Rise of the Rookby FurryGooseChaptersChapter 1Chapter 2Chapter 3Chapter 4Chapter 1Rise of the Rook Chapter 1 “I am very sorry Mr Rook, I am afraid that you did not get the part you wanted, you will be welcome to come watch the showi-” I deleted the message before I could hear all of it. No doubt them trying to convince me to go to the showing of the play when it is finally completed. Meaning they want to milk more money out of me. I ran a hand through my greasy, short brown hair, and looked around my two room apartment, and I realised I was in a very bad situation. With no money for rent coming in, because the role I was aiming for went to some other actor, who probably bribed the director under the table. But hey, where are my manners? The name is Alexander Rook, born and raised in England, and im also your average college graduate actor who wants to make it big. Im in fairly decent shape, because who would want to hire a unfit actor? The bad thing about my line of work is that the world of acting isn’t all that it is cut out to be. To get to the good jobs, you have to go through a insane number of shitty jobs. And when there are a hundred other people going for the same role, you are pretty much screwed. So, I was in a bit of a situation. Not enough money for rent, but still a fair amount. And I knew exactly what I was going to spend it all on. The name of the local pub was The Rising Sun. It was a nice family run establishment, and there was a roaring fire going in the fireplace. I didn’t really care, because I was to busy getting as hammered as Thor. I may not have the liver to put up with it, but I am damn well going to try. I had previously emptied my wallet on to the bar and told the barmaid to keep re-filling my glass until the money ran out. The barmaid, who had a nametag which I just couldn’t read because I was already heavily intoxicated, was wearing sunglasses for some reason, simply nodded. I decided I might as well ask her about why she was wearing sunglasses indoors. “Hey, barmaid pershun, why’s you’s wearing dem sunglashes at a time like this?” I managed to mumble in her direction, before proceeding to down the rest of my drink, leaving me a nice Guinness moustache. She smiled at me and refilled my drink. “ Well, you ssseee, the thing issss, sssssome people are put off by my eyesss.” She flashed me as smile, showing off her white teeth and are those fangs? I must be more drunk than I thought. Screw it, Im probably just seeing things.. I smiled at her, still very drunk. “C’mon dearie, they cant be too bad. I bet you I would not be put off!” I gave her a toothy grin of my own in return. She looked at me,in to my bloodshot brown eyes, then walked around from behind the bar. She then proceeded to grab my hand and drag me off the cushioned bar stool I was sitting on, and she led me out of the warm building in to the cold night air. We were now in a dark alleyway outside , fairly close to the pub. She still hadn’t taken off her shades. The, out of the blue, she gave me an offer. “Would you like to leave this world for another?” she asked, all playfulness gone from her voice. “Pfft, sure, my life isn’t going anywhere important right now anyways, what kinda place are we talking about?” “Well, your life would be certainly more interesssting than thisss and bessst of all? You wont need to pay your rent.” “Done deal.” I replied, starting to sober up at the prospect of a better world and no rent! “There may be a few drawbacksss, but im sssure you will enjoy it,” Drawbacks? What? Why is she taking off her glasses and… Oh mighty gods above. For a second I saw snake like, reptilian eyes, before feeling my body simply melt away. I saw everything. The stars, the galaxies, all the different realties.My life flashed before my eyes. It was pretty average if im honest. Average childhood, average education, average friends who had a strange taste in cartoons, all of it. But one image stayed in my mind. It was a map, of all things, with no names on it or anything, but there where icons for towns and various other things. The most distinguished feature on the map was a number of red blips. They moving back and forth on the map, sometimes meeting, sometimes missing each other. And then, as soon as it began , the vision stopped, and I felt a lot heavier than before. Then, it felt like my very soul was being crushed, and I slipped in to the depths of unconsciousness. I woke up, and had absolutely no idea where I was , looking around, I could barely make out a vast number of statues. There seemed to be a vast number of armoured creatures. Some what I recognised as ponies, but not just ponies. There where what I recognised to be unicorns and pegasi. Not to mention a vast number of other mythological creatures, including minotaur and griffons. Pulling myself up of the ground , I looked at myself. My arms where made of, what looked like, stone. What. The. FUCK! I immediately shot up from the ground, noticing how I had changed. It was now blindingly obvious that I was made of stone. Looking down at my legs, I was slightly shocked at what I saw. It seemed to me that instead of feet, I had talons, much like that of a hawk. My legs where segmented plates of stone leading up to my chest, which was bare, was now a well sculpted representation of what was, quite frankly, the torso of a bodybuilder. Do muscles count if they are made of stone? My hands, were in a situation like my feet. I still had hands, of a sort. They were just more claw like now then hand like. Flexing them, I found that I still had control. On my ring finger, on my right hand, there was a ring that I definitely did not remember. Upon close inspection, it was made of marble contrasting the material that my hand was made out of. Overall, I felt a lot stronger. I had absolutely no idea what my face looked like. “What am I?” I spoke aloud, still too enraptured with my bodily changes to notice that my voice had changed too. Now to a deeper, slightly gravely tone. "A gargoyle. A very rare creature, oh yesss, very rare.” A lisping voice spoke from behind me. I turned around, my new claws being raised in defence, to be met with a sight that nearly made me scream like a little girl. It was a humongous snake creature, with onyx covered scales covering its gargantuan body. In its mouth, was a massive forked tongue and a row of incredibly sharp fangs. It looked at with the same eyes from that barmaid from earlier. Thanks to having a fairly good knowledge of mythological creatures, I knew what it was. Okay, that little part earlier, you know, the not screaming part, I lied. “BASILISK!” I then realised the basilisk probably couldn't turn me in to stone, consdiering how I was already made of stone.Before I ,or the basilisk could react, there was a sound of something heavy hitting the floor. "Statues? Oh noes, Smallfang is most definitley lost, the alpha will be ever so mad at Smallfang." Something scaly tapped me on my back, turning back around to face the Basilisk, it was now right in my face, and was whispering to me. "Go, take my gift, feed on that wretched creature,make him in to another ssssssculpture for my collection." My eyes started to burn.The pain escalated, and all I could do was keep my self from screaming out.I looked back up at the basilisk for guidance. "Kill now, talk later!" It hissed. Kill? Well herp my derp, here it is , the first chapter in Rise of the Rook. This story takes place in the same realm as Rust’s story, The Ballad of Echo the Diamond Dog, and a vastly growing number of others. Constructive criticism is appreciated! Chapter 2Rise of the Rook Chapter 2 “How am I going to kill it? In case you haven’t guessed, Im not exactly well informed.” I whispered. Upon not receiving a response, I turned around to find that the basilisk had simply moved. I mean, really, how can something that big simply move! Something of such a great size can't simply vanish without a sound! Luckily, the ‘diamond dog’ as the basilisk called it , snapped me back in to reality with its frightened yelps. “What ! Who’s there! Don’t think that Smallfang wont use the explodey vials!” 