Pathfinder 5

Pathfinder 5

Chapter 8: The Castle

It had taken him almost an hour but David had finally reached the structure that the drones had found. He was thankful that he had traveled with the chameleon suit as he had seen a few animals that he really didn’t want to notice him. Some kind of large alligator or crocodile (he honestly wasn’t sure which as he wasn’t a zoologist) but he stayed clear of it. Something large also was in these woods although he hadn’t gotten a clear look at it but it was pretty big from the sounds of it.

He arrived in an open area to see what looked like a very old and run down castle of some kind, there was a simple rope and wooden suspension bridge in front of him over a very deep looking gap.

“Huh, natural moat I guess,” David shrugged but as he got closer noticed a set of stairs cut into the rock to his right. He paused wondering what was down there as you someone went to the effort to carve out stairs for a reason. He made a mental note to check on that later, maybe send a drone down first to make sure the thing wouldn’t give way.

“Speaking of giving way,” He muttered looking at the bridge. It had seen better days but the scans from the drone did say it should support his weight. It was the supposed to part that he really hated. “Nothing ventured...”

He cautiously made his way over the bridge, it wasn’t exactly build for someone his size and the ropes were too low to grab onto, then again if this was made by the little horse aliens could they ‘grab’ onto it? The scans from the subject he called ‘Skittles’ had shown some really odd skeletal structure, especially how the front legs had nearly a wrist like section to them able to bend their hooves in angles more like a human than a horse.

After getting over the Bridge of Nearly Certain Death as he was calling it, he soon arrived at the castle.

“Seen better days right Happy?” He commented to the drone that was hovering near him. He didn’t expect a reply as it really couldn’t, hell it had less intelligence than AVI did.

Walking up some steps he found the ancient doors already open as he walked in, the odd thing was that he didn’t even have to duck down, the doors were built way bigger than the aliens, maybe it was built by another species? Well for all he knew there could be more but he would hold off on that until later.

Walking through the place he raised the small control pad on his left forward as he started to send commands to Happy to start taking scans as he started up a log.

“This is my observation log for my exploration of the structure found by the drones. From the looks of it this is an old castle, the drone I have with me is taking scans and I’m hoping I can get an estimate of how old the structure is.”

He walked deeper in as he voiced his findings.

“It’s pretty old and abandoned, the walls are falling down in areas and there are holes in the roof. I’m honestly not sure how stable this place is but I plan on being careful.”

He noticed two large tapestries that still hung in the large open room he found himself in. He sent Happy in to get closer to them to get some pictures.

“There are two tapestries in here, they’re pretty ragged but I can still make them out. One is yellow the other blue. One appears to have the sun and the other the moon as prominent images above what looks like one of the aliens.”

He looked at them closely as something seemed off.

“I just noticed that the alien creature in each one has both a wing and a horn, I haven’t seen this type among the locals. Given the importance of showing these off as soon as you walk in I’m guessing that they could represent a ruling class.”

He thought about something else about how the sun and moon of this planet and their odd orbit.

“Added thought, what if this is linked to the sun and moon of this world? As stated in my earlier reports the orbit of the sun and moon defies all physics. Could they have noticed this and put it into their myth and legends? Maybe these two are gods associated with the sun and moon. When we break the language barrier I plan on asking about this.”

Among other things of course as he walked deeper into the castle, he found some paths were totally blocked off and so he stayed with the open areas. He found what looked like what might have been a kitchen for the place although most of the wood had rotten away, a cast iron oven was still in pretty decent shape.

Eventually he found himself in a large library which gave him pause.

“Damn...that’s a lot of books,” He picked one up as gently as he could, they were pretty old and fragile.

“I found a large library, I have no idea why such a treasure trove of knowledge would just be abandoned like this, some of the books look so delicate that I don’t want to touch them as they could fall apart. Given that the little Purple One has been giving me a few books it’s helped with building a translation matrix for their written language. I plan on taking a couple of books that look like they could survive, give they were just left here I doubt anyone will kick up a fuss and if so I’ll return them.”

He looked around and gently testing the books out and flipping through a few pages to make sure he didn’t pick something dull like a book on agriculture, he found a couple that might help. He placed them carefully in the backpack of his suit and moved on.

As he explored he kept seeing the sun and moon motif with the strange horses with the wings and horns. This had to be something very important to this race given they placed it all over the castle.

David looked around but suddenly shouted out as he felt hi foot dip unexpectedly. There was a rock on rock grinding sound as the path ahead of him suddenly opened up.

“The fuck!?” He jumped back and the hole closed up.

