Rifts

by Eldamaur

Chapter Five

Tristan awoke the next morning the same way he had many times before, though he knew it wasn’t to be the same. Nightingale came this time with not just food, but the very same cart she had used when she first met Tristan. After Tristan finished his meal she gathered several objects from the cart.

“You seem like you’ve recovered fully, but you can never be too sure with something like this. You’re not leaving this castle until you’ve had a proper examination, and that’s what I intend to give you!” Nightingale asserted, brandishing all manner of fancy looking, and somewhat threatening, instruments.

“No more needles though, right?” Tristan questioned half-jokingly.

“No, no, none of that dearie. Well, most likely...” she responded, getting to her work.

Tristan saw that his wounds had healed without a single scar, thanks to the wonders of magical medicine. Nightingale poked and prodded him in several uncomfortable places, checked his vitals all over, and did some tests that Tristan couldn’t divine the reason for. After a few irritating minutes she finished, putting all of her apparati back into their proper places.

“It looks like you’re good as new! Well, I never saw you as you were before, but it sure looks like you’re back together alright!” Nightingale declared.

“Heh, well it all looks to be in order. Thanks again!” Tristan said, earning a smile from Nightingale.

“You’re very welcome, dearie. I’ve got a few things to attend to but I should be back before you have to leave, so goodbye for now!” Nightingale said, leaving the room at Tristan’s goodbye.

Scarcely a minute passed before the door flung open at the behest of Lore, who looked to be under no small amount of stress. After a fleeting glance at the sun’s position through the window he rushed over to Tristan.

“Alright, we’re on a schedule here, time to get moving!” Lore exclaimed hastily. “Let’s see...” Lore began as he unfurled a scroll and skimmed it. “We’ll be going to the courtyard from here, where our things should already be on the chariot. Attend to any business you have in the restroom, and we’ll be on our way. Hop to it!”

Tristan sprung out of his bed and quickly went through his morning routine, emerging from the restroom to see a very impatient-looking Lore.

“Alright then, let’s go! I’d like to have this whole sorry business done with as soon as possible,” Lore stated, briskly trotting to the door and motioning for Tristan to follow him. “There may be other ponies in the halls today, just don’t interact with them, understood? You’re just leaving, so another lockdown wasn’t deemed necessary,” he instructed tersely.

Tristan didn’t respond but quickened his pace to match Lore’s, keeping as close as he could to minimize the chances of messing something up. Lore led through one hallway after another, finally bringing Tristan outside for the first time in almost a month. Tristan took a moment to stop and deeply inhale the fresh air, savoring the cool breeze on his skin.

“Just what do you think you’re doing? Move, move, there are civilians about!” Lore chided irritably. Sure enough, Tristan swiveled his head around to see numerous eyes all affixed on him.

“Ehehe...sorry!” Tristan sheepishly apologized, starting off after Lore again. One turn later, past a guarded archway, brought them to the chariot. Noble was already seated in the chariot, calmly looking towards the two. Keen was hooked up to it, stamping his hooves vigorously on the ground, obviously ready to get moving. The chariot had enough room for each of them to fit comfortably, and a small compartment in the back loaded with their provisions and other gear.

“So you finally made it! Orders are to get moving quickly, before the civvies get too curious!” Keen called out to them, at which they quickly made their way to the chariot and seated themselves.

“Are you going to be all right alone up there? The chariots I came here on had two pegasi pulling,” Tristan asked Keen, who responded with a snort.

“You kidding? I’ve got this, no sweat. Everypony ready back there?” Keen asked, to be answered by an affirmative nod from all but Tristan.

“Wait, I just realized, I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to Nightingale!” Tristan asserted as the realization struck him.

“I’m sure she’ll be just fine without a goodbye, we need to get going already. You can begin, Keen,” Lore said dismissively. Keen looked back at Tristan sympathetically but he took off nonetheless, showing surprising grace in his flying skills, as he hardly jostled the passengers at all.

Tristan felt a twinge of vertigo as the chariot rose ever higher into the air, as he felt himself slouching down lower and gripping the sides until his knuckles went white. Noble and Lore looked perfectly calm, and regarded him quizzically.

“What? There aren’t any seatbelts, and we’re in the air!” Tristan defended as he saw their looks, prompting them to stare off into space in another direction. It seemed that Keen was as high as he was going to get, as the incline stopped and the chariot levelled behind him.

Tristan took a moment to look over the edge at the landscape below him and was awed by what he saw. Canterlot was shrinking as they rapidly flew away but even at a distance it was grand, with the majestic castle and impressive waterfalls. From his lofty view he could see Equestria spanning endlessly in all directions, without the slightest hint of smog or pollution to cloud the view. Numerous towns and cities lay in the distance, all connected by an orderly railroad network.

“You alright there, Tristan?” Noble asked gently, seeing that Tristan’s grip had become even tighter and his eyes were opened wide.

“Ye-yeah. First time seeing all this, I didn’t exactly have the best view when I travelled like this last time. Equestria sure is...natural, isn’t it?” Tristan responded, not looking at Noble but continuing his surveyance of the land.

“Sure is. I take it where you came from wasn’t?” Noble queried casually, not even bothering to take in the scene below.

“From what Tristan has told me yes, it’s very different. I’m not sure how much you’re meant to know, so let’s just leave it at that, shall we?” Lore butted in.

“Hey, I’ll tell him if I want to tell him,” Tristan asserted. “We’ve taken over a lot more of the land, with giant cities and the like. Sure, there are places like this left, but around heavily populated areas it’s quite a different story.”

