Status: Could be doing better

Ponyville – 4 months later

With the sun starting to set, I wiped a bead of sweat from my forehead before setting the door on its now finished hinges.

“Osprey please just come back to the castle with me!”

Looking around on the floor for my screwdriver, I continued to ignore Twilight’s protests. She had been at it for the last three weeks, every day, following me around, begging me to come back to her. No matter where I went, she followed, voicing her disapproval of Angel and I’s decision of sleeping in this broken, abandoned house just outside of Ponyville. We had tried staying with Pinkie Pie, but within the first day, I was broken, screaming every time she popped out of somewhere she shouldn’t have been able to fit in, often talking to my other delusions, making it difficult to ground myself to reality, not knowing what was actually real.

We tried staying with Applejack, offering to help out around the farm, but her livestock kept trying to kill me for some reason. AJ said they didn’t act like that around other ponies and after a few days of running away from various animals, we decided to leave. She wasn't very fond of me anyway, so it was probably for the best.

Staying with Rarity was a nightmare for everyone involved, though she is nice enough to continue making me clothes so long as I stay far away from her shop, especially when Sweetie Belle or her friends were around. Staying with Rainbow Dash just seemed like a bad idea in general. Staying with Fluttershy was near impossible due to a killer bunny actually taking a blade to my throat when his master left the room. Due to the danger of possibly being the target of one of Discord’s summonings or other creatures naturally attracted to my strong chaos magic, we decided to not live with any of the more normal residents. I tried to request a move back to Canterlot and stay at the castle, but Celestia rejected it, stating I needed to be near the element bearers at all times, just in case my inherited chaos magic went haywire.

Living in Equestria these past few months have done nothing good to my mental state, introducing me to true terrors of the world. Vicious animals, crazy attack pegasi, timberwolves roaming the town at night on at least a weekly basis, random screaming from unseen parts of town, and so much more that I try not to remember, lest it give my hallucinations any more ideas to pull from.

A hoof nudged me on the forehead, breaking me out of my thoughts. Looking up, I saw my white pegasus companion giving me a little smile, handing me my screwdriver with one of her wings. Taking it, I scratched her behind the ears before returning to the task at hand. We came across this run down home after asking the mayor about lodging. She said it was abandoned by some pony noble years ago, and it was rumored to be haunted, so the town never tried to remodel it. She said it was free for us to use, no other pony wanted anything to do with it, since it was relatively close to the Everfree Forest. Not really having any other options, we decided to try and fix the place up. Ghosts be damned, they'd just have to share the place with the rest of my hallucinations.

“Knight Intervention, can’t you talk some sense into him?”

Angel looked at the purple nag briefly, then back at me, shaking her head.

“Princess, I agree with Osprey here…your experiments are rather extreme. I'm in the business of keeping him alive...” She paused, narrowing her eyes at one memory in particular. “And strapping someone down to ‘inspect’ one’s privates in a seemingly sexual manner without consent to, erm, understand the human arousal process is still considered borderline rape princess.”

“I said I was sorry!”

“Still rape princess.”

“We all know it wasn’t like that!”

“Looked pretty scandalous to me, your highness.”

Twilight huffed.

“That still doesn’t explain why you’re moving into this place! It’s not even big enough for the both of you to live in!”

“We’ll manage.”

“But I already promised I wouldn’t do anything like that anymore!”

Angel sighed, looking at me for help. I shook my head, starting to pack up all of AJ’s tools into Angel’s saddlebags.

“Look sparky, I’ll level with you. We’re moving because it’s just too dangerous to live with you. The castle gets lit on fire at least two days a week, your potion making always ends in injury, the pink menace visits daily, and you can’t even restrain yourself when I spar or train to fly with my assigned bodyguard.”

“But you could get hurt!”

I just gave her a look, starting to walk to the apple farm, my Pegasus companion following me. Unfortunately, Twilight continued to follow us. I just continued.

“Look, one other reason, the most major of them all, is that I eat meat. If you’re going to react like you did when Luna sent me jerky from the griffin ambassador, how are you going to react when I’m carving into something from the Everfree on the kitchen counter?” I could hear her gag slightly at the idea.

“You’re still planning on going in there? It’s dangerous!”

“Well, I need protein. Besides…”

I waved a hand at my side where my sword hung. The very same that Discord had given to me, the only 'gift' of his that actually benefited me these days.

“I haven’t been training for nothing. I also have an adorable bodyguard who likes to show off. If things get dicey, I’ll just use her as bait!” Angel laughed at that, batting me with a wing.

