The sovereign of a new dawn

Bondrewd was dying, he was happily surprised by Nanachi and her companions cleverly laid out plan that had destroyed his newly blessed body.

He failed but in the light of his death, he now found himself excited at the prospect of those three brilliant young minds making their way to the bottom of the abyss.

“You have surprised me child, you managed to get the severed arm to function. You exerted all of your strength, used your wits and each of you took action most brilliantly, truly moving.”

“Yeah, Well that’s enough of your blabbering and from the looks of it, no one’s coming out to protect you which must mean you no longer have any Umbra hands left to fight us. Making us free to destroy the remaining facilities including the soaholic, there’s so many of you now, we couldn’t kill you even if we tried but your disgusting aspirations end right here! It is over.”

“Oh heavens no, your prayers and ardent desire to choose your own path and push forward. They’ve surpassed even my own although it is most regrettable that this body has been destroyed…. Crossing paths and having this chance to clash with you was an unparalleled joy. The fact that you will all continue on beyond this place is now my new aspiration.”

“…it’s totally pointless saying anything to you, you’re sick… and unbelievably pathetic, it’s funny I’ve long dreamed of the day we’d kill each other in battle but now….”

“Ahh~ Nanachi, it pleases me things did not turn out that way, come now, raise your head up high.”

He placed his now fluffy claw upon her shoulder as she look down on his fading form.

“C-Child, may your j-journey overflow with both curses and b-blessings.”

Nanachi shuddered as her own paw reached up to his claw and pushed it off with a smile.

“You can shut up now.”

“Ahh~ you are t-truly… truly adorable.”

And with that, this part of Bondrewd was truly gone. Although he will continue in this world, this part of him was lost, this part of Bondrewd was now in a true abyss of darkness and he had happily excepted this fate.

He had died before and knew this feeling well but this time he felt something different, his soul was split in two and he now regained feeling.

He felt a warm summers wind and soft grass, the sound of birds and smell of flowers hit his senses.

Opening his eyes, he immediately closed them as the bright light of the dawn hit them, he was on the surface. But how he wondered.

As he groggily opened his eyes again and allowed them to adjust, he saw his damaged helmet resting on top of a felled tree, a sight most odd but he didn’t care.

As he went to rub the gunk out of his eyes, he noticed that his hands were gone and replaced with dark grey stumps. His first thought was that those three kids had turned him into a hollow but that quickly changed when he stumbled up to his feet…. Or stubs.

Upon further examination of his body, he came to the conclusion that he was a male equine of some kind not yet discovered.

“How magnificent, I’m not sure what has occurred but whatever has happened, it’s a blessing of some kind.”

He went to walk forward to his helmet and immediately tripped over his two additional legs.

Thud*

“Ow….”

It took him longer than he’d expected but eventually, he was walking on all fours. This was only a minor change and now that he was a novice at basic movement, Bondrewd approached his helmet.

Upon reaching the felled body of rotten wood that acted as a pedestal for his iconic mask, the last thing that those who he experimented on saw was the first thing he gazed upon.

“What irony…. what a pleasant surprise, my coat and wrist gauntlets. Mhmmm but how?”

He struggled to pick up the damage helmet but once he grasped it in his hooves, he placed it over his head and the purple light sparked to life. Now for his gauntlets, he was looking forward to the challenge of putting them on.

And that was when he saw himself, his white whistle.

Meanwhile in the quiet little cottage on the edge of the Everfree, a butter yellow Pegasus prepared to venture into the forest.

She needed to retrieve some herbs to make her pet bunny Angel some flu medicine. But as scared as she was, Fluttershy needed to help her precious Angel bunny.

With one nervous step, she began her journey into the dark abyss of the Everfree.

As she followed the trail deeper with her basket held by her teeth, looking for the ingredients she needed.

The dark and twisted look of the trees scared her to no end but she had to put on a brave face and push forward for her bunny.

Fluttershy had been walking for half an hour now and felt like something was watching her fro the shadows.

Snap*

“Ep! What was that? H-hello? Is any pony out there?”