“Thanks for telling me, but Lore is right,” Noble began. “Some stuff you might say wouldn’t be good for most ponies to hear, I reckon. Best let Lore do the talking when you meet somepony new,” he finished calmly.

Tristan couldn’t really think of a return to that, or at least he couldn’t in a timeframe where it wouldn’t be awkward for him to continue the conversation. Instead he resumed gazing at the land below, enjoying the way the cool wind licked his face as they continued on.

Small talk was had but the next few hours were uneventful as the journey continued. Tristan eventually saw a vast forest looming on the horizon, in the way they were heading. The forest had a wall exactly like the one he came from had, and so he assumed that this was their destination. Sure enough, the chariot began its descent shortly and headed towards a great fortification adjoining the wall.

The building they landed at looked to be where the guards stayed, as they scurried in and out of it like ants. They landed close to its main entrance, and Keen unhooked himself from the chariot.

“Time to put on our gear, go on and get up,” Lore commanded Tristan, who obliged with some difficulty, finding his limbs to be stiff from the long ride. Noble hopped out and unloaded the gear, separating it into four piles.

Tristan saw his scalemail sitting on one of the piles and assumed it was his, and so he rummaged through it to see what he was allotted. Other than the armor, shield, and sword, there was a pack filled with food, a canteen filled with water, rope, a compass, a bedroll, and other assorted survival gear. Tristan stiffly donned his armor and arranged the rest of the things onto the various straps and into the various packs where they fit, finding it a little hard to walk with his newfound encumberment.

While Tristan was sorting through his gear Keen walked inside the building, with Lore and Noble staying behind to sort through their own gear. Tristan noticed that they each put on a pendant much like his own, which he could only assume were also enchanted to translate. Lore was putting on armor himself, a dark blue in color opposed to the gold of Noble and Keen.

“Wait, you’re wearing armor too? I didn’t take you for the type,” Tristan commented as Lore expertly donned his armor in seconds by levitating it onto himself in pieces and strapping it together.

“So you expected me to be the only one in a highly dangerous area with only my fur to protect me from whatever decided to attack us? You must take me for a fool,” Lore responded haughtily, not even looking at Tristan.

“Hey, I didn’t mean it like that, I just meant...ah, forget it...” Tristan trailed off as he saw Lore wasn’t really paying attention. He paced in a circle a few times to get used to the weight, finding it to be annoying but perfectly feasible for him to carry around.

Keen returned from the building and began sifting through his own gear, while informing the others of the situation. “We’re cleared to go whenever we’re ready, and they know that Tristan’s with us. They’ll send out a search party in two weeks if we don’t come back, but I doubt that’d really do much good if anything went wrong. But hey, nothing’s going to go wrong, since you two are lucky enough to have such an awesome escort!” he finished proudly. None of the others paid his demeanor any heed, however, as they were long since used to it.

They finished equipping their gear and gave a communal nod, none feeling the need to speak further. With Lore leading the way they made their way into the guard building. The building turned out to be pretty much what Tristan expected, with doors leading off in all sorts of directions and guards hurrying to and fro, most paying Tristan little to no heed. They shortly reached their destination of a gigantic steel door, serving as the barrier from the forest.

Keen trotted off for a moment and said a few words to a guard by the gate, earning a salute and causing several guards to magically undo several locks and barricades, finally opening the great door. The quartet boldly stepped through the gateway and heard it shut loudly behind them.

Tristan scanned the treeline in front of him, finding it to be very different from the Sovereign Forest. The trees looked much more wild and varied, and there was no snow anywhere. As they began their walk forward he noticed that there was, once again, not a single animal sound present.

“Hey, Lore? Why aren’t there any animals here? There weren’t any in the other forest, either, save for Mecha-Bull,” Tristan queried, his gaze shifting uneasily back and forth through the gloomy forest.

“Most of the animals left before the walls went up,” Lore began, his gaze as uneasy as Tristan’s as he regarded the forest. “The ones that didn’t...well, the rift spawn took care of them. Then more rift spawn took care of those spawn, and so on. Most of the weaker spawn don’t last very long; you got quite lucky,” he finished uneasily.

“Yeah, thanks for the vote of confidence,” Tristan responded sarcastically. Keen and Noble looked calm in comparison to the other two but didn’t do anything to assuage their fears, instead keeping vigilant watch as the forest closed around them.

“It’s a fairly large forest, so there’s no way we’re going to be able to search everywhere,” Lore began, unfurling a map from one of his bags. “Hmm...it seems there was once a residence not very far in, that looks like a good place to start. It’s likely any intelligent spawn would hole up in such a shelter, and even if they haven’t it’d make a great spot to camp for the night,” he finished, staring ponderously at the map.

“That sounds like as good of an idea as any to me, which direction is it in?” Keen piped up, taking to the skies in the direction that Lore pointed. The others continued their walk normally for a short while, after which Keen flew back down to them. “Yeah, I can’t see anything in that direction, just lots more trees.”

“That would be concerning if the residence we sought wasn’t a tree itself,” Lore chided.

“Well...that would explain it,” Keen admitted sheepishly.

“Should we really be making all this noise? I’m rather fond of my limbs and I’d really like to get through the day with none of them ripped off or otherwise massacred by some monster,” Tristan eeped out quietly, still managing to retain sarcasm in his fear.

“No, talking is actually a good idea. Our words will be translated if something else hears us, so they’ll be more likely to stop hiding if they were,” Lore informed Tristan, though he didn’t look very happy about making noise either.

I don’t think any of them actually saw Mecha-Bull...drawing attention to ourselves is the last thing we need. Yet the entire job we have relies on doing just that...what was I thinking when I agreed to do this?

All but Tristan kept up a small conversation, as Tristan continued to be unnerved by the unnatural silence. The only sound was the crunching of dry leaves and the snapping of twigs as they trekked on, which sounded incredibly loud in stark contrast to the otherwise enveloping silence. Several times Tristan thought he heard something and his hand jumped to the hilt of his sword, but every alarm was false.

Tristan was broken from his paranoid state as he heard a question addressed to him. “You doing all right back there, Tristan? Haven’t heard a peep from you for a while,” Noble called back.

“Yeah...I’m fine, just a little wary. I keep thinking that something is going to jump out at us or something...” Tristan meekly replied, his eyes still darting back and forth, scanning the dense brush for any sign of movement.

“There may be risks but getting too worked up will accomplish nothing. Stay on your guard but don’t let your nerves take you, or your mind just might invent something for you to be afraid of,” Lore added in.

“Uh-huh...when are we going to get to our camping spot, anyway?” Tristan questioned, his nerves not calmed one bit.

“It shouldn’t be too much longer, we passed a milestone boulder that was on the map a while back so we know we’re on the right track,” Lore responded, unfurling the map once more to verify.

The sun began to sink in the sky, diminishing the already gloomy light in the forest. Before it was finished setting, however, they finally reached their destination. A huge gnarled tree stood before them with signs of previous habitation, as a hole with a rotted door lying next to it made an entrance and old ropes, some still clutching broken bottles, hung from the branches.

“Heh, talk about spooky, right guys?” Keen casually commented, starting to trot up closer, only to be stopped by Lore’s magic grabbing his tail and holding him back.

“Don’t just walk up there! Remember, there may be a rift spawn inside, and if there is it might be intelligent. We need to handle this with diplomatic grace, we cannot just barge in,” Lore reprimanded, taking a moment to stop and assess the situation.

“I’m with Lore on this one. Especially if whatever is inside has already had bad encounters with ponies, it’d just attack you on sight most likely,” Tristan agreed.

“Yes...if there’s something inside it may very well have an aversion to ponies already...” Lore hinted, looking towards Tristan expectantly.

“Yeah, like I was saying, it might-” Tristan began, cutting himself off mid-sentence. “Wait, no no no no no, I am not going first. Shouldn’t it be Noble? He can defend himself better than the rest of us, after all,” he finished with agitation.

“I’d be happy to, but you know Lore’s right,” Noble pitched in. “We’ll be right behind you, don’t you worry.”

Tristan looked to Keen, his only other potential ally in the matter, but found no solace in his empathetic but not supportive face. “Yeah, we’ve got you covered, but you should be going first. I’ll rush in as quick as I can first sign of trouble, no worries,” Keen added.

“Well...nothing else to it then, I suppose...” Tristan muttered, defeated. He drew his sword and shield, both of which suddenly felt very flimsy upon recollections of Mecha-Bull. His first few steps were slow and laborious but he picked up speed as adrenaline began pumping through his veins in anticipation of a hostile encounter. Before coming all the way to the entrance he called out to any that might hear him.

“Uh...hello? Anyone home? We come in peace, and all that...” Tristan began waveringly, slowly edging towards the entrance with his shield held high in front of him. “If anything is in there, please come out, we don’t mean you any harm...” Tristan trailed off as he stepped within the dimly lit tree.

He braced himself for a moment, expecting something to fly out of the shadows to maul him, but nothing did. He strained his ears to hear anything, anything at all, but he only heard the faint ringing that was absolute silence.

“...Yeah, looks like this place is deserted. It’s a bit dark though, I could use a light,” he finally called out to the others, though he didn’t drop his defensive stance. The three ponies rushed in, each ready for a fight as well, and Lore lit his horn to illuminate the interior.

The inside looked to have been ravaged by beasts at some point, with tattered bits of masks, broken glass, and other assorted debris scattered everywhere. Lying in the center in an old fire pit was a large overturned metal pot. Nothing inside moved, and there was no tell-tale smell of recent animal habitation.

Keen zipped around the entire place several times, overturning anything that could potentially be hiding something, and eventually gave the all-clear. The quartet collectively breathed a sigh of relief as they lowered their defences.

“I know we’re here to find something...but you know what? I’m glad we didn’t find something here. That was terrifying,” Tristan commented as he tried to calm down, sheathing his sword and putting his shield down in a corner.

“The sooner we find something the sooner we can leave, and I believe we’d all very much like to leave,” Lore said, inspecting the dilapidated door outside the doorway and fitting it back over the hole with his magic. “There’s no point in continuing further with how dark it’s becoming, so we had best camp here for the night.”

“I dunno, I kinda like this whole thing,” Keen added in. “I mean, the thrill of a potential fight, the thought that you’re actually going to be doing something...it’s invigorating! Canterlot’s nice and all, but it gets kinda boring just doing drills.”

Noble didn’t say a word, but unpacked some of his bags and inspected the pot lying near the center of the room. With an expert buck he righted the pot to its spot of old and he peered at the decayed wood that would have once made a fire.

“I hope you’re not planning on using that thing, Noble,” Lore began. “The smell of anything cooking would just draw the wrong type of rift spawn to us, and that pot has got to be absolutely filthy by now,” he finished, looking disdainfully at the large pot.

“No hot food, got it,” Noble reluctantly obliged as he uncoiled his bedroll and sifted through his rations. Keen did the same, and the two began to eat.

“Let’s see what we’ve got here...” Tristan mused to no one in particular as he rifled through his own pack. Luckily, whoever had packed it knew that he didn’t eat hay or grass, and so those items were mercifully absent. Inside he found an assortment of tough breads, dried fruits, small bars of chocolate, dense pastries, and a few other things. He picked out a few things and started to munch on them, finding it to be mostly agreeable.

After everyone finished their meals they each situated their bedrolls along a portion of the floor that had been cleared of debris by Noble. All but Keen lay down to sleep, as he was taking the first watch. The light from Lore’s horn finally died down, causing the room to be lit by only what slivers of moonlight bled through into the tree, and Tristan passed easily into sleep knowing he was under guard.

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Tristan awoke to a gentle prodding from Noble, who had already packed up his own gear. After much yawning and gripe Tristan got his own gear packed up, and the party was off once more into the forest.

“So, where to today?” Tristan asked, stifling another yawn as they left the hut.

“Our next destination is the ancient castle of the royal pony sisters, to the southeast...” Lore responded, checking his map once again.

“Well that’s a mouthful. What’s a castle doing in a place like this?” Tristan queried, noting that he was far less frightened of the forest now than he was on the previous day.

“This forest wasn’t always like this, of course,” Lore began in his usual manner of speaking down to Tristan. “The rift crisis is fairly recent, but even before that this was a dangerous place. Yet long ago, roughly a thousand years in the past, it wasn’t so. Before Canterlot was built the castle here was the central place of power for all of pony kind. What happened then is a lesson all in its own, so I hope you’re satisfied enough with that answer,” he finished abruptly.

“Huh, interesting...” Tristan quietly responded, having trouble imagining the gloomy and overgrown forest being tame and well traveled.

They continued on their walk for another two hours or so before taking a small break in a clearing. The day was peaceful and they were still yet to encounter anything hostile, and so they were becoming much more complacent with their situation. So, none but Tristan caught a small glimpse of something blue dart between the bushes on the edge of their clearing.

“He-hey! I think I saw something over there!” Tristan cried out, pointing towards where he had seen whatever it was. The other three immediately dropped their conversation and snapped their attention to where Tristan was pointing, but no more blue was to be seen.

“Are you sure you saw something?” Noble asked calmly as Keen flew over to investigate the brush.

“Well, pretty sure...blue against green and brown is pretty easy to see, usually! I don’t know, though...perhaps my eyes were just playing tricks on me,” Tristan responded, drawing his sword and shield just to be safe.

“There are tracks over here! Fresh, too!” Keen called out, causing the others to all rush to where he was hovering. Sure enough, heavy prints that looked like paws with three claws apiece, with one more claw mark situated behind the primary mark, littered the ground. The tracks led off into some thicker foliage, however, and whatever it was had gotten away.

The four simply stood there examining the tracks for a moment, none of them talking. Their investigation was interrupted by a strange, high-pitched whine coming from the direction that the tracks headed. Tristan’s heart skipped a beat as he heard it, as it was like nothing he had ever heard before. He saw that Lore, Keen, and Noble were all locked in place, ears swiveling around rapidly to try to pick up any subsequent cries.

Sure enough, several more cries echoed through the forest, coming from multiple directions at once. What really scared Tristan, however, was that the sounds were rapidly closing in on them.

“Everyone, back to the clearing, now!” Noble commanded forcefully. He, Lore, and Keen all scrambled away from the brush swiftly, and Tristan attempted to do the same. He wasn’t taking great care of his footing in his haste, and so tripped over a root almost as soon as he began to move.

Tristan cried out as he fell, but found that he never hit the ground. A familiar aura glowed around him, and he saw Lore standing nearby, placing him back on his feet. Tristan stood stunned for a moment as he gathered his bearings, then ran to join the others.

The four stood back to back as the cries came closer and closer, obviously locking in on their location. “Maybe they’re friendly? Hey! We don’t want to fight you, but we will if you force us to! Show yourselves!” Keen yelled out in the general direction of the cries.

“They don’t sound very friendly...” Noble added hesitantly. The whining sounds were indeed some of the creepiest things Tristan had ever heard, and the fact that they were almost upon them certainly didn’t help much.

“Dammit, I don’t want to die!” Tristan babbled, his heart threatening to pound out of his chest as his adrenaline built.

None of the others had a chance to respond to him as the cries came to a crescendo and six of the strangest creatures Tristan had ever seen burst from the foliage at once. Each creature was about four feet tall, at least six feet in length, and incredibly agile. They looked to be reptilian in that their skin was smooth and a ridge lined each of their backs, looking like a gaunt spine. Each was a shade of blue, with two legs ending in claws, long sinuous tails, and no heads. Instead their fronts ended in three wicked curved spikes, arranged in a triangle. Between each spike was a single red eye, each with a small black slit of a pupil. On the whole they would have looked absurd, were it not for the fact that they were obviously hostile.

One of the beasts let out a cry, spreading its front out to reveal rows of glossy black teeth lining the inside of its great maw. As it opened the three spikes separated and came to form a triangle around the strange mouth, each pointing inward to better hook its prey.

“Oh shit what the Hell are those?” Tristan yelled out, again ignored by the others.

Their attackers were upon them before any plan could be made, as the beasts lunged at their marks. Instead of all going for a single target they split their attention, with two going for each Keen and Noble and one apiece coming for Lore and Tristan.

The one that singled out Tristan lunged at him, spreading its maw to an almost unrealistic width as it threatened to envelop him whole. Tristan instinctively braced himself and raised his shield, feeling the creature impact heavily upon it and bound away to prepare for another attack.

