Chapters The arrow had sunk deep into into my chest, but I didn't feel it. Nor the loss of my arm as I used it to block the ax coming for my head. My maw snapped onto the ax man’s arm so hard I cut right through it, as I used my only remaining arm to open his stomach and spilling out his insides. The bowman struck again as this one ripped into the flesh of my hood drawing more blood than I thought could come from there.
This fight was coasting me to much, but if it got my friends to the camp then it was worth my death. They would secure the freedom of this nation and I could die with my blade in my claw. I, Dragor Starclaw, of the Star Clan, would earn my place among the gods as a Barbarian! With my Rage renewed, I charged the bowman.
I never saw the cavalier as he charged in from my left, but I felt his lance pin me to the stone ground underneath my feet. It punched through my left side, just under my arm, and plunged deep into my chest and ripped out the other. That pain I did feel, burning and blinding me, but I pulled the point from the ground and trudged fourth. I reached out and grasped the bowman's face with my only good claw, and with the last of my strength, I crushed his skull with one, final, rake of the claws.
The cavalier trotted up to me before I fell to my knees and grasped the hilt of his lance. He tried to pull the pike out only to have grab the guard, holding it in my body.
“This is my lance, go get your own,” I growled up at him with a bloody smile. The madness of Rage was slowly lifting as my life blood seeped from my body.
“You are defeated, why do you still fight?” the knight asked upon his mount.
I looked at him for the first time, not as a warrior but as a person. Underneath his helm, his blue eyes searched for his answers to his questions. His armor still gleamed in the dim sunlight as he shifted in his saddle, bouncing of the full plate poldrins and chainmail. A strand of blond hair fell from under the helm as he looked down at me. His features were fair and soft, princelike.
“Why do the leaves fall in the autumn,” I asked in return. Blood was filling my lungs and making it hard to keep this up, I still smiled my crocodile grin.
He look at me in confusion.
“It is not a question of why I fight, but what I fight for,” I coughed out more blood with this. “You fight for king and country, while I fight for Freedom. Your king holds my people in chains, and has refused to speak with me for peace. So, with a heavy heart, I charged his gates and killed his men.”
The cavalier frowned down at me.
“You speak truth, Lizard. Yet I can do nothing to help, you die in vain this day.”
“No not in vain.” Blood dripped down my leg and off my chin as I shifted to face him better.
I winced from the pain that shot through me as I looked up at him and smiled.
“I was the distraction.”
The knight's eyes widened as it sank in, a lone warrior had posed enough of a threat to the crown to warrant the army to move against him. I was that warrior. I had killed his men and put fear into the hearts of his soldiers. I had cut into his forces, leaving bloody trails in and out of his formations. I had cut down near to a hundred men, just to keep the bulk of the force away from the camp they guarded. The same camp where my clan lay in chains, slaving for his king.
The same camp my friends were now raiding.
Smoke rose from the camp as the tents went up in flames. Battle cries, carried up to us by the winds, echoed in our ears. Small forms ran from the camp in all directions as the fire consumed the work camp.
“Now I see why the king fears your people. If you were this cunning, what is your clan capable of?”
At that I laughed, though it was short lived with the pain and blood.
The knight looked down at me in horror. I had sacrificed myself to them for my people, and it had worked. The gods had willed me to fail, and I spit in their eye. My people would return to the desert sands, to the shear cliffs of our home. To the children that they were taken from.
I reached down and grabbed my curved falchion in my good hand. The feel of its weight, its leather wrapped handle was good in my claw. I looked down at it. The runes chisel into the steel of the blade naming it Starcutter. The guard swap down, covering my hand in its depiction of the Starriver it was forged in. The legendary blade of my people, gifted to them by Luna, goddess of the night sky, would find it's way back to them when I passed from this world.
I wanted the last moments of my life to be with that blade. It had taken my far from my home, leading me on this journey. It and Luna had pushed me to find my friends, my companions on this journey, and to find my missing clan mates. I had found them, freed them and now I could die as a hero.
My vision swam as I began to feel light headed. The world spun as I fell to the soft grass beneath me. It felt as if I was flying as I lay there, my body became light and my mind started to fog over as death started to take me. Light filled my vision as the pain of my wounds faded into the background and I felt myself float in the nothingness that had enveloped me.
I floated there for a short time, feeling nothing, when I heard a voice.
“You are not done yet, mortal.” it whispered to me. “I still have need of you, my child.”
I felt grass underneath me once again. Its green filled my vision and the pain came screaming back into my body. I lay there, mind drifting into the darkness of unconsciousness when a yellow hoof filled my vision.
Then the world went black.
Author's Note
So here is something that jumped out of my head as I was working on that other thing I promised. Hope you like it.
