Tela's Tales

by Firefoxino


Christmas Quest! [EDITED]

Even after what happened yesterday, the girls seem fine. They are still eager to go on adventures. If anything happened to them, I would have never forgiven myself. It was my own fault that they got kidnapped in the first place, so I swore to be there for them and check where they go. 

“Hey, Tela.” Sweetie said, snapping me from my thoughts, we were in her room where she was showing me some of her spells, “A letter just arrived.” 

“A letter?” I asked, confused; I didn’t see any this morning.

“Yep, this owl brought one.” She said, pointing at it, the owl was big, with brown feathers and a little red stripe on its right leg. 

“Uh, what does the letter say?” I asked.

“It says that your encounter with HIM, the word is in all capitals, is postponed to the day after tomorrow. Also, the date we visit the school is in three days.” She said.

“Uhm, very well then.” I said, accepting it, not that I could do anything else. “So what-”

“Hey, Tela!” Scoot shouted, barging in through the door with a letter in her wing. “A letter!”

“Oh, thank you Scootaloo, let’s see here.” 

“Dear Tela Pellegrino, we hereby accept your request to join the Gorgon Eye, we have also enclosed a contract that you can accept as your first assignment, the full reward will be yours as this mission only requires one team. Good luck.” 

“Head hunter: Rockfoot Rootbeard.” I read the final part. I looked inside the envelope to find another piece of paper.

“Ok, says here that there are little fey going around causing all kinds of problems in a farm not too far from here, the pay is two silver and four copper coins.” I said.

“Not much…” Scootaloo said.

“Yes, but those are farmers, they don’t usually have a lot.” I replied. “What do you say, would you like to go?”

“Sure!” Scootaloo said, excited.

“Sure, I can test a few new spells.” Sweetie said, rushing off to prepare her grimoire. 

“I’ll go ask Applebloom. She is making something in her room.” Scootaloo said, taking off.

“Ok, while she does that, I’ll go warn Tenebris.” I said, and walked downstairs. The inn was as busy as the night before, and Tenebris was genuinely happy for it. “Hey, Tenebris, the girls and I are going out on an adventure today. Don’t wait up.” I said with a little wink.

“Hey, sure, but… Listen.” He said, pulling me away. “I’m sorry about the circus, it was my idea, and the girls got kidnapped because of it.” He said low enough not to be heard.

“Don’t worry. It wasn’t your fault.” I said with a little smile. 

“Alright… Now fuck off!” He said at first low and then shouting with a smile.

I smiled too and went out waiting for the girls. I grimaced and held a hand out to block the sun. I am starting to realize how why I stick to shadows during the day. My new night vision makes it harder to see in direct sunlight. ‘I should buy a pair of sunglasses…’ 

My thoughts being clear on what to buy next. The girls came out in a few minutes, and we were all ready to go. “Hey, Tela.” Sweetie started. “How did you know where we were?”

“A guy helped me.” I replied vaguely. “And before you ask yes, he helped with your book too.” The book was still on the cart when we lost it, but fortunately, one can retrieve anything for the right price. 

“Ok…” She said, not happy with the answers. 

“Cheer up, Sweetie, we are going on an adventure!” Applebloom told her, holding her shield. 

“Yeah, it’s gonna be awesome!” Scoot said, pointing her crossbow around.

“Alright, alright, sheesh.” Sweetie said, rolling her eyes, she then mounted on me, and we took off. 

The farm wasn’t too distant, barely an hour of walking from where we were, up from the road we could already see some damage done to the farm, most of the animals were running around scared, and the farmers were trying effortlessly to calm them down. We came near and asked what was going on exactly.

“And who are you?” The farmer asked. 

“We are from the Gorgon Eye.” I replied, showing the letter, he snatched it from my hands and looked it over.

“Fine, we have some strange fey causing all kind of havoc around here, if you can get rid of them, I’ll pay you.” He said, handing back the letter. “They only come out at night, so you will have to wait. In the meantime, my family and I will spend the night at my friend’s place.” He said, eyeing us suspiciously.

“Alright, sure, come on girls.” I said.

“What are those?” The farmer asked, finally noticing the girls. 

“My girls, now excuse me, but we have a job to do.” I said, wanting to cut it short.

“So, what’s the plan?” Applebloom asked.

“We see what they are first, then we decide.” I told them, caution before action was always a good idea. We then waited until night fell, we went along trying to come up with possible plans to deal with whatever they were, if all the farmers were unhurt then they weren’t exactly dangerous or, at least they haven’t felt threatened enough by the farmers to attack back. When the sun finally came down, we went to work.

