the Six Heroes

Throughout his entire life, Plasma has never felt such immense pain such as this kind that was coursing through his body. Every joint in his body felt as if a steel compressor was crushing them, while his spine felt like he was hit by a runaway train then proceeded to grind him under its wheels, and his head felt like it was going to explode from a continuously buildup of pressure throbbing in his skull. Cracking his eyes open ever so slowly, which was an effort in of itself, Plasma was able to open his eyes and immediately his iris’s contracted as the bright light of the world stung them. But determine to see what has happened to himself and his friends, Plasma pushed past the pain in his body, head and eyes and started to look around his current location. As Plasma was slowly pivoting his head around, feeling the soft pillow under his head, all he could see was that all of his friends were laying in separate beds, and each of them appear to be in the same state as he was.

“Just what the hell happened to us?” Plasma painfully croaked, his throat feeling raw and dry. “Guys? Are any of you awake?” Plasma waited for a moment to see if any of his friends were awake as well, and after a minute of silence his friends started to let out their own painful groans.

“God my body feels like complete crap.” The dark-haired young man groaned before he starts coughing.

“You’re not the only one that feels like crap Wave.” The fire user said tiredly.

“To be fair Burner, I think we all feel like crap.” Circus responded as his head throbbed with a sickening pain.

The other members of the group either groaned or complained their response to Plasma’s initial question. Seeing as all of his friends were alive, in great pain, but still alive Plasma slowly turned his head back to its initial position and just stared at the very high ceiling. For several long silent minutes, the six young men just laid in the ridiculously soft beds they were on, trying to recover from whatever that old man did to them, but as they thought back to the old man another train of thought brought a few different questions. How did they ended up in what appears to be a hospital, and more importantly who were the ones that brought them here? But something else collectively came to the six friends, if they were indeed in a hospital then sooner or later someone is going to learn what they truly were. Which could lead to all of them to be in even greater danger.

When roughly an hour has gone by the six young men started to feel less drained, while the immense pain their bodies were feeling was starting to fade away at a gradual pace. And after another hour or so, the group were able to move around in their beds, or even sit up without feeling their bodies ache or pulse with pain. But even though they had recovered, none of them were ready to start and try to walk around just yet, and just continued to relax and just let their bodies recover fully. However the six friends started to hear voices coming from the far end of the room, and the group instantly started to worry about who was coming, but they all decided to go back into their prone positions in bed to act as if they hadn’t waken up. The voices gotten louder as the owners entered the room, but all six of the young men noticed something else was prevalent among the voices. They noted the multiple clopping sounds on the tiled floor as the people entered the room.

“By the sun, a week has passed, and these creatures are still unconscious.” An older sounding male voice said.

“Goes to show whatever happened to these six was a real big deal.” An older female voice said, before the sound of something scribbling over something else could be heard.

“Did the blood test’s reveal any results?” at this question, each of the six stiffened and started to mentally panic. If these doctors have indeed ran a blood test, then they’ll also discover their mutated cells…and that could lead them to…

At this point more rational thought was dismissed and swept aside, as panic surged in the six young men’s minds, and each of the six jumped to their feet ignoring the pain that their bodies still had, and were about to make a mad dash to the exit. And from the surprised gasps from the people in the room, they seemed to have really spooked them, but the six were even more surprised and spooked at who they saw. Or more accurately, what the people actually looked like as they looked at what was in the room with them. The six young men saw that the people in the room were actually two small bright blue, ponies, or some kind of small equines wearing what look like hospital attire, with mouths agape & eyes widen with shock and fear. Not giving the situation a moment to think over and question, the six headed straight for the door and just ran past the two startled equines.

“No wait! Stop!” one of the equines shouted at the six, but the young men did not heed their words. “Somepony stop them before they hurt themselves!”

“Just run guys!” Steel shouted through his labored breathing.

“No need to tell us twice!” Wave shouted back as he was running behind his taller friend. “But what the hell is this place, and what were those things!?”

“Don’t know, don’t care, let’s just get the hell out of here!” Burner said as he ran to the front of the group as they all continued to run down the hall they were in.

“You there! In the name of the crown stop!”

The group turned to look behind them, and they all saw a small platoon of golden-armored equines running after them, with the two ponies wearing white coats galloping alongside them. The group did not stop when the equines yelled at them, instead they only ran faster. But the equines were catching up with the group, so to buy them time and distract their pursuers, Burner reached into his jeans pockets and pulled out a book of matches and after lighting one of the matches Burner quickly spun in a circle. Which in the process created a large wall of fire from the lit match! Once the wall of fire was created the group rounded a corner and kept running, that is until they entered a large hall where dozens of armored equines stood, and all of them were looking at the six with shocked expressions. Much like the group was doing as they looked at the dozen or so armored equines that were in front of them

“Crap.” Snap said under his breath. That’s when the group heard the clopping of hooves coming from behind them, and that’s when they saw the equines they ditched earlier finally catch up. “Double crap.”

“Please creatures.” The female equine said as she took a moment to catch her breath before inching closer to the group. “We’re not going to hurt you; we’re trying to help you.”

