Conceptual Chronicles: Equestrian apostles

As I walked along the path to the castle, the LONG path… I casually talked with the six equines, finding that this land was called Equestria in the process ‘Hmmm… I wonder if the council sent me to an unknown country… entirely possible, now that I think of it.’

The pink one, what was her name? Pinkie Pie? Yes, that’s it. She was prancing around me, singing an upbeat song welcoming me to ponyville until she looked at me curiously “So, Grizzy, where are you from?”

I smiled warmly “I am from the Craglands of Faeterra, I am actually quite certain that it is a long ways away from here.”

Twilight shot me a curious glance before she asked me a question that  actually answered a few of mine. “Where is Faeterra? We have explored every inch of this world… so I am curious as to where this Faeterra could be.”

I would've laughed if it wouldn’t unnerve the ladies around me, was it possible that Faeterra was not even on this planet? I smiled as I thought of Marcus ‘He’s going to have a field day here.’

I then froze as I felt another, much more powerful presence fill the castle. It felt… wrong, tainted… as if it opposed every fiber of my being just by existing… I ran to the door, the ground shaking under my feet as I threw it open and ran for my boys, the equines running after me shouting “Stop!” and “Wait!” but I did not listen, my boys, my precious sons, were in trouble! I reached the room where they were resting and what I saw made my very core freeze over with fear. It was the Lords of Decay… they were here, in the flesh! And… they had a Fog Giant with them, shackled to the floor with chains made of zaccarite, the metal made by the power of the Lords evil intent…

The four of them laughed sinisterly and pointed to my sons, Zinu and Marcus, who lay unconscious, floating in the air with red crystal knives pointed at their jugulars, poised to strike. The Lord of Chaos, Parhael Zmatok, looked to me and laughed again, this time a demented chuckle, his straightjacket was torn and no longer served to restrain him, the long sleeves torn into just the right length, and his signature dragon skull helm was tilted atop his head at what you could even call a jaunty angle, half of his head concealed by the bone, only his eyes visible out of the top of his head, as he was staring unblinkingly out of the eyesockets of the dragons skull “Why ‘ello there, “Grizzy”, happy ta see me? I’m happy ta see you!” He grinned with his rows upon rows of yellow stained needle sharp teeth.

I growled angrily “What do you want, Mad Lord?”

Parhael laughed and flipped upside down before pacing around me. “Straight to tha point, I like that!  Ya see, as a senior priest of the council, you have power, power that we need.” He walked up to me and grabbed me by the head, his sharp clawed fingers like a vice grip on my stone head. “So, as long as you want to see your boys and these innocent bystanders to see the light of day again, ye’d best be givin’ us that power.”

Siever Mortos normal happy looking mask switched to an angry shark toothed one as he dusted off his black and white checkered Jesters outfit and reached for his massive black zaccarite cleaver, twirling it in one hand as it’s edge scraped the ground and created black sparks. “Hey! I thought we were going to be killing them! It’s no fun if no one dies!”

Mar Auftrag sighed and smacked Siever across the back of his head with his Manonic Rifle, a blue zaccarite made weapon capable of firing magical shots powerful enough to pierce a primordial dragons hide. He adjusted his blue rune-riddled leather armor and looked to the angry Siever “Be quiet, glorified clown!”

Sabriel Zivot laughed, his thorny bramble like body rustling as masses of weeds and toxic flora coursed and pulsated within him “I agree with Mar, be silent and let them suffer instead, a life full of suffering and pain is so much more pleasant than a death of any kind… Like a fine wine…”

I looked to my children helplessly as the mares from before rushed in to help, I sighed as Parhael put knives to their throats as well, getting the message. “How do I do it?”

RD struggled angrily as she tried to  get away from the knife, only to be grabbed in Parhaels telekinetic grasp “Let me go you freaky bald chimp!”

Parhael brought her towards him and smiled, releasing my head, thank the council, as I could feel cracks had been starting to form. “Aaw… what’s wrong little filly, still all tense from looking fer little shy?”

