Chapter Six
Rows of Ivory
“...and ah couldn’t find the Witchy Mare anywhere, it was like she just disappeared.” Applejack said trotting next to her mother, who had a substantial saddlebag slung over her back. They were heading out to the orchard to bring Great Graven his lunch. Valencia had planned on talking to her husband about what had transpired that morning, but the presence of Applejack put thoughts of such a conversation on hold. Valencia and Great Graven rarely argued, but when they did, it was a silent agreement that they did not do it in front of the children. Valencia had told her daughter to wait at home for her to come back, but the filly insistently followed her mother telling her about her failed attempt to find Unistra. Deep down Valencia was relieved, it meant the argument would be put on hold for a little while longer.
“Applejack! I told you not to call Unistra that it’s inappropriate to call your elders such things, especially when she did so much to help Mackie.” Valencia said sharply, Applejack was about to argue that the Witchy Mare did not mind being called that, but thought better not to. Her mother had been in a bad mood all morning ever since she had told Big Macintosh that he could not go applebucking with his father. She kept wondering if her mother was right to refuse let Big Macintosh help their father, she'd looked incredibly sad when she had found Big Macintosh laying up in his room and do nothing was hard on her.
“Still how do ya think she disappeared like that Mah?” Applejack furrowed her brow.
“I don’t know, earth ponies aren’t meant to understand unicorn magic,” Valencia said brushing off the question as unimportant; she did not want her daughter bugging the old mare anyway. However, seeing her daughter’s face droop in disappointment at her response Valencia relented and said, “Maybe you can ask her next time she visits.”
Applejack brightened up at that, she could not wait for the Witchy Mare to come visit again.
They continued to trot through the orchard looking for Great Graven, oddly he was not where he was supposed to be working that day and there was no sign of where he went. Mother and daughter began searching through the rows of apple trees quickly coming to the edge of the orchard where regular trees mixed with the apple trees and the orchard started to look like a natural forest. They called out to him but there was no answer and they were starting to get concerned, the trees were eerily quiet and the wandering clouds the pegasi had left in the sky that day cast gloomy shadows among the trees.
The pair jumped at the sudden snap of a branch and turned to see a large figure emerge from the shadow of the trees. “Ah thought that was you girls ah was hearin’. Darn wild trees, can’t hear nothin’ through ‘em.” Great Graven said trotting eagerly towards them, thinking more about his impending lunch than his own strange wandering.
Valencia smiled at the appearance of her husband and shook her head at her own silly fear. She started towards him ready to scold him for wandering off when a huge three headed monster leaped from the trees Great Graven had emerged from. Her greeting turned into a scream of warning as the surprisingly silent monster bore down on Great Graven its central loin head bare-fanged and claws extended from its cat-like paws.
Great Graven reacted before he truly even had time to register the danger, bucking out automatically with his powerful hind legs. His hooves smashed into the lion head hard breaking the creature’s charge, saving his own life. The moment his hooves touched the ground he leaped out of the way with all the speed he could muster, the dazed monster weakly swiped his claws out at the red stallion but only managed to rake three shallow scratches into Great Graven’s flank.
Great Graven turned to face the huge creature who thrashed in wild anger shaking its head as if trying to shake off the pain of the blow. Being a big fan of the Titan legends Great Graven recognized the three heads, serpent tail and meshed body of a lion, dragon, and goat, it was a chimera. His first impulse was to run, but he realized there was no way he would be able to outrun the creature especially once it took to the air.
As the chimera recovered from the blow Great Graven knew he would have to stand and fight, if for no other reason than to give the girls a chance to escape. The creature charged him again, but this time he was ready, rearing up he kicked at the lion head again shouting, “Run!”
The creature was ready for him as well this time and ducked under the stallion’s kick and slammed into him knocking Great Graven onto his back, the creature to fall upon him. The lion head snapped at Great Graven’s head, but he managed to twist it left or right clear of the beast's jaws. Fortunately, the goat head’s horns could not reach him on the ground, but the dragon head had no such problem craning around to sink its teeth into Great Graven’s neck.
Great Grave cried out in pain but with a surge of adrenalin he kicked up with all his strength slamming his hooves into the chimera’s stomach, knocking the wind from the creature and with another push shoved the larger creature off of him.
Tears stained her face as Valencia watched her husband fight an impossible battle. She knew she should be running but her legs would not move; they would not let her abandon her love. She shook away the tears and her fear seemed to leave her features as she steeled herself for what she was about to do. “Applejack, run home, run as fast as you can and get your brother.” She said as she threw off her heavy saddle bag.
