The Fate Players

The sun began to set by late afternoon as Fluttershy and I continued to argue. No matter how much I begged, pleaded and cried, Fluttershy still stubbornly refused to come with me to the village that Isa mentioned. Seeing how serious the situation looked, we were going to need everyone and ponies help to get through this.

“Why don’t you come with us, we could sure use more-uh,” I said struggling to come up with the right word. “Uh…Players on our side.” Eh, good enough.

“Oh Todd, I just don’t know if I can. All of that blood,” she whimpered. “What happened, was so scary.” She began to tremble as more tears were flowing down her face. I was starting to get second thoughts on this.

“But you’re my partner,” I told her.

“I-I still don’t know what that means.”

“Look, why don’t you just stick by me as we go. That way we can both look out for each other,” I suggested.

“But, what if we get hurt? I mean, you barely stood a chance against that last monster,” she mentioned innocently.

“Thanks for reminding me,” I replied in a flat tone.

“I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you feel bad.”

Fluttershy sat there on her doorstep for a while, visibly shaking as she tried to decide on whether or not she wanted to go. I really didn’t have any time to wait, for all I know Isa and Twilight could be heavily outnumbered and overpowered by those things by now. A chorus of screams rose up in the distance from somewhere beyond Fluttershy’s cottage.

“I-I’m sorry, Todd!” she cried. “I just can’t do it, I won’t! I don’t have the courage. I’m so sorry!”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, the words coming out of her mouth were grating against my ears. The game just started and my partner was already throwing in the towel without even trying to help me. Can’t say that I blame her though, anyone would’ve backed out if their world were infested by these monsters. I couldn’t wait any longer, and I certainly wasn’t going to put up with this.

“Fine. I’ll just go die by myself then,” I half-shouted at her, as I bowed my head. The little Pegasus looked up with her tear-filled eyes, horror written plainly over her face.  “My first battle and I’m going at it alone. I might need you, but no use in arguing with a coward like you. I guess that wouldn’t be fair.”

Tears began to stream down her face as I got up. I walked across the little bridge and picked up the suitcase with the food in it. My machete laid across from my suitcase, a small chip missing from the tip of the blade.

“I’ll see you around then,” I said coldly. I didn’t even look back as I continued down the dirt path on the road to the village.

The whole village in general looked like something out of an old enlgish village. Small wooden houses with straw thatched roof, wooden wagons with food and even a fountain at the town square. Everything so serene and peaceful, except of course for the fact that were more Pests here wreaking havoc and the panicking ponies.

I scanned the area trying to look for Isa and Twilight, but there were too many ponies and Pests in the way. I could barely see make out any of the pony’s faces to see where the alicorn was. Ponies were being thrown around like rag dolls, disemboweled by the Pests, trampled on and dragged away by these unholy creepy crawlers. Although, there weren’t that many Pests, the devestation these things were causing was off the charts.

A heart rending scream  in the distance interrupted my thoughts. I looked to my far left and noticed that a pink mare with a green mane was backed up against a wall, a Pest looming over her. The bug’s back was turned at me and raised its front legs up, preparing for the kill. This was my chance, I was not going fail this time. I felt adrenaline pumping through my body, this time I was sure I was going to fight right. I dropped my case, gripped my blade, and ran full charge at the Pest. Gaining enough momentum, I climbed up its back and brought down my machete on the exposed flesh of its neck.

STAB!

My blade pierced through it’s shell, blue blood gushing out from the wound like a geyser. The Pest swayed from side to side until the creature fell to the ground, its legs curling up. I looked down at the pony to make sure it was still alive.

“Hey, are you ok?” I asked.

“I, Ahhhh!” she screamed and ran off.

A shadow loomed over me. Turning around I came face to pincer with another giant Pest, about to impale me with one its horns.

Ducking out of the way, it tried spearing me with its sworld-like legs. Rolling over to the side, I pulled myself up as I prepared myself for another fight. The Pest pulled its legs out of the ground, releasing a hair-raising hiss from its mouth. With my machete in hand, sweat was running down my brow as I was just standing there waiting for it to strike.

Throwing its legs up, I noticed the Pest’s legs had small bits of red in them. I hazard a guess it was an exposed joint between the chitin. The Pest charged at me with blind fury. Throwing my body forward I rolled underneath, raised my machete and sliced clear through one of the joints. The beast roared out in pain as blood oozed out of the stump. I ran out from underneath as the beast began to roll around as metallic blue blood began to cover the ground.

Recovering from the loss its legs, the Pest charged at me, throwing me like a child into a house. My legs crumpled underneath me, as I laid there defeated. The Pest then raised its remaining leg about to strike me, time slowing down as I watched as death was about to come down on me.

