Secrets

Chapter 6: The Monster Within

The two had met in a destroyed street, far away from the actual fighting. It was Owl versus the lord of the Seekers. Wildfire sat on top of a nearby building, told to not interfere at all costs. The two enemies started walking towards each other at a slow, determined pace. Looking around, Wildfire saw the black figure of a Plague sitting on the other side of the street. Perhaps he was here for the same reason? He was supposed to take out the Seeker if he won, but in the meanwhile he was supposed to keep the grunts off of Owl. Looking back at the fight, the two were firing projectiles like mad. Looking down, he saw three orcs setting up with bows and arrows behind some rubble. A haze of black crystals flew through the orcs, either killing them or maiming them. As Wildfire watched, unblinking, the cloud of deadly projectiles reached a spot beside him and reassembled into a perfect copy of himself. A discoloured version of himself, but perfect in every other way. The plague were notorious for these capabilities. A nod was given and returned, they might be enemies, but they respected each other. The silent conversation was interrupted when a dull thunderclap resonated through the street. Turning to the ever-present fight, Owl was struggling to lift himself up after being hit by a bolt of lightning. The red menace was at the danger of having an overcharge.

"We all just want this slaughter to stop." Wildfire was surprised to see the plague speak Itian in a broken, strained voice.

"Yes, your race doesn't want to be warring do they?" The plague shook its head.

"They have us by the theoretical balls, we were forced into this war." This was something Wildfire didn't know, nor did anyone stop to think this.

"Interesting. I hope everything turns for the better."

"Hardly, the Seekers are planning to exterminate both our races." Wildfire turned to stare at the black representation of himself. It stared back with worried eyes, "We have no feud with your kind, yet these random creatures want to rid the world of the two most advanced species. And we are forced to follow them to our deaths."

"Why don't you run? I'm pretty sure that they won't worry if one of you dissapeared."

The illusionary master scoffed, "They will, they check regularly to see how many of us are left."

"Have you thought about faking your death?"

"I don't see how I could possibly fake a realistic death, you can do that but it is beyond my capabilities."

"Easy, I fight you and pretend to kill you in front of the Seeker lord. Then I teleport you to the Forest of the Damned and you hide in it."

"Oh what the hell, why not, it's not as if I could hurt you. But when we die we go through very specific phases, he'll be suspicious if I don't go through them."

"I can work up a spell, I specialize in illusions myself."

"We have a deal?"

"Yes."

Nodding again, the two took up places on the roof.

"He's over there!" Wildfire opened his eyes to see Rainbow Dash diving straight for him. Instinctively, Wildfire slammed his hind hooves into her chest and propulsed her into the tree he was sleeping on. Rolling off his back, he fell off the tree branch. With a loud thump, the air in Wildfire's lungs was driven out by the impact. Barely pausing to recover, he stood on his hind legs and started running.

"Hey! Get back here!"

Looking back he saw Applejack, Pinkie and Twilight running after him. He pulled out a short scarf, which he wrapped around his face. Peering eyes were the only visible facial feature. With an orange glow in his eyes, another him popped up, wisps of smoke still clinging onto its clothes. With that, he positioned himself forward of the clone and proceeded to create a veritable camouflage over his entire body. Taking a sharp left, he hid inside a bush. The clone whizzed by as he adjusted his camouflage, the three ponies hot on it's trail. Three, there's only three. Fear took hold of his gut as Pinkie Pie was nowhere to be seen. That crazy mare is going to find me. Snow must be pissed off at me too. Realizing with a start that Snow could easily pinpoint his position via telepathy, Wildfire tried to minimize the activity going on in his mind. You're in a lot of trouble mister. Mumbled a familiar voice.

Shit.

You can say that again, they all think you kidnapped Rarity.

What? I didn't even go to her house!

I'm rather interested to find out what happened as well.

There you are! Eyes widening with alarm. It was HER. Looking around, he looked for the pink monster that was surely coming towards him. He felt a pair of hooves wrap around his neck in a bone crushing hug, "There you are! You're going to be late for your party! But first, tell us where Rarity is!" Pinkie Pie's chirping was accompanied by the sound of hooves.

"Pinkie, why are you hugging a bush?" Inquired the voice he recognized as Twilight.