“Hey now, I just have to keep you alive. If anyone is going to be bait, it’ll be you. I’m sure the monsters will let you go after biting a arm or two off.” I rolled my eyes at her, knowing she didn’t mean that. Even if she did mean it, our training sessions have shown me that she’s more than capable of keeping me safe. Twilight on the other hand, still seemed to have her doubts, still following us down the dirt road to the farm.

“I still think you shouldn’t go into the forest. It’s truly an evil place. All manner of things could catch you off guard.”

I just stayed silent, not wanting to discuss it any further, preparing to deal with the antics of the apple family and the adorable predator that was Applebloom. Her stealthy cuddle attacks were truly something to fear.

--

Sleep, it seemed, would never come easy to me. I had been having trouble sleeping ever since I came to this pony land, and tonight was no exception. Beads of sweat rolled down my face as I was woken from my slumber. As I tried to wipe the salty liquid from my face, I began to start panicking. No matter how strongly I willed my arms to move, they didn’t budge, staying completely still underneath the comforter.

Fuck.

Looking around the room, my eyes widened as I saw a familiar black mist flowed in from the bottom of the bedroom door. Slamming my eyes shut, I tried to force my body to move, but a gentle laughter from the darkness stopped me. I recognized that dark laughter. Slowly opening my eyes, I began to regret doing so, realizing the black mist had reappeared above me, and instead of the yellow eyes of my personal tormentor, this newcomer had deep red eyes that would have made me piss myself if I had control of my body. Noticing my eyes were now open, the creature smiled, its fangs glinting in the moonlight that shown in from the broken window of the bedroom. Unable to look away, I continued to look at the creature’s blood red eyes, my heart pounding in my chest, my breathing becoming more and more labored as the creature slowly went for my neck, its mouth wide-

“What the buck?” The creature pulled back, growling, but disappeared as Angel leapt onto the bed, her tired eyes now filling my vision. Despite the disappearance of the shadowy demon, not being in control of my body was making me freak out even more, the world darkening as I began to suffocate. Voices echoed in my head, their voices overpowering my own internal thoughts.

“Osprey? Hey you don’t look so good…are you-hey hey!” A worried voice sang louder than the other voices, but the darkness creeping over my vision only continued its conquest. Just as my vision went black, pain erupted from my forehead. The unseen force holding me down now gone. Clutching the sheets tightly, I breathed in deep, oxygen filling my lungs, my mouth trying to swallow it like a fish out of water. My vision coming back, I could see my Pegasus companion’s storm grey eyes looking at me with fear. My breathing now more controlled, I sat up, looking around the room for Discord. A pair of hooves brought my gaze back to Angel.

“Hey, focus on me okay?” Still freaking out, I couldn’t do much more than nod slightly at her, taking slow, deep breaths. “Tell me, what did you see? Was it Discord?” I took her hooves in my hands, cocking my head to the side.

“Wait…s-so you didn’t see it?” She shook her head. I took another shaky deep breath, trying to calm myself.

“Something…woke me up. I had a gut feeling that I needed to come check on you. When I entered, you were visibly shaking, and you sounded like you were choking. It was terrifying honestly, like you were trying to suffocate yourself. The entire time, you were just looking straight ahead, your eyes wider than I’ve ever seen them.”

I sighed, realizing what had just happened.

“It wasn’t Discord. Or at least not entirely. I think I was having a sleep paralysis attack. I woke up from a dream, but no matter what I did, I couldn’t move, and there was this…creature. It had red eyes and large fangs, seeming to want to bite into my neck.” I looked back into her eyes. The storm grey eyes of hers were filled with worry, yet I felt more comfortable looking into them. As helpless as it made me feel, she had a knack for calming me down. “Look Divine, I…really don’t want to ask but,” I looked away, feeling my cheeks heat up, “C-can you stay here with me? I don’t think I should sleep alone anymore…”

Gah, what am I? A child? A horny teenager? Fucking hell, I’m never going to hear the end of this-

A sudden warmth enveloped me and pushed me back onto the bed. My eyes widened. She had wrapped me in a hug, her wings wrapped around my own, pushing them against my body, the tips just barely under the weight of my back, and her front hooves rested on the sides of my stomach. Looking down at her, I expected some form of teasing grin or sultry look to be on her face, but I was only greeted with a light smile, her eyes peering out from underneath her ruffled strawberry mane. Looking into her eyes, I felt like I was in the eye of the storm, the calm within the chaos.

“Don’t worry Osprey, I’m not going anywhere.” Her sincere grin then formed into a smirk as she slowly crept further up my body, until her muzzle was just a breath away from my lips, her eyes lidded. Against my wishes, my heart started to beat a little faster. “Though if you’re going to invite a pretty mare to bed, and look at me like that, you better be prepared to take responsibility…” I groaned in response.

And there it is.

I moved my head to the side before she got any ideas.