Now with a quicker pace to her trotting and as she hastily followed the trail whilst considering looking back to see if she was being followed.

But at some point she had strayed off the path and was now searching for the trail, that’s when she stepped on a white stick.

Snap*

Howl!!!!*

She froze upon hearing a Timber wolf howling in the distance.

“Gasp* oh no….”

She lifted her hoof and saw that she had stepped on a rib that was picked clean of some creature that had fallen victim to the forest.

“Okay fluttershy, calm down and remember to breathe. You just need to go back the way you came.”

Crack*

“Yelp* no please, no I don’t want to die here….”

Growl*

“A-a timber wolf.”

The terrified butter yellow mare was cowering, trying to hide behind her hooves in a vain attempt to disappear from this nightmare, wishing that she would just wake up in her cozy bed.

But her flight response kicked in and she ran, why she didn’t take to the sky she did not know but now she was ducking, dodging and leaping past trees and thorns.

She could feel the pain of the spiky needles of the thorn bushes scratching against her body but the thought of being eaten alive was enough motivation to keep her in motion.

As she was fleeing for her life, Fluttershy saw a gap underneath a large tree so she went for it.

Bolting for the hole she dived into it but a sharp stinging pain engulfed her left hind hoof, followed by a warm liquid dripping down the leg.

“AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHGG!!!!!*”

Lucky the wolf was far too big to follow her in any deeper but now she was bleeding and it showed no signs of stopping.

“Sniffle* sob* ow ow sniffle* please not like sob* this, I don’t wanna die sob* w-who will look after the animals?”

She was in a state of full shock and fear, cradling her leg like a sick foal.

Somewhere else in the forest an unaware Bondrewd was walking where he heard the scream of pain that sounded distinctly human but he had to stay on alert.

This was unfamiliar territory and he didn’t know what types of beasts called this dark place home.

He began to walk towards the sound of the scream, if there was someone in danger that could be of use to him.

Then it’s a no brainer to go and see if he could help them, so they can help him.

Although his pace was relaxed and slow, he was concerned for his potential way out of here’s life but if he doesn’t make it, then he will have to hope that he will find his own way out.

But he found it most obscure that the scream came from a darker, denser part of the forest which implied that his ticket out of here was deeper in the forest than himself.

Fluttershy was struggling to stay awake now, she had lost a lot of blood. The butter yellow mare took a nervous look out side and found that the Timber wolves were gone.

She wrapped her leg up with a large leaf, some vines and sticks. Making a split to support her leg and slow the bleeding but she knew that some creature would pick up on the smell of her blood.

If it wasn’t the timber wolves then it would be something else or even something worse, she could see a clearing up ahead and began towards it in hopes that she’d have the strength to fly away.

“Sniffle* come on Fluttershy, don’t give up.”

The pain was almost unbearable but she pressed on but once she got to the clearing, she was shocked.

It wasn’t a massive clearing, it was a giant hole that looked as if it went on forever. She fell to her rump and took in the sight, basking in its beauty.

Creatures that she had never seen before, plants that had never been written about in books and a giant, bottomless pit that she had never heard be spoken about before.

Growls*

She spun around and was muzzle to muzzle with a pack of timber wolves and one of them had fresh blood around its maw, this was it.

Fluttershy couldn’t run away now and lacked the strength to fly, with fear tearing at her heat. She began to sob uncontrollably as the wooden wolves inched toward her, salivating at the sight of their next meal.

KABOOM!!*

Crash*

Snap*

Splinter*

The loud noise drew all of their attentions, Fluttershy watched as the upper half of a timber wolf crashed and splinter into the ground and a dark pony like figure calmly walked out of the tree line.

They had a weird mask that look broken but what stood out was the purple light coming from the middle, dividing the mask in two. She also noticed that the individual had green eyes and a gray fur coat covered by his clothes.

The wolves wasted no time circling the pony and lunged with snapping teeth but the pony didn’t move.

With her last fleeting breath she yelled out just before she lost consciousness.

“Nooooo!!!!”

The last thing she saw was the pony’s foreleg get bitten and the sound of something splintering.