“But mah...” Applejack started her own face streaked with far more tears and fear than her mother’s had been.
“I said go, now!” Valencia shouted sharply causing Applejack’s protests died on her lips. She backed up several steps from her mother’s hard glare before turning and running. Valencia’s features softened and became mournful as she mouthed to herself, “I sorry AJ.”
Great Graven jumped back onto his feet as soon as the chimera was off him craning his head involuntarily to one side to protect his newest injury. He watched the terrible beast pull itself back to its feet as well. It seemed to have some trouble managing its extra limbs, head, and size, but Great Graven did not dare attack the flailing mass of razor sharp claws and hooves.
The Chimera thrashed wildly roaring, growling, baying and hissing all at once, and Great Graven realized just how lucky he had been. The creature did not seem to know how to deal with resistance, having its prey fight back. Finally the chimera steady itself once again and its fierce eyes fell on Great Graven, all of its hate was projected through those eyes and it began pacing back and forth as if studying the red stallion.
The chimera reared up on its goat legs, its heads roaring and baying, its wings out, tail hissing, paws clawing the air. It was clearly trying to intimidate him; fear was the enemy of any combatant, Great Graven knew this and hated how well it was working. He readied himself for the monster’s charge, he doubted could not take survive another direct confrontation. Great Graven would have to try and dodge the immense girth of the creature.
The chimera dropped down to all fours and charged, barreling at great Graven with all the power of a pony drawn train. Suddenly it was barely ten feet from him and Great Graven realized he’d never be able to jump out of the creature’s reach. He closed his eyes for a moment to gather his strength.
Suddenly there was the sound of two bodies colliding and a defiant high pitched cry. Great Graven’s eyes snapped open to see surprise painted across the chimera’s face as it stumbled, its charge broken, and crashed to the ground falling over itself. Stepping back from the felled creature was Valencia panting from all the energy she had put into her charge, but looking fiercer than he had ever seen her before.
Relief immediately gave way to a fear so intense that it stole his breath and he shook his head in denial. “Ah told ya t’ run, ya have t’ git outta here now,” Great Graven shouted desperately.
Valencia fixed her fierce eyes on her husband, “And I told you the day we were married that I would stick by you no matter what.”
Great Graven took a step forward and opened his mouth to argue, but nothing came out. Maybe it was the look of unquestioning determination that she wore that silenced him, it certainly was not her words that convinced him, more likely it was that he understood that truth just as she did. Neither of them had a chance of surviving this fight alone, and even together they had no chance of defeating a chimera. Their only hope was to hold out until Big Macintosh got there, hold out together.
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The farmhouse was finally visible through the watery haze that completely enveloped Applejack’s vision. It was evident by her dirty coat and bloody knees that she had stumbled and fell many times in her frantic run, but she had never once stopped. She reached the door and kicked it open causing it to bang loudly against the wall. The band was quickly followed by the sound of Apple Bloom’s wailing, the tiny foal protesting that loud sudden noise. Granny Smith appeared at the entrance to the scolding the little filly before even properly seeing the state Applejack was in.
“Big Macintosh!” Applejack shouted completely ignoring her grandmother and tearing up the stairs. Big Macintosh stepped out of his room just as she reached the door his concern multiplying seeing the state she was in. “Oh mah Celestia, Applejack what happened?”
“There was this monster... it attacked pa and ma told me t’ come get ya and... and... Big Macintosh ya have t’ help ‘em!” Applejack stumbled through her explanation burying her face into her big brother chest and Big Macintosh’s concern turned to white hot fear. He tore past his sister without another word, down the stairs jumping the last five. Granny Smith asked him what was going on, but he did not have time to answer her, he had to get to his parents. He slid to a stop at the front door realizing that he had no idea where they were. He turned back tearing past Granny Smith and shouted up the stairs, “Applejack where are they?”
Applejack appeared at the top of the stairs, “They’re ahh... northern center near the forest... ah think.” Big Macintosh threw off his yoke and spat out the spring of wheat all the while fighting the urge to yell at her for more precise directions. That would be pointless, by the state of her she had run home blind and she was too young to know the orchard well, he couldn’t blame her for that.
He tore past the still confused and growingly concerned Granny Smith and out the front door, splintering it to pieces in his haste. Applejack would have to explain things, for he did not have time; he leaped off the porch not bothering with a single step and hit the ground running.