“God damnit Angel.” She just giggled, resting her head on my chest, but continued.

“Ooooh what’s got you so excited Osprey? Could it be?” She gasped in mock shock. “I can’t help but wonder what kind of dirty, human on mare fantasies you’re having…luring me into your bed with such devious acting, why, what would the princesses think?” Rolling my eyes, I threw her off of me and turned over. Seconds later, I felt her attempting to spoon me, one of her hooves playing with my now twitching wings.

“I need a new bodyguard.”

“And lose your cute and cuddly teddy bear?”

“Tch, maybe I’ll get a guy this time, I’m sure Big Mac would be happy about it. That poor guy doesn't deserve what you put him through...”

“Oh don’t you worry, I will have that big, red, stallion one of these days. Don’t worry though sweet cheeks, there’s enough of me to go around~”

Not wanting to warrant that with a response, I closed my eyes, admittedly feeling more comfortable, as I drifted off to sleep.

--

The shattering of a window jolted me awake, and I shoved the pink haired Pegasus off of me. Before she hit the ground though, she sped out of the room, intent on finding out what the disturbance was. Looking at my watch that had somehow survived my trip to this crazy ponyland, I groaned knowing I could still be sleeping. As I left the bed, wiping the grogginess out of my eyes, I heard the sound of Angel talking with someone.

Upon entering the kitchen, I winced as I stepped on a piece of broken glass, cursing myself for not being more careful. Looking around, I saw Angel ushering out a familiar grey Pegasus, one with blond hair and a bubble tattoo on her ass.

Friggin Derpy. She’s lucky she’s cute, in her own ditzy way…

Picking the glass out of my foot, Angel walked back into the kitchen, grimacing at the damage.

“Well, we needed new windows anyway…” She said, putting her hoof to her head. I sighed, knowing we’d have to get a broom later on.

“What did she want? Luna usually normally sends her letters through spyro-I mean um, spunk, wait no uh, spike…?” Angel raised an eyebrow at me. “What? I’m bad at names, okay?” She just shook her head and walked into the living room, which she had turned into her armory. Varying sets of armor and all manner of weapons were laid out in an organized manner on the wood floor. Shoving a rather large cardboard box over to me, she flexed her wing, where a blade popped out. I was still getting used to that, making a mental note to not mess with her wings every time i saw her do that. A flap of her wings later, the box was cut open and we both looked inside. Sitting on what looked like hay was a rectangular black box with no logos of any kind on it, just a simple latch on the front.

Picking it up in my hands, it was fairly heavy, and as I knelt down to open it, Angel stopped me with a wing.

“Are you sure we should open this? What if it’s one of Discord’s pranks?” I just shrugged.

“Well why don’t you open it then, Ms. Bodyguard?” I stepped away, motioning her over to it. She just rolled her eyes and with a flourish of her wing, she hopped aside as she flung the top of the case open. Nothing happened, but inside was a letter, not a scroll, sitting on top of a wooden sheet, still concealing the contents. Picking up the letter, I flipped it open, reading it aloud.

Something to help with your acquisition of protein.

-Your Benefactor

Flipping it over a few times, I found that there was no other information about who sent me this object, or even what it was. I gave it to Angel, but she had the same luck, shrugging, and tossing it to the ground. Looking at each other, we decided to just lift the wooden cover.

Inside the box, which was a lot deeper than it seemed, laid a short black bow and three arrows with reddish-orange feathers. While I picked up the bow, inspecting it, Angel took one of the arrows, gasping.

“No way! This has to be Princess Luna, these look like Philomena’s feathers!” Not really knowing how bows worked, I lazily took the arrow from Angel and prepared to notch it.

“You act like that name means something to me.” She just rolled her eyes.

“It’s Celestia’s pet phoenix that lives in her gardens. She apparently only makes herself known to those of a pure heart, like me, of course.”

“Don’t lie to yourself, the only thing pure about you is your ass tattoo.”

“Oh, so you’ve been looking at my flank, have you? Enjoy the view?”

I just shook my head while she giggled at my misfortune of walking into that joke. Focusing on the bow and arrow once more, I notched the arrow, pulling the back against the line as carefully as I could so I didn’t smack myself in the face, and let it fly towards my target: Angel’s guard helmet, the plume to be exact. To my surprise, the arrow flew slightly off course and punctured the metal, and looking closer, it had embedded itself into the floor underneath it. Seeing this, Angel shrieked and ran over to her now damaged armor. My jaw open, I just stared at the bow, wondering if I should have taken up archery or gone hunting back home.

“You ruined my helmet!!” I looked up to see a hovering Pegasus holding her helmet, now with a hole the size of my thumb. I shrugged.

