(1) Where in Gre'thor am I!?
Stardate: 2269.213 Location: Border of Klingon/Romulan Neutral Zone
It was just another boring routine aboard the IKS B’Moth, another uneventful patrol along the border of the neutral zone. Almost every Klingon aboard the newly outfitted starship expected a glorious campaign against the Federation, or pretty much anyone for that matter, and probably head back afterwards to the empire’s capital on Qo’noS to be showered with praise and adoration, and maybe even attract a few mates with tales of glorious and bloody warfare…
… but no, the stupid Organian Ceasefire had to happen, causing a forced peace treaty between the Federation and the Klingon Empire. Sure, the years that followed weren’t all bad. That alliance with the Romulans that started a year ago netted them some new and innovative technology such as the cloaking device as well as some new starship blueprints, allowing the invention of the Bird-of-Prey. Not to mention that the head ridges that Klingons were known for that disappeared a century ago began growing back. But aside from that, cruising around space with nothing but asteroids and their fellow members for company was definitely not the crew’s idea of a good time.
These thoughts continued to swarm the mind of the ship’s ensign and security officer, Kor’tokh, who is trying to stay focused as the ship made it’s Kahless-knows-how-many rounds along the Neutral Zone border. ‘Ugh, can this get any more monotonous!?’ Kor’tokh thought as he went about his rounds on the ship. As he completed another inspection on the decks, he decided to blow off some steam in the training room with K’rau, his longtime friend and partner at the Klingon Military Academy.
“I swear, K’rau, it’s like the High Command ran out of jobs to give to new members of the KDF like us, so they just decided to dump us recruits off into the most obscure corner of the empire.” Kor’tokh grumbled as he shot his disrupter at a human-shaped target.
“I know, right!?” K’rau replied as he hit another target on the bull’s-eye. “I mean, here we are, busting our asses off during training, preparing to fight against humans, Vulcans, and Andorians; when all of a sudden, the ceasefire happens and they ship us off in the middle of nowhere!” he ranted as he shot a couple more targets, utilizing marksmanship skills that he thought were wasted on this assignment, "What's more, what is the whole Empire doing about this other than signing documents and kissing up to the Federation?" he then shot a target square on the head before setting down the pistol on a nearby table. The two comrades then sat down, not in the mood to shoot targets anymore.
“Sometimes…” Kor’tokh began before pausing and thinking about his situation, “…Sometimes I wonder why we even signed up for the corps in the first place. I mean, yes the stories of winning honor and glory sound inspiring when you first hear them, but we aren’t going to join our fathers up in Sto’Vo’Kor at this rate.” he finished before sighing and pressing his face against his palms, sinking off into depression.
All of a sudden, the ship’s intercom sounded, “Ensign Kor’tokh requested on the bridge. Repeat, Ensign Kor'tokh requested on the bridge.”
K’rau then chuckled at his friend's surprised expression, “Well there you go, wish granted.”
“Not yet it’s not,” Kor’tokh countered as he got up to leave, “it might just be another evaluation report or something like th-“
BOOM!!!!
Kor’tokh never got to finish his sentence when a sudden explosion on deck knocked him over, cutting him off.
“Kor’tokh!! Come on get up!” K’rau cried out as he rushed over to help his friend up. “I’m alright!” Kor’tokh yelled as he got up and stumbled his way up to the bridge.
As they made their way up to the bridge, they passed all of the crewmen who were either grabbing their weapons or maintaining systems on terminals as the alarms blared. All of a sudden, Qua’lon, the B’Moth’s tough-as-nails captain approached them with a scowl on his face. “It’s about time you two got your pathetic asses up here!!” he barked as he grabbed a disrupter rifle from a nearby compartment and began activating it. “I want you two to grab your gear and meet up with the boarding party at the beaming platform!”
“If I may ask sir,” Kor’tokh inquired as he got his weapons out “who’s attacking us?”
“Romulans” Qua’lon spat.
“Why are they suddenly declaring war on us?” K’rau asked in bewilderment.