In the heat of the battle Tristan was unable to recall the finer points of his training, but he remembered enough to at least make an attempt at an attack. He rushed towards the beast and swung his sword at it, which it dodged to the side, whipping its long tail around to bash Tristan. The strike connected and Tristan was sent sprawling back, though he managed to maintain his balance. He heard one of the beasts that the others were fighting emit a higher pitched cry than usual in conjunction with the sound of a meaty thud, and saw flashes of light coming from the edge of his vision. He didn’t turn to look at any of that, however, as he kept his eyes locked on his target.

The beast let out another cry and charged Tristan again, this time swerving from side to side erratically in an attempt to confuse Tristan. His eyes matched the fluid movements perfectly, however, and when the next attack came Tristan was ready. He began by thrusting his shield forward, bashing his attacker off target, and followed with a wild sweep from his sword. A spurt of orange splattered over the ground and a cry of pain reached his ears as his sword made contact and the beast retreated with a minor wound.

Tristan took the fleeting chance to glance at the others, finding that one of the beasts was already slain, adorned with several slices and bleeding profusely on the ground. Noble was locked in combat with two of them at once, deftly dodging from side to side and warding his attackers off with heavy swings from his hammer. Keen was everywhere at once, circling around his mark at incredible speeds, attempting to find an opening in its defense and avoiding its tail. Lore tore the earth asunder and was getting creative with bits that he was levitating, maneuvering it into a shield or weapon when needed and flurrying bits at his attacker to confuse it.

Tristan snapped his eyes back at his attacker, not daring to give it an opening. The beast began circling him, keeping its distance as it continually let out its strange whine at him and searched for an opening. Tristan wasn’t willing to give it ground, however, and warded it off with yells of his own and swipes of his sword whenever it got too close.

If I can just hold it off ‘till the others finish with theirs I can get some help...

He and his adversary eventually came to a standoff, neither edging any closer to the other, both circling slowly around. Tristan thought he heard Lore yell something, though he couldn’t quite make out what it was, and he continued to devote his full attention to his foe. A scant moment after Lore had yelled, however, Tristan felt something heavy plow into his from his back, knocking him on his chest and causing him to lose his grip on his shield, which flew out of his reach.

Talons raked the back of his armor, which held true, but the weight of the beast on him was enough to keep him pinned and force the breath from his lungs. A searing pain struck his left shoulder as something pierced it, inciting a cry of agony as he felt his blood rush down from the wound. A heavy thud sounded above him as the weight was suddenly lifted, taking a small chunk of his shoulder with it. He ignored the pain as best as he could and scrambled to his feet, only to see another of the monsters charging at him.

Tristan raised his sword to fend off the beast, but it was thrown to the side before it ever met him as Keen swooped in and tackled it away. With his left arm dangling limply at his side he swiveled around to see yet another of the monstrosities charging him. Knowing that Keen was already fighting another and hearing both Noble and Lore locked in combat as well, he met the oncoming charge with one of his own.

The creature didn’t seem to be expecting such aggression from a wounded opponent, as it failed to halt its momentum as Tristan sliced at it with all of his might. The blow connected and he was rewarded with a spurt of orange blood all over his eyes, temporarily blinding him. The mass of the beast struck him with the full force of its charge, though it had not aimed any of its natural weapons at Tristan. Again he was sent barreling over, screaming in pain as the strange blood burned his eyes.

He frantically wiped away at the thick substance, knowing that he was vulnerable to any sort of an attack. He attempted first to wipe with his free left hand, which caused a debilitating burst of pain to come from his wound. Electing to at least look intimidating even if he couldn’t see, he stood up and yelled a challenge to any foes that might have been eyeing him, brandishing his sword at its full length.

His challenge was not met, however, as he heard one final screech from one of the creatures, and relative silence came after. He pivoted about once with his sword, strained his ears to hear any remaining enemies, and finally collapsed on the ground as he let the pain take him.

“Tristan! Tristan, you all right?” Keen yelled, as Tristan heard him coming closer. “Hey, guys! Tristan’s hurt, get over here!”

Two more sets of hooves rapidly found their way to where Tristan lay moaning as the pain in his shoulder and eyes intensified now that the battle was over. “It looks like he has some of that blood in his eyes, and he’s been stabbed by one of those spikes...Noble, get him upright!” Lore commanded. Tristan felt himself being heaved upright, and a painful light cleaned off the blood from his eyes. He blinked several times, his eyes still burning terribly, but he found that his vision had mostly returned.

“Can you see all right?” Lore questioned in a tone that almost hinted at a bit of worry.

“Y-yeah...I can see...” Tristan sputtered out, delirious from the pain in his shoulder.

“Let me see that wound you’ve got there...” Lore began as Tristan felt his magic feel about on his wound, eliciting a sharp pang of burning pain which caused Tristan to jerk reflexively, disrupting Lore’s magic. Lore tried once more to the same result, as Tristan was unable to stop himself from flinching terribly. “Sorry, Tristan, but it looks like I’ve got to do this...” Lore said, not bothering to hide the empathy from his voice. Tristan was about to ask him what he meant, but instead felt a sharp blow to the head and lost consciousness.

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Tristan slowly awakened to the softness of his bedroll. The intense pain that he had felt in his shoulder was now nothing more than a numb throb, though it was now accompanied by a matching throb on his head. Mercifully, his vision had at least fully cleared. He saw Noble and Lore sitting together, not speaking a word, but didn’t see Keen anywhere. Without alerting the others to his newly awakened state he attempted to rotate his left arm, finding that it still caused enough pain to make him cry out softly when he tried to move it the wrong way.

“Tristan? You up?” Noble called, trotting over to where he lay.