“Wait...what?” He looked down where he had stepped and tested the area out with his foot finding a pressure plate that when he stepped on it opened up a pitfall.

“Are you shitting me? Who the hell booby traps their own castle like this!?” He really didn’t want to think of all the poor castle staff that on their first day on the job suddenly find themselves falling down a giant hole.

After even more carefully moving through the castle now looking for anything that could suddenly fall or impale him, he eventually he found himself in what could only be a throne room. There were two thrones and again the same banners only now one was over each throne. He slowly made his way up the steps as he had Happy take a lot of images and video recordings.

David paused looking at the thrones before starting his log again.

“There are two thrones although they seem a bit bigger than what the locals I’ve seen are, maybe it’s just for show but it looks like this castle had two rulers. Most likely a king and queen if it’s like Earth history. The thrones are raised up above the floor to look down and to give importance to the rulers, this kind of mentally is very close to how some human rulers have set up their throne rooms or rooms of power.”

“I don’t know if this is a castle of a fallen kingdom, there does seem to be damage but I can’t tell if it’s from a battle or not. I’ve seen no evidence of fire and the drone hasn’t seen anything like that either. Something did happen here that caused this place to be abandoned but what I have no clue. Again when the language barrier gets broken I’ll ask for any history on this place when I can.”

David closed the log as he looked at the thrones, he looked around even though he knew he was alone as a mischievous smile grew on his face. He sat down on one of the thrones and it fit him fairly well.

“All hail the king, the court of King David Miller the First is now in session!” He called out as his voice echoed in the large room.

He just couldn’t help himself, hell if you were in a castle with thrones around and no one could catch you wouldn’t anyone try something like this?

Running his hands over the arm rest he felt something off on the right side. He looked over and there were two buttons.

“Huh...what’s this?” He pressed one of them as he suddenly felt himself go forward and down a trap door of some kind.

He really wished he could have said something cool in that moment.

“Shhhhhhhiiiiiiiiiiittttttt!”

Sadly a knee jerk response was the best that he could do.

-Fluttershy’s Cabin-

“Okay girls are you all cleaned up?” Fluttershy asked as she stood in her bathroom with the three young fillies in her tub.

“I think so,” Apple Bloom said as she gently got out, followed by her two best friends Sweetie Bell and Scootaloo. The bathtub was filled with dirty and muddy water. Fluttershy smiled as she got the towels for drying them.

“Sorry we mind of made a mess while feeding the animals,” Sweetie told her. “We didn’t know that the ground got so muddy from earlier.”

“It’s alright, there wasn’t any damage and no pony got hurt. Plus you did feed all the animals.” Fluttershy told her.

“It’s just too bad that we couldn’t get our cutie marks in animal raising or feeding,” Scootaloo sighed as she felt Fluttershy gently dry her off.

“It’s alright you girls will figure it out some day,” she encouraged them.

“Well thanks for lettin’ us try,” Apple Bloom told her.

“And for letting us sleepover too,” Sweetie added in.

“It’s not a problem girls, I like having you over here.” She smiled as the three fillies were nice and clean. She left them to do their homework while she cleaned up a little in the bathroom. After that she was about to make rounds for all her animal friends since the weather team said there was going to be rain tonight.

She was just about to get to the shutters when there was a knocking at her door. She remembered the last time she heard a knock as she hesitantly opened it only to find Twilight there.

“Twilight?”

“Hey can I come in?” Twilight asked a little eager to come inside.

“Oh uh, sure.”

Twilight wasted no time as she quickly set herself up by one of Fluttershy’s windows. She was carrying a pair of binoculars with her as Twilight raised them up and looked out with them. Fluttershy cocked her head to the side wondering just what her friend was doing.

“Uh, Twilight, what are you doing?”

“I left the box out there again and I’m waiting to see how he takes it.” She replied.

“You know that the alien is a he?” the Pegasus asked.

Twilight nodded, “One of the sheets of paper he sent had pictures of two sexes of beings on them, from what we saw of him I’m pretty sure that the alien is a male.”

“Oh...I thought the alien was a female.” She replied.

“What made you think that?” Twilight asked turning to look at her interested in her thoughts.

Fluttershy turned her gaze a bit as she shuffled a hoof in front of her. “Oh well, um, it was because the alien had...nipples on his chest.”

Twilight remembered that as well, “Yeah I thought the same at first but the paper pretty much showed a few differences that I’m pretty sure he’s male.”

What she didn’t say was that when she had been right in front of him she had seen a certain bulge that most likely hid a certain part that any stallion had. She didn’t want to voice that as it was a bit embarrassing subject.

