Shards of glass

Three days had past since I had joined the Hattens, and I slowly got used to their weird routine, and soon made my own to fit. At morning a natural alarm clock of parasprites woke all of us up, except, of course, Tinker, he slept like a bug bear in hibernation. (At least, that's what Hoodlum said.) In fact, Tinker and Tanker were exact opposites, where Tinker slept in, Tanker was always the first to wake up, while Tinker was very agile, Tanker, probably due to his size, was quite clumsy. Tinker was a sharpshooter and even made his crossbow to custom fit him, of course, he couldn't even slash a knife in a straight line. Tanker on the other hand couldn't shoot anything five feet away from him, but could wield huge spears, axes, and swords with uncanny ease unbefitting his usual clumsiness. Tinker could create extremely weird machinery out of a couple spare parts he had in his coat, while Tanker couldn't create anything resembling useful if he had an entire supplies needed to make a castle.

And... Of course, who could miss the last one, Tanker loved any kind of humor, he would make jokes you could laugh your head off, puns that would make anyone cringe, of course while trying to hold back a smile, and riddles that would befuddle even Entry for a few minutes. Judging from the record, you probably know how Tinker is, he absolutely abhorred any kind of jokes, and he tried his best to avoid any and all humor, if you said the funniest joke in the world, Tinker would simply fixate you with a stare like a Basilisk, according to hoodlum, until you backed off, and even when he tried to make a joke, usually to try to appease his brother, it would be the absolute most horrible joke that gives you this sour taste in your mouth just thinking about what he said. It would either be way too dark or grim, or one thankful occasions, simply not funny at all, one of the most memorable being "What's the hardest part of a vegetable to eat? The wheelchair!" For the life of me, I didn't get it, but apparently everyone else did, and a very disturbing silence filled the campfire, only pierced by the buzzing of parasprites and the waving of Entry's hand in what I could only guess was a extremely rude gesture.

But, of course time goes on, not stopping to strike down such horrid humor, and Tinker lived another day. Every morning without fail Amber cooked the most delicious meal, somehow using leaves, acorns, and a pinch of meat and spices to create what Hoodlum called ichor, and everyone agreed with him. After that we had what Night said Entry called his warm up, and he laid out seven platforms complete with small figurines of things called pawns, knights, bishops, castles, and a single king and queen. each had a special ability, and the objective was to capture your enemy's 'king.' Apparently he had carved all of it himself, and was able to carve one for both me and Tartarus during the night that I had arrived. I never really got the hang of it, and on the first day he was able to capture my king in 7 moves and he lost a single pawn, while three of my pieces were lost, including the queen. Nobody was surprised about this, as he beat Hoodlum in eighteen moves, only losing three pieces, and Tanker was taken down in twenty five, but was able to take out an impressive number of Entry's figurines. The only people who could put up a fight was Tinker, Night, Amber, and Tartarus. But eventually first Tinker lost, with fifty two moves, and then Night dragging it out despite having only a king, bishop, and a couple pawns for the last half for ninety two moves. What had surprised everyone, however, was when Tartarus showed a surprising proficiency at the game, with only he and Amber putting up a real match against Entry. The match moved over a hundred moves, and no clear winner was in sight of either of the games, All three competitors made moves that made no sense to me, or to anyone else but themselves, only for five moves later the seemingly random play would enable them to have an advantage. Of course, things could only stretch out so long, and as a hundred and fifty moves approached, the winners became clear. Amber had cleared Entry of all of his best figurines in a few swift and concise moves so easily that we couldn't tell if he had taken all this time to set it up, or had simply gotten serious. Tartarus was on the losing side, but he made sure for that every figurine he lost, Entry would lose one too. It ended with apparently the usual, with the exception of Tartarus. Amber, one hundred fifty moves exactly, and won, and Tartarus, with one hundred sixty two moves, but only three pieces remained on the board, the kings, and one bishop belonging to Entry.

After that confusing game they called chess we went on something much simpler, a hunt for food. They packed everything edible they had in five minutes, with pinpoint precision they had everything wrapped up in bags for them all to carry, with Tanker carrying the most, and you can probably guess who carried the least. Night explained that as they were going out to check traps if they kept their stuff at camp, and left with the piece of glass, their supplies would be eaten, and a horrible fate would befall whoever left the camp without the key. Wildlife had found ways to avoid the parasprites with camouflage, burrowing down into the ground, or a host of other things. Of course, it didn't really stop them from falling into traps, or Tanker's spear. It was a simple, mundane task, simply wandering with a host of items to pick up dead things and kill living ones. While Hoodlum Tinker, and Tanker hunted, Night checked traps, and Entry and Amber foraged for berries, fruits, and edible grass. Hoodlum and Tanker seemed to have made a game of hunting, to see who could bring in the most pounds of meat, only for Tinker to have brought back the most in the end, with a grimace on his face.

