Warrior

Solitude was something that Velvet cherished greatly. She never liked having another soul sitting in the same room with her. It really bothered her to no end. And that’s why her favorite time of the day was when Twilight and her friends were away. It gave her time to listen to the voices in her head.

And that is why when her break of the day came, it was the most excruciating time of the day. Not only is she not being productive, she is being forced to breath the same air with 6 other ponies who she could really care less about. She really wouldn’t mind just slitting all their throats and watch them choke on their own blood. The only other soul she enjoyed being within arm reach distance was Starlight Glimmer.

But today, she could ignore the presence of those 6 ponies and indulge herself in the book Starlight Glimmer was nice enough to plead to her master to allow her to read it. And she was having the time of her life. This book held so many stories of monsters and how to kill them, how to hunt them, looking for noticeable patterns, the whole shindig.

But one spike in conversation grabbed Velvet’s attention.

“Goodness Celestia, I can hardly get a decent shower nowadays.” Rarity complained, “My water is just being difficult.” She adds… that pretentious porcelain princess.

Pinkie perks up, “Me too, SugarCube’s pipes are all clogged up! We can’t even make delicious cupcakes anymore!!!” She screeches at the top of her lungs.

Twilight nods, “My pipes are clogged up too.” She adds into the conversation.

Applejack shrugs, “I don’t know why everyone’s having pipe problems when me and Carrot Top are doing just fine.” She says.

Now this bit of information had Velvet finally want to be in the presence of these other ponies without wanting to exact bloody revenge.

“Everybody’s having pipe problems? At the same time?” Velvet questions the group.

Rarity nods, “Well, not all at the same time, but it did happen rather rapidly.” She informs.

Applejack nods before taking out a bottle of a weird substance and passed it to Velvet, “Carrot Top found this in Berry Punch’s pipes.” She explains.

Velvet opens the bottle and pours a small substance onto her hand… it feels rough and viscoscious, like syrup and honey mixed together but without much stickiness. It also was also extremely cold, like really cold. Ice cold. But the strangest thing above it, as Velvet rubbed it in between her fingers, it began to melt and dissolve, almost as if the mere friction of her fingers rubbing against each other was too hot for it.

But the substance wasn’t the strangest part about this, it was the voices raging in Velvet’s subconscious, they were barely above a whisper but she could tell what it was.

“Cannibal…”

Velvet didn’t know what it meant, but she wasn’t about to let these deadbeat meatbags know what was battling it off. Instead, she put the returned whatever was left of the substance back into the bottle and handing it back to the apple farmer.

“Well, whatever it is, it’s probably under the castle too.” She says, “It’s about time I check the pipes under the castle, so whatever’s down there, I’ll tell you.” She offers.

The girls all nod in unison.

(A few hours later)

While Velvet was preparing herself to go into the cold depths that were the pipes under the castle, she pondered over the word the voice in her head said. Cannibal? What did it mean cannibal? Of course she held knowledge of the meaning of the world ‘cannibal’ but for the life of her, could not decipher what the strangely masculine sounding voice meant.

But before she could plunge into the depths of the castle’s underbelly, she had to get rid of an annoying presence in the room.

“You can stop hiding, I knew you were there since forever.” She called out.

And from behind the wall stepped the pretentious porcelain princess she hated the most out of every other soul. A worried expression was visible upon her features as clear as the sun sitting on its perch in the heavens.

“What do you want?” Velvet questions, growing tired of this other presence in the room with her.

Rarity projected surprise and astonishment upon her face due to Velvet’s tone of voice, and hesitated to give a response, “I just wanted to say be careful down there.” She hopes, “I know something may be down there and just wanted to give you some good luck.” She adds.

Velvet’s appearance was one of bewilderment before turning into one of laughter as her wind was being knocked out of her.

Rarity was dismayed that Velvet would perceive her good will as something that was laughable, “Um… excuse me, but what’s so funny?” She inquires the chortling adolescent Unicorn, voicing her dissatisfaction with Velvet’s rejoinder to her good will.

Velvet found it exceedingly hard to stop her laughing, and when she found her self-control, her tone shifted back to the darkness it originally was, “I think its the fact that the moment my soul’s presence actually benefits you in any way, you start to care about my wellbeing.” She responds.

Rarity’s confusion was utterly clear on her face, “Whatever do you mean?” She questions, hungry for more information on Velvet’s opinion of her.

Velvet sighs in pure annoyance, “You think that after 3 years of supporting Miss Twilight’s behavior towards me, I’m just going to suddenly believe that you care about me. Especially when my life finally benefits you.” She explains, “I’m not buying it, even for a second.” She adds.

The pretentious porcelain princess was clearly visibly hurt by Velvet’s accusations of her only caring for the red Unicorn for her own benefits, “How do you know I don’t care about you?” She ask.

Velvet turns to Rarity and when the mare and filly locked eyes, Rarity caught a glimpse of just how much hatred Velvet harbored for her, it almost made her want to cry.

