I Am Not Afraid

I Am Not Afraid

Story 1

Chapter 6: The Beast

By: FluttersIsAwesome

From what Twilight told me, Nova managed to pull off his new fire breathing trick five more times before their shift ended, and each one lasted a little bit longer than the last. I still didn’t like the idea of Nova having fire come out of his mouth, but I figured it was for the best that he learned to control this new power. The next leg of our journey took us through Goldpine Pass, the only valley in the Goldpine Mountains low enough to actually travel through. Gilda warned us that this would probably be the most dangerous part of the journey seeing as how many indigenous predators make their home here. Of course I was scared, but with all my friends and Nova at my side I knew I could get through it.

The mountains themselves certainly lived up to their name. It didn’t matter what angle you were looking at them from; the way the sun shone on the trees and the mountain face itself made it look like a tower of gleaming gold. This made the valley seem a little less scary even though it was an almost exact opposite: dark, cold, and ominous. It only took about ten minutes of walking to get to the foot of the mountains, and from there we began the slow, uphill walk into the valley itself.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that it was best for us to actually know what we were going to be facing. Despite this, I was still very reluctant to ask Gilda, and I let out a sigh of relief when Applejack spoke for me.

“So Gilda, what kinds of stuff should we expect to run into here?”

The griffon shrugged nonchalantly. “Honestly, forget anything you’ve heard about this place. While there are a lot of dangerous creatures here, most of them are the kind that won’t attack unless provoked. There are a few aggressive predators here, but the thing you need to be keeping an eye out for is what’s known as the Terra Rover. It’s been protecting these lands for as long as I can remember, but recently it’s been attacking and tearing up everything that comes through here to shreds, good, bad, or indifferent. To be totally honest, I don’t even know if there’s anything that can take it down, so if we spot it, we just need to get away as fast as we can.”

As we began to reach the valley, the morning fog began to clear away, and we saw that the valley was actually much wider than it looked. Many trees dotted the path, and it looked like there was even a small lake on the left side. It was hard to believe that somewhere so beautiful could also be so dangerous. I made sure to stay close to the group seeing as how I probably wouldn’t even be able to handle the less aggressive creatures by myself, let alone this terra Rover. “So, do you have any idea how long it will take us to get through here?”

Gilda opened her mouth to speak, but Nova interjected. “This area is the reason why I said four days. These mountains are fairly large, and this is one of the few ranges that have more than one row of them. Goldpine Pass isn’t just one valley, it’s the combined path formed by two full-length valleys. Getting through here without any trouble should take the greater part of a whole day.”

“Emphasis on without any trouble.” the griffin snickered.

The walk was relatively peaceful and quiet, and there were even small animals and birds roaming around. It was hard to believe that anything bad could happen here, and yet knowing such frightening monsters lurked here too made it so that all I could think about was getting out.

I wasn’t the only one on edge, either. Our entire group jumped at every rustle of leaves or snapping of a twig. After about an hour or so of walking, I started noticing dead trees and grass in very specific lines, almost as if something sprayed something in just that specific line to kill them. That wasn’t all, either; I started feeling as if the mountains we getting closer together, narrowing our path. Eventually we came to a large, open area where erosion had taken a large chunk out of the sides of both mountains. However, as we continued to move forward, a large stone wall sprang up from the ground, blocking our way forward. A similar wall sealed off our way back as well, leaving us completely trapped.

“Proceed no further.” All heads turned up over the barricade behind us; atop it stood a large, fearsome beast. It most definitely wasn’t just any animal, it had definitive traits of many animals, and some I didn’t even recognize. The contour of its head, legs, and torso appeared to be that of a wolf, but that’s where the similarities ended. Two horns extended out of the back of its head and came down until they met, forming a thick U shape between its eyes. The dark green fur was quite long, hanging off of it like a sheep dog, but only on its legs and body. Two long, thin tails resembling whips swayed behind it, and an almost cloudlike mane flowed behind it, the hair extending from the top of its head to its shoulders. To complete the image of utter terror, two glistening, pearly-white fangs protruded down from behind the monster’s top lip, and it stared us down with glowing yellow eyes.

