Rise of the Rook

Rise 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.

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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)