'Smallfang' barked out in to the cavernous space. Also, how was I meant to kill him? I mean, yes, I know I have claws but I didn’t know if they where sharp enough. And the basilisk’s ‘gift’. What was it on about? It made my eyes burn like hell, and then decided to vanish without telling me how to use the gift! “Aha! Found you!” A bright flash and a small explosion rocked the cavern. “Another statue! I cant take it in here! Graaaaaaaa!” The panicking diamond dog yelled out in to the air in frustration. Luckily for me, he was unaware that the explosion he created and all his yelling had given me the perfect opportunity to sneak up on him. Sadly, being made of stone does hinders your ability to sneak. When I was in about a arms length away, I stood on a stone and crushed it, causing Smallfang to turn around, and scream in my face. Up close , I could see how ugly this mutt really was. His coat was light brown, but you couldn’t really tell from the amount of dust and dirt he had accumulated on himself. Not to mention he was wearing a worn down collar which had a few tiny gems on it. Looking in to his eyes, I felt something. A sliver of warmth. And I wanted to devour it all. Staring directly in to his eyes, I saw the life slowly drain out of him. His body began to turn grey. If I broke eye contact with Smallfang, I would have seen the stone creeping up from his legs to his torso, to the rest of the body. Smallfang let out one small whimper, before being completely turned to stone. A feeling of overwhelming bliss enveloped me, then a pleasant shock of electricity coursed through my body. After the feeling passed, I realised what I had done. I had, seemingly, killed another sentient being. “He’sss not dead, if thatss what your wondering.” The fucking ninja basilisk had managed to creep up behind me. “You are jussst draining hisss body of energy, you could let him go at any time, but that would weaken you in the processs.” Every time that the basilisk said yes , its forked tongue slapped me across the face at least once. “Do you have a name, gargoyle?” It asked me, thankfully not slapping me with its tongue this time. “Alexander Rooks,” I replied, looking down at my right hand. Sure enough , the white ring was still on, and there was still a image of a Rook on it. “Just call me Rook. I have two questions, what’s your name, and any idea what this is basilisk?” I asked, raising my hand, showing the ring. “My name? You wouldn’t be able to pronounce it , but,” the basilisk then made large amount of guttural sounds, mixed with hissing. It sounded like a Tyrannosaurus Rex was forcing itself upon a snake. “I’ll just call you Bertha for now. Bertha the basilisk, it fits, right?” Bertha didn’t care, it was too busy staring at my ring in rapt fascination. “Erm..Excuse me Bertha?” I then flicked Bertha on the nose, causing it to flinch back. “Thisss ring… It marksss you asss a player.” “Gee, thanks for the compliment honey.” “No you fool, a player on the chessssboard.A pawn on the field of play.” “I am no ones pawn,” I spat out menacingly. “If this ring is anything to go by, I am a rook. And that is quite a few steps up from a pawn. Anyways, what does It mean?” “It meansss, little one, that I have to train you to use your giftsss.” Over the passing time of my training I discovered many things. One of them, being that I could detect things by heat. Another, that I could manipulate the very earth,but it was exhausting. I could eat practically anything. Mainly, I would be living off the energy of the creatures I petrified, but I could also eat jewels and ores. And the the cherry on top? I found out that Bertha was in fact, female. The giant serpent had a rather interesting way of training me. She would un-petrify one of the statues, and I would have to fight for my life considering how anything that Bertha reanimated from stone would always try to kill me. Anyways, she had re-animated a griffin, and it looked at me, then looked at Bertha, and darted up towards the ceiling, in to the inky blackness. Shortly after that, the occasional rock would be thrown down at me, always from a different place.The blasted bird actually managed to hit me on the arm. It didn't visibly injure me, but damn, it still hurt! Strangely, my eyes began to itch. Then, I started seeing things. The ground, the statues, the walls where all bleak and gray. Absolutley no colour remained. Then, I looked at Bertha. She was ablaze with colours running all over he form. Tearing my eyes away from the myraid display , I looked to the ceiling. There! Nestled in a tiny hollow in the ceiling, was that griffin, who was practically pulsing with colour! Without knowing it, I impersonated a fairly famous fighter a few realities away. Who, most likely, looked up for a second from beating whover to a messy, bloody pulp. "GET OVER HERE!" A chunk stone was torn out from the ground next to me, was shot up towards the griffin, and shifted so it actually grabbed the griffin, and dragged it to the ground. Even trapped it had a look of sheer determination on its face. And most importantly , in his eyes.So tempting, he doesn't even matter, I can practically smell the energy in him.. No! I resisted, mainly because I was impressed with the griffin, and its reaction to its sitaution. I was by no means a master stratageist, and it did show so intelligence after all.. "You are quite clever you know, instead of head on charging at me, you flew up and hid in the shadows.Very clever.What's your name?" I asked, trying not to sound threatening, but its hard not to be threatening when you are a , you know, a monstrous stone gargoyle. "Razorbeak. Yours?" Razorbeak inquired back. I'm glad it could speak. With a name like that, I assumed that Razorbeak was a male, otherwise he would have been a extremly butch female. "Well, your parents must be so creative to come up with a name like that. The name is Rook. Now, would you like to explain where I am?" Razorbeak looked shocked. "You mean you don't know?" He exclaimed. I simply shook my head in response. Razorbeak took a deep breath, and began his explanation. "Well, right now you are in a cavern underneath a diamond dog hollow.Diamond dogs are creatures that have taken to enslaving other races to do their work, such as Griffins like me.There aren't that many of us Griffins left, becase we are simply being worked to extinction.Some of us have managed to escape, my cousin Gilda for example.And news is that there a are a group of ex-slaves and other creatures simply known as the Griffin Pirates. Their aim, as far as we have heard from guards, is to free all the slaves, and re-create the Griffin Dominion, which was our kingdom. The country above is known as the Volcanic Wasteland, because that's what it is. A volcanic wasteland. There are quite a few volcanoes,as the name suggests, and there are other diamond dog hollows.The biggest one around here is know as The Deeps.Oh yeah, and there are also dragons. Lots of angry dragons. You know what they are right?" I nodded. Before I could ask anymore questions we where interrupted. A section of the cavern wall caved in, and gave the room some much needed light. But there