A not quite Equestrian adventure

A/N:  WARNING:just a heads up in this chapter contains a scene of violence and can be a little gory

not as gory as Rainbow factory and Cupcakes though but still gory.

My shirt had fallen off a while ago due to the amount of damage it had taken whilst we were walking and it was too hot to put on another one. I also traded my combats for a knee length copy of the combats I was wearing. I am also sweating like mad as well but I didn’t mind.

We walk for a while, when Baltar spots a cave in the distance and we decide to head there.

I collapse the moment I gently lay Daring to the floor and make myself a pillow out of my bag, fatigue washing over me. Daring shows no sign of moving and is obviously worn out as well, the events of the day affect us all more than we think.

I look around the cave and see Baltar go to leave.

“Where are you going?” I ask.

“Someone’s got to check if we we’re being followed.”

I nod in reply and continue to rest. Sleep envelops me and I drift into the realm that dreams rule over. I dream of pegusi, lions and home, and also the weird pink party pony that always fires a confetti canon at me every time I see her, yelling “surprise!”

A sharp jab reels me from my sleep and I wake up reluctantly.

“Finally you’re awake. Come here what do you see?”

I groggily sloth my way to where to where he stands, rubbing my eyes to get rid of the blurriness of sleep. It’s around midnight and the moon is rising to its peak, it’s a waxing moon so it doesn’t provide much light. But in the distance I see something moving around making the trees sway, I can’t make out what it is but instinct tells me that it’s not friendly. I tell Baltar to rest and I take up my position at the entrance.

I look over the treetops for what feels like hours now, it’s relatively calming to listen to the swaying of the trees in the forest, and it would be a perfect moment were it not for the indescribable snoring behind me.

It goes something like this, but I still cannot encompass how irritating it is:

HUGHHHUGHHUUUGHUHG, the long wind up that sounds like a tractor on weed

…………, the not so dramatic pause that only lasts for two second providing a moment of peace.

Parfanargle SNUF SNUF SNUF mmmmaaahhhhh.

I don’t know how he does it but he finally manages to be annoying than he was two seconds earlier.

And the process repeats itself over and over and over and etc. with the occasional fart in between snores and I think to myself 'bloody hell can he do a whopper. It drives me mad, but he is the only one who is able to hold a conversation so that I won’t go even more insane than I already am.

I look back at Daring Doo and worry for her sake, she is sweating now like she has a fever and I have no idea of how to stop it. Her leg has probably gotten infected and is probably the cause of most of her suffering. And I make a mental note to keep a closer eye on her, she’s the first pony I met and hopefully we can become friends but at her decreasing health I’ll be lucky to be a mutual acquaintance.

I sigh and look back over the forest and think about the occurrences that happened earlier today and think, ‘Wow, shit this day couldn’t have been any weirder. First I’m fucking dragged into Equestria and I almost died and I have a dreadful feeling that I’ve got a dying pony on my hands as well. We need to move quickly today and get her looked at, I can’t lose another person… pony in my life.’ I sigh for a second time. ‘I wonder what happened earlier. When did I get wings? Was it magic... yeah it probably was magic considering I’m in Equestria. But what was that though? I wonder.’ A small grin makes its way across my face and I look for a small pebble to test it out on. I find one and set myself down near it and focus on trying to lift it up.

I spend about 2 minutes on trying to lift it up using telekinesis. It doesn’t work. ‘Well at least I tried,’ I think, a little sad that I can’t lift thing up using magic. So I stroll over to the entrance again and inspect my gear. My bag was usable it has a few small tears but nothing major, everything inside it is still in there and in a useable condition. I have a few spare sets of clothes and my first aid kit no longer has all of its equipment. I sigh and reorganise my bag. After my bag was suitable organised I check my knife and gun. My knife was in near impeccable condition, so I turn my attention to my D-Eagle. I dismantle it and check the parts for damage and clean them properly with a rag from my bag. I then reassemble it and cock it and look down the sights, satisfied I place my gun back in the holster on my hip, not before I flip the safety on, I don’t want to shoot myself like I did last time.