“It’s just a hole, can’t you just fill it in or slap some duct tape on it?” Her eye twitched, not warranting my question with a response. Looking past my companion back at the floor, I tensed up for a moment to see a human laying on the floor, twirling a jagged dagger in his hands. Taking a deep breath, I ignored him the best I could, flinching as he thew the dagger at me, but I knew it wasn’t real, as the pain never came.

I hate you Phil, bring Greg the butcher back.

The arrow I shot was still embedded in the floor, so I gave it a tug, and it came up snapping, the tip now broken. I sighed, turning to Angel so we could go somewhere and get it repaired or something, but her shocked expression made me look back to my hand. The arrow was engulfed in a bright red flame, but it didn’t hurt. Seconds later, the arrow had somehow reformed itself, tip and all, as if nothing had ever happened to it. I looked at Angel, my jaw ajar.

“So, was that a magic spell or something?” She had no answers, she wasn’t a unicorn. Since we didn’t have any better ideas, we made our way over to sparklebutt’s castle.

--

“This is amazing! Who made this? The magic enchantments on these arrows are so complex, it’ll take me weeks to even scratch the surface on how to replicate it!” After showing it to Twilight once, she hopped around us, destroying the arrow over and over, the flames igniting and reforming the arrow within seconds with every spell.

“We think it was Luna because of the phoenix feathers, though I’m not sure why she’s being so secretive about it.” Twilight shook her head.

“I would recognize the princesses magic anywhere, and you would too, after all, you said you can see the aura of one’s magic.” I just shrugged.

“Hey, I don’t understand this witchcraft y’all ponies have.”

“Magic.”

“Whatever.” Snatching the arrow out of her purple magic, I put it into my pocket for safekeeping. “Anyway, we’re going to go into the forest, although…until I actually understand how to use a bow, I’m just going to leave it at home. Do you have any tips before we go get ourselves killed?” Twilight scowled at me.

“I really wish you wouldn’t but…” She hung her head in defeat, making me raise an eyebrow. I was expecting another lecture from her. “I had a discussion with Princess Luna in my dreams last night. I think I understand now how important eating…ugh, meat is for you to be healthy. Please just don’t get lost or eat anything sentient. That’s all I ask, even if I don’t agree with your ridiculous plan.”

“I’m with you on that, but how will I know if it is or not?” Twilight put a hoof to her muzzle in thought before smiling.

“Talk to Fluttershy or Zecora, if you can find her, they know more about the forest than I do. Oh and…avoid the flowers in the forest. They’re…” She shuddered. “Evil.”

I nodded, and thinking better of it, I gave the purple unicorn the arrow from before. Her face lit up. “I’m not going to be using it anytime soon, so you can study it more until I know more about the bow.” Twilight flapped her wings once and hugged me, nuzzling my cheek, making my cheeks burn.

“Thankyouthankyouthankyou!”

--

“So…do you know anything about animals in the forest? At this point I don’t think flutters is home.” I looked down at Angel, knocking for a twelfth time, just in case she was asleep. The animals around the house were glaring at me, probably natural hatred and for being so loud. My bodyguard just shook her head, reaching into her saddlebags.

“All I have is a partially completed map of the place.” She hoofed the paper over to me, realizing that the map simply said ‘Everfree forest’ over some crudely drawn trees and next to it, a somewhat decent drawing of a hut, reading ‘witch doctor’. Looking back to her, I raised a brow.

“This is what your military calls a map? Really?” She rolled her eyes at me, shifting her equipment around as she tucked the paper away.

“Obviously, there are better ones out there, but most ponies aren’t exactly fond of the Everfree, and even fewer desire a need to navigate it. Let’s just go in and take a look around, maybe we can find this Zecora that the Princess mentioned.” She set off towards the forest and I followed, watching her tail swing slightly back and forth. It was…mesmerizing, like watching a pendulum. With a little shake of her ass, my companion decided to speak up again, smirking at me. “Maybe the purple princess was onto something, you certainly like to stare at my angelic flanks quite often for someone who isn’t attracted to ponies…”

Rolling my eyes and feeling a blush coming on, I sped up my pace, walking next to her so I wouldn’t be tempted, and she couldn’t continue to tease me. She just giggled, and a thought came into my head.

“You know that you don’t have to call her ‘Princess’ all the time right? Twilight seems to loathe the title actually.” Angel sighed.

“When you work for royalty as long as I have, it’s a habit that’s hard to break. Princess Luna actually briefed me to just be myself around you in particular, saying that calling you sir and treating you like a noble would just irritate you.” I smiled at that, silently giving the night princess more brownie points in my head, though she was already at the top of the list, being one of my first friends in the past four months of arriving in ponyland. Thoughts aside, we had finally reached the edge of the Everfree and we looked ourselves over, doing an equipment check.