was a problem. Diamond dogs began to swarm out of the cave in,roughly 20 of the buggers, and spotted me and Razorbeak. "Well, Razorbeak, can you fight?" I asked. He nodded. I released him from his stone imprisonment, and he instantly took to the air. "Well then, lets go kill some diamond dogs." With a bellow, I charged. Chapter 3Rise of the Rook Chapter 3 The ground shook, the walls shook, everything shook. I ran towards the group of armed and armoured diamond dogs. An ear-splitting roar emerged from my lips, in my attempt to scare them, so they would be more likely to reveal a opening in their defences for me to exploit. The result was even better. All of the smaller, underequipped, dogs turned tail and ran back up the tunnel. The larger dogs held their ground. These dogs had weapons that where not in bad condition, and a few even had snippets of armour Overall, there were six of them left. One of the dogs threw a spear at me. I kept running, and it impacted on my chest. The spear barely dug in, and there was only a small chip in the stone of my chest. Without breaking stride, I pulled it out and threw the spear right back. Now, back on Earth, I wasn't exactly the most accurate person with my aim. I had many memories of P.E lessons in school which ended in many, many failed javelin throws on my behalf. Luckily, that was not the case this time. The spear impacted right in the dogs face, tearing through its eye, and the tip emerged fully out of the back of its skull. It fell to the floor, dead. A screech resounded through the cavern, and a blur darted down from the ceiling, grabbing one of the guards, who started howling in distress. Razorbeak flew higher and higher, and in to the gloom at the top of the cavern. And then Razorbeak dropped him. With a sickening crunch, the diamond dog impacted o n the floor, leaving a dog shaped indent, and a spattering of blood. Meanwhile, I was still closing in on the dogs. Two of them darted forward to meet my charge. One of them had a warhammer, which would no doubt inflict terrible, terrible damage. I glanced at the dogs eyes for a second, and only went slightly in to the petrification process. It stopped, and looked down at its own legs, and started to struggle, desperately trying to free itself. The other dog that charged at me raised its sword, preparing for a strike. I ducked under the blow, and elbowed the dog in the back of the head, it dropped its sword, and fell to the floor, whining and clutching at its head. I picked up the sowrd from the ground, and I thrusted the rusty blade in to the dogs back. It whined, and spat out a bit of blood.I twisted the blade, causing a sicekenig crunch, and the dog fell to the floor. I looked over, to see the last two dogs standing, waiting for me to come to them, holding their spears at the ready. THUMP! A large reptillian tail crashed out from, seemingly , nowhere and crushed the two diamond dogs still standing. With a light hissing sound, Bertha slithered her way over to me, carrying some strange chest in her mouth. I raised a hand to signal her to stop, and looked at the diamond dog. "Runaway little doggy, and hope I am as merciful next time I see you." With that , I removed the dog's petrification, and it scampered back out of the tunnel , whining. I turned back to Bertha to see her placing the chest on the floor. "What's in the chest?" I asked, curious about why Bertha would keep such a thing. "Inssside, you will find Arcanite ore, a very rare ssubsstance that hasss long been lossst to the depthsss of time. Thiss iss the only remaining ore that I know off. You sssimply make contact with the ore, and it will form in to a weapon that you think off. That is why all Arcanite weaponsss are worsshiped asss massster piecess.They are highly ressisstant to mgaic, and will retain the shape they are forged in, and cannot be changed back.Only thossse with the power to control the earth which we all live on may forge Arcanite weaponry." I looked at the chest, then I opened it. Brilliant ,bright light was emitted from the open chest. It was filled with a reflective, silver liquid. And I finally saw my face. I no longer had natural hair, but I had small ridges of smooth stone in the place of hair. It was in the same position as my old hairstyle, apart from the fact that it was not actually hair. My mouth, was full of sharp fangs, and my tongue was forked. My eyes where gold and snake like, with a black spheres for my iris' , and the pupil was also gold. DAMN, I looked badass "Well, Bertha, I believe I have a way to cheat the system of never changing shape." I flashed her a grin, knowing I was showing off my awesome new fangs, and placed my hands in the liquid. There was a blinding white flash, and then nothing. The remaining dogs all took solace in the hall leading to the cavern system, behind a large reinforced steel door. Seventeen dogs, including the recently returned Alpha. Then, a dent appeared on the door. Then another, and then another, until the door was almost fractured. Then, the doors eploded inwards, and the dogs all saw what had knocked their door in. A large,sliver coloured metal ball, obviously crafted by a master, covered in spikes and attached to a chain of the same material. A stone figure walked out of the darkness, carrying the hilt the chain was attatched to. With a click, the chain retracted, and the spiked ball was attatched to the hilt. The figure had a silver gauntlet on his left hand, and then, with sound of whirring gears and cogs, it had formed itself in to a large shield. A griffin emerged from behind the figure, carrying a crossbow and a shortsword The Alpha stepped towards me, and I activated the flail mode on my mace again. I swung it around, and hit the Alpha with the flail. It impacted on his chest, caving it in through the armour, producing a sickening crunch. He fell to the ground with a clang. I retracted the flail back in to the mace, and cleared my throat.The dogs shied away. "Who's next?" Sorry if this seems rushed, and sorry for the size of this chapter,I only had a small amount of time to write it. I will try and get another chapter up this week, but I have exams.I will re-check for mistakes tommorow . MANGOOOOOOOO Chapter 4Rise of the Rook Chapter 4 A flurry of crossbow bolts, and a number of petrified diamond dogs later.. I was now sat on the ground, thinking of what I could do next. But then I realised something. Priority one, find a map, priority two, get out of this damn hollow. My thoughts where interrupted by Razorbeak looting the Alpha's body. "What are you doing?" I asked. "Looking for the key to the slave pens, of course," He replied. "Aha, here it is!" Razorbeak exclaimed lifting the rusted key in his claws. He then began to walk out of the room, back in to the caverns. He stopped when he saw that I was not following. "Are you not coming?" "Nope," I answered his question. "I'm going to get a map, a bag, and other essentials and by on my merry way. What about yourself, what do you plan to do after the slaves are free?" I questioned in return, while walking in to a nearby room, which contained a lot of equipment. Razorbeak followed. "Help liberate my people of course. After I get this lot to the Equestrian border, Im going to head to the Deeps and start a resistance movement. Harry their supply lines, help slaves escape. Kill lots of diamond dogs." He snarled at the last part. I had picked out a map, and bag I could carry it in, along with some gems and ore for sustencance.I also managed to find some sort of leather sheath. It was in fairly good condition. I didn't want to know where the leather came from. "The Deeps? You