Thief
Chapter 10
"Adventure"
It was the next morning, very early too, and as to be expected I was already up. Though I had set up some crappy targets made from some paper and other crafts, strapped to hay bales and trees. The sound of a string tightening then releasing was heard ever so often as I stood still with a bow in my hand, and arrow cocked in. After firing most of my arrows precisely where I wanted them to go, I walked over to gather them.
I hadn’t noticed AppleJack walk out, but she waited for me to gather my ammunition before speaking up.
“Y’all enjoy gettin’ up early in the morning?” She yawned, arching her back like a cat and stretching her hooves.
I barely jumped at the sound of her voice. She’ll learn one day to not sneak up on me, not unless she wanted one of my closest weapons in her head. I turned to her, holding my arrows in my hand. “It’s a force of habit.”
“Ah understand. It aint so bad really, nopony’s really ‘round at this time in the morning. It’s quite peaceful-”
“But I’m mainly up this early to get ready and warmed up. I’m gonna teach the…unicorns to shoot a bow.” I cut her off carelessly. She obviously seemed too used to it by now, as she hadn’t said anything in counter. Instead she sighed, loud enough so I could hear as I turned back to gathering my arrows.
“Well, have fun teachin’ ponies how to kill things.” She said, disappointment in her voice. I merely ignored it, as I replied normally.
“Always do.”
I heard a quiet grunt as I heard her go back into the barn, hopefully to wake up the others. I walked back to my firing position, setting down my long-ranged weapon on a hay bale. I sat down beside the bow on the hay, opening my small backpack that was slung around my back. I searched through it and found a small stone, which I picked out and slid out my knife. I began to sharpen it.
After a while, sure enough whole group of ponies walked out. Bags under their eyes, and main exhaustion from this whole situation. Probably. I stood up, putting my stuff down as I walked over to them. Some of them looked up at me, but most just acted like I wasn’t there as they woke up. I stood tall and cleared by throat.
“Would all horses with horns gather over here.”
“H-Horses?” I heard Lyra mumble to herself, and saw Twilight glare at me slightly.
“We’re ponies.”
“I don’t think that’s what matters.” I countered quickly, in which she bit her tongue in response. All the unicorns gathered as I had asked, and the rest did whatever they were going to do. The magical ponies looked up at me as I grabbed my bow and held it out in front of them. “First, before I teach. Does anyone here know how to use one of these?”
The crowd didn’t make a peep, except for Princess Luna, who surprisingly took a step forward. “We have.”
“Princess Luna, you know how to use weapons?” Rarity questioned, seeming slightly between the emotions of interested and scared.
Luna nodded. “We have had personal training with the Royal Night Guards. We know about a fair range of different kinds of weapons.” I smiled, finding another pony who I was starting to like.
“Well then, would you like to demonstrate to the class?” I smiled internally, Twilight’s head tilted slightly.
“Class? We’re not in school-”
“Fuck, do you have to question everything?” I sighed, aggravated. And Twilight looked down, and Rarity took a step forward.
“How dare you speak to a Princess like that!?” She fumed. I barely glanced at her, almost not noticing her anger enough to care.
“Because there’s no difference between people in the apocalypse.” I stated flatly, which gave her something to think about. She kept quiet as I turned back to Luna. “Anyways, let’s see what you can do then.” I held out the bow to her. Her horn lit up as the bow glowed an aroma similar to the one around her horn, and the weapon lifted from my hands with ease. I shuddered unnoticably, as it seemed too unnatural to me.
“It has been a while, but we will try.” She focused, lifting up the bow and looking down the advanced sights. “The weapon is smaller that we are used to.”
“Adjusted to me mostly. I’m mainly the only one who uses it.” I told, and she paused to concentrate. A few moments later, the aroma around the bow disappeared and the arrow flew too fast to see, straight into the bullseye point in the target I set up. The ponies cheered at her accomplishment, and Luna blushed lightly under her dark coat. She gave the bow back to me, a small smile still on her face.
“We thank thou for letting us use your weapon.” She nodded. I shrugged.
“I’m doing it for your safety.” I mumbled most of it, thankfully she didn’t get to to repeat myself. But I think she also heard me, too. I sighed, putting the bow back on the hay bale. “Well, if you know how to shoot it then you can teach the rest. I need to go check up on the others.”
“Actually, John, I need to tell you something.” I turned back to Twilight, who stepped forward beside Princess Celestia. “Me and Princess Celestia were talking, and because my brother is the head of the Royal Guard in Canterlot, that maybe it was a good idea to go looking for him. And that if he still has most of his army, it’ll help us a lot back here for ponies.” She explained. I pondered for a moment.
“And where’s this?” I questioned, and Twilight pointed to a very distant castle on the side of a mountain. I chuckled. “Well, since the virus just started here, I doubt it has made it there yet. And second, it’ll take us days to get there. By the time we do make it there, the virus might’ve beat us to it.”
“Not if we teleport.”
I stopped, everything. Breathing, talking, moving. Hell, it felt like my heart stopped beating too, as I turned to Twilight.
“...T....Teleport…?”
She nodded slowly, as if it were the simplest thing. I sighed, running my hands across my face. I dropped them quickly and shook my head. “Sure. Why the hell not, let’s just teleport there! Just like that, it’s so easy isn’t it?” I smiled, and slightly insanely. I guess Luna sensed about my acting up, and she placed a hoof on my shoulder. Instead of attacking, I stopped completely, and stared into nothingness.
“We can. And that is what we will do.”
I nodded, wasting no time in walking away. “I...I’ll get ready then.”
Rarity broke the quiet silence. “Is he alright?”
“I hope so…” Twilight watched as I walked away.
- - - - -
The sun had now fully risen in the sky, and all non-alicorns were informed to stay on the farm to watch it over while the unicorns and I got ready to leave to Canterlot.
“Good luck, y’all.” AppleJack waved as she stood along with the crowd of pegasi and earth ponies, who waited for the squadron of princesses and one human to leave.
“You too, AppleJack.” Twilight replied. She then turned to Princess Celestia, and Luna.
“Are you ready, Princess Twilight?” Celestia asked calmly. Twilight nodded. And with no further ado, the three alicorns charged their horns. And after the poof, nothing was describable.
It felt like I was being pulled through one million loopholes each second, while my head was being dunked underwater and pulled back up over and over again faster than I could blink.
When it was finally over, I had to fight to not vomit on the ground. I shut my eyes as they ached from behind, almost feeling like they were about to pop out at any given moment.
I heard someone trying to talk to me, but all I heard were quiet mumbles as the ringing in my ears was louder than my own thoughts.
“JOHN!!”
My eyes flew open suddenly, which I then blinked a few times. I looked around, noticing that we weren’t on the farm anymore. I gulped, panting slightly. “W...W-What the fuck...just happened…” I said aloud to no one in particular, but Luna answered otherwise.
“We teleported to Canterlot. Long ranged teleportation is a lot tougher, so we needed multiple ponies to do so. It also has slight side effects, such as nausea-”
“Y-Yeah…” I held my stomach, leaning up against something I didn’t care to think about. “I-I know, just stop talking.” I let out a long sigh, standing up straight and stumbling forward. “Let’s just find...w-whatever….” I grunted loudly, wincing.
Fuck I hate this place…