> Crisis On Equestria: Choose your own Adventure. > by WrathOfGod519 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Strange Beginnings > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- There is a wall. It's made of cracked concrete, much like the other surfaces of this box he finds himself in... come to think of it he doesn't quite remember ever even seeing a wall before in his life... he doesn't remember anything in fact. It's as if he just popped into existence staring at that wall, nothing but oblivion and then pop, staring at that wall. Blink Nothing changes, All is silent except for his own gentle breathing, yet everything is both new and familiar at the same time. He idly realizes his back is pressed against the wall, yet he is surprised by the discovery of a back. "This is new" says a distantly male voice. Come to think of it, since when did he identify himself as male? What was his name, what is a name? Since when could he speak English, what the fuck is English?!? A Million questions ran through his mind, which in turn generated an exponentially greater amount until his head hurt. He came to deuce from this information that he appeared to be a human, despite having no idea what exactly a human was. Well no use just standing around in a white concrete box right? Looking around the only thing that he had known throughout his entire existence, he noticed a door to his right. It was a simple brown door with a golden handle. 'What was a door? Ah no!' he mentally berated himself for asking stupid questions about things he didn't remember, for he had discovered he couldn't answer himself. For lack of anything better to do, he calmly walked over to the door, and opened it. Starring in curiosity at the new sights, he walks into the new room. This one was different, it was bright white everywhere and seemed to glow, in the middle of the room sat a chair. On the left side stood 3 doors of different make. His curiosity got the better of him as he walked over to the chair, taking in the multitude of new sights that he'd never seen before, he briefly wondered what color was before looking down at the chair. There was a folded piece of paper on the chair, whilst this was no more remarkable then anything else he was experiencing, he somehow knew that paper was for writing on. Barely managing to stop himself from questioning what the devil writing, paper ect was, he picked up the paper and found a note scrawled in a multitude of different yet equably messy styles of chicken-scratch handwriting. Welcome to the Nexus... Now get the fuck out. "well that's kinda rude..." wait there was more further down the page... Amuse us pathetic mortal: Wait guys, Guys Shouldn't we give him more to go on? No fuck off you faggot, bitch gonna get cut The note went on arguing inanely with itself, it seemed to grow longer yet nothing new was being written, it was simply already there (as if being suddenly uncloaked by a perception filter). He did not question this, for all he knew it was perfectly normal. He noted that whoever or whatever wrote this note seemed to have a very low IQ.... what's an IQ? "Fuck! I did it again..." He briefly acknowledged his self-discovery of chronic swearing. There was nothing else here, so he might as well move on. To the left there were 3 doors. The first was a almost plain looking oak wood inlaid with small gemstones, but had a symbol of what appeared to be a pony carved into the center. The next was a dark, reflective obsidian which had carvings of fire and brimstone plastered all over. Finally there sat a clear glass door framed with patterned gold which showed what seemed to be a heavily refracted image of the sky. he couldn't make out anything due to the sheer extent of refraction the light coming from the other side was going through. Which door should our clueless protagonist go through? >>Oak door >>Obsidian door >>Clear glass door? Vote in the comments. > The Obsidian Door > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I'm going obsidian on this one. -Regidar The center door of shinny obsidian seemed to call to him, as if some unseen force was pushing for it. The man blinked hard, dispelling the slowly building headache, were those normal? He began strolling towards the black door when suddenly, someone whispered 'Penis'. He stood still wondering if hearing voices was normal, having nothing else to go on he shrugged and decided that yes, voices in your head was just a part of everyday life. As such he decided he had nothing to fear dispite the voice saying such a strange thing. "Hello?" the man said curiously, looking around the bright white room. "Anyone there...?" A voice whispered 'How did you find this?'. This one was slightly different in tone, but none the less barely audible, yet still perfectly clear and understandable. The man looked startled, more voices? Perhaps they were the same beings that wrote on the paper. "Hello? who are you guys, how are you speaking to me?" The voices whispered back 'I used my pingas'. The man was confused, normally when he heard a word he had never heard before he would know what it meant despite it being unknown, yet he had no idea what pingas meant. This was strange to him, he didn't like the feeling. Shaking off the unease he decided to just get it over with and see what was on the other side of that door. There was no handle on the door, yet it was ice cold to the touch. Shocked, he withdrew his hand at this new and unpleasant feeling, did the room just get colder? He glanced around in alarm, the bright, blurred white of the walls began to dull into an ugly grey to match the rapidly dropping temperature. His breath was now visible, he was shivering. He didn't like this new emotion he was feeling, fear perhaps? Again the force came back in full, it seemed to claw at his mind, urging him to open the door. He couldn't find any reason or want to question it, so he push at it, ignoring the biting cold. There was no friction, the door simply glided open. In front of the man was a raging inferno, lighting up his face yellow. He stared in confused awe for just a moment before he fell forwards, as if gravity had been flipped. Before he could even question what gravity was, he was burning. His flesh being stripped away from his bones by the unforgiving flames. He tried to muster a scream at this horrific new sensation but failed as all went black. Gasping, he awoke lying in a pile of snow, he wasted no time in bolting upright. His eye's darted around and he nearly failed to process what he was