September
Written by:
TheBronyMatrixFilms
Edited by: TheDarkAngel
Chapter 1:
The Inn
“Come on guys!” yelled Thunderwing, “I saw a hut or something, about half a mile away!”
“Half a mile away!?” complained Gentle, “Might as well be ten miles away!”
“I agree with her, bro,” said Odysseus, “We all don’t have wings like you. Well, except for Mike. Speaking of Mike,” said Odysseus as he turned his head towards the dark silver alicorn, “why have you been so quiet boss?”
Mike turned and looked at the western horizon of the San Palomino Desert. As the sun started to set Mike started thinking to himself. “What the hell did he release from Tartarus? And how did he do it?”
“Uhh... boss?” asked Odysseus, “You alright?”
Mike snapped back into focus and looked at the light brown unicorn, whom was covered in soot due to his recent usage of his magical portable forge.
“Huh?” said Mike, “Oh, I’m ok, it’s nothing,” lied Mike.
“You sure Mike?” asked Gentle, “Is it what we saw in Los Pegasus? Because it was pretty gruesome. I regret even casting the spell that allows non-pegasi and alicorns to walk on clouds,” Gentle shuddered at the memory.
“I’ve seen worse” said Mike grimly, “trust me.”
Thunderwing, Gentle and Odysseus were about to protest, but the look on Mike’s face told them to drop it.
“Sooooo...” said Thunderwing to break the awkwardness, “It’s about to be dark in couple of hours, about two hours at best. So if we are going to the “hut” we better hurry up so we have time to set up camp.”
“Uhg! Fine!” complained Gentle, “But if I pass out from exhaustion, YOU will have to carry me the rest of the way there.”
“I won’t mind,” chuckled Thunderwing.
As they raced towards the shelter, a million thoughts and questions went through Gentles head, wondering about what Mike meant.
When they got closer, they noticed that it was an old west style inn called “The Lone Wolf”.
“We need to go in and make sure it is clear,” said Mike, “I don’t want to wake up next to those monsters.”
“Sure, you and me can go check the perimeter,” said Thunderwing, “Oddy, you and Gentle can check the inn to make sure it is cleared.”
“No problem, Sparky,” grinned Odysseus.
“I told you not call me that in front of anyone.” hissed Thunderwing. Odysseus snickered as he and Gentle walked into the inn.
“Sparky?” said Mike trying hard enough not to laugh. Thunderwing rolled his eyes unamused, then pointed to his cutie mark: a loaded bow with a lighting bolt behind the arrow. “I know, I know,” said Mike now regaining his composure, “that thing you do with bow, now lets check the perimeter.” He then unfurled his wings and took flight with an annoyed Thunderwing following him. Inside the inn Gentle and Odysseus slowly creeped down a corridor. Gentle then unsheathed her magical double-edged flaming sword, Odysseus followed her lead and unstrapped his double-edged battleaxe.
“Nice inn,” said Gentle to break the awkward silence in between them as they checked each room.
“It’s quite nice but, I’m uneasy about this place considering we-”
“-found it in the middle of nowhere?” said Gentle finishing his sentence, “Well we may be in a popular route for merchants as they go from Los Pegasus to Appleloosa or somewhere more east.”
“Well it doesn’t matter now,” said Odysseus while he looked inside a room, “Now that with this crap going on the reason it is here won’t make it matter on why it’s here, what will matter is that it IS here”
“True enough,” concluded Gentle, “Now lets finish checking the rooms” After checking every room they went outside to talk with their friends. “We checked every room. There is nothing in there.”
“You sure?” asked Mike skeptically, “I don’t want to get ambushed in the middle of the night.”
“We’re sure boss,” reassured Odysseus, “not a single soul or demon in this place”
“Okay, who will take the first shift?” asked Gentle.
“I’ll take it.” volunteered Mike.
