"Once a year on Wyrmtail isles, do such events occur. The good at heart, filled with life, get what they do not deserve. A humble, scary, sacrifice, to protect the ponies life. One or two, four or five, is enough to suffice the wyrms."
-Book of Wyrmtail 1:6
Wyrmtail isles drifted off at sea a thousand miles from equestria, so they were isolated from them, living their own little lives, unaware to the events of what happened there, and there existence. Five isles made up them, first was Sitrogg the island of flames, second one Nimburg the island of ice. Third was Kotrek the island of earth, fourth was Nidghe island of magic, and the fifth was Wyrmtail, the untold isle that held the Wyrms, also which is where the sacrifices were sent every year. Wyrms were gigantic dragons, except slimmer, they had no legs no they slithered like snakes, but had wings which they used to fly around the island with. An ancient peace thousands of years ago between the ancient lords of the isles and the wyrms said that every year one or two, four or five ponies would be sent off to the island, most likely to be eaten. This kept the wyrms from invading the other islands and wrecking mass havoc, which has happened before. Long ago they believed that it was just a myth, that there was no wyrms and they were sending off their own kind for nothing. They waited, and for days after the sacrifices were meant to go, nothing happened. But, the fifth day after, the sky turned red. From the island came the wyrms, eyes ablaze, they lit the island aflame and destroyed villages, until the villagers begged their forgiveness, which was given to them. They knew then it was real, and not giving up the few lives every year would result in destruction, death, and even... Extinction.
Silver Wick rushed through the village carrying bundles of paper, ink, and other various pieces of equipment. He slammed into Pig breath the butches, knocking the butcher over. "Sorry Pb!" silver yelled back as he rounded the corner and came to the laboratory. He rushed inside, the security guards barely acknowledging him, for he was often late and had to hurry to his study before his master became angry with him. The laboratory was huge having three floors, the room was oval shaped, on each side having staircases spiral upwards to the next floor, and to the third. Silver rushed up the stairs onto the second floor and cascaded down the corridor, thirty seconds before he was late! He flew through the door with the plaque above it labeling "Room 556: Mr. Brainhoof" already most of the students were inside. He slowed to a trot and approached one of the desks and sat down, the bell rung and from the desk, a humungous grey pony with frill gray hair, a monacle, and a thick grey beard stood up and approached the front of the classroom. "Good afternoon class!" he said joyfully "Today is a special, or rather saddening day." he went on "Today is the day of sacrifice!" the class stared, everyone in the village dreaded this day and they knew why "As you all should know, on this day all the ponies and colts from all four of the islands gather here in our town square, and put their name is a large machine." he stopped for a moment, eyed the class, and went on "The machine has two choices, to pick one pony as sacrifice, two, four, or five. Once the amount is selected it randomly selects five of the thousands of names which were placed inside the machine. The machine spits out the slips of paper with the name and the town mayor reads the names off. The people whose names were called will be gathered, if they try to leave they will be stopped. All the sacrifices will be gathered upon the ship, and the captain Von Ludwig Greystout will drive the ship to Wyrmtail island, where they will be dropped off, and left for whatever fate the wyrms see to for them." he finished, the mood in the room went from happy, to dark quickly.
"A young brave colt will brave the wyrms. The wyrms heads, claimed by his hoof and sword. He will return bravely to the island. The people will jump for joy, and a feast would be held in his name, the scourge of a thousand years, finally gone." -Book of Wyrmtail 3:15
Silver Wick left the laboratory. He returned to his house where he took a short nap, which lasted until a few minutes before the sacrifice choosing. He awoke to his bell, and the shouts of people outside his doorstep. He looked out the window and found that hundreds of colts, and ponies were walking down the street to the square. He jumped out of bed and slipped his bag over his shoulder and rushed out the door, joining in with the crowd of ponies.
