Wretched Hive 2: The Drooling Oasis

Sin opened his eyes. Everywhere he looked was ice crystals, blue like the mirages he had encountered earlier. His hooves stood upon thick, blue ice. The unicorn's body was almost numb with cold, yet he couldn't see his breath. Unfazed by any of this, Sin trotted around the perimeter looking for any exit he could find. He put his ear to the wall in places, but all he could ever hear was the sound of his own hoofsteps. All he could ever feel was a solid sheet of flat ice crystals.

Green light watched him from above. Pleased, the light flowed through the ice to a new chamber.

"SOMEBODY, HELP ME!" Babylon screamed.

The green ice watched as the changeling scrambled around the solid room in a panic. Slipping in places, he made his way to each set of etched ice and carved new lines in with his hooves.

"PLEASE! ANYONE?!" the changeling yelled to the ceiling before dragging his hooves down the wall.

Babylon shook his head as it reached the bottom. He whimpered and shook from the cold chill. His eyes searched all around but there was only the same, icy, and doorless prison walls. The whole place reeked of desolation and fear. Combined with his own claustrophobia, this ice felt like his coffin.

The eyes of the Oasis watched the cold changeling crawl into a corner. His whimpers turned to tears, and his tears turned to crying. Displeased, the lights disappeared back into the ice.

Sin tapped the wall with his hoof. The sound resonated around him. He shrugged and moved to the center of the chamber. He looked up at the ceiling. Unlike the plain walls, the ice crystals above formed shining stalactites that seemed to still be dripping. Not a drop could be heard or seen on the ground, though.

A drop fell on the back of his mane. It slid down his neck. Sin turned around. Another drop landed on the end of his snout. He looked up. The familiar green glow oozed down a larger stalactite. Water dripped down around him. Sin took a step back, only to see the Oasis emerge from the ice. He smirked as large claws rose from the floor.

Its head twitched as it descended, its eyes fixed on the unicorn. "Do you not fear me?" the almost harmonic voice growled from behind the drool.

Sin briefly crooked his head in thought. "Nah."

The edges of the watery snout lifted into a wet grin. "Good. There is a matter I wish to discuss." Its snout moved closer to his; drool splashed onto his hooves. "Fear has no place in my plan."

"Really? 'Cause that doesn't sound very fun..."

A claw surged toward his throat. Sin felt its cold grasp below his chin. It lifted his head up toward the Oasis's gaze.

The water spurted as it talked. "You are truly depraved, but not thoroughly corrupted. I need someone like you..."

Sin put a hoof up and tried to push the claw down. "Actually, I came here to kill you." The claw retreated to the ice.

The large snout threw water everywhere as it bellowed a chuckle. "Your 'courage' is amusing." It dripped closer. "Do you even know what I am?"

The unicorn's brown eyes looked from the green bubbling to the blue, floating mass of water that made up the dragon-like face and claws before him. "Well, you're a bitch... And you're made out of water, apparently."

The Oasis's scoff splattered on the ice. "I am the blood and souls of the blessed." It shook its head, sloshing the juices in and out of its mouth and eyes. "Not water."

Sin tapped on the ice before reaching for some of the drool and noting its consistency. "Sure about that?" As his voice left his maw, the water flowing off his hoof turned thicker. "Oh..."

The Drooling Oasis smiled as the liquid took a more solid form, splitting from the thick flow with tiny legs. Centipedes dripping with blood and enthusiasm crawled their way up his foreleg. Sin looked up at the Oasis, neither removing his hoof nor failing to smile. The bugs crawled onto his face. The unicorn remained stoic.

A sigh emanated from the drooling jaws. The bugs turned to water and fell into the ice. Sin removed his hoof from the water-like drool.

"So you can change the blood into whatever you want, huh?"

The Oasis smiled again. "I was beginning to think you were simply an idiot." The unicorn frowned. "That is just one of my divine abilities, mortal," it began to explain with a more relaxed tone. "I can see everything. From every sea, lake, pond, or tiny river. All water... All life flows through my veins." Its claws lifted to the ceiling and the crystals rose higher, stretching and melting the walls in the process. "There is no escaping my gaze. This scorched wasteland is only the first to be cleansed."

"So you're saying you're new to all this?" Sin scoffed.

It turned to him in scorn. "It is this land's corruption that summoned me! It beckoned me from the depths! It begged me for death!"

"Really? Somebody actually begged for all this?"

"Every creature in this wasteland has had complete disregard for my laws. Complete disrespect for me. They have forced me to take judgment."

"Gouging someone's eyes and ripping out their tongue is a funny way to judge ponies!"

"Surely you, of all monsters above, understand how much The Betrayer deserved it. How dangerous and psychotic and insane his tendencies are!"

Sin nodded. "Yeah, that's why I liked him!"

The Oasis chuckled. "I should have guessed." It shook its head. "But The Betrayer lacks the ambitions you have. The want... The need to murder. Bloodthirst. I need one with a heart as dark as yours. I need... A necessary evil."

"Am I murdering you?" Sin asked with a straight face.

"No."

"The little brat, then?"

"What?!" The Oasis had to stop and recollect. "Oh no... His life is guarded by the wayward souls of the parents." It shook its head again. "Their influences on my waters make it impossible to collect the child."

"Then can I go?"

"I need you to kill someone far more threatening than some little mother's boy..." It smiled at him. "If you can kill him, I will repay the favor."