mentioned it earlier, but didn't explain anything about it" "Largest, most fortified, diamond dog hollow outside of Gem Fido." "Well then, you have a lot of work to do. I’m going to distract them by burning a trail right across Gem Fido. If I feel like it, I may just come back and assist you. Well, if you're not dead." I flashed him a smile. “ You can’t just walk to Gem Fido from here!” Razorbeak exclaimed. “Why the hell not?” I replied, irritated. “Because it is on the other side of the known world!” Silence reigned in the hollow for a second. “Well, there goes my plan.” “Well, you can always travel with me to the border, and travel through Equestria to get to Gem Fido. “ I regarded his offer for a while, but soon a better one presented itself. “Perhapsss I may be of assitance?” Bertha, the part-time ninja basilisk had managed to sneak right up behind me again! “Unless you have a way to get me to Gem Fido, no you may not.” “Oh, but I do. It alsso hapenss to be much fassster than walking,” Bertha then turned around, and slithered back down towards her lair. "I guess this is where we part ways then." Razorbeak held out his claw, which was clenched. Loading.... Loading.... Razorbeak.grif requesting permssion to fistbump Respond? Response confirmed, prepare for increase in bro levels My stone fist impacted lightly with his clenched claws. I turned around, and began to walk towards the tunnel leading back down to the cavernous depths below. "Wait!" I turned around. "Where did you come from?" I wondered if he would believe me. 'Im a alien, and I was magiced away from my world to this one by a snake-barmaid-thing' Even I struggled to believe that fact that I was ripped from my world and thrust in to another. So I settled for a solution that would give me time to think of an explanation "That is a tale for another time my friend." I walked towards the tunnel, and then I was gone back towards the caverns. “ So, remind me, how does this work again?” I queried. Bertha let out, what I guessed was, a sigh. I was standing before what Bertha called a ‘gateway’. She had told me that back when the basilisks where a proud civilization, they had managed to stumble across very powerful energy threads within the ground itself , which where known as ley-lines. After a lot of researching , they had discovered that they could travel these ley-lines. At first with great risk could they be used, but eventually they had managed to make ley-line travel fairly safe for all to use. They did require a a 'key' to use. My ring acted as said key. “ It iss sssimple. Touch the gateway with your ring, and you ssshould be arriving at a old ruin in Gem Fido in a inssstant. You may or may not be off target, because the ley linesss may have degraded with time.” The gateway itself was a a collection of various symbols carved in to the floor. In the center of all of the symbols, there was a small indent, which seemed to be the place where my ring would need to be placed. “Many thanks Bertha. Who knows, I may be inclined to come back and visit you.” And with that, I knelt down and touched my ring to the gateway. Nothing happened. “Dodgy old piece of shi-” My cursing was cut off by the runes and carving all lighting up, and then a feeling of weightlessness. Then, nothing. I was flying. Or running. Or swimming. I couldn't tell. I was moving along something ,and I was moving very fast, or very slow. Time passed very quickly, or was it very slowly? It felt like a eternity. It felt like a second. Then, everything started to slow down. With a thunderclap, my feet where back on solid ground. I could tell that I had reached Gem Fido. Most likely because of the landscape change. From the sandy desert of the wasteland, to rolling green tundra’s, and even some mountains visible in the distance. There where ruins to be seen. Another reason I could tell I was in Gem Fido was because a vast airship of some kind flew over my head. I could tell it belonged to to the diamond dogs, simply because of its state of disrepair. The balloon which kept it afloat was the only thing in fairly decent condition, but it still looked like it shouldn't even be flying. The airship's hull was a mass of rotting wood and pockmarked steel. I was suprised it didn't simply fall apart. And then it spotted me. I was expecting crossbow bolts, arrows , and maybe a ballista bolt or two. I did not expect gun ports to open on the side and begin to fire at my. The ship had five cannons facing towards me, and probably five on the on the other side of the ship. I ran in a zig-zag pattern to throw of the dog's aim. It was working, but It would only be a small amount of time until one of them got lucky with their aim, so I tried fighting back. I lifted massive chunks of stone out of the ground and, still running, threw them at the ship. If I made it out alive, I decided that I definitely needed some practice. Mainly because it was tiring, and because my throws missed majority of the time. Then, I got lucky. I was about to tear a chunk out of the ground to launch in to the sky in another vain attempt to strike the air-ship, when It fired a shot at me. I ended up catching the cannonball with my powers instead. I launched it back, and it actually hit! The shot punched a hole straight through the ships hull. "Take that you wankers!" I yelled gleefuly, pleased that I had finally managed to hit it. I hoped that scoring a hit like that would put them off. Turns out, it only encouraged them more. With a giant gaping hole the diamond dog airship continued to fire at me. I knew that the quickest way to take it out would be striking a hit against the balloon keeping it aloft. The ship fired another volley of cannon fire at me. 'How could it reload that quick? Unless they weren't using gunpowder cannons...' My thoughts abrubtly stopped when I realised what I could do to destroy the ship. But it would have to be at the exact right moment. A series of booms filled the air and I continued to run, adrenaline pumping through my stony veins. A shot hit right behind me, and the resulting force flew me off my feet. I was face down in the dirt, before I rolled over on to my back to see the airship circling around for another pass. Desperate, and on the edge of blacking out, I used what little slivers of energy I could find in myself to twist the cannons out of shape. And I managed to do it just in time. As soon as I had spent what little energy I could muster, I simply closed my eyes and waited for whatever fate was going to give me. Fate decided to spare me that day. Because it had something much worse in store for me. I opened my eyes once I heard the sound of a explosion, and looked up to see the dog airship in flames, about to crash towards the ground nearby. I began to laugh hysterically. I had just taken down a flying boat. A flying boat with cannons! And all by myself. Though I was tired, and pretty sure that something was wrong with my left leg, I had survived majorly unscathed. That's when I heard it. Faintly. Almost undetectable over the howling of doomed diamond dogs. But I heard it. And I really wish I hadn't. I jumped to my feet , wounds forgotten, hoping against hope that I was wrong. With a loud boom, the ship crashed to the ground. I hobbled over. The crying had stopped. I reached the crash site, And then proceeded to throw up. For amidst the charred bodies of diamond dogs , where those of ponies. Unicorns, pegasi, earth ponies. All dead. And the sight that will stay with me forever? The sight of a small child’s toy, charred and soaked in blood. Shit has hit the fan. Probably going to have to add a Dark tag now. EDITED AT LAST ARGLBLAH (Update chapter has been deleted)