2: The task of Starclaw (edit)
Once again I was floating, weightless in a sea of darkness. The pain was at and ebb, letting me rest on the cusp of life and death. I stayed that way for a while until I became bored of it and opened my eyes. My body was just below me, still wounded yet breathing.
This was the first time I could really look at myself. I had scale patterns of tan and light browns fading into dirt brown and yellows roving up and down my body, colors that blinded nicely with the desert that once was my home. The hood of my race lay flat against the sides of my head looking like ears of a sort, folded and curving like the humans that once traveled along side me. Finned spines curved back forming my dorsal that would trace down to the mid of my back. The wounds that once covered my body were still there, though patched up with a white cloth that was starting to show red from the blood.
I lay in a bed in the center of a room with a curtain hanging in its center, cutting off my view of the door. A few chairs sat along the wall facing the bed I was in, none were occupied. I floated over myself and wondered if I had died, seeing as how a tube was hanging from my snout. Several dots of cloth connected to cording were on my chest. The cording was attached to a box that looked to contain some form of magic, the thing beeped and was putting of a faint light. It was then I noticed the slight rise and fall of my chest, signaling that I was breathing (though I new not how).
I look upon myself and wonder if my tail made the journey here with the rest of me when a lump under the covers twitched. Yes, my tail had come with me and nothing about me had changed much. The linen cloth around my right arm told me I might never use that limb properly again and that my wounds were still there, though less life threatening than I thought. Maybe I could find a cleric in this place to heal me faster.
As I assessed myself, the light in the room grew steadily until I felt someone standing beside me.
“You look like ten weeks of hard travel, Starclaw.”
“I'm still alive to do your bidding, am I not, Luna?”
I turned to see her, standing in all her godly glory. She was slightly shorter than me in this form, maybe sixteen hands high to my twenty. She was standing in a flowing cloth made of moonlight that pored over her, looking like a toga made of quicksilver. Her silver hair flowed out as if blown by a breeze I couldn't feel. Her pail skin shimmered as if giving off its own light. But what intrigued me the most about her were her eyes, large and silver orbs that shifted to black like the fazes of the moon.
“You are indeed alive but I can not help you in this world. You are alone here, save for the blade you held onto in death.” Her voice sounded as bells chiming a sweet song in my ears.
“Why?”
She smiled at my body.
“I have an avatar in this world, one that will need help defending it from what is to come. But you must not tell them why you are here.”
I raised an eye ridge at her.
“Do not question me in this. Others are watching and will be judging you, some of them you have angered.”
This brought a wicked smile to my muzzle.
“You disobeyed them, and proved them wrong. Something that no mortal should ever do, and you did it with that crocodile grin on your smug snout. Even when they took your life you smiled and deified them.” She smiled at that thought.
“And that is bad why?” I asked.
She covered her smile with a finger and shushed me.
“She's here.”
As she said that she started to fade into nothingness. She left me, floating over my body, with more questions that answers. Why gods love doing that, I'll never know.
I heaved a sight and turned back to my body. It lay there, covered in scars and bandages, barley breathing. Struggling to keep going as it healed from the beating I took before I got here. For the first time in years, I felt uncertain. My course was shadowed and hard to find, let alone fallow. What did this world hold for me? Could I overcome the challenge Luna had hinted at? Was I strong enough to complete the task she had given me?
I was starting to fallow that thought down a dark path. I couldn't afford to do this, not right now. My body shuttered in it's sleep as I processed the facts that Luna had given me. Something in this world was putting it in danger, I needed to help them find it and kill it. But what was it? Could It be killed? That was what was scaring me. I could fight a war, carry boulders up mountains, hunt any beast that reared it head, but I couldn't work in a court of nobles. I once tried, only to rip the arms off of an elven ambassador and nearly start a war between them and the temple of the Cog.
My thoughts were interrupted by something entering the room. I could only feel it enter, but there was something there. It stepped up next to me, bending the light around it giving it the appearance of invisibility. I could feel it breathing, feel it's eyes on me. I waited for it to do something, anything, before I reacted. It did nothing but sit there and stare at me for over an hour.
My temper was never easy to hold back, especially when I think I’m being watched. This thing was not moving, shifting or twitching. I could hear a settle breathing, smell the slight musk that fell through the veil, but if it held still I could see nothing of it.
This started to get on my temper. It did nothing, just sit there and look at me. It didn't say a word, or move or just do anything. I couldn't help start to growl a little. I felt the snarl build in my chest like a rolling wave of sound. It built until it crescendoed into a rawer of frustration.
“DO SOMETHING, WILL YOU!!”
This popped whatever power it had running, reveling what was hidden from me.
What I saw, strange as it may be, made me start to crack up.
Author's Note
Seven likes, no dislikes and 37 views....... O.o
May you always walk in the Light.
I couldn't help but laugh at the thing that popped out of the spell. It was fifteen hands, from floor to the tip of its horn. Its teal eyes had shrunk to the size of quill tips from my shout. It was of an equine descent and appeared to walk on all fours. It was dark blue with a small patch of black on it's withers. A crescent was just barley visible from where I was floating on thous black patches. The mane and tail of the equine were the strangest part about it. They mimicked the night sky and shifted gently as if blown by a wind only they were in.
The creature had a crone and a to small chestplate yoke that were jet black, each had the crescent adorning them as well. I noted the wings that stood strait up from it's back and the horn that spiraled up from the head. It then shifted uncomfortably as I tried to rain in my laughter.
“What are you, a Pegacorn?” I giggled out.
In a regal voice, she (by the sound of it or maybe an effeminate male) responded to my question.
“I am Princess Luna, Alicorn ruler of Epuestria..... What is so funny?”
I had to hold my sides as I fell to my knees, laughter stopping my words before they formed.
“You,” I giggled out, “You can't be the Avatar she spoke of..... You're shorter than her.....”
I fell into more laughter at this, only to hear her start to get angry at me. Now when I get angry, people and things tend to move or get broken. Luna's anger (the real one) could churn the seas and move the mountains. This Luna, though her avatar, was a pushover in the anger department. Her eyes glowed and power crackled around her, but I’ve seen that in two-bit mage lookalikes that have just a little bit of power.
So needles to say, I was not impressed by the little display of power, until it picked me up and dragged me into my memories. Scary things live there, but she took it all in stride. The blood, the guts and the pain. Right up until the moment I was pulled into this world, that made her stop dead in her tracks. All of my pain was drowned out by one fact, my people were free.
“You..... you saved so many.....yet you killed..... more.......”
I got slowly to my feet and stood, facing her.
“I only did what I had to for my people. I did not save them, I gave them the power to save themselves.” I looked at her hard. “As for the death I have caused, that is a part of my life.”
She looked up at me confused.
“I don't know how your world works, but where I come from, war is just a fact of life, as is death.” I closed my eyes and breathed in deeply.
“It helps us value life more when death can take us before we blink. Death is part of my everyday life,” I smiled at my sleeping form. “Even now I sit at his doorstep, waiting on him to decide if I live or die.”
I looked at her hard. “Now what do you want and why are you here in my head?”
She looked up at me, eyes confused. I couldn't tell what she was thinking. Anger, pain and panic flashed over her face as I looked at her.
“My sister wanted to know what you were, and if you were a threat.”
This brought my smile back.
“Well, you saw what I am through my memories. Am I a threat?”
“No.”
“Just so you know I am a threat, but only if you get in the way of my mission. I don't know what I’m here for, but you will be the first to know when I do.”
She noded and turned to walk away.
“Remember, you are in a new world. You must fallow the law or face the consequences. Please, remember this.”
With that she vanished from my mind and left me to my thoughts. As the sun began to rise, I could feel my body start to stir. I walked over to my body and looked down at it. I may forget what happened, but I would never forget the warning she gave me. As the rays of light flooded the room I opened my eyes.
The room I was in was plain, white and clean. All but my bed, a certain, the magic box and some chairs filled the room. The soft beep of the box chased off the silence of the room. A harsh chimerical smell filled my nose as I sucked in my first, painful breath of the day. I winced at the pain in my chest as I breathed. My wounds weren't fully healed but I was in the mood for a walk.
As I started to move, I pulled the cords off my chest. I put my feet on the ground and started to rise off the bed. As the cords came off the box started to make more noise and then I heard shouting from outside the room I was in. As I stood, someone came running into my room.
A pony came running in, she was white with a light pink mane and tail. Her mane was pulled up into a bun under her hat. She had a red cross with hearts around it on her flank. Her hat held the same mark and she looked concerned. I started toured the window when I felt her hoof tap my shoulder.
“You shouldn't be up, you need more rest,” she said in a soft voice.
“Either let me walk or open the window, I can't stand the smell in here.”
“We can do that, but you need to lay back down.”
I grunted my surrender. I didn't want them to start hating me for reopening my wounds. I turned and sat down on the bed as she trotted over to the window and pulled it open. The fresh air came in on a gentle breeze and killed the smell in the room. I breathed in the sweet air of this world and wondered what life had in store for me.
For now I just needed to heal and eat something.
Author's Note
Its about time I got this out. hope you like it.
May you always walk in the Light.
