Author's Note

Hey everyone, sorry for being late and the poor quality of this chapter. I decided to make this into a few parts for story reasons and also I was working on this all night to morning and I just wanted to update this after so long. The next part I’m not sure when I’ll get to it, but just know my schedule has been crazy for a while and I have had a bit of writers block of sorts, so not sure when the next one’s coming, but it will be within the month. I will go back to other stories so I can clear my head since I’ve been out of writing for a while now.

So until the next update stay safe my friends and I’ll see you then.

The Rock Part 1

Trixie snored loudly under the sleeping bag she was in. Snuggled beside her was Loreane, and beside them in a small huddle was Silver Spoon with Babs and Queelara using her massive spider like body to protect them, mostly Silver Spoon. The darkness around them was uncanny. For Loreane and Queelara it was perfectly normal, in fact loreane felt more secure in darkness where her scenes weren’t hindered by light nor her eye sight. For the ponies in the group, it was unlike anything they had ever experienced.

Yet, despite the feeling of dread they slept soundly around their little bonfire. Nothing around but the sounds of the crickets chirping and the occasional large mutated boar frog broke the silence.

*Bang!*

Trixie and Loreane awoke together hearing a most unusual sound resonating from the darkness around them. It was a low thud sound. One could describe like dull stones clacking against each other in a net bag. Loreane quickly got out of the sleeping bag and Trixie was quick to follow suit. The two stood side by side ready to fight at a moment's notice.

“Did you hear that?” Trixie asked.

Loreane nodded silently, and whipped out her fire whip while Trixie cast a powerful illumination spell. All around the swamp from the Ash Lake poured around the thick bog with the sound of a steady flow of sludge water and from it Lorenae could hear the sounds of heavy footsteps.

*Thunk, thunk… Thunk, thunk..*

No, they were hoofsteps. Whatever was out there either equine, or a quadruped at the very least. The sounds of its steps were steady, calculated, and very precisely spaced out. Whoever it was was very odd indeed, no one Loreane knew walked in such a manner. Then again the world had changed so much she wasn’t sure what to expect from it anymore. The world she knew was long gone, and now what was left was a shell of ehr world covered by the layers of the new.

She would get her answer soon enough.

When she created her fire whip the fillies and Queelara were startled awake from their sleep. It took them a moment to get up and ready to fight. Babs stumbled around with her hammer, not completely awake and Silver Spoon kept swaying still half asleep after many sleepless nights in the darkness. Queelara was hovering over Silver SPoon and kept nudging Babs out of the way, much to her cargin.

The footsteps came closer. The sounds of the hooves echoed loudly with a heavy clopping like metal on stone. At first Trixie wasn’t sure where it was coming from, her ears twisted and turned trying to detect the source of the hoofsteps. She then figured it was circling them. Slowly, whoever it was, was making rounds around them. Very very slowly.

The calculating steps kept resonating around them. By now Babs, Silver, and Queelara were fully aware of what was happening and were ready for a fight. They all followed the sounds of the heavy footsteps around them. It circled around their camp four times before coming to a stop.

Silence followed.

Everyone was tense.

There was a ten second count. Everyone's hearts raced with anticipation. The sweat beads slowly dripped from their foreheads to the ground. Their breathing was fast paced.

Then the heavy hoof steps started up in a running pace.

Then in the blink of an eye a completely armored pony leapt from the darkness with a large curved club and a shield on its back. The armr the pony wore covered him from head to hoof with the only exception being his dull violet tail and mane that stuck like a mohawk through the top of the helmet.

The ponies armor was oddly layered plates over and over. With a bulky look to them. Loreane wasn't sure at first glance what the armor was made of. It looked very much like rock or some kind of layered stone, but the pony was too mobile for it to be rock, or even metal since there was no metallic clanking when he moved. He had his huge curved club over his shoulder as he flew the air and was aimed at Loreane.

Loreane wasn’t able to respond at first but Trixie was able to stop the pony from clubbing her with a magical shield. The curved club slid down off the magical shield and slammed into the ground at Loreane’s feet. The armored pony made a quick spin and kicked off the shield and back flipped off it landing ten feet away. Then with almost lightning speed the pony lunged at Loreane again bringing the club down at her again.

Trixie readjusted the shield to defend Loreane, and again the curved club slid off harmlessly. However; this time the pony had swung the hammer overhead and used the momentum of the swing to flip over the shield like a ban-saw and brought the club over head and down over Loreane’s back.

Just as the club was about to make contact Loreane managed to sidestep around the shield as Babs came from the blind side of of the human and made a thrusting motion with her war hammer at the assailant. The club and hammer collided with equal force stopping them both in a stalemate. The armored pony and Babs struggled against each other in a duel of strength and endurance as the continued to clash. Quickly though Babs Seed’s limited experience began to show as she slowly got pushed back bit by bit by the armored pony.