“Hey what’s Twilight doing here?” Apple Bloom asked happy to see the unicorn as she and her friends came down the stairs.

“Girls, you’re all here?” Twilight was surprised by them being here.

“We’re having a sleepover,” Scootaloo said as she looked at the binoculars. “Uh, what are those for?”

“Oh uh these, just doing some research, yes, research.” Twilight fidgeted as she could trust adults to keep a secret but these three she was a little afraid what they might do if they found out there was an alien in the woods. She cast an eager look to Fluttershy for help.

“Uh, girls did you finish your homework?” She asked them.

The three shared a look, “Most of it.” They all said as one.

“Then I think you three should finish, don’t worry when you finish I’ll get snacks ready and we can all get together.” Fluttershy smiled at them.

“Okay then,” Apple Bloom said as she and the girls went up the stairs as soon as they were out of sight they looked at each other.

“That was strange,” Sweetie whispered out.

“Yeah they’re hiding somethin’,” Bloom nodded her head as they slowly edged as close as they could to try and hear. They could just barely make out the conversation below them.

“I really hate doing that,” Fluttershy told Twilight.

“I know, same here, but we can’t let them know at least not yet.” Twilight replied. “I was able to keep Octavia, Vinyl and Lyra to keep the secret as they’re helping me out and I trust you girls of course.”

“You think you can’t trust them?”

“Well no, they’re good girls, I just don’t want to place too much on them.”

“It is kind of a big thing to think about.”

There was a pause as the young fillies shared a look, there was something going on here and it looked like it was something big as they continued to listen in.

“I know this is history making, plus think of all the things we could learn about? All the planets that he must of seen and all the scientific achievements he could tell us.” Twilight sighed at the thought of it all.

“I wonder what kind of animals he’s seen now that I think about it.”

“Most likely things nopony has ever seen before.”

“Oh! Maybe this won’t be so bad,” Fluttershy starting thinking on what kind of animals existed on other worlds.

The three fillies shared a look as they quietly snuck to one of the other rooms.

“Okay something is definitely up,” Scootaloo spoke in a hushed tone.

“Yeah, I kind of noticed Rarity kind of acting a bit odd.” Sweetie spoke up.

“Ah think mah sister is doin’ the same,” Apple Bloom thought about it. “She’s been sayin’ ta stay away from the Everfree lately. Plus there was that thing not too long ago.”

“You mean that crazy thing that happened that one night you told us about?” Scootaloo asked as Bloom nodded.

“Plus what’s all that talk about other planets and stuff?” Sweetie asked.

“You think maybe there are aliens here!?” Scootaloo asked excitedly. “Maybe we can get an alien related Cutie Marks, I bet no one has those yet!”

“A-are you sure it could be an alien?” Sweetie asked not liking where this was going.

“Well I can’t think of much else,” Scootaloo said looking out to the stairs. “Twilight’s waiting for something, how about we sneak outside and see what?”

The three shared a look there was some uncertainty but there was also a lot of curiosity. They had no way of knowing what was going on but this might be the only way to get to the bottom of it. The three silently made their way out of the room as they slowly made their way down the stairs. Twilight and Fluttershy were deep in conversation as the three made the way to the kitchen where they knew the backdoor was.

The Crusaders carefully opened the door as they made their way where they could see in the same direction as the window Twilight was looking.

“Hey what’s that box over there?” Sweetie Belle pointed to the two of them.

“That wasn’t here when we got here.” Bloom spoke up looking around. “So...now what?”

“I guess we wait?” Scootaloo shrugged as the three made themselves comfortable.

It was nearly an hour and they were super bored, they were bored to the point of thinking of going back to finish their homework when it had happened. It was a strange buzzing sound at first and then they saw it. It looked like some kind of big metal bug thing as it flew out of the Everfree. They watched with large eyes as it landed on the box as what look like legs wrapped around the box and it flew back the way it came.

“Did y’all see that!?” Apple Bloom asked them knowing they did but said it anyway.

“What was it?” Sweetie asked.

“No idea but it went into the Everfree,” Scootaloo bit her lower lip thinking it over. “Let’s chase it.”

“What!?” Her friends asked her like she had lost her mind.

“Just a little, if we can figure out where it went maybe we can find where it came from.” She explained to them. “If it’s an alien we can find a ship or something.”

“Ya know that the Everfree is dangerous right?” Bloom told her.

“Yeah but Twilight and the others go into it all the time plus if we stick to the path we should be fine, now come on or we’ll lose it.” She took off before they could stop her. The two shared a look before running after her since her going in alone was dangerous.