The glare I was giving my hand could have buckled steel. Yet there it sat, numb and useless. I could still feel small things like me poking it, or Nurse Redheart worked on it. That was a good sine, but Redheart said it could take months for it to get back to being used, let alone get feeling back in it. So there I sat, on the bed, tray of food in my lap, giving my hand a death glare.
Yep, my life had turned down a strange path.
A knock on my room door made me look up from my hand. A butter yellow pegasus was standing in my doorway trying her best to hide in her pink mane. The fact that the glare never left my face didn't help her to stop hiding behind that long pink mane. This made me glare even harder at her.
“You lost?” I snapped at her.
She mumbled something I wouldn't have heard if I was right next to her.
“You going to stand there and mumble at me or come in here and talk?” I growled.
Man, I got to work on at least trying to be nice.
Nurse Redheart walked up beside her as she was about to dash out, stopping her retreat and making me smile. Just so you know, my snout has rows and rows of sharp, pointy and dagger-like teeth, and when I grin, even though I love to smile, I make a crocodile look friendly. Even Redheart stopped to look scared.
“Starclaw, that is no way to treat a guest.” Redheart chastised me.
I laughed at this. Redheart, a small pony (I was given a small explanation when I woke up that day), was telling me to be nice. Me, the big scary new thing that dropped out of the sky, bleeding all over everything and snarling at everyone. She was brave, and I was a fool
“Sorry, my hand just made me angry,” I said.
That's when the shy little pony piped up.
“What happened?” she almost demanded.
“I can't get it to move like it should,” I huffed.
She trotted up to the bed and looked at my hand. She took it into her hooves and turned it, making the wrist turn and the fingers to twitch. As she was looking at it, I started in on my food.
“How did your claw get like this?”
“I used it to stop an ax from taking my head off,” I said through a mouth full of fish.
She looked at me in horror. “Who would do that to you?”
I didn't understand what she mint. I looked at her puzzled and blinked.
“A Soldier doing his duty to his king. Even if he was wrong, I don't blame him for it.”
She looked like she was about to cry at what I said.
“I bit his arm off in return,” I smiled at her as I chomped down on the fish once more.
The color drained from her face as she comprehended what I just said. Even the stoic Redheart went pail(er) at that. That was when it hit me, this world didn't know violence like mine, or at least these ponies didn't. I started to giggle and let it build to a rolling belly laugh.
“That is not funny.” Redheart said sternly.
“The look.... *snort* on your face.....” I nearly fell off the bed I was laughing so hard.
I love the power of laughter. If you do it long enough (and hard enough), everyone around you joins in. They can't help it. I once sat in a tyrant's throne room laughing at his hat for a good ten minutes, until everyone in the room (but him of coarse) was laughing with me. I still don't know why I found that hat so funny. Maybe it was the feather.
They were soon giggling at me as I laughed at them. We started to calm down when I notesed someone new. A pink pony with cotton candy hair of a darker pink was giggling away beside the yellow one. I blinked in confusion. When did she get in here and how did I not see her come in?
She looked up at me with a grin that filled her face. She had blue eyes that glittered fur on her back. Her smile never wavered as she walked up to me.
“Hi, My name is Pinky Pie and you have a silly sense of humor. What's your name?”
Her voice even had a smile to it, and it was infectious. I started to grin, fin to fin.
“The name's Starclaw.”
With thous words, I had a conversation. Not banter, not threats, not even snide remarks about being a monster. Even the shy one piped up on a few things. For the first time since I left home, I felt like someone wanted me to be there, and not as a body guard.
“So, when can I give you a 'Welcome to Ponyvill party?'” Pinky asked.
I stopped and stared at her. No one, and I mean NO ONE (not even my own cluchmates), has ever invited me to a party. I've crashed a few, but that was just to get at someone attending or hosting (namely to kill or get info out of them).
“I've never..... been invited to a party,” I stammered.
Even the shy one looked shocked at that.
“Oh I've gone to a few, but never with an invite,” I stammered. “Normally I just crashed them.”
“Then....” Pinky started to say as her eyes got even bigger. “THIS WILL BE THE BEST PARTY EVER!!!”
That last part nearly deffened me. That little pink one has some pipes on her. She jumped into the air pumping her hooves and dashed out of the room, leaving a trail of dust in her wake. I was shocked at the speed of that pony. I wonder what she would be like in a fight.
The shy one smiled gently at me.
“Umm... my name is Fluttershy, by the way,” she said in a soft and gentle voice.
I started to laugh, once again.
Two weeks. It took them two weeks just to let me get out of that small room and out of the building. My arm was in a sling, still numb and unmoving, but I was working it like it moved (to the dismay of Redheart). As I stepped out of Ponyvill's General Hospital, the sun was shining high in the sky. Starcutter had made the journey to this world with me and now hung, strapped to my back. The air smelled sweet with the flowers of spring and fresh rain from last night's shower.
