The Awakening
It was complete darkness, the kind of unnatural inky blackness that swallowed up not just light, but sound as well, for it was the kind of darkness that nightmares were made of. Four unconscious ponies imagined that they were floating up and away. While they were not aware of their bodies actually being moved, their deep consciousness knew. Their world around them started to spin and whirl. Everything became blurry and something similar to a black hole formed. In the presence of this portal leading to an unknown place, the ponies began to stir.
The sheer power of it was awakening the fibers of the equines. The dark magic of the portal seemed to sense this and sent out a wave of power. It proved too much for the ponies and they were knocked out into a deep slumber, any chance of waking up lost to them now. With the ponies not able to create any interference, the dark magic pulsed and spread over the four equines. They were sucked in and pulled through like a substance through a straw.
After some time, the ponies were dumped. The dark magic sent out another wave of power. This time, releasing the ponies minds from its grasp. The magic started to slither away like a snake until it was completely gone from the equines. After a few minutes, one pony moved. This one pony, would be the first to see what horrors await.
The first pony slowly awoke, his coat a pale yellow, and his mane a fiery combination of red and orange. He held the Cutie Mark of a truly noble warrior, one of the Celestial Guard. A shield, with an engraving of one of the most precious things in Equestria, Celestia's sun. He arose from his slumber groaning into the ground beneath him, muttering to himself before opening his eyes. He looked around in confusion before, finally, his words came to him.
"Where am I?" He wondered, looking around at his surroundings. It was definitely not where he last remembered himself being. Seeing that he was definitely not in a grassy field, which was where he went to sleep, last time he checked. He looked around a bit more until he spotted three more ponies, one after the other. They were all mares, unlike him, who was apparently the only stallion there. "Umm... Am I seeing this right? Or did I just get really drunk or something?" He said to himself even more confused then before.
"Uhh... Hello, are you awake?" He said, looking towards one of the sleeping mares. She had a light grey coat except for three of her hooves, which were all light brown. The front, right hoof was grey but had a large light brown horizontal stripe above it. She had on a pink bandanna and her mane was in a sideways ponytail. Her hair was a light shade of orange with a cream stripe through it. Her cutie mark was a stunning image of a water double-helix.
The mare groaned and got up to her hooves. She looked around, confused and horrified. She was not in her room, in her house, in Las Pegasus.
"Where am I? Where's Kiki? Moooom! Did you-" The mare stopped in mid sentence. She was staring at the stallion who had woken up before her. She looked him up and down and grinned. She flipped her hair and gave him an affectionate look through half lidded, orange eyes.
"Hi." she purred. "I didn't see you there. If I'm here with you, I'm totally cool with waking up in some random place." The stallion stared at her. While he wasn't complaining about the attention, they weren't alone. He pointed to the two mares sleeping on the ground.
"Do you know them?" At that moment, one of the mares got up slowly and rubbed her head. She was a dark blue unicorn, her eyes were a light blue to match, while she had a dark purple mane with a light purple stripe running through it. She wore a black dress and silver shoes encrusted with an opal in each. She looked at both of them with a look of confusion.
"Oh dear, where am I, and who are you two might I ask?" She asked. "Last thing I remember I was going out for a night on the town from my condo in Canterlot..." She stated. She wiped the grass off herself and flicked her mane back into place before fixing herself up. "Oh my, my dress is all wrinkled! Oh well, this will have to do for now, I will fix it later..." she said, apparently losing all thought in her surroundings once she noticed how much of a mess she was. She looked over at the other two again. They were giving her an odd look. "Oh, umm, ehem, pardon me for getting off topic. So then, what is going on here? Why am I out in the middle of nowhere?" She said, her concern growing.
"We have no idea either, good thing you woke up though..." The stallion said looking over at the multicolored mare next to him. Changing the topic sharply he looked over to the final mare. "There is one more of us who hasn't woken up yet, somepony poke her or something." He suggested. The others just looked at him confused. "What? Don't you want to find out what the hell is going on? Ugh.. Fine I'll do it." He said grumpily. He trotted over to her side and lightly prodded her with a hoof until she woke up. "Well aren't you just all sunshine and rainbows this morning." He said chuckling as the mares eyes shot wide open, angry.
"Why the buck are you waking me up?" She stood slowly, all the while leaning menacingly into the stallions face. "Why are you even in my house? Who are you?" After silence for a minute or so, she added, "If you don't tell me, I'll kick you in the-"
"Hey, you're, like, not even in your own room, lady." the multicolored mare said. "Back off my stallion!" The stallion was sweating now. He backed away slowly from the crazy mare. She was black as night and her mane and tail were purple with blue-dyed edges. Her cutie mark was a ghost in the shape of a raindrop that looked just as peeved as she did at that moment. She was also a unicorn and had on a dark purple sweater.
"Who are you? Where am I?" she demanded. Seeing that she wasn't going to get an answer, she crouched and looked like she was about to pounce on the nearest pony; the stallion. He panicked and put his front hooves up.
"I'm Pyre Shine! I don't know why you're here. I dont even know why I'm here!" The multicolored mare and the Canterlot mare glanced at each other. The former shrugged while the latter put a hoof to her mouth and stared at the dark unicorn mare like she was crazy.
"I'm Lynx Ring. I dunno why I'm here but you need to, like, chill." The Canterlot mare winced when it got quiet. It was her turn to introduce herself to the mad mare. She took a tentative step foreward and spoke up.
"I'm Onyx Flash. Just as every pony else, I have no clue why I'm here." she looked at her horseshoes. "Or how." The mare stared at the three ponies for a second, pondering whether or not they were telling the truth. She looked around for the first time. She was definitely not home. She growled and gave the three sideways glances.
"Name's Spirit Rain." she reluctantly faced Pyre. "Sorry about threatening to bruise your jewels, guy." Pyre gave her a sly smile.
"It's alright. I like a girl who can kick some flank." Spirit looked utterly grossed out. Lynx put herself in between the two. She got in Spirit's face and told her exactly what was on her mind.
"Uhh, no! You stay away from my stallion! Who do you think you are, acting all tough to, like, steal him away from me!?"
"Uh. Ew." Spirit pushed Pyre and Lynx to the side and trotted up to Onyx. "I hope you have common sense because it seems like this random placement we've found ourselves in had made every pony lose their damn minds." Onyx chuckled at the mildly foul language.
"I suppose I'm your pony, then. Well, now that we've met each other and everypony's awake, let's figure out where we are and how we got here." Onyx looked around. "This place looks somewhat familiar but different in a way." The four ponies started to walk away fronm their wake up-site. As they walked, things started to change. While where they were was somewhat recognizable, now, it was beginning to look like another world. The trees got bigger and taller. The roots came out of the ground and mushrooms grew on the very tips, which were dangling in the wind. For some reason, the air smelled of chocolate and candy and the sun began to turn different colors. There were cotton candy clouds in the sky and they randomly rained chocolate. The flowers were wax and the stems were mere candy canes. The grass didn't even look like grass. It was a bright sky-blue while the actual sky was a vibrant green. The normally small critters were huge and watched the quartet with beady, red eyes.
"Oh my." Onyx gasped. "This place looks exactly like that time in Canterlot..." Lynx gave her a worried look.
"What time in Canterlot...?" Lynx said hesitantly.
"Oh my Celestia. You better not be talking about what I think you're talking about." Pyre said. Spirit glared at him and Lynx.
"Unless you're slow, you'd know she's talking about the time Discord escaped from the labyrinth." she growled. Pyre smirked and gave her a wink. Lynx glared at Spirit with annoyance and huffed. Spirit rolled her eyes and pushed the topic onward. "I think we should all be questioning why this looks like this, what the buck is going on, and where the hell we are right now." She said, eyeing everypony. "Now who wants to find that out?" She said, looking annoyed as she scanned the group in front of her. One by one, they slowly raised their hooves. "Good." She says, finishing her point.
"I agree with the crazy mare." He said. Noticing what he just said, he quickly continued his statement before she could have time to notice what he said. "I-If we are going to find out what's going on we need to get out of this... uh... forest?" He says shrugging awkwardly. Before he turned to get a death glare from Lynx. She noticed him talking to Spirit, obviously. She looked like she was about to have a meltdown.
"Hey, there's a city up ahead." Pyre stated. Everypony looked in the direction he was talking about and gasped in relief. It was a city. While as they got closer it got foggier, they could get one detail about it. The city was big. The quartet traveled in silence awaiting for what was in stow. As they neared the city, they noticed the fog tasted a lot like root beer. They passed a stream that lead to a river in the opposite direction. The water was shimmery and had streaks of red.
"Is... is that blood?" Lynx asked. Pyre said nothing. She looked up at him. He swallowed and looked away.
"Just because it's red doesn't mean it's blood, smart one." Spirit snapped. Lynx glared at her. Onyx covered her mouth with her hoof.
"Oh my. I hope it's not blood." Pyre stared at the stream in silence for a few minutes. The three mares noticed his silence and they watched him curiously. So far, he'd had smart remarks to everything.
"It is blood."