While I didn’t have armor, I was wearing the winter clothing Rarity had made me, sweating up a storm in long black slacks, a grey jacket, my steel toed boots I’ve been wearing since I got here, and a satchel to carry anything we might want to bring back, and one of Angel’s hunting knives, given to her by a Leopard noble she had protected years ago. The only weapons I had were my pocketknife that had survived the trip to Equestria, and the runic obsidian blade that Discord had given me all those months ago. During my sword training with Angel, she had said the sword had an innate magic that seemed to make up for my lacking swordplay abilities, so I kept it, no matter how much I didn’t trust the mini devil. Twitching my wings, I sighed knowing they were still useless. Even after weekly training, I could only hover a few feet off the ground and fold them properly against my body. Looking at my companion, I grinned at the more positive sight.

Angel was armed to the teeth. After having a discussion with her about my protein needs, she agreed to be my cute little attack mare, obviously in her words, and help me hunt. She had spent a lot of time around griffins on her missions, so the thought of me eating meat didn’t faze her in the slightest. She even stated that she would occasionally eat fish, as pegasi where she was from considered it to be nutritional.

That said, I looked over her body, awing at the sight. She was wearing black armor that clung to her tightly, fitting more like an exoskeleton rather than hardened clothing. On her hooves she wore silver shoes, which she had explained, had an enchantment on them that doubled the force behind her strikes. On her right side, just below her wing and under a saddlebag, was a sheath that held her falchion, a souvenir from her last mission as a bodyguard. Even without hands, she proved that she was deadly with the weapon during our sparring matches, able to wield the blade with her wingtips, mouth, and in her hooves when she got on her hind legs or hovered in the air. After living here for a while, I had stopped comparing the ponies of the world to the animals back home. They were flexible in ways that didn’t make sense, intelligent, and magical in all aspects of the word.

Continuing to look over my companion, who no doubt was preparing to give me hell, I looked at her left side. All that hung there was a saddle bag that seemed to be ready to burst with all manner of equipment. Sitting on the center of her back, kept in place by the straps of her saddlebags was a foldable spear, something she said most of the night guard made a point in carrying because of how portable it was. As always, now that I had seen them in action, I could make out the outline along the outside of her wing, were her wingblades, white enough to blend in with her white feathers, invisible to the untrained eye, until it was too late. Bringing my eyes back to her head, I could see her sly grin, her stormy eyes lidded, probably ready to say something sexual, as she always did. She wasn’t wearing a helm, having told me that she and her fellow knights rarely ever wore them unless they were filling in for guard duty, as they restricted the flexibility and situational awareness required for the more difficult missions they went on. Besides...Angel's now had a hole in it.

“So human…like what you see?” I let out a sigh.

Yes actually, but I’ll never tell you that.

Gotta love a girl in uniform.

“Yeah yeah, I just hope all of your fancy equipment isn’t just for show. Now let’s get to it so you can start showing off and I can eat some damn steak again. It’s been too long…”

Walking in front of me, she gave a sway to her hips, making me lock onto her flank, the base of her tail moving aside for the briefest of seconds, which made me feel things I really shouldn’t. She giggled, flipping her hair back to look at me with lidded eyes.

“Oh I’ll give you a show alright…”

“Hush you.”

“You know you love it.”

“Ugh.”

--

The forest got darker as we wandered further into the forest, the various noises of animals reminding me more and more of home. A light rain had begun, only making the forest more ominous. Avoiding flowers like Twilight said, we had come across a number of odd looking fruit. Knowing better than to eat things I didn’t know the name of, I tucked a few away in my satchel to ask about later.

Angel, her wings tense, nudged me to look ahead of us, the scenery of the forest changing from trees with low hanging branches to sweet smelling paradise of bright red and green colored plants, my gut telling me to stay away as I started to recognize some of the plants. Leaning down to whisper in Angels ear, I kept a close eye on the plants.

“You smell that right?” She nodded, looking at me curiously. “We need to avoid getting near any of those plants. If they’re anything like the ones on my world, they are very dangerous to be around.” I pointed to a large plant, much bigger than any I had seen during my time on earth. Along the edges were curled spines, and along the surface was a pinkish red, a dip in the middle hardly noticeable. The head of the plant stood on a large green stem that protruded from the earth, three others like it coming from the same point of origin. “It looks like a venus flytrap. There’s a sweet smelling substance that lures in prey, and the edges fold into the center, crushing the target, while caging the space along the edges with its spines.” On cue, a small bird, dropping something landed onto the plant’s surface for the briefest of seconds, making the plant spring to life, its jaws snapping quickly together, causing the bird to screech in surprise, but it was too late, the head of the plant lowered from the weight now on one side, blood dripping from the inside of its caged mouth. Angel looked horrified, taking a step back.