“How do we know you’re not just trying to trick us into thinking that?” Burner said as he held the match book in his left hand and was ready to spark another fire.

“We’ve had you in our care for a week creature. If we really had ill-intent, then we would’ve already done something.” One of the armored equines said in a rather harsh tone, which just made the six be more defensive. A smaller female equine then smacks the back of the head of the one that just spoke.

“Not helping Steel Hoof.” The mare said in a hush voice. After the little awkward moment, the older stallion doctor coughed into his hoof before speaking.

“In any case, rest assured we only have good intensions sirs. We only wish to help you.”

The six looked apprehensive at the doctor, and at the now two dozen armored equines that were surrounding them. Seeing how they were clearly not in their world, as the group was standing face-to-face with talking equines in gold armor & doctor coats, whatever the Old Man did to them clearly has something to do with their current situation. But before they could even come up with some form of plan, or even try to comprehend the full extent of their current situation, the pain that they were suppressing finally caught back up and caused them all to buckle and drop to their knees. Both the doctors quickly made their way over to the six young men, and started to check them over.

“Quick bring us a medical bag!” the older female doctor said to the guards, causing two of the winged equines to fly off.

“The pain supplements must’ve worn off. Now carefully colts, lay down slowly and we’ll take care of you.” Plasma sighed and did as the mare suggested.

“Do what the mare says guys.”

The other five members of the group followed Plasma’s example and did as they were told. And as for the guards the doctors told them to return to their posts, as their presence only seems to agitate the six, the guards complied and started to leave the large room. Once the majority of the guards had left the hall, the doctors begin treating the six once the two winged guards had returned, pulling out pills for them all to take which when they took them they started to feel more at ease. But the medical bags weren’t the only thing that the winged equines brought. When the guards came back to the hall, the group saw a large white horse with both a horn, and wings, and a mane & tail flowing in a non-existent wind trot in a moment later.

“Doctors how are the creatures?” The taller equine asked in a soft motherly toned voice as she trotted up to the group and the two medical equines.

“They seemed to have recovered for the most part, but they’re still not a hundred percent healed.” The older stallion said as he just finished checking over Wave’s body, and checking his vitals. The tall white equine then walked over to the group and looked down at them with a soft caring, yet worried expression.

“How are you feeling dears?” she asked in a warm tone.

“I’d definitely been better.” Circus said as he looked the mare over, studying her carefully. “Can you tell us who you are, and more importantly where we are.” The mare sat down on her haunches and smiled at the group as she spoke.

“My name is Princess Celestia, and you six are in my castle in the capital city of Canterlot.” the mare, Celestia as she addressed herself said before giving the group a more inquisitive look. “Could you tell us who and what you all are good sirs?”

“We’re called humans for starts, and as for who we are…” Steel said before looking at his friends, catching the briefest of nods before looking back at this equine princess. “My name is Steel. And these are my friends. That’s Plasma, Burner, Circus, Wave & Snap.” As Steel introduced himself and his friends he noticed that the princess seemed to be puzzled, or uncertain about something.

“Forgive me but I feel as if those aren’t your real names. The way you said them, it sounded they were more like a, alias than an actual name.” the white mare said to Steel.

“No hard feelings you majesty.” Circus said as he looked over to the princess while the female equine was gently massaging his arm, which felt pretty good even with her hard hooves. “But we don’t give our real names to those we don’t know, trust, or respect. Plus we’ve been going by those names for so long that they became our actual names now.”

“But you can trust us.” Celestia said to the blonde haired young man, but that’s when Burner sat up and looked directly at the princess.

“We don’t know you or your people, we have no idea where we are, and right now we have no one we know we can fully trust. Except each other.” Burner said before laying back down, and missing Celestia’s slightly hurt expression, but that’s when Plasma spoke up.

“But we will give you and your people the benefit of doubt, and trust that you are going to help us. After we are fully healed…then we’ll see where we’ll go from there.” Celestia then gives a small smile to Plasma as she started to stand up.

