//------------------------------// // It's Only a Bloodbath // Story: Ofolrodi // by Imploding Colon //------------------------------// The pony said nothing. No response whatsoever. Using his bloodied spear as a makeshift cane, the shaved specimen trotted halfway across the starlit belly of the ravine. At one point he stopped, standing directly over a narrow black fissure. Leaning down, he pressed his pierced ear to the fractured earth. His dull gray eyes narrowed, and he somehow became even more still, resembling the stone walls encompassing the petrified domain. At this point, Wildcard and Seraphimus had lowered their guard. They stood tall and calm—albeit still alert. Flynn, Ariel, and Rainbow Dash closed in. Soon, all five of the travelers were gawking at the scene being played out... even if the scene had been reduced to still-life. "What..." Pinkie Pie tilted her head until her ghostly body was upside down. "...is it doing?" "Pinkie..." Twilight chided, although she looked no less dumbfounded. "We're looking at a pony just like you and me." She nevertheless gulped as she continued: "Please call him a 'he.'" "If that's a 'he'..." Rarity was cringing all over. "I-I shudder to think of what an 'it' looks like!" "Fluttershy!" Applejack hissed, more out of concern than anger. "How come ya didn't sense this feller just now?" "I-I'm sorry...!" Fluttershy stifled a whimper. "There's life all around us in this ravine! Also, it's... it's l-like he knows h-how to play dead!" "Play dead?" Applejack stammered. "I... I can't explain it. But what he's d-doing right now...?" She pointed at his crouching, silent figure. "...it's somehow m-making it very hard to feel his presence." "It's okay, Fluttershy," Twilight murmured. "I'm so sorry. I feel so useless—" "Shhhhh..." Twilight patted Fluttershy's shoulder. "Relax. It's not your fault." Her eyes darted towards Rainbow. "None of us quite know what we're dealing with..." Rainbow looked from Twilight to the stranger. She blinked, then glanced curiously towards the opposite rock walls of the ravine. Inspired, she raised a hoof to her neck and rubbed the lightning bolt of her pendant. A ruby light shone across the narrow canyon. After a few seconds, three more sets of eyes reflected Rainbow's glowing Element. There were more equines hiding in the flanking niches of the ravine. "Guhhh!" Ariel flinched yet again. Rarity and Fluttershy mimicked how startled she was. At this point, the hovercraft had been parked. Kepler glided in, followed by Logan and his heavy hoofsteps. "The buck is all this shit...?" Logan leaned anxiously on his axe. "Nudist colony of the damned?" "Not now, fatso." Flynn took a brave step towards the equines hiding amongst the rocks. "Uhm... hi. Hi there...!" He waved a bandaged hoof. "We're ponies! Well... most of us are." Wildcard beak-palmed. "You're ponies too...!" Flynn clenched his teeth. "I think..." He coughed. "Needless to say, you're the first ponies we've met from—" His good eye darted towards Rainbow. "From... uhhhh..." Rainbow stepped in beside him. "From a long way's away. Would you..." Her head cocked to the side. "...happen to be Dihmers?" Suddenly, the stallion kneeling above the fissure moved. He inhaled rapidly, filling his lungs with enough air to utter in a droning, emotionless voice: "It hungers." Several of the Heralds' heads turned. Kepler adjusted his spectacles. "I beg yourr parrdon...?" A whistling sound, and now the stallion stood back, gesturing in the air. "It lures." The ponies hiding among the rocks crouched low, brandishing stone weaponry. "It is ready." "It is ready." "It is ready..." There was no telling how many voices had murmured just then. Rainbow's ruby glow faded as she and her friends looked nervously around. "Uhhhh... guys...?" Ariel's wingtips stretched out. "Are we going to do anything about the fact that we're surrounded?" "We do not appear to be their primary concern," Seraphimus said. Wildcard gestured: "Something is about to happen." "Yeah, no shit..." Logan backed up nervously, brandishing his spear. At that precise moment, the stallion in the center of the ravine had repositioned his spear vertically with the tip-of-skewered-salamanders pointed down. Then, holding his breath, he shoved the barbed weapon down into the narrow fissure with icy grace—meat and all. He held it there, puncturing the earth, and waited stone-still. Soon, there was a tremor... a sentient vibration from