seeing, mountain ranges, no ceiling, a giant glowing ball that hurt if you looked at it to long. His mouth gaped as he took in this new overload of information. He blinked, there was wind blowing at his back, it was unpleasant and pulled his visible breath away from his mouth. Managing to get his frantic breathing under control despite his adrenaline high, he attempted to assess the situation. Coming up completely blank he decided to ask the voices for help "hello hel-" he stopped because his mouth felt funny. Reaching up he stopped again as he saw that his hands had been turned into black claws, yet this was just another strange thing for him. He shrugged it off and examined his new quadrupedal body, he had a pair of leathery wings and a tail inlaid with spikes. Not questioning why he felt so natural walking on all fours or moving his wings, because the same thing had just happened earlier, he began heading forward simply because the cold was unpleasant and would not go away. In the distance he spotted a few different things, what appeared to be a small settlement of some kind, and a cave illuminated by an orange light inside. Both were equally new to him. He could see the smoke rising in plumes from the houses, he knew this meant fire, warmth. Yet at the same time pain, horrible pain and teleportation. OK he recalled, so fire doesn't always try and eat you.... how did he know that. Snorting in frustration he carried on. Well fuck, what now? >>Settlement >>Cave Also feel free to suggest a plan of action. > The Settlement > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The dragon stopped next to a rocky outcropping, there was that sudden urge again. Some unseen force pulling him along like a puppet on strings...only this time the strings seemed to have gotten tangled. One pulled towards the small mountain village, the other the cave... The conflict of interest actually started making him nauseous. Thankfully however the sickening twisting inside his head came to a sudden, abrupt halt, with it came a voice "Walk through the town little young vengeance, walk through it for your purpose lies inside." 'Vengence?' the dragon pondered? Was that his name? It must be... although that is a strange thing to name a person... lizard.. thing. Perhaps the raspy voice was being metaphorical...it was apparently not done. It continued in it's faded tone, "Take a stroll through this lovely settlement. Find were the guilty are sent, If they will not tell you, make them". Vengeance winced at the voices commanding tone. He didn't really know what the voice was getting at, but who was he to question it. People should listen to their conscience right? "Wait, I'm a bit confused here... I mean... that sounds pretty awkward just walking into a-" The voice cut him off. "If they question you simply state. 'I am the dawn of something new...'" Vengence stared blankly ahead before tying to open his mouth- "If they try to detain you, FORCE your way through." "Uh... alright then..." Apparently he was going to be judge dread now...wait, just who the fuck was judge dread! He let out a groan of frustration. "Also know that if you choose to follow the path I have laid before you, I will never lead you astray from it." that was strangely reassuring... Pretty much at a loss, vengeance- for lack of a better name- shrugged and began traveling towards the settlement in a state of causal bewilderment. Another voice popped up causing the dragon to cease up and listen, for apparently he was incapable of tuning them out. "Don't listen to that guy, I'm the little voice in your head, you can call me Insanity, Go to the cave instead of the town which will most likely help you, and keep you warm. I mean the cold hard stone of a cave instead of a warm cozy bed, who doesn't want that?" This voice was a lot more upbeat, less serious. Vengeance glanced up at the cave, despite insanities clearly sarcastic jest he felt oddly compelled to do it's bidding, equally so in regards to the other voice. Then again he was already traveling towards the village, and that cave was uphill 'mmmm maybe later' he thought, deciding to head towards the town. In his vast non-existent experience he did recall that people tended to congregate, and where there was people there was food, comfort, maybe an inn, dead bodies- where did that come from? "Uh nevermind I'm beyond questioning shit at this point". On the quiet outskirts of Yew, a young unicorn colt was fetching water from the well. He was the local blacksmiths apprentice, as such he often got lumped with crappy jobs nopony wanted to do, fetching water for example. To make things worse there was a hole in the bucket. It just made the whole thing more frustrating... He signed, maybe he should've joined the army. There was certainly room for new recruits in these dire times, he felt like he just wasn't making a difference, he should be out there killing griffons and protecting his family from the- his head turned up as he took notice of the familiar sound of pebbles clinking off one another. There stood a monster the size of a large stallion. It's eyes were a deep venomous green with slitted pupils, it's hind pitch black and it's claws razor sharp protrusions. It took less then a second for him to lose control of his bowls when the thing opened it's horrible mouth to reveal a predatory array of needlelike teeth. He screamed "DRAAAAAGON!!!! ahhhhhhhgon!!!! ahhh!!!!". The dragon watched the colt run away howling in terror, cries of "DRAGON!!" following in his wake. Vengeance closed his mouth then dropped his claw back to earth in mild confusion. He was just going to ask direction to an inn... A sudden onset of nausea struck him, squeezing his eyes shut at the random burst of pain he remembered, he was to ask where they kept prisoners... The headache seemed to recede. well... that was strange, 'just another strange occurrence' he supposed. And was that piss he smelt? There was a kind of scent trail leading up the hill, atop it were various huts. Obviously the outskirts of town, not wanting to invoke another headache he decided to just get it over with and head into town... not like he had a choice anyway. As he neared the top he became acutely aware of the hussle bussle of village life, there seemed to be a commotion. Cresting the hill was a unique experience in that time seemed to stop, not just for the oblivious dragon. Over the small bump and in the middle of the square were gathered a group of ponies gathered around the latter mentioned colt. An older mare that vengeance