“Very well then. I can sense that you all have trust issues with others, but I will show you that you can trust me, and my little ponies.” Celestia then gives a small bow before walking back out of the hall, just as a few guards returned with stretchers so they could carry the six humans back to the medical room.

~~~~~

Elsewhere in the lands of Equestria, over a vast swamp that had small gouts of fire erupting from the ground, the air above the darken marshes were rippling like the disturbed surface of a body of water. Then the rippling’s started to became more intense, till they became so violent that a small explosion of light, and a large, fractured crack appeared in the sky, where an object came falling out of a newly created gaping hole. It was hard to see what the object was as it covered in fire and lots of debris, like chairs and shattered remains of large pieces of machinery. After a minute of free falling, the flaming object and debris eventually made contact with the ground, where they all started sinking into the dark muddy waters of the swamp.

The water rippled for a time as all the objects sank to its murky depths, but the surface of the water broke again as something came bursting out. The object was a large figure that was coughing horribly as it splattered in the water, but the figure ceased its wild flailing and started swimming over to the shore bank, where it then started to haul itself out of the water. Once the figure had clambered onto land the figure collapsed on the ground while it started coughing. The figure was massive in size, easily reaching well over eight-to-nine feet tall, its body was wearing an old wore out trench coat, dull grey jeans, and boots. All of which clearly had seen better days, especially since they were drenched in water and mud from the bank. But the most prominent feature of the figure was its head, which looked like the head of a large reptile, or even a dragon. The head was bulky in structure, but narrowed down as it went down to the snout. On top of the head were four curved back horns with the outer horns being bigger, and along the back of figures neck & head to its crown, was a folded back frill which’d twitched every so often.

Once the creature has stopped coughing, and has filled its lungs with air it slowly rolled onto its stomach and just laid there in the mud for a few minutes, but soon the figure got up onto its hands and knees. Its piercing golden amber eyes then scanned its surroundings, seeing the putrid swamp trees and muddy grounds with little vegetation scattered about, as well as seeing the small puffs of fire burst from the ground. Slowly getting to its feet, the lumbering giant slowly made its way through the swamp, searching for anything that looked like shelter, or a place to hide. Or even someone that could help them… that is, if anyone will help a freak like himself. The figure continued to stumble through the swamp, his eyes continuing to scan the area looking at the dreary and dark marshlands, and the creatures that scurry away from him. Even other animals fled when they saw it. But why wouldn’t they, it is after all a monster.

“Well what do we have here sisters?” a gravely feminine voice spoke out from the creatures left, and when it turned its head the figure saw a fairly large chimera-like creature made of a tiger, a goat & a python make its way over to it.

“Looks like some kind of dragon if you ask me.” the goat head bleated as it looked the figure up and down, and noticing that it was being rather skittish.

“But why would a dragon ever come here?” the snake tail hissed as it coiled to the front of the body.

“Look.” The creature said as it slowly backed away, its voice shallow and slightly horsed from the coughing.

“Please leave me alone…I don’t want to hurt you.” the creature said as the fin along his head and neck slowly un-furled, and the edges of his eyes slowly turning red. But that’s when the creature’s body started to shutter and shake, as if he was standing in a blizzard.

“What’s the matter with you? Why are you shaking like that?” the tiger asked as she slowly approaches the creature.

But after taking only a step towards the creature, all the fur on the chimera’s body stood on end, and all of their eyes widen, and their pupils shrunk. Even the tigers & goats ears folded back, as they watched the creature shake more vigorously and violently, and watched as the fin fully extended up. Then out of the blue the creature then unleashed a resounding roar, his voice deep and thunderous voice echoing throughout the swampland, and causing the chimera’s whole body to shake with fear. The beast even hunkered down to the ground as if they were a scared animal. The creature then shambled and stumbled for a bit before dropping to his hands & knees, and the fin on his head is now fully extended and revealing its bright red coloration. The creature the slowly rose its head up, but now had a slight hunch to his body, while deep rumbling growl reverberated from it as its now bloodshot eyes glared at the chimera.

“S-sisters, perhaps we should leave.” The goat pleaded with the other heads.

But before either the tiger or python could say anything, a loud feral roar much like that of a dragons echoed across the expanse of the swamp, and was so loud that the chimera almost went deaf. And the chimera wasted no time in turning and attempted in running away.

However the python had a front view of the creature and watched in horror as it ran after them on all fours, its red eyes glowing with murderous intent, while its mouth wafted bits of fire as he chased after the chimera. While the chimera ran for its life they knocked over any passing trees to try and slow the creature down, but he just rammed right through them turning them into splinters. They even tried to use the fire spurts to distract the creature, but like the trees the creatures just barreled through them with little issues, even allowing his clothing to be burned and singed, but he hasn’t slowed down one bit. Instead, he was only gaining on the chimera, close enough to nearly bite the python head off the tail, thankfully for the chimera the creature missed. Although the creature didn’t give up and even unleashed a stream of fire which bellowed over the chimera’s body and the path in front of it, causing the mud, trees, and the chimera to be set ablaze. All the while the chimera screamed and roared in utter pain. After unleashing the stream of fire the chimera was left nearly burnt alive, but was still clinging onto life.

Yet the creature didn’t relent and leapt unto them and immediately clamped his jaws down on the goat’s neck, and effortlessly ripped her entire head off the main body. Roaring out in even more pain the chimera tried to knock the creature off their back, but the creature had a death grip on the chimera’s fur and the creature continued to tear at the chimera’s body, its sharp claws ripping the beast’s flesh. The python tried to fight back by biting down on the back of the creature’s neck, but the moment she did all of her teeth broke, and the creature quickly spun around to grabbed the snake’s throat. Then cleanly and brutally ripped it clean off the entire body! The tiger head screamed and roared in pain as she flailed around, and actually managed to spin her body enough to knock the creature off her, and even swiped a claw at the creature with her large nails scarring the scales of the creatures face & neck. Unfortunately even taking an enraged claw to the face, or even been smacked off and crashing into a tree didn’t deter the creature. It quickly recovered and got to its feet where it took a deep inhale, before unleashing another torrent of fire that engulfed the chimera again. As the beast cries out its final wails of pain as the flames devoured it, the creature just shambled over to the burning body and just tore right into it. Devouring the still flame coated beasts body.