“Oh no!” argued Gentle, “We are not letting you turn into an insomniatic zombie tonight Mike-Mic!” “You are never careful enough to take care of yourself, even if it is to protect us,” Gentle said with a worried look growing on her face, “we won’t let you hurt yourself again”
“But-”
“No buts,” interrupted Odysseus, “look we know we consider you the leader and stuff but you aren’t helping yourself or us, now go and pick out a room and settle in for the night Mikey, you need to rest”
“Fine” Mike trotted into the inn annoyed then realized that Odysseus called him Mikey “AND DON’T CALL ME MIKEY!”
“I’ll take the first shift guys,” Thunderwing volunteered, “you guys go pick out the rooms you want to crash in. I’ll keep watch ‘till midnight, then I’ll switch shifts with you ,bro, if you want the second shift that is”
“Sure thing, bro” said Odysseus while looking at the last rays of the sun vanish under the desert horizon and the moon rise in its place, “I’ll switch with Gentle after my shift.”
“Well guys lets go in and settle in I’ll come back out after I pick out my room” said Thunderwing.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
As the moon rose high in the night sky, Thunderwing waited for his friends to fall asleep. It didn’t take long for them to fall asleep, so he went outside to start his shift. When he walked passed a mirror he stopped and looked at his reflection.
Staring back at him was a dark-grey pegasus with blown-back black mane with a silver stripe down the middle. The pegasus looking back at him had agua-blue eyes and on the right side of his face had a long scar that went over his right eye. When he looked at his cutie mark it had a bow with a loaded arrow with a bolt of electricity that intertwined with the arrow. On his back he had a sleek bronze bow and a quiver full of arrows, and hidden behind the quiver was a hidden sheathed knife.
When Thunderwing saw his scar he quickly turned away from his reflection and trotted away from the mirror to the exit. “No need to remember your failure,” he said to himself. When he exited the inn he closed his eyes and tried to calm his mind of his memories. When he opened them he looked around to take in the beauty of the desert night. Thunderwing then unslung his bow and took a few seconds to admire his little brother’s blacksmithing skills, “The kid’s always had that talent and always is generous to give away his masterpieces,” he muttered. After plucking the bow string a few times, he spread his wings and flew up onto the roof and notched an arrow. He steadily aimed at the farthest cactus he could find, that was about a couple hundred meters away, and let the arrow fly. When the arrow was halfway to the cactus it suddenly burst into electrical sparks, sending waves of electrical arcs when it hit the cactus, frying it in the process.
Satisfied with the fried cactus, he lied down on the roof, putting his hooves behind his head and gazed at the star-filled sky. He stared in awe at the night sky. Growing up in Baltimare, he had never seen so many stars in his life. He stayed up gazing at the sky until a flash of light blinded him for a second.
“Beautiful night isn’t?”
Unfazed despite the fact he had been momentarily blinded he continued to gaze at the stars, “Surprising that with this shit going down that we still can see a beautiful night sky,” Thunderwing replied back, “Doesn’t surprise you, Oddy?”
“What? The night sky or what has been happening?” asked Odysseus as he walked towards Thunderwing.
“Both.”
“Well the night sky doesn’t surprise me much but is still amazing, but on what has been going on, I guess it took us all by surprise.”
“Still thinking about what happened in Baltimare?”
Thunderwing turned to look at his brother. What Odysseus saw in his older brother’s eyes was sadness and anger. “Thunder?” Odysseus’ face was filled with concern, “You okay, bro?”
Thunderwing shook his head to try and get get rid of the memory, then cleared his throat, “Ahem... Yeah, I’m alright,” Thunderwing lied.
“You sure, Sparky?” asked Odysseus skeptically, “Is it because what happened in Baltima-”
“I SAID IT’S NOTHING!” snapped Thunderwing.
Odysseus recoiled in alarm at this. It wasn’t the first time Thunderwing snapped at somepony about his past. Odysseus usually was the one to take the brunt of his brother’s sudden outbursts. “He’s been spiteful since we left Baltimare.”
Thunderwing sighed and regained his composure, “Sorry about that man. It’s just that I’m stressed out.” he then turned to the eastern horizon.
