//------------------------------// // A Deadly Struggle // Story: The Ties that Bind // by the7Saviors //------------------------------// There was definitely something wrong in this forest. Now that he was within the actual forest, Yojimbo didn't know how he had missed the fetid stench settling over the area like a thick blanket. He had smelled it before, back when he, Ancient Scroll and the rest of the gang had traveled to some of the darkest corners of Equus. Undead. If there was one, there was bound to be more, and that also meant one other thing -- one thing that bewildered the old dog in how out of place it was... There was a Dark Mage somewhere nearby using Necromancy. As the old husky quietly stalked his way through the dark forest he couldn't help but wrinkle his snout in disgust. The rotten fetid stench of the dead became more and more overpowering the further in he went. His working eye was more or less useless for seeing through the thick, dark foliage and he couldn't smell anything other than the stench of the dead, so he relied on his ears to alert him to any sign of danger. "There you are." Yojimbo's ears perked up at the sound of the urgent whisper coming from behind him. He turned and was greeted with the sight of a pair of predatory yellow-green eyes that almost seemed to glow in the darkness of the forest. He grunted softly and turned back to face the path ahead. "About time you showed up," Yojimbo whispered back, "it looks like the pup was right about the trouble -- way more right than I would've liked actually." "I can tell as much now that we're actually here," Rouge muttered, "if the scream was anything to go by, someone was attacked only moments ago, so if that's the case, why does it smell as though I'm surround by something long since dead?" "That's the trouble I was talkin' about," the old dogs replied as he continued through the trees, "there's some fool going around raising the dead. I should've recognized that howl, but it's been so long since I heard it, I had completely forgotten." "Raising the..." Rouge's eyes widened in horror, "how is such a thing even possible? And why would they even do something like that?" "Magic," Yojimbo growled, "it can do some amazing things, but sometimes you get a unicorn who goes off the deep end and decides they don't wanna play by the rules anymore." "Through all my travels and my years of living in Equestria, I've never heard of anything like this," Rouge replied quietly. "Then you should count yourself lucky, kitty," the husky responded, "Corrupt Dark Mages are bad news -- real bad news," he shook his head, "from what the old coot told me, Celestia was supposed to have wiped them all out ages ago. What in Tartarus is one doing all the way out here?" Rouge ignored the name and the two of them let the conversation die as they pushed past more trees. Through some unspoken agreement, Rouge acted as the eyes while Yojimbo acted as the ears. They both stopped. "The smell of blood is getting--" The husky shushed Rouge and cocked his head to one side. He sniffed a few times and listened for a moment more before motioning for the cat to followed him as he made a sharp right through some thick underbrush. Upon clearing the underbrush Yojimbo stopped and cursed silently. Rouge soon followed behind and reeled back in horror, barely managing to bite back a scream. The mutilated corpse of a mare lay before the two -- its eyes glassy and frozen in a look of pure terror. It looked as though something had eaten its way through the pony's neck and barrel, and Rouge had to force down the bile rising in her throat at the sight. She had seen some horrible things in her life when she was traveling about, but death surprisingly, had not been one of them -- not like this anyway. Yojimbo leaned down and inspected the body. Though he couldn't make out much in the dark, he could smell that same stench on the mare. "This isn't good..." he muttered, "I think this mare was from Little Trot." "No..." Rouge whispered, her eyes tearing up slightly, "then... then that would mean--" The fetid smell suddenly spiked in intensity. An ear piercing howl rang out. Then another. Then two more. Yojimbo didn't hesitate. Drawing on years old experience, he snapped a massive arm out to his left without looking and grabbed the neck of a screaming pony that had burst out of the underbrush next to him and Rouge. The pony struggled in his grasp as it glared at him with hollow eyes -- snarling and howling and gnashing it's teeth. Three more ponies burst forth from different angles and Rouge leapt into action -- though her reaction was more of a fight or flight response. Adrenaline shot through her veins and she chose to fight. The husky grunted and dug his claws deeper into the pony's neck. He turned and threw the pony into another charging straight for him -- sending them both sprawling. Rouge danced around a crazed pony trying to chomp down on her and ducked another trying to leap at her. In her panic induced assault, she reached out and slash at whatever flesh she could get her claws on. Her claws caught the leaping pony in the barrel and it went tumbling head