Chapter 1Rise of the Rook Chapter 1 “I am very sorry Mr Rook, I am afraid that you did not get the part you wanted, you will be welcome to come watch the showi-” I deleted the message before I could hear all of it. No doubt them trying to convince me to go to the showing of the play when it is finally completed. Meaning they want to milk more money out of me. I ran a hand through my greasy, short brown hair, and looked around my two room apartment, and I realised I was in a very bad situation. With no money for rent coming in, because the role I was aiming for went to some other actor, who probably bribed the director under the table. But hey, where are my manners? The name is Alexander Rook, born and raised in England, and im also your average college graduate actor who wants to make it big. Im in fairly decent shape, because who would want to hire a unfit actor? The bad thing about my line of work is that the world of acting isn’t all that it is cut out to be. To get to the good jobs, you have to go through a insane number of shitty jobs. And when there are a hundred other people going for the same role, you are pretty much screwed. So, I was in a bit of a situation. Not enough money for rent, but still a fair amount. And I knew exactly what I was going to spend it all on. The name of the local pub was The Rising Sun. It was a nice family run establishment, and there was a roaring fire going in the fireplace. I didn’t really care, because I was to busy getting as hammered as Thor. I may not have the liver to put up with it, but I am damn well going to try. I had previously emptied my wallet on to the bar and told the barmaid to keep re-filling my glass until the money ran out. The barmaid, who had a nametag which I just couldn’t read because I was already heavily intoxicated, was wearing sunglasses for some reason, simply nodded. I decided I might as well ask her about why she was wearing sunglasses indoors. “Hey, barmaid pershun, why’s you’s wearing dem sunglashes at a time like this?” I managed to mumble in her direction, before proceeding to down the rest of my drink, leaving me a nice Guinness moustache. She smiled at me and refilled my drink. “ Well, you ssseee, the thing issss, sssssome people are put off by my eyesss.” She flashed me as smile, showing off her white teeth and are those fangs? I must be more drunk than I thought. Screw it, Im probably just seeing things.. I smiled at her, still very drunk. “C’mon dearie, they cant be too bad. I bet you I would not be put off!” I gave her a toothy grin of my own in return. She looked at me,in to my bloodshot brown eyes, then walked around from behind the bar. She then proceeded to grab my hand and drag me off the cushioned bar stool I was sitting on, and she led me out of the warm building in to the cold night air. We were now in a dark alleyway outside , fairly close to the pub. She still hadn’t taken off her shades. The, out of the blue, she gave me an offer. “Would you like to leave this world for another?” she asked, all playfulness gone from her voice. “Pfft, sure, my life isn’t going anywhere important right now anyways, what kinda place are we talking about?” “Well, your life would be certainly more interesssting than thisss and bessst of all? You wont need to pay your rent.” “Done deal.” I replied, starting to sober up at the prospect of a better world and no rent! “There may be a few drawbacksss, but im sssure you will enjoy it,” Drawbacks? What? Why is she taking off her glasses and… Oh mighty gods above. For a second I saw snake like, reptilian eyes, before feeling my body simply melt away. I saw everything. The stars, the galaxies, all the different realties.My life flashed before my eyes. It was pretty average if im honest. Average childhood, average education, average friends who had a strange taste in cartoons, all of it. But one image stayed in my mind. It was a map, of all things, with no names on it or anything, but there where icons for towns and various other things. The most distinguished feature on the map was a number of red blips. They moving back and forth on the map, sometimes meeting, sometimes missing each other. And then, as soon as it began , the vision stopped, and I felt a lot heavier than before. Then, it felt like my very soul was being crushed, and I slipped in to the depths of unconsciousness. I woke up, and had absolutely no idea where I was , looking around, I could barely make out a vast number of statues. There seemed to be a vast number of armoured creatures. Some what I recognised as ponies, but not just ponies. There where what I recognised to be unicorns and pegasi. Not to mention a vast number of other mythological creatures, including minotaur and griffons. Pulling myself up of the ground , I looked at myself. My arms where made of, what looked like, stone. What. The. FUCK! I immediately shot up from the ground, noticing how I had changed. It was now blindingly obvious that I was made of stone. Looking down at my legs, I was slightly shocked at what I saw. It seemed to me that instead of feet, I had talons, much like that of a hawk. My legs where segmented plates of stone leading up to my chest, which was bare, was now a well sculpted representation of what was, quite frankly, the torso of a bodybuilder. Do muscles count if they are made of stone? My hands, were in a situation like my feet. I still had hands, of a sort. They were just more claw like now then hand like. Flexing them, I found that I still had control. On my ring finger, on my right hand, there was a ring that I definitely did not remember. Upon close inspection, it was made of marble contrasting the material that my hand was made out of. Overall, I felt a lot stronger. I had absolutely no idea what my face looked like. “What am I?” I spoke aloud, still too enraptured with my bodily changes to notice that my voice had changed too. Now to a deeper, slightly gravely tone. "A gargoyle. A very rare creature, oh yesss, very rare.” A lisping voice spoke from behind me. I turned around, my new claws being raised in defence, to be met with a sight that nearly made me scream like a little girl. It was a humongous snake creature, with onyx covered scales covering its gargantuan body. In its mouth, was a massive forked tongue and a row of incredibly sharp fangs. It looked at with the same eyes from that barmaid from earlier. Thanks to having a fairly good knowledge of mythological creatures, I knew what it was. Okay, that little part earlier, you know, the not screaming part, I lied. “BASILISK!” I then realised the basilisk probably couldn't turn me in to stone, consdiering how I was already made of stone.Before I ,or the basilisk could react, there was a sound of something heavy hitting the floor. "Statues? Oh noes, Smallfang is most definitley lost, the alpha will be ever so mad at Smallfang." Something scaly tapped me on my back, turning back around to face the Basilisk, it was now right in my face, and was whispering to me. "Go, take my gift, feed on that wretched creature,make him in to another ssssssculpture for my collection." My eyes started to burn.The pain escalated, and all I could do was keep my self from screaming out.I looked back up at the basilisk for guidance. "Kill now, talk later!" It hissed. Kill? Well herp my derp, here it is , the first chapter in Rise of the Rook. This story takes place in the same realm as Rust’s story, The Ballad of Echo the Diamond Dog, and a vastly growing number of others. Constructive criticism is appreciated!
