "You can send her a letter? If she's your great-great-grandmother, wouldn't she be, like, a hundred and forty years old? How is she still alive?"
Silence gripped the room for several seconds.
"I'm sure we have a book on the creatures of Tartarus. I'll keep looking – you two have a seat," the librarian chimed, flicking her head in the direction of two large armchairs.
Sharp cleared his throat as he slunk into a comfortable blue cushion. "Uhm, really, how can you send her a letter?" His repeated question was met with a blank blue stare, but no vocal response.
He worked the inside of his mouth. The librarian appeared to be dodging the subject. He decided to dismiss it – one cannot send letters to a dead pony. Perhaps the nearsighted mare was simply a tad delusional.
A moment passed, before a small cheer filled the air. "Ah ha! The Creatures of Tartarus. Heheh, how convenient..." A book was levitated into Sharp's lap. "Is that all you need, sir?"
"Uh... yep. Thanks," he replied with a grin, taking the book into his teeth and beginning the painful trot down the long flights of stairs.
"Hey, do you also have a book that covers advanced lightning spells?"a female voice asked from somewhere above him, bringing an amused grin to his face. Oh, Dawn...
Upon passing by the third level, an open scroll carelessly discarded onto the floor caught his eye. Casting a glance up the stairs to make sure nopony was following him, he trotted to it and held it open with his two front hooves.
Dear Ice Shine,
I am pleased to know that you are taking-
Bright green eyes tore themselves away from the parchment. He shouldn't be doing this – this was somepony else's mail. He shouldn't read it. He began to canter back to the stairwell, but his own curiosity got the better of him, and he quickly darted back to the letter.
Dear Ice Shine,
I am pleased to know that you are taking good care of my library. As you know, I am far too busy to run it nowadays. It eases my burdens to know that you are doing well, and makes life up here just a little bit more bearable. Thank you, and remember, the customer is always right!
Your loving mentor,
TS
His eyes were almost as wide as dinner plates. The ink on this scroll was new – it smudged under his hooves – so this letter could not have been more than a few days old. His mouth worked, but nothing came out. How could the librarian be penpals with a pony that was no doubt over a century old? Ponies don't live that long! Gritting his teeth, he cursed himself for being so nosy. He had always felt a desire to snoop into everypony else's business, but there were some things in Equestria that simply were not meant for his eyes. These things often shocked and confused him.
Shaking his head, he forced the memory of the hoofwritten text out of his mind. It was a mystery that was not his to solve. Picking up the book he had dropped, he made his way down to the first floor and sat his haunches on the wooden paneling, waiting for his partner to meet him.
Several minutes passed before the two unicorns returned, incessantly babbling about magic and other things that the earth pony did not understand. Letting his torso drop to the floor, he gently rubbed his temples with his hooves, praying to the creators above to make the infernal buzz of advanced magic-applied whatever-the-hay-it-was stop.
"You ready to go, Sharp?" a voice asked him. His eyes fluttered open, and he nodded, moving to pick up the book with his teeth before it was swept away from him. A blue smile was cast his way, before he was again lifted into the air.
"Awgh... I think I can walk this time, Dawn. Put me down."
He was ignored.
--4--
Fortunately, he was not kept away from the ground for too long this time – he and Dawn reached their 'headquarters' in less than ten minutes. Located near the outskirts of town, it was a simple but sturdy building constructed primarily out of grey bricks. The stones were so perfectly cut that the building looked as if it could survive an earthquake. Black smoke billowed out of the chimney up top, fed by the roaring fireplace within.
Sharp was soon laid on a familiar bale of hay, his blue friend sitting next to him as The Creatures of Tartarus was held aloft by a ghostly white aura. The book opened, the pages flipping by as a set of purple eyes intently scanned their contents. "If these creatures really are from Tartarus, we should be able to find out all about them from this book..."
Beige limbs curled closer to their owner's torso, the hay bale beneath him rustling as he lay his head on it. He didn't dare attempt to read the book as long as its pages were flipped back and forth so mercilessly. It wasn't like he needed to – his friend would figure it out all by herself. She was a a bit of a bookworm, and could read pretty fast. Much faster than he could.
"No... No... No!" A frustrated growl was heard as the book's pages were flipped back and read through once more. "Grrgh! I can't find anything!"
Green eyes nervously drifted to the blue unicorn. Dawn was... unnerving when she got angry. "I-I'm sure it's in there somewhere. If it isn't, we can always go back to the library and keep looking," he suggested, forcing the words through his teeth. The image of that note resurfaced in his mind, refusing to leave his memory no matter how much he demanded it. After seeing the letter, he didn't want to go back to the library. There was something about that mare... She was either delusional, actually had a relative that possessed impossible longevity, or she was infatuated with borderline necromancy. He shuddered at the thought of the librarian speaking to an undead mare.
The book snapped closed with a thunderous clap. "I'll look for it later." The tome was gently set on a nearby table, before the blue unicorn laid down in front of the crackling fireplace. Despite the blistering heat outside, it was strangely cold inside the building, as if the Windigos themselves resided beneath the floorboards. Sharp did not mind extreme temperatures, but his partner did.