“I don’t know, but I personally don’t give a QI’yaH (fuck)!” Qua’lon said with a sneer that, if the two Klingons were members of any other species, would’ve given them nightmares for years to come. “It’s about time we’ve had some real action!”
As Qua’lon left to prepare another strike against the attacking ship, Kor’tokh and K’rau ran down the corridors to catch up with the others. As they were running down the hall, two more explosions rocked the deck, causing Kor’tokh to feel uneasy, a very unKlingon-like trait, about this whole situation.
‘This makes no sense!’ Kor’tokh thought,'Why are Romulans violating the terms of the alliance? It has only been a little more than a year already, but the contract hasn’t even reached its natural end yet! Why would they be attacking now!?’ Kor’tokh paused before continuing, ‘But then again, the Romulans aren’t exactly known to be trustworthy. There have been talks in the High Council about the dangers of siding with the ‘Treacherous Cowards’ as they called them.’ his brow furrowing as he finished this thought.
At this point, the pair arrived at the ship’s beaming platform, joining a small group of what appeared to be ten warriors who were armed to the teeth with their trigger-fingers itching badly. About seven of them were Klingons, while two of them were reptilian Gorns, and there may have been an Orion in the group, but that’s not really important right now.
“We’re ready, beam us onto the ship.” Kor’tokh said as he and K’rau got on the platform.
“Energize”
As soon as he said the word, the engineer activated the transporter. The lights below the platform turned red, indicating that the platform was in use, and that anybody who didn’t want their molecules to be completely scrambled by accident should probably keep him/her/itself off of it. Light began swirling around the twelve crewmen (large platform), as the device began to teleport them onto the enemy ship.
Ka-Boom!!!!!
Just then, at that very moment on the Romulan vessel, one of their crewmen decided to try and get a lucky shot at the ship. He fired a photon torpedo, which coincidentally enough, managed to hit the transport room right on target, just as the beaming process was finishing up.
Now let me take some time off to break the fourth wall just to get a point across. To anyone reading this who happens to know his Star Trek lore, you know how when a transporter is damaged or malfunctioning, the man, woman, or object that is being beamed is usually destroyed? Well that’s not the case here. As it just so happens, Kor’tokh managed to get lucky, and got beamed without any injuries more serious than a few scrapes. The torpedo, however, managed to seriously damage the console’s navigation coordinates. Luckily, the two ships just happened to be orbiting a Class-M planet as they were locked in battle, so the transporter beamed Kor’tokh on the surface instead of beaming him to a cold, airless death out in space.
Just what is on this planet you may ask? Well, let’s find out, shall we?
On the planet’s surface, 15 minutes before the Romulan ambush…
It was a cold night in Equestria, and the wind howled the coming of the first breezes of winter. The season of autumn was coming to an end, and soon, the snow would be covering the leaf-covered ground in a soft, white blanket.
As the night began growing darker and darker, all of the ponies that worked and played in the glory of Celestia’s sunlight began closing their businesses, their schools, and ultimately the doors of their homes. One mare, however, didn’t turn in for the night, especially since it was her responsibility to begin the night in the first place.
This pony I’m speaking about, was of course none other than Princess Luna herself. As she made her glorious moon rise into the heavens, and painted the now dark blue sky with her stars, she couldn’t help but notice everypony wrapping up their businesses as usual. A millennium ago, this would’ve both disturbed and angered her, but instead she smiled as she watched them scurry into their houses. There were, after all, small groups of ponies out there that stayed up marveling and reveling under her beautiful night sky.
But of course, one doesn’t simply forget about the atrocities she committed 1000 years ago during her brief reign as the magnificent, yet terrifying queen of darkness: Nightmare Moon. How could anypony forget the mere fact that she nearly destroyed the world by plunging it into eternal night!? They even made an entire holiday based of off it!
But thanks to her redemption by the Elements of Harmony, along with recent events that have occurred a little more than 3 weeks ago, the residents of Equestria have begun opening up to her more. The scars are still there, of course, but they’re already starting to fade; some have even started saying, “Luna is best princess!”