When all of the hunting was over, we all settled in, and as Amber cooked the meal we had brought back, they all started to tell stories. Entry crafted fictional tales of ancient legend, which was translated by Night to Equestrian. Tinker told stories of a future with where he said something called science was advanced much beyond what we had today, honestly I wouldn't have understood a word of what he said if what he told was accompanied by flashing images that flowed from his horn. Hoodlum told of a story of a brave adventurer who traveled the world, finding great treasure and discovering lost civilizations. Night told what he called the great story of history, depicting great struggles of all kinds that he had remembered reading about. Tanker would tell of folk tales of the wildest things, such as creatures that were described much like Tartarus, but with skin that only came in shades of white to black, and had struggles much like ours, it was just as complicated to understand as Tinker's 'sci-fi' stories.

Usually about the time the sun went parallel to the ground, creating a brilliant orange sky, the meal was ready to eat, I dug into it with all of the ferocity of a parasprite, finding myself extremely hungry. "Will you look at that, you could mistake him for a northern griffon with the way he's tearing into the meat!" Hoodlum said, and for the first time I noticed that they were all staring at me rather strangely.

I slowly put the leg of a rabbit I had been eating started sipping the soup gingerly.

After a nauseating minute of everyone staring at me chugging down the soup, Tinker decided to explain their concern. "While we can eat meat, for most ponies it's uh... an acquired taste as they say." I couldn't decide whether to reply or not, so I continued to drink the broth. "You can eat it, we were just surprised at the... velocity at which you ate it." Hearing what I took as the ok to eat more, I dove into the rabbit, tearing gigantic chunks of and letting the flavor swirl around in my mouth. Those poor ponies didn't know what they were missing!

"I think we created a monster." Was all Hoodlum or anybody said while watching me eat the rabbit.

I simply replied with "You gonna eat yours?"

After dinner everyone did their own thing, Tinker fiddled with the small parts he had, creating something, grunting, then reconfiguring it to create something else. Tanker and Hoodlum talked with each other, chatting about what they had done, and what they plan to do. Entry and Amber both had pads of paper, but while Entry seemed to be writing something, Amber drew, he flipped through page after page, drawing rough sketches of ponies, and other things. Night simply laid down and looked at the night sky.

Me? I pondered how to solve the problem of the parasprites, whatever else happened, I wasn't getting out of this forest without solving how to get rid of the beastly things, and to add to my horrendous luck the door to the mansion had disappeared. I started to drift to sleep when I heard a melody echo throughout the forest, eerie, haunting and smooth, it gave me chills hearing it. I turned around and saw that it emanated from Tinker's small gadget, unlike all the other times when he simply grunted and started to rearrange it, he held the box as it played the sad song, and a smile rose to his face. I started to listen, and I soon heard underlying melodies, under the original melody, like a ghostly choir singing its tune from the dead. It was almost hypnotic in style, then I noticed something quite uncanny, the parasprites, instead of fluttering around, screeching with no rhythm or rhyme, they followed the song, gently swaying to the choir as if it was one attentive being listening, with it fluttering in a way that matched that of the music, even adding another layer to it. I slowly got up, and walked over to where Tinker was so absorbed with the box that he noticed nothing of what was going on. I tapped him on the shoulder, and as he looked up I saw a hint of longing in his eyes before he noticed what I was pointing to, and his face turned to one of shock and surprise as he watched the swarm sway to his music.

"Aria, even in death you never cease to amaze me." He whispered, he was so struck by what happened that he forgot about his box, not noticing as it slipped from his hoofs until it hit the ground. As it hit, the music skidded to a halt, and as it faded away the parasprites whipped themselves into a frenzy, screeching a flying around so fast and so heavily that it seemed like a chromatic wall had appeared in front of us. Both of our eyes went from wonder to panic as the wall started to move forward, crossing the stick line, as if breaching an invisible barrier.

"Fix it fix it fixitfixitfixitFIXIT!" I yelled as the wall of parasprites moved ever closer, edging its way to us, probably not helping much.

"I'm trying my best!" He yelled back frantically reinserting screws and other things.

The wall moved closer and closer, enveloping our supplies, and by now everyone had taken notice of this dilemma, and we all backed up to where the piece of glass was kept, and Tanker started to wave his spear at the swarm, desperately trying to fend of the wall of parasprites that enclosed us, devouring everything in its path. Tanker's spear broke off, and what little stalling he did was gone, and the wall of parasprites closed in on us with terrifying determination. Just as the swarm was about to eat us all, Tinker inserted one last screw, and with joy he started the music again, yelling "I got it!"

Almost immediately the swarm was pacified, and started to flutter with the song again, even more peaceful than before. We all looked at each other, and back at the swarm of parasprites, now fluttering around us with tranquility. I reached out a hoof, and expected it to be chewed off as soon as it came into contact with a parasprite, but instead it simply rested on my arm, shaking to the music. I breathed a sigh of relief, immortal or not, that would've hurt, I looked to the others, then stepped into the multitude of creatures. Not a single one even tried to bite me, they simply swayed to the music, creating a cascade of color fitting the feel of the song. In fact, they seemed to have a performance of their own, creating giant colors and images each cascading into each other to create a beautiful backdrop to the seemingly haunting music.

Tinker was the first to recover from the shock of what had transpired, and said. "You know, when they aren't trying to kill us, they truly are majestic."