He almost didn't notice a large white mustache staring at him from behind a doorway. "Sharp Eye, your shipment of arrows has arrived." A dull thud resounded throughout the room as a crate landed next to his hay bale. He lifted it up to him with his teeth, staring at it. Oh good, more arrows... Each one he fired to slay those invisible beasts was burned away in the resulting flame, and as he was unable to retrieve them, his quiver was emptied fairly quickly. He frowned at the steel bolts that held the box together. There was no way he was going to unscrew them with his teeth. He would need a crowbar to pry it open.
He sighed. Why was it that everything seemed to be designed for unicorns nowadays?
"Need some help, Sharp?" A pair of purple eyes were suddenly very close to him.
His frown deepened into a scowl, and he shot a glare at his friend, who backed away. "I don't want help. I don't have magic, but that doesn't mean I can't open a box by myself." He was lying through his teeth, but he didn't want Dawn to know that. After several moments of staring at the box, he heard a clearing of the throat.
"Are you sure, Sharp? Those bolts are screwed in really tight..." His friend gazed at him with an expression that clearly showed that she only wanted to help. He sighed, sucking up his pride.
"Fine." The box in front of him was lifted away by an invisible force, before each bolt was daintily unscrewed and discarded onto the table holding The Creatures of Tartarus. The lid was lifted off, the quiver on the earth pony's back sliding off in suit, before several well-honed arrows were stored into the strapped container. The quiver was placed on the hay bale next to Sharp, who glared at it with grit teeth.
"Rrgh... I can't freaking do anything," he hissed under his breath, tearing his eyes away from the arrow case. A gentle hoof laid on his back.
"Sharp..."
He answered with a frustrated snort.
"...Sharp, listen..."
His brown mane swished as he turned to give the sympathetic unicorn an annoyed glare. Being an earth pony was only useful when he was fighting something, be it a hostile creature, or the terrain itself. When it came to everyday tasks, everything was difficult.
"Do you realize how good you are with your bow? You're a better shot than most unicorns, and you don't have magic. You don't need it. It... it's just a few screws." She nuzzled him, her horn lifting up his bangs. "I have trouble getting them out, and I use magic."
He began to suspect that Dawn was lying to him to make him feel better. "You sure don't have trouble lifting a fork, or reading a book, or playing an instrument," he hissed.
Purple eyes widened. "I... Sharp, you're really talented... I just-"
"You just have an easier time."
"No, no..." she refuted, shaking her head. She remained quiet for a few seconds, unsure of what to say. She swallowed. "Y... Yes, I have an easier time with really small things, but... Telekinesis is just as hard as lifting something myself. You're an earth pony. You're really strong. You can do athletic things that I can only dream of. I..."
"You're not making me feel better."
She grit her teeth, looking away. "I... I'm sorry, Sharp..."
Silence dominated the room for a few minutes. Dawn lay next to her friend, intentionally holding the reference book with her hooves as she read over it. She often fumbled and almost dropped it, unaccustomed to manipulating objects without her magic. "I think they might be a type of restless spirit..."
Green eyes glared down at beige hooves, their owner silent.
"Sharp?" A blue hoof moved his mane out of his eyes. "You're not still mad, are you?"
He sighed, casting a morose green glance at his friend. She stared at him for a moment, her purple eyes glistening with concern, before reluctantly turning back to her book. "...Yes, maybe they're restless spirits, filled with anger and hatred. I... I can't read their name; it's in some other language. But it says here that they're bloodthirsty. And then there's all this dribble about their history..." She hummed to herself as she read. "Yep, restless spirits that try to satisfy their bloodlust at dusk, when the amount of light is similar to Tartarus." After a moment, she gasped in realization. "This means that they might also come at dawn..."
Sharp's eyes widened. "Oh, dear..." Most ponies were asleep at dawn. If those monsters came as the sun was rising, they could kill innocent ponies as they slept. "Looks like you and I will have to cut a few hours out of our sleep schedule."
"Right..." Blue hooves shuffled. "I'm not sure if we can keep doing this all by ourselves. I still don't get how nopony seems to know about this. These creatures are dangerous! I figured word would have reached the royal triumvirate by now, and they would have alerted the city guard, but they didn't!" Purple eyes drifted to green ones. "It's like you and I are the only ponies around here who even know about this!"
"I think we might be able to handle it by ourselves." A beige muzzle parted into a confident grin, before vanishing as a white mustache suddenly appeared in the doorway. The shaping gel seemed to reflect sunlight directly into Sharp’s eyes.
"Hmm. How ironic; you two need help. Well, good news; you might be getting some." The elderly pegasus left the room without clarifying his meaning, pursued by an obsessive-compulsive blue unicorn.
A sigh came from the only pony left in the room. He was not looking forward to the next round with those creatures, come dusk. Simply walking brought great pain, and he feared that he would be unable to stand on his hind legs to use his bow. Reinforcements would be nice.