“That’s horrifiying…but I didn’t take you for a botanist, Osprey.” I just shrugged, walking away from the scene, towards a clearing in the opposite direction of the murderous plants. Angel joined me at my side.

“I’m not, I just had a few smaller versions growing up, they helped with the flies during the summer and they looked cool. I just figured if it’s in this wacky forest, it’s bound to be dangerous.”

With nothing more to add to the conversation, we walked further into the forest, and my blood started to run cold as I saw something out of the corner of my eye. I stopped, drawing my sword slowly, the blade singing a quiet metal sound coming out of its sheath. Angel hovered in the air, whispering in my ear.

“What did you see?” Ignoring her question, my eyes darted around to the bushes and tress that could hide potential threats. I didn’t have to look for very long. Coming out of the darkness, several meters away, the bear of my nightmares appeared. Its red eyes bore into mine, its fangs becoming apparent as its maw curled back into a threatening grin. Steadying my blade that had begun to shake, I prepared to shout at it, but Angel hovered into my view, blocking my sight.

“Hey whatever you’re seeing right now…its not real. Calm down.”

My eyes widened and I shoved her to the side, raising my sword to strike as the bear appeared behind her, lifting a paw up to strike. Stepping forward, I swung my blade, hoping to hit the demon bear in the chest with my second strike, only for the delusion to be dispersed and find myself breathing heavily, my blade several inches in the ground. I knelt down, taking a deep breath to calm myself. Once again, Angel came into view, placing a hoof on my sword hand, and the other at my cheek. Her eyes stared deeply into mine and she gave me a light smile, speaking to me in a gentle voice.

“Osprey? Osprey. Focus on me. Focus on my voice, my touch, my eyes. Know that I am real, and remain by your side to protect you. No matter the threat, delusion or otherwise, I will be here, with you, by your side.”

Over the past couple of months living with her and becoming closer, she had found a way to ground me to reality. After explaining more about the delusions I suffer from, she made it a point to try and touch me gently whenever she talked to me, and encouraged me to do the same if I ever felt unsure, as if to confirm her presence wasn’t just another illusion. After being introduced to many different ponies in Canterlot and Ponyville, there were times where a mysterious or familiar pony would appear alongside my other delusions, making it hard for me to know what was real.

Bringing a hand up to cup her cheek, she leaned into it slightly, her stormy eyes never leaving my own, a light smile and blush coming to my face as they filled me with comfort, having stared into them so often.

“Thank you.”

“Anytime, after all, my big, strong, human, what kind of guardian angel would I be if I didn’t save you from yourself?”

Shaking my head at the now giggling mare, I sheathed my blade, following her deeper into the forest.

A while later, we found dry ground near a cliffside, the tall tree cover of the small clearing sheltering us from the rain which for a time, had become heavy, taking a moment to rest. The rest was short lived however, as Angel quickly hid behind a tree, waving a hoof at me to do the same. Following her gaze into the forest, we watched as a wounded manticore stumbled through the forest, scars riddling its body and it took a moment to lick a foreleg, nursing it with great care. Angel looked at me and gave me a questioning look. I pondered this for a second. We hadn’t caught anything during this hunt and while manticores weren’t known to be sentient from the stories we’ve heard, it was still a dangerous predator. Looking back at Angel, still armed to the teeth, I gave her a nod, reaching for my sword as she spread her wings and put weight onto her hind legs.

As if hearing us, the manticore suddenly reared its head up, looking around and getting low to the ground, ready to attack.

Before it could get spooked and run off, I leapt off the ground, running at the creature, putting my faith in my Pegasus companion and hoping the creature would think me too easy of a target to pass up. The beast looked at me, baring its fangs, and raising its tail. Seeing the spikes and remembering a Greek mythology fanfiction I had read, I thought better of it and rolled to the side as a thorn was flung towards me, embedding itself into the ground, confirming my fears. Scrambling to my feet, I prepared to dodge again, but before it could shoot another from its tail, a blur of white, black, and pink flew behind it, severing the tail, causing it to flip around, roaring in pain. Angel grinned, flying just in front of the manticore, evading its claws with ease. With it distracted, I raised my blade and charged, feeling a familiar energy pulse from my weapon. I neared it, ready to strike, but it whirled around to meet me, a claw slamming down to slash me. Leaping to the right and swinging my blade at it, I managed to slash at its forearm, blood spraying from the wound, a visible dark energy also encompassing the wound. The creature roared in pain once more, lifting its paw again, which was now bleeding profusely, thanks to the magic of the blade. This would prove to be the manticore’s final mistake though, as Angel was the true threat.