Chapter 2Rise of the Rook Chapter 2 “How am I going to kill it? In case you haven’t guessed, Im not exactly well informed.” I whispered. Upon not receiving a response, I turned around to find that the basilisk had simply moved. I mean, really, how can something that big simply move! Something of such a great size can't simply vanish without a sound! Luckily, the ‘diamond dog’ as the basilisk called it , snapped me back in to reality with its frightened yelps. “What ! Who’s there! Don’t think that Smallfang wont use the explodey vials!” 'Smallfang' barked out in to the cavernous space. Also, how was I meant to kill him? I mean, yes, I know I have claws but I didn’t know if they where sharp enough. And the basilisk’s ‘gift’. What was it on about? It made my eyes burn like hell, and then decided to vanish without telling me how to use the gift! “Aha! Found you!” A bright flash and a small explosion rocked the cavern. “Another statue! I cant take it in here! Graaaaaaaa!” The panicking diamond dog yelled out in to the air in frustration. Luckily for me, he was unaware that the explosion he created and all his yelling had given me the perfect opportunity to sneak up on him. Sadly, being made of stone does hinders your ability to sneak. When I was in about a arms length away, I stood on a stone and crushed it, causing Smallfang to turn around, and scream in my face. Up close , I could see how ugly this mutt really was. His coat was light brown, but you couldn’t really tell from the amount of dust and dirt he had accumulated on himself. Not to mention he was wearing a worn down collar which had a few tiny gems on it. Looking in to his eyes, I felt something. A sliver of warmth. And I wanted to devour it all. Staring directly in to his eyes, I saw the life slowly drain out of him. His body began to turn grey. If I broke eye contact with Smallfang, I would have seen the stone creeping up from his legs to his torso, to the rest of the body. Smallfang let out one small whimper, before being completely turned to stone. A feeling of overwhelming bliss enveloped me, then a pleasant shock of electricity coursed through my body. After the feeling passed, I realised what I had done. I had, seemingly, killed another sentient being. “He’sss not dead, if thatss what your wondering.” The fucking ninja basilisk had managed to creep up behind me. “You are jussst draining hisss body of energy, you could let him go at any time, but that would weaken you in the processs.” Every time that the basilisk said yes , its forked tongue slapped me across the face at least once. “Do you have a name, gargoyle?” It asked me, thankfully not slapping me with its tongue this time. “Alexander Rooks,” I replied, looking down at my right hand. Sure enough , the white ring was still on, and there was still a image of a Rook on it. “Just call me Rook. I have two questions, what’s your name, and any idea what this is basilisk?” I asked, raising my hand, showing the ring. “My name? You wouldn’t be able to pronounce it , but,” the basilisk then made large amount of guttural sounds, mixed with hissing. It sounded like a Tyrannosaurus Rex was forcing itself upon a snake. “I’ll just call you Bertha for now. Bertha the basilisk, it fits, right?” Bertha didn’t care, it was too busy staring at my ring in rapt fascination. “Erm..Excuse me Bertha?” I then flicked Bertha on the nose, causing it to flinch back. “Thisss ring… It marksss you asss a player.” “Gee, thanks for the compliment honey.” “No you fool, a player on the chessssboard.A pawn on the field of play.” “I am no ones pawn,” I spat out menacingly. “If this ring is anything to go by, I am a rook. And that is quite a few steps up from a pawn. Anyways, what does It mean?” “It meansss, little one, that I have to train you to use your giftsss.” Over the passing time of my training I discovered many things. One of them, being that I could detect things by heat. Another, that I could manipulate the very earth,but it was exhausting. I could eat practically anything. Mainly, I would be living off the energy of the creatures I petrified, but I could also eat jewels and ores. And the the cherry on top? I found out that Bertha was in fact, female. The giant serpent had a rather interesting way of training me. She would un-petrify one of the statues, and I would have to fight for my life considering how anything that Bertha reanimated from stone would always try to kill me. Anyways, she had re-animated a griffin, and it looked at me, then looked at Bertha, and darted up towards the ceiling, in to the inky blackness. Shortly after that, the occasional rock would be thrown down at me, always from a different place.The blasted bird actually managed to hit me on the arm. It didn't visibly injure me, but damn, it still hurt! Strangely, my eyes began to itch. Then, I started seeing things. The ground, the statues, the walls where all bleak and gray. Absolutley no colour remained. Then, I looked at Bertha. She was ablaze with colours running all over he form. Tearing my eyes away from the myraid display , I looked to the ceiling. There! Nestled in a tiny hollow in the ceiling, was that griffin, who was practically pulsing with colour! Without knowing it, I impersonated a fairly famous fighter a few realities away. Who, most likely, looked up for a second from beating whover to a messy, bloody pulp. "GET OVER HERE!" A chunk stone was torn out from the ground next to me, was shot up towards the griffin, and shifted so it actually grabbed the griffin, and dragged it to the ground. Even trapped it had a look of sheer determination on its face. And most importantly , in his eyes.So tempting, he doesn't even matter, I can practically smell the energy in him.. No! I resisted, mainly because I was impressed with the griffin, and its reaction to its sitaution. I was by no means a master stratageist, and it did show so intelligence after all.. "You are quite clever you know, instead of head on charging at me, you flew up and hid in the shadows.Very clever.What's your name?" I asked, trying not to sound threatening, but its hard not to be threatening when you are a , you know, a monstrous stone gargoyle. "Razorbeak. Yours?" Razorbeak inquired back. I'm glad it could speak. With a name like that, I assumed that Razorbeak was a male, otherwise he would have been a extremly butch female. "Well, your parents must be so creative to come up with a name like that. The name is Rook. Now, would you like to explain where I am?" Razorbeak looked shocked. "You mean you don't know?" He exclaimed. I simply shook my head in response. Razorbeak took a deep breath, and began his explanation. "Well, right now you are in a cavern underneath a diamond dog hollow.Diamond dogs are creatures that have taken to enslaving other races to do their work, such as Griffins like me.There aren't that many of us Griffins left, becase we are simply being worked to extinction.Some of us have managed to escape, my cousin Gilda for example.And news is that there a are a group of ex-slaves and other creatures simply known as the Griffin Pirates. Their aim, as far as we have heard from guards, is to free all the slaves, and re-create the Griffin Dominion, which was our kingdom. The country above is known as the Volcanic Wasteland, because that's what it is. A volcanic wasteland. There are quite a few volcanoes,as the name suggests, and there are other diamond dog hollows.The biggest one around here is know as The Deeps.Oh yeah, and there are also dragons. Lots of angry dragons. You know what they are right?" I nodded. Before I could ask anymore questions we where interrupted. A section of the cavern wall caved in, and gave the room some much needed light. But there was a problem. Diamond dogs began to swarm out of the cave in,roughly 20 of the buggers, and spotted me and Razorbeak. "Well, Razorbeak, can you fight?" I asked. He nodded. I released him from his stone imprisonment, and he instantly took to the air. "Well then, lets go kill some diamond dogs." With a bellow, I charged.