As the legs came down, I wondered if anyone else would really miss me? Would they laugh about how I was the first loser? I closed my eyes, waiting for it to end my game. Time crept by, at what I thought was going to be my end. Hazarding a look, I opened my eyes to the Pest laing  dead on the ground with a burned jaw and burnt out eyes and antenna. I turned my head back and noticed Twilight and Isa again, with Twilight’s horn being encased in some kind of aura.

“How many times am I going to have to save you?” she asked.

“Well sorry, I’m not used to fighting giant killer cockroaches!” I retorted.

“Don’t get snappy with me!”

“Um, guys,” spoke Isa.

We all turned to Isa and pointed up to the sky, a lone figure dashing through the sky at breakneck speeds. It didn’t take long to realize that it was another Pest about to make a landing attack. It rose up higher until it began to hurdle straight down at us. Earth and dirt exploded up as the Pest smashed into the ground as our little group. I jumped to my left as Isa and Twilight vanished in a burst of purple sparks. The Pest shook off the debris like it had just woken up from a nap, its body remained unscathed from the attack.

Rising up from the crater, the Pest rose up out of the crater and lunged at Isa. The Pest charged, swiping at her but she dodged the long swipes with ease. She rolled backwards, and kicked the beast square in its jaw. As the Pest was dazed, she ran straight up to the beast and kicked it in its stomach, knocking it on its back. I watched in amazement and bewilderment as this girl continued to out maneuver the Pest with ease, like a ballerina during a recital.

“Now what?” she asked herself.

The Pest regained its senses enough to throw a blind swipe at her. They were so close to hitting each other, I honestly thought she was going to die. While the Pest lunged at her when suddenly, she ran up and jumped right on the Pests head like a trampoline, the force of impact sent her flying into the air, causing her to do a bunch of twirls until she landed safely on the ground.

“Whoa,” I gasped.

The Pest fell face first into the gravel, it didn’t take long for it to get back up. Taking a deep breath, she sprinted at the beast, jumped and sprung over the Pest’s atempts to grab her. As she landed on top of its head, the Pest threw her high into the sky. As she came back down, Isa gracefully spun in the open air before dropping a axe kick onto the head of the beast, sending it sprawling onto the ground. She got up and regained her balance. I was amazed at her moves, what exactly does she do for a living? After she face planted the bug she looked at us and smiled.

“Whoa,” I gasped.

“Impressed? That’s a whole lot better than using my axe,” she admitted.

“What is it that you do for a living?” I asked.

“Isn’t it obvious?” she asked shrugging her shoulders.

“Uhh…”

“I’m a gymnast!”

“Gymnast, as in you do gymnastics?”

“Yep, pretty cool ri-“

SLAM!

A Pest slammed right into Isa pinning her to the ground. Its legs were holding down all of her limbs and it’s jaw wide open filled with green saliva. Isa’s face was completely void of color and remained motionless.

“Get it off!” she screamed.

“Isa!” I ran up to help her, but another Pest jumped in front of me and hissed.

“Dammit, not now!” I grappled my machete and started swinging at the bug. My blade made a few scratches but not enough to bring any full damage.

“What’s going on?” asked Twilight. “How are you guys…”

Before she could finish, she noticed the Pest on top of the terrified Isa about to bite down. She let out a loud gasp at the sight. Her brow furrowed and her eyes were filled with rage. Finally, her horn lit up like a sunburst.

“Get away from her!”

Several beams and lightning bolts shot out of her horn like a machine gun. The Pest in front of us was obliterated, tiny smoldering pieces of Pest were strewn across the ground, splatters of blue blood were everywhere. I ran up to the fallen Pest in front of me and stabbed it in the stomach, making sure it was truly dead.

“Isa, are you alright?” she asked worried.

Isa wrapped her arms around Twilight, hugging the purple alicorn tightly against her chest. “Thank you!” she cried. “I thought I was going to die!”

“Hey, it’s alright,” Twilight cooed as she rubbed Isa’s back. “But, don’t thank me yet. The fight is still going on.” Isa broke apart their hug and scanned her surroundings, seeing the on going pandemonium the Pest were causing.

“Twilight!” yelled a voice, this one sounded like a little boy’s voice.

We turned around and noticed that a little lizard was running up to the purple equine. He was really short and had purple and green scales, he looked really concerned and confused at the same time. “Spike?!” exclaimed Twilight, and she ran towards the little creature. I walked up to Isa to help her up.

“C’mon, I don’t think it’s safe to just sit around here,” I said while I offered my hand to her. When she got up, her eyes were filled with sorrow.

“I-I let my guard down,” she muttered. “I almost died. I thought I could dodge it.”

“Don’t worry about it,” I replied. “You dodged the other attacks pretty well. Plus, I distracted you. So it was sort of my fault.”

“But I-“

“C’mon. Your partner needs you.”

“Hey, that reminds me. Where’s your partner?” she asked.

“She’s not coming,” I replied disappointingly.

“Why not?”

“Because she’s scared, I don’t know. C’mon let’s go see what Twilight’s doing,” I suggested. We walked over to Twilight and the little lizard as they were sharing an embrace.

“Twilight, what’s going on here?!” the lizard asked.

“Spike I told you to wait back at the library!” she scolded.

We heard loud noises land near us, and I soon noticed that we were all surrounded by Pests. I didn’t think a few aerials would get us out of this one. I readied my machete as Isa got into another fighting positon and the little lizard hugged Twilight’s leg out of fear for his and her life. Isa had more fear in her eye’s this time, actually we all had apprehensive expressions this time.

Bang!

A gunshot went off and the Pest before us collapsed to the ground, creating another puddle of blood.

Bang! Bang!

More gunshots went off and more Pests laid dead. I counted how many shots went off, I think it was about six. That was also the total number of Pests that were surrounding us, and they all got bullet holes in their heads now.

“Hehehehehe,” a voice chuckled.

We all swerved around and saw that it was the same guy from earlier, with the messy hair.

“Phillip?!” exclaimed Isa.

Phillip had smoke coming from the barrel of his gun, and he had a smug look on his face, I couldn’t tell if that was good or bad.

“Head shot,” he said.

Standing next to him was a white unicorn mare with a swirly purple mane and tail and had a trio of diamonds on her flank. Not to mention that she had huge eyelashes. She had a very scared expression on her face.

“Twilight! Spike! Are you alright?!” the white mare shouted as she trotted over to them.

“Rarity!” the little lizard shouted. Pretty soon, all of them shared a big group hug.

“I’m so glad you’re alright,” she wept. “I have no idea what’s going on. First, a strange creature approaches at my boutique and then all of THIS.”

“We’re just as confused as you are, Rarity,” Twilight admitted.

“Miss!” Phillip called. They all turned around and faced him as he was re-loading. “As scared and confused as you are, I advise we stick close together. You never know when something might take you by surprise.”

He then aimed his gun at the white unicorn and we all grew surprised and terrified faces, humans and ponies.

“Whoa, what’re doing?!” exclaimed the little Lizard as he stepped in front of the two mares.

Bang!

The bullet flew right past them and struck the Pest behind the trio. They noticed the dead Pest behind them and understood what he was doing. Still, they had those scared expressions. I walked up to the Pest and noticed how huge the bullet hole was, in its head. Imagine, if that was one of us, or one of our partners. He could’ve killed them, is this guy insane!?

“You’re welcome,” Phillip said smugly.

“Oh thank goodness, for a minute there I thought you were going to shoot one of us,” sighed Rarity as her hoof was on her thumping chest.

“Why would I do that? I would never harm an ally,” he admitted.

“Are you sure about that? Because you DID almost killed your partner,” I asked skeptically.

“But I didn’t, did I?” he replied. “Besides, it’s like what I told Rarity earlier when I arrived at her boutique: ‘Don’t be scared. If you hear me out I promise I won’t hurt you. Plus, I'm not the kind of guy to harm a lady,’” he explained.

“Oh my,” giggled the white mare.

“And you bought that?” I asked. “Look, I’ve only known this guy for half a day, and I can already tell that there’s something not right here.”

“Can’t argue with that,” grunted the little lizard as he glared at Phillip.

“Oh come now, don’t be so judgmental. I think we should all give each other a chance. That way, we can trust-“

BOOM!

“What was that?” asked Isa.

“Sounded like thunder,” I guessed. “But where did it come from?”

BOOM!

The thunder stroke again, we still had no idea where it came from. I turned my head and noticed something unusual. All of the Pests were scattering away and crawling out of the village. Pretty soon, the whole village was empty except for the dead Pest bodies and house damages.

“All of those bugs are heading out,” pointed out Twilight.

“But where are they going?” asked the lizard.

“Maybe they’re heading to the source of that thunder sound,” suggested Phillip. “It looks like it’s coming from just outside of this village.”

“Thunder,” Twilight pondered. “Follow me, I think I have an idea who might be causing that!”

“Whoa, wait a minute! You want us to follow them?” I asked surprised. "The very things that tried to kill us?!"

“Yes, now hurry! Our friend might need our help!” Both the white mare and the lizard gasped, as if they knew who she was talking about.

They soon followed Twilight to the outskirts of the village.

“Fine whatever,” I sighed.

We all gathered our weapons and ran after them, without knowing what might be out there causing that thunder.