Landing on the creature’s back, she stabbed the falchion into its backside, sending it deep into the roaring creature, and with a flap of her wings, sent a powerful flying hoof strike into the manticore, sending it to the ground on its side, belly exposed. Seconds later, I took the opportunity and slashed at its neck, cutting deep, while Angel slammed her spear into its eye. The manticore shuddered to a stop, its wailing ceasing after the spear entered its brain, and flinched when she ripped the spear back out, ceasing its movement completely. Panting heavily, I gripped my blade and looked at Angel.

“I-is it dead?” Giving it a nudge of her paw, she nodded at me, flying over to me, circling me.

“Are you hurt at all? I know it shot one of its thorns at you.” Batting her away, I waved at the ground a few feet away, the thorn still there, glinting in the now cleared sky, a large hole in the forest ceiling letting us see the orange sky and a passing cloud.

They weren’t kidding about the spontaneous weather here…

Realizing it was getting close to sunset, I took the hunting knife out of my satchel, looking at my guard.

“It’s getting late, we should just bag him and go…what do I cut and take with us?” Circling the manticore and retrieving her sword, she poked the creature in various places. Before she could speak, a series of howls sounded off from behind her, and as I looked in that direction, my blood ran cold.

“Fuck fuck fuck! Please tell me I’m hallucinating!” I shouted at Angel, pointing in the distance, but she had already whipped around, confirming my fears. She took to the air, flying towards me.

“RUN!” Turning around, I took a step, stopping immediately and grabbing Angel’s tail, bringing her backwards as a large timberwolf leaped down from a branch, right where she had just been moments before. Backing up and looking around the clearing, I saw that we were surrounded. There were at least seven Timberwolves and probably more on the way, all of varying sizes circling us, but they just watched, pacing until a deep howl called out from the darkness of the forest, where a timberwolf emerged, unlike the others.

The newcomer was made of wooden pieces, like the others, but instead of the usual brown and green colors of the smaller wolves, this one was as tall as Luna, with jet black wood and a yellow energy where its eyes should be. Drawing my blade, I took a deep breath as I saw angel flex out her wingblades, preparing to attack, guarding my back. My sword ready, pointed it at the nearest wolf, readying a strike, my wings twitching at the breeze that had started to pick up. A loud laughter erupted around us making my blood run even colder as I realized we had just walked into one of Discord’s traps. Three of the wolves sprung forward, two at angel, one at me, leaping into the air, fangs bared.

With my training from Angel, I felt I was ready, bringing my sword in a controlled arc in front of me, ready to intercept the wolf mid-air, when everything came to a stop. My eyes widening, I started to panic as the familiar sensations washed over me. The growls of the wolves and chirps of the distant birds were nonexistent, my surroundings were awash in a dark haze, and nothing within the clearing, Angel, the wolves, or my body could move.

A familiar figure appeared in a wisp of dark mist on the blade of my sword, grinning.

“Did you miss me?” Discord gave me a light smirk as I screamed internally, knowing my life may as well be forfeit. Straining against the unseen force, I tried to move, only able to finish my step backwards slowly, as if I were moving through molasses, but regaining my balance all the same. Discord raised an eyebrow. “So you’re able to move? Interesting, it seems that insufferable pegasus’s natural harmonious magic is mixing with your own chaos magic...I’ll have to keep an eye on that.” He grinned, now standing upon the fingers that held my blade. “Now my little birdie, while I’m glad you’re enjoying my gifts, I’m afraid none of them are without a price.” He motioned at the obsidian blade. “It’s cursed you see, the runes upon my blade cause misfortune, often by increased bleeding or disease on those you cut into, as you saw with that beast over there.” He looked at me, now pouting. “However, the curse of this great power is that it drains the very life force of it’s wielder, and at the rate you’ve been using it, you’ll be dead within a few more strikes.”

He sighed.

“Since this is a gift is a part of me, and I had promised not to kill you myself with that blasted magic pact, I’m going to have to interfere.” He snapped and the sword suddenly misted out of my hand, reforming into a small broken talon, which floated over to Discord. I hadn’t noticed before, but on his eagle hand, he was missing a section of his digits. Grabbing the talon out the air, he grinned, plopping it onto the broken section, and flexed, all digits working perfectly. “Ah much better, always a nuisance, missing parts of yourself, though I’m sure you’ll understand here soon. I needn’t bother with dirtying my figurative hands when I have such wonderful creatures to do it for me! Good luck to you, I’ll be watching with great interest…” He smirked, raising his lion paw to snap, and I prepared my next move, cursing him with everything I had as I returned my focus back to the outstretched timberwolf.

