POV: Twilight
Silence reigned over the Library, only disturbed by the sound of Owlowiscious ruffling his feathers, or me rubbing my temples in an attempt to take in, what I had just heard.
Prior to this, Markus, Rainbow, Applejack and I were outside, testing some contraptions which Markus had made. After that, we went back to the Library, where we found Spike in a pretty distressed state. Of course, I immediately asked him, what was the matter, but his answer did come as a slight shock, to be honest. Before he told me, I thought that he simply just broke something or maybe he accidentally sent something to Celestia when he sneezed, but that wasn’t the case.
“So…” I finally broke the silence. “Let me get this straight: While we were gone, some mare barged in and wanted to speak to me, something about a foalnapping or stuff and, as she didn’t find me, went off into the Everfree, apparently heading for the Old Castle.”
Spike nodded. “Well actually, she only said ‘Need Princess, foalnapping, castle, Everfree’, before she went off.”
“Could you give us a description of that mare?” Markus asked.
“No, I’m sorry. I was in the kitchen, so I only heard her, but didn’t see her.” Spike answered.
Markus brought a hand up to his chin, scratching it in thought, while Rainbow tried to quickly fly out through a window, but I caught her in my magic before she could.
“Oh come on, Twilight! We need to do something fast, or else something far worse than that foalnapping might happen!” Rainbow lamented, as I pulled her back inside.
“Calm down, Rainbow! We need to get the others first, or else we might find ourselves with some unsolvable puzzle in there. Remember what happened last time, we went to the Castle!” I scolded her, but it only caused her to lament even more.
“What?! Wait for the others?! Twilight, it will take ages before they are here! In that time, both the mare and her foal might be captured and taken off to Celestia-knows-where! Come on, Markus, tell her that I’m right!”
Markus jerked slightly as his name was spoken, obviously having been ripped out of some thought. It took a little while for him to come back, but then finally he spoke:
“Well, I, too, do think that time is of the essence in this case…” He said.
“HA!” Rainbow said, triumphantly. “I told you I-“
“HOWEVER:” Markus interrupted. “Let’s not forget that we are talking about the Everfree forest. We do not know, what exactly we might face in there and you have to admit that a rescue party that needs help themselves is rather pointless.”
For a moment there was silence, as Rainbow took in her defeat. Meanwhile, I couldn’t help but look at her with a victorious smirk on my face.
Finally, she threw her hooves up and exclaimed: “OKAY, FINE! But if we are too late to do something, it’s not my fault, okay?”
Both, Markus and I, nodded and I released her from my magic. She then went off to get the others, which arrived after a short wait.
The door flew open and Rainbow Dash rushed inside, followed by Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie.
“Did Markus’s stuff run wild again or why did ya need me again so soon?” Applejack asked, as she entered the Library.
“Wait Markus is here? Oh, thank Celestia, Markus, a word please?” Rarity said, as she, too, came into view. She gestured Markus into the kitchen, and he quickly did as she asked. However, Rainbow Dash swooped in and blocked their path.
“We’ve got no time for this, Rarity!” She exclaimed, causing Rarity to stumble backwards a few steps.
“Oh my, Darling, what’s with the hurry?”
“Wait, she didn’t tell you, what happened?” I asked.
“Nope, all she did was come in like ‘woooosh’ and then she went all like ‘Pinkie, quick, Emergency!’ and then she ‘wooosh’-ed away again and so I quickly gave Roseluck her Cupcakes beforefollowingdashietoApplejackwhereshealsowentlike’woosh’andApplejackwentlike’aaaah’an----“
I quickly placed a hoof over Pinkie’s muzzle. “Okay, yeah, Pinkie, I think, I get it.” I removed my hoof from pinkies muzzle and turned to face the others again. “Spike just told us that, apparently, while we were busy, a mare came searching for me, saying something about a foalnapping and the old castle, before running out towards the Everfree.”
For a moment, utter silence fell over the room, as both Rarity and Applejack seemed to take in, what I just said.
“Oh dear.” Rarity finally broke the quiet. “That IS rather serious, isn’t it?”
“Yes, it is! And that’s why we need to finally hurry up!!” Rainbow Dash all-but shouted.
“Wait, I’ll come too!” said Spike. Suddenly, all eyes in the room, except those of Owlowicious, were set on Spike, who looked back with quite a bit of confusion. “What?”
“Spike, I would find it better if you stayed here.” I said softly, as I leaned down to him.
Spike groaned in disappointment. “Aww, come on! I want to help you, Twilight! I’m your number one assistant after all!”
“Oh, you can actually help us from here, you know?” Markus chimed in. He gestured over to where he set down his backpack and weapons. “I need you to guard those while we are gone.”
Spike looked over to the pile and then looked back at Markus with a hint of annoyance. “Well, I don’t think those will suddenly grow legs and walk out, you know?”
Markus chuckled in amusement. “No, certainly they won’t.” Before he adopted a much more serious tone. “But they might change owners without me noticing, while we are gone, which I would like to avoid. Not only because those are mine, but also because these might do some serious damage, if they ended up in the wrong hands – or hooves for that matter.”
Both of them stared at each other for a while, until spike finally gave in. “Okay, fine, I’ll stay here!”
Markus smiled gently and turned around, while I pulled Spike into a hug, before we went off.
The Everfree was as dark and eerie as ever as we entered it. It seemed that, just for this special occasion, all harmony that was left within had escaped, leaving only pure disarray and while it may have been my imagination, it did give me a reason to stay close to Markus.
