Secrets

Chapter 3: One Armed Bandit

Wildfire opened his eyes to see himself in a dark cave, looking around, he recognized the cave where he found the mebrythilium he used to forge his sword. Looking behind him, he was delighted to see Her again, and just behind her, was his brother.

"Well? Get going."He always was the impatient one. She however, simply smiled, turning to his brother she told him.

"Go ahead, I need to say something to Wildfire." Wildfire looked at her, puzzled, this wasn't how it had originally gone. With his brother out of the way, she turned to Wildfire, all traces of emotion gone. "You almost got yourself killed again, dammit Wildfire. You're strong, but don't go around needlessly endangering your life." Wildfire felt relieved that he wasn't dead,

"Pshaw, it was either me or her, I think they called her Fluttershy? I needed to gain their trust somehow. And besides, we both know that it takes more than a smack to hurt me, even in my current state." She seemed to mull over the thought, giving a hard stare at Wildfire.

"Indeed it does take more than that to hurt you, but hitting a tree head first at those speeds sure can. Although I agree that your actions were well placed, surely you could have found some other way to do so. Now, do you want to relive this memory or go back now?" Wildfire grinned at Her, she chuckled, "That's what I thought, you never were one to refuse time with me."

"Nope." Joining his brother, who by now was getting impatient, the trio ventured deeper into the cave. Though this was one of Wildfire's darker memories he didn't want to part ways with Her just yet. Arriving at a narrow crevasse, Wildfire held out his hand, as he had done countless times before. Stopping, the trio waited while he looked for life, as it had always been, there was indeed nothing in there. Motioning to the group, they started moving again. Arriving at a fork in the tunnel, Wildfire chose the left route. He always wondered what was in the right route, but since he had never been there it just stopped the dream. As they traveled the familiar tunnel, the group heard an all too familiar rumbling. Peeking out to his left, Wildfire saw the same wyvern once again. It was busy eating a cave bat, the size of a small chariot. Motioning to his friends, they moved quietly towards the other side of the cave, looking back to the sounds of shrieking. The wyvern and cave bat had disappeared, an Abomination stood where they once were, gobbling up the last of the wyvern. Standing 40 feet tall on two frail legs, the slender figure was licking the blood off of its massive claws. Turning back towards the tunnel, the group continued their trek. A feeling of uncertainty rose in Wildfire's gut as they approached the center point of this nightmare.

Stopping at the cave for the thousandth time, Wildfire looked at the mebrythilium ore lining the outer limits of the cave walls. Taking a deep breath, Wildfire prepared himself for the worse which was bound to happen. Motioning to his brother to stay at the mouth, him and Her slowly walked up to the precious metal. Stopping halfway through, Wildfire sighed as he knew there was no going back.

"I can wake you up if you want." She knew him so well.

"No, I'm not going to learn if I hide. Let me stay."

"Have it your way." Taking another step forward, the wall to his right exploded outwards, as it always had. Turning to face the enemy, Wildfire was faced with the same Nightmare as he always had, the ugly thing had pincers the size of water tanks. Mandibles permeated its salivating face, seemingly anticipating the meal it was going to get. The Nightmare hissed, and Wildfire pulled out his axe and charged the creature. Let's get this over with. Running towards the monster, it swung its right claw, which was easily sidestepped by Wildfire. Running up the exposed arm, he swung the axe down at the joint, amputating the limb. With a cry that made the cave walls shake, the Nightmare threw off Wildfire. It then proceeded to try to catch him in mid-air, but an arrow from his brother quickly deflected the deadly limb. Landing on his feet neatly, Wildfire charged the creature again. As the battle was ensuing, She was collecting the mebrythilium with the spell Hope had taught her.

As the last fragment of the ore disappeared into the bag, she yelled out, "Got it! Let's get out of here!" Wildfire disengaged with the hideous creature, running back towards the exit. His brother was already at the mouth, panic in his eyes as Wildfire was being chased by the thundering insect. She, however, was simply standing, a little bit of sadness and nostalgia in her eyes, she too, hated the horrible memory they were experiencing. As Wildfire neared the cave mouth, he turned to see the Nightmare reaching out for him. Instinctively, he put out his left arm in hopes of saving his wings and body. A sharp stab of pain shot up through his arm as the Nightmare grabbed onto his arm, the crunching of bones prominent. Yelling out in pain, Wildfire struggled to wrench his arm free, even though he knew what he had to do, it didn't mean he couldn't try something different. Grabbing his arm at the shoulder, he pulled. The uncomfortable feeling of flesh ripping and bones separating still a vivid memory.