could only assume to be his mother or grandmother stood trying to comfort him, or at least did before they made awkward eye contact. Ponies and dragon alike stared like a deer caught in headlights, then simultaneously the situation erupted. Shrill shrieking from the mares and panicked shouts from the colts rang out like a knife embedding itself into the dragons forehead as body bodies flew every which way. "ow..." Pretty soon the dusty marketplace was empty, everypony having retreated to safety and one very lost, very bewildered dragon standing in the center of it all. "..Ok then..." A quick glance around and he spotted a brown tail laid out behind a market stall selling oranges, he took a moment to admire the thatched roof cottage the stall was built in front of. Must belong to the mare cowering behind it's wares...'Ok' he thought to himself 'stalling for time isn't going to make this go away'. He stood in front of the stall for a few seconds, somewhat at a loss as to which course of action to take. "Excuse me um... miss?" he went with the assumption that the pony hiding behind the stall was female, not that he was sexist or anything. No reply. Bringing his head around the corner he found that the shivering body was indeed female, the mare was curled into a ball with her hooves covering her head. Perhaps thinking that staying still would protect her from a predator, that panicked trail of logic was profoundly stupid in engences opinion. "Um.. miss?" all he could see from the young mares face was the blue bonnet being hugged to the floor. "Miss..." Nothing. "Hey?" He raised his voice at the mare, but impossibly she became even stiller. The whole situation was starting to make him uncomfortable, he really didn't mean this mare any harm but he didn't have all day. Raising his arm he lightly jabbed the tip of his razor sharp claw at the space just next to her cutie mark. She seemed to jolt into life and bolted over the counter and around the corner at what could well qualify as record speed. "HEY! Wait I-" Vengence stopped just in time to see a drop of blood drip from the talon. He stared at the crimson drop in fascination, he knew he should really be experiencing some kind of remorse or guilt at the little accident, but all he could feel was a strange apathy over the entire ordeal. 'It was just a light tap, how could it have sunk through so easily' "...god damn these are sharp", 'Note to self, keep away from eyes'. It then came to his attention that he might apparently be some kind of psychopath, filing away this little self discover for later processing he stuck his head over the stall, for now there were more pressing matters. Namely the trio of equestrian soldiers coming into the marketplace. Well what now? >> Preemptive strike. >> Try to reason with them. >> Run away. Feel free to suggest a unique plan of action. > Blood For The Blood God and Setting Up Shop. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Upon spotting the soldiers vengeance ducked back down and pressed his back into the wooden stall. The soldiers had all been large, burly earth ponies. 'perhaps I could just fly off' he thought to himself, after all he wanted nothing to do with this whole predicament and didn't like this new feeling of fear that was coming to him. "Alright Mister Mcshufflebutt, This is what we do." 'mr mcshuffl!-' His thoughts were cut off quickly as the upbeat voice continued, "They have a major disadvantage, you have hands and fingers(don't ask what these are) make your fingers wiggle around to distract them, and then you SMASH THEM WITH MAH HAMMAR! Or you could, I don't run away? maybe. I'm still going for the hammer." Vengeance was left very confused by the voices broken english and silly demeanor. This was serious, it was no time for joking. "Listen, this is Serious, any more bright idea's?!?" He whispered in a somewhat exasperated manner. He waited for a reply, "Well?" A camp english voice spoke up, this one sounded like he was speaking into a plastic cup, "Start parkouring." 'Park-PARKOURING!' Vengeance sat still for a couple seconds letting that sink in... He sighed, momentarily forgetting where he was entirely "Oh just fuck off" "There it is lads!" a gruff voice shouted, the dragons eyes went wide as the stall began to topple over on top of him, he narrowly avoided being crushed by that relatively light piece of wood and oranges. Managing to get a couple feet on his attackers before turning to face them, the three ponies looked weary of the dragon. It was a mutual feeling. "Fight the whelps! For the slaughter! Break their backs! Split them open! Gut them all! Flense the skin from their bones! Engulf them in pain! Blood for the Blood God!" Despite the sudden urge to rend the ponies apart Vengeance settled on a more diplomatic approach, "WAIT... wait" He held us hands up in a passive gesture but it was apparently lost of the four legged creatures. The apparent leader gave an incredulous look to his companion "It can talk..." his hoof gesturing towards the dragon. "Why yes, yes it can" Vengence replied snarkily, which judging by the sudden glare might have been a mistake. "What do yer want lizard? yer come to eat our children?" The other ponies seemed to grow angry at the mere thought of it. "WHAT?! NO, no I'm uh... I'm the beggining ...of something new?" Oh god he sounded like some kind of egotistical lunatic.There as a brief awkward silence that made each party very uncomfortable. Finally the soldier spoke up "reeeet... well.... why are yer terrorizing ma village?" "Oh well, I'm not exactly sure I-" Vengence was cut off by a loud voice screeching inside his skull. We are chaos!!! Chaos, ... Chaos is strong.... The colt stared as the dragon clenched his forehead and almost crumpled to the ground. The soldiers looked at each other. "what the 'ells eatin him?" "Divint na" the other replied, they were clearly not from this area of equestria. The leader again spoke up, "Oi! what the hells wrong with ya you-" Vengeance snarled "Oh my god, shut the fuck up, you obnoxious faggot!!" Upon opening his eyes the first thing vengeance saw was the colts in question drawing their swords, holding them with their teeth. Evidently the time for discussion was over. Before the dragon could ponder the cost of the equestrian military dental plan the leader rushed forward bringing his sword down in a wide arc. Vengeance managed to dodge to the side just in time "God damn!" he shouted still retreating as the other two soldiers rushed forwards. The nearest guard, a brown colt, swung his steal horizontally with barely enough time for the dragon to duck under it. Time seemed to be slowed down for vengeance, he watched almost serenely as the sword flew over where his neck had been less than a few seconds before hand. The situation began to sink in, this motherfucker just tried to cut his head off. A deep seated rage began to boil inside him as he leapt forward and gripped the brown colts head between his claws, cutting into his jaw. The grey leader and green run watched in helpless horror was the dragon dug his thumbs deep into the brown colts eyes, his blood curdling scream as just as quickly cut from the air as a pair of razor sharp teeth sunk into his neck, crushing his esophagus before tearing out a lump of cartilage. He collapsed to the floor gurgling, his legs kicking and jerking erratically. The dragon sat with a lump of throat in his mouth, thinking about what he had just done. It was fun, yet he knew it was terribly wrong, he didn't want to be a bad person... dragon thing. He made a grave mistake by taking the time to contemplate this as the grey colts sword cut into his hind leg, luckily the scaly armour stopped it from going too deep. It did not however stop it from hurting like a bitch. "Motherfucker!", Vengeance let out a roar of pain, and with it came a small jet of flame. He could feel the cold, hateful rage boiling in him again stronger than ever, the same look was plastered on the grey colt whose friend just got his throat torn out. Before the colt could fully lift up his weapon vengeance swiped his claw down across his face, gouging tears as it went and taking away part of the leaders upper lip. Rather than scream the colt staggered backwards, dripping blood across the ground. The other smaller brown colt kept his distance as the two faced off, glaring at each other in utter hatred. His grey companion yelled "wha amm umm mmmim! mmm" 'what are you doing! help!' The dragon rushed forward suddenly, dodging the stabbing motion of the sword and shoulder barging the colt with all his might. This backfired as the colt was stronger, he hooked his arm around the dragons middle and wrestled him to the ground, ignoring the way the claws dug into his back. Pushing the reptile off him he slammed his hoof into vengeances face, dislodging a tooth and filling his mouth with blood. Creeping forward hesitantly while his friend repeatedly knocked seven shades of shit out of the dragons face the smaller runt saw how the dragon was clawing repeatedly into his comrades back with frantic motions. Realizing he had to help end this he approached cautiously from behind but as he got too close a spiked tail whipped across his face. He screamed as the vitreous fluid ran from his eye. The leader looked back out of concern from his friend, his back and upper arms had been torn to threads by now and the sword lay long since abandoned in the nearby dust. This distraction was all it took for the dragon to clamp his bloodied yet powerful jaws down on the colts leg, the bones snapped like twigs and the flesh gave way to teeth designed to magically pick apart gemstones. While the colt let out a bloodcurdling scream vengeance took the opportunity to roll him over, inadvertently rubbing the exposed flesh of the stallions back wounds into the dirt. The colt had lost too much blood to properly fight back, but he still tried with all his might, the dragon quickly pinned his arms down by the side of the colts head and yelled "I'll fucking kill you" into his face. Both were gasping for breath and bleeding heavily, the colt snarled through clenched teeth in a voice filled with pure hatred "I won't let you hurt them". Vengeance tightened his grip on the colts arm, digging his claws further into flesh. He just growled at the soldier, nothing mattered but his death. Silence reigned for a couple seconds as the two glared into each other eyes, then the dragon spewed fire from his maw. The colt thrashed in agony as the flames danced over his bare eyes, sizzling his flesh and disfiguring his face. The seconds passed, eventually the flames ceased. The colts face was singed black, his eyes blinded crisp. His cracked and blackened gums were clearly visible where the magical fire had burned through the flesh surrounding his mouth leaving just a few scraps of muscle tissue still connecting his jaw to his face. He was still alive, but barely and in a state of massive shock. Vengeance rolled off the lightly gasping corpse and sat panting on the ground. His nose and mouth were dripping blood, probably broken. He let a few teeth drop from his mouth in a calm, almost disbelieving fashion. He idly noted the brown colt running off like a coward. He felt a bit numb, almost unable to believe all of that actually happened. He had almost died... he had killed someone, and the only thing that made the experience horrible was that they fought back hard, and that scared him. 'I must be some kind of monster...' he thought to himself, 'what kind of sick fuck enjoys doing this?' apparently a sick fuck like him he mused. "Daddy!" oh no. He felt sick as a young filly rushed out and latched onto her dying father's side. The colt managed to weakly turn his head towards his daughter but didn't say anything. Blood mixed into her fur as she lay sobbing into his chest occasionally burbling "daddy" as if in denial. A long minute that felt like an eternity passed as Vengeance just sat watching the little filly, a cold numbness spreading over him, he somberly watched the blood drip from his nose and into a puddle to take his mind off the scene he caused. The stallions shallow breathing eventually halted and he became still. The filly just stared, sitting in a warm pool of her father's blood with tears cascading down her face. In her tiny voice she managed to utter "no..." in what could only be described as a half sob half whisper. The dragons gaze met hers and for what seemed like forever they just stared into each others eyes, all the while a growing sense of nausea settled into the dragon's stomach. "Steal the children then run away. You need child labor if your sweatshop is ever to get off the ground." Vengeance stared in disbelief at the child. "wow... you guys are dicks..." The young filly went back to sobbing into her dead father's chest. The dragon looked away, he tried not to think about what just happened. He disliked these new emotions he was feeling, the feelings he got whenever he looked at the filly smeared in her father's blood. For now he seemed content to just sit and study stray beatles scurrying obviously across the ground. Wouldn't it just be nice to be like them, totally oblivious to anything beyond their meager existence. Never wanting more or feeling remorse. His existential philosophy was cut short by a somewhat familiar voice. "FOCUS! we need focus people! There will be blood, plenty of it, but first we must ask them the question we needed. They will probably not answer any way. So when they try to stop us we strike them down as an example." These guys really were just sick fucks weren't they... just like him he supposed. He felt the familiar pain flare up from whenever he even thought about disobeying their commands, he realized that it would only get worse the more he resisted. Forcing himself to move he felt the headache totally recede, making his way through the town in order to ask where they kept the prisoners for some probably inane reason. "Blood for the blood god. Do this and be rewarded. I wish to help you, but only if you help me." They kept saying that, what did it mean. Who was this blood god... further up the street he came towards another thatched roof, banging on the door in an exhausted fashion he waited for a response. He heard a shuffling from the other side of the wooden door. A terrified male voice came from within "W-who's this? did you kill that thing". The dragon looked back at the corpse further down the street, the filly was lying head down on it's chest, hair covering her face. It hurt but he had to do this, "I did... could you please come out sir?". The door unlocked and slowly slid open. The smaller stallion on the inside of the home froze solid when he looked up into the bloodied face of a dragon, who didn't bother to wait when he pressed his weight down on the door. The colt yelped and zipped backwards into the dark. The cottage was a simple affair, being windowless and one roomed, it's walls were white and a series of small beds lay at one end. In between the beds lay a stallion with his back to vengeance, he was cradling his wife and kids in a terrified embrace. "hey..." "p-please don't kill them" he whimpered weakly, "They're all I have". Vengeance sighed, wishing he could just be done with this whole ordeal, or maybe fly off somewhere. "Listen... I don't want to hurt any of you. I just want to know where you keep the prisoners, if you even have any". If they never even had any prisoners he was going to feel awful... and stupid. "o-of course, please... they're kept in the Hold". The clink of an unlocking door caused a black feathered griffin to bolt upright from his cot. he and his comrades were wary whenever the ponies came, in case they meant to interrogate them for information of griffin troop movements. But to his great surprise there was no soldiers, only a small stallion flanked by a slightly larger reptile. The griffin stood up from his cot and grasped the cell bars in his claws, a dragon coming into a jail cell was not something you see everyday. "H-here they are, now p-please" The stallion whimpered. The dragon nodded with eye's full of pity before the pony took off in a hurry. Then started another awkward silence in which a few of the birds took note of the dragons injuries. A female griffin, one of the four held captive spoke up in a raspy voice "Who are you and what do you want?" vengeance thought about this, he really had no idea. Yet he had already burned his bridges with the ponies so he might as well pick a side. "I suppose I came to set you free" The block feathered griffin perked up "so you're with the kings army? Thank you comrade, I can see you encountered some swine while carrying out your most noble of tasks" The dragon muttered a subdued "Yeah..." "The keys are on that bench over there" No set of choices this chapter, but feel free to tell him what you think of his actions ect, or what to do next. > Hugs and Molestation are Bad for the Soul... > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Vengeance would have slipped into another guilt induced state of derealization, had it not been for one of the ever helpful voices making itself known. "Dance puppet, dance. Tap dance to be exact. Then grab the keys and stab the man in the urethra with them." The dragon just stood still for a few moments and pondered the total inanity of this request, and whether or not it was worth even dignifying it with a response. Were they just torturing him for shits and giggles at this point? Why him? What did he do in some past life? "Hey!" the quick squawk of a golden feathered griffin knocked him out of his contemplated state. He clapped twice "Chop chop we REALLY haven't got all damn day". Much to his ere the other griffins look just as impatient and unthankful, except perhaps the grey feathered one... goldie slammed his talons on the bars impatiently, "HEY! What the fuck is wrong with you, what are you staring at son?" A wall perhaps? Right right, the key, what was he doing. The dragon chalked it up to the recent drama he'd been going through- oh that griffin was looking pretty pissed off he'd better get moving. On the table lay a saddlebag that presumably carried the key, a quick search confirmed this fact, knowing there'd probably been a need to carry things later one he slung it around his shoulder so that it hung from his stomach. It was pretty uncomfortable. "Come-on, come-on they'll be reinforcements here any damn minute" the griffin he'd designated as goldie spewed impatiently. Just as he was about to slide the key into the lock, a rather crazed voice spoke up. "Hug the griffin!! HUG IT NOW!" 'wha- no fuck you you that-ah' Vengeance winced at the sudden headache that interrupted his thoughts, fuck no he wasn't hugging that guy, it'd be so awkward. He managed to unlock the door at least before the headache brought him to a crouch. He briefly acknowledged the air currents of four bodies moving past before the outside world became blurred from pain. It was an overwhelming unearthly pain, it didn't originate from any part of his body but rather seemed to come from his very soul. It manifested itself like an all encompassing cloud around his mind, twisting and working violently in more than 4 spatial dimensions, this alone caused a nasty headache. The grey feathered griffin glanced back worriedly once he realized his new comrade was not following him, he came back to find the dragon crumpled to the floor, his head clasped tightly in his claws. "Comrade? Comrade!" he came forward and shook the lizards arm, the dragon leapt forward and ensnared him within his arms. Once his vision had cleared