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!”
Rocks and boulders fell all around the two, dust caked the air as they attempted to make it out of the cave. Slade followed behind Gear as they made a dash for the opening in the distant part of the cave.
Gear took a worried glance behind him, he saw the same strange creature in his ragged apparel staring off at them. His wolf was behind him as well. The boulders appeared to just bounce off of the biped as he walked towards them in a slow leisurely pace.
“We’ve got to go faster!” Gearshift yelled through the thick dust and sounds of rocks hitting rocks.
Slade looked up in time to see a small group of rocks start falling straight atop him. He jumped and rolled out of the way, merely scratching his foot against the jagged stones. With a cry of pain, he attempted to keep his running sprint going, trying to ignore the pain.
Jumping, the two managed to just make it out of there as the entrance collapsed and crumbled into a fine dusty rock wall, no sign of it ever being there.
Slade fell to his knees, gasping for air as Gearshift collapsed into the warm sand, doing the same.
After a few minutes Slade started chuckling a bit, to which Gear quickly followed. They laughed at how lucky they were, they laughed at their chance meeting, they laugh and laughed about everything that happened in such a short span of time.
Eventually, the laughter died down and the two got up.
Slade was the first to speak up. “So... heheh....This your usual day, Geary?” He grinned from ear to ear as the final bouts of laughter died and emptied out of his lungs.
“Nah, it’s just......just a helluva day.....” Gearshift finally caught his breath and started to gain a grimace of sorts.
Slade spoke up. “So, what do we do now?”
“Let’s get a camp going for starters. After we get some rest, we can figure things out in the morning.”
“Fine, whatever.”
In truth, Gearshift was in an inner battle of the ages about what to do with Slade. He didn’t know how smart it would be to bring a creature like Slade back, and the similar looking one with a wolf for a pet seemed to make Gear even more nervous about just being around the human. He decided tomorrow he would start asking Slade questions so he could get a better grip on the human. As well as make sure he wasn’t too dangerous to take back. It would be a three week travel all the way back out of the badlands so that should give Gearshift the time he needed.
“So, why were you in that ‘egg thing’ back there?” Gear asked.
“Don’t know. Last thing I remember is turning into a bunch of tiny lights before blacking out.” Slade stated bluntly.
“By who?”
“I’m not sure. Some crazy chick with an oversized pet.” Sighing, Slade made for a dramatic pause before speaking up again, “nothing out of the usual for me.”
Gear raised an eyebrow at this but let it fall back down a second later, remembering that he was talking to an ‘alien’.
“So, is a pet that is such a size..” Gear paused, thinking of the right words to use. “...common?”
“No.”
After that it got silent between the two. They didn’t talk as much outside of ‘small talk’ and neither showed to break the pattern. That is, until slade’s stomach rumbled with hunger and silent disdain towards the two.
“Here, eat this.” Gear hoofed a small nutrition bar to Slade, who caught it and nearly let it fall into the sand.
He munched down in a very uncouth manner and bits of the bar flew in different directions.
“So it seems you were hungrier than I thought....” Gear smiled indifferently. His internal debate was slowly edging over to the side of trusting Slade, but it was still jam packed with different complaints and arguments, far too many to end the inner struggle.
They finished their meals and slept on the itchy sand covered ground. Slade managed to fall asleep with strange ease, but Gearshift was different, he had a tough time and little to ease it with due to his endless battle within his subconscious. Eventually though, his mind grew weary enough for him to drowse into a restless sleep.
Up on a small incline, just a barely in sight, stood the bandage covered bipedal, watching with indifference. No longer was his companion wolf at his side right then, the ferocious beast had to feed so as not to go hungry.
The bipedal looked upon the two for a long amounted time, then finally, the bandaged man started to unwrap his left hands bandages. This revealed a number of stitches and scars, as well as a few runes covering the scar and stitch work. The runes started to glow a faint black aura. They took shape as a holographic watch look and a screen lighted above it, like a floating video screen of light. The screen itself was not on but the faintest sign of someone on the other side of it told different. The man spoke up in an old and raspy voice. “682, report.”
“The object in question has reached a civilian, orders?” 682 responded with a youthful and lively voice.
“Just observe 682. Your orders don’t change until the object has a reaction, is that understood?” the raspy voice kept its cold and indistinct tone.
“Understood, thank you.”
The glow faded as the runes went back to their original place of stay. 682 reattached the bandages and took another look at the two sleeping figures from his distance.
“Well.” 682 paused, sighing. “There’s a long road ahead of me.”
682 laid down and stared up at the stars, devoid of thoughts that did not pertain Slade.
‘Why does he want you so bad, and so specific a time?’ He thought as he drifted off into a dreamless sleep.
The watcher from above (authors note too)
Day 2 Badlands
The morning sun edged its way over the horizon, animals of the early morning started to sound as Slade stirred where he slept.
An eye cracked open as he observed his surroundings, he started to grow fearful since he forgot where he was. But he quickly steeled himself as he remembers the events of yesterday.
He groaned, a migraine starting to form in his far back right lobe. Shortly following Slade’s groan of pain, Gear started to awaken. His disheveled mane betrayed his attentiveness at such an early hour.
**********
682 watched silently as they got themselves prepared for departure. It was a rather boring place in time, watching them, but that would hopefully change when he was given more orders.
‘why did I have to be the one to get stuck with observing, really. They couldn’t get someone else?’ 682 was so enraptured with his thoughts he barely noticed that the two he was watching were already making their leave. He caught himself just in time to catch up, keeping out of sight the entire time.
682 knew he had to be stealthy with these new orders he was give. He decided to leave his wolf to be sent back to hq, taken care of so he didn’t have to worry. His pet would make too much noise, the wolf was best fit for hunts rather than stealth.
He watched in the shadows for hours on end as the two beings silently walked on towards a partially distinguishable direction.
After a while the sun started to set once more and the two had to make due with laying out in the open. Despite how unwilling they were to it.
Day 3 Badlands
Things were slower and less nerve racking today, Gearshift was writing in his once a week entries early on. Slade slept soundly next to Gear as he wrote down:
Day 59 in Badlands,
There is much to note about the events that have transpired these last few days. I have discovered a new creature that has been forced onto this world. It has sentience and intelligence that may serve to help Equestria into a new age of technological advancement. Unfortunately, I am still debating on if I should, I still know little about this new hue-man and i’m nervous and in constant paranoia wondering how the end result will be once we’ve arrived. He seems far more calm than I would expect from a being under the same circumstances.
That’s really all I have to report.
Gearshift, out
Gearshift closed his notebook to the sight of Slade tripping over a precariously placed rock (that just so happened to be where he wasn’t paying attention to.)
A/N now: Alright guys so i'm sorry but the story is now officially cancelled. There was never a plot thought out on this story and no direction was built for it and so it was a pointless endevour. I have no drive for completing this story so i am sorry to those who honestly were looking forward to its continuation. I hope you all have a lovely day and again i'm sorry about this.