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The Chimera recovered from the shock of being knocked down by the unseen opponent and rose back up to its feet. Great Graven and Valencia prepared themselves for the beast’s next attack, it could attack either one of them and the other had to be ready to counterattack. They remained a good distance from one another so the beast would not be able to attack them both at once. Then something they had not expected happened, the Chimera started to laugh.
None of the three heads seemed to be moving in accordance with the laughter, in fact, each seemed locked in its usual snarling animal rage. “That’s such a sweet sentiment, ‘I would stick by you no matter what’, it could only be better if you said in his silly accent.”
The voice spoke now; its words still dripping with dark amusement, like the whole thing was a sick game. The voice was coming from the chimera but neither pony could see from where exactly. Then a serpent came slithering up the chimera’s back, but if the creature noticed it did not care. The snake reared up and spoke, “It must have been almost a century since the last time I terrorized one of you ponies, but I don’t remember it ever being this much fun.”
Suddenly the Apples realized that the snake was the chimera’s tail. “You can talk?” Valencia asked earning an amused nod from the serpent.
“Then y'all can stop this,” Great Graven said taking a step towards the chimera. “There ain’t no reason t’ fight, we can talk this out. Whatever the reason was that got ya all riled up it weren’t us that caused it, ah swear.” Valencia looked from her husband to the monster watching it carefully. She did not see much point in trying to talk to the monster, it attacked them with no provocation and would have killed her husband already if it had the chance.
The chimera’s snake-tail lazily wrapped itself around its lion head slithering up to its ear. “That is true, it was not the two of you that wronged me.” The snake-tail spoke into the twitching lion ear as if it was whispering to itself rather than to them. “But I was wronged and you two know the cultrate quite well.” The snake-tail slither back from the lion head and onto the dragon head’s scaly neck. “His scent is all over both of you,” It slither between the spikes on the back of dragon’s head neck. “He leveled the forest around my home then collapsed it on me, such a feat is one neither of you could have accomplished.”
“Big Macintosh,” The pair gasped.
“Aah good,” the snake-tail smiled sliding back from the heads, “It’s always good to know the name of one’s victim. Not that you two garner such consideration, you’re just pests here annoying me!” The snake-tail snapped back out of sight as the chimera charged towards Valencia.
Valencia’s mind reeled with what she had just learned, this creature was here for Big Macintosh and she had just sent Applejack to get him. When she thought that the chimera was just a mindless monster she knew they needed Big Macintosh’s strength to have any chance of driving the monster off. Knowing now that the monster was after Big Macintosh her instincts screamed at her to protect her child at any cost.
The chimera gave a flap of its wings and leaped into the air, its wings carrying the bulk of its weight up. It bared teeth and claws ready to drop on the yellow mare, but before it could reach her a red figure slammed into the chimera’s side. The two fell over each other rolling in mid air, the chimera dropped like a stone and hit the ground with a tremendous thud while the red figure rolled over the chimera hit the ground and rolled several more feet before coming to a stop.
Valencia thought for a moment that Big Macintosh had already found them, but as the red stallion stood up she realized it was her husband. He pushed himself weakly to his hooves his wounds opened anew and the rest of his body was now covered in dirt and scratches. He looked over to her and shouted, “Hurry... get away from ‘im!”
Valencia looked over to see the chimera getting back up slowly, dazed by the sudden blow and crash to the ground. Valencia renewed her vicious glare, ignored her husband’s words, and charged towards the creature her hooves ready to smash the lion head. “I won’t let you near my son!”
There was a sudden rush of air and Valencia realized that she had been struck by one of the chimera’s powerful wings. The force of the blow sent the yellow mare soaring through the air. She hit the ground hard, the pain finally catching up with her as she tumbled across the ground like a rag doll.
“No,” Great Graven shouted as his wife lay motionless on the ground. He steeled himself against the panic that crept up from his chest and wrapped around his throat and charged the chimera’s exposed flank.
The chimera had not forgotten about him yet, its dragon head snapped around and breathed forth a stream of fire from its mouth creating a sudden intense wall of flame across Great Graven’s path. The red stallion’s instincts took over and he slid to a stop right in front of the wall, his eyes burned painfully from the intense light and heat.
