Advent of Victory

My stomach quivered and protested as we continued to trudge along in relative silence. The apple that I had foolishly accepted was still trying to make its way up my esophagus. It had been delicious going down, but it seemed that my new body wasn’t exactly built for ingesting the juicy fruit. I groaned in agony, but kept walking forward at my reduced pace.

We had stopped for a small break earlier, and I had taken the opportunity to cook all of the meat I still had. Using some scrap pieces of paper and a tinder that I found in Raq’s bag I had started a fire strong enough to thoroughly cook the slabs of meat I had brought with me. The entire time I was working though, Deciduous looked like he was going to relieve himself of a particularly sweet and delicious apple.

He didn’t launch any protests with me the whole time I was cooking what was left of the Diamond Dog however. I had thought that him being a herbivore would mean he would be violently against any eating of meat. I am still not sure if he kept silence out of fear or some deeper understanding of my nature, but he had made sure to not come anywhere close to the fire as I was cooking.

It hadn’t taken too long since there wasn’t exactly all that much to dry out, and soon I had a nice bundle wrapped up in my bag that would last me a few days if I ate it sparingly. It seemed that my young friend had gravely misjudged how long it was going to take us to get to the border, since we had been walking through the daylight for nearly four hours now. Everything for miles around was a barren wasteland, but about half a mile ahead I was able to see the mountains we were approaching at a snails pace.

The earth pony in front of me suddenly stopped and almost caused me to crash right into his back. I sidestepped and narrowly avoided the collision before giving him an incredulous look.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Up ahead is the border.” He pointed to the mountains in front of us. “There is a path that leads through the mountains and into Equestria. You might want to clean up some before we get there though.” He sheepishly looked away from me after that last bit.

It took me a second to realize what he was talking about, but eventually it clicked. I licked my lips and was immediately greeted by the taste of copper. It seemed that some of the diamond dog blood had dried on my muzzle, and would probably be a major put off to anypony we came across.

“You have some water?” I asked. Before the question had even left my lips he was already digging through his bags for a canteen. I used my teeth to rip off a small piece of linen from a cloth in my bag and I took the flask from him. With the now wet cloth I vigorously scrubbed my jowls.

After a moment I pulled away the now pink cloth, and smiled to the kid next to me. “I get it?”

He just stared back at me for a minute as if trying to decide what to say before he finally rolled his eyes, “Yea.”

“Lead on then.” At my word he once again began to advance towards the mountains as I tossed the cloth over my shoulder. Probably wouldn’t be much use for a bloody rag out here with nopony around.

“Hey Deci, where do you live anyway.” I wasn’t able to see him blush at my use of a nickname, but I could see him freeze up for a moment before continuing on.

“My parents live just outside of Las Pegasus,” he said without turning back.

“How far away is that from the border?”

“About two weeks on hoof,” he replied nonchalantly. I had to stop myself from falling over in shock in true anime style though, since I was walking around in a cartoon world the desire to do so was very tempting.

“What the hell are you doing all the way out here?”

“I told you that already.”

“Whatever. If I have to babysit you for half a month there better be one hell of a reward waiting for me.” We had just about reached the foot of the mountains, and the path ahead was just starting to become visible.

The mountains themselves were towers of rock that stretched as far as the eye could see in either direction. The insanely small path that was stretched out ahead of us wound along the sheer cliff face, and looked like it had been built by an insane blind man. If I focused for a moment I could even see tiny pieces of it falling hundreds of feet to the ground below. My apprehension was understandable.

“Oh hell no,” I said as I stopped and caused my companion to as well.

“What?” he asked innocently.

“There is no way in hell that I am getting on that path,” I stated with a stomp, which since I now had paws didn’t really do much.

“Why not?” he turned to face me.

“Just look at it. There is no way that thing will hold both of us.” I honestly have no clue about architecture or construction, but it looked really shoddy to my untrained eyes.

“Well you can walk all the way around if you want. See you in a couple of months.” Without waiting for my reply he turned and started along the trail. I looked left and right, but wasn’t able to actually make out anything other than mountains. Sighing, I followed him onto the path, which I just knew was going to be the end of me.

Instead of staying close to the ground like any good path would have done, this one quickly began to ascend higher into the mountains until I was soon able to look over the side and see the rocks hundreds of feet below. It isn’t something that I like to talk about, but I may have a tiny fear of heights. It isn’t like anything traumatic happened to me as a child that caused the fear, but for as long as I could remember, whenever I was this high up I could not help myself from picturing my body crashing into the ground below over and over.

Only after the fifteenth time I saw myself dying horribly on the jagged rocks that lay at the bottom of the cliff, my companion pulled me from my reverie with a simple question.

“Hey, Vixen?”

“Yea,” I answered after a moment. It took me a second to realize he was calling me by my fake name.

“What is hell?” At first I was struck dumb by the question, but the more I thought about it the more sense it made. Of course ponies had no concept of hell.

“It’s a place were murderers and bad ponies go when they die so they can burn for all eternity.” Maybe I shouldn’t have put it so bluntly.

The color drained from his face as I finished speaking. “That’s horrible.”

“They deserve it or else they wouldn’t be there.” Shrugging, I took the lead of our two-man wolf pack. It wasn’t like I actually needed him to guide me much anymore since there was literally only one way we could go. To my relief, as we crested a rise the path started to get a lot wider.

It was almost as wide as two car lanes, and if the wheel marks that I could see in the dirt below me were anything to go by then there seemed to be a decent amount of traffic. The mountains provided a shade that I was thankful for. Like any true Texan I have no problems with the heat or walking around in the sun when it is over a hundred degrees outside, but with this new thick coat attached to my skin the heat was starting to get to me. I was just about ready to keel over at any moment when we finally made it to the shade of the peaks above us.

“Where does this path let out anyway?” I asked as I dropped back so that I was walking alongside him.

“There is a town on the other side of the mountains called Rubyton. It is where I stocked up on supplies before I came this way. They are mostly traders that send out caravans into the wastes to get gems and bring them back.” I noticed that he was glancing around nervously.

“How do they get the gems?” I also glanced up at the ledges we were passing under half expecting to see sandpeople staring down at us. I was a little disappointed to find nothing there.

“I assume they trade with the diamond dogs for them, but who knows they might dig them up themselves.”

“You mean they trade with slavers?” Was I the only one that thought that was incredibly wrong?

“I guess.” He shrugged.

I sighed; I don’t think that I would ever be able to understand these ponies. “Why do you look so nervous?” I asked, deciding to change the subject.

He hesitated a moment as he continued to look around. With every step he took I could see him wince a little. “Snakes.”

“Snakes? You are afraid of snakes?” Now I was laughing. He glared at me, but that only served to increase the hilarity of the situation. He was walking around with a super sharp sword how could a snake scare him?

My laughter was suddenly cut off as the sound of somepony screaming reached my ears. Before I could stop him, Deciduous had taken off running down the path ahead towards the noise. I would have called him out for doing something incredibly stupid if I weren’t afraid of attracting attention to myself. I scowled and took off after him, I wasn’t going to let the kid die after I had just saved his life the night prior. I’m pretty sure there is supposed to be some responsibility or something about saving someone's life.

As I rounded a particularly sharp corner I almost ran into the green earth pony that was standing stark still in the middle of the road. I walked up next to him, and followed his gaze to the horrible scene that was playing out in front of us. About fifty yards away a group of ponies were fighting off a fifty-foot snake with wooden spears.

The thing reminded me of an ancient basilisk, but was far larger than any depiction of one I had ever seen. It stood nearly fifteen feet tall as it looked down on its prey that were feebly trying to defend against it. Its sand colored scales blended in perfectly to the mountainside, and I could only assume that it had been lying in wait for the poor caravan to come along and be its lunch.

The massive creature lunged forwards as quick as lightning and grabbed one of the mares by her head before lifting her into the air. I could hear her muffled screaming from where I stood before it was cut off by the crunch of the snake biting down. The serpent then reared back its head and devoured the mare whole before turning back to the group of ponies staring at it in horror.

“We are going to need a bigger net.” Though incredibly lame it pretty much summed up all my thoughts on the situation.

Before I knew it, my companion was once again charging over to the group with no care for his safety. His insanely stupid and hasty actions had now put me at a metaphorical crossroad. If I tried to go up against that thing there was no doubt in my mind that it would rip me to shreds in an instant; especially since it was twenty times my size and I was still trying to get fully used to this body. At the same time I didn’t want to see the only pony that I had met so far by eaten because he charged at the nightmarish creature without thinking.

I groaned in frustration for a moment once more took off running after him. I took the time to marvel at just how fast I was going; I was probably doing something close to thirty or forty miles an hour. Looking up at the snake as I ran towards it once again reminded me that this was by far the stupidest thing I have ever done. Well, maybe it wasn’t as stupid as running into oncoming traffic in order to win a bet, but it was definitely a close second. That twenty bucks had totally been worth it.

It took me only ten seconds to cross the expanse between where I was standing and the group of ponies, but in that time the snake had thrown a unicorn stallion into the rock wall where he now lay motionless. I did a quick count, and saw that there were seven ponies still left fighting against the serpent, including the two pegasus in the sky that were trying to get its attention. The snake wore what appeared to be a grin as it played with its soon to be meal.