“Maybe because you seem to not care for me after I killed the Shadowman, saving your princess and boyfriend.” She starts, “In fact, who was the one who healed me when I was on the verge of death? Mrs. Starlight. Who was the one who I saw when I woke up? Mrs. Starlight. Who was the one who thought of rewarding me for risking my life for Princess Twilight? Mrs. Starlight. Who was the one who left a note for me because she wanted to say goodbye? Mrs. Starlight. Who didn’t ask me to see if I was okay after the Shadowman? All of you.” She listed, “For the 5 years of my life, the only one who I actually can consider someone I care about is Mrs. Starlight. Because she’s the only one in the world who makes me feel like I actually have self worth!”

“Because she is the only one who actually cares about me!” She raises her voice a little, “Which is surprising since you guys are the Elements of Harmony, the saviors of Equestria time and time again! Yet, I feel like I want to disappear just by having your presence in the same room as me!” She finally shouted, “Now if you’ll excuse me! I got a job to do!!” She shouted, clearly stating she wanted Rarity to disappear.

Velvet sees the hurt in Rarity’s soul as tears threatened her beautiful face, and she decided to keep whatever dignity she had by not releasing her displeasure and hurt in front of Velvet.

Now unlike a lot of people who would feel great guilt for upsetting such a nice soul like Rarity’s, and Velvet did feel a tinge of guilt. The voices in her head told her that what she did was right, she gave that Unicorn what she deserved. A crooked smile made its way up her face before she equipped her helmet and opened the trapdoor, descending into the large maze that was the castle’s underbelly.

Once Velvet’s boot soles kissed the cold floor, she turned to the direction of the main pipes, activating her flashlight, and began her journey down the main pathway.

During Velvet’s expedition, she shined the light of her torch onto the pipes as she tried to discover what could have been clogging it up, and her suspicions were right as the same substance that Applejack provided her covered the pipes, but it was spaced out and barely seeable. The only reason she was able to see it was because it shined as her light licked it, as if it were ice.

Aside from the crystalline shining viscous liquid, Velvet noticed something else that managed to have her skin crawl, and it was the whispers that tickled her ears, filling her head with words like ‘Cannibal’, ‘Monster’, ‘Spirit’, and ‘Burn’. She knew not what these words were trying to convey to her. But there was one word that stood out to her was one that didn’t seem to fit with the rest, ‘Above’ was the word. And it made her furrowed her eyebrows.

Velvet eventually made it to her destination, the water tank, and when she was in front of the steel giant, she saw that it was smothered in the crystalline ice-like substance, but instead of the ones on the pipe and inside the bottle, this one was so viscous that it was extremely hard to pull her hand out of it, she actually feared that her hand would be torn off.

But she could hardly focus on the liquid due to the voice in her head, now less like whispering and more akin to that of a shout saying: ‘ABOVE!’.

Velvet, listening to the voice for the first time today, looked above and nearly gasped: right above her was this absurd-looking pony like beast on the ceiling with very clear extremely sharp claws.

Velvet was frozen in fear for a brief moment before slowly backing away. She had hoped that the monster had not seen her yet, but she knew that it had. Her best bet was to try her best to back away without upsetting the beast. But to ensure her own safety, Velvet began unsheathing the small sword she had with her very slowly, preparing for an unexpected attack. But...

*ROAR*

Claws met blade as the albino beast lunged at the filly. Velvet grunted as she pushed the beast backward before lunging at it herself. The beast was too quick though as it disappeared from her sight and reappeared above her. With a vile slash of its claw countered by a close dodge, the beast’s claws narrowly missed Velvet’s cranium.

With a grunt and the kissing of boot to skin, the beast was thrown to the floor before Velvet stood up and leaped towards her opponent. When she landed upon the beast, she plunged her blade into its chest. Skin broke and red blood splattered everywhere, decorating the floor and Velvet.

The beast released a horrifying shriek of pain as Velvet pushed the blade deeper before turning it horizontally, and with a powerful yell, drags the across the beast’s chest, earning a louder shriek of pain from the beast.

Once the blade made it to the left of the beast’s chest, Velvet opens the chest open and digs for the heart, but when she dug into the beast, a realization hit he: the blood was cold. Ice cold! Much colder than anything she’s felt, and the heart itself was stringy and extremely tough. But, she knew her time wasn’t ample enough to allow her to investigate, so she swings the blade at the stretched heartstrings. But the blade did naught as the strings failed to cut, but instead just stretched as if it were constructed of rubber, and due to how much force she put into the single strike, the heartstrings pushed the blade out of her hand.

Velvet instinctively leaps off the beast to retrieves her sword. The beast hoisted itself from its position and stood on its feet to reveal another mind blowing secret to Velvet in the form of its skin healing back at an incredible rate.

“A healing factor, huh?” She questions, “No worries, just need to outpace it.” She declares just as an unnatural warmth engulfed her shoulders.