Fluttershy landed lightly beside me and smiled up at me. She had come to visit me everyday, wanting to know what I liked and where I came from. I told her of the Fangsand desert, and the Starcliffs that my tribe had lived for centuries. I told her of my Tribe and how we lived on the cliff face. She took it all in, enjoying my company and after a few days, she called me her friend.
“So, Pinky said something about a party when I got out?” I asked looking at the beautiful day.
“She hosts them at Suggercube Corner, I think it may be ready,” she stated. “If you want to go that is.”
I smiled and let her lead me through town. The town itself was small, likely a farming town, with small shops and an open air market. The ponies were timid and skittish of me as I trooped through the town. Most of them dashed inside or found something to hide under. I didn't mind, most people did that when I walked by on my world.
What set me on edge was not the ponies hiding in fear, but the feeling that something was watching me. I had felt this before, back in my world, when someone put a good amount of gold out for my head. I did my best to shake it off, for Shy, snd keep pace with the little yellow pony.
“Now, Pinky likes to jump out and shout, so be ready if that happens. She just likes to make sure you enjoy yourself.”
I smiled down at Fluttershy and thanked her. The building that she had led me to looked like it was made from baked goods, right down to the shingles made of frosting.
“I just hope a witch doesn’t live here with her,” I said with a smirk.
As I opened the door, I noted the darkness behind it. I have darkvision, something that comes in handy when you are crawling through a dungeon or cave looking for something, so I could see the ponies inside without a problem. I smiled, thinking how they were wanting to surprise me by lighting the fire once I got inside. I can't see color in the dark, but I could see the ponies inside shifting uncomfortably and looking nervous. I wanted to make a good impression on these ponies and maybe make some new alias for that mission Luna had for me, so I did the first thing that came to mind.
I jumped into the room and shouted as loud as I could, “Lets get this started!!”
The lights came on and Pinky jumped out in front of me.
“Hay, that was my line!”
That did it. The room fell into laughter as the pink party pony started up the music and dragged me around the room, introducing me to all her friends. She dragged me to a table where four ponies sat with Fluttershy. One had wings and a horn, she was purple with a darker mane and tail. A star was emblazoned on her flank, and a pink and purple stripe ran through the mane and tail. Another was orange with a blond mane and tail, three apples adorned her flank. The third was white with a deep blue mane and tail, three diamonds were on her flank. The last one hovered in the air glaring at me with her deep crimson eyes. She had light blue fur and a rainbow mane and tail.
“Hay, girls. This is my New friend, Starclaw,” Pinky introduced me.
The girls looked up at me with a little fear, but mostly awh. I towered over them but did my best to look nice (yep, a seven foot tall monster, looking nice). I failed. They all pulled back, save Fluttershy.
“Starclaw, this is Princess Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash,” Pinky smile at each of her friends.
“Oh, so I get to deal with Royalty at my party too,” I said snidely. “Should I bow and call you 'your Eminence'?”
Rainbow Dash snorted at my remark but I got a dirty look from Pinky.
“Okay, okay, thought I might lighten the mood a little with a joke,” I rubbed the back of my head with my good hand. “It's nice to meet you all.”
Rarity smiled at my little joke, she made my think of many nobles that I once had to two-step around with a Paladin friend of mine.
Before we could really get into it I heard a scream coming from outside. I didn't even flinch as I turned to charge out the door. Dash fallowed me close out of the building as I drew out Starcutter with my left hand. I couldn't help it, if someone needed help I had to do it if I was there. The scream was close to the party so after a turn down an ally near by, I found what was making the scream.
A teal mare with a harp on her flank was being dragged toward a large black crystal poking out of the ground. A single dark shadow was wrapped around the mare's leg. I didn't think, just let my instincts take over. My blade rose over my head and came down on to the crystal. As I did this, Dash grabbed the mare, dragging her out of the reach of the shadow.
Starcutter passed through the dark crystal like a knife through butter. The whole thing fractured into a thousand shards with a deep basso scream. Dash dove over the mare to cover her from the shrapnel that spun from the exploding crystal. Before the spikes could hit them, they turned to smoke and dissipated into the air. The shadow let go of the mare and faded into nothingness.
“What was that, and how did it get here,” I asked no one.
Twilight had just run up when I asked that.
“Sombra!”
When she said that a dark shadow formed a black unicorn. His horn curved to the sky like a red blade in front of a steel crown. Green and red eyes glowed as dark smoke trailed out from them as he glared out at me. His black mane mixed with the shadows he hid inside, making him appear to be a shadow.