"How do you know?" Spirit asked with her usual attitude. Pyre closed his eyes and turned away from the stream and the mares. He just walked away without a word. The mares glanced at each other, confused by his reaction. Spirit shrugged it off and followed the stallion. Lynx gave Onyx a comforting smile and joined the other two. Onyx shook her head and ran up to the rest of the group to catch up. They continued to walk. The tension was so thick, you could cut it with a knife. Lynx actually considered trying that for a few seconds. Spirit stopped suddenly. No pony else stopped until Lynx almost fell into a deep chasm that was about a mile long and extremely deep. Pyre gave a shout and grabbed her tail in his mouth. He pulled her back and she landed on her flank.
"Are you alright, dear?" Onyx asked the shaking Lynx. Lynx nodded. She got up and flipped her hair.
"Gee thanks for, like, giving me a heads up, Rain girl." she said.
"It's not my job to be your eyes, fru fru." Spirit scowled. "If you're too stupid to watch where you're going, that's on you. Me pulling you out of harms way will just be me stopping what will happen again in the future." Lynx pouted but said nothing. Pyre seemed to have exited his silent state and grinned again.
"Easy, baby, don't start a cat fight."
"DO NOT CALL ME BABY, YOU PIECE OF CRAP." Spirit said loudly. Pyre flattened his ears but still smiled. Lynx narrowed her eyes at Spirit, unsure of whether she should complain that the mare bashed Pyre or simply stay quiet since he hadn't made any suggestive comments.
"On another note," Onyx sighed, quite tired of the arguing, "How do we get across this chasm?"
"Hello." Pyre flapped his wings. "I have these bad boys." He flew over with relative ease.
"But how do we get across, doofus!" Spirit shouted. Pyre shrugged. "I am going to murder you!"
"Not allowed in this... uh... wherever we are, babe!"
"Not to fret. I can teleport us over." Onyx said. She placed a hoof on both mares and lit her horn. It only took a moments concentration before there was a flash and they appeared on the other side of the chasm. "Hoof bump!" When no pony raised a hoof to her, Onyx frowned. "Come on, don't leave me hanging." Lynx bumped Onyx's hoof with hers. Pyre gaped at Onyx.
"What?" she asked. He stared at her horn.
"How did you do that?"
"Oh Celestia." Spirit huffed. "Do what?" Pyre gave her a hard stare and turned back to Onyx.
"How did you teleport... and with two other ponies at that?" Onyx blushed and rubbed her foreleg shyly.
"I used to go to Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. I am very good at magic, you see."
"Teleportation is a very powerful spell. And the fact that you managed to do it with toe other ponies..." Onyx blushed shyly at the compliment. Lynx turned so red with anger that she had to say something.
"Can we get to that city now? I totally, like, need a shower. And a way to contact my mom. She was dog sitting, you know?" The group continued to the city. They didn't stop until they reached it. When they arrived to the edge of the city, they just stared. It was a good five minutes before somepony spoke.
"This is not good."
The After-Awakening
The three mares and stallion stared at the sight before them. The city had a heavy fog that obstructed any view from above and there was a tall wall around the whole thing. There seemed to be no way in. On top of that, there was a manticore snoring softly not too far from where they stood. It was partially blocked from view by a bunch of yellow and pink bushes. Spirit let out a string of quiet curses, stomped her hoof, and her eye began to twitch. Pyre motioned for her to stop while keeping an eye on the manticore. Said creature moved and rolled over. Lynx put a hoof on Spirit's mouth. That only made her angrier.
"Get your hooves off of me!"
"Shut up, Rain! You'll wake the damn thing!" Pyre hissed. Spirit stopped her madness long enough to glare at him. Onyx and Lynx sighed.
"What is wrong with you?" Lynx asked. Spirit lowered her eyes and kicked at the ground.
"I have anger problems."
"No kidding." the other two mares and stallion said in unison. The three stared at the mare like she was crazy. Spirit had to fight the sudden urge to hit somepony and growled. She turned and walked away, kicking dust in everypony's faces. Pyre put a hoof up to cover his eyes from the dust and followed her. Onyx gave him a look as he took a few steps past her.
"Don’t go and bother her." she said sternly. Lynx coughed and nodded in agreement.
"Leave that mad mare alone." she motioned for him to follow her and grabbed Onyx. "Let's find a way into this city." They reluctantly followed the multicolored mare and walked the perimeter of the city. Pyre was searching for any cracks in the wall large enough for a pony to fit though, but he found none. Lynx was rubbing up on his side with a flirtatious wink and grinned mischievously. While Pyre didn't mind the female attention, Lynx wasn't the one he was feeling for at the time. He swiftly swung his hind leg in her direction and caught her right in the side of the knee. Lynx let out a yelp of surprise and pain and fell flat on her face. Pyre stifled a laugh and obtained a glare from Onyx.
"Faff waff uncaffed foooorf!" Lynx complained with a mouthful of dirt.
"Pyre, haven't you ever learned that it's so unlike a gentlecolt to put your hooves on a lady?"
"She's not a lady, she's a... a parasite...?" he cocked his head, searching for a better word for it. "Oh yes. She's a Whorse!"
"Pyre Shine!" Onyx stomped her hoof.
"Fine. She's a parasitic whorse." Lynx, at this point, had finished spitting out the dirt in her mouth. She stood up and stared daggers at the pegasus stallion. Pyre only smirked.
"Excuse me!?" Lynx shouted. "I am not a whorse! I don't even act like one! Do I really act like one?" She shouted once again. Pyre couldn't get enough, at this point it was completely hilarious and with that he replied, "Yep," he said simply. Lynx, on the other hand, looked like she was about to explode. Her hair was frizzy in a way that did not compliment her bandana and her left eye twitched with anger. She wanted to charge the annoying asshole right into the wall right then.
"GAH! You're worse than the trip to Appleoosa I took! And it was a crap hole up there!" She said angrily. This caught the stallion off guard.
" 'Scuse me?" He said putting his attention on her finally. "Do NOT talk about Appaloosa like that. It is a great place and I have family up there!"
He said, angered at the unintentional insult to a favorite place of his. Lynx raised a brow and a slow smile grew on her face.
"I'm going to find a way into this city and you are going to go get Spirit and forget that this ever happened." Confusion struck Lynx as the pale yellow stallion trotted away. How could he just act so irrationally and then just brush it off? He gave her an order on top of that. Did he seriously expect her to just do as he said? Well, they did have to find her anyways so, instead of pressing anything, Lynx grudgingly obeyed and went to look for Spirit. After a few minutes of walking through various strange orange and cyan bushes, looking for Spirit, Lynx finally found something; a small pond with purple water. Lynx avoided the the pond, since the water was the wrong color and she did not know if it was water at all, and walked around it.
As she walked around she looked to see Spirit sitting down at the other side of said pond. Spirit was staring down at the murky, purple water with a distant expression on her face. She hadn't even heard Lynx come up behind her. Lynx took a few cautious steps towards the dark mare.
"Spirit?... You ok?" she asked cautiously. Upon hearing her name, Spirit jumped. She looked over at the intruder and glared. She didn't look like she was in the mood to be around anypony.
"What do you want?"
"I came to look for you. You're a bit out of it." Spirit didn't respond to this. She just looked down and continued to stare at the pond. Lynx flattened her ears against her skull. She bit her bottom lip before finally blurting out, "I-I wanted to say I'm sorry." This was what Spirit expected at all.
"For what?"
"I shouldn't have gone at you like that. I dunno... I just... I just felt this connection with Pyre, you know? He's so cute with his green eyes and his red and orange hair. I've always loved redheads. I've always loved green-eyed ponies too. And his voice... ooooh! I get the shivers every time he utters those sweet, sweet words."
"Gotta love the redheads." Spirit huffed sarcastically. "Wait, what words?" Lynx shrugged. She gave the mare an unsure smile.
"I dunno. Basically anything he says." Lynx sighed. "Especially when he does that low chuckling thing. Mmm." Spirit gave her and odd look. She smirked and blew a strand of hair out of her face.
"So, what you're trying to say is that he gets you really hot and bothered, huh?" Lynx blushed.
"Wh-wha...?! I never... I didn't... shut up!" Spirit rolled on her back, laughing, kicking her hooves and holding her sides.
"What was that?" she teased. Lynx continued to blubber and get redder.
"SHUUUUUDUUUUUP!!!" Spirit continued to laugh. She finally rolled over and wiped her eyes.
"What's this? Tears of joy? What do you think this is, vacation? Get back up there!" The tears followed Spirit's commands as if she could manipulate it's very will and rolled back up her cheeks, into her eyes. "That's what I thought."
"I can't believe you just did that."
"What, I don't see why you're blushing now with all that flirting you do."
"I meant the thing with the tears... oh, nevermind."
"Why do you flirt so much with him, anyway? He's not exactly... boyfriend material, y'know." Lynx thought for a second.
"I mean, he's cute. He seems like somewhat of a... a bad boy?" Spirit snorted.
"You wish! I know what a bad boy is like and trust me, he is not it. He's just an asshole. I don't even know why you bother with him. He's not interested. I mean, it's fun for a girl to play around with her prey a bit but you've got to be smooth with it." Lynx cocked her head.
"How so?"
"Well, for the past few hours, you've been flirting nonstop. If you just suddenly stopped, imagine his reaction."
"I never thought of that."
"You have to be... subtle about it."
"As you can see, that is not my specialty... but... I'll try. Thanks, Rain girl."
"Your welcome... fru fru." The two stood awkwardly until they decided to settle by the edge of the pond, staring in as if searching for answers. The two mares sat there like that for a while. They were not friends, not even close, but they seemed to be able to tolerate each other. How long their unspoken truce would that last, they didn't quite know.