and the pain had almost receded, vengeance became aware that he had a ball of feathers pressed into his chest, he quickly became very uncomfortable and tried to let go or push him away before a voice quickly interjected. "While you're hugging it, reach around and feel up its ass." Barely able to curse his existence in time before the pain came back in full, the urge to do it's bidding akin to that feeling a generally content, non-suicidal man gets when confronted with a grisly bear and attempts to ignore his instinct to run away. To say the least the dragon soon became aware that his hand was full of coarse fur. He really didn't want to think of where it came from and the thought disgusted him. After a while he realized he had been clenching his eyes shut in an attempt to make the situation go away, and still hadn't removed the claw partly due to a state of shock. He flinched away as if stung. "I-I..." words failed him, spaghetti was falling out of his pockets at an alarming rate and all he could do is sit there chest to chest with the griffin too overwhelmed by nausea, embarrassment and shame to even move away. And then he felt the griffin return the favor, thus he continued to set a record for the number of times a dragon can enter shock in the course of one day. A pair of male talons rested lightly on his shoulders before pushing the two persons apart slowly, he dared look down from the ceiling and instantly regretted it. The griffin held on his face a very coy expression of a man who'd just got lucky after a lifetime of blueballs. And it was directed at him... 'oh god why'. "We should discuss this later... in private comrade, for now we must go" He separated the two and walked ahead, "come friend, the ponies have no doubt sent reinforcements" "Cornelius" The female voice of the previous griffin hang out down the halls. "What the fuck are you doing, we gotta go man!". Cornelius nodded "I know, we're coming" and with that he charged forward leaving vengeance to sit staring at the ground, wondering what the fuck just happened. And he stared, and stared. Then a tallon gingerly grasped his forearm, he flinched away as if burned. The dragon looked up to see the griffin staring into his eye's with a look of utter concern "are you alright..." he asked as if talking to a crying woman he fancied. It made vengeances skin crawl. He answered coldly. "Yea... yeah I'm fine, lets just go" He tried to ignore the slightly hurt look on the griffins face before hurrying after him and out the building. Taking flight was second nature to him, just as walking had been when this form was first adopted. It also had the unfortunate effect of giving him a lot of time to think about what just happened, it was honestly hard to decide which was worse, the guilt or the molestation. 'Seriously, fuck my life...'. An Hour later the group had been flagged down and met up with another, larger force of griffins stationed in the nearby cave. It turned out they had been planning a rescue mission. After the brief commotion concerning the dragon where several soldiers attempted to stab him, it was eventually explained that he'd been the one who'd single handedly rescued them, as an apparent reward he was gifted with a sword and conscripted into service with the kings army. Which the dragon supposed was little better than slavery, but hey, at least they weren't killing him. Que the voices: "Well, you can be mister grumpypants all you want, but someday you will learn that being serious all the time will only get you to die alone and unhappy" The dragon looked up from the stream he'd been staring into, after being conscripted he'd quickly secluded himself next to a small stream a short distance away from the camp in order to brood over his problems and reevaluate his extremely short blip of existence. He was what? 7? 8 hours old...? He wasTechnically too young for this bullshit. He briefly considered taking his anger out on the voices, but realized they'd never really responded in real time and so found the idea pointless. *sigh* "....He does have a good point though, fucking asshole...", he supposed that it might not be the worst idea to try and lighten up, it really couldn't hurt. 'Start by taking your mind off your problems', '...oh look, a bird, taking a bath... fuck I hate birds... why do I hate birds?' " Ignore the Bird, follow the river... and then chain all the fillies by their ankles, hanging from the trees with the chains you just acquired. Then eat the keys. Trust me. They're a good source of iron. Then, go bake a cupcake. With Cyan frosting. And Rainbow sprinkles." Unable to deduce the source of the voice he settled for looking at the sky "Ok seriously... fuck you guys and your shit..." then glanced back at his bag, 'on second thought I am kinda hungry'. More like starving actually, he'd never eaten anything as of yet. Reaching into the cloth bag he eyed the key critically... it was a little rusted. He seemed to recall dragons eating gems and minerals from somewhere but as usual could not figure out where. Shrugging he popped the key into his mouth and started chewing, it tasted like dirt. But to his great surprise his teeth cut through it like butter and the chunks seemed to melt. It was like his teeth and saliva contained magical enzymes designed to break down rocks and such... 'cool'. Now what... "Assemble an army and conquer a slice of Equestria for yourself. Build a castle and live out your dragon days in luxury with dragon concubines as your empire grows. Come on, Celestia doesn't need all that land anyway..." 