Journey of the Angels

The behemoth was tearing down the streets, shredding apart stall after stall as it aimed its spikes towards the young man running down the street. He quickly dove left to avoid a very painful piercing and into a very thin alleyway.

The man looked behind himself to see the behemoth breaking the walls as it charged after him. He continued running, up ahead was a turnoff, left or right.

The man just shrugged as he ran and thought ‘fuck it. Left’. He jerked himself to the left only to find a wall in his way. He stopped in front of it and turned around to see the behemoth was there, staring him down.

The man attempted to backup, only to stop right up against the wall he had seen not moments ago. He jerked his head back as the beast came closer, enjoying the fear coming off of the man.

The behemoth’s horn started to glow as the sound of boots came from behind the beast. It stopped and turned around, only to be hit in the face by said boot as a strange woman appeared to just walk over the beast. She stopped in front of the beast, the man cowering still, oblivious to what is happening. He slowly opened one eye, he then opened both and became a tad confused as he saw the woman there, the behemoth behind her... bowing before her?

“W-what?” The man said in between whimpers.

“You. Does your name happen to be Slade?” The woman asked in an echoey and ghastly voice.

“Y-y-yes?” The man stuttered out.

Suddenly the behemoth’s horn began to glow again, as so did the woman’s hands. She aimed it towards Slade’s feet and a few runes started appearing around him.

“Then you have a lot to catch up on, good luck on your travels,” the lady added in a remorseless tone.

“Wait what do you-?” Slade was cut off as the glow became a light that encircled him, he slowly started dissolving into tiny balls of energy that seemed to fade out of existence.

His final words uttered, “But I don’t want to go,” and he was completely gone.

********************
“Time 12:59 pm
*Location: Badlands, Equestrial
*Nearest Town: unknown

It was just another routine trip for Gearshift; He had never known things would be so problematic. He had taken it upon himself to journey alone on this expedition because he believed it would take no more than a few days to accomplish. Now he was lost, sweating like mad, and low on supplies. With the measly amount of survival lessons he was given, Gearshift could swear that school of his wanted to screw over the pony students.

With a mutter to himself, he continued onwards, hoping for some form of civilization or at least some place he could resupply his food and water.

Gearshift suddenly heard a faint growling coming from behind him. He quickly turned around to face nothing. He turned back around and started to take on a faster pace. He was nervous because he knew the badlands were getting to him days ago.

Then again, a faint growl came from behind and again, Gearshift turned around to see nothing behind him. He turned back around and quickly heard another one from behind him. Instead of turning around and repeating the process, Gearshift broke out into a gallop, sweating and silently panicking. His eyes darted left and right as he looked for a place of refuge with his eyes.

Suddenly, he saw a large rock formation just off in the distance. He dared a look back to see a strange biped creature wrapped in tarnished silk bandages standing there. The biped was not alone as a wolf looked towards the pony with bloodlust in its eyes, growling menacingly towards Gearshift.

The biped had his hand out, palm to the deadly carnivore, silently halting the wolfs efforts to chase after a meal. It stopped and just curled up at the bipeds feet as it stared on after Gearbox with ripped and torn cloth over the majority of his face. The man’s left eye was only present, a faint red glow apparent as it watched the pony run frantically away.

Gearshift stopped looking towards the biped. His heart rate had already hit the metaphorical roof, but that didn’t stop him as the large rock formation had become substantially closer. Now he seemed close enough that a cave came into sight on the side of the giant formation.

Once Gear got inside, he collapsed onto the ground, panting profusely, greedily devouring the air in reach of his lungs. He nearly passed out as he took in the air, black spots coming in and out of his vision. The run had taken more out of Gear than he had first assumed. He used his magic and carefully lifted a water bottle out of his satchel and drank down a quarter of it before closing the lid and putting it back.

He started to get a hold of his breathing when he finally noticed a faint light coming from the end of the cave he was in. Carefully, the stallion pulled out a notepad and pencil, holding it with his magic as he carefully walked towards the light.