There was a sudden rumbling noise and the ground began to shake with short tremors. Spirit rushed to her hooves. Lynx looked around, panicking and clutched the ground as if it would save her. The water in the pond began to ripple. Lynx stared at the water in horror.
"C'mon, don't do this to me. Don't sprout some crazy alien spawn shit after I come over here!" A little red and white bud emerged from the dark, purple waters. It continued to rise a couple of feet into the air. The bud was attached to a slippery, yellow stem. The stem arched over a little and the plant stopped growing. The two mares stared at the plant warily for a few minutes and waited to see if anything would happen.
Nothing. No tremors, no more ripples in the pond, and the plant was as still as a corpse. Lynx got up slowly and examined the plant. Her common sense told her to stay away but her curiosity won. Spirit eyed the plant from afar. It was then that she noticed a root that had sprouted from the ground.
"Hey, fru fru, you shouldn't put your face near that-" The bud suddenly opened and sprayed blue mist in Lynx's face. "Thing!" Lynx stumbled backwards like a drunkard. Spirit stared at her with a puzzled frown.
"Are you alright? Does anything feel weird?" Lynx shook her head and bit her lip. She plopped down on her flank.
"I-I c-can't..." she was suddenly racked by a fit of coughs. They were violent and dry. She eventually spat out a wad of blood and spit. "Oh Celestia..." She mumbled. Her eyes rolled back into her head and she collapsed on the ground. Spirit prodded her with her hoof. She didn't respond. She was a quivering, twitching mass. Spirit was about to try to drag her to the others when the plant, which was now a red and white flower, grew out of the pond and slithered up to the unconscious mare and the shocked one like a snake.
"What the hell...?" Spirit dragged Lynx faster, only to have the plant slither faster to them. "GUUUUUUUUUYS! WE NEED HELP OVER HERE!" There was silence, except for the slimy stem of the plant against the blue grass of course, for a few minutes before Spirit heard what she wanted to hear.
Hoofsteps.
"Spirit? What's wrong?" Onyx called.
"What the buck is that!?" Pyre swore, ahead of Onyx and staring at the plant in awe and fear. The plant caught up to Spirit and wrapped around Lynx. It took her from the dark mare's grasp and lifted her into the air. The flower petals suddenly sprouted long, sharp and jagged teeth. A set of six tentacles grew from the center of the flower and rubbed against Lynx's face hungrily.
"Sweet Celestia." Onyx said, skidding to a halt next to Pyre and Spirit. The plant was going to eat her!
"Somepony do something! Stop staring like a bunch of idiots!" she yelled at them. This snapped Pyre and Onyx out of their shocked state.
"Huh? Oh, right! Onyx, you said you can teleport ponies well, right?" He said quickly.
"Yes dear, but I don't see wha-" She was interrupted by Pyre.
"Then teleport me into that overgrown bastard’s stem!" He said cutting her off.
"What!? Are you insane!?" She looked over to Lynx as she came ever close to getting snapped in half by the overgrown flower.
"Just do it!" he yelled impatiently.
"A-alright" she said unsurely as her horn glowed, and with a shine of light Pyre reappeared on the stem of the bud. He turned around and reared back until he kicked the back of the flowers... head? It dropped Lynx and snarled at Pyre, who had jumped off it's back and landed on the ground. Pyre inched back and the thing lunged at him, trying to snap him in half. He expertly rolled to the side and the flower hit one of the multicolored trees behind him.
As the flower was stunned and on the ground, Pyre got up on top of it. He started to repeatedly trample and buck the flowers stem until he heard a satisfying snap. As the flower yelped and was separated from the other half of the stem, he stopped his attacks. The plant oozed a sickly orange goo from it's dismembered body.
"Job... done..." Pyre said panting, out of breathe, and hooves covered in the orange plant goo.. which looked suspiciously like actual blood. Spirit was tending to Lynx. She appeared to have a gash on her side. It wasn't too deep but it was bleeding a lot. Spirit took the bandanna off of Lynx's head, untied it, and wrapped it around the multicolored mare’s barrel. She also took the bow string that was holding Lynx's hair in a ponytail. She used to tie the bandanna into place. Lynx groaned softly. Spirit put an ear to her chest and counted the heartbeats.
"What is the normal heart rate of a pony?" she asked herself.
Onyx took the plant’s slimy, gooey carcass in her magical grasp and trotted over to the murky, purple waters of the pond. She dropped it in and watched it sink with a scowl on her face. Onyx looked around for any trace of the plant that could have been lying around only to find nothing. She turned and trotted towards Pyre, who was trying to wipe the slimy stuff off of himself, when she saw three little white seeds littered on the blue grass. Onyx looked in both directions to make sure no pony was looking and snatched the seeds up.
Pyre was too busy trying to wipe the goo off of him to see Onyx trot nervously past him with seeds in her magical grasp. Oh, how Onyx wished she had a bag of some sort! Pyre let out an annoyed whinny and stomped over to the other three mares, furious that he was dirty with a substance that he couldn't identify. He couldn't even wash it off, for he did not know what other dangers hid beneath the surface of the waters of this world. Pyre squeezed through Onyx and Spirit. Maybe he could use his guards pony skills to use. Spirit pushed him roughly with a glare.
"Let's see what we got here." Pyre peeked at Lynx and his jaw dropped. Lynx did not look good. She looked paler underneath that soft, light grey fur of hers and her breathing was shallow. Pyre swallowed, he didn't know what had happened to her before he and Onyx arrived but he knew that whatever the plant had done to her, her body was not responding well. Lynx let out another groan.
"She got injured real bad, Pyre." Onyx stated. Pyre grunted in response. The bandanna seemed to have slowed the blood flow, which was good, it meant it would soon stop completely. Pyre suddenly wished he had a First Aid Kit since the injury needed to be cleaned, treated, and bandaged. He lifted her limp body onto his back and turned to the others.
"We should probably find a way into that city."
"You're right, darling. It's getting late." The ponies looked up, into the sky and saw that it had gone from green to a deep scarlet-blue. It was odd colors for a sunset, but hey, they still didn't know where they were, why they were there, or how they got to that Celestia forsaken location in the first place. They began to walk around the wall of the city once more, searching for any way into the city at all. They figured they should quicken the pace since one was hurt so they decided to split up. Spirit ran up ahead, Onyx went to find any higher ground to see if there was anything in the wall in the first place, and Pyre just walked. He heard Lynx shift slightly.
"Please don't wake up now. Please don't wake up now." Pyre pleaded. Lynx yawned. "Shit." She opened her eyes and took a few seconds to gather her surroundings. Pyre flattened his ears when he heard her gasp. "Yea, yea. You're on my back. You're awake now, so get off." Lynx didn't utter a word. She hopped off with a whimper of pain and rubbed her neck sheepishly.
"Um... thanks for carrying me. I'll just... uh... go this way." She turned and sprinted up ahead wobbling a bit because of the post-weakness from blood loss and limping slightly due to pain, leaving Pyre genuinely surprised at her reaction.
"Huh, I expected her to turn all slutty... I wonder when she is going to realize that the cloth covering her wound is her bandana?" Pyre wondered. He heard a gasp and a yell in the distance.
"MOTHER BUCKER!" Lynx yelled from afar... Pyre smiled with satisfaction at how pissed she already was... again.
"There we go, just how I like it." He said chuckling and smirking. He heard a slight shifting and rustling in the foliage nearby that caught his attention. He stopped trotting and tried to look at the foliage near him. "Hello? Anybody there?" Pyre asked cautiously. He stepped closer to get a better view and was rewarded with a low growl and two beady eyes that pierced into his very soul.
"Uhh... H-hello there?" He said, a little more intimidated. A paw was placed forward out of the foliage, followed by another a second later. "N-nice, gigantic kitty. Calm down and I will just be on m-" he was cut off by a roar as it pounced out of the foliage in front of him, revealing it to be a manticore. "Oh buck me...MANTICORE!" He yelled as he galloped away. The giant hybrid freak took chase through the brush lines, out of sight, as if it was leaving him be.
He saw the rustling in the bushes behind him while he galloped. "This isn't how manticores react! They’re usually peaceful and mind there own business unless disturbed or mad! What the hell’s wrong with this place!?" he shouted as he ran. He saw Lynx in front of him as he galloped away from the predator hunting them. He sped up and lowered his head. He used his head and scooped her up flank first onto his back. She yelped with surprise and looked down at him.
"Oh, hello there." She said batting her eyelashes. "You gonna put a ring on it?" She asked playfully.
"Oh shut up! By Celestia, you're heavy!" He yelled, trying to run faster. She gave him a dirty look and then noticed the manticore chasing them from directly behind now.
She let out an ear piercing scream as the manticore got within biting range. As the manticore tried to bite at her, she hiked her hind legs and tail out of the way. She felt weird with the way she was sitting on him, looking like she was taking him for a ride, revealing a rather awkward position on Pyre's back.
"Go faster! Faster!" She screamed, as the manticore was stunned on the ground. The screams stunned the manicores hearing and made it trip up a bit, losing speed on the two and falling back. After trying to catch up again, all the manticore heard is another scream, again knocking him off track. He hissed in defeat and slowly stopped chasing them after a while, backing off into the tree line. As soon as Pyre really thought he was gone, he finally gave out and fell over.
"I can't... believe... you just... saved... us... by screaming..." he said, panting heavily as she got up.
"Me... either?" she said awkwardly, also panting and getting up wobbly. She stumbled a few feet away, staring at the wall with new interest. She looked side to side, hoping to find some sort of entrance, unfortunately finding none. With a hiss, she started to walk up ahead without uttering a word, leaving Pyre questioning her sudden quietness. He shrugged and held his tongue just for the sake of getting some silence from that mare for once.
Spirit decided she'd have to ignore the fact that there might be extremely dangerous plants and/or animals in the underbrush and feel the wall behind a tangle of vines and leaves. She held her breath as she approached the vines and pressed herself up against it. Her fore hooves carefully crept along the rough wall surface, searching for any openings that might have been so covered up with foliage that they'd passed it while searching back and forth along the wall. She kept this up for a few minutes before deciding that she had the right idea, just in the wrong section of the wall. Spirit cursed, It would take forever to search the entire damn wall! She let out a yell, not caring who or what heard her at this point, and smashed her hooves against the wall as hard as she could. There a crack and a whir and suddenly, there was a low rumbling, coming from the wall and not the ground itself.
Onyx hid in some bushes as she heard a thud. She didn't know what it was but it had followed the rumbling and the other noises she heard. She waited, hoping nothing would jump out at her, especially now while she was alone, and stared out into the ravenous fields of craziness that she'd found herself in. She wished that they hadn't split up now. It was stupid to do that, now that she thought about it. Equines were social creatures. They traveled together, ate together, and lived together in groups. It was only herd instinct to yearn for the presence of somepony else. Onyx shoved her ears forward, swiveling them left and right to pick up any sounds of danger. The rumbling stopped, finally. She got up from her crouching position in the bush and took a few tentative steps forward, still cautious. She sniffed, now in full survival mode, and turned her head side to side to see if she could catch anypony's scent.
"I think I found something!" she could hear in the distance, but had no clue in which direction. She waited, every fiber in her being, listening for where the voice was coming from. "Hey, guys, I think I found something! I'm over here! Hello!?" Onyx was off like a bullet.
Lynx heard Onyx calling to them. She started to run towards her voice, but then there was an awful pain in her side, like being struck with a knife. She slid to a halt, gasping for breath. She doubled over and groaned, the pain intensifying and starting to get a headache. Pyre was catching up to her. He stopped, looked her over, and raised a brow with a frown.
"I'm guessing the pain came back." Pyre said, stating the obvious.
"Yeeeessss. How far away is Spirit?" Pyre squinted at the distance.
"Is that her right there?" He leaned forward. "Yep, that's her. Let's go." He was about to scoop her up again when there was a roar. The two turned around to see the manticore running towards them, again. Lynx screamed and groaned, hopping on his back in pain, throwing him off balance and making him stumble before catching himself, it was only his guard training that allowed him to continue on, despite the load and constant running.
"GO!" she shrieked. Pyre let out a whinny and reared, kicking himself off with his hind legs and running as fast as he could. Lynx held onto him with dear life. "I really need to get out of here." she mumbled. They finally caught up with Onyx, who said that she heard Spirit and was heading towards her now. When Onyx saw the manticore, causing her eyes to nearly pop out of her head and she kept up with Pyre while running.
"I thought the manticore was sleeping!" Onyx whined.
"Well, it isn't now." Pyre hissed. He and Onyx stepped in puddles of orange goo. They were nearing the purple pond, which meant they were closer to Spirit. Lynx held out a hoof and closed her eyes. She looked like she was concentrating really hard. "What are you doing? You better not be trying something!"
"Just shut the fuck up for once, Pyre." Lynx said, still concentrating, "Please and thank you." Onyx snickered as Pyre snorted angrily.
"Just remember you're on my back." Lynx raised her hoof higher and just as the three passed the purple pond, the murky waters rose about three feet into the air and splashed the manticore in the face. This caused the creature to stop and analyze what just happened before shaking itself off and continuing to give chase. Lynx did some complicated motions with her forelegs and more water splashed the manticore, soaking it, but this time the water froze. Soon, there was just a big block of ice with a shocked manticore inside. Pyre put his flank down hard on the ground and skidded to a stop. Onyx was staring at Lynx and ran into a bush.
"What the absolute buck was that!?" Pyre exclaimed. Lynx shrugged.
"It's a little something, something I can do." Blood trickled from her nose. She wiped it and put a hoof to her head. "Since I'm an earth pony, it puts a lot of strain on my body."
"But how can an earth pony even do that?" Onyx questioned, picking the splinters off of herself. She eyed Lynx's cutie mark, a double-helix made of water.
"My mother was a unicorn and my grandfather too. I've just got that power in there, you know? Now, can we please get to Spirit before she blows a gasket and before my headache gets worse?"
"Fine." the other two ponies huffed and decided to trot over to the awaiting mare. Said mare was not happy about how long it took them to come. Lynx slowly got off Pyre's back.
"What, you had to make the world itself and wait for it to cool?" she growled. Lynx giggled. Spirit rolled her eyes at her but smirked. Pyre glanced at the both of them. Don't they normally not get along? Spirit sighed and motioned to the wall. "There's and entrance to the city behind these vines right here. We can squeeze through, one by one, and close the wall door thingy behind us. We don't want that sleeping manticore to wake up and crawl in."
"Oh, it's not sleeping anymore." Onyx said. Spirit's ears flattened.
"Yea, 'cause this one froze it!" Pyre motioned to Lynx. Spirit furrowed her brows and gave each of them a quizzical look.
"With what, exactly? She's and earth pony. I can't even do ice spells."
"It's true. The manticore is frozen just a little ways that way." Pyre pointed. "She used the odd colored water from that pond. I can't believe I'm saying this, but Lynx might actually be cool!" Spirit glanced at Lynx. Spirit had a very impressed look on her face. The earth pony simply blushed and shrugged with a distant expression. She stepped foreward and poked at the vines.
"Where's the entrance now?" She must have felt something because she let out an 'eep' and stuck her head through, followed by the rest of her body. Pyre shared a look with Onyx.
"What's up with her?" he asked. The others finally decided to go through. They squeezed in and with a lot of struggling shut the entrance by sliding the door-shaped rock slab into place.
"We did it!" The quartet cheered. They did not hear the hoofsteps behind them.
"What took you guys so long?"
The pegasus stallion that greeted them was orange with a white mane and tail with a teal stripe through it. He waited for the four ponies to turn around and take in the sight of another pony before speaking again.
"Well, I bet you've come a long way, huh?" Spirit rolled her eyes.
"What do you think, genius?" she snarled. Pyre chuckled.
"Really, dear, you should try to be a bit more polite." Onyx sighed. There was silence. Everypony turned to look at Lynx, expecting her to make some comment about seeing another stallion. She was actually staring at the stallions cutie mark, which was a pair of comedy and tragedy masks. She noticed everypony stopped talking. She glanced up to see them staring at her, especially the stallion. He smiled. Lynx's ears flattened, as his gaze sent shivers down her spine, and not the good ones either. She smiled and did the one thing she did best, flirt.
"Haha, sorry buddy. I just couldn't help but notice how toned you are.I bet you work out."
"Ah... thank you, miss." The stallion smiled, he seemed generally pleased.
"I'm Lynx Ring, by the way." She flipped her hair, which was out and bouncing with every head movement.
"Onyx flash." The unicorn mare did a little curtsy.
"Spirit Rain." The dark mare grumbled.
"Pyre Shine." The yellow stallion smirked.
"What's your name?" Lynx asked with a wary smile.
"Graceful Sin." Graceful Sin turned from the ponies and began to walk towards what the quartet could only imagine was the city they'd sought for hours. They seemed to be walking in some sort of maze with windy, hedge-like walls. The four ponies followed him, Spirit and Onyx finding various ways to keep track of where they were going, asking a whole array of questions the whole while.
"So, what did you mean by, 'What took you guys so long'?"
"Were you watching us?"
"If you were, why didn't you help us!?"
"How many ponies are here?"
"Is it as safe as we think it is?"
"Do you do this to all your newcomers?"
"Do you have a girlfriend?"
"Are you a leader of some sort?"
"Do you have doctors here?" Graceful Sin chuckled.
"To answer all your questions, exactly what I said, yes, I didn't feel like it, hundreds, depends on how safe you think it is, yes, no cutie, not really, and yes." The ponies glanced at each other, annoyed at his response. The stallion chuckled, finding their confused expressions funny, but began to tell them about the city before they had a chance to bombard him with more questions.
"This is the Great City of Safehattan. We surround the whole thing with a magical aura and wall that keep it undetectable from the dangers of the outside world. The Peppermint Flower that attacked this lovely specimen," Graceful put a hoof under Lynx's chin and lifted her head so he could look into her eyes, "was extremely hungry, which was the reason it attacked you, and it is strictly carnivorous. That vapor it sprays merely knocks you out. The doctors here will be able to tend to your wounds, my dear."
"Uhhh...okay..." Lynx jerked her chin from his hoof and backed up to stand by Pyre's side. "That's good to know." Now she knew how Pyre felt. She made a mental note to apologize to him later for being creepy about her flirting. Graceful led them through one last turn and they entered the actual city, which was a sort of oval shape but huge. On the far end of the city, there were huge plots of land where trees, bushes, and various plants that grew food were placed. On the sides, there were small, but comfy looking houses and shops. There were ponies bustling about, buying items and practicing fighting with various tactics. Various colts and fillies even played Cowponies and Buffalos on the cobble roads. To what they saw outside, to the four, this was a paradise. They passed by several groups of ponies who each gave them either looks of horror, fear, and/or hatred. The group fell into silence as they seemed to receive dirty looks from everypony, even the young ones, who stared and pointed. Whispers could be heard along with jeers and cruel laughs.