underneath. Fluttershy's eyes widened. She looked towards Rainbow Dash with a pleading expression. "Back—!" Rainbow Dash yelped. She grabbed the closest pony she could—Ariel—and flung the two of them away from the shaking earth. "Everypony back—!" "The ground's splitting—!" Rarity began, but couldn't finish. CRACKKKK! A body of luminescent scales and claws came bursting up out of the floor of the ravine. Wide jaws—like those of a crocodile's—clamped around the spear and its bait. Within the next few milliseconds, a thrashing torso and four sets of legs protruded as well. The hissing beast shook wildly at the spear within its biting mouth, and the pony that had been holding onto the weapon flew off—landing several feet away with practiced grace. In the meantime— Thw-Thw-Thwisssh! —five of his companions dove in from their hiding spots within the canyon walls. Their bodies were pale streaks of fur-less flesh in the dismal twilight. Within a blink, three of them had stabbed the beast from opposite sides, pinning it into place. "HRSSSSSSSSH!!!" The creature bucked and thrashed. Its arms pushed against the earth as it tried to slither back down into its burrow—but to no avail. "My starrs and garrterrs—" Kepler managed to get out. Logan yanked him by his scorpion tail, making room for the last two equines who charged in. Both were dragging massive cleavers fashioned out of what looked like portions of an enormous jawbones, fitted with stone-barbed teeth. Without shouting, they leapt up and came down with the full weight of their weapons. TH-THWACCCK! The cleavers slammed lengthwise across the neck of the crocodilian beast. A geyser of black blood billowed from its neck, and the creature jerked in place. There was a squealing sound from deep within as several organs were ruptured. Then—after a few twitching spasms—the half-protruded monster lay still. The Herald watched in curious, dismal silence. Wildcard's goggles reflected a pool of blood spreading, coagulating, reflecting twilight. The hairless ponies had hardly broken a sweat. One came marching through the fresh puddle of blood. Whether it was a male or a female, Rainbow couldn't currently tell from her vantage point. She watched as the equine slithered up, pressed its ear against the dormant neck of the beast, then lay still. Silence. And then... "It sustains," the pony said. "It sustains." "It sustains." "It sustains." The others echoed. With identical movements, they retreated into the fissures along the edges of the canyon. In the next blink, they marched back, dragging enormous saddlebags and satchels. The glint of metal kissed the air as the group produced numerous rusted blades and scalpels and saws. They swiftly went to work around the husk of the creature, stabbing and carving and chiseling their way into its freshly-bleeding flesh. "Mmmmm...!" Fluttershy had to cover her muzzle with a ghostly hoof. Rarity comforted her while Twilight floated up to their anchor. "I... uh..." She gulped. "I think this is definitely them." "Which them?" "Not the Bloodwing them." Twilight glanced aside. "Or else we'd be dead by now, don't you think?" "They could have attacked us just as easily," Rainbow said. "Even with your girls' senses by my side, it wouldn't have helped us whatsoever." "Yeah!" Pinkie nodded breathily. "I didn't feel a thing! Honest!" "Reckon whoever these ponies are..." Applejack pointed nervously at the bloody butchery being done in the middle of the ravine. "...they've been doin' what they've been doin' for a longggg time." "It's almost like ballet," Rarity said, hugging a trembling Fluttershy. "A bloody... barbaric ballet." Fluttershy whimpered. "Shhhh." Rarity patted her back. "Yes, I know... I know..." "We... uh..." Rainbow looked at her friends—both ghostly and not. "We should probably try talking to them." "I don't think they want anything to do with us," Ariel hissed. "Clearly," Seraphimus muttered. "Nevertheless, they could prove useful." Wildcard gestured: "Then let us talk to them." "Perrhaps I should open converrsation with them?" Kepler remarked. "I think Rainbow should talk to them," Flynn suggested. "Why's Rainbow gotta do all the friggin' work?" Ariel frowned. "I'll talk to them." Logan marched forward with a huff. "Here." He shoved the blunt end of his axe into Wildcard's startled grip. "Hrmmfff... friggin' pantywaists..." He approached the grotesque scene, stepping fetlock deep into fresh viscera. "...it's only a bloodbath."