“Yeah...I’m up. You dick, Lore. What was that for?” Tristan replied, gingerly rubbing the sore spot on his head with his good arm.

“I apologise for the pain, but I needed to get to your wound as soon as possible. If it had been poisoned or the like then any time wasted might have killed you,” Lore calmly defended, joining the pair.

“Was it?” Tristan asked, realizing that Lore very well may have saved his life with what he did.

“No,” was Lore’s response. “Though I did manage to clean it up, apply a healing salve, and stitch it together. You should be all right to continue, as long as you don’t jerk it around too violently.”

Tristan sat up slowly, cradling his aching head. “Those things...what happened? Are the rest of you all right? Where did they go?” he queried, looking around the clearing to see most of the blood and all of the bodies missing.

“We won the fight, as you can see. None of us got anything more than a few bruises or minor cuts, nothing to worry about. And we had to clean this place up, or it might have attracted more spawn. I hate to have had to do it, but the bodies are in a nearby river,” Lore responded, looking wistfully into the forest. “I really would have liked to study those, too...”

Tristan looked up in the sky to see that the sun was already past its zenith and well on its journey down. “...How long was I out, anyway? Are we still moving today?” he asked.

“It was a few hours. And no, we’re not leaving this clearing today. As bad as those spawn were during the day, they would have been worse at night,” Lore answered, magically unfurling his bedroll and setting it down as if to accentuate his point.

Tristan grunted his agreement and spied his pack lying next to his bedroll, from which he took his dinner. After a short meal and a goodnight to the others he readily fell back asleep, despite having already been out for so long.

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The next morning began slowly for the group, without any of the haste of the previous one. Since they were already underway and their destination hadn’t changed there wasn’t much of a reason to rush. Still, they couldn’t dally too long in the same spot, and so they continued on their way.

Their path took them over the shallow river that they had dumped the bodies of the creatures in. Five of the bodies were still present, as the water was not strong nor deep enough to carry them away. One of the bodies, however, was no longer there. Instead, a shallow rut in the earth and several splatters of blood, accompanied by yet more strange tracks that were even larger than the ones the other creatures made, led off to the west.

“Looks like we made the right choice in moving those things,” Noble somberly commented as he looked at the tracks.

“The smell likely brought whatever that thing was here, so yes,” Lore added, scrutinizing the tracks. “Whatever it was, it was big, and it must have been a carnivore.”

“So, we’re not going after it, then? I thought we were supposed to be looking for rift spawn, and here’s the tracks to one,” Tristan clarified.

“No, we’re not going after whatever that was, for a number of reasons,” Lore began. “It was clearly a predator, and if the tracks are anything to go by, larger than the things we fought yesterday. Often, when predators are naturally superior in strength to their prey, they will never develop higher intelligence. They simply wouldn’t need it, or so it’s theorized. So, with it being less likely that it’s intelligent, and more likely that it could kill one of us, it simply isn’t a good idea to go after it,” he finished, turning away from the tracks and beginning to ford the river.

“Ah, we could take it, whatever it is,” Keen boasted. “But hey, you’re the science-y guy, so I’ll take your word for it. Lets keep moving, no point in sticking around here any longer.”

The others agreed and their journey continued, after they refilled their water skins upriver from the bodies. The scenery never seemed to change and the trees never thinned, keeping their progress slow. They were all wary again, unlike the previous day, and unwilling to let themselves be ambushed again.

Their prudence proved needless, however, as they found themselves approaching the castle by the early light of twilight without any unwanted encounters. While they could easily see the castle, they could also see a deep ravine winding all the way around it, almost like some sort of a moat. A dilapidated bridge could be seen on the far side, hanging by only a single rope.

“So, who am I ferrying across first?” Keen asked as he saw the gap.

“None of us. We’re not exactly easy to carry with all of this armor and gear,” Lore replied, surveying the area for a way across. “The bridge isn’t an option, there’s no telling if that thing would break or not, so it’s not worth the risk. Hmm...”

Tristan looked around as well, finding a large overturned tree not far into the foliage. “Hey, what about that?” he asked, pointing it out to Lore.

“Good eye, that should work nicely,” Lore answered, giving a compliment so rare that it felt odd to hear. With some help from Noble to free the log from the undergrowth he tested it to see if it would easily break, finally setting it across the gap when he was satisfied.

“Alright, here’s the procedure. Keen, you hover below the log, just in case something happens. I’ll keep it steady with my magic, and we’ll go one at a time,” Lore informed the rest, none of which had any issues with the plan. One by one they crossed in that manner, without any incident.

The entrance of the castle was little more than ruins, with what may have once been a grand courtyard now nothing more than an overgrown tangle of plant life. Tall pillars, their ornate carving worn away by age and neglect, lay overturned and broken. Farther in the main entrance to the castle could be seen, its wide maw unobstructed and cavernous.

“You all don’t expect me to explore an entire castle alone...do you?” Tristan hesitantly asked, intimidated by the sheer scale of such a task.

“No, you wouldn’t be very effective without light anyway. We’re just going to have to chance all staying together, and hope that if anything is inside it hasn’t already developed an aversion to ponies...” Lore responded.

With that the quartet tentatively stepped inside, Lore’s horn lighting the way. Each had their weapons drawn and ready. They explored from room to room, making sure to call out into each doorway before stepping in themselves to see if anything could hear them.

They encountered no life within the castle, only finding dust, dirt, and the occasional skeleton. None of the skeletons were those of ponies; instead they were of beasts of all shapes and sizes, all of which were unrecognizable as any creature any of them had encountered before. After several hours of searching they resigned to camp out in the cavernous throne room, where the remains of two great thrones still stood.