I reminisce at the thought of it. It was when I first got the gun, I was nineteen and I loved the thought of my own gun as I played COD4 allot and if I do say so myself I kick ass, and I had just finished cleaning the inside of it and I decide to do a western style spin the gun and holster it. Lets just say I did it a bit too enthusiastically and it fired into my foot. I then went to hospital where a few of my friends visited me, they laughed when I told them the story, and they brought me a few get well gifts. Looking back at it, it reminds me of how young and stupid I was, I’m 24 now but I consider myself way older as I am definitely more mature than all of my friends.

I look around the cave, Baltar is snoring as usual, but Daring is now shaking uncontrollably. I peg it towards her fearing for the worst, I can’t let her go not like my father did. I unwind the bandage on her leg to see the extent of the damage done to it. I recoil in horror at what I see, her leg is a shade of dark blue and black, her veins are bulging as if they were about to explode, and the hair around the infected area had fallen off. I take my bag off my back and get out my first aid kit, I tear off the lid and rummage around for the antiseptic spray which I had bought recently, it stings like heck but it does the trick, and I spray it onto the leg coating it in a thin film of chemicals. I can visibly see it working as after a few minutes the awful colours had died down and the veins had reduced in size. I breathe a sigh of relief but I know that were not out of the woods yet.

I wake up to see Daring resting her head on my stomach, I move her head off me carefully so as not to wake her and walk over to Baltar who had resumed hi guarding position after I had dosed off.

“Ah, I did not see you wake Luke, and I thought I had best not disturb your snuggle with the pony.” He sniggers.

And I shoot him a glare, wishing I had lasers in my eyes.

Before I continue over to the pony I “snuggled” with and put her in a comfortable position in my bag knowing that she will be in a lot of pain when she wakes up.

We make good progress through the forest and my legs are starting to ache from it. We surprisingly haven’t been attacked yet, either by luck or my daunting physique. I’m about six foot eight so my head hits every doorframe in existence, and my muscles stand proud. I’m no Saxon Hale but I go to gym so my arms and legs have a bit more muscle than the average Joe.

I feel the movement of Daring waking up and I tell Baltar to slow down so as to not cause too much pain for her. He obliges and we slow down to a relaxing walk through the forest. As we walk we hear her gasp and yelp for every step and stumble we make. Eventually we come to a halt and I remove her from my back, and place her gently on the floor and say as soothingly as I could “You’ve got some real pain control back there I would have been screaming in pain by now.” She grimaces, what would be a smile were it not for the amount of pain she is in. and I behind to massage her neck and back trying to get her mind off her leg, this seems to work as she her mouth turns from a grimace to a genuine smile. I smile at this, ‘if she’s happy I’m happy,’ I think.

The short break now over I pick Daring back up and we set off again.

We manage to make a mile before we have to stop again.

Baltar leads me away from Daring so we can speak.

I start first, “We can’t leave her here, I’m not giving up on her.” I say with outright defiance before he says something he'll regret.

“I know you won’t, but if you want to save her we have to get to a village and I don’t think we can find one fast enough,” He says looking around me at daring before he sighs. “If you want to save her we can’t keep stopping every time we get moving.”

I nod in agreement. And look over my shoulder to look at Daring and sigh. I walk over to her and give her a quick massage before slinging her up onto my back and set off towards the sunset, ‘oh I’m such a romantic aren’t I walking into the sunset,’ I think cheerfully.

I look at some trees and decide to count the ones I stumble over as I continue onwards to help prevent boredom from killing me.

‘Three hundred and forty three… three hundred and forty four… three hundred and forty five… who knew I could trip over so many darn trees. I mean it’s not like their moving. Besides I could always play spot the engraving….. Wait a second,’ I think, then yell, “Baltar come over here I think I found something.”

“The last time you said that it was just a stupid plant that is hardly uncommon, now what is it.” He said obviously not happy when I spotted the weirdest looking plant I ever saw when he told me it is just an ordinary frizzle whip touch it and it goes frizzy and wraps itself around you locking you in place, I laughed when all it did was wrap itself around my finger when I poked it. He joined in but then added a warning, “That’s just a baby wait till you see the fully grown ones.” I have failed yet to spot a larger one.

He studies it and concludes, “I have no clue what it is.”

Then from my shoulder I hear Daring mutter, “it’s a navigational sign.” She’d managed to shift her head to see what we were on about that left us stumped.

I would jump for joy but the weight on my back prevents me from doing so, so I settle for a triumphant yell with a fist pump.