“It’s okay” reassured Odysseus, “We all are, we’re still lucky to be alive” he added, “Go to sleep, I’ll take over from here and get some rest man”
“Ok, bro,” yawned Thunderwing realizing how tired he was, “See ya in the morning.” And with that he flew into the inn.
“When will he forgive himself?” sighed Odysseus.
When Thunderwing walked past the mirror again he caught a glimpse of his scar. As he flew away towards the room he picked out earlier a single tear rolled down his face. When he got to the room he unslung his bow, quiver and knife from his back and hung them on a coat hanger on a wall. He then walked over the bed that was next to a window. After looking at the moon one last time, he climbed on the bed and fell into the limbo of dreams.
Chapter 2:
Burning Flame
The following morning everypony, save Gentle, was awoken by an explosion followed by the inn shaking furiously. “Guys!” yelled Gentle franticly, “Get up! We’ve got a problem here!”
Mike-Mic quickly scrambled to his hooves and looked around, still half asleep, and noticed something new that was in the room. Lying next to the bed was a set of silver armor in the style of a Royal Guard. It had a couple of modifications to the normal Royal Guard armor: it had a glove-like wing blades, a chain link hood and it had chain link armor that covers most of his body except for the face. Next to the armor was his steel claymore sword.
He quickly donned the armor and put on the sheath for his sword, and flew out the window, making it rain glass around him.
Mike quickly seized up his bearings and what was going on, a ten foot giant with a tree that he used as a club and about eight chimeras were trying to attack the inn but, were held back by an orange force-field. Mike turned towards the roof where an orange unicorn was conjuring up the force-field. Her eyes were closed in concentration as her horn held a steady orange aura around it.
Gentle opened her left eye and saw Mike flying towards her. “Morning” she strained as she struggled to keep her force-field spell up, “Sleep well?”
“Yeah but, we don’t really need to discuss how well I slept right now”
Gentle managed to smile a little at his denial, “Told ya we needed you to sleep, but anyways you’re right we got other problems to deal with at hoof” she said as she nodded towards the monster the were inside the force-field, “I only had time to put up the force-field before the giant got any closer, but the chimeras got in before I put it up”
“You’re doing your best don’t worry but where did they come from?”
“From over there” she nodded towards the southeast.
“The Macintosh Hills?” questioned Mike as he looked at the mountain range for a moment or two. “I wonder...”
“Hey guys!” yelled Thunderwing making Mike focus on the grey pegasus as he flew towards them. Mike noticed that Thunderwing had armor too.
Thunderwing’s armor was similar to the one Mike was wearing except it was made of an Ebony Steel and he had a brown hood covering the chainmail hood. “Sorry for interrupting your VERY important morning chat”, he said with his voice dripping with sarcasm, “but as you can see, we have a problem that we need help in” Thunderwing nodded towards the chimeras inside the force-field.
“Oh, Right. We need to take them out right now or else we can’t make it to Appleloosa before dark” said Mike.
“I already have Oddy on that” informed Thunderwing as he gestured at a figure below moving towards the chimeras. Upon further inspection Mike saw that it was Odysseus with his double-edged battleaxe in a light-grey magical aura. Odysseus then broke into a gallop as he near one of the chimeras. With a jerk of his head Odysseus brought down his battleaxe on the chimera and swiftly beheaded the beast.
Mike, Thunderwing and Gentle stared at Odysseus in awe as the decapitated chimera fell onto it’s side and started to form a puddle of blood. Odysseus quickly disappeared in a flash of white light and reappeared on the roof.
Smirking at the dumbfounded looks on his friends he wiped his blood smeared face. “You guys going to help me or just going to keep on gawking?” Odysseus said nonchalantly.
Mike was the first to regain his composure and extended his wings and took on a fighting stance. “Ready to kick some flank?”
“I was born ready” snorted Thunderwing with a cocky grin.
“I’ll hold back the giant for as long as I can, so i suggest you guys hurry because I’m starting to to feel a bit light headed” strained Gentle.
“We would rather help a tired you than to carry an unconscious one to Appleloosa” said Mike.