The chimera clawed the ground in anticipation as it turned all of its attention back to Valencia. The fierce mare had gotten back to her hooves and was staring hard at the monster trying to ignore the pain that coursed through her body. The chimera might want to deal with the mare without the interference of her husband, but she would not go along with that. The blow had knocked some sense back into the yellow mare, fighting the chimera head on was ridiculous, she had to regroup with Great Graven, they would not survive without each other. She looked the scene over and made a plan, it was a hasty dangerous plan, but she did not have time to come up with a better one.
In Valencia’s youth, she had been quite the soccer player. In fact, most ponies thought that she would get a soccer ball as a cutie mark. She had not of course, but Valencia had never regretted that, but she did not stop playing either. Her cutie mark was about bringing all different kinds of ponies together into something wonderful, she had done that with her team and she had done that with her family. Her special talent was not very helpful right then, but she did remember some good advice from her coach that did: “When you can’t go around your opponent, go over them.”
Valencia ran several paces towards the chimera then leaped gracefully into the air. The chimera started forward to intercept her, slid to a halt staring up at the soaring pony. The lion head roared angrily finding she was out of the reach of his snapping jaws, but the dragon head’s neck was not so short and it stretched up to snap her out of the air, just as she planned.
Valencia kicked down with her forelegs slamming the dragon head jaw shut and kicked off its snout like a springboard. However, now she was soaring the wrong direction towards the chimera’s flank and more precisely it's flapping wing. Valencia coiled in her legs and twisted them towards the left wing, she touched down on the solidly muscled wing and kicked off again. She knew the wings had to have some muscle to them to keep the huge creature aloft. Her strong legs and the push of the wing would carry her over the wall of fire, the only problem left was how to land, or so Valencia thought.
“Did you forgot about me?” A voice seemed to whisper and before she could look back there was a sharp stab of twin fangs in her flank. Valencia looked to see the snake-tail let go and smile up at her, time seemed to slow. The legends said that a single drop of chimera venom was fatal to a pony, and by the burning in her leg, there had been far more.
Valencia’s daring jump carried her away from the creature at a speed it could not possibly stop, and before the other heads even realized what had happened the mare had been carried over the wall of fire. Her head spun wildly and all she could think was, “I’m dead.” By the time she remembered she was hurtling towards the ground it was too late. She hit the ground full force bouncing at least once and rolling several feet, but to her, everything had already gone black.
“Celestia no,” Was all Great Graven could get out as he rushed to Valencia’s side, his vision still spotted. His breath was ragged as he looked her over for any sign of life, eventually, his eyes fell upon the two fang holes in her flank. Great Graven’s mind instantly made the connection and tears began to spill from his eyes, “NO!”
There was a blast of hot air and a loud ‘thud’ as the chimera calmly crossed over the wall of fire, “I do wish I’d had more time to get a better taste.” The snake-tail’s voice was like an icy dagger stabbing into his back and a tremor passed through Great Graven. He turned to face the monster, tears still seeping from his now steelie hateful eyes. “My kills always seems so... less personal than theirs.” Great Graven whipped around and charged neighing with all the savagery of a wild stallion, the reasoning pony who had begged the chimera to stop was completely gone.
The dragon head took in a long breath and expelled a torrent of fire at the red stallion, but the enraged Great Graven had more speed then the chimera anticipated. He ducked under the blast and somehow found more speed. “Yes, that’s it!” The snake-tail cheered with an insane eagerness as Great Graven slid to a stop under the dragon’s mouth, and without wasting a moment he sprung up with all his might slamming the dragon’s maw shut. The dragon head was forced to swallow the fire back down. The fire filled the dragon head’s neck, mouth and even its nose finding any small unprotected piece of flesh and searing it painfully.
As the dragon head reeled back in agony the lion head swung over, its jaws ready to snap over Great Graven’s head, but the half-mad stallion was ready. He kicked out with all his strength slamming his forehooves into the loin head’s eye and upper lip. The lion head reeled from the blow blinded in its good eye, the other one already swelling from Great Graven’s first kick, and from its mouth dropped an ivory fang.
Great Graven did not wait for the heads to recover, he leaped up onto the creature’s back, and stared hard at the still smirking snake-tail huffing and snorting with rage. “IS THIS PERSONAL ENOUGH-” Great Graven gasped, his words catching in his throat as his breath was suddenly stolen from him, his eyes agape with shock.
“Quite,” the snake-tail smiled and the red stallion’s body shuttered as the horns of the goat head dug a little deeper into his side before it threw him off with a sharp flick of its head. Great Graven sailed over the other heads and fell to the ground like a rag doll.