“I say again: proceed no further or be exterminated. His Majesty does not abide trespassers.”

Twilight turned to Gilda hurriedly. “I don’t suppose there’s any chance that this isn’t the Terra Rover you were taking about?”

She shook her head, staring at the beast. “Unfortunately, no. This is definitely it.”

Rainbow piped up, puffing out her chest. “This guy? He doesn’t look so tough! Come on, I’ll take you on myself!”

The two tails coiled around her as she charged forward, slamming her into the canyon walls. Both Nova and Gilda rushed forward to her aid while Twilight attempted to hit it with magic. However, every time she sent a spell at it, it either moved out of the way or deflected it with its own magic.

Just as quickly as it had appeared it was gone. That is, until it landed right in the middle of our group and scattered us, brandishing its tails wildly in an attempt to drive us off. “So you choose extermination. Very well, then.” The beast made wide swipes at each of us, lunging from one pony to the other with very little time for us to react. Eventually Rainbow regained her senses, but the Rover was already charging them. Gilda and Rainbow managed to dive out of the way, but Nova stood there paralyzed.

“Nova! Move!” He would have become a pancake had his sister not pushed him away. Now that I was directly behind him, I noticed that there was a trail of dead grass following the line he had been moving in. There was no doubt that this Terra Rover was killing the plant life.

After barely missing Nova, Rover was slightly dazed from his head-on collision with the canyon wall, and Twilight too the chance to hold him down with a powerful spell. “Wait… is this? Girls! Quick! Grab your Elements! I know this thing, we have to-“

A whip to the face is a good way of cutting off a sentence. This thing was smarter than it looked; it waited until we were all close to Twilight before breaking out of her spell with ease and slamming us all in different directions as well as scattering the Elements on the ground. Nova and Gilda were the only two currently standing, so it jumped in the air and attempted to dive on them.

Nova stayed still again. He was shaking and had his eyes closed, but I saw him thrust his head forward, looking as if he was blowing bubbles. The griffon grabbed him and pulled him away, slapping him in the face to “wake him up”.

“Nova, what are you doing!” She dived away from another attack with Nova in her arms. My friend simply looked down in shame.

“I can’t do it. I can’t pull this off when I really need to, I’m too scared.”

I was surprised that she was able to balance speaking and jumping around for her life. “Well if you don’t start helping us out, we’re all gonna get killed!”

The rest of us were just starting to get up, searching for our scattered Elements. Unfortunately, my Element of Kindness was merely a few feet behind him. I guess he saw me inching toward it, as he began charging me. All I could do was brace myself and stand there with my eyes shut tightly. I waited, but nothing came. As I slowly opened my eyes, I saw that Nova, with Gilda’s help, had the Rover pinned to the ground. It only took a few seconds for them to get kicked off, but it was enough for me to grab my Element. However, he saw me again and attempted to claw at me, but Nova rushed in and pulled me away.

“I’ve got you, Flutters, don’t worry.”

I couldn’t help but smile at him. “You did it, Nova.”

The pegasus merely shook his head. “All I did was hit it… I couldn’t breathe fire again to save my life.”

“Yes you can, Nova, I beli-“

Apparently today was National Interruption Day; Rover apparently didn’t care if someone was talking. I looked at Nova again, as he was still holding me, trying to hug him. “You can, Nova, just try. Think of your friends, think of your sister… think of me.” I’ll be honest, I said the things I did more because I knew they would inspire Nova to at least try again, I honestly had no idea if it would truly work or not.

At least we had time to regain our bearings; Gilda was grappling with the beast, putting all the strength she could muster into keeping it immobile. The others clambered for their Elements, but Gilda was pushed away before all of them could be retrieved, and again the Rover tried to pounce on us. Nova was fast enough to strafe out of the way, but not fast enough to dodge the rush that came after it. I shut my eyes again, but opened them quickly as I felt a sudden burst of heat coupled with a loud, pained howl. The Rover was backing away, the left side of its face terribly burnt.