Luna couldn’t help but chuckle at this thought, and eventually flew down onto the peak of Mount Everfree and began looking up at the stars.
‘MY stars,’ she corrected herself, ‘and my night sky, as they have always been from the very beginning’
As the dark blue alicorn continued gazing up into her night sky, something, or rather two of them, caught her attention.
‘Since when have my stars started moving on their own?’ she wondered as she watched what appeared to be two stars moving in slow circles around each other, emitting what looked like bright fiery lights from each other. Suddenly, one of the stars began growing bigger and, for some reason, closer.
‘Not a star,’ Luna realized, her eyes growing wide, ‘an object!’
The comet-like object began making it’s descent in a flaming streak across the night sky that nearly resembled that of a phoenix, soaring into the horizon before finally crashing into the distant badlands on the edge of Equestrian territory.
Luna continued to stare off into the distance, blinking every few seconds just to make sure she wasn’t hallucinating, before shaking her head and thinking, ‘What was that thing?! Was it a comet, or something else entirely?’ A sudden feeling of nervousness rushed through her, before she decided to fly back to Canterlot, thinking about how to break this to her sister.
Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, lets go back to Kor’tokh to pick up where we left off.
Location: Everfree Forest Time: 6:45 PM
Vrriiiiiiinng
The light finally stopped swirling around Kor’tokh’s body, letting him collapse on the mossy ground beneath him. The Klingon ensign felt like throwing up after that awful experience, but being made of tougher stuff, resisted the urge to hurl and got himself off the dirt.
“Wh-Where am I!?” He asked himself as he stood up.
Realizing that he was out of his environment, Kor’tokh wasted no time in reaching for both his disrupter and his communicator. Activating the comm, he began attempting to contact the ship.
“Kor’tokh to the B’Moth; Kor’tokh to the B’Moth, do you read me?”
The Klingon was met only with silence along with static from his comm.
“IKS B’Moth! I am stranded on the surface of an unidentified planet, can you read me!?”
More silence and static greeted him, as if to mock him for his efforts. If communicators could make trolling faces, his would probably be making one now.
“ANSWER ME, DAMMIT!!!”
To say that Kor’tokh was pissed at failing to gain a response would be a severe understatement. After his communicator gave him a round of applause in static form after he failed yet again in his attempt, Kor’tokh threw the device at a nearby tree in a fit of rage, destroying it.
A few seconds afterwards he simmered down, and slumped against the trunk of the same tree while sighing in frustration.
‘Is this it?’ Kor’tokh thought bitterly, ‘Is this how I’m going to die, in a dark forest filled with Kahless-knows what kind of horrid beasts?’
Shaking his head fiercely, Kor’tokh rose from his seat on top of the tree’s roots with fire in his eyes, and a newfound determination in his 8-chambered heart.
Kor’tokh decided that now was not the time for self-pity; he’s a proud Klingon warrior, dammit! If he’s gonna die, it’ll be in glorious combat! There’s no way in Gre’thor he’s going to let himself die out here!
With that in mind, Kor’tokh boldly went deeper into the forest, without any notion about what crazy shit he was about to get himself into.
Here’s a hint: it involves ponies.
Author's Note
Alright! First chapter done! It took me forever to come up with this, so please, rate, review, etc.
Like I said in the story's description, any tips, pointers, and constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated, so please post your opinions in the comments below.
Location: Everfree Forest
Time: 7:21 PM
For the past half-hour, Kor’tokh has made his way through the brush, pushing aside the many different branches and vines that stood in his way. He was determined to get out of this Kahless-forsaken forest as soon as possible. Hopefully, he can find some civilization outside, so he can finally get off of this unknown world. But for now, Kor’tokh knew he had to fulfill his three requirements for survival: food, water, and shelter. However, seeing how he was trained for combat up in space, and wasn’t prepared for situations like these, Kor’tokh knew that he was in for a long and rough night.
Eventually, Kor’tokh reached a sizable clearing, and stopped to take a good look around him. The clearing appeared to be 20-30 feet, wide enough for him to set up camp and get a fire going without burning down the whole damn forest. He also noticed that there were many dead branches strewn across the ground, ‘Good,’ Kor’tokh thought, nodding to himself, ‘I won’t have to look very far for firewood.’
Satisfied, Kor’tokh took this opportunity to do a quick check on his equipment. He started with his weapons, pulling out his disruptor first. Kor’tokh inspected it thoroughly, noting that the pistol will have enough power to last at least a few more months. ‘ Hopefully, my stay here should be much shorter.’ He then moved on to his trusty d’k tagh knife. Pulling it out of the sheath, he began inspecting the blade. Despite not having seen combat for years, the knife was in excellent condition. Its main blade was as sharp as a razor, and the hinged side blades popped open instantly, giving the d’k tagh’s blade a wicked trident-shape. After sheathing the knife, Kor’tokh moved on to his final weapon: his father’s bat’leth. It was a double-ended scimitar fashioned into a crescent shape, with three handles running along its spine. It was also his father’s last gift to him.
9 years ago on Qo’noS…
Kor’tokh watched as Kulan, his father, spoke with his commanding officers, making his final preparations before embarking to fight the empire’s mortal enemies: the Romulans. Kor’tokh’s family has long fought for the glory of the Klingon Empire, stretching back to the days of Kahless Himself, and now his father is going to continue this grand tradition, and some day, so will he.
After finishing his arrangements, Kulan saluted his superiors and walked towards his then-teenage son, carrying an object wrapped in a crimson bundle of cloth. Kor’tokh looked at the bundle with a feeling of excitement coursing through his body, it was as if he instinctively knew what it was. His father then carefully unwrapped the fine cloth, to reveal a newly polished bat’leth underneath. Kulan lifted the deadly blade towards his son and said, “This blade has been in our family since the death of Emperor Kahless. It has seen many battles on land and in space for many generations, and now I bestow it upon you.”
Kor’tokh couldn’t help but tremble with joy as his father handed the sword over to him. Kulan noticed this and smiled back at him, feeling pride in his heart. He then placed his hand on Kor’tokh’s shoulder, wearing a more serious expression on his face now. “Treat it well my son, for only the most foolish and idiotic warriors allow their weapons to become dull. I need you to become the man of the house while I’m gone, passing the family blade down to you is my way of saying that you are now responsible enough to bear the mantle of our legacy. And who knows?” Kulan said smiling again, “I just might bring back a Romulan skull as a souvenir, that is, if I’m not feasting in the Black Fleet alongside our ancestors!”
The two of them shared a laugh at the little joke, for there’s no such thing as fatalism among their kind. “Farewell, Kor’tokh. May Kahless guide you to a glorious future.”
Kulan then turned around and headed towards the shuttlecraft. As the airlocks closed behind him, Kor’tokh could only grip the bat’leth’s handles tightly, knowing that he had to be strong for his family. “Farewell father, batl da-KOW-loo-takh (you will be remembered with honor)” He said as he watched the shuttle leave the atmosphere.
His father died during the conflict a few months after he left, so Kor’tokh took solace in knowing that his father has joined their ancestors in the black fleet of Sto’Vo’Kor, where the honored dead would feast, drink, and fight alongside Kahless the Unforgetable for all eternity. Smiling at this, he finished inspecting the blade and attached it to his back.
Kor’tokh also inspected his survival kit, knowing it wouldn’t be able to get him very far in the long run. Since the crew of the B’Moth was assigned with the task of patrolling the Neutral Zone, none of them were expected to find themselves stranded on any uncharted worlds, much like he was. So the survival kits that the crewmembers were assigned with only consisted of a few days’ worth of water and military rations, along with little in the way of medical supplies. Due to their natural endurance, the Klingons have placed little emphasis on medical treatment, and have therefore always favored toughing it out. So it looks like Kor’tokh would have to make do on his own.