“I apologize for this being so abrupt, but I need full control of your body.” Spoke a familiar voice.

But before Velvet could react, her body underwent a complete freeze and wouldn’t obey her command.

“Sleep.” And just like that, Velvet was out like a light and fell to the floor unconscious.

Curious as to why its advisory fell as she did, the beast approached the fallen Unicorn to inspect the body, only to be served quite the hard kick to the jaw.

The beast stumbled back and roared in pain as Velvet stood back up, however, when she opened her eyes, they were glazed over with a bright white light.

Velvet crouched down and picked her sword up, ready for combat. And with an ethereal battle cry, Velvet lunged at the beast, but her stab failed to make contact as the beast dodged, only to lunge its own attack at the Unicorn.

Blocking the attack, Velvet drags the sword across the beast’s arm, making sure the blade dug into the skin, blood spilling everywhere in fantastic fashion. Biting into the beast’s chest, the blade claimed its prey, making a deep and long slash.

Sparing no time for the beast to regenerate, Velvet plunges her hand deep into the chest, taking its heart hostage. Engulfing her horn was a bright red fluorescent hue as her hand begins to heat up. The increased heat resulted in a great shriek to rip the beast asunder as its body consumed by the heat.

Due to the increased heat produced by Velvet’s magic, the thick bonds binding the beast’s heart began to melt away, allowing for the heart to be pulled much easier than before. Accompanying a victorious battle cry, Velvet’s magic increased in deadly potential, incinerating the beast to nothing but ash.

With her job done, the being possessing Velvet released the Unicorn from the grip she had on her soul, causing her to wake up with a chill, immediately noticing that the beast was not there anymore, in its place were a pile of ashes.

Putting two and two together, Velvet realized that whoever possessed her today had burned the monster. It took her a moment to put two and two together: the voices in her mind, the cold environment, the viscous liquid which got stickier the colder it was and melted the hotter it was, and the pile of ash all pointed to one thing: Wendigos. She had to tell Princess Twilight.

(Later that day)

“Windigos? You’re lying. Windigos are way too huge to fit at the bottom of the castle.” Rainbow said, voicing the doubt that was no doubt racing inside their head once they heard Velvet’s story.

An audible groan reaches Velvet’s lips, but she manages to suppress it in fear of receiving whiplash from the Princess standing in front of her.

“Wendigo, not windigo.” She corrects, “While a windigo is born from the hatred of ponies around it, a wendigo is a beast born from the soul of a cannibal.” She explained, “It’s very easy to get mixed up between the two because wendigos can’t survive in extreme heat, that’s why they’re found near cold places, like say a place where windigos are prevalent since they create the cold.” She continues, “In fact, some ponies of the older days thought that wendigos were the physical tangible bodies of the windigos.”

“If I may ask, where’d you learn all this?” Twilight questions.

“From the book Miss Starlight gave me.” She explained, “It was written by a pony named Ink Dash, he’s commonly overlooked by ponies like Starswirl the Bearded, even though his contributions to the supernatural world was more than anybody ever could imagine.” She adds.

“But what was it doing under Ponyville? And what do we do about the slime?” AppleJack inquired.

Velvet shrugged, “Don’t know, some cannibal probably died under the castle.” She replies, “As for the slime, it was there to keep the eggs of the wendigo cold for the hatching, just burn it and both the slime and the eggs will be destroyed.” She informed.

Twilight nods, “You’ve done a good job Velvet, continue on with your day.” She praised.

With no more vocabulary needing exchange between the adolescent Unicorn and her elders, Velvet rose from her seat and left for her next agenda on the list she memorized, which was ironically, washing the bathrooms.

Once she was sure of her absence of the other mares in the household, she sighed deeply: “I know you’re there.” She turns around to see the same mare that was in her dreams now step from behind a pillar, although she still retained the colors she adorned in Velvet’s dreams, “Alright, it’s time for you to speak up: who are you and why’re helping me?” She inquires.

A smile stays on the mare’s face as she approaches the Unicorn, “Like I said before: my identity is of no concern to you.” She repeated, “Or at least, not yet.”

Velvet’s eyebrows furrowed as she began to get a bit defensive, “Don’t pull that stuff with me.” She demands in a harsh tone, “I just fought a wendigo and you possessed my body, I used fire magic! I still feel the burning on my hands! Your name is the least you can give me!” She shouted lightly.

A sigh escapes her lips as if she was about to speak, but was abruptly interrupted by a country-like voice.

“Velvet, who ya talkin’ ta?!”

Velvet almost suffered a heart attack when she saw the mare disappear into thin air, instinctively looking around to see any sign of the ethereal being even standing there.

Able to take a sigh of relief with the knowledge that AppleJack didn’t see her… a breath of relief short-lived though, before she was gripped by the shoulders tightly.

“Who the hay were ya talkin’ to?!” She question.

This isn’t going to end well…