The sound of snapping was heard and as time roared back to life, I quickly laced my hands together in a large fist and stepped forward, continuing to swing my hands into the jaw of the timberwolf, slamming my makeshift mace into its maw, sending it to the ground in front of me, stunning it. Briefly looking at my hands, a winced as I saw tear marks from its teeth, my hands bleeding. Biting my lip, I quickly lifted my boot up and lunged forward, slamming my foot down as hard as I could onto the top of the wolf’s head, the wood giving away and splintering as I tried to curb stomp the creature. Thankfully, their heads seem rather fragile, and my boot slammed into it with little resistance, ending its life.

Just as I looked to Angel for a weapon, I felt something slam into my side, sending me onto the ground. I instinctively raised my arms up, protecting my face and neck, catching the shoulders of a large timberwolf, pushing it back. It tried leaning down to try and bite me again, its claws digging into my heavy clothing, but a silver flash slashed through its head and the body came down upon me, lifeless. I looked up to see Angel pushing the creature off of me and bite my jacket, hefting me onto my feet. Before I could speak, she was off again, narrowly dodging a strike from the alpha, trying to lead it away from me, facing off against it with a flurry of strikes from her wingblades.

Looking around, I stepped to the side as a new timberwolf entered the fray, leaping at me, going low with its claws. Bracing myself to catch it, my eyes widened instead as a cyan blur bashed into the side of the creature, tackling it to the ground. My jaw hung open as the cyan mare, with a powerful buck, smashed in the timberwolf’s head.

“R-rainbow?” Turning to me, she flashed a grin at me.

“The one and only~” She leaped beside me, snatching the hunting knife off the ground with her mouth, presenting it to me, my eyes lost to her vibrant magenta eyes for a moment. Shaking my head, I snatched it from her, and she pushed me back, lifting herself into the air as a timberwolf jumped into the space between us. Readying myself, Rainbow came down with a kick to the creature’s head, sending it to the side, and rushing over to it. I looked around for another target, but a white blur slammed into the side of my head, bringing us both to the ground, throwing my knife aside.

Breathing deep, I clutched the white Pegasus in my arms and blindly rolled to my side, my wings cracking slightly under the pressure, but just in time, hearing a claw slam down where we had just been. Leaping out of my grasp, Angel took to the air, and I tried to quickly get up but a heavy strike stopped me and sent me flying into a nearby tree, my back slamming into it, and after the shock, I felt my chest and wings erupt in spasm of pain. I screamed in pain, attracting the alpha again, its gaze glaring into my fearful eyes.

“Osprey no!”

I looked down to my chest, my vision coming in and out of focus to see blood pooling onto the forest floor. I coughed, spasming slightly in pain again and looked up to see Rainbow flying towards the alpha as he knocked away Angel. Rainbow was fast, lightly kicking it when she got close enough and bounding away just as fast, but the alpha watched carefully, and seconds later, quick arcs of its black claws sent the cyan mare shrieking in pain, crashing into the ground a few feet from me. Pain coming in waves, I started pulling myself towards her, and I could faintly hear the sounds of Angel giving the black beast hell, but with my vision coming in and out of focus, I had to check on Rainbow Dash before I faded to the darkness. Reaching her, I propped myself above her with one of my arms. She grimaced at the shadow, but looked at me, giving me a weak grin.

“H-hey there…just can’t-agh- keep you out of trouble can we?”

Flinching from a stab of pain, unable to respond, I looked over her body, trying to keep myself from collapsing. Biting my lip, I focused, looking for wounds. She had a claw mark along the length of her side, bleeding slightly, but not deep. One of her forelegs and right wing looked broken, but before I could look her over more, the sound of paws behind me shocked me into a last minute effort; placing myself over Rainbow.

I screamed as I felt claws ripping into my back, and I fell forward, but I did my best to cradle the cyan mare in my arms, keeping the wolf from getting to her. A few more strikes sliced into my back, shredding the jacket I was wearing, and as I began to see dots of black, screaming, the strikes stopped. Hearing a yelp, I glanced a look behind me to see the timberwolf that had been on my back being torn apart by a familiar looking grey blur. Just inside my peripheral, I saw Angel land a staggering blow on the alpha, making it yelp in pain, get to its paws, and limp away, howling.

Feeling that the danger was over, I let pain overtake me as I slumped into the ground, holding Rainbow close to me, who was whispering something I couldn’t hear, her magenta eyes wide. My vision began to fade, and I saw three blurs stand over me, their voices muffled. One white, one yellow, and one grey blur were all I could comprehend before my world went completely black.

Author's Note

As usual, I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and while the pattern suggests otherwise, the next chapter will be from Osprey's POV.