Deciduous had tossed his luggage into one of the carts, and unsheathed the sword he had strapped under his saddlebags. He broke the line of ponies and stabbed the snake causing the diamond edge to sink deeply into the snake’s underbelly. Blood sprayed everywhere as he ripped the sword free once more and moved to make another attack. The snake turned its attention to the teen and dived at him, and he was barely able to roll out of the way as it snapped the air where he had just stood.

I took the opportunity to lunge forward myself, and swipe at its face with my claws. They didn’t sink into its scales very far, but I did manage to score four long marks down one of its cheeks which slowly started to bleed. The giant snake let out a shriek of what I could only assume to be pain before it turned on me. I really didn’t like the look in its eyes.

“Come at me bro,” I taunted as I slowly moved away from the group of ponies. I highly doubted they would be of any help here. The snake stared down at me as I separated from the group. In a flash its mouth was moving forwards at me. I jumped to the side in a display of agility that I shouldn’t have been able to do, and barely managed to get out of its way as it flew past me at lightning speeds. Luckily, I had been standing near the rock wall, and the snake collided with it hard enough to send a few rock crashing down the mountainside.

A massive boulder nearly crushed me as it landed just to my side between the snake and me. I swore as I ran around the rock, wanting to make use of the daze the beast had likely received from ramming that rock wall. Just as I made it around the rock it lunged at me once again causing me to jump wildly to the side to avoid being eaten. It almost caught me with a swipe of its tail, but I managed to roll under it.

It occurred to me that I should probably try and use the vials of liquids I had strapped about me. The snake stopped concentrating on me as Deciduous landed another strake as its back was turned, giving me enough time to pull off one of the vials of clear liquid. There was absolutely no way that I had enough sleeping gas to knock out this giant so I would have to use my incendiaries. I took aim and threw the vial for all it was worth at the snakes head to only miss horribly. I’m not sure if you know this, but paws aren’t very good for throwing projectiles. The vial came crashing down near one of the ponies that shrieked and jumped out of the way as fire exploded next to her.

I swore and grabbed another vial ready to make another attempt, but the snake seemed to catch on to what I was doing. Soon I was once again staring into its huge unblinking eyes as it leered down at my small form. I threw the vial once more only for it to sail wide and fall off the trail and into the jagged rocks below. I could swear the snake seemed almost amused with how terribly I was doing.

It opened its mouth wide to show me its long rows of terrifyingly long teeth that dripped with saliva and poison. My breath caught in my throat as it launched itself down at me. I couldn’t watch my death come at me and closed my eyes flinching away. I waited for what would not doubt be the inevitable searing pain followed by a quick fade to black, but the snake never bit into me.

Hesitantly, I opened an eye to peer up at the great beast that had for some reason decided not to kill me, and the view before me almost made me let out the breath I was still holding. The snake had completely stopped moving just a few feet away from me. In fact everything had stopped moving.

I looked around disbelieving as I saw Deciduous suspended in the air with a bloody sword in his mouth and an angry scowl on his face. A blanket was frozen in the grip of an earth pony mare as she tried to beat an unmoving flame that I had accidentally caused. Several droplets of saliva trailed behind the massive serpent as it continued to stare down at me with both hunger and fury. I had no idea why time had decided to stop for a moment, but I wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

I made to take a step out of the way of the snake’s path, but as soon as I finished taking my first step a sudden pain exploded in my chest. I fell to the ground with a yelp letting out the breath I had been holding, and watched as the strange spell that had fallen over everything broke. The snake crashed into the ground where I had just been, missing me by only a few inches. I tried to get up, but the pain that had flared up in my chest was still impeding me. I shakily made my way to a standing position only to be caught off guard by a swipe of the snake’s tail and sent careening into the rock wall.

The beast had recovered from its fight with the ground, and now slithered over towards me slowly. I didn’t have enough strength left in me to stand up let alone continue to fight the serpent. I don’t know what had caused the time stop that had just saved me, but it seemed that it was all for not; seeing as how the creature was about to eat me anyways.

Imagine my surprise when a ball of fire exploded in front of it and caused it to rear away. Another explosion blossomed next to the first and was soon followed by yet another. The glass bombs continued to reign down from on high, and created a wall of what I assumed to be burning oil between my foe and I. I turned my gaze upwards to see a pegasus hurling bottles down at the ground to try and scare the beast off, and to my endless wonder it seemed to be working.

The mare slowly descended as she kept throwing liquid flame at the snake until eventually, fed up with all of the trouble it was having, it slithered off to places unknown. She landed with one of her bombs still held in her hoof until she thought that the coast was clear. I shakily stood up from where I was lying against the mountainside, and limped over to where Deciduous was standing with his sword still in his mouth. My entire right side was sore from the impact, but I don’t think that I had broken anything, which was incredibly lucky.