Now having a chance to see the ponies armor Loreane realized it wasn’t stone she was looking at. The pony was wearing stone dragon scales! Looking at the ‘club’ she also realized it was no ordinary club, but was a whole dragon's tooth. The pony was wearing parts of an ancient dragon that once lived in a time before fire, powerful armor on its own, and very hard to pierce. Infact it’s downright nearly impossible to do unless the armor was in a great state of decay.

From what Loreane could tell, the armor was in mint condition at best. Not impenetrable, but definitely a challenge to overcome. As Babs was losing ground Trixie came up behind the armored pony while he was focused on the keeping Babs at bay.

“Catch this creep!” Trixie yelled, hurling the fireball from her hoof.

The pony seemed ready for this attack.

As Trixie released the fireball from her pyromancy flame the fire ball flew towards the pony who spun around taking all of the support Babs was using in the fight to stay up and face planting on the floor. The armored pony then spun around on the spot and used the dragon's tooth club to strike the upcoming fireball like a baseball bat. The anti magical properties made the fireball dispel to a bunch of useless sparks and leaving the dragon's tooth unharmed.

Then the pony spun back around taking Babs with a hoof and threw her at Silver Spoon and Queelara who were rushing him. Babs form collided with them both sending them all to the ground in a pile dazed.

Using the distraction to her advantage, Loreane rushed the pony with Trixie. Loreane made several wide attacks with her fire whip trying to strike the assailant who managed to dodge each attack despite being very heavy and clunky movements.

The pony took many sidesteps dodging every strike Trixie made, but this left him open to other attacks from Loreane. Loreane had managed to strike the pony’s armored chestplate searing the outer lay of the dragon scales slightly in various spots. The pony seemed to reassess his position as he was quickly surrounded by Babs and Queelara as well as Trixie and Loreane.

As the group surrounded the pony there was a standoff. No one made any movements with exception to their heavy panted breaths. Even the armored pony had a slight ant in his breath. The pony drew his shield and stood back on his hind legs ready to fight. The first to make a move was Babs, who dove for the ponies lower legs with a wide swing of her hammer.

Trixie and Loreane circled around as the pony jumped over the hammer with ease and had to parry with his shield to block a few stun spells Trixie cast at him. This however, left him open to Loreane’s attacks. The woman swung her fire whip with as much strength as she could muster and brought it across the ponies back cutting through a small portion of the aged old armor. The pony screamed in pain and reached for a pouch at his belt. He drew what looked like a small rock and threw it in the air and disappeared in the darkness above.

The pony then went on the defensive, parrying blow after blow with his shield and club, but he was clearly outnumbered and outmatched. Strike after strike the pony slowly started to get worn down and was received more strikes from the group as as time felt it dragged on. While Babs and Queelara weren’t able to strike the pony, Trixie and Loreane managed to get a few lucky blows on him.

As they thought he was starting to slow down there was a loud cracking noise from above. Everyone stopped and looked up at the tiny rock he threw moments ago came back down and landed in his hoof. The pony pulled the tiny round rock, and whispered to it before slipping it into his pocket again. Trixie at the time got a good look at the tiny rock and was sure she recognized it. But before she could think more on this a cracking sound brought her attention back to the ceiling where a large stalagmite and broken free and was now falling down on the group. Distracted by the falling stone the pony swung his club on Lorane’s arm making a distinct snapping noise.

Loreane screamed in pain as she grabbed hold of her now limp arm and was pulled away by Babs and Queelara as the stalagmite came crashing down where they were moments ago. Trixie however wasn’t so lucky. She dodged to the side as a piece of debris landed on her tail effectively pinning her in place. Using her magic and her physical strength Trixie tried to pull the rock off her tail, but she’d used too much energy in the fight to lift it from her tail as the stalagmite rolled on itself and fell towards her. The armored pony however came rushing to her side, and with a mighty swing of his dragon's tooth sent the rock pinning Trixie flyings. Grabbing Trixie the pony made a mighty leap with her under his arm and managed to get them both to safety.

Trixie was shocked to say the least. She ahdn’t expected some pony she just met, trying to kill her, to save her suddenly out of the blue. More shocking was what the pony did next. As the others came around the debris the armored pony lifted the visor of his helmet and revealed a dull grey mouth underneath. Them without any warning the pony leaned forward and kissed Trixie on the lips shocking everyone present.

Loreane herself felt a rising storm in her chest. Seeing Trixie’s shocked look as she struggled against the pony’s kiss only served to enrage Loreane even more. Once the kiss was done the pony and, to everyone’s surprise, Trixie smiled. The pony smiled too and reached to kiss her again, but Trixie held up her hoof and blocked the second kiss making the lips of the pony frown.

“Trixie’s glad to see you again too,” Trixie said calmly.

The pony smiled and replied in a dull feminine voice, “I’m glad to see you again too, little moon.”