“Yes finally a sign, *chuckle*, Alright then, what does it say?” they could tell how exited I am enthusiasm was pouring out of my skin, it was also infectious as they also seem to brighten up as well.

“Well it’s a little vague… But the best direction it gives is… That way.” She points a little way away from the sun and we march off, gently though as I don’t want to cause too much pain for her, in the general direction.

We see a few more signs on the way and we pick up the pace eager to get some well-earned rest and food, I haven’t had proper food for a least a day or so now so I’m starving. And most importantly to get her leg seen to. I had to spray it again, which wasted the rest of the can so I chucked it away as it was no longer of use to us, and she whispered at me as it apparently burned, ‘I know the feeling’ was my thought for that, but she let me finish and replace the bandage. She is getting worse I know it but without the right equipment I can’t treat her properly all I can give her is some soothing words and empty smiles.

The trees start to thin out as we make our way towards a field, and we refrain from running in our haste to leave the forest. It wasn’t particularly scary, it was just really unnerving like eyes were watching your every step, we leave the trees and its weird flora and fauna, and exit onto a vast field with luscious green grass, it’s not like grass on earth this grass is really green like pastel green the green kids use to show grass in their pictures. It’s stunning, I would have just lain down and basked in its glory were it not for the daring snapping me back to reality with a groan.

I shake my head to clear my thoughts and look for a path that would lead us to a town. It’s not long before we find one and we quickly reach it and stride down it with an air of purpose. We chat about nothing in particular just enjoying the moment, laughing at how quickly we managed to leave the forest, how silly I look to him with all these clothes.

We climb the small hill and, before we reach the top we, read the sign that says “welcome to Trottingam village” and I chuckle at the name.

We continue up past the sign and glance over the hill.

For the first time since my father died I regret doing so.

All I see is complete and utter devastation, houses are black with burn marks, homes broken businesses destroyed everything broken and nothing stirs in this husk of a town.

We walk in silence towards the town unable to encompass the gravity of the situation, the pure devastation of what caused this.

But what really made this truly horrific are the carcasses of dead ponies laying down everywhere. Adults and foals alike were murdered here limbs were torn from the bodies of their former owners. Blood stains everything around us and each pony showing a look of either pain surprise or sorrow. Something dreadful, No… evil did this to these ponies.

Everything is broken, from the town to the ponies even their babies are broken and twisted in unnatural positions.

“What did this?” is all I can conjure up.

“Well it could have been a hydra but there should be fewer bodies as they would have been eaten, and it also doesn’t explain the burned down houses, and whey isn’t there any pony search and rescue efforts. Something must have blocked the escape routes.” said Baltar, clearly not phased by the amount of bloodshed around him.

“What do you mean by search and relief? It looks like their all dead.” I point out.

“Look over there you see those drag marks there’s a large number of those leading into the forest.” He points over towards some groves in the ground and I admit they do lead into the forest.

“Well we have to find out what did this?” I say, anger now rising in my voice, “and make them pay.”

I don’t give him time to react before I run off towards the forest. And he catches up with ease, I am not running too fast I’m in fact running at the pace that I can keep up for hours upon end and not waste my breath.

“You know they could be dead by now? Right. I mean it takes weeks for a house to burn down. Look at the facts there’s a very slim chance even one might have survived.” He tries to reason.

I ignore him and continue to barrel my way through the forest, anger giving me the strength to move faster. Groans and weak complaints emanating from my bag.

I reach a cave 'great another one' I think angrily, and I spot two guards standing to attention not doing anything and look like they weren’t going anywhere fast. They are short dog like things except they stand on two paws and have managed to gain opposable thumbs, with sharp nails that double as claws.

“Diamond-dogs I should have known they were involved. But this is unlike them they wouldn’t usually kill the ponies they would force them to work for them. Something is wrong here very wrong I can smell it.” I forgot that he has a more sensitive sense of smell than me.

“Come on we can take them,” I say, eager to relinquish my anger on the two unsuspecting dogs.

“No,” he says with surprising authority, “we need to save the ponies, that was the plan, we can’t rush in there and expect them to crumple under us. We need to be sneaky and enter without them knowing of our presence and only when we find them, and let them escape, can you do what you see fit.”