“Just hurry up”
With that Mike and Thunderwing shot to the air while Odysseus simply jumped off the roof. A battle-cry went up as the trio charged at the chimeras. Although Mike has seen plenty on chimeras before, they still made chills go up his spine at the sight of them. Each chimera had the head of a lion and goat, the body of a lion and a snake for a tail.
As they approached the nearest chimera, it turned towards the alicorn and the pegasus flying towards it. Paying no mind to the charging unicorn it opened its maw and shot a column of fire towards Mike and Thunderwing. Mike sharply turned left to avoid the flames and Thunderwing shot higher up only to have a bit of his tail charred. Quickly recovering from the flames, Thunderwing hovered in the air for a bit and launched a volley of arrows to rain down on the beasts each sparking with electricity. Mike and Odysseus managed to take cover before the chimeras began to realized what was transpiring as they each stiffen up stunt by the electrical shocks and the arrows piercing their flesh, making them look like porcupines. Mike and Odysseus took their opportunity to finish off the chimeras. In a matter of minutes, what used to be a sandy desert in front of the inn turned into a gory red pool of blood and corpses of the chimeras.
“Guys! Get ready!” yelled down Gentle. In a few seconds the orange aura surrounding her horn vanished and the force-field broke apart as the giant hit it one last time with his club. She then collapsed on the roof exhausted for holding up the shield against the giant. The giant then charged at the trio below letting out a ground shaking roar.
Thunderwing then waved a hoof in front of himself, “Dude! Ever heard of breath mints?” He quickly regained his composure and took on a fighting stance.
When the giant got close enough, it swung it’s massive club at Odysseus, who jumped back seconds before the massive tree hit where he had been standing. He then countered with a swing of his battleaxe, cutting a large wound on the giant’s right leg. The giant roared in agony and backhanded Odysseus to the inn. Odysseus hit the side of the inn leaving a crater in it, then fell to the ground. When he hit the ground a low painful moan escaped Odysseus lips before his vision turned black.
Thunderwing, still hovering above stared in horror as he watched the events unfold before him. Fearing the worst has happened his features went from shock and disbelief to rage and murderous as he glared at the giant as his vision turned red. He yelled in rage as he charged at the giant from above, bow and arrow ready. Before the giant could react, Thunderwing launched at shower of arrows at the giant’s navel. Doubling-over by the unexpected attack the arrows sent a surge of electricity through the giant, stunning him for a couple of moments and fell onto the sandy ground.
Landing a couple meters away Thunderwing broke into a gallop towards the giant. As he galloped Thunderwing reached over to his quiver, but instead of grabbing another arrow he slung his bow across his back and unsheath his 17 inch dagger. Before reaching the giant he flew high above the fallen beast. Seeing what was happening, the giant started to get up slowly, but Mike quickly flew in and slashed at the giant’s ankles. The giant’s legs buckled under his weight because of the newly opened wounds. Mike then swooped in and slashed at the giant’s chest. The giant looked down at his chest and saw a bloody X carved into it. As the pain started to register he looked up and saw Mike with his blood-slick claymore. He tried to stand up to swat Mike out of the sky but his ankles shot up a spark of pain causing him to fall on his back. Thunderwing then dived down and landed on the giant’s chest. Without a second thought he slit the giant’s throat making blood spray like a fountain.
Thunderwing trotted slowly away drenched in blood from the bloodied corpse and stopped next to Mike.
“Let me go find a cloud for ya” offered Mike.
“Thanks man” replied Thunderwing in a monotone voice. While he talked his thoughts were not in sync with his word. He then looked over where his younger brother’s body laid unconscious and a bit bloody. Suddenly he was overshadowed by a dark-gray cloud that Mike had brought. Without warning, Mike jumped on the cloud forcing his armor to rattle and the cloud to rain, dousing on Thunderwing as it turned from a dark-gray to white.
After the cloud was drained, Thunderwing coughed violently, “You could've warned me”
“Hey at least you’re not drenched in blood anymore” argued Mike.