'Oh god not these fucking prinks agai-' He reconsidered, "actually... I kinda like this one... s'not a bad idea. Don't see how I could but, eh, I'll see what I can do". The flapping of wings brought the dragon out of his stupor, a quick glance confirmed that it was cornelius. Vengeances went rigid and having no idea what to say, decided to totally ignore him by staring at a rock and hoping he'd go away. He quietly contemplated the way the stream made the reeds sway when a tallon gently brushed his thigh. It was quickly swatted away in disgust. "What's wrong?" "Nothing... just... go away" The tallon quickly found it's way to the dragons shoulder, this caused the release of a long sigh of exhaustion. "Listen, about what happened back there-" Vengeance napped "NOTHING HAPPENED BACK THERE! Seriously man, just... drop it" "You can't say that was simply nothing! Because-" Some kind of dam broke, "Fuck! I'm not gay dude!" "What... yes you are, you-" Cornelius was cut off again. "NO! no look.... listen I... There are voices in my head ,that.. that tell me to do things... and I have to do it or-" "You can just come out and say it, you don't find me attractive do you?" "No, no I- wait what!?" The griffin turned away, hurt and upset, "It's the scar isn't it, I would have understood comrade.. I would, but it's the fact you lied to me... made up this stupid tale..." "No no that's not it at all!" "Then what is it!?" a tear glistened in the birds eye as he turned to face the dragon, face balled up in frustration. "....I seriously have voic-" The dragon recoiled as the slap whipped his head to the side. A slap from a trained soldier with a higher than average muscle mass. After coming back from his brief loss of consciousness he looked up to see grey feathers disappearing into the distance. It took a moment to collect himself after the realization that, yes, he'd just been slapped by a homosexual. "Urgh..." Groaning he felt up his aching jaw, wincing as he found 3 new scratches added to the collection, oh and his nose was crooked and bleeding again. He'd have to set it... again. "Fucking asshole..." Perhaps he just wasn't suited to interaction of any kind with other sentient creatures, actually at this point he could happily go live by himself forever and never regret a thing. 'now I remember why I hate birds...'. The cartilage between his nose, now bent, clicked as he forced it back into place again, a fresh wave of pain and blood ran from the injury and he lowered his shaking claws to the ground, letting out a shallow breath. He half wanted to rant about the overgrown bird, the other part was fully willing to forget about the entire ordeal, just glad the dickhead was gone. 'Seriously that faggot slappd me hard enough-' "If we have Armok on our side, then we should dig deep. Get to the adamantine, then unleash hell. Hello little ponies, 300 or more demons the size of the statue of liberty are pointing themselves at you, led by one who was chosen by the god of blood. Blood will be shed, that is DAMN sure." Sigh in a rather subdued manner the dragon asked himself, "Who the hell is this blood god they keep mentioning?" He had to admit the idea did fascinate him, pondering on whether or not to go learn some more about the subject, the dragon got up and washed his face in the stream. >>Ditch the griffins and try to learn more about Armok >>Ditch the griffins and fly in some aimless direction. >>Trudge back to camp. Or as always make a suggestion. > Looking for Armok. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pulling his head swiftly from the freezing stream, he let out a small gasp as the cold had taken his breath away. Now with a cleaner although still aching face, the dragon sat in the pebbles and weighed his options... The first things that came to mind was that he had no idea at all where the hell he was, and that we was starving. Come to think of it the only thing he had ever eaten in his ever so brief life had been a rusty jailcell key. One of his first objectives was to find food, obviously. Now about the issue of psychotic voices in his head... "Ditch the griffins and try to learn more about Armok, Whatever the hell Armok is. You need to take charge and get a following to do your bidding, if the griffins aren't up to it then they're useless" They came like clockwork, "That's... actually pretty good advice for a wannabe evil overlord. Not quite sure I'm up to that however..." The now very familiar headache began to rear it's head "ow fu- OK OK I'll try, Jesus..." Truth be told he actually really liked the idea of being some kind of king or tyrant. 'Well at least I don't have to put up with fucking ungrateful flying rats anymore...' "Go find out more about armok, a army of DWARVES will kill anything. Maybe Captain Ironblood will be in this if this occurs. And that would be a hilarious and awesome thing. Be hilarious to watch him beat the crap out of the entire royal guard, then stop because pinkie had crumpets." 'dwarves you say? ...interesting' He dimly recalled that dwarves were basically hardcore hill midgets that lived underground and survived off of proof 90% vodka. As always he had no idea where he got that from but- An upbeat voice interupted gravely "The Blood god will only betray you in the end! They found me, listen find the Dark God of Truth, he may be evil but he will always follow through agreements and promises!" "Ah for fucks sake, make up your damn minds!" No, he was going for the first option, no running around all over the damn place searching for various gods and goddesses. Now it was just a question of where to find out information on this blood god character... "Well vengeance It seems you are in quite the pickle now, might I suggest you find out your location in respect to other parts of the world? on another note you could also have questions directed at us, I know I'll try my best to answer." He paused to consider this for a moment... "Tell me about Armok?". He waited for a reply.... and waited.... 30 seconds passed... 45... "Hello!?" 'uh... there must be some sort of time delay...' "Alright I'm going to list a few questions and I'd really appreciate some answers" It briefly occurred to him how stupid he probably looked standing next to a stream in the middle of the mountains, talking to the sky. "1. Why are you guys fucking with me? Do you think this is a game!?" - "Question Number 2, what the hell is going on?... um... I mean what is all this? who am I? ect" - "And finally where can I find something to eat?" 'Note to self, kill and cook some wild animal before you starve to death'. And with that done he- "Convince the gay griffin to go with you, away from all the madness and bloodshed. Go to Vermont and set up a Bed & Breakfast, be besties and lovers for life. Also, get some goddamned children for the sweatshop." He recognized that one...that was the same voice that got him molested. He realized he hated it with a burning passion. "No... no go fuck yourself..." He steadied himself for the coming onslaught of pain, yet it never came.... He raised his head from his hunched over wincing position and looked around, confused. Maybe he couldn't carry out impossible or insane tasks.. well tasks that were lubriciously hard to perform in any case. "Seriously though, what is your fascination with child labor? Fucking weirdo..." And with that done he spread his wings to fly off into the sky, being sure to keep low as to avoid those ever present flying rats that had conscripted him into service. After the entire