Everyone, including our foe, froze for a moment. Nova locked eyes with it, but in jumped away, landing atop one of the stone walls it had formed. “A savvy warrior uses all of his tools.” He let out a loud howl, causing the crest on his head to become encased in what looked like hard obsidian, also adding a third horn in the middle. He rushed at Nova who dove out of the way, and the two continued this back and forth pattern until the Rover finally made contact, butting heads with the pegasus. How he wasn’t knocked out by getting hit in the head by such a strong force, I don’t even think he knows. Gilda jumped in behind Nova, grabbing the horns and pushing with him. Their struggle gave us enough time to gather our Elements, and I began to notice little sparks forming around Nova in a way similar to the first time he did that Burning Lance thing. Luckily, such force was no longer needed.

“Send him our way!” Twilight shouted to the pair after all of us were prepared. We all lined up in a semicircle around Rover, and after Nova and Gilda pushed him in our direction, Twilight let loose with a powerful spell that drew power in from all of us. However, it wasn’t just our Elements we saw it taking power from, there was visible magic from Nova drawing toward it too. The light smashed into it head-first, shattering the black stone on its head and sending it backwards.

“Come on, girls, keep it up!” It appeared as if there was some kind of black smoke rising from the Rover’s body, and with each passing second, it grew thicker. Finally it stopped and seemed to dissipate into the air, leaving behind the gleaming, emerald-green body of the Terra Rover. The burn it got from Nova was fully healed, its eyes were now a soft baby blue, and its fur seemed about twenty shades lighter than it was before.

She ran up to the beast and attempted to help him up. “I was right! Kirava, it is you!” We all got ready to run up to her, but she put her hoof up. “Guys, it’s okay. This is Kirava, one of Princess Celestia’s Guardian Beasts.”

Applejack glared at the beast, not blinking for several minutes. “Twilight, are you sure you ain’t gone crazy? A few minutes ago that thing was trying to kill us, and I ain’t never heard of no Guardian Beast things.”

“No, it’s not what you-“

A loud grunt drowned out the unicorn as the beast finally managed to stand itself up. There was something powerful about its voice as it spoke, causing everyone else to fall silent. “Twilight Sparkle? Where… where was I? Why are you here?”

Twilight proceeded to recount the entire story explaining why we were here, where we were going, and what Kirava had done. I noticed now that whenever he stepped on a patch of dead grass, it instantly sprang back to life again. When she was finished, he looked towards the dark storm we had been chasing. “I recognize this power. It is the same that took control of my consciousness. If you are on a quest to stop it, you must hurry; time is not a luxury you can afford.”

Our griffon companion stood and looked him in the eye. “Okay, what do you want us to do? In case you haven’t noticed, not all of us can just jump up and fly there!”

Kirava looked at our group for a moment then shifted his gaze back to the hurricane. “I must go and undo the damage I have cause to the flora. However, to continue alone would be foolish,” he jumped on top of the stone wall that was blocking the path we had come through, and at the same time the wall blocking our way forward began to crumble, “Help me!” He let out a loud how, causing a massive eagle that looked to be made out of trees and grass to fly down and land before us. “This will get you to your destination in a day’s time. Do not doubt it for it is much sturdier than it may look.”

The bird lowered itself to a level that allowed us all to climb on top of its back, but Kirava stopped Twilight and Nova before they could get on. “You must destroy this power before it destroys us,” his gaze shifted to the pegasus, “You hold the power of cleansing flame. That power combined with Twilight’s magic should be enough to expel whatever power is causing this disaster. My friend, I sensed your fear when we first locked eyes as well as sensing it fade away the moment you struck me. Remember this: fear can only stop you if you allow it. If you fill yourself with courage, there will be no place for fear to take root. Go now, and conquer this evil!”

He allowed the two onto the bird and it took off, flying straight into the dark clouds ahead.