Sure it was dangerous for them to go in as well but maybe together things would be less dangerous.

While this was going on outside the cabin, on the inside Twilight was already taking notes on what she saw with some paper and a quill Fluttershy had lent her.

“This is amazing, I wonder what that thing was, how it was flying. I think it had rotors on it but I’m not sure. Was it some kind of golem? How was it working without some pony telling it what to do or maybe the alien can give it commands from far away?” Twilight said quickly trying to make picture of what she had just seen while it was still fresh in her mind.

Fluttershy had been happy to help but that metallic thing was kind of creepy for her. It looked like an animal but wasn’t at the same time. She paused when she realized something, it was too quiet.

“Girls?” she gently called out.

The Crusaders however were currently trying to find the flying thing with the box. They got into the woods just fine but after looking around they couldn’t find any sign of it. Which made sense when you thought how something that flew didn’t exactly leave tracks you could follow unless it flew through a punch of branches, which it apparently didn’t.

“Ah don’t think we’re goin’ ta find it.” Apple Bloom sighed looking around.

“Yeah, man this sucks,” Scootaloo sighed. “I was really looking forward to seeing something really cool.”

“Well at least we’re not lost,” Sweetie could still see the path they took to get in so it would be easy to find their way back they didn’t go too far in after all.

“Guess we should head on back before Fluttershy and Twilight realize we’re gone,” Bloom said as the three started to head back the way they came.

Scootaloo winkled her nose, “Eww did one of you fart or something?”

“Gross, no!” Sweetie told her. “Why would you-what is that smell?”

“That’s what I was asking.” The young Pegasus said.

Bloom could smell it too, it was rank and powerful musk that made her want to gag. A low growl was heard in the woods and suddenly she had a terrible idea of what it was that was close.

“Girls,” Bloom whispered to them as they looked at her. Apple Bloom looked scared as she tried not to draw attention listening for any sounds. “When ah say run, we got ta run.”

The other two shared a worried look knowing something was wrong.

Apple Bloom listened and with the snap of a twig behind them she cried out.

“Run!” She took off in the opposite direction of the sound as the girls followed her. A howl was heard behind them as the others figured out that there were timberwolves behind them. The heavy sounds of their wooden paws hit the ground behind them.

-Elsewhere in the woods-

“I’m starting to hate this place,” David grumbled to himself making his way back to the ship. It had taken him over an hour to get himself out of that death trap of a castle. He was starting to think that whoever designed that castle had something wrong with them. After getting dumped into that tunnel it had been one odd trap after another. Not to mention the moving walls, suits of armor that had scared the shit out of him when all the axes they held slammed into the ground in front of him and a lot of other things.

Thankfully he found his way back to the main hall and the drone, he sent it back on ahead of him as he walked back to the ship, once again having to cross that damn bridge as well. While on the way back, AVI informed him of the pickup from the cottage from one of the other drones but also warned him that a weather storm looked to be coming their way. He was trying to get back before the rain came and he really didn’t want to get the suit wet.

Sure it was technically water proof but when it got wet it made this slurping sound from all the hexagon shaped ‘scales’ and also it felt weird.

David really just wanted to get back, relax and try not to think how he was going to put all this in a report.

A howl got his attention which was followed by several high pitched screams.

“Now what?” He asked himself looking around. He hadn’t been paying attention and it was hard to figure out where it had come from. Suddenly from the brush came three little aliens, it was so suddenly that they literally crashed into him as all four of them sprawled onto the dirt ground.

“What in the world?” He looked at the little ones, they looked like they were kids or something. What in the world were kids doing out in this place? They took one look at him and their eyes widened as their irises shrunk down. They cried out but soon one of the last things David expected to ever see in his life came crushing through the woods.

It looked like some kind of large wolf but made entirely out of wood. Like someone took pieces of the forest and tried to make some kind of sculpture out of it, only with glowing eyes, horrible smell and vicious attitude that made it more like a living nightmare than anything else.

His training kicked in as he pulled the plasma pistol from his holster and fired at it. Green energy fired out hitting the wolf on the side. It howled in pain as wood splintered and blew apart, even some of its wooden body was scorched and a few bits were on fire.

The creature leapt back and growled at him. David managed to get to his knees and fired a few more times now aiming a bit better as the energy slammed into it causing the creature to blow apart. He stared at it for a moment.

“Just what the fuck is wrong with this world?” He breathed out as he stood up and looked at the little ones. They looked torn between wonder and wanting to run away. He was about to try and say something before several more growls were heard in the forest.