A group of mares walking by spotted the other group. They watched them for a bit before cocking their heads and smiling when they checked Pyre Shine out. They whispered to each other before anypony said anything.
"Oooo, who's the new stallion?" one asked.
"I don't know, but he is kind of cute." a second one said, flirting, before they all trotted off giggling. Pyre stared at them in disbelief as they trotted off. He looked over to his group and smiled dumbly. He quite enjoyed the female attention, since as a royal guard on duty he was not aloud such frivolities. It was also nice to be noticed by mares he actually might have interest in and not some crazy mare.
"I'm going to go scope out the rest of the city to make sure nothing's wrong. BYE!" He says excitedly, galloping in the direction of the group of mares. Lynx, Onyx, and Spirit all stared at each other for a second before Spirit started laughing, Onyx facehoofed, and Lynx rolled her eyes.
"It's official, I have bad luck." Lynx declared. Graceful Sin chuckled and draped a wing over her back. She shrugged it off and glared at him, "Dude, can I please just get a proper bandage and some painkillers so I can wash my bandanna? I hate having my hair down."
"I don't know why." Onyx said, "Your hair looks simply divine."
"Yeah." Spirit added. "It's not half bad." Lynx ran a hoof through her long mane. Graceful Sin smiled and motioned for them to keep walking.
"Yes, your hair actually complements your eyes." Lynx blushed and giggled. "I think all three of you have your charms. Miss Flash, you strike me as a mare of refined tastes. Miss Rain, you are a reserved and secretive one and Miss Ring... you are a mare of a very socialized background."
"Somepony's a ladies stallion," Spirit whispered to Onyx. Onyx nodded.
"And very attentive," she added. The group continued to walk and didn't stop until they finally reached a large building. They entered and two stallions and a mare greeted them. Graceful Sin explained that one of the newcomers needed medical attention.
"As if they couldn't see the dried blood caked onto a bandana wrapped around my barrel." Lynx grumbled, rolling her eyes. Spirit just chuckled while Onyx shook her head and sighed. They watched as the mare ordered the first stallion to get her various tools and medicines and began to remove Lynx's bandanna. The second stallion stood by the doorway silently. The multicolored mare winced and took a peek at her wound. It wasn't bleeding anymore but there was dried blood along the edges and a slimy, clear pus oozing out of it.
"Ew!" Onyx yelled and looked away. Lynx bit her bottom lip and glanced at the mare with a worried expression.
"Don't fret, It's perfectly normal." The mare said to Lynx and Onyx. Onyx snorted.
"Normal by what standards? No wound is supposed to ooze pus! That means it's infected!"
"I'm sorry, miss. Do you have a medical degree?" The mare asked, glaring at Onyx, who shook her head. "Oh okay then. Let me do my job." Onyx huffed and watched the treatment with a worried expression. None of the mares noticed the exchange of looks between the mare and the stallions by the door. Spirit folded her forelegs and smirked.
"I guess it's good we got in here, huh? Probably would've gotten infected." she said. The mare didn't turn to talk to Spirit as the stallion came back with the supplies and she began to work. She took a wet rag and began to clean the wound. Lynx shifted uncomfortably.
"How long did it take for you girls to find a way in?"
"About an hour. There was a manticore outside and there was this... pool of purple water-like stuff... a pond..." Spirit gestured to Lynx. "That's how this happened." The mare nodded. The second stallion eyed Lynx curiously before returning to his spot close to the door where they had seen him.
"Which city did you three come from?"
"Oh, there's four of us, actually. He ran off to chase some mares."
"I see."
"I'm from Las Pegasus. It's greatly populated city. It's the third most popular city in equestria. Second is Manehattan and first is Canterlot... but you... ah... you already knew that. Anyways, it seems like weird place for a unicorn to grow up, I know, but... I like the fact I grew up in a place you'd least expect." The mare stopped wrapping Lynx's wound to stare at Spirit.
"Las Pegasus? Manehattan? Canterlot? I've never heard of these places before." Onyx, who was still looking away, jumped at the mares words.
"Never heard of Manehattan? What are you talking about? Its the second biggest city in Equestria, how have you not heard about it?" she asked. The mare finished the wrapping and gave Lynx a pat on the back. Lynx sighed and sat on her haunches.
"I guess you've never heard of Saddle Arabia then." she said.
"Why won't you just tell us where you're really from?" the first stallion asked in a gruff voice.
"We told you." Spirit said, getting irritated and confused.
"Strange that you say you're from places we've never heard of." the second stallion by the door grumbled.
"Okay, well have you heard of Ponyville or Appaloosa?" Lynx asked.
"What are you three talking about, those places don’t exist." The mare turned away from them and walked away with the first stallion. The second stallion by the door followed them. "If you didn't want to tell me, that's all you had to say."
"I think they may be hiding something." the second stallion murmured.
"You think?" said the first in a hushed voice. The doctor mare shushed them before the group they were leaving behind heard them.
Onyx, Lynx, and Spirit all glanced at each other and left the building. Graceful Sin was sitting right outside and chatting with one of the mares that was flirting with Pyre. She was a pale grey with a Diamond shaped patch of white fur on her head and had straight, brown mane and tail hair.
"Oh, here they come now." Graceful said aloud. The mare giggled and waved.
"Greetings, newcomers. My name is Caramel Rose. Call me Cara for short. My sisters and I will be hosting the welcome party this evening. The whole town knows of your presence!"
"Thank you." Onyx said, glancing at the other two. "Where are your sisters? Our friend, Pyre Shine might be in their company."
"Oh, yes, my sister, Laranesse, was with him when Sarana and I left."
"Your sisters names are Laranesse and Sarana?" Spirit dead panned.
"Oh yes. A laranesse is an extremely expensive, but soft cloth. It's silky like Velvet. A sarana is a very rare jewel. Our mother named us after the things she loves the most. Oh, and please call my sisters Sara and Lara. We're triplets and as you can imagine, we like that our nicknames conveniently rhyme."
"Lucky you." The three mares mumbled. They watched as Graceful Sin sent her on her way with a wave and a smile.
"Do any of you want a tour?"
"I'd love one." Onyx smiled. Spirit nudged Lynx.
"We should probably find your stallion."
Lynx blushed, "He's not my stallion. Yet. Don't jinx it." The four split and went their separate ways. "You know, the odds that we'll find him while looking in random places are against us? And I'm not a very... lucky... pony."
"Your a mare of misfortune, eh?" Spirit chuckled. Lynx smiled.
"Guess so." The two mares continued to walk.
"Well, I am going to split and search the alleyways, maybe if I’m lucky enough he got himself beat up and dumped." Spirit said, smiling at the thought of a beaten and bruised Pyre Shine. As much as Lynx admired Pyre she had to laugh at this.
"Alright, I guess I will check the bars, I'm sure this town is bound to have one." Lynx said, also going her way. Lynx trotted down the cobble roads of the town, searching up every nook and cranny searching for a building that may resemble some sort of bar. By the time she was starting to get discouraged she felt as if she just looked through the entire city four times over. She was lost, and quite frankly a bit pissed. As she rounded the corner to yet another street she looked at a building down the street on the left of her. Just like that she had found it. No matter how pissed she was, it was a victory, so she took it for now.
She trotted up to the bar, fighting the urge to buck in and yell for a hard cider. She swung open the saloon like doors and walked in. The first thing that she did when she got inside was sit down on a stool at the bar. As she waited for the bartender to swing by she couldn't help but hear the mumbling that had been going on since she walked in. It appeared that the ponies in this town weren't so excited and hospitable as the ones who greeted us were.
The whispers and mumbles among the crowd were either tinted with curiosity or distrust. As Lynx slowly lost her nerves, the continued whispers and mumbles starting to get to her, the bartender final came by and greeted her.
"Oh! Hey there, sorry I didn't get to ya sooner, didn't see ya come in. Oh! Wait a second, I have never seen you before, you must be one of those newcomers everypony is talking about. Gossip spreads fast round here, you see." he said, gesturing to the ponies that stared at her, curious to her intentions. "What would you like? First drink’s on the house. You’re the newbie here so it would only be fair to let you get a handle on some of the "goods" we got here." He says winking and gesturing to the racks lined with alcoholic beverages. Lynx smirked and spoke up.
"The hardest cider you got, I have had one hell of a day." Lynx said, sighing exasperatedly.
"One Dragons Breathe coming up, unless you want to try one of our new ones, Manticores Sting." The bartender says daringly.
"Bring it on! Nothing can make this day any more crappier." She stated, accepting the challenge, as he starts pouring a bottle of the menacing looking liquor into a shot glass. She immediately hoofs the glass up and took a look at the clear liquid, before taking it all in one gulp. As the strong liquid went down it burned her throat, making her mentally wince, before setting the glass down.
"Done, damn that was like, strong." She said, resisting the urge to cough. The stallion bartender looked at her with an impressed look and spoke up.