“Who, or what is that?”
Fear is a weapon that has two sides. The first is the side I use, the deterrent side. The other is the power over people. Fear can make people do things they would never consider doing before. Fear once drove me to turn from my friends, thinking I was protecting them. That nearly broke my mind with the fear. But I saved them and fixed the fear.
Fear is what I was seeing here. This shadow beast was using the second form of fear on the girls and it was working well for him. Twilight had her ears laid back and her knees knocked together. Rainbow had curled up and was whimpering. But what got me was there eyes.
They matched the shadows eyes.
I looked deep into thous eyes and could feel the power as it tried to creep into my head. Magic and me never got along well. Most of the mental stuff would fall flat or haze my vision a little, only the most powerful stuff really gets to me. So when I started to feel the cold air of a snow storm touch my skin, I was a little shaken.
Snow and cold don't scare me, I love the snow even though I slow way down (being cold blooded can do that) in it. Its pretty to look at. Cold is just like swimming through sand, slow and sometimes painful, but it doesn’t scare me. A snowstorm, with the wind and the blinding cold and wet snow, that scares the crap out of me.
So when a snow drift just fells on me, I get kind of concerned. It filled my nose and lungs with cold air, sent shivers down my back from the icy wet of the snow. Everything went cold, everything but me. I could feel the snow and wind, breath the cold air of snow, even feel the ice cold water role down my back.
But I could still feel the sun on my back and the warmth with in my body. It wasn't leaving like it should in that much snow. Warmth would just leave my body in this much snow. I've seen it happen to my brothers, it's happened to me, but it wasn't happening to me now.
I felt my smirk before I could see it. The problem with mind magic is once the brain you're playing with makes you for the magic, you can't do it again, at least not for a day or two. I felt the sun beat down on my back as the magic shattered around me. The illusion fell away as broken glass and I saw the confused look on the shadow's face.
This is what I lived for. That cocky mage that thinks he can play with your brain, seeing that its not working, then the fear of what you are going to do to him for messing with you. Most of the time his mind will scare him more than me, but the look on their face is what gets me. First confused, then it clicks, and last the fear, masterful.
The shadow just hit the second as I stepped forward, setting Starcutter on my shoulder. What through me of was his smile, instead of the fear. I didn't let it show, but it confused me just a bit (that and a fanged grin on a pony is a bit unnerving).
“You are the first to brake the spell,” he smiled down at me. “How?”
“Not cold enough out here.”
He raised a brow at me.
“Let them go,” I said with my best edge.
He just smiled at me.
“Let them go so I can fight you without the shields.”
his face started to turn red. “You dare to think I need a Ponyshield!?”
“I wouldn't put it past you,” I got him on that one. “So, ya I think you do.”
He snarled at me and unleashed a wave of power. It pushed the girls out and away, just like I wanted. I hoped I could goad him into a fight on my terms, then, maybe, I could win with little collateral damage as possible. I was at a disadvantage though, I was still recovering from before and fighting with my off hand. I was in a tight spot, but I've been there before.
Shadows lashed out from his form, speeding right at me with lethal intent. I leaped over them and rolled closer to him. He reacted fast, unleashing the dark crystals from the shadows on the ground beneath me. They clipped my side, bruising but not piercing me. Magic and speed could kill anything if you were good, but I was better than that.
He charged me as I gained my footing, trying to catch me off guard. I parried him, pushing him to my left making an opening for me to strike, and strike I did. Starcutter bit into his back, leaving an angry red line running to his flank. He howled out in pain as he turned on me bringing his hooves to my head hard enough to make me see stars. I stumbled back and blinked away the pain as I tried to find him again.
A black spike erupted from my right shoulder in a spray of blood. Well, looks like its back to the hospital, if I survive this. I turned and snapped the thing off its base on the dark crystal and snarled. I wasn't going to lose to some two bit mage with a rock fetish, I was going to rip this this a new one and send it back to what ever hole it crawled from.
My vision turned crimson as my Rage started. I could feel my body flex as the adrenalin hit my heart and rushed to the rest of my body. I reached up and ripped off the sling that held my right arm and griped my sword in two hands. His horn light up as he started to cast his spells, that take concentration and time to cast. I charged head long into the fray. I had to remove his horn, but I needed to soften him up first.
I cut, hard and fast. Chunks of shadow flew off as I lopped them off. Bit by bit I cut and sliced off his power, pulling more and more of him into this world. Soon I hacked at his chest and legs, marring them with crimson blood and cuts. His power climaxed and slammed into my chest, tarring into my flesh and snapping my ribs. I barley felt the pain as I gave one final grunt, cutting his horn off.