harrowing ideal he just wanted to relax and drift through the air- "Go get the chains, chain up the griffons, and eat them. you are a carnivore, are you not? (ignoring the crystals and stuff) that, or find out if the Crystal Kingdome has vanished yet. (Meat plus crystal. Perfect!) Also, if you have a human soul, learn some necromancy for the heck of it. When you see ... eh, what the heck. I'm sure you can figure it out. Maybe they have info on Armok. Then... take a nap." They just never shut up did they... well at least he liked the parts about necromancy and taking a nap. Quickly making a mental note to find out more on the subject, if only in passing interest, he continued flying down the mountain, lifting his flight path slightly as a small forest sprung up below. The sight of trees whizzing by so impossibly quickly beneath him was actually quite therapeutic, alas good things rarely lasted long for our hero. "Wait, so your a dragon and he's a griffin..." The female voice stated coyly. Vengeance looked around confused "... yea and? what's your-" he stopped as an image forced its way into his head in perfect clarity. In it were another dragon and a griffin, both male. The dragon who now sported a massive boner growled gruffly into the griffins ear "I'm going to fuck you", what followed could only be described as extremely high definition, hard core inter-species homo-erotica that you physically couldn't cast your gaze from. "Wait wha- OH GOD!! OH GOD ew, EW, NO! NO!! GOD NOOOOOO!!" The vision would not go away, no matter how hard the dragon gripped his head in disgust. Unfortunately another voice chose that exact moment to speak up. "In this, as in all matters, there is only one true path to follow. Only one path that will lead you to true victory. BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE" The sheer volume of the voice caused a throbbing ache to pound in his skull, he felt himself shift from reality as this pain overwhelmed him. Now cut off from the outside world all he could see was the hardcore furry sex scene being played in his head. He barely felt the trees brushing at the edges of his wings. He definitely felt the large branches snapping at his sides introducing new bursts of pain with every strike. He did not notice the sudden impact with a large tree trunk that sent everything flash instantaneously, mercifully, to black. His head hurt, his neck hurt, his ribs hurt... everything fucking hurt. The dragon came too slumped against a think, unyielding tree trunk, his face was numb from the position he had been pressed up against it. He shakily got to his feet but let out a small gasp when he put weight on his front left leg, which had been strained upon impact. Furthermore he became aware of a deep seated, burning ache in his lungs. Vengeance reached up to feel his bloody chest but tore his hand away upon putting pressure on it. Take a few painful breaths he realized a couple of his ribs were broken, really not very surprising considering he just rugby tackled a tree at 60MPH... 'come to think of it... how the fuck am I even alive?' He chalked it up to dragons being ludicrously resilient. It was then he noticed the blood splatter across the tree, and the river going down his front. He raised a claw weakly to his snout. It was broken again. "One day.... I've been here one day.... oh my fucking god....uh..." *Click* more pain, but by this point the cartilage in his nose was pretty flexible, considering it had been snapped in two and had acquired a permanent 40 degree bend. He kept trying in vain to push it back properly into place, despite the horrible deep-seated pain, yet it just kept sliding into the 40 degree bend. At least it didn't bleed anymore... whether or not that was a good sign he couldn't really tell. The dragon whimpered, he ended up sitting there for a few minuets in too much pain to move before he realized that if he didn't he'd probably end up dead one way or another.Hell he was probably going to die anyway at some point. Vengeance gingerly took a very hesitant step forward, being careful to keep his weight off his strained ankle. Unfortunately he lost is balance due to bloodloss induced weakness. Again he let out a yelp as his weight was transferred onto the steadily swelling left ankle, which had taken on a sheen as the scales stretched to accommodate the swelling. "Welp I'm fucked..." If he couldn't even walk and he was trapped in the wilderness, this was it, life over. The situation began to sink in and he almost considered slitting his own throat to stop himself staring to death, that is until he heard the scream. It was very faint, but he could hear the steadily increasing sounds of a galloping pony coming this way. So there was hope after-all. Then his sharp hearing picked up the clashing of wood and steel, the pony was being chased. 'just my look, perhaps whatever's chasing it will eat me instead, feels good to know I'm still useful' The dragon learned that sarcasm helped him in these situations, not much. But at least it cheered him up before he was torn limb from limb. The frantic galloping was getting close now, turning around just in time he witnessed a unicorn teleport into the brush across from where he lay crouched. Her purple coat was covered in lightly bleeding scratches from her blind charge through the dead shrubs and other sharp branches that made up the untraveled woodland floor. Tears were streaming down her face as she stopped to gaze at the broken dragon like a deer caught in the spotlight. Immediately she almost forgot what was going on, seemingly torn between running and stopping to help, nervously dancing on the tips of her hooves. Overcoming her initial shock she gasped "Oh my gosh, a-are you alright sir?" Her voice trembled in terror, a clear indicator she had been running for her life, yet it seemed she'd always make time to help a stranger down on his luck. Before vengeance could reply, a Lion burst through the shrub, snarling in anger. His tattered Armour bared the crest of the griffonian royal army, if only held in a much lower regard to his griffin counterparts. His eyes locked on the pony after briefly flickering on the downed dragon, his prey was cornered. How long would she last under torture before she spilled equestrian secrets to his masters, he wagered not very long. >>Help Twilight sparke? >>Bleed out and die like a pussy. >> This has got nothing to do with you vengeance, besides, you already swore an oath to the king whilst being conscripted. As always suggestions ect are welcome.