Thunderwing then proceeded to take off his armor, “Enough about my health, we need to check on my brother”
As they trotted to where Odysseus laid, they saw Gentle cradling his head.
“Is he...”, choked Thunderwing unable to say what he feared the most.
“He’s ok”, reassured Gentle knowing the worry he had, “I’m no medic, but I took some basic First-Aid classes, he only has a couple broken ribs and a concussion, nothing serious.”
Thunderwing relaxed but held some doubt, “How long will he be out?”
“He’ll be knocked-out for at least a good six hours, give or take” informed Gentle, “That’ll at least give us enough time to pack-up and reach Appleloosa by late-afternoon, before he wakes though”
“Hey Gentle” whispered Mike, “let’s give him some space, let’s go check if there are any supplies in some of the other rooms of the inn”
“Sure” she agreed, “we are in need of supplies anyways”
Gentle nodded her head towards Thunderwing and set Odysseus’ head down on the sandy ground and left with Mike inside the inn.
When they left, Thunderwing walked over to his brother’s unconscious body and laid down next to him. He started to stroke Odysseus’ light-grey and white mane and muttered to himself, “Why was I not careful enough?” He closed his eyes as tears started to flow. He quickly wiped his face and sighed sadly suddenly his anger rose to a peak, “I could've lost you, you big idiot!” he then chided himself, “No! I won’t let you see me or let you suffer like this. I promised mom and pops that I’ll take care of ya and I will take that promise more serious, I’ll take care of you even after my death, I swear on Celestia and the deepest pits of Hell itself.”
Thunderwing then stood up and looked at the gory remains of the monsters. Anger started to rise up in his chest but then an idea sparked in him. He then started to pile up the corpses of the chimeras on top of the giant. Gentle came out with her saddlebag full of supplies.
“Man I really need to ask Odysseus to make me an enchanted saddlebag, when he wakes up” thought Gentle, she then looked over at Thunderwing who was dragging the chimeras to a pile, “Hey, need any help?” He craned his neck towards her. She flinched when she saw his bloodshot aqua-blue eyes. He then continued to pile the corpses when he spoke, “Can you bring me some lighter fluid and some kindling?”
“Sure”, Gentle levitated her saddlebag to the ground, “I’ll see what i can find” She later came back with wooden planks, books and a couple bottles of lighter fluid and put them next to Thunderwing. She and Thunderwing then spread the planks and ripped pages of the books on and around the pile of corpses. Thunderwing set aside one bottle and dumped the contents of the remaining bottles. He then cut open the one bottle he set aside and dipped his dagger into it. When he pulled it out he concentrated on the blade. Suddenly there was a spark and the blade bursted into flames. Tossing the opened bottle into the pile, he then stabbed the nearest corpse and the pile was set ablaze.
Thunderwing found a little peace in the fire but still held resentment towards himself. Gentle turned to look at him and saw how the light made him look grim and daunting, but also noticed the sadden scowl. “You going to be okay?”
He closed his eyes, “I’m not sure, but I almost lost my brother, he’s all I got. If I lose him I won’t see a reason to live anymore. He’s all the family I’ve got left.”
“What about us? Me and Mike? We need you. Both of you”
“I doubt that both of you can survive with each other. And it’s the opposite, it’s me and brother that need you guys. Mike is the one that saved us in Baltimare. I couldn’t even protect my brother. I almost lost him because of my carelessness. I swear, as long as I live, he won’t die. I’ll put down my life to save his, yours and Mike’s”
“Thunderwing, no one will die, you’ll see. We will survive this and stop it”
“What if it can’t be stopped?” He said as the anger started to rise in his voice and looked her in the eye.
“Then we continue to live and survive”
Thunderwing gave a defeated sigh and walked over to where he left his armor and stated to put it back on.
“Well” huffed Gentle, “lets not worry about that now. We need to focus on the here and now. which is getting to Appleloosa. It’s still early so we have plenty of time. Now lets look for something we can use to carry Oddy inside”
Author's Note
I would like to thank TheDarkAngle for his help on editing this story. You are great, and on that note I will be taking over the editing.