“Of course they hunt in packs,” He gritted his teeth, using his implant he set the visor to thermal vision but nothing showed up. He looked around but couldn’t see anything, he looked down at the three little ones and he could see them just fine. He looked back up and switched to another mode, everything turned grey as now he could see the creatures moving in the woods. Their eyes glowed in his visor and they were circling them trying to cut off their escape.

The little ones were talking about something he wasn’t getting as he gently knelt down. The ship wasn’t too far from here, maybe they could make it but he had to make sure they understood.
“Hey there,” He sent in a gentle tone looking at the wooden wolves. “I’m not going to hurt you, we need to go that way.”

He pointed in the direction of the ship with his free hand. He made a fast walking motion with his fingers along the ground and drew an arrow in the dirt.

Apple Bloom look at it and looked up at the strange creature, she wasn’t sure what it was but it had just blasted that timberwolf into scraps. Although knowing timberwolves it could just reform any minute, still the others in the pack seemed to be holding off for now. The creature wasn’t acting hostile to them, maybe if was on their side?

Looking at the dirt at the arrow it seemed to want them to go in a certain direction quickly, maybe it had a plan?

“Girls ah think it wants ta help us.” She told them.

“You sure?” Sweetie asked looking up at it, it was pretty big even when kneeling down.

“Well it took out that timberwolf,” she put forth. “Ah think it has a plan.”

“Well it’s better than being eaten,” Scootaloo said looking at the device it was holding. “Plus I think that’s some kind of ray gun so maybe this is the alien that Twilight was talking about.”

“So we do what it says then?” Apple Bloom asked her friends who nodded. She looked up at the creature and nodded her head and pointed a hoof towards the direction he indicated.

“Nice to know that worked.” He said and looked around, now for the hard part.

He saw the wolves were closing in so he fired his weapon in the direction they needed to go. The wolves dodged out of the way as he shouted as the little ones to run, they bolted like their tails were on fire as he was right behind them. He heard the growls and howls of the wolves behind him. He fired randomly behind him to make them think twice about getting too close.

They ran through the woods as he would yell out and point a direction and they would change course to follow it. He looked back and fired when the wolves got too close, he managed to tag a few of them now and then. Although they were keeping their distance they weren’t giving up, most likely they were waiting for them to make a mistake or to run out of energy.

Thankfully they were getting close now.

“AVI open the hatch, I’m coming in hot with some friends,” He called out to the computer. “As soon as we’re all in, shut that door as quickly as you can.”

“Affirmative.”

This was cutting it close, the damn wolves were gaining with every meter it seemed but they just broke through to the clearing. That’s when the little white unicorn stumbled, without missing a beat he scooped the little one up as it yelped in surprise but they all just kept running. The ship was in sight now and all they had to do was make it to the door.

He fired in an arc behind him hoping to give them just a bit more time but one of the damn things seemed to brave it and charged ahead.

“God damn it!” He was really getting frustrated now, his limbs hurt, his lungs felt like they were on fire but they couldn’t stop. It was right there, he could hear the bounding of the beast behind them now. Up the ramp they went and they were through the door.

“Close it!” He yelled out as the metal door quickly slip shut as something large and heavy slammed against it.

“HA! Try and get through that! Metal beats wood, mother fucker!” He looked down at the three. “Uh...you didn’t hear that bad word got it?”

David gently placed the white one down as he sunk to his butt resting as they all caught their breaths. He could hear growling and thumping against the hull.

“Commander there are hostile life forms attempting to damage the hull.” AVI told him.

He rolled his eyes as he pushed himself up, “You don’t say?”

He walked his way to the cockpit as he brought up the controls, he pulled off the mask of his suit as he sat in the chair.

“Okay enough of this,” He used the controls to give the engines a slight warm up. “Let’s give them something to think about.”

The Sparrow I’s engine roared as gust of exhaust shot out from the ship, several of the wolves were sent flying. They cautiously circled the ship unsure what they were dealing with, it didn’t smell like prey or a predator to them. Their Alpha growled at the ship but it made no move. Slowly they circled the vessel unsure what to do.

David looked at them, he figured they would get bored and move on later once they figured out they weren’t getting anything to eat. With a sigh he leaned back and turned his chair around to face the three little ones who were looking all over the cockpit in wonder. He could only chuckle at them, hell if they were kids this would most likely be the coolest thing they had ever seen.

“So...what to do with you three?” He asked himself out loud.

Next up Chapter 9: Alien Foal Sitter

I’m going to be away for about month, but I wanted to get this out before I left.