Chapter 3Rise of the Rook Chapter 3 The ground shook, the walls shook, everything shook. I ran towards the group of armed and armoured diamond dogs. An ear-splitting roar emerged from my lips, in my attempt to scare them, so they would be more likely to reveal a opening in their defences for me to exploit. The result was even better. All of the smaller, underequipped, dogs turned tail and ran back up the tunnel. The larger dogs held their ground. These dogs had weapons that where not in bad condition, and a few even had snippets of armour Overall, there were six of them left. One of the dogs threw a spear at me. I kept running, and it impacted on my chest. The spear barely dug in, and there was only a small chip in the stone of my chest. Without breaking stride, I pulled it out and threw the spear right back. Now, back on Earth, I wasn't exactly the most accurate person with my aim. I had many memories of P.E lessons in school which ended in many, many failed javelin throws on my behalf. Luckily, that was not the case this time. The spear impacted right in the dogs face, tearing through its eye, and the tip emerged fully out of the back of its skull. It fell to the floor, dead. A screech resounded through the cavern, and a blur darted down from the ceiling, grabbing one of the guards, who started howling in distress. Razorbeak flew higher and higher, and in to the gloom at the top of the cavern. And then Razorbeak dropped him. With a sickening crunch, the diamond dog impacted o n the floor, leaving a dog shaped indent, and a spattering of blood. Meanwhile, I was still closing in on the dogs. Two of them darted forward to meet my charge. One of them had a warhammer, which would no doubt inflict terrible, terrible damage. I glanced at the dogs eyes for a second, and only went slightly in to the petrification process. It stopped, and looked down at its own legs, and started to struggle, desperately trying to free itself. The other dog that charged at me raised its sword, preparing for a strike. I ducked under the blow, and elbowed the dog in the back of the head, it dropped its sword, and fell to the floor, whining and clutching at its head. I picked up the sowrd from the ground, and I thrusted the rusty blade in to the dogs back. It whined, and spat out a bit of blood.I twisted the blade, causing a sicekenig crunch, and the dog fell to the floor. I looked over, to see the last two dogs standing, waiting for me to come to them, holding their spears at the ready. THUMP! A large reptillian tail crashed out from, seemingly , nowhere and crushed the two diamond dogs still standing. With a light hissing sound, Bertha slithered her way over to me, carrying some strange chest in her mouth. I raised a hand to signal her to stop, and looked at the diamond dog. "Runaway little doggy, and hope I am as merciful next time I see you." With that , I removed the dog's petrification, and it scampered back out of the tunnel , whining. I turned back to Bertha to see her placing the chest on the floor. "What's in the chest?" I asked, curious about why Bertha would keep such a thing. "Inssside, you will find Arcanite ore, a very rare ssubsstance that hasss long been lossst to the depthsss of time. Thiss iss the only remaining ore that I know off. You sssimply make contact with the ore, and it will form in to a weapon that you think off. That is why all Arcanite weaponsss are worsshiped asss massster piecess.They are highly ressisstant to mgaic, and will retain the shape they are forged in, and cannot be changed back.Only thossse with the power to control the earth which we all live on may forge Arcanite weaponry." I looked at the chest, then I opened it. Brilliant ,bright light was emitted from the open chest. It was filled with a reflective, silver liquid. And I finally saw my face. I no longer had natural hair, but I had small ridges of smooth stone in the place of hair. It was in the same position as my old hairstyle, apart from the fact that it was not actually hair. My mouth, was full of sharp fangs, and my tongue was forked. My eyes where gold and snake like, with a black spheres for my iris' , and the pupil was also gold. DAMN, I looked badass "Well, Bertha, I believe I have a way to cheat the system of never changing shape." I flashed her a grin, knowing I was showing off my awesome new fangs, and placed my hands in the liquid. There was a blinding white flash, and then nothing. The remaining dogs all took solace in the hall leading to the cavern system, behind a large reinforced steel door. Seventeen dogs, including the recently returned Alpha. Then, a dent appeared on the door. Then another, and then another, until the door was almost fractured. Then, the doors eploded inwards, and the dogs all saw what had knocked their door in. A large,sliver coloured metal ball, obviously crafted by a master, covered in spikes and attached to a chain of the same material. A stone figure walked out of the darkness, carrying the hilt the chain was attatched to. With a click, the chain retracted, and the spiked ball was attatched to the hilt. The figure had a silver gauntlet on his left hand, and then, with sound of whirring gears and cogs, it had formed itself in to a large shield. A griffin emerged from behind the figure, carrying a crossbow and a shortsword The Alpha stepped towards me, and I activated the flail mode on my mace again. I swung it around, and hit the Alpha with the flail. It impacted on his chest, caving it in through the armour, producing a sickening crunch. He fell to the ground with a clang. I retracted the flail back in to the mace, and cleared my throat.The dogs shied away. "Who's next?" Sorry if this seems rushed, and sorry for the size of this chapter,I only had a small amount of time to write it. I will try and get another chapter up this week, but I have exams.I will re-check for mistakes tommorow . MANGOOOOOOOO
Chapter 4Rise of the Rook Chapter 4 A flurry of crossbow bolts, and a number of petrified diamond dogs later.. I was now sat on the ground, thinking of what I could do next. But then I realised something. Priority one, find a map, priority two, get out of this damn hollow. My thoughts where interrupted by Razorbeak looting the Alpha's body. "What are you doing?" I asked. "Looking for the key to the slave pens, of course," He replied. "Aha, here it is!" Razorbeak exclaimed lifting the rusted key in his claws. He then began to walk out of the room, back in to the caverns. He stopped when he saw that I was not following. "Are you not coming?" "Nope," I answered his question. "I'm going to get a map, a bag, and other essentials and by on my merry way. What about yourself, what do you plan to do after the slaves are free?" I questioned in return, while walking in to a nearby room, which contained a lot of equipment. Razorbeak followed. "Help liberate my people of course. After I get this lot to the Equestrian border, Im going to head to the Deeps and start a resistance movement. Harry their supply lines, help slaves escape. Kill lots of diamond dogs." He snarled at the last part. I had picked out a map, and bag I could carry it in, along with some gems and ore for sustencance.I also managed to find some sort of leather sheath. It was in fairly good condition. I didn't want to know where the leather came from. "The Deeps? You mentioned it earlier, but didn't