“Well, that was a whole lotta nothing,” Keen huffed, his excitement at possibly finding something having long since waned.

“Beats finding something else hostile though, right? Could have been worse,” Tristan said, somewhat glad that they would have at least one more somewhat peaceful night.

“Remember that we have only just begun. We’ll be out here for a little over a week longer if we don’t find anything, so don’t get too discouraged just yet,” Lore reminded them. “For now, just get some rest, and leave the planning to me. And Tristan, put some of that food away, that needs to last!” he chided, disapproving of the large pile of food that Tristan had in front of him.

“Heh, right. All this walking just works up such an appetite...” Tristan yielded, putting away part of the pile. Sleep took him easily yet again as he finally gave into his aching muscles.

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A slow drip of water to his face awoke Tristan the next morning. Groaning, he wiped it off, looking up to see that the roof high above was leaking. The others were already in the process of getting up and eating their breakfasts and didn’t seem perturbed by the rain. Tristan decided to ignore it as well, dutifully getting himself ready.

They headed outside to see that while it was indeed raining it wasn’t coming down very hard, and so Lore decided that they needed to continue regardless. They made their way across the now slippery log without much difficulty and left the castle behind them.

For the next several hours the rain neither eased up nor intensified, keeping at a steady drizzle. Tristan was actually a little thankful for it, as it somewhat washed away the grime that had been accumulating on his skin and armor. None of them were much in the mood for talking, each just focusing on navigating the forest.

The rain finally dissipated, giving them a clear view of the sky ahead. They gratefully turned their eyes up to it, finding both the unobstructed sun and a thin trail of smoke in the distance.

“You guys see that smoke too, right? It’s not just me?” Keen excitedly asked, flittering up and pointing towards it with a hoof.

“Yeah, I see it all right,” Noble attested, narrowing his eyes and looking into the forest in that direction.

“Excellent, excellent!” Lore exclaimed gleefully. “There wasn’t any lightning, so that fire can only mean something intelligent started it! Tristan, take the lead, let’s get moving!”

Tristan happily obliged, leading the way with a spring in his step at the thought of meeting an intelligent rift spawn and leaving without getting attacked by another monster. Fate, however, had other plans for the group.

The entire party halted at the slowly increasing sound of snapping branches and falling trees in the distance. Their eyes snapped to that direction at once as they all drew their weapons. Not a moment later they saw what looked like a gargantuan purple armored snake with glowing yellow eyes slithering towards them at an alarming speed, overturning all obstacles in its path.

Keen quickly took to the sky and called down to the others. “That thing has to be at least forty feet long! Get ready!”

Tristan was gripped by fear as it came closer, loudly hissing from a mouth rowed with sharp teeth. He tentatively raised his shield, finding that the pain in his shoulder kept him from putting any strength behind his blocks with it.

As the monstrosity finally closed with them it reared up, a dozen muscular legs unfolding from its underside, and it began running at them without losing any of its speed like a variant of some twisted centipede. Lore sent a fireball straight at it, which deflected against its armored scales, and it bit at him in passing. The bite met fully with armor and failed to make a hold, doing little damage, and the beast ran past, turning around after a short while to make another attack.

“What’s the plan? How are we supposed to kill that thing?” Tristan cried out fearfully, imagining his sword as the meager stinger of a bee in comparison with the charging behemoth.

“Its underbelly looks like it’s not nearly as armored, go for that!” Noble yelled. Sure enough, its segmented underbelly was devoid of the rigid armor plating that covered the rest of it.

It came in for a second attack, this time going for the still hovering Keen, who managed to nimbly dodge out of the way of its bite with time to spare. The beast stopped for a moment to try another bite, and Noble used the time to charge up to it, aiming a heavy blow at its belly.

The blow connected, earning a surprised shriek from the creature. It fell back to the ground, wrapping its dozen appendages tightly to itself, and slithered off in the direction that it came from without attacking further.

Tristan had spent the entire time gawking at the size of the thing, sword limply held out in front of him. “That’s...that’s it? It’s gone? We beat it? Really?” he cried out in disbelief, not believing that Noble had really hurt the beast very much.

“We likely just scared it away from the moment; I suppose we had a little more bite than it expected!” Lore judged. “It’ll likely be back soon, so let’s hurry along and see if we can lose it before it does!”

The others nodded their agreement and took off in a hurry towards the smoke they had seen earlier, all still with weapons drawn. They reached their destination before long, finding an artificial clearing in the forest.

The trees had been uprooted and whittled down into fortifications that pointed outward with sharp tips, surrounding the clearing with only one entrance. In the middle of the clearing was a makeshift shelter of wood and leaves, at about six feet tall. The strangest thing, however, was the creature that stood facing them within the clearing.

It looked like a giant ant, at least five feet tall and eight in length. Unlike an ant, however, its carapace and head were both upright, reminding Tristan somewhat of the shape of a centaur. Its head had pincers like an ant and beady black eyes, and was adorned with an intricate helmet that looked to be made of bronze. It also had arms that looked like they could function much like Tristan’s, complete with hands, and a sharp stinger on its rear. All in all, it was incredibly intimidating.

The party came to an abrupt halt a few feet from the sharp barricade, cautiously regarding the creature in silence. The creature seemed to be doing the same, looking at each one of them in turn. It didn’t look like it was about to attack, but it was obviously not welcoming their presence.

Lore nudged Tristan several times, and he got the message. “Uh...can you understand me?” Tristan hesitantly asked.