"Really?" Sin said skeptically. It nodded toward him. "Can you make me an alicorn?"

A claw melted into the ice, creating a hole in the floor. It went down into the blood and souls that made up the floor. With a sudden surge, the arm rose back to the surface. Suspended in the claw was a familiar clump of green. The arm flailed, slamming the green into the ice. It stayed solid.

Sin trotted up to the green, and watched a mixture of feathers, bones, and tissue rise from the clump weakly. The rest of Cloud slumped on the ice. His eyes seemed weak and his mouth empty of teeth and words. Not a single drop of red blood could be found on or around the disheveled pegasus.

The claw pulled at one of the wing tips and the green head writhed on the ice, unable to scream. "If you must become an alicorn... I suppose we could recycle some old wings."

Sin looked over the broken and somehow not bloody wings. He smiled at the amount of bones and sinew jutting out from the shattered wing patterns. He turned toward the Oasis. "And I want new eye colors... I want my left to be purple and my right to be red. Like pony blood red. None of that girly pink stuff."

The claw slammed down on Cloud's writhing body. "Don't push it," the Oasis growled.

"You better not have just broken those wings..."

"You disturb me almost as much as those on the surface," it replied. "But be assured that this payment will be adequate for your services."

Sin chuckled and shook his head. "Oh no... These are just my upfront costs. You want me to kill someone? You give me wings and my eye colors before I do anything. Once your target is dead, I expect the head of that stupid kid."

"There will be no 'upfront' payment, Sin!" the Oasis yelled, its twisted voice rebounding off the crystal walls. Its claw dragged Cloud's body across the ice, away from the unicorn. "If you wish the child dead, you may have it. If you wish for wings, you may have them. But you cannot have both!"

"I'll take the kid then." He shrugged. "Wings were stupid anyways."

"For the sake of time and decency, mostly time, you won't be able to pursue the child until after your job is done." The Oasis glared down at the unicorn. "Is that clear?"

"Sure," Sin waved off. "Whatever kills him."

"Then we will see to your companion." The long, leaking snout turned from the unicorn and the claws joined it at the wall.

"Does he get a reward too?" Sin asked as the claws dug into the ice.

Water gushed from the cracks like an open wound, flooding the room with knee-high waves. The Oasis turned a boiling eye toward the pony. "Would you choose it?" it growled in rhythm with the crashing floor.

He waved off the threat. "Nah, I'm good."

The tide brought Babylon from the depths of his despair. A claw fished him from the waters and placed him with the unicorn. The changeling looked in all directions, still trying to get his bearings. Looking over the faces of Sin and the Drooling Oasis, he wasn't sure whose smile was more unnerving.

The snout sloshed toward them, closing the distance its own claw had made. The wall behind it continued to bleed, yet the waves never crashed above their knees. A hundred thoughts and a thousand fears coursed through the changeling's mind.

Sin nudged Babylon's shoulder. "Relax, you bug... It just wants us to kill somebody for it in exchange for whatever you want!" He giggled in excitement. "Awesome, right?"

"No!" his fanged jaw snapped at his companion. He turned to the oozing mound of blood. "You think we're just going to fall for this simple manipulation?" he chastised. "There's no way you can possibly give me what I want!" He scoffed at the Oasis's almost enthusiastic smile.

"Not only shall I give whatever you wish, Babylon," the chorus of retching and singing bellowed from the blood fountain. "I will even let you live!" Giggles echoed from behind the flames. "Neither of you are worthy of the blessings I bestow. But even filth like you may serve a purpose..."

"Really?" Babylon stepped forward with a smirk. "Anything I want, huh?"

"Name it and it is yours," the almost-voice explained with only the slightest tinge of frustration.

"I want to know how to stop you." Babylon held a hoof to the Oasis. "That is not my wish, only my intent." He smiled. "I wish to ask Foresight a few questions that only he may answer."

"The Betrayer?!"

"You invested a lot on the wretched hive queen's favor of him." He shook his head. "You wouldn't just throw him away after a minor setback, right?"

The Drooling Oasis sighed. "You may ask but a single question which he must answer. There will be no interruptions, no clarifications, and you will never see him again." She crooked her oozing gaze. "Do you understand that this is all I will ever give you for your services? You must kill whomever I ask upon his reply..."

"Get on with it!" Babylon demanded.

With another sigh, the claw reached into the depths once more. The sinkhole pulled Cloud's crushed remains back under again, while the two unclean stood without even a tug from the current. The claw pulled Foresight's body from the gore below and tossed it into the now still waters. It stood up on its own somehow, still missing everything above the lower jaw. The claw grabbed ahold of what was left of the head. The eye juices calmed, then saturated into the blood mound.

Foresight screamed.

The changeling's face had been reconstructed with the Oasis's claw. The eyes spurted the same liquid. After screaming and getting his bearings, Foresight simply sat and stared at Babylon.

"Well? Ask away." His voice sounded distorted as drool dripped from his snout. Luckily, he was still perfectly understandable.

Babylon took a breath and some time to get his words together. "How can we stop this monster, the Drooling Oasis, from reaping more lives?"

Foresight smiled. "Do you want the bad news, or the worse news first?"

Babylon put a hoof to the smiling pony next to him, then glared back at Foresight.

The eyes spurted in realization. "Oops, feedback is against their rules." He chuckled. "I suppose we'll start with the worst."