"'Cause, silly, it's Wildfire, see?" She said, picking him up and shaking him in a manner that made nurses look good. Quickly deactivating the illusion spell before he got brain damage, Wildfire heard surprised gasps from Applejack and Rainbow Dash.

"Looks like I have some explaining to do eh?"

"Yeah, like where's Rarity."

"That I can't answer." The group looked at each other as they tried to figure out what could possibly have happened to the white mare.

"Diamond Dogs?"

"I guess it's worth checking."

"What are diamond dogs?" The ponies turned to Wildfire.

"They're mean, they've ponynapped Rarity before, and it wouldn't be surprising if they did again."

"Alright, where do they live?" Rainbow Dash burst out laughing,

"What makes you think you can take them?"

"Says the one who got a hooffull of me."

Rainbow Dash, opened her mouth, but shut it soon after with a "Hmph".

"Don't worry, I'll just poke around. Even if you say no I can just forcefully take the information."

"No, we have to call for the guards." Twilight spoke up, her voice lined with seriousness. Like hell I'm staying here. Closing his eyes, he dove straight into Twilight's mind, eliciting a gasp of shock from her.

"What's wrong Twi?" Twilight couldn't respond to Applejack's question, her face strained from effort. Where is it, let's see Diamond, might as well look into D. Approaching the area of the mind which housed memories, he scanned across the massive archive that was present in Twilight's mind. Most minds were arranged in a somewhat alphabetical order, Twilight was no exception. Brushing off her attempts to expulse Wildfire from her mind, he started looking through the section that housed memories starting with D, about halfway through, he found the information he was looking for. Careful not to hurt Twilight, he allowed himself to be thrown out of her psyche. Opening his eyes again, Wildfire started walking towards the nest. Hearing a set of hooves behind him, he broke out into a run. Still hearing the hooves, he turned his head to see Applejack in a full gallop behind him. The others must be keeping an eye on Twilight. Nearing the clearing, he spotted a large congregation of dirt mounds. Taking a pick at the nearest one, Wildfire leapt straight into it.

*********

Sliding down on all fours, Wildfire couldn't see a damn thing. Feeling his body now freefalling, he prepared himself to fall for a very long time, only to hit the ground.

"Oh."

Before he could take another step, he heard echoed screaming coming from the tunnel he came from. Without further warning, a dirty mass of orange fur landed on him. Pushing off the blob of hair and mud, Wildfire noted that Applejack had followed him down. Angling his ears every way possible, Wildfire heard the pitter patter of footsteps coming from behind them.

"They're behind us, be quiet and follow me."

With a groan of protest, Applejack silently followed Wildfire, only emitting a faint clicking as her hooves hit the ground.

"Can you stop that?"

"Stop what?"

"Hooves."

"I'm not a ninja." Sighing quietly, Wildfire continued to go the opposite direction of the enemies. My optics! Quickly opening a small compartment inside his metallic arm, Wildfire took out a small green visor. Slinging it over an ear, he turned it on. A green glow started being produced from his right eye as information flowed into the old thing.

"Sound wave scanner, low pitch." A familiar female voice responded in his ear. Affirmative. Wildfire smiled as the AI activated the scanner on the optic device. Being canine, most likely, they shouldn't hear a thing that's too low octave. Pausing for a few seconds, the AI then proceeded to reassemble the readings into a map.

"There is a lot of activity in the northern area, Rarity should be in the center."

"What makes you say that?"

"I dunno, they're always in the center."

Wildfire had never seen a pony face hoof till now. Picking up the pace, Wildfire was about to take the right path when he heard quiet sobbing in the left.

"Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"Crying." Not waiting for a response, Wildfire trotted off into the narrow pathway. Nearing a T-bone, Wildfire stopped to look both ways. The right path was empty, the left one had a primitive steel door and a massive armoured canine.

"Now I hear it." The dog flicked it's head in Wildfire's direction, who barely pulled back in time. Wildfire glared at a blushing Applejack. Taking off his hat, he picked up a rock. Before throwing the projectile, a thought reared it's brilliant head. What if the path's loop? Lowering his arm, he stared at the empty passage. Shrugging, he stealthily snuck into the other pathway. Just at this moment, his optical device decided it would be a good time to die on him. Well you don't go years without needing new batteries. The path was indeed a circle, it was also a dead end. Peeking around the corner, the guard dog was still stoicly standing guard. Tossing the rock at his feet, Wildfire quickly tiptoed back to the other end. Just as he was hoping, the dog was now watching that single part of the cave. Stupid mutt. Pulling out an axe, he dashed forwards, Wildfire leapt onto the dog, shoved a hoof into its mouth, and slit its throat open with his axe. Letting the body fall to the ground, Wildfire quickly replaced the axe with a lock pick. Peeking into the barred window, he saw a trembling white filly with a pink mane.