"Well, you have more than earned my respect, well now that that's over and done, ponies usually like to blab me stories after their liquor. So what's up with you? What was your life before you came to Safehattan?"
"Well, I was born in Stalliongrad. A lot of earth ponies there, y'know. It was so dull and boring being around the same race all the time so I moved to Los Pegasus with my dad. I like the crazy ones, you know? There are all sorts of ponies there and the action, fabulous! I decided to chill with my mom after a while, though because my dad's so boring, like home. He has some record company or whatever. I mean, he's pretty cool sometimes. He got me a poodle and I named her Kiki. My mom recently came down from wherever the hell she went when I was a teen and said hello. It... it didn't go down well. I ended up freaking her out with my special talent. I managed to get her to stay a while to catch up but then there was this flash. Then... I woke up with three ponies from other cities that I never met before and-" Lynx stopped talking, for the bartender was giving her an odd look. "Er... sorry... that's the... alcohol talking...? I... uh... totally did not wake up with... strangers... heheh." she said, steering away from the subject.
"Sorry, I forgot what I actually came here for. Let's save the rest for another time... I was hoping you saw a stallion come through here? He is yellow." She asked him bluntly.
"There are other yellow stallions around here, you need to be a little bit more specific than that." He said to her casually.
"Oh right, of course... He has an umm, pale yellow coat. Bright, beautiful, sexy green eyes that shimmer whe- Ahem... I mean umm, and a fiery red and orange mane. You seen him pass by?" She asked him hopefully.
"Oh, him, how could I miss him? He came in flaunting one of the triplets in town and ordered them a bunch of drinks, before they got a little drunk and headed out." He said rolling his eyes. "You, on the other hand, seemed a little bit more sensible so I didn't immediately throw you out," He said kindly. Lynx thought about what he said.
"Why would you throw me out because of how he was before I even came in?"
"Newcomers tend to stand out and stick together at the wrong times. That's why they never last long here." The bartender stopped, seeing Lynx's horrified look.
"W-what do you mean by that?"
"Nothing! Here, have another drink. On the house!" Lynx, still stressed, accepted the offer and waited for the drink. What she didn't see was when the bartender put a clear liquid into the drink before handing it to her.
"What do you mean, though? You can tell me. Do the newcomers get kicked out or punished or something?"
"Something like that." The bartender watched the multicolored mare down the drink. "Also, you better hurry. From the look in that stallions eyes, he was ready to get some action, if you know what I mean." The bartender winked.
"When I find him I'm going to bash his skull in..." Lynx said, commenting on the scene he had made. "Thank you for the drink, I have a stallion to geld and then treat for a hangover..." she said simply, hopping off the stool and heading for the door she trots out waving back at the bartender. She opened the doors and stepped out, back onto the cobble roads she now hated, not noticing the bartender chuckling darkly and shaking his head.
"If I were a drunken stallion where would I go? I have no clue. Well, that usually works..." she said, talking to herself. "I guess I will just go right," she stated to herself, trotting off to the right on the, surprise surprise, cobble sidewalks.
"Aaahhhhh!!! What the buck!" Spirit's voice rang from an alley.
Lynx quickly turned around to face the sound, it was coming from the alleyway next to the bar, ...alleyway ...Alleyway! Spirit must be in trouble! Lynx ran into the alleyway as fast as she could and found Spirit, along with some, other things…
There was Pyre in a compromising position made small noises, trying to find words. There were none. Pyre and Lara stared at the two mares with a redhead. She had identical coloring to Cara besides the hair color so Lynx assumed that the mare was Lara. However, that was not on her mind at that moment. She sputtered swears in surprise.
"Uhh... hey... girls." he said almost drowsily through pants. Lynx didn't say anything. She was seeing red. All she could think of was how many ways she could kill a pony painfully.
"What the hell, Shine!" Spirit growled, occasionally glancing at Lynx. Pyre shifted, feeling uneasy in the awkward situation. He and Lara let out involuntary moans. "Dude! I have no words for you right now. Celestia, you smell like booze. Are you drunk!?"
"Yea. That... asshole flaunted his slut... I guess he decided to claim his... trophy." Lynx said, seething from the anger. Pyre unsteadily got to his hooves and glared at the multicolored mare. Lara got to her hooves too and hiccuped.
"Listen here you... you whorse... I don't like you... leave me alone already." he stumbled forward and fell flat on his face. "Damn that bad luck of yours." he groaned. Lynx's anger slowly gave way to hurt.
"I am not bad luck. You are such a typical stallion."
"Wouldn'tve had a problem... if I got... you..." Lynx blushed.
"Believe it or not, I really wouldn't have let you bed me." She caught the look Spirit gave her. "What! I wouldn't! I'm all flirt but I still have standards!"
"Mmmhmm. Okay." Spirit said, not believing a word of it.
"I'm serious. Look at me. Do you see how serious I am."
"While it's gross that I walked in on them, you're just jealous."
"Well, maybe a little, but my point still stands. Besides, what will the other two sisters say when a newcomer bedded her sisters?"
"Shit. You’re right. This could mean trouble. The welcoming thing is tonight and they’re drunk." The two mares stared at the two ponies in question.
"I don't... I don't feel so good..." Lara mumbled and threw up right on the spot. Spirit wrinkled her nose and Lynx got angry again.
"I'm going to kill you both!"
"No! I just wanted... I just wanted a good time!" Lara stumbled backwards and fell on her flank. "Please just kill him. I... I... didn't even finish."
"What the hell." Spirit facehoofed. "She did not just say that."
"...Okay...?" Lynx glanced at Spirit, confused.
"Y-yea and... he... he's lousy." Lara continued, seeing that her talking was working. Lynx didn't look ready to murder anymore. Pyre sat up and glared at her.
"What! I... I didn’t... hear you... complaining!"
"I..." Lara blushed furiously. "I was sidetracked!"
"Sidetracked from my-"
"OKAY, that was a fun little half-drunk argument but we... ah... have to drag you two somewhere to get un-drunk." Lynx growled.
"That's not even a word." Spirit mumbled. "It's called being sober. But anyways, I can teleport us. Hold on to each other." Pyre put a hoof on Lara's flank, causing her to giggle. Lynx walked over to them and stepped on his hind hoof. Pyre let out a yelp. There was a bright flash as Spirit performed the spell. The bright light went away and when they could see again, they were in the place where Lynx had gotten her wound bandaged. Now that they were not rushing quite like before, they noticed something about it.
The place was an old, abandoned building with a large doorway, possibly one that used to be double-doored, and no windows. There was dust in certain areas where ponies obviously never tread but there were three tables in a corner that were clean. It seemed like it was only a pit stop for the doctor and two stallions when they treated Lynx. There were a few rocks and pebbles and other debris that was most likely blown in from the wind scattered about. It was a wonder they'd completely overlooked it. It also brought up another question, Why treat them there? And more importantly, did the ponies know they were coming?
It looked as if the door Spirit was sweating and put a hoof to her head in pain. She looked around. Onyx stood in the corner.
"Ah, you're back. I looked simply everywhere and just couldn't find the darn sta- Oh.... Umm...." Onyx trailed off as she saw a pissed Lynx, a drunken Pyre, and an unsatisfied Lara teleport in. Spirit looked completely unamused, or phased at all, as usual. She decided to talk to Lynx instead.
"Bad day?" Onyx asked curiously.
"I am going to rip somepony's throat out at any second, I just know it..." Lynx mumbled back.
"Alright then... May I ask what we are going to do with those two?" She says, turning her attention to Spirit and pointing at the two drunken ponies.
"I have no idea, these idiots are drunk, obviously, so I was assuming we could come to you for help. You went to magic school didn't you? I mean, you did know how to teleport," Spirit asked hopefully. Onyx rolled her eyes and huffed.
"It isn't simply called 'magic school' and if you didn't go, how did you get so good at teleporting? Some skilled mage had to have trained you." She said suspiciously.
"H-hey, I know people, and... have a lot of spare time on my hooves... don't judge me." Spirit said. "Don't you have some kind of... Drunk-Be-Gone spell or something?" She asks curiously. Onyx chuckled at her lack of knowledge.
"Dear, I know no such spell, and if there was one that existed it wouldn't just be as simple as 'Poof!' and they aren't drunk." She says.
"Well, it looks like we aren't taking the easy way out of this then..." Spirit mumbled. "Even if their drunken state passes then they’re going to have the most massive hangover ever... this isn't good at all... damn it Pyre!" She yelled in frustration and hoof slapped said stallion upside his head. A pony or two walking by the building gave a curious glance inside before walking away.
"Ow!" Pyre gripped his head and groaned. He turned to Lara for help. She shrugged and collapsed in a corner.
"Imma... sleep over... here." she slurred before closing her eyes and falling asleep. Lynx frowned.
"Well, she's got the right idea." Spirit turned to Pyre. "Go to sleep now."
"NO." Pyre sat on his haunches and folded his forelegs. Spirit was getting ready to strangle him when Lynx pounced on him and brought her right fore hoof to his temple. Pyre let out a mare-ish shriek before her hoof connected with his head. Pyre slumped forward, out cold. Onyx gasped. Spirit blinked.
"You... you knocked him out." Spirit said shocked.
"He was irritating the hell out of me. She's next." Of course, Onyx stopped Lynx from going near Lara's sleeping form.
"You knocked him out."
"Rain, dear, while I'm sure you're surprised, I need your help keeping Lynx off of..."