They made it to the square. The square was huge! In the middle was a gargantuan fountain which had a armored cult wielding a sword, fighting off another colt in heavy armor wielding a club, that was the battle of the brothren which had eventually brought all the four pony tribes together, to become on, the Wyrmtail tribe. The townhall stood before him, on the steps stood a brown colt whos orange mane whistled witht the wind. Wennmore Cav was the mayors name, the Cav name was famous throughout the isles, one of the richest families. He stood straight looking amongst the crowd, answering questions from the press with simple answers like "yes" and "We do not know who will be sacrifice" and "Of course it isn't rigged." Wennmore was guarded by six white colts wearing formal suits with black and white checked ties, with bluetooths in their ears, and kept their identities covered behind shades. Thousands among thousands of ponies and colts waited nervously in the square, hoping that their names were drawn, even though the chances were slight for each pony, it was still a nervous moment. "Attention! Greetings to all ponies of the four isles! Sitrogg, Nimburg, Nidghe! And finally our island, Kotrek!" the croud was silent "Sadly. Today is the day we will be choosing who is going to be sacrificed to the wyrms this year, a sad day indeed. Now if you all will, each of you come up and write your name on one of these slips of paper." he said motioning his hoof toward the machines. The machines stood at least ten ponies tall, it was a simply siler box with two slots, one slow for inserting slips of paper, and the other slot which shot out the sacrifices. Ponies justled forward, quickly writing their names on the slips of paper, and putting it into the machines slot.
After it was all done the mayor stood, and smiled. Then, he frowned. "It is time." he began "For the choosing" gasps and sighs could be heard amongst the croud, even some crying nervously, others panicking. The machine made a loud hissing noise and the first paper shot out. Then the next, then the third, and finally the fourth piece of paper, the final one, shot out of the machine. The mayor picked up the papers from the growned and carefully looked them over, he frowned. "Time for all of the ponies and colts to know who will be chosen!" his voice boomed. He took a step forward and withdrew the four slips of paper "First one! Fire Sparkle." A tall, slender, beautiful blue pony with a flowing purple and green mane stroad forward up to the mayor, her face had no signs of sorrow, her face was stern and brave. "Second! Scooter Bug!" someone shouted no, but a small young pony strode forward. She was small, brown fur and a beautiful golden mane. "Third! Zip Zop!" from the croud a tall colt walked toward the mayor. He was wearing large red earphones, an Ipony strapped onto his side, his fur was bright green and he had a brown mane. "Fourth and final sacrifice!" the mayor shouted, the tension couldn't have been greater. "Silver Wick!" His mouth was open and he was in shock! He was a sacrifice, this was bad! Thoughts of his life was running through his head, his heart was beating fast, sweat pouring down his face. Slowly he trotted forward, passing several ponies who gave him worried expressions, one or two of them patted him on the back and said "It will be alright." but he knew it would, he would be dead within the week. Silver came up the steps and met eye to eye with the mayor who gave him a sad expression. "We are sad for the four here today who will be sent to Wyrmtail island, whos fate will be decided by the wyrms themselves! Let us hope that their fate is good, and somehow they will live, or utterly destroy the wyrms!" a hearty cheer came up from the crowd, silver staggered backwards, his head throbbing, and blacked out.
Silvers eyes slowly opened, the bedroom blurred. He sat up and wiped his eyes with his hooves, examining the bedroom. The bed was comfortable, a nice wooden bed with a memory foam mattress, two orange pillows, and a orange blanket which covered him up from the draft coming in from the outside world. On the wall was the portrait of a tall grey pony wearing a captains hat, that was probably the captain who took the sacrifices to Wyrmtail island. Silver got out of bed and went through the door, onto the dock. In front of him was the captain, steering the ship away from a boulder that was in the near distance. The captain turned his head and smiled "Nice of you to join us " he said, silver yawned "Where are we?" silver asked, "Well son... We are nearing Wyrmtail island soon, we will probably reach the island sometime tommorow morning." he turned his head back to the front of the ship, making a final large turn which made the ship barely avoid the large rock. "The others are up on the second floor, last time I checked they were silent... Still are probably, go say hi." he said, his voice had the fatherly tone to it, it soothed silvers mood, why would he be doing this? Silver walked up the stairs and saw the other three sacrifices sitting in chairs, the tall slender female pony was crying silent, hooves in her face. The tall slender colt was jamming to his music, bobbing his head back and forth, the smaller pony was silent, but looked up and smiled as silver approached them.