"Who's this?" Wildfire was literally thrown out of the way by Applejack.

"Sweetie Belle? Don't worry we'll get you out." Turning around, Applejack was about to give the door a buck when her hooves were forced back onto the ground.

"Amateur, if you kick down the door, don't you think it's going to be very loud? Let me pick it."

"It's not the time for-" Applejack's sentence was cut short when Wildfire swung open the door.

"It wasn't even locked." Wildfire and Applejack both facehooved. Taking the time to put his dead gadget back into its compartment, Wildfire wiped the blood off the axe. He had altered the illusion spell so he could still grip things, yet look like a hoof. And boy was he enjoying it.

"Alright, Applejack, Rarity should be somewhere around the center. I want you and Sweetie to stay behind me. When I show myself they're going to be running for their lives."

Nodding, the two girls followed Wildfire to a large cavern. Nearing the cavern, they started hearing the familiar complaining of Rarity. Arriving at the mouth, Wildfire signalled them to stay put. Pulling up his scarf again, he dissapeared in front of the amazed eyes of the equines.

"This place is so ugly! You simply need to clean up things or-"

"Don't worry, I'm going to get you out of here." Rarity stopped and looked around, he recognized Wildfire's voice. But he was nowhere to be seen. One of the guards suddenly slumped to the ground, a large gash on the nape of his neck. The other guards pulled out their spears, eyeing their surroundings. Another guard fell backwards, both paws on its neck as he tried to stem the blood pouring out of it's body. Rarity couldn't tear her eyes away, when she felt her restraints being pulled off. Turning, she saw Applejack and Sweetie Belle trying to pull off the shackles. All three looked at the source of barking, to see four guards charging them. In a flash, the four guards fell to the ground in mere seconds. Reappearing, Wildfire was now holding a long, thin and bloody blade. He gave an extra kick to one of the mangy mutts. Hearing more coming, he led the now-free Rarity and his friends to the exit. Seeing the light of freedom, Wildfire turned to face the dogs.

"Go! I'll stall them while you get out!"

Not complaining the three ponies rushed up the tunnel. Hearing the clanging of metal and howling from the dogs.

"Ow!"

Looking back, Applejack saw Wildfire on one knee, blood trickling into his eye. "You'll pay for that!" And with that he pulled his axe into his free hoof and jumped back into the fray. Running in the tunnel, the girls noticed that the howling was becoming less loud, even though the grinding of metal was still vivid. Continuing on, the girls emerged into the blinding light. Taking a moment to readjust, the girls were surprised to see Pinkie, Twilight and Rainbow Dash gawking at them.

"Girls! How did you get out?"

Their answer was interrupted as Wildfire burst through the mound, two dogs behind him. Wildfire flipped in midair and deflected the spear that had been thrown at him, he responded by throwing his axe at the unarmed mange-pelt. The blade dug itself into his shoulder, he grabbed the second spear by the tip, flipped it over, and stabbed the dog in the neck. Landing neatly, Wildfire had sweat practically pouring off of him. There was a cut right above his right eye, forcing him to keep it closed. He was covered in bloodstains, but without a source the girls could only assume it wasn't his. Panting, he pulled out his axe and returned the weapons to their sheaths.

"That was awesome! How did you do that?" Every pony, Pinkie included, turned to glare at Rainbow.

"Are you okay? You have blood everywhere!"

"Apart from the eye, it's not mine. Though I have some horrible stains to get out." He said, grinning. He managed to get a faint chuckle out of everybody, and they started walking back to Ponyville. Just then a large mass of shadows passed over the field, and the eight ponies witnessed as a platoon of what Wildfire assumed were the soldiers of this kingdom landed in the field. Their armor seemed light and supple, better designed for hit and run tactics than the usual slug fest. He was dimly aware of Snow joining them. This should be interesting.

You don't say?