explain anything about it" "Largest, most fortified, diamond dog hollow outside of Gem Fido." "Well then, you have a lot of work to do. I’m going to distract them by burning a trail right across Gem Fido. If I feel like it, I may just come back and assist you. Well, if you're not dead." I flashed him a smile. “ You can’t just walk to Gem Fido from here!” Razorbeak exclaimed. “Why the hell not?” I replied, irritated. “Because it is on the other side of the known world!” Silence reigned in the hollow for a second. “Well, there goes my plan.” “Well, you can always travel with me to the border, and travel through Equestria to get to Gem Fido. “ I regarded his offer for a while, but soon a better one presented itself. “Perhapsss I may be of assitance?” Bertha, the part-time ninja basilisk had managed to sneak right up behind me again! “Unless you have a way to get me to Gem Fido, no you may not.” “Oh, but I do. It alsso hapenss to be much fassster than walking,” Bertha then turned around, and slithered back down towards her lair. "I guess this is where we part ways then." Razorbeak held out his claw, which was clenched. Loading.... Loading.... Razorbeak.grif requesting permssion to fistbump Respond? Response confirmed, prepare for increase in bro levels My stone fist impacted lightly with his clenched claws. I turned around, and began to walk towards the tunnel leading back down to the cavernous depths below. "Wait!" I turned around. "Where did you come from?" I wondered if he would believe me. 'Im a alien, and I was magiced away from my world to this one by a snake-barmaid-thing' Even I struggled to believe that fact that I was ripped from my world and thrust in to another. So I settled for a solution that would give me time to think of an explanation "That is a tale for another time my friend." I walked towards the tunnel, and then I was gone back towards the caverns. “ So, remind me, how does this work again?” I queried. Bertha let out, what I guessed was, a sigh. I was standing before what Bertha called a ‘gateway’. She had told me that back when the basilisks where a proud civilization, they had managed to stumble across very powerful energy threads within the ground itself , which where known as ley-lines. After a lot of researching , they had discovered that they could travel these ley-lines. At first with great risk could they be used, but eventually they had managed to make ley-line travel fairly safe for all to use. They did require a a 'key' to use. My ring acted as said key. “ It iss sssimple. Touch the gateway with your ring, and you ssshould be arriving at a old ruin in Gem Fido in a inssstant. You may or may not be off target, because the ley linesss may have degraded with time.” The gateway itself was a a collection of various symbols carved in to the floor. In the center of all of the symbols, there was a small indent, which seemed to be the place where my ring would need to be placed. “Many thanks Bertha. Who knows, I may be inclined to come back and visit you.” And with that, I knelt down and touched my ring to the gateway. Nothing happened. “Dodgy old piece of shi-” My cursing was cut off by the runes and carving all lighting up, and then a feeling of weightlessness. Then, nothing. I was flying. Or running. Or swimming. I couldn't tell. I was moving along something ,and I was moving very fast, or very slow. Time passed very quickly, or was it very slowly? It felt like a eternity. It felt like a second. Then, everything started to slow down. With a thunderclap, my feet where back on solid ground. I could tell that I had reached Gem Fido. Most likely because of the landscape change. From the sandy desert of the wasteland, to rolling green tundra’s, and even some mountains visible in the distance. There where ruins to be seen. Another reason I could tell I was in Gem Fido was because a vast airship of some kind flew over my head. I could tell it belonged to to the diamond dogs, simply because of its state of disrepair. The balloon which kept it afloat was the only thing in fairly decent condition, but it still looked like it shouldn't even be flying. The airship's hull was a mass of rotting wood and pockmarked steel. I was suprised it didn't simply fall apart. And then it spotted me. I was expecting crossbow bolts, arrows , and maybe a ballista bolt or two. I did not expect gun ports to open on the side and begin to fire at my. The ship had five cannons facing towards me, and probably five on the on the other side of the ship. I ran in a zig-zag pattern to throw of the dog's aim. It was working, but It would only be a small amount of time until one of them got lucky with their aim, so I tried fighting back. I lifted massive chunks of stone out of the ground and, still running, threw them at the ship. If I made it out alive, I decided that I definitely needed some practice. Mainly because it was tiring, and because my throws missed majority of the time. Then, I got lucky. I was about to tear a chunk out of the ground to launch in to the sky in another vain attempt to strike the air-ship, when It fired a shot at me. I ended up catching the cannonball with my powers instead. I launched it back, and it actually hit! The shot punched a hole straight through the ships hull. "Take that you wankers!" I yelled gleefuly, pleased that I had finally managed to hit it. I hoped that scoring a hit like that would put them off. Turns out, it only encouraged them more. With a giant gaping hole the diamond dog airship continued to fire at me. I knew that the quickest way to take it out would be striking a hit against the balloon keeping it aloft. The ship fired another volley of cannon fire at me. 'How could it reload that quick? Unless they weren't using gunpowder cannons...' My thoughts abrubtly stopped when I realised what I could do to destroy the ship. But it would have to be at the exact right moment. A series of booms filled the air and I continued to run, adrenaline pumping through my stony veins. A shot hit right behind me, and the resulting force flew me off my feet. I was face down in the dirt, before I rolled over on to my back to see the airship circling around for another pass. Desperate, and on the edge of blacking out, I used what little slivers of energy I could find in myself to twist the cannons out of shape. And I managed to do it just in time. As soon as I had spent what little energy I could muster, I simply closed my eyes and waited for whatever fate was going to give me. Fate decided to spare me that day. Because it had something much worse in store for me. I opened my eyes once I heard the sound of a explosion, and looked up to see the dog airship in flames, about to crash towards the ground nearby. I began to laugh hysterically. I had just taken down a flying boat. A flying boat with cannons! And all by myself. Though I was tired, and pretty sure that something was wrong with my left leg, I had survived majorly unscathed. That's when I heard it. Faintly. Almost undetectable over the howling of doomed diamond dogs. But I heard it. And I really wish I hadn't. I jumped to my feet , wounds forgotten, hoping against hope that I was wrong. With a loud boom, the ship crashed to the ground. I hobbled over. The crying had stopped. I reached the crash site, And then proceeded to throw up. For amidst the charred bodies of diamond dogs , where those of ponies. Unicorns, pegasi, earth ponies. All dead. And the sight that will stay with me forever? The sight of a small child’s toy, charred and soaked in blood. Shit has hit the fan. Probably going to have to add a Dark tag now. EDITED AT LAST ARGLBLAH (Update chapter has been deleted)