Wildfire woke with a start, looking around, he was in a grey room with a large window. Feeling the pain in his ribs, he clutched them with his right hand, relaxing back into the bed. Looking around, he found that he was in a green robe, still in his pony form. Turning his attention to his left arm, he gripped the life-less metal that replaced the organic one. Running his hoof over it, he enjoyed the fact that it also changed to a hoof with his spell. As he turned over the arm, he felt the familiar carvings of a crescent moon, an owl, and a sunset. Looking out the window, he was surprised to find it nighttime. Examining the room once again, Wildfire spotted Snow sleeping in the corner. "Psst! Hey! Snow, over here!" Whispering, Wildfire tried to get Snow over to him without attracting attention. Wildfire gasped as the curtain beside him was pulled open, for there stood the rabbit Snow was chasing. And beyond that, Fluttershy was in the next bed, sleeping, with bandages around her head. Putting his hand in front of his mouth, the rabbit ordered Wildfire to silence. Nodding, he turned to the window and stared out at the moon, it was beautiful tonight, without a cloud to obstruct the full moon. It also seemed bigger in this kingdom. She would have enjoyed a stroll at this time. As his exhaustion caught up to him, Wildfire made himself comfortable, and closed his eyes.

Everyone in the room was jolted awake as Pinkie Pie burst through the door, yelling, "Wake up sleepyheads! The doctors said I could come back tomorrow, and it's tomorrow!" Wildfire started laughing at the pink creature's enthusiasm, truly she was unique. Trotting over to Fluttershy, Wildfire noticed that the others were at the doorway, mouth agape. This sent Wildfire into another fit of laughter, only ending when his ribs protested. Turning her attention to the laughter, Pinkie Pie ran over to Wildfire to see what was so funny, he simply pointed at the still-dumbfounded ponies slowly entering the room. Pinkie Pie and Wildfire erupted into laughter once again, even Fluttershy giggled a little bit.

"P-Pinkie! You know we can't just barge into their room uninvited, that's just so rude." Protested the voice he recognized as Rarity. Turning back to the mare, her face was lined with worry. Noticing the stare she was giving his arm, he buried it under the sheets.

"I hope you don't mind my asking, but where did you get that?" Thinking about it, Wildfire decided that she was trustworthy enough. Clearing his throat, he explained about the tradition to get mebrythilium out of the Cave of Horrors to forge your very own sword. Answering a few questions of Rarity's, Wildfire continued to recount the spelunking escapade. Pausing at the part before he got his arm torn off, he asked, "Are you sure you want to know how I got this? I mean, not everyone has the stomach for it."

"Don't stop now! This is a great story!" Both Wildfire and Rarity jumped at the sudden exclamation. Turning, he saw that all five ponies were looking at him with interested eyes, the voice had come from a cyan pegasus with rainbow striped mane and tail.

"That's Rainbow Dash." He heard Rarity whisper in his ear. Taking a deep breath, Wildfire told of how he had given up his arm to survive the attack. Wildfire sighed when he heard dry retching from someone. "Told ya, but you didn't listen to me." The ponies seemed visibly appalled that there were places that were that deadly. Even Rainbow's smile had been buried in a frown.

"And that's how I lost my arm. They attached this to my nervous system, I simply had to imbue it with my energy to give it a full set of actions, though I don't feel anything on that arm. Nor can I write or do something that requires a light touch with it. What's even more ironic is that they used the mebrythilium ore to forge this. So I literally had to go back there a few months later."

At around this moment, a nurse walked into the room, "Alright girls, visiting time is over, you can come back later." Waiting till they left. The nurse walked over to Wildfire, "How are you feeling? You took a nasty hit, I'm surprised you even survived that without a concussion or something."

Smiling, Wildfire replied, "You REALLY think I would have taken the hit if it would've killed me? To quote a famous saying, 'Tis just a flesh wound."

"Well it was more than a flesh wound, you have two broken ribs-" "I noticed."

The nurse sighed, "And you also dislocated your right wing, you'll be staying at the hospital for a week minimum."

"Can I at least get my bag back? I have some books to read, I'm pretty sure I left them at Twilight's."

Bringing the heavy bags over to Wildfire's room, Twilight wondered what kinds of books could make it so heavy. She had to carry them by hoof since some force was preventing the use of magic on it. And not even 10 seconds later, that wolf that he traveled with was looming over her with narrowed eyes. After dropping them at the side of the bed, he reached down and levitated a small booklet to his lap. "How can you use magic? Only unicorns can use magic."

"There is plenty for you to learn, magic can be tought to nearly anything, it's just harder for me." Looking up, Wildfire saw that Twilight's curiosity was not anywhere near satiated. I wonder if I still have my book on magickae? "Looking back into his bag, he picked up a heavy brown book with a single purple stripe across its cover. Handing the book over to Twilight, "Here, this should satisfy that curiosity of yours."

"T-thanks, are you sure you want me to have this?" Smiling, "Of course, I have plenty of books to read, like my first journal, right he-" Looking at the small pouch where he housed his journals, Wildfire was shocked to see that the first one was missing.

"Seems you dropped one of my books somewhere, mind checking the library when you get back? It's black and not that big."

"Sure!"

"One more thing, how did we get through that troll?" A grin appeared on Twilight's face.

"Simple, I lifted it up off the ground."

Trotting off happily, Twilight left Wildfire to his own devices, after leaving; the smile on his face disappeared immediately. Oh how I hate this wretched existence, why can't I just die already? It's not like anyone would care...