As it got closer, Gear noted how the walls and floor seemed to change to a more mystified and estranged look to it, almost alien. He took note of the obvious and more subtle changes to the rocks as he continued getting ever closer to the odd light at the back of the cave.

Once there, Gear nearly dropped his notepad. The light was rather not a light, but an orb of what he assumed to be magic. Inside was a biped similar to the one that scared him into the cave. Though this one was obviously worse for wear. The biped inside appeared to be male by Gear’s guess. He was covered in all of these wires and organic tissue that seemed to be infused to the magic bubble.

Upon further inspection, Gearshift noted how the creature appeared to be in pain as the connection seemed to be extracting something for some strange reason.

“My word, are you okay?” He muttered as he stuffed the notepad back in his satchel. He pulled out a rather strange object and tapped it against the magical field that held the creature in a fetal position. A sound reverberated from the object and the creature shifted and stirred.

Curious, the stallion poked the bubble, only to have his hoof dip slightly into it. Gear pulled his hoof back instinctively, but saw as it seemed to react like water, shifting from where he touched it.

Carefully, Gear stuck his hoof out again, and eased it in about a quarter of an inch. The stallion thought it felt a lot like the gelatin the cafeteria would give them with a standard meal.

He pulled his hoof back and watched as the biped inside stirred more and more. One of his eyes eased open as he saw where he was. Gear was surprised and a bit afraid when the creature suddenly began to thrash about and appeared to be in a panic.

The bubble started to dissolve as the creature ripped the cords and tissue from himself, freeing him of whatever it was doing. Like water surrendering to gravity, the bubble crashed to the ground, spreading across the ground as it dissolved and turned into gas.

The creature coughed and sputtered as he tried to catch his breath from the shocking moment he was just apart of. Nervously, the biped got to his feet, slowly and cautiously taking in his surroundings.

“W-where am I?” The creature said as he turned and looked around at his surroundings. The creature was obviously oblivious to Gearshift’s presence but this was short lived as the biped turned to face him.

The creatures eyes went wide and he fell on his ass staring open mouthed at Gear.

“The fuck kinda mutation are you?!” The creature nearly yelled.

Gear was baffled, not only did the creature form coherent speech and proof of sentience, but also insulted Gear. He always thought highly of himself and did not take insults lightly, no matter the context.

Gear got his composure back as he decided to act in retaliation as he set up his mental walls instinctively. “And a bald ape has any right to ask what is what?”

This time it was the creature who was baffled. He uttered something to himself before speaking up again. “Truce until we figure out what’s going on?” The creature raised it’s right appendage and held out his ‘hand’ in a peaceful gesture.

Gear took it and shook the ‘hand’ in his hoof and shook. Gear had met many biped creatures before, such as gryphons, but it was always weird for him to accept the type of greetings they had with their ‘claws, hands, etc.’

Releasing his grip, the creature stood up and brushed himself down. “Names Slade by the way, how about yours?”

“It’s Gearshift. What the hell are you, anyway?” Gear asked, giving up on all hopes of formality.

“Human. You?”

“Pony. More specifically, a unicorn.”

Dust erupted from the floor below them and Gearbox appeared to be at the edge of sneezing, seemingly in an epic battle against his natural body’s natural responses. It was a losing battle and he ended up sneezing in a very strong manor, causing him to stagger and fall onto a more flat and cut off stalagmite.

Suddenly, a large ‘crack’ sounded throughout the cavern and’ they looked up at the ceiling. It was perfectly fine as far as they saw, but that only discouraged both of them more.

Slade looked behind the way they came to find that where he once was, was now a crater.

Once again, a sudden sound was heard, this one struck fear into both of them as they knew the all too familiar hissing noise.

The hissing of dynamite........

They both said the same thing in unison as they started to run for the exit. “Fuck!”