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A Very Merry Meet-Up3,570 words
Everfree Break In2,276 words

Everfree Break In

Chapter 8: Everfree Break In

As soon as Peter set foot on the other side of the bridge he could tell something was wrong. The forest seemed dark, darker than usual, despite the sun being fairly high in the sky, and was it him or did it suddenly become colder? Some of the trees on the on the other side had been cleared, probably for easier access, and hoofprints were visible in the dirt. They seemed to be all going alongside a carriage or cart that had been pulled through the middle.

‘Sorry, but could you tell me again why you think they’re here?’ Asked Rarity, lagging slightly behind as she tried to avoid some of the mud filled potholes, and the smell of Peter himself, who hadn’t showered or bathed himself for some time now.
‘Because I came here not too long ago. There’s a group of cultists that have set up base here, at least I think they’re cultists. Magic seems to be so common here that I can’t tell the difference.’ Twilight raised an eyebrow.

‘Cultists? What do you mean cultists?’ She looked concerned. ‘Did they mention who they were?’ He thought back.
‘Yeah, one was called Obed or something. Looked rather fishy if you ask me.’ Twilight sighed.
‘That makes a little more sense then.’ Peter looked at her.
‘What makes more sense?’
‘Well he’s the founder of this organisation that-’
‘-can fix a perso- pony, whatever their problem,’ he interrupted. She looked slightly taken aback.
‘Well, yeah how did you know?’ He shrugged.
‘Slate told me something similar. I just had to put the pieces together.’

As they approached the castle, he motioned to them to get down. After he was satisfied that nothing was coming, he motioned to them again to get up. The doors he had encountered last time were missing, and there were a few claw marks on the ground, but he tried to ignore that and pretend ‘a dog or something’ had done it. The door he had entered last time was still there (as if he was expecting it to go anywhere) and was ajar. Odd. Cultists were usually more vigilant. He was about to step inside when he noticed a wire along the base of the door, and a few more ahead of it.

Booby traps. We should have known.

He stepped backwards.
‘We might have to find another way in-’ Before he could fully explain himself Pinkie Pie stepped onto the first tripwire. A comically sized axe swung down from the ceiling, narrowly missing Pinkie’s scalp, but cutting through her hair causing it to deflate. The pink mare continued, unperturbed, stepping on tripwire after tripwire, setting off trap after trap until finally she had reached the end of the hallway. The only thing that had been affected was her hair-do, and that almost instantly sprang back to life. She had somehow managed to dodge the poison darts, flamethrowers and who knows what else, and it left him pondering whether he was really altogether sane. The girls looked on in wide eyed amazement/horror. Pinkie turned around and bounced back to the group.
‘Well are you coming?’ She asked enthusiastically.

Looks like it was made for someone a little taller. He shuddered at the thought.

Stepping forward, the group continued, but this time with a bit more caution. He took the lead, remembering his last excursion. The corridors were just as bleak and old as before, but this time he thought he noticed more scratches on the walls than last time. There was substantially more lighting now, and the sounds of distant ponies echoed through the hallways. It didn’t seem that abandoned anymore. Which was a bad thing. The sound of hooves other than his companions own hitting the stonework drew near and they scrambled for hiding places.

The hall was pretty bare, so there wasn’t anywhere to hide, but there was one door, which he remembered as being locked last time that was wide open, so naturally everyone quietly ran inside.

The approaching ponies past by, one of them obviously whimpering. He peeked outside when they had passed to see a very familiar looking yellow pegasus being dragged along by a few guards, all of which had hoods over their heads.

‘Good news, we’ve found Fluttershy.’
‘What? Let me see,’ said Rainbow Dash pushing past him. Her face became an ‘O’ for a second before she could process what had happened. ‘They’ve broken her wing!’ she exclaimed, perhaps a little too loud.
‘That was the bad news.’ He pulled Rainbow Dash back before she could dart off and before one the robed figures turned round. Luckily for them he was called back by one of the others.

‘Try to keep a low profile would you?’ he whispered to her, but she didn’t care. They’d hurt her friend, and now they’d pay for it.
‘Let me go! I thought you wanted to help Fluttershy!’ She writhed in his arms, and he was finding it increasingly difficult to hold her. He turned to the others.
‘A little help maybe?’ The remaining five rushed to calm her.

‘Don’t worry darling, I’m sure this good, uh, fellow here has a plan.’ She looked at him. ‘You do have a plan right?’ He shrugged.
‘Sort of. But I’ll need you to stay back because it’s not going to be pretty.’ Pinkie Pie chimed in.
‘Pretty? What isn’t pretty? You know that it isn’t very nice to say other ponies aren’t pretty, mm-mm,’ she shook her head, in agreement with herself. ‘Also, why do you have that metal thing strapped to your belt mister?’

Metal thing? He looked to his belt. There was nothing there.

What do I say to that? N-nothing, just focus. Also, it might actually help to have them included in your plan. More man, uh, mare power never hurt anyone.

‘Okay I’ve changed my mind. You can actually help me.’ Pinkie saluted.
‘Just tell us what to do mister Peter sir!’
‘...sure. All of you follow me.’ They obliged, as he exited the room and followed the wounds of a whimpering Fluttershy. Goddamn if that wasn’t the saddest sound he had ever heard, it made his heart break just to know that she was in pain, and he was supposed to be used to this. He just hoped he’d get there in time.

------------

Fluttershy was dragged into a large chamber and dumped onto the ground in front of an altar. Tyral stood directly in front of her.
‘We brought you the prisoner like you asked sir.’ He looked at her.
‘Do you know who this is?’ The two guards glanced at each other very anxiously.
‘Uh, F-Fluttershy. We picked her up just before we came,’ said the second one. Tyral looked up at him. He moved closer.
‘That she is. But do you know what she IS, you fool?’ He started sweating.
‘She’s, uh, she’s, um, uh, I, uh...’ Tyral sighed.
‘She is an Element of Harmony. And do you know what that means?’ Was it just him or was Tyral getting angrier by the second.
‘I did bad sir?’ he responded, terrified. Tyral smiled, and started laughing. The guards all started laughing nervously with him.

‘Ha, you think you did badly? Badly? No you did excellently!’

So it was just him then. Everypony breathed a sigh of relief. ‘We’re sure to get a lot more favour from the gods with this offering, at least a hundred sacrifices worth, and we’ll be killing off one of Celestia’s assets, that ignorant snob. Without her, Celestia won’t have anything left to stop us with! You’re a genius soldier, killing two birds with one stone. What’s your rank?’

He was incredibly happy that he hadn’t done badly.
‘Corporal sir.’ Tyral nodded.
‘Well done corporal. Keep up the good work and we might just have a place for you among the CO’s.’ He smiled.
‘Yes sir, I will sir.’ Tyral abruptly stopped smiling.
‘You shouldn’t be trying to out do your superiors soldier. Someone might get paranoid.’ The soldier also stopped smiling. Tyral turned and walked behind the altar away from them. The soldier followed him.
‘Sir I’m sorry I didn’t-’ His sentence was cut short as he fell through a trap door, a thud as he landed. Soon his groans could be heard until they were replaced with shouts.
‘I’m sorry sir! I’m sorry! please let me out!’ Tyral closed the door with his magic. Muffled screams resonated from the pit, and the sound of flesh and bones being ripped and splintered could still be heard through the stone floor.

Tyral turned again, picking up a knife that had been laid down on the altar.

‘Come on Obed, let’s start the ritual. I’m getting giddy just thinking about it.’ From his seat and desk in the corner of the hall the priest looked up.
‘Coming Tyral, keep your horse shoes on.’ He got up and trotted over to the altar, looking down on her weeping form.