I put Daring down in some shrubbery nearby and I tell her to stay quiet while we save her friends. She groans and I take that as a signal that she heard me. I set off, with Baltar close behind, around the two guards, staying out of sight, and climb the wall to get the drop, quite literally, on the dogs.

We reach the outcrop above the guards and we get ready to pounce on them when they tense as if they know we are about to drop on them and go inside the cave, only to be replaced by two guards looking more refreshed and alert. Wait a minute for the guards to stop moving. Before they realise we are above them, we drop simultaneously killing them with a heavy blow to each of their heads caving their skulls in, I don’t care I just want to make something pay for what happened to the village.

We proceed into the cave which is dimly lit with torches and we spot four or five more dogs, which we silently take out with a quick turn of the head and a quiet snap, and drag them into the darkness of the cave the last one unfazed by the lack of comrades when Baltar hit him with a blow to the back of the head killing him as well. I feel like a fucking snake doing this, and I suppress a giggle at the thought but scold myself at the lack of seriousness of the situation.

We continue silently making good progress down the corridors, ‘it would be a while before they change the guards’ I think hopefully. We don’t pass any dogs on the way through the maze that is their home which I find odd as it should probably be full of working class mutts. After a few minutes we hear a small shriek and we creep our way down the corridor it emanated from, curtsy of Baltars supreme hearing. We reach a wide opening that turns out to be where they are keeping prisoners.

It’s a mess of blood and bodies as if they’ve been subjecting them to torture. Hatred consumes me as I see a creature making its way towards a bunch of terrified ponies, a look of mild pleasure in seeing the ponies squirm from behind their cage. I don’t see the pair of wings form behind me, but I don’t care, they are pure black and they act like a black hole consuming the light giving it more strength and fury, the only thing different between the wings is that if you look closely one wing has a faint fiery red glow to it.

I move with surprising speed and collide with the beast and send it flying into a wall. It gets up sluggishly and stares at me with pure hate. It was hideous there was hardly any fur on it and its skin is a dark shade of grey, a demon was the only thing that I could think of except it is in the shape of a D-Dog. It charges at me and my wing slams it into the floor as anger takes control of my body, I leap forward and bring my foot down hard onto it, it moves out of my oncoming boot but in the process breaks its leg when my foot lands down hard on its thigh. It lets loose a blood curdling screech. Its un-dog like howl is cut off when my wing slams down onto its throat and it can’t breathe it tries in vein to breathe. But before it can recover I stand over it raising my leg before I bring it down sharply, its head gives a few moments of resistance before it cracks then shatters and gives way to burst open like a ripe tomato.

The ponies shriek in terror as I turn towards them. My wings fade into nothing and my eyes, which were the colour of scarlet, return to the normal cool blue hue. Baltar, who had watched the spectacle from a distance, came out of the dark spot he was hiding in and said, “Well so much for being quiet.”

'he is probably saving the questions for later I think.

“sorry.” I say, unable to think of anything else.

More screeches come from the corridors and we quickly grab the keys and unlock the remaining ponies from their cages, it seems like a tenth of the village was here there was at least a hundred of them. They reluctantly come out wary of me but I assure them I won’t hurt them. They reluctantly come out of their cages but seeing as it will probably be better to go with us than stay here they follow us. We reach the entrance of the cave the wounded were being carried by the more healthy ponies, and the children following cautiously behind shooting quick glances in my direction in curiosity. I smile at them and they hide behind the nearest pony.

The shouts and screams were almost upon us, and I hurry everyone out of the cave before telling Baltar to get Daring and get as far away from here as possible.

His response was “are you mad? You’ll get yourself killed.”

I chuckle before adding, “Well your right about one thing. And if I wasn’t this would probably never work. Now go before I change my mind, someone has to get these villagers to safety and it won’t be me.” I yell the last part to emphasise that he has to leave now.

I see he is struggling with the concept of leaving me with these monstrosities so I push him away and he slowly yet reluctantly canters off in the direction of the scared and confused ponies and helps them by picking up my bag with Daring inside an picking up a few foals.

I turn back to the cage as the first of the beasts come through. The cave entrance wasn’t wide enough to fit any more than three of them at once so I launch myself forward to prevent them from exiting the hell from which they came from. They gnash their teeth at me as I tackle them colliding with their soft underbellies, trying to throw me off of them. There were forty or so of them each more hideous than the next, and all of them were eager to get their savage claws on the ponies.