RD looked to him in shock before regaining her composure  and spitting at his face, to which he simply opened his mouth and swallowed it “Aaw, dude that’s just gross!”

Parhael laughed before he looked to Twilight “And you, trying to figure out how I know all your names? Hmmm, Twily? Well let me save ye all the trouble, I’M. A. GOD. I KNOW EVERYTHING!” when he shouted, the entire castle shook to its very foundation. He then walked to Pinkie and smiled “For example, I know Pinkie says she’s losing weight, but has recently gone up to an E cup.”

Pinkie blushed and covered her breasts as she screamed what could only be called a cry of violation as the disturbingly perverted god chuckled “You perverted meanie! My weight is a secret between me and mr. scale!”

Parhael laughed out loud as the other gods left “It’s a good thing I just have tae be here fer this, else Seiver’d kill ye all!” He then looked back to Pinkie and smiled “Oh, and I’d say it’s more a secret between ye and mr. donut, ya fatass horse woman!”

I growled angrily, grabbing Parharels attention “Tell me what I have to do, Parhael… and stop this inane arguing!”

Parhael smiled and teleported right onto my shoulder, lounging lazily before flipping over and crouching on it, whispering maliciously into my ear. “You just sit there, while I take what I want from ye...” He then ripped the crystals out of my back, along with a multicolored mist that was equal parts red, blue, black and white, causing a cry of agony to escape my lips as I looked to my boys, I felt my powers fade… I… I never felt so… so weak… I fell to my hands and knees, no longer capable of holding myself up as I looked to Parhael feebly and spat tar to his bare clawed feet “You got your accursed power… now give me my boys, and… and let the Fog giant… and the equines go…”

Parhael sighed in annoyance, “Yer lucky that the old rules bind me to me word…and I was just startin tae have fun, too!” he snapped his fingers and the three of them went free, the chains on the Fog Giant disappearing alongside Parhael in a puff of red smoke as  I dragged myself  to my boys and tried to wake them up “Zinu... Marcus... Please, wake up...”

Marcus was the first to awaken, as he rubbed his head and twitched his nose I honestly have never been so happy to hear my son swear in Gremlish in my life… “Grok mershen… my head… What happened?”

I smiled “It doesn’t matter, all that matters is that you two are safe.”

The Fog Giant was the next to wake up. It sat still for a moment, taking in its surroundings. Then, slowly, it lifted itself up to its full height, towering above even me. There was a sharp snap as it cracked its knuckles. “Tarel, where?”

I looked to the Fog Giant and smiled weakly “You are in Equestria, it seems the Lords of Decay used you as a bargaining chip.” I laughed “Like I’d even consider saying no with even one hostage…” I then thought of something “How are we going to get you out of this castle? You are far taller than me, and I barely fit through the door…”

Marcus looked to the doorway in question and pulled out his manonic rifle, a custom one hge made by hand called the Ixion, and charged a light spell in the ammo clip, firing it as a laser beam into the top of it to melt the upper arch, adding enough height for Tarel to leave “There, that should do it.” He then looked to the molten crystal on the floor and smiled as it rapidly cooled and separated into shards  “Ooh! I sense some serious magical energy here!” He took out a large metal box and scooped up a large amount of the crystal for later study, Twilight twitching her eye all the while.

“You know I could of just teleported her outside, right?” Twilight exclaimed as she slapped her hand to her face in what my children would call a facepalm.

Marcus laughed “Yeah, let see you try to teleport a 18 feet tall and three ton, AT LEAST Fog Giant! that is... IF and this is a BIG IF, you don’t die from overexertion of your soul, you’ll probably futz up the teleportation and either maim or kill Tarel here!”

Twilights face blanked out for a moment before she looked Marcus in the eyes, rage burning in hers “Are you implying I’m bad at magic?”