It clattered to the ground, and let off a few sparks as it settled onto the floor. I let the power of my rage pass and I felt the pain roll into my chest. My breathing started to become labored as I looked up at the wounded shadow. Sombra tried to stand tall, but thanks to his wounds, he fell to one knee. The tip of Starcutter touched the ground and I let out a long breath.
“So, ready to give up?” I asked.
Sombra snarled at me, but said nothing.
“Good, you and I need to see Redheart,” I laughed. “Man, is she going to be mad.”
Let me start by saying this, I'm no stranger to pain. I've been punched, kicked, kicked by a horse, mule, donkey and an elephant (there is a funny story there). I've been stabbed, slashed and cut, bludgeoned and smashed. I've been stepped on by things many times my size and thrown off many things. I've fallen from many heights and landed on many things that should not even be stepped on. I've broken nearly every bone in my body and even had my back broken. My limbs have been stretched and pulled out of socket, I even lost my leg to the hip. My body is always creaking and groaning when I wake up in the morning, and sighing when I lay down to sleep.
So when I say getting stabbed in the back with a curved horn, and then having said horn fire a beam of power out of your chest hurts, you can believe me.
The hole in my chest sucked and sprayed with every breath I took. I was confused as to how this happened. Didn't I cut that thing off, wasn't he just in front of me? That was when it hit me, it was a doppelganger.
I fell to one knee, when he pulled his horn from my back. I couldn't move as he trotted around me and looked me in the eyes. The real Sombra stood before me with a look of smug satisfaction on his face. At that moment I wanted nothing more than to rip his face off and use it as a rag to clean my blade.
“You dare to think you can defeat me,” he laughed smugly. “Me, who couldn't be beaten by the Elements of Harmony? And you, a monster with a brain, thought you could defeat me?”
Blood oozed out of my mouth as I sneered up at him.
“Windbag.”
He stopped and looked at me.
I coughed up a little more blood and smiled.
“Stuffed shirts like you need to go back to hole they crawled from,” I spouted at him. “Leave the fighting to the real men, Blowhard.”
I love to goad people (and now ponies) into doing things. Its so easy, just find the right button and hit it till your fist brakes. For some its a name, others its their family. For me its being useless, nothing gets under my scales faster than not being able to do anything. And that is why I learned to goad people into doing something they will regret, like keeping their attention on me while someone else thinks of something smart to do.
I felt the pull on my arms and legs as he caste his spell. It grew stronger the longer he focused on it, pulling harder on my limbs. The bandage on my right arm turned red as my wound reopened. Pain began to pulse from my hips and shoulders as I fought back. I wasn't going to let this little smoke puff get the best of me so I pulled back.
I fought hard agents the pull of his magic, but it was a losing battle. Until a blue blur slammed into his side. His power stopped pulling all together, and I slumped back to my knee gasping as the pain faded. I blinked the pain away and looked up in hopes of seeing his hide plastered to the ground. But that was not what I saw.
Rainbow Dash was pined to the wall by a crystal through her wing, and Twilight was caged inside crystals with an anti-magic field on them. He stood between them, gloating over his victory. I couldn't just let him do that to them, so I tried to rise. Starcutter had slipped out of my grasp at some point in time, so I picked it up and used it to help me stand. I stumbled a bit, but made it to my feet without him seeing.
I took my blade in both hands, gripping it as tight as I could with my wounded hand, and lunged forward. Starcutter found it's mark and slammed home, right between Sombra's ribs. Blood splatered out of his mouth as he coughed out in pain. Before he could make a move, I reached up and grabbed his blade like horn with my good hand.
I wrenched with all my might, trying to snap it. The sharp edge cut into my palm, making it hard to grip but I twisted even harder. It was strong, but I've snapped real blades with my hand, just not my left. Blood trickled down my hand and onto his face as his horn cut deeper into my hand, but still I tugged at the thing.
When I heard the crack, I smiled. With one final pull I snapped his horn clean off his head. When it came off, his magic stopped with a pop. Twilight flashed out of her prison and the crystal pinning Rainbow snapped and vanished. I held Sombra down, mostly by laying on him, as they started to surround him.
“How... how did... you stab me?” he asked.
“My blade can cut even the stars,” I said. “Your magic shadows were nothing to it.”
He looked up at me and glared. Pure hate seemed to flow from his eyes as he slumped down, scumming to my weight and his wounds. I was to week to get off him so I went down with him, grunting as I did so.
Combat is a quick and violent thing. It can last seconds or minutes, but you will be exhausted after, no matter what. I was about to pass out from both pain and exhaustion, but keep my grip on my blade.