‘What exactly is an element of harmony?’ Tyral grunted.
‘You mean you don’t know?’ He shook his head.
‘You forget I am not of this world.’ The captain rolled his eyes.
‘She’s one of only six ponies who can use these magic artifacts. This one is kindness, I think.’ Obed looked at him questioningly.
‘Kindness? What’s that got to do with magic?’ He shrugged.
‘I don’t know, but it’s defeated monsters throughout the ages so obviously something big.’
‘If that’s correct, well then I think she will be our last sacrifice.’ Tyral’s eyes widened.
‘Then get on with it. I’ve been waiting for this for some time now, and I don’t want to wait anymore.’ Obed nodded and called to the other robed ponies to join him. It was time to start.

------------

This is bad. It looks like the ritual we saw before. I know. Everything’s the same, location, the set up, the chants, we’ve got to stop it.

‘Twilight, you can do magic, can you do anything here?’ he whispered.
‘Like what?’ she asked. Decisions, decisions.
‘Okay, how about this. I’ll distract them somehow, and you get Fluttershy.’
‘Sounds good, now can we get a move on?’ Rainbow Dash butted in, raring to go. He nodded

The occultist snuck his way round the badly lit cavern to get away from the mares, staying low.

Any plans? Just this.

‘Hey dipshit!’ he shouted very loudly. All the ponies lost their concentration and turned to see who had said that. ‘Yeah, I’m talking to you,’ he said to no one in particular.

This is the worst plan I’ve ever seen. I know.

‘Fuck you, fuck you all!’ Tyral simply face hoofed, then ordered a couple of the guards to chase after him. Peter sprinted out of the room, his pursuers hot on his trail.

‘Get on with it,’ snapped Tyral. Obed, slightly confused, finished off the sentence he was on. Miraculously the wing started to heal, though Fluttershy had long since passed out.

‘Why are they helping Fluttershy? I thought they wanted to hurt her,’ stated Twilight. Obed raised the knife above her chest. Ah.

Rainbow Dash torpedoed into him while Pinkie Pie, Rarity and Rainbow Dash rushed the remaining guards. Tyral immediately assumed a battle stance and started to use a simple force spell to push them around and away from the priests. Then Twilight joined in.

------------

This is the end then. I’ll see you in... whatever comes after death. Right.

He was cornered by the ponies, all earth ponies except one who was a unicorn.

He chuckled slightly. What’s so funny? I was just imagining how different this would be with my Webley.

The ponies were moving in.

Um Peter, I’ve been meaning to tell you something. What’s that? Well, I haven’t been entirely honest with you... Oh god, lemme guess that spell back at the prison cost more than a day? No, no, it’s something else. About your pistol. What about it? You didn’t actually lose it.

Peter was confused.

What do you mean I didn’t lose it? Well, you know how you tried to kill yourself? I’m not particularly proud, but yes? I kind of, made you... blind to the gun. You know, to stop you shooting yourself. What does that mean? You know how Pinkie commented on the L shaped object? Ye-e-es? And you didn’t see it? Yes? That’s because I’m not letting you see it. You wah. How? I blocked it out of your mind. You can do that? Yes. I see. So the object. It’s my gun isn’t it? ...yes. Well hurry up and let me see it already.

He looked down and sure enough, there the gun was, holstered where it had sat for the last fortnight.

I didn’t take it off for a full two weeks? It’s not my fault you don’t wash often enough.

He whipped it out and put a bullet in between the unicorn’s eyes. At first the ponies were confused, but when he shot another one they got the picture and ran as fast as they could.

He looked down at the two bodies and blew on the end of the barrel. Damn that feels good.

Author's Note:

Oh hey, didn't see you there. Sorry for being so damn late with this one. It's the same problem I have with my other fic, life gets in the way, and I need to write for two different fics at the same time. As you can see it has really hit the pan here so expect action next chapter! Just thought I'd let you know in advance, also I'm thinking of adding a few alternate endings. What do you think? Do you like the idea of having a few alternate endings? Credit to iFiredone for pre-reading and correcting mistakes.

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