Shards of glass

We all started walking around, no longer confined to the parasprites, half trying to let it blend in, while also trying to admire the show they put on for us. Entry frantically scribbled in his journal, while Amber seemed to be trying to draw the scene in front of us, we all looked around to find our stuff, as much of it had thrown by the parasprites' rage. I soon found Tartarus laying down beneath some overturned supplies, fast asleep.

I slowly lifted him up by a wing and, ever so harshly, tried my best to slap him to the nearest tree and into a pile of ghostly goo, of course, this only succeeded in carrying a couple inches, and waking him up. "Wonderful day isn't it! look even the parasprites are... oh, did I do something wrong?" He said as I fixated him with my best death glare I could muster.

"You could say that," I said, my eye involuntarily twitching. "Maybe a nice save from the giant swarm that was right about to rend us limb from limb, Mr. all powerful demon."

He yawned, and lazily looked up at me, as if he was simply looking at a bug, despite me being a good twenty times his current size. "You're immortal, they would probably tear you apart so fast you wouldn't feel a thing, no biggie, and then we would return and collect the shard, and be on our way."

The way he so casually remarked of it struck me as disgusting, as if he had no care about life. "What about the others! I don't believe they are immortal!" I lowered my voice to a whisper, hoping he would cue onto it, as I didn't exactly want the fact that I'm immortal being thrown around, it could 'rustle some jimmies' as Hoodlum would say.

Unfortunately, he didn't pick up on it, and spoke in his normal voice. "So what of it, they are simple mortals, even thieves, murderers, and traitors, nobody would miss them. And even if someone did, they don't have any importance in the long run, despite being good company, that's all they are really good for. And, say, we kept with them on our travels, we would be branded as accomplices, and when they are eventually captured, you would be too, and many years would be taken off our search for the shards."

My blood started to boil, so what if they were 'mortals' or criminals, or whatever, they were good ponies! Even if not good ponies, still ponies, lives, just because he was so concerned about some pieces of goddamn glass he would not care if they died! I raised my hoof, planning try my hardest to swat him out of the sky, even though I knew I couldn't touch him. But when my hoof reached his body, I felt contact, actual contact, like that of bones, not goo like I had felt all the other times!

I used all of my strength to slam him into the ground, and he bounced off of that, slamming into the tree I had tried to hit into before, and I heard an encompassing thunk as the tree seemed to bend a little bit, much like when Tanker had slammed me into the tree. So what! you're just gonna let them be eaten because you're lazy! And so what if we have a longer lifespan than them, it doesn't mean you can regard them like figurines on a chessboard! I yelled with all my might at the demon, all of my energy seemed to fill to a burst!

Then it flattened like a deflated balloon as the air started to warp, and even seem to boil around Tartarus. In an instant, the small parasprite illusion shattered, and his true form was revealed. His usual demeanor was broken, instead of an almost skeletal face his head was broken, and black liquid flowed from the cracks and edges of what now seemed like a mask. I stared at my hoof, which had some of the black liquid on it, I quickly shook it off, and looked back at the demon known as Tartarus. As I watched, his bones started to fuse back together, as everything else around it seemed to be sapped of life, and the tree that he had crashed into withered away, making a husk like it had been dead and rotting for a hundred years. His mask reformed into the skeleton body that I had seen before, and the pinprick eyes returned, only they were now seemingly burning red! He took a single step toward me, and he twisted one of his rings, producing a sparking fire as something started to emerge from it.

Just as a shape started to form from the ring, sky blue light started to emerge from his spotlight eyes, slowly replacing the blood red that had illuminated his body. When it completely replaced the red he twisted his ring, and the mist dissipated into nothingness. He looked down at me, his eyes back to a brilliant white as he took a single step towards me.

"Boy." He said, picking me up with one hand and bringing me to his height, His spotlight pupils now shone directly into mine, and his voice resonated with contained anger. "Let me get a few things straight with you, I am not a demon, I am a spirit, and don't you ever call me one of those vile despicable creatures ever again. Next, I am your guardian, but that does not mean I will knock some sense into you if I have to." In response I gave him a defiant glare, if he wanted to kill everyone in order to get these things, I would have no part of it, no matter what he did to me.

He sighed and slowly put me down, relaxing his bony body. He sat down, once again putting us at eye level, but now it was at mine, and through his anger, another emotion seemed to be conveyed through his words, respect. "I should've known, you really are your mother's son, just as stubborn, innocent, and goodhearted as she was."

"I suppose I have some explaining to do," He said scratching his non existent neck. "Truth be told, even if I was awake, I wouldn't have been able to save you or the 'Hattens'." I gave him a confused look, and in response he waved his hand, as it arced towards a tree, I expected a thunk as bone would meet bark, but instead his hand phased through the tree as if they were on different planes of reality. "As a spirit my ability to manipulate the world is rather limited, you were only able to touch me due to you being my anchor, almost all other physical objects are beyond my realm of grasp."

It made sense, but as I looked past him I remembered the tree that he crashed into, the one now withered up. I
asked about that, and he looked back at the tree before giving me an answer. "There are certain things that can interact with spirits without being an anchor, they are enabled this ability by being exponentially close to the afterlife. The tree, for example, was a liverwood, a tree known for growing where the deceased lie, using the nutrient of the dead to quickly grow. Some cultures view them as a monument, others a curse or evil omen."

I was able to grasp the gist of it, and he seemed to be relieved at that fact. I walked over to the others, before realizing that they were carrying on like there wasn't a giant skeleton walking beside me. "Wait, why didn't notice our little... scuffle?"

"I can still do simple illusion magic, all they saw was my parasprite form being smacked softly into a tree, which did not wither and die. As long as you don't try to backhand me into any conveniently placed trees, you'll see me as a parasprite again in a few minutes, give or take."

We approached where they were working, only to hear a few delectable swears passed by Hoodlum as he overturned the supply store, only to find a very obvious lack of supplies waiting for us. "Looks like the dancin' pests didn't bother to save our food, everything's gone!"

Night looked over from his position, saying. " It's the same over here, looks like the buggers took all of it."

A rousing voice echoed through the camp, belonging to Tanker. "It's the same all around, looks like."

Everyone nodded in agreement, as we somberly extracted what was left of our stuff, as most of it was broken or eaten by the swarm.

"It doesn't look like we can salvage much, and the mirror seems to no longer work against the things," He turned to TInker. "How long can you keep that box singing?"

He responded solemnly. "Only a couple of hours, it's partially magic operated, and it's exhausting me."

Worried looks spread through the small group, the silence was broken by none other by Entry and Amber, with Entry tapping Tankers broken spear to get everyone's attention. "If that's the case, then we need to get out." Amber said. "Either that, or we'll be giving ourselves up to how the swarm feels about the music stopping again." This broke everyone from their trance, and we quickly started packing our remaining things up, and we started to head to civilization.

Night walked up to me, with the piece of glass in hoof. "Well, one way or another, you found another way to keep the parasprites at bay, so I don't believe we'll be needing this." He put the piece in my hoof, and started to walk to the others. "Oh, and if you want I guess you get a free guide to out of this forest, whether or not you want to stay with us."

I put my piece of glass into my new saddlebag, one down, whoever knows how many to go.