"Laranesse Rose!" Lynx shouted. "Wake up this instant!"
"I cannot believe Lynx, of all ponies, is capable of knocking somepony out." Onyx rolled her eyes and tugged Lynx in the opposite direction of Lara, worried that her raving would alert somepony to their presence and that would be a problem. They'd only just arrived in the strange city and one of their group was drunk and a local mare, a very important mare at that, was seen drunk and had tumbled with a newcomer. How would the city folks view them now?
"Lynx, I need you to hush, dear." An annoyed Onyx said , trying to calm the enraged Lynx down.
"But that motherbucking bastard!" Lynx yelled with rage. Onyx's eye twitched and her horn lit up. With her anger and frustration powering her, the intensity grew and random objects and loose rocks slowly rose in the air. Lynx's eyes widened and she instinctively prepared for a fight, rage and stress taking it's toll on her mind. "Oh, so you wanna fight? Is that it?" Lynx asked challengingly.
"You need to get over your foalish crush you have on apparently every stallion you see!" Onyx said, starting to get sincerely pissed.
"Oh, so you're calling me a slut?" Lynx asked with venom in her voice.
"You need to realize that there's more to life than colts!" Onyx continued.
"And now you're calling me an idiot!" Lynx's voice went up into shrill levels and snapped Spirit out of her mumbling. She glanced between the two mares and she cocked her head, wanting to see where this was going. The two drunk, sleeping ponies only stirred once but continued to snore.
"I don't have time for you to be slow! You're going to shut the hell up and we're going to sit down like civilized mares and talk about how to get out of this mess Mr. Flank-Shine has put us in!" Onyx yelled back at her. A few ponies began to gather to look and then they stayed to watch from the entrance.
"Flank-Shine? Really? That's the best you could come up with?" Spirit laughed. The two arguing mares glared at her.
"Quiet!" they shouted in unison.
"Jeez, my bad." Spirit looked around. "Where's some popcorn when you need it?" She mumbled to herself.
"It's not even that big of a deal! We can just make up a story about how he's not feeling well!" Lynx stated.
"You’re so slow! Celestia, I bet you're still only thinking of how to get that lousy colt to be all yours aren't you?" Lynx's eyes narrowed and she let out an animalistic snarl. Her orange eyes took on a faint glow and her pupils dilated to the point where there was only a sliver of her irises showing. Onyx's pupils shrunk in surprise. She watched as various water droplets materialized from the air and swirled together to create a ball about the size of a watermelon. Onyx watched in amazement. She was still stunned by the fact an earth pony could do such a deed.
"Shut up." Lynx said snarling. Onyx was not about to take orders from that dimwitted excuse for a mare! She narrowed her eyes too and lit her horn. This was going to end here and now. Funny, She was expecting something like this to happen between Spirit and Lynx, but she guessed that she only thought that simply because she found Lynx quite annoying and was hoping Spirit would put her in her place.
Onyx cracked her neck and took on a defensive stance. "Make me, dear." This was all the coaxing Lynx needed. She was out for blood, wanting so badly to knock that snooty know-it-all down a notch. The orb of water she had managed to suck out of the air around her separated into three long strands. She concentrated on keeping one on either side of her and one behind her.
The one on the left shot forward so fast, Onyx didn't have time to blink. The unicorn mare’s eyes widened and she took a step back but the water slashed at her face, grazing the skin and wetting her face. Other than the sting and the shock of the freezing water, Onyx was fine. She remembered that Lynx was an earth pony, therefore not fully in tune with her talent, and that Lynx had no practice with using her talent for long periods of time. Onyx figured she would not be able to harm her enough to gain any advantages and that she would tire, giving Onyx the upper hand.
Onyx added more power to her already lit horn and fired at Lynx's chest. The earth pony quickly stepped to the side, barely dodging it and lashed out with another strand of water. It flailed around like a whip, Lynx hoping it would cause some damage. It caught Onyx on her right foreleg and her barrel. The attack left shallow slashes. Lynx realized that this wasn't going to be enough. She quickly thought of a plan. Onyx powered her horn again and rushed to Lynx's left, aiming for her bandaged wound, knowing full well that would knock the mare off her hooves. Lynx was so not so quick to dodge this one. She managed to jump to the side and roll away from the unicorn but she felt the white hot energy graze her wound. It was enough to burn her fur and make her injury start to bleed.
Lynx let out a groan of pain and struggled to her hooves. She was not about to be beaten by a know-it-all, especially not one who insulted her. She glanced around for anything to use, she saw Spirit watching interested with various loose rocks around her, and grinned evilly. The strand of water she used as a whip curled around a particularly large rock and she aimed it before throwing it, trying to make it look like it came somewhat from Onyx's direction. The rock sailed over a modest amount of distance and hit Spirit right on the head.
"Ow!" Seeing that the rock had come from Onyx's direction, Spirit assumed the unicorn mare decided to have a free throw. "Watch it!" She lit her own horn, it glowing black, green, and purple, telltale signs of dark magic in use, and fired a semi-damaging beam of energy at her. Onyx let out a yelp and avoided the blast but the impact of the magic with the ground threw her off her hooves and sent her flying back a few feet.
Lynx chuckled, loving the feeling of playing dirty, and used her few seconds to concentrate on the two strands of water she had. She sensed water around her in various places and joined it to make one sphere. Once she decided she collected enough, she poured her whole will into making the water molecules change. The water changed from water to ice and back again in a matter of seconds. Hoping she had it, she aimed and the all the water shot forward. Onyx looked up in surprise and the water transformed into ice, made contact with her body, and sent her flying.
"What the-"
"Thought that you could keep me down with that cheap shot, huh?" Lynx rasped, her breathing heavy and blood seeping through the bandages and dripping down her legs. "Aiming for my open wound, how cute!"
"Well, I see you've got more brain than I thought if you managed to change water molecules."
Lynx paused, unsure if Onyx was about to apologize or not, and Onyx continued, "But you’re still shallow. I mean, come on, that fool over there is obviously-"
"GAH! STOP JUDGING PONIES!" Lynx shrieked. Pyre and Lara, both sleeping all this time, woke up with a start and stared at the scene before them. Lara's pupils shrunk and she cowered in her corner. Pyre was wondering what the tartarus was going on. Lynx summoned up her now ice-turned water and it stretched, becoming blunt and thick on one end and continuing before curving sharply and becoming thinner, flatter towards the other end. Pyre, Spirit, Lara, and Onyx's eyes widened. Lynx had just formed a sword out of ice! Blood trickled from Lynx's nose and she suddenly felt light headed. She stumbled back a bit before swinging her ice sword in Onyx's general direction. Onyx took advantage of this and sent several rocks sailing towards Lynx via telekinesis. Lynx let out a yelp as she as the rocks made contact to her body.
There was a loud shriek and the ice blade sliced through her flesh and reached the bone. Blood welled up and gushed out of the new, open wound. The horizontal gash throbbed with excruciating pain and all Onyx could think about was the horror that her fur was stained and that her hoof was shattered. Lynx decided to use some of her remaining strength to swing at Onyx freely and aggressively.
Onyx was able to dodge a few of those swings despite her quite battered up condition but eventually it caught her in her legs and side. She was overwhelmed by the shock that she underestimated Lynx and the multiple, nonstop blows that she tripped over her own hooves and landed on her back. The sword came down and Onyx had no choice but to block with her hoof.
e sword raised again and Onyx closed her eyes, waiting for the fatal blow, but as a few tense seconds passed she opened her eyes to find the ice sword hovering. There was a hoof connected to it. She looked up further to see none other than Pyre Shine gripping the hilt of the weapon with his hooves, preventing it from doing her any more harm.
"What... what the hell are you guys doing...?!" He looked at the mares dazedly. "...Onyx?...Lynx?" He couldn't seem to put the question together. Spirit simply shrugged.
"You thought Lynx and I would fight right? I thought so too but I guess life is full of surprises." She said grunting in pain.
"B-but why? you... didn't s-s-stop the-em?" Pyre said, pointing an accusing hoof at Spirit for letting such a horrible scene unfold. That action, however, wasn't taken as seriously since his hoof wasn't actually pointing at her and he was wobbling a bit.
"It was interesting." Spirit said casually. Pyre seemed to turn in slow motion and flashed Spirit a look. "I didn't know it was going to go this far. Jeez, get off my back. I can stop it now since you're so upset." Spirit said annoyed.
"You're not going to stop anything! I'm going to finish this!" Onyx hollered. She pushed Pyre out of they way and stood, wobbly, on three of her good hooves, her left forehoof dripping blood. She crouched and leapt on Lynx, who was shaking badly from the blood loss and strain. The earth pony mare gave way to the unicorns mass and they tumbled to the ground together. Spirit watched with minor annoyance as Pyre somewhat separated the mares by stumbling between them and staying there to keep them apart. She found this extremely boring and grinned as a dark thought, with adrenaline and rage, the mare continued to fight, but with hoof to hoof combat. Comically weak kicks to the ribs and sloppy punches to faces were made. There was a cloud of dust and a series of grunts and snarls as the mares fought. Pyre couldn't stand watching it anymore and wanted to intervene but thinking too much in his state made his throb. Both mares needed medical attention and fast. He was somewhat slow, however, due to his staggering and tripping over nothing.