We entered the farmhouse and were greeted by eight little creatures, they were shouting and running around, some were licking pans, and some were slamming doors. They saw us, and they watched us for a bit before resuming their vandalism, “So, ideas?” 

“We, uh… Scare them off?” Sweetie suggested.

“Yeah, I guess they are not dangerous at all. Come here, you little mongrels!” I shouted and ran to them, they scattered, running away in all different directions, some tried to hide behind the table and some in the cabinet, the girls scattered as well trying to make them run towards the exit.

“YEE-HAW! Just like Applejack!” Applebloom shouted, giggling, rounding three of them up before moving to the exit.

“This is hard how do you make them go where you want? STOP MOVING!” Scootaloo said, pissed and stressed out by the little fey continually running back into the house. “UGH!” 

“Don’t be like that Scoot; this is fun!” Sweetie said, chasing around one with her horn shining with light. Eventually, we chased them all out of the house, where they then ran off into the nearby woods and disappeared.

“That was the last of them.” I said happy to be done with the little creatures, they were all gone, and we went to work in the house fixing all the damages they have caused, It took hours but we didn't want the farmer to blame us or dock our pay, because we had to throw them into a few walls to get them out. When we exited the house the area was covered in mist. There was a silhouette in the middle of the road coming closer to the house. After a moment the figure came into view. It was a tall monstrous creature with long curled goat horns and pitch-black fur. he had a basket strapped to it's back with a cloth cover, stitched into the rim allowing it to close like a bag. he was holding a bindle of Burch sticks in its right hand and a metal chain in the other, he had a long red tongue sticking out of his mouth that swayed like a snake's.

“Look what I have found, Naughty children.” He said with a thick, raged voice. Immediately he shot forward ward and tackled me on the ground pushing me into it with incredible speed. He smacked my abdomen with the birch branches. I cried out in pain from the sting of it and tried to punch him off me but he didn’t even flinch. 

The girls all tried to attack him as well but their attacks didn't seem to affect him. “Naughty, naughty!” He told us, he whipped his chain around and hit all of them knocking them to the ground with blood on their muzzles. 

The “fight” If you even can call that went on for hours, us trying to get him off whoever he decided to beat at the time We all worked together but he just focused at us one at a time as our attacks glanced off his coat, he never tried to take us down or beat us unconscious. This was pure sadism and he knew how to hurt us just enough to keep us awake and unable to pass out from it. It was hard for me and I couldn’t imagine how it was for the girls. At some point, by sheer luck, Scootaloo managed to fire a bolt that hit him right in the eye pouring out a lot of blood. 

“You!” He roared with fury putting the bundle away and using the chain with both his hands, he reared back and hit Scootaloo in the chest with it making her fly into the air, she hit the ground with a sound of broken bones and a painful whimper, Sweetie used her magic to summon three magic dart that hit him in the breaking a strap and making his basket fall down on the ground, without even breaking a sweat he spun around and hit her in the face breaking her jaw. 

I darted forward and tried to pry the chain away from him, he shrugged me away like nothing and hit me in the abdomen, I didn’t have bones there but the cracks on my exoskeleton were enough to make me flinch in pain. Applebloom went in front of me and rose her little shield from a second hit of the chain, she tanked it well enough until the monster tore the shield away and hit her in the flank making her stumble. She almost recovered when a second hit sent her rolling on the dirt, eventually stopping when she slammed against the farm wall. 

I stood up once again and tried to fight him failing horribly, the monster lashed out at me again and I shielded myself with my right arm hearing it break and bend under the strength of the blow, The chain whip didn't stop and went flying past me, killing a sheep that was hiding near a hay bale, killing it instantly, I looked around and the girls were all still on the ground groaning in pain, I clenched my fist and gritted my teeth with seething anger, I screamed at the heavens and absorbed the sheep, I regenerated my arm but I needed it to be stronger and more durable. It did, it became harder and more powerful than before.

The glimmering and shiny substance was black as onyx and reflected a bit of light, a fourth hit aimed for me and I shielded it with my new arm, this time the arm held and the chain was completely deflected stunning the monster. I seized the opportunity and lashed out with my new armored arm and punched him in the face I dropped down avoiding a second lash of his chani and went back up with an uppercut.

The monster though didn’t feel it much at all and actually grabbed my neck and squeezed it hard almost making me pass out. It was then that the sun finally came out, the monster looked at it and scowled, he angrily pointed at me his eyes flashing red. “This is not over…” He whispered menacingly disappearing in thin snowy mist leaving only the bag behind. I weakly stood up and took the girls in my arms, slowly but surely returned to the city dragging the monster's bag with me.