After finishing up his inspection, Kor’tokh gathered whatever dead branches he could find, and began getting a fire started. As he got the campfire going, however, Kor’tokh heard some rustling in the bushes, as well as the snapping of a few twigs.
Immediately, he stopped what he was doing, and turned around.
“Who’s there!?”
As if on cue, four creatures leaped out from behind the trees and bushes. They were four-legged, had glaring yellow eyes, and were breathing what appeared to be some kind of gas from their mouths. Upon further inspection, Kor’tokh managed to make out what they were,
They were wolves… wooden wolves made up entirely of sticks and twigs, and most importantly, were alive.
Despite clearly being in grave danger, all Kor’tokh could do at that point was stare at them, thinking, ‘Okay… now I’ve officially seen everything.’
As he stared at the wooden wolves, they began circling around him, waiting for the perfect chance to strike. Kor’tokh narrowed his eyes, and pulled out his d’k tagh, waiting for one of them to act, much like what they were doing with him.
Finally, one of the wolves found an opening, and lunged forward, biting onto his arm. Crying out in pain, Kor’tokh took the arm that was still holding the d’k tagh, which also happened to be the arm that wasn’t serving as a fleshy chew-toy, and jammed the knife into the base of the creature’s skull, causing it to finally let go. Wasting no time, Kor’tokh took out his bat’leth, and began hacking the creature into tiny splinters. The other three wolves took this chance to attack, sinking their teeth into the Klingon warrior’s legs and torso.
Enraged, and bleeding like crazy, Kor’tokh decided that he didn’t have all night for this, and knew he had to finish the fight quickly. So he began giving the other three beasts the same treatment that he gave to their little friend. He shook the first wolf off, before raising his sword up high, and bringing it down on the second one, who was biting his left side; slicing the thing in half.
As for the third wolf, Kor’tokh began prying it’s maw open with his bare hands. The pressure that the wolf was putting in closing his jaw was strong, but Kor’tokh was stronger…
Snap!!!
Before long, the wolf’s upper jaw snapped off, officially killing it. Kor’tokh then picked his bat’leth back up, just as the wolf that he shook off of himself began coming back to him. As the final wolf leapt up into the air to pounce on him, Kor’tokh seized the initiative by leaping to the side, and slicing the wolf’s head off while it was in midair.
With all of the wolves (supposedly) dead, Kor’tokh went to pry his knife out of the skull of the one he had stabbed. As he began to walk back to his fire, however, something caught his eye; all off the different sticks and branches that made up the wooden wolves began moving on their own, before starting to form an even bigger version of the wolves he had just fought.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Kor’tokh muttered in disbelief, spitting out some blood in the process. Around this time, the giant wolf finally finished putting itself together, and celebrated its rebirth by breathing some of it’s noxious gas right into Kor’tokh’s face.
‘Sweet mother of Kahless! This smells worse than liquid dilithium!’
The wolf then began walking towards Kor’tokh, dwarfing him by at least 6 feet in height. When suddenly, one of it’s hind-legs accidentally stepped on the small campfire that Kor’tokh made recently; and I kid you not, it began yipping like crazy while hopping around, cradling the paw that stepped on the fire, much like a guy that just stepped on a tack.
Kor’tokh then face-palmed himself, both physically and mentally, ‘Fire! Of course! Why didn’t I think of this before!?’ Not wanting to waste this opportunity, Kor’tokh pulled out his disrupter and shot the wolf two times, causing it to burst into flames. The creature then began thrashing about in pain and agony, knocking over a few trees in the process. Before long, it gave out one final roar, before finally collapsing, dead as a doornail.
Kor’tokh would’ve celebrated his first kill, if it weren’t for the fact that, A: he was badly wounded and bleeding up a storm, and B: the now-flaming wolf just started a quickly growing forest fire.
Way to go, Einstein.
Meanwhile, at Canterlot Castle…
Princess Luna, having arrived at the castle a few minutes ago, was deep in thought as she walked through its marble corridors. ‘How in the world am I going to explain to her what just happened?’ Luna then began mentally playing out the scenario in a sarcastic tone, ‘Excuse me Tia, some random object just fell out of space and I don’t know if it’s a comet, would you be so kind as to DROP EVERYTHING and order the guards to go on a wild goose chase just to make me feel better?’
As she was having these thoughts, Nocturne Breeze, one of Luna’s famed Night Guards, as well as her personal bodyguard, walked up to her and took notice of his princess’s unease. “Princess Luna, is everything alright?” he asked with a worried tone in his voice, wanting to know what’s wrong.
Luna took note of her bodyguard’s concern. Nocturne Breeze was one of the many descendants of the original Night Guards that came about during the era of Nightmare Moon, and has served as a close companion to Luna during the year between her redemption and the incident on Nightmare Night that occurred back at Ponyville. Thanks to the fear that the Equestrians still held for her during that time, and Luna being out of touch with modern society, she secluded herself within within Canterlot throughout the year, away from everypony. Due to this, Nocturne was the only one Luna could share her thoughts with (aside from Celestia, of course). In fact, one might argue that the two of them are a couple, although she herself refused to admit it.
Luna looked at her faithful bodyguard, with her face filled with anxiety. “Nothing, Nocturne, just thinking about something I saw earlier.” She finally answered, as they neared the throne room. “Might I ask what it is?” Nocturne inquired, suddenly becoming curious as to what is bothering his princess.
As soon as he asked this however, they were at the entrance. “I’ll tell you inside, my sister might want to hear this.” This left Luna’s bodyguard curious as to what could worry her to the point that she didn’t want to talk about it.
The two of them then entered the castle’s massive throne room, the walls bearing massive stained glass windows depicting the land of Equestria and her history; from the earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns uniting into one nation, to Nightmare Moon. As Luna walked inside, she glanced at the most recent one to grace the castle, a depiction of the Elements of Harmony once again imprisoning Discord, the lord of chaos, after he escaped from his thousand-year prison. Luna had to stifle a laugh as she saw the look on Discord’s face in the picture, it looked absolutely ridiculous, ‘Even more than before’ she added. She then shook her head, knowing she had to stay focused, ‘Remember why you’re here, Luna. You’re here because something not from this world has suddenly crashed into the badlands, and you’re worried that this might threaten Equestria.’
On the throne sat her sister, Princess Celestia, ruler of Equestria, and alicorn of the sun. Celestia was just wrapping up the royal court, having discussed with her councilors weather production in Cloudsdale, shareholding in Manehattan, as well as arrangements for this years Hearths Warming Eve pageant, with plans of having the Elements of Harmony play the founders of Equestria. That one was definitely fun for her. The princess was now dealing with an interesting case from Fillydelphia, where griffon delinquents have spray-painted on a major landmark pictures of Celestia in some… interesting poses. As a group of ponies from that city voiced their complaints to her, Celestia noticed her sister enter the throne room, with the kind of face a young filly would have when she accidentally flooded the house, but didn’t know the right way to confess it.
“Those bird-brained vandals have not only defaced Fillydelphian property, they’ve also shown complete and utter disrespect to you, your majesty! These crimes simply can’t go unpunished, they-“
Wanting to know what was bothering her sister, Celestia decided to put this session on hold.
“This is indeed very disturbing news, but I’m afraid I currently have other matters I need to attend to. Shall we take a brief recess?”
Taking their cue to leave, the group began leaving the room, passing Luna and Nocturne as they left.
Luna then stepped up to her sister’s throne, wanting to at least get a conversation going before telling her what just happened.
“So… Tia, how was today’s court?” Luna asked nonchalantly
“The same as usual, ponies coming in with different reports from across the country. That one with the griffons surprised me though, can you believe they’re still running that ‘Princess Molestia’ joke around?”
“I’m just surprised that joke was even around in the first place” Luna chuckled
“*Sigh*, don’t remind me. I keep telling everypony, that whole affair with Starswirl was just a one-time thing! And don't even get me started on those Royal Guard rumors!” Celestia grumbled before changing her mood into a more serious one. “But enough about me. I can see that you’re upset about something, might I ask what it is?” she asked in a caring manner.