A thought came into Spirit's mind. Her horn lit, glowing the same colors as before, and she giggled. Pyre looked up at her, horror shown on his face as he recognized the colors of her magic from his years of experience as a royal guard.
"S-spirit, whatever yerrr about to do... d-don't you dare." Spirit merely cocked her head and smiled, accepting his words as a challenge. She fired a shot right into his chest, sending him flying across the room flailing like a rag doll, a drunken ragdoll. Lara yelped from her corner, trembling in fear. She covered her face with her red hair, hoping that no attention would be drawn to her.
Lynx, unable to throw anymore hits, jumped on Onyx's back and tried to overwhelm her. Onyx was less injured than her, however and flipped over onto her back with force. This knocked the wind out of Lynx and caused her to loosen her grip. Onyx took this chance to shift her weight to her forehoof and delivered a swift kick to Lynx's chest before she toppled due to the lack of balance. Lynx flew across the room and slammed into the wall. She landed right on top of Pyre, who groaned in pain and eyed her.
"Dammit, Spirit! Lynx?" he said out loud. Lynx groaned softly. She groaned in pain and proceeded to stop moving or talking. "Oh no, no no no!" Pyre said in drunken panic. Spirit rolled her eyes at his exaggerated panic attack. She felt for her heart beat and immediately felt it, she inwardly sighed in relief.
"Whew, she's just unconscious. Wouldn't want her to die so early in the day." She said after hearing her breaths. Pyre looked over to Onyx, who was on the ground in pain.
"Sweet Celestia... Spirit!" He said pointing another accusing hoof at her again. "U-use that dark... fucked up magic o' yerrs that occupies your mind to do some good for once and help me get them to th-*Hic*!... clinic!" He ordered, as she immediately obeyed, not wanting to piss him off any further and since the end result was partly her fault.
"I am not, going anywhere!... U-until that bitch is pulp!" Said Onyx, who was getting up and staggering around, almost as if she was drunk. By now, there was a small group of curious city folk trying to see what the ruckus was about. Some whispered to each other about bets and some murmured in disapproval. One stallion even asked for popcorn.
"Spirit... you need to... uh... sedate her..." Pyre said to Spirit as authoritatively as possible in his current state. She scowled but quietly nodded as she sedated Onyx and proceeded to help them both to the clinic with Pyre, as he gave her shifty looks from time to time, expecting her to blast him from ordering her around.
"What?" she demanded. Pyre's frown deepened. "What!?" She said again, more angrily.
Pyre began to go on about a list of things that had nothing to do with the question..."And six- w-wait... what was six again... err... never mind. So yeah, incase that's enough, that's wh- ... And oh horse apples, we forgot Lara..." He said, not pausing from his drunken rant at the realization. Spirit looked behind her, not feeling like heading back.
"You forgot meeeeee!" a female voice yelled. A figure, most likely Lara, bolted from the building staggering like a drunken madmare and ran faster to catch up to them. She couldn't run in a straight line and she realized she was coming in too fast and slid to a stop, barely keeping herself from accidentally knocking Spirit down. The dark unicorn mare scowled at the redhead triplet. "S-sorry." Lara said meekly and crawled over by Pyre.
Pyre laughed and wobbled slightly. Lara smiled and giggled a little.
"Oooh, your girlfriend got hurt?" Spirit let out a guffaw of laughter and stomped her hoof. Pyre gritted his teeth.
"No!"
"Ooookaaaay. If you saaaay so." she sang a little too loudly. Various ponies walking by gave her odd looks. Pyres face contorted in anger. He then turned to Spirit and grumbled at her about nonsense. Lara gave a defensive look for Pyre, defending her drunken 'friend'.
"You want me to make you another target for this dark magic of mine?" At this statement, Spirit laughed to herself at her cruelness and nodded but Lara's eyes grew wide with fear and she hid behind Pyre.
"N-noo, i'm completely fine being off that list, thank you though alway nice to see people care, but we have to prepare for this one gurrlls wedding, oh- wait no it was your there's ceremony! Haha!" Lara said chuckling at her own drunken non-sense. It appeared she had much more to drink then Pyre, or she just doesn't hold her alcohol nearly as well.
"L-laraaa, don't tell anypony about w-what happened, alright. It would be much appreciated." Pyre slurred.
"I don't know about you but those twee- uh I mean three are dangerous!" She says blabbing.
"Please. I can k-keep this one in check." Pyre gave Spirit an angered glance. "These two aren't normally like this." Pyre gestured to the two unconscious mares and scowled unnecessarily. Spirit laughed to herself again. Pyre was an angry drunk, apparently.
"Oh, so you know them, right *Hic*? What makes them tick? I wouldn't want what happened back there to happen again." Lara laughed, despite the seriousness of her own, quite drunken, statement.
"Uhh, No. I-I met them all..." there was a pause as he staggered a bit. "J-just this morning." Pyre said sheepishly. Spirit facehoofed.
Lara's ears flattened against her skull, "Oh. Well, that changes everything. You can't assure me or *Hic* anypony else here what they will or will not do. You don't even know them." Pyre and Spirit glanced at each other. Lara was going to spill the beans and it wasn't going to be good for any of them. Spirit raised an eyebrow and Pyre gave a single, curt nod and a giggle. Spirit grinned, it was all she needed. She cracked her neck and lit her horn. Lara's pupils shrunk and she put up her hooves.
"W-wait! Don't shoot!"
"Too late." Pyre snorted with a hint of annoyance in his voice, the day and alcohol had exhausted him to limit. "Go on, Rain. Whatcha waiting for?"
"Don't rush me." She cast a quick and effective memory spell after knocking the mare out with a shot to the head. "There. She's out cold and her memory of the past couple of hours is erased." Pyre stared at her for a second, pupils the size of pinpricks.
"Would've made... Onyx proud." Pyre laughed nervously and gestured to the mare on Spirit’s back. Spirit smiled, glad that her magic surpassed a normal unicorns strength. Pyre began to think of the heavy mare on his back and this brought another question to his mind, "Why the hell... Why the hell w-were they... fighting, anyway?" he asked, lifting Lara onto his back and grunting from the extra weight. He and Spirit walked further but he was starting to get annoyed due to his growing headache and the load on his back. He continued to stagger while carrying them along, trying to avoid looking any passerby's in the eye.
"Well, Lynx was raving about you sleeping with Lara and then Onyx started raving about how she was foolish and then one thing lead to another and, yeah, that happened." She said chuckling.
"Wait, so... they nearly killed themselves... because of me?" He asked curiously, as they continued along to the clinic. He barked out an unnecessary laugh and then stumbled over nothing. Again.
"Yep, that about sums it up." She stated casually, watching the bumbling fool.
"You m-mares are insane." said Pyre, shaking his head. They continued to walk for a good half an hour. They didn't stop to ask anypony for directions in fear that it might cause suspicion but they also had to remember that they had two injured mares that needed doctors. It seemed like Spirit would have to ask for directions but miraculously, she saw the huge, white building with a sign on it. Pyre, grumbling nonsense in pain from his headache, suddenly perked up when Spirit said, "Hey look, the clinic's up ahead! Come on, hurry! Hustle! faster!" Pyre and Spirit picked up the pace and reached the clinic. Pyre tried to concentrate on running in a straight line and not tripping. He, of course did not succeed and had an even bigger headache that was starting to make itself known. Spirit rolled her eyes and hoped Lara and Lynx didn't get injured... well more injured in Lynx's case.
Spirit found it kind of odd that the clinic was not close to the room where Lynx had been bandaged up. It was almost like they expected them to arrive and set up right in that very room that the two mares fought in. How did they know they would find a way in? Did they deliberately make a hole the wall just to cover it up to leave some kind of doorway? Spirit shook her head and wondered if Lynx's odd behavior when they arrived was because she noticed something wrong as well. Something was not right, not right at all...
"Welcome to the Safehattan Health Clinic. How can I help you?" a cheery female voice said. Spirit looked up and raised a brow. The mare was identical to Cara and Lara's coloring but with shiny, blonde hair.
"I assume you're Sara." she deadpanned. The blonde mare smiled awkwardly. She motioned for Pyre and Spirit to put the three mares on the cots lined up in a corner. Once that was done, she inspected the mares. Her left eye twitched a little as she glimpsed her sister but she said nothing about her.
"What in Equestria happened to them?! We have to get them into medical care immediately! Surely you newcomers haven't caused trouble already?" Sara gave them a look. Pyre rubbed his neck sheepishly and blushed.
"Uhh..."
"Tsk, tsk. This won't do. This won't do at all. I'll keep quiet about this one but that mare that treated your friend earlier, don't let her see you guys with anymore injuries."
"How do you know about our friend being treated?" Spirit demanded.
"I'm a doctor here. Do you remember that stallion that was supposedly guarding the door when she treated you?" Spirit nodded.
"Let's just say, he wasn't guarding you."
"Wait, you mean h-he was there just in case w-we... we gave him a surprise hug?" Pyre gasped and staggered back, falling on his flank.
"No, silly. That medicine that they dab on the wounds-" Sara was cut off by the stern-looking mare that treated Lynx earlier. She eyed the group and stared daggers and Sara. Sara smiled and waved but the mare only snorted and continued to walk by. "I can't really talk now but make sure you keep a close eye on your injured friends." Spirit had a genuinely confused look as the blonde mare trotted away. What did she mean?!
Author's Note
Sorry for the lateness but the length and quality sure make up for it!