Anger rising at their attempts to get the ponies my wings and scarlet red eyes reappear and flap my wings twice forcing the beasts back into the cavern. In my haste to push them back in they manage to tear away at the flesh on my back earning scours of blood to trickle down. In my frustration my wings act on their own accord and slam ferociously into the ranks of vermin. Sending them flying into their comrades, one of them avoids my attack and lunges at me my wing swoops back in a almost graceful motion sending it careering into a wall head first so fast it shatters its neck and spine and cracking its skull in several places. Remembering the town and its occupant’s, anger fills my soul and body and fire starts to course through my veins. My right wing bursts into a brilliant blue flame which would normally scare the crap out me but I’m too angry to think as the demons charge at me.

I charge back at them and collide with their hideous faces, breaking noses and earning a few cuts and bruises myself. My fiery blue wing setting fire to one or two of the demons, they seem unfazed by their change of temperature only that they now start melting slowly as they try and attack me. I doge and weave their attacks when I spot one heading for the entrance, I yell in fury when I saw that my guard had been let down allowing me to be hit by one of the demons but I recover and counter and with a powerful beat of my wings I smash into the escaping demon crushing its head into the wall and it’s body crumples to the floor lifeless.

There are still to many of them to keep back I don’t know how much longer I can keep up with the relentless assaults, there was still at least thirty of them and my wings are starting to fade as the energy required to keep them around is putting a strain on my body which now feels like I’m on fire. I yell at my weakness in such a crucial moment, and I burst into the fray once more breaking everything in my path be it limbs or necks. The fire within me is starting to burn my skin so I punch the nearest demon as hard as I could, it bursts into flames before slowly disintegrating into black dust, with a final screech.

I spin and punch the next demon in the side as it circles around me turning it into ashes, with another screech. The two demons I set fire to had burned to death and they had set fire to numerous others making them bump into another spreading the fire throughout the demons. There were still at least twenty now, not on fire, as I gather up the strength for my final charge.

There was a scream outside as a I begin my charge so I change course without hesitation to the entrance, which now has two more demons trying to escape, screaming in fury at the monster that would dare cause pain to any animal, I burst through the entrance and send the escaping demons into a few nearby trees killing them on contact with the bursting of skulls and the breaking of necks. I whip round to see a yellow Pegasus about to be attacked by the monstrosity, I yell a curse at it and with a mighty beat of my wings I fly to it and boot it so hard in its side it breaks through the bones and skin causing my leg to go straight through it spearing it onto my leg, it dies almost instantaneously. When I land I wrench myself away from it and turn to the trembling mare, “I thought I said for everyone to get out of here.” I yell causing the mare to whimper and respond with “I-I-I…” my eyes soften and change to their cool blue colour once again and say, “I will not let these beasts harm you and if you come here then it makes it all the harder to do so understand?”

She nods and just before she leaves she yelps and I rush forwards avoiding the demons attack and scoop her into the air telling her to go and releasing her in one motion, she scrambles in the air for a second before she regains control and flies off. I look back down at the escaped Demons and dive bomb the first one I see, crushing it with the impact and send the others following it, back towards the cave entrance my wings are barely visible as I approach the next victim of my rage and send it into the wall killing it with a definite crack. There were five left and I quickly use the energy I have left to pummel them into the ground, killing them.

I collapse onto the floor by the cave entrance out of energy, and out of luck as I hear more growling from inside the caves. I look up to see the cave full of the angry demons, and I lay there unable to lift a finger to stop them from getting out. My eyes close, too heavy to see them slowly pace towards their new prey.

I think back at the friends I gained during my brief stay at Equestria, Baltar the ever faithful who I had to force to leave to save him and Daring who I see as my responsibility to keep her safe, it was all my fault all of it, if it wasn’t for me she wouldn’t be here in so much pain.

But I wouldn’t trade this for anything in the world and the phrase I use all the time comes to mind, ‘I regret nothing’ this couldn’t be more true now than it ever has been.

I feel a sensation of weightlessness and I open my eye to a slit and see them cower raising their claws as if being blinded. But I don’t care I just want my friends to be safe, I can’t stop thinking about them, I whisper “I’m so sorry” before I white out.

A few hours later four creatures emerge from the forest with a makeshift platform and place me onto it with grim expressions.