Marcus shook his head “No, I’m saying I don’t wanna see inside out fog Giant, tell me, would you teleport in good conscience a living being you knew little to nothing of the biology of? Especially at risk of leaving behind some vital organs?”

Twilight looked to Tarel, who was looking confused by all the magical talk, and blanched “G-good point…”

Zinu woke up at this, he looked to me and frowned “Father… why are you so weak? You normally have a much stronger magical signature…”

I sighed “The Lords of Decay stripped me of my power, in exchange they freed you all.”

Tarel looked at the, now larger, opening. After a few seconds she looked back down at me. “You helped Tarel?” She looked at me for several long seconds, clearly trying to think something over. “Tarel help you,” she said after some time.

I looked to Tarel and smiled warmly, as best as I could in my state of exhaustion “I was going to recommend we stay together, as it seems we are no longer on Faeterra anymore, and will most likely need each other’s assistance…”

Zinu looked to me and then to Tarel before nodding “Agreed.”

Pinkie looked to me in shock “Why did they do that!? Those meanies are soooo not getting invited to any of my parties!”

I smiled at Pinkie and ruffled her mane “I doubt they’d be good guests anyway.” I then looked to Tarel and smiled as I gestured to my boys “These are my sons, Zinu the Luperian and Marcus the Gremlin, and these,” I gestured to the six mares “are the six whose castle we are currently in.”

“Tarel,” she said gesturing to herself.

I laughed weakly, I could feel that my magic has been severely drained... if I don’t restore it soon… I dread to think what will happen... “Tarel, do you remember anything from before you came here? All I remember is going to sleep in my home, next thing I know, I’m buried underground in a forest and my sons are in this castle.”

“Sleeping in swamp den, waking here,” she said. Apparently she didn’t remember much.

Zinu nodded solemnly “Same, went to bed, woke up here.”

Marcus rubbed his head “I… was running some experiments and got knocked out in an explosion…”

Zinu smirked “Par the course.”

Marcus huffed before shrugging and nodding, begrudgingly agreeing with his brother.

There was then a flash of light as Parhael reappeared, accompanied by a trio of Corrupted, two archons, and a goliath, their bodies riddled with cracks for the archons, and  cuts, bruises and lesions  as well as various diseases and infections on the flesh of the Goliath. Their bodies were also overgrown with red crystal that formed claws and armor, as well as the Goliaths club. The red crystal in question was physically manifested negative chaos energy, The two archons, or corrupted Stone Ogres,were armed with red crystal pickhammers, and they had the spark of intelligence drained from their eyes in classic Corrupted fashion. The Goliath, or the Corrupted Fog Giant, was huge, even by Fog Giant standards, it was so tall that it  had to crouch as it looked to us and growled menacingly, it’s bone club was overgrown with the red chaos crystal. Parhael laughed maniacally before waving at us “Heyo! Almost fergot ta leave the welcoming party! Well, Ta!”

The trio of enemies split up to take on the three remaining threats to them, and laughed as they prepared to destroy us. Zinu was the first to act, he quickly ran to the archon on the left and took out his daggers, flinging them at high speed into his crystal armor, embedding them into the crystal's surface right before Marcus ran up to the archon that got the daggers, while taking out a manonic grenade. He leapt up the archons body while using the daggers as footholds, freeing them as he leapt from dagger to dagger, plunging the grenade in its mouth before springing off of the fell creature, using the archons jaw as a base board and making it bite down on the magical explosive, causing it to burst in a seething hellfire, giving Marcus the equivalent of a rocket propelled jump towards the ground, “That there’s for using us as hostages, ya punk!”

The two archons roared in pain, one missing their bottom jaw and the other limping badly, Zinu and Marcus went back to back as they readied some Bolo-bombs, Zinu levitating them in mid air, spinning them faster and faster as they orbited around the two brothers before flinging them at the archons, each of them wrapping around a limb before exploding in various elements, leaving the archons limbless and ground bound. Marcus laughed “Now that was teamwork right there!”

Zinu nodded and smiled “Brothers make the best partners.”