He took a seat, there was five chairs but only four could be filled... He looked at the tall pony "Don't cry... It will be alright." silver tried soothing her, but she looked up with anger filling her eyes "IT WILL NOT BE OKAY! WE ARE GOING TO DIE! DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND THAT, HUH! WE ARE GOING TO BE EATEN, SLAUGHTERED, DEAD!" her sobs returned, and so did her hooves to her face. Silver sighed, it was apparent trying to calm her down would be a useless attempt. The smaller pony winked at silver and smiled, that was odd he thought but smiled back at her, she was cute. The small pony seemed to be around the same age as silver himself, but he was not looking for a relationship at the moment, not when he was going to die within the next few days, her eyes were mistifying though, he could not stop looking up at them, he was beautiful. Silver got up and walked back down by the captain, "Why would you do this." silver demanded "Why would you send us to our deaths? You monster..." his hoof met the captains side, the captain turned around and landed a solid punch on silvers nose, blood poured out and so did tears. "I do this because someone has too... I was the only one left to ask... If we do not sacrifice the few every year, it would mean death for us all." silver put his hoof on the thought, "Why don't we just kill them..." the captains eyes met his "The wyrms are not a force to be reckoned with... They are merciless killers, not even the best of our men could take them down!" he said.
"A wyrm is a beast that can not be slain. Magic and steel is not enough to conquer the beasts who lurk on the forsaken island. They are very fast and intelligent creatures. Most sacrifices do not last the long, the best last a week. Wyrms like to have to hunt and find their pray." -Book of Wyrmtail 2:11
Silver sat at on the chair, millions of thoughts running through his skull. He needed to think of survival strategies, what will he do? Will he stick with someone? Will he abandon them? No! He can't do that, all of them would have to work together to survive. Fire Sparkle got up and walked down to the captain and started yelling at him, the captain slapped her and told her to shut up and get back upstairs with the rest of them, she wasn't getting no special treatment! He laughed, he thought it was odd, but it was funny, why did he laugh? He did not know. Was he going insane, was his mind slowly shutting down on itself, would he survive the island? Sweat poured down Silver wicks forehead, he brushed it off with his hoove. Thinking to much was bad for the brain, and for the person who had the brain to think. Scooter bug shivered and went downstairs, and went into the bedroom, probably to take a nap and keep warm. Zip Zop still sat their, face into his Ipony while bobbing his head to some techno song, probably DJ - DustStorm. He didn't know many DJ's besides that one, because techno and dubstep wasn't really his music. He preferred classic music like Bayhooven and Bachoof. Silver gazed out to the ocean, many small sea creatures bustled and rushed under the boat, one occasionally jumping out into the air, and plummeting back into the deep waters, he watched the small islands and the occasional medium sized island go by, crossing his fingers and hoping it would not be the island they all dreaded to be on, wyrmtail island. He looked up and saw Zip Zop staring at him, the tall colt took off his headphones, "This sucks... It really does you know? I was going to get my first record deal being DJ Zip-Zop but, I had to be chosen as a sacrifice." he mumbled, "It's alright. I will make sure all of us live." silver reassured him, "I won't let any of us die. I will find a way back to our islands..." Zip zop gave him a sympathetic smile "Kid. I am glad you are willing to do that for us... But we have to be eaten, if we are not..." he didn't have to finish, everyone knew we couldn't escape, the lifes of thousands and thousands of colts and ponies rested in their hands, they had to play their part and sacrifice themselves to the wyrms.
"A sacrifice it made to keep the deal true." -Book of Wyrmtail 2:4
Fire Sparkle returned to her seat, a dark bruise was already forming on her left cheek from where the captain of the ship had struck her. Silver felt sorry for her. He stared at the ponies body, examining her slender figure and unique curves, he found her beautiful, even more so than the other pony scooter bug. He knew she was out of his league, but maybe this survival thing could get him with her until they died, what was wrong with him? Thoughts at a time like this? Silver walked downstairs and leaned over the side of the ship. He splashed some water on his face, the thoughts slowly faded away, it was going to be a long day tommorow, they all knew it. For tommorow they would arrive to their fates, to their deaths, at wyrmtail island... Night soon came along and all the ponies and colts settled into bed, the captain came into the room "Good night y'all. Tommorow you will be dropped off at wyrmtail island. I hope you the best of rest, you will need it." with that he shut the door. "Good night." silver said, the others mumbled their good nights and went off to sleep, and silver joined in.