Guards started to come flying out of the wood work (leave it to the authority to show up after the work is done) as Sombra started to struggle to breath. Each seemed to be the same, white with gold armor the shone brightly in the sun. They slapped manacles (ponycales? Meh) to him and rolled me off him. We were both carted off to the hospital (you would think I could stay out of there for more than a day) on stretchers. Rainbow's wing got looked at but Sombra and I lost conciseness just as we left.
Why can I never stay awake after a fight.
The first thing I heard was that damn beeping of the magic box (I don't care if they call it an EKG, its a beeping box of magic). So I was in the hospital, and that meant that I was alive. That also meant that Redheart would be mad at me.
This thought brought a smile to my face. She was going to kick me when I woke up, but that's what friends do. Even in my home, my friends would rag on me when I would get kicked. Poke my wounds and laugh at my moaning. Maybe she will do the same.
Light hit my eyes as I opened them, stinging them and making them water. As I blinked away the pain, I saw the window open letting in the warm breeze and bright midday sun. the smell of the hospital was still there, but it was lessened by the wind.
Seeing the sight I breathed deep with the satisfaction it would stay that way for another day. That was when it hit me, it didn't hurt when I took a breath. I looked down at my chest to see it wrapped in a linen bandage, but had no blood turning it red. I lifted the linen and looked at the wound.
It was nearly healed, and I could use my right had better than before.
I was shocked. I heal fast but not this fast. I could recover from a basic combat within an hour to a day, and most wounds took, at the most, three days. The wounds I received from the fight needed a cleric to heal this fast, unless I was out longer than I thought.
As I was making my assessment, someone (well, somepony) walked in. Nurse Redheart walked in, and dropped the tray she was carrying. I razed an eyeridge at the tray she had dropped, it had dressings and bandages on it along with some food drink.
“You're awake!?” she sputtered out.
“And hungry, but you dropped the tray,” I smiled at her.
Tears started to fall out of her eyes.
“You jerk,” she sniffed. “I didn't think you would make it.”
“Hay now, no tears,” I stammered out. “You'll mess up your fur.”
She ran up to me and through her hooves around me and started to sob. She held me tight and cried into my chest, relieved as if I had come back from the brink of death. As she calmed down I held her in return, letting her get it out. That was my mistake.
My head snapped back as her hoof slammed into my snout.
“That was for running off and getting hurt,” she chided me.
She hit me again. “That was for coming back the same day you left.”
Once more, my head snapped back. “And that is for making me worried!”
Fully beaten, I rubbed my snout and looked at her. The tears had dried up and her stern look was struggling against a smile at our antics. She was a little disheveled and seemed a little more tired than before. Her mane was falling out of its bun and her whole body seemed tense.
I smiled at her, after I looked her over.
“What do you call that, punch therapy?”
That did it, all the tension left her body and she started to laugh. She had a good laugh, not a snicker or a snort, a soft at first, kind laugh. One that could spread like jam over toast. It would warm a cold heart and light the fires of friendship in anyone.
I let her have that laugh and just keep smiling.
“I'll go get you another tray and your friends,” she said. “Stay in bed, and don't get hurt again.”
As I waited, one of the doctors came in to see me. He checked over my old wounds and gave my new ones a clean bill of health. He said if I didn't have another adventure like the one I was recovering from I could leave by tomorrow. That was until I tried to stand.
Redheart walked in just as I rose from the bed. She took one look at me and frowned.
“You are not leaving, not for a good week.”
“But he said.....”
“I don't care what Dr. Stable says, you are not leaving until you are fully healed,”she chided. “And that is final.
Even the good doctor filched at her tone. She could be scary sometimes, but I could see why she wanted me to stay. As she said that my knees gave out and I crumpled onto the floor. My body just seemed to be week.
“See,” she smiled. “You can't leave until you've had some therapy for all the bed rest you've had.”
“Just how long was I out,” I snarled.
“Three weeks.”
I was stunned. How had I been out for that long? Was the chest wound that bad? Just how close was I, really, to death? I had no answers.
“Sombra came to the morning after he was captured. He escaped and found you, still unconscious, and tried to kill you in your sleep.”
As she said this she started to weep openly.
“We stopped the worst of it, but the damage was done before we could get into the room.”
“So he nearly wiped me out,” I asked quietly.
“He had pulled the power crystals in your respirator out and jammed them in the hole in your chest,” the doc explained.
“Well, I guess it was a good thing you lot were here,” I smiled at them.
I pulled myself up onto the bed and sat. That talk had taken more out of me than I thought it would. I kicked my feet up onto the bed and looked over at Redheart.
“So, now that is out of the way,” I grinned at her. “I believe you had food for me. I hope you have some fish.”
Author's Note
Aaaaannd done.