Tarel looked to the Goliath and growled angrily “Tarel kill dark kin! Tarel crush dark kin!” She rushed the Goliath and shoulder checked him, sending him sprawling as she tore off his helm and began to brutally stomp on his head until a loud crunch was heard, the Goliath’s body going limp.

The six mares, who had been standing guard over me and making sure none of the fighting got too close to me, cheered their victory, Pinkie Pie and RD the loudest.

I laughed weakly before breaking down into a coughing fit “That’s… not the last of ‘em… things are about to get... much worse…”

The three corpses began to crackle with red energy and float into the air, their various gore and rubble from the grunts fusing together as they formed an orb which began to rotate and pulse with power until it began to crack, crimson spider limbs sprouting from the orb as a face seemed to project to the ‘front’ of this creature, a sick amalgamation of the other creatures facial features. It was a Ghast, a horrible monster hashed together from the corpses of the Lost, pain and rage all that they will ever know.

Marcus gulped and looked to Tarel and Zinu “Welp, let’s get busy!” He then readied his rifle and went to a table, knocking it over to use as cover as Zinu ran after him, Tarel looking around for a weapon. I whistled to her and tossed her my pick hammer  “Take it, I can’t fight in this condition…”

Tarel nodded and ran at the Ghast as it began to charge her, roaring in agonized rage as it fired a ball of crackling red energy at her, Tarel swatting it with my pickhammer straight back at it before clubbing it on the leg, causing it to crack slightly before Marcus took aim with his manonic rifle, charging several spells into it before firing it all together as a runic ball blast that sent him flying backward, colliding with the mares, thankfully, who grabbed him, thus preventing any harm. The Ghast, however, took a runic ball to the cracked limb, then had said limb shatter before the ball collided with his core and imploded with elemental energy, leaving a core of earth, light and fire energy, crackling somewhat with chaos. Marcus ran to the core and grabbing it before slamming it into a box identical to the one holding the castles crystals.

As the fight ended there was a second flash of light as a letter appeared in my hand. “Huh...a letter…” I opened it and handed it to Marcus, who read it aloud so that my companions and I could hear it.

“Dear Griswell and company, or more specifically Marcus and those to whom he is reading to:

        We have sent you to the world of Equestria as a sort of task force, we are searching for heroes from across Faeterra to represent each of the seven races. We need these heroes to save this world, as it is key to our future plans. We will keep you posted as to key information to your quest, as of now, you may want to go to Froggy Bottom Bog. There may be a surprise for you four there.”

Marcus looked around excitedly “Wow, a whole new world! I wonder if it’s in another dimension, or just somewhere else in space, the rest of my Crew would do anything to be here with me…”

I looked to the back of the letter to find a map that leads to, presumably, Froggy Bottom Bog. I looked to my boys and newfound friend. “Well, let’s go then, eh?”

Zinu nodded and took out his daggers “I’ll protect my brother, you watch Tarel’s back.”

I nodded “Buddy system... sounds good.”

Tarel nodded silently, and headed for the door. She stopped next to it, waiting for the rest of us to go first.

RD flew in front of me and shouted “What the buck just happened!? Who were those guys?! WHY DID THEY TRY TO KILL US? AND WHY TRY TWICE?!!”

I sighed, this was going to take a while…

[One creation myth walkthrough later]

Twilight was surrounded by scroll after scroll of information as she jotted own her last notes. “Okay, this is just amazing!”

RD just looked to me in confusion “I don’t get all that mystic mumbo jumbo… but I guess I’ll let it slide, for now…”

Pinkie giggled “It sounds like this Council deserves a party!”

Twilight then paused in thought before scrunching up her nose and looking to Marcus “You are going to have to work off the damages to my castle, you do realise that, right?”

Marcus shrugged “Hey, it’s better than her having to bash her way through, what, have you never heard of opening a door for a lady? I guess good manners really are dead.”