‘Am I really that transparent?’ Luna thought before answering her sister. “… I saw something fall from the heavens, and sail across the sky before crashing into the badlands. At first glance it almost looked like a comet, or a meteor, but I have a bad feeling it might be something else entirely…”
“… you have a feeling it might threaten the safety of our land in some way.” Celestia finished for her, with an expressionless face, yet at the same time with fierceness in her eyes.
Luna could only nod in agreement, knowing fully well that Celestia’s love for peace and harmony can only be rivaled by her desire to protect her subjects.
The two of them could only stand there quietly, when Nocturne broke the silence for them. “Your highnesses, I have a new batch of recruits who have just completed their training a few months ago. With your permission, I can take them to the Badlands to investigate this object.”
Celestia considered this for a moment, before responding to Nocturne’s suggestion. “How soon can they be dispatched?”
Luna’s bodyguard put his front hoof to his chin, thinking for a few seconds, before shrugging, “A few days, at most.” He finally answered.
Celestia then smiled and looked over to Luna, “What do you say, sister? It’s your call.”
Luna smiled back, nodding to her. Then she turned to Nocturne, “I hereby grant you permission to investigate this strange object in the badlands. Find out everything you can about this object, and then report as soon as possible.” She said as she tapped Nocturne’s shoulders with her horn.
“I shall get right to it, your Highness. Besides…” Nocturne then smirked, “The Night Guard has long gone without any important missions for months, maybe this will help kill their boredom.”
Nocturne then began to leave the room, only to be stopped by a royal guard bursting through the doors, “Your Majesties!! A report just came in from Ponyville, a massive fire just broke out in the Everfree Forest!”
Celestia’s eyes widened upon hearing this report. “Are the townsfolk currently taking action?”
The guard nodded, “Yes, but without further support, the fire might spread further, eventually reaching the center of town!”
Celestia quickly rose from her throne. “Send a detachment of guards down to Ponyville at once, my student and her friends live there, they must be protected, as well as the townsfolk!”
The guard saluted the princesses, before rushing back out. After promising to hear the Fillydelphians’ case tomorrow, Celestia and Luna flew up to the balcony at the top of the castle’s highest tower. As two sisters began observing the now-raging forest fire from afar, Luna couldn’t help but feel uneasy. “A massive forest fire suddenly breaks out of nowhere, AND a strange object falls from the sky?!” Luna exclaimed. “Am I imagining this, or do you have a strange feeling these two events might be connected as well?”
Her sister could only stare off into the distance, unsure about this whole affair. After a long period of silence, Celestia finally responded.
“… You know what, Luna? I think you may be right.”
Meanwhile, back at the Everfree Forest...
“Arrgh!! Dammit!!”
Kor’tokh yelled out in pain as he tried to escape from the flames. Ever since he killed that wolf, or whatever the hell that thing was, he’s been running for his life to avoid being cooked alive. He may live by a strict honor code that frowns on cowardice, but even the most seasoned warrior wouldn’t pointlessly die in a forest fire, especially if he can avoid it.
After a while, Kor’tokh finally managed to outrun the fire. His body was at its limit, unable to run any longer without having to at least catch his breath. The battle with the wolves was also taking its toll, forcing him to rest against the tree nearest to him. Kor’tokh was growing tired from the past few hours, his injuries, while not too serious, made him lose a lot of blood, so he was forced to rest in order for them to heal properly.
‘Damn wolves, just where did they come from anyway?!’ Kor’tokh thought as he looked at his injuries. His eyelids were beginning to droop as sleep began to overpower him. ‘I’ll have to do something about these wounds, before I bleed to deat-‘ those were his last thoughts before sleep finally overcame him.
Author's Note
Sorry about the wait guys, I couldn't write due to school, writer's block, and finally finishing Bioshock: Infinite.
Just like before, if you have any complaints about the story, or have spotted any grammar issues, please let me know in the comments.