over hoof as it landed. The two ponies attacking Yojimbo had recovered and were now scrambling to take a bite out of the large dog once again. Yojimbo sidestepped one and grabbed the other by the neck and forehead. With a snarl, he tensed the muscles in his arms and pulled, ripping the head from body with a sickening squelch. He tossed the corpse aside and dodged out of the way of another charge made by the remaining pony. He heard a yowl to his left and looked over just in time to see one of the other ponies sink it's teeth into one of Rouge's arms. Rouge hissed in both pain and anger as she brought her other claws to bear. She grabbed the pony's face with her free arm and tried to pry it off, with little success. "No, you stupid cat! You gotta--" Yojimbo stepped around another attack with ease and, just as before, grabbed the remaining pony by the neck "--you gotta separate the head from the body!" he growled as he tossed the pony at the other trying to take advantage of Rouge's predicament, "go for the neck!" Rouge gave no indication that she had heard the husky, but she pulled her free claws from the pony's face and dug them deep into it's neck. The pony made a strangled gurgling noise before it let go of the cat's arm. She wasted no time in finishing it off with another swipe of her claws -- the slash heavy enough to cut right through the surprisingly brittle neck bone. She ignored the falling body and turned to the other two recovering ponies. She yelped in surprise as the large husky smashed into the pony that had risen first. He knocked it over again and with another snarl, he raised his fist and smashed it back down into the pony's skull -- Rouge flinching involuntarily as she heard the muffled crunch of the impact. The pony twitched once, then went still. For a moment, the cat stood there, panting heavily as she watched Yojimbo rise from the defeated pony. He turned to Rouge and his eyes widened in alarm. "ROUGE MOVE!" Rouge heard a howl of rage directly to her right and she snapped her head around to face the threat. Time seemed to slow for an instant and in that moment, Rouge could see everything about the pony. While she could certainly tell it was a pony, it's features were horrifying. Most of it's fur, mane, and tail were missing -- the flesh beneath it grey and rotted. The face was sunken and skeletal and it's eyes were a milky white. She could also clearly see that it's teeth were yellow, jagged, and bloody. The moment passed and Rouge took several quick steps back. The pony howled again and jumped at her with it's mouth open and waiting. Rouge shrieked and did the one thing she was instructed to do -- the one thing her panicked mind clung to at that moment. She went for the neck. The pony hit her full on and she fell with it so that it was on top of her. With supreme effort on her part, she held it by it's throat with both claws. It's snapping, snarling face slowly drew closer, but before it could get too close, she gave one last angry yowl and forced the pony to one side. She managed to catch it off guard and it soon found itself on the ground with Rouge sitting atop it instead. She ignored it's attempts to batter her with it's hooves and slashed at it's throat repeatedly -- slicing away more and more flesh with each vicious swipe. After a few more swipes, the undead pony stopped it's struggles and fell limp beneath the severely shaken cat. For a minute there was complete silence, save for the sound of Rouge's heavy panting. Then she slowly stood up and backed away from the pony. She didn't stop until she was about a yard away and once she did, she turned a wide eyed gaze to a grimacing Yojimbo standing a little ways away. "I... I didn't..." Rouge swallowed, "what did... were those ponies--" "They were already dead, Rouge," Yojimbo said with a slow shake of his head, "it may not seem like it right now, but you did right by them and their loved ones." Rouge didn't say anything as she stared at the dead ponies, a single slow nod being the only indication that she had heard the old dog at all. He walked over to the shivering cat and looked her over. His gaze lingered on the bleeding wound on her arm he frowned. "You can freak out about what we had to do here later, but for now you have get that patched up," he said as he motioned for her to follow, "we need to get back to Ancient Scroll and tell him what we found, then we need to get to Little Trot fast." That seemed to snap Rouge out of her stupor and she turned to Yojimbo with an incredulous look. "We can't--" she winced in pain and looked at her open wound. She tore a large piece of the dark blue tunic she was wearing and used it as a makeshift bandage as she spoke, "we can't go there now!" she hissed, "there might be more of those... things in town." "And that's why we're going," Yojimbo replied curtly, "Ancient Scroll and the pups can wait outside the village, but I'm going one way or another." "Why?" Rouge asked in bewilderment, "why would you risk something so dangerous?" Yojimbo snorted and turned to walk back the way they came. "Because my family might still be alive somewhere in that Tartarus damned town."