I sighed and made a note to chastise Marcus later as I looked to Tarel and held out my hand “Would you mind steadying me, I’m afraid having lost so much magic has taken its toll…”

She looks down at me for a moment before lowering her hand for me. It’s surprisingly gentle given her size. She carefully helped me to my feet, keeping her eyes on me the whole time.

I smiled and looked to Tarel “Well, I think we should head off toward this Froggy Bottom Bog,” I then paused and looked to the six mares “Would any of you like to show us the way?”

Twilight was looking at Marcus angrily as she crossed her arms “I’ll go, but only because I owe you for saving my life. Not to help that obnoxious jerk who called me names!”

Marcus shrugged “Hey, it’s good to be a brainiac, you get to think up a lot of the stuff that defines the generations to come!”

I coughed into my hand and felt something wet coat my hand, oh by the council… not already! There was tar coating my hand, a sure sign that I was in bad shape, for the other races, this would be the equivalent of coughing up blood… I looked to my sons with dread and straightened my back “We need to go now.”

Zinu looked to me in concern as I started walking towards the swamp that we were told to seek out, following Twilight’s lead “Father? Why are you coughing up tar? Is that not your lifeblood?”

Marcus froze in his tracks for a moment before running to catch up with us “YOU HAVE BEEN COUGHING UP TAR?! HOW LONG?!”

I shushed my sons and smiled gently “There is no need to worry, if I die, then it is my time, if not, then I have further use to be to the council. Either way, I am content.”

Twilight flew over to me and looked at my tar covered hand “A-are you ok?”

I nodded “Just clearing my throat, nothing more, now how close are we?”

Twilight looked to me uncertainly before gesturing to the trees behind her “We are here… be careful, a hydra has moved in here.”

I looked to Twilight, and then to the swamp, trying to feel for a signature of the council again, while I still could, it was much more hazy almost as if I was viewing the mana with dirt in my eyes… I eventually found my way to a chest buried in the ground and pointed to it “Tarel, can you dig here? I’d use my magic, but my mana is almost… almost…” I collapsed to my knees and looked to Tarel “Please, the chest...open it…”

She nodded silently and quickly dug out the chest, flinging handfuls of swamp mud out of the way. After a minute or two she reached down and dragged a chest out of the hole. With a loud snap she opened the lid, breaking any sort of lock that had been on it.

Inside, there was a medallion with the symbol for the council on it, a triangle with squares attached at the corners as well as a pickhammer made from Divium, or the metal of the council.   I reached out to the contents of the chest and the pickhammer and medallion flew to my hands. I felt my strength return as I held the amulet, and I quickly fastened it to my neck “My thanks to the council… I feel my strength returning…” I then noticed a letter attached to the pickhammer and removed it, seeing that it noted to read it aloud, I spoke as it dictated:

 “Dear Griswell;

We have seen your bravery and self sacrifice, and due this we have decided to grant you a second chance at life, keep this medallion on your person at all times, as it is the only thing keeping you alive at the moment, in a few weeks you will be at full strength without it. Use this pickhammer to protect thyself, and walk in our name.

                                                                -The council”

There was a second note within the letter as well, I opened it to see that it was red ink on blue parchment

“Dearest Twilight, please do NOT  inform the princesses of the council's existence, nor of that of the Lords of Decay, we are going to introduce ourselves soon, just… wait till you get another letter from me, kay? Tah!

                -Raphael Zmatok

What he said, I do NOT need the panic that would cause, it would make keeping order much harder if the main populous of the world descended into panic and hysteria.

-Uriel Auftrag

P.S. They couldn’t agree on the color of the ink, so we made them compromise.

-Michael Nox and Gabriel Zivot”

I laughed as my strength returned, feeling like  my most vital organ was now connected to me by a string seemed to give me a sense of levity, strangely enough. “Seems they get along as well as usual.”

Zinu nodded and chuckled “Nothing new.”

Twilights eyes twitched as she fell on her back while a goat bleat was heard “I don’t get your gods…”