The reaction was instantaneous, and the creature’s guard wavered as it was clearly surprised. “How have you come to speak formian? Speak again!” it commanded in a voice that Tristan felt was thoroughly unfitting of its form. While he felt that it should have sounded raspy or shrill it actually sounded clear and deep, with an almost eloquent inflection to its tone.

Tristan’s heart skipped a beat at its speech, though whether it was in fear of the creature on in joy of finding that it could speak he did not know. “Heh...yeah, I can speak, and, uh...we don’t mean you any harm, or anything...” he bumbled timidly.

“Be you creatures of law or chaos?” it forcefully inquired.

“Law or chaos? I’m not exactly sure what you mean, but law, I suppose?” Tristan answered, confused.

“Very well, you may be permitted entrance. Make haste, there are many beasts about! And take care that I can see you at all times, lest you feel the wrath of a true formian!” it declared, motioning towards the sole gap in the fortification.

Tristan gave an unsure glance in Lore’s direction, who hesitantly nodded and motioned his head over to the gap. Tristan slowly edged towards it and slipped through, followed by the other three. The whole time the formian did not move from its spot, nor did it takes its beady eyes off of them. When they were all inside it slowly made its way over to them, stopping in front of Tristan.

“What manner of creature are you?” it asked evenly.

“I-I’m a human, and these three are ponies...” Tristan began slowly. “My name is Tristan, that’s Lore...Keen...and Noble,” he continued, slowly motioning with his sword to each of them in turn. “Do you have a name?”

“A name? I am myremarch two nine three dash four two zero,” it replied. Upon seeing that Tristan was confused with his answer, he continued. “By some I am known by the name of Krik, if you find it preferable.”

Tristan was still frightened of the creature, but felt that he was making good enough progress. “It’s, uh, a pleasure to meet you, Krik,” he numbly stated, sheathing his sword and presenting his hand for a shake. Krik just looked at it until Tristan let it fall back to his side, embarrassed.

“What do you know of-” Krik began to question, stopping mid-sentence. His antennae swiveled about for a moment, and he turned away from the group to look into the forest. As if on cue the snake-like monster from before burst from the trees, crashing through the fortification. The spiked ends pierced shallowly into its underbelly, leaving behind thick purple blood in its trail.

Krik's reaction was as quick as Keen’s as he leapt to action, dodging the hulking mass that was charging for him and giving it a jab with his stinger, which pierced through the thick armored plates on its back. The great beast roared in pain and diverted itself to Tristan, who had only just drawn his sword again.

It circled around Tristan, easily encircling him and cutting him off from the others, and suddenly constricted. Tristan felt the air crushed from his lungs as it tightened around him and he was unable to even attempt to struggle free. Immense pain shot through his body as he heard several loud snaps, his arms and ribs breaking like twigs under the pressure. In conjunction with the constriction, several of the beast’s claws raked Tristan at once, some finding purchase in his face or neck.

Krik, Keen, Noble, and Lore all went at the thing at once, stinging, slicing, bludgeoning, and burning the beast respectively. The sudden onslaught caused it to cry out once more and release Tristan, who fell limply to the ground, unable to even writhe in pain.

He fought to stay conscious, looking on to the battle that still raged in front of him. Keen made a daring attack at the beast’s head, managing to stab one of its eyes, earning a deafening roar of pain from the creature. He wasn’t fast enough in pulling back, however, as the beast vengefully grabbed him out of the sky with its cavernous mouth.

Keen struggled frantically to free himself from the maw of the beast, succeeding only in breaking one of his wings. With a cry of pain he stopped his struggles for a split-second, in which time the monster reaffirmed its grasp and swallowed Keen whole, sword and all. Noble yelled out to his friend in anguish, beating at the monster with all of his might, but there was no response.

Comments

[Slip Kid]

Keen can probably cut his way out.

[Morphy]

Tristan is quite the punching bag for this story. I gather the noisy cracks were a few important things inside him that were not meant to break? (Sarcasm) Owch. I hope Nurse Redheart left his bed ready for him...

As for Keen, he will give that giant centipede the worst case of indigestion it will ever know! (Hopefully cutting his way out of there before the beast gets enough strength to escape as the two standing warriors and scribe bash it's face in)

[Nordlichter]

Do you even rift?

[Tome Turner]

1865739 Yay! Cliche monster battle!

Go to 1:14

This is the best copy of this scene I could find.

[PYROontheAIR]

I'm going to be calling the lizard men Dairaptors (DIE-rap-turr) and the snake a Lokosei (loh-KOH-sy). Also, can I draw what I think they look like on My Deviantart?

[MrPancakeMan]

So, I looked up a picture of the Formian for anyone who was wondering what it looked like, and I came up with this. i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh32/J_Cortez83/chromatic/Formian.jpg

[Trihors]

This story is nice and all but here's the deal at this part of the story:
Tristan is the only one to receive any kind of damage. He's simply like Rocky who can't punch back.
I can literally say "Fuck you writer!" but I won't because I haven't read the whole story yet...

[Bread Shot]

fc05.deviantart.net/fs42/f/2009/068/5/9/Tremors_Family_by_Ninjaco.png
Im guessing that the blue green and brown thing was a graboid from the movie "Tremors" it was proboably a screecher...
The little grey one now if they had an ASS BLASTER (Red one) they would proboably be fucked ._. Even more so if it was a Dirt Dragon (Giant snake thingie) or as they were origonaly called Grabiods :D But sirously dey be fucked if it was the large one they b smart :U

[pinkshadow369]

Dam I liked keen. Hopefully he lives. But at the same time it wouldn't make any sense. So I say unfortunately keep him dead