A few cuts had opened all along me as I had slammed into the uneven rocks that made up the side of the mountain. I wiped a good amount of blood from my brow before turning to the mare that had just saved my life. She was a red pegasus with an incredibly white mane. Her cutie mark was hidden beneath the several bags that she had strapped to her back, and a scar ran along the right side of her neck. She finished stowing away the bottles that she had been carrying and turned to face me as well.

We continued to stare at eachother for a tense few seconds before our contest was ended by Deciduous’ face popping into my vision. “Oh my goodness, Vixen. Are you okay?”

I backed up from the stallion that was invading my personal space. “I’m fine kid, just a few scrapes. It would have been a lot worse if our friend here hadn’t showed up,” I said motioning to the mare in front of me.

“Don’t worry about it,” she replied hesitantly.

“No, but we should be thanking you. You saved us all from that snake.” He was now walking over to her, and she looked almost as wary of him as she was me. “I’m Deciduous by the way, and this big fox over here is Vixen. I know she may look kind of scary being covered in cuts and some blood, but she won’t hurt you or anything.” He motioned to me without turning around.

“Scarlet.”

“Well Scarlet, like I was saying we are just super grateful for you helping us out.”

“Like I said don’t mention it.” Scarlet spread her wings wide and took off into the skies before he could say anything else.

“Well that was kind of rude,” he said to himself as he watched her leave.

“Maybe she just wants to be alone,” I remarked as I started walking back to towards the caravan. “Come on lets get our stuff and get out of here.”

He quickly hurried along behind me as we made our way over to the survivors. They were all huddled around the stallion that had been tossed into the wall and still hadn’t gotten up. Another stallion was lying in a heap beside one of the carts, crying his eyes out. He was probably the husband of the mare who had gotten eaten. I walked over to the cart that Deciduous had tossed his belongings into, and grabbed the bag I had dropped into the dirt next to it. Deciduous followed my lead and grabbed his stuff and started putting his saddlebags back on.

“Try not to run straight at a monster without thinking next time. It is a really good way to get yourself killed,” I said as I began to once again walk down the path ahead.

“I was just trying to help. We couldn’t just leave them there to fight that thing alone,” he protested causing me to sigh.

“We didn’t even do anything except almost getting ourselves killed. In the end it was Scarlet that scared the snake away, and all we did was take a few hits. If something dangerous like that happens again just try and take a second to think before you run in waving around that sword.”

“Fine.” He turned away in a pout that only brought a smile to my lips.

“Wait!” a voice cried out behind me, bringing me to stop. I was already cursing myself for even stopping as I turned around to look at the mare who was quickly running over to me. “Don’t leave us here like this. What if that snake comes back?”

She was an average looking earth pony that really didn’t stand out much. She was grey with a ginger mane that clung tightly to her neck as it fell over her left side. She had a pair of decent looking saddlebags slung over her back, and her cutie mark seemed to be of a pile of bits.

“That’s not my problem. Maybe you should find a path that isn’t infested with giant snakes if you don’t want to be eaten. Or at least get something better than wooden spears to protect yourselves with.” I can’t believe how dismally they were equipped.

“Please don’t just abandon us. I saw you fight the snake, you are strong.”

“And I got my tail handed to me. What makes you think that I can help you out at all?” Oh great, now she looked like she was about to cry.

“Vixen, lets just stick around,” Deciduous pleaded.

I looked back and forth between him and the mare for a moment before I finally conceded. If anything, when that snake came back I would be able to use these ponies as meat shields while I got away. “Fine, but I want to get paid if you are going to have me on escort duty.” Escort missions are the worst.

That mare in front of me immediately perked up and began nodding her head eagerly. “Of course. It’s only three more days until we get to Rubyton once we start moving again. Does seventy bits sound reasonable?” How the hell was I supposed to know?

“One hundred and ten bits, take it or leave it.” I liked to think I had a flair for extortion.

“Deal!” she eagerly ran back over to one of the carts and started to count out bits. I facepawed at how easily she had accepted my counter offer. These were traders; of course she was going to lowball me with the first offer.

Sighing, I walked over to the mare and collected my fee before inspecting the rest of the group. I tossed the bits into my bag before handing it to Deciduous, which he happily accepted. There didn’t seem to be any unicorns among this caravan aside from the one that was passed out on the ground, and there were only two pegasi. The earth ponies pulled the three carts that they had, which were loaded to the brim with boxes and gems. If we ever made it back to civilization they would probably make a small fortune off of this trip.

They gently placed the unconscious stallion into the back of one of the carts before hitching themselves up so that they could move out. Since I didn’t feel much like walking I also jumped into the back of one of the carts and unstrapped all of the vials that I had around me before lying down. It seemed like my throwing arm hadn’t gotten any better with this new body so they would probably be completely useless for me. I put my head between my paws and tried to get to sleep as the ponies pulling the cart along the dirt path. If I had to stick around then I might as well get a ride while I did so.