“It is very quiet in here, isn’t it?” I said, hoping to break the silence.
Markus gave a short glance down to me, before he returned to look ahead. “Quite so. Nevertheless, we should be wary of our surroundings. It IS the Everfree, after all.”
“Yes, I know. It’s unfortunate that you left your weapons at the library. I would have felt a lot safer if you had them. Come to think of it, why did you leave them? If you’re so afraid of them being stolen, you could have just taken them with you and would even have made our journey a little bit safer.”
Markus looked at me, as if I had just missed something obvious, before he smiled and turned his view back ahead. “I must admit: me not wanting them to be stolen, while not truly being a lie, wasn’t quite the truth either. In fact, in their current state, they are utterly useless.”
I stopped for a short moment, looking at Markus in disbelief, as I had seen their destructive power with my own eyes. “Why would you say that? I mean, we used them just a few minutes ago and they worked perfectly fine.”
“Indeed they did, but just like bows, they need ammo to work and sadly, I only packed enough for that little experiment of mine. However…” He looked down at his belt, where his sword and knife were attached and lay a hand on each of them. “I still have those with me, so I am still able to slice my way through a few opponents. And if bad comes to worse, you lot also pack quite a punch.”
“Heck, yeah! Don’t worry, Twi, if there are any dangers around, I will give them a taste of my hooves!” Rainbow commented, while she made a few demonstrative punches into the air.
“Well, while I would like to avoid getting mud in my mane, I suppose if our lives were in danger, we would have to fight our way out of there somehow.” Rarity added.
“Oh, uhm, I would like it if we didn’t have to fight, because, uhm, you know… I don’t like hurting others.” Fluttershy whispered from behind me.
“And ah’ don’t like this whole thing at all. Ah mean, like ya said earlier, Twilight, it’s just too quiet ‘round here.” Applejack said at last.
Pinkie, meanwhile sniffed along the ground like a dog, leading us further and further into the forest.
We came to a clearing and, as we entered it, I noticed Markus tighten his grip around his sword. At first I didn`t pay it much mind, until we reached the middle of the clearing and, all of a sudden, he stopped. He looked around, carefully eyeing each bush at the edge of the clearing, while keeping his hand to his sword.
“Markus, dear, what’s the matter?” Rarity then asked.
Markus didn’t look at her, instead continuing to watch the bushes around us. “Ever since we reached this clearing, my soldier-sense was going off, telling me about an enemy presence nearby. By now, it is going completely haywire, which likely means that we are already completely surrounded.”
Instantly, we took defensive stances as he said this, carefully watching the bushes at the edge of the clearing. All was silent, a tense atmosphere slowly building up… but nothing happened. Even after a few minutes of standing, we couldn’t make out anything in particular.
“Well, ah don’t see anythin’” Applejack then finally said, as she loosened her stance and started walking towards the other end of the clearing. “Come on, y’all! We better get movin, lest it be gettin’ dark before—“
Suddenly, Markus jumped forward, holding a hand before Applejack’s face, just in time for an arrow to pierce right through it and stop just short of her eye. She yelped and quickly made a step back, as a few splatters of blood hit her face. Markus meanwhile, seemed completely unfazed, despite the fact that an arrow literally just punctuated his hand. He broke the rear off with his other hand, before pulling the tip all the way through to the other side. He then reached back to his red pouch and pulled a bandage out of it, with which he bandaged his hand.
Meanwhile, the bushes around us had started to rustle, and one-by-one, we saw Gryphon mercenaries step forth from the undergrowth. I looked around and saw that, just as Markus had said earlier, we were completely surrounded.
“I had hoped that only the purple one of you would turn up, but I suppose having all of you isn’t bad eith—“ Suddenly, a mare started speaking from the bushes. The voice felt very familiar, so I quickly turned around just in time to see her freeze in place, as she left the bush. Seeing her only made her more familiar, until finally, I remembered where I saw her: She was the mare from the incident with Luna! Her gaze was locked at Markus, while Markus and Rainbow stared back. She looked like she wanted to flee right this instant, while Markus and Rainbow, understandably, seemed determined to smash her head in on the spot.
“How in the world are you here? I thought you were rotting away in the Canterlot Dungeons?!” Markus said angrily.
The mare tried to mask her fear with a cocky grin, but failed utterly. “Well, that dear P-princess of yours thought I had earned m-my freedom through my honesty and l-let me go.” She said, trying to sound cocky, but still slipping over her own tongue a few times. She then turned to the Gryphon that stood beside her and looked like the leader of the group and commanded him: “Leave the purple one alive, I don’t care about the others.”
The Gryphon smiled in response. He put on a dark gray steel helmet with visor and then screamed: “ATTACK!”
All around us, the gryphons pulled out weapons, ranging from swords to various maces and axes, but only the leader seemed to wear a cuirass and a helmet.
They began to charge in and Markus quickly drew his sword, while we others took defensive stances. Then, the fight began.
Rainbow Dash immediately flew up into the air, probably trying to get them from above, but she forgot that the Gryphons had wings as well. Still, she managed to out-fly her opponents, partly due to them carrying much more weight than she did. She swooped down and knocked out two Gryphons that were trying to sneak up on applejack, while her pursuers were still right behind her.
One Gryphon tried to come and get me, but I noticed him and immediately gave him a taste of my magic, sending him flying into a tree and knocking him out.
Applejack had a hard time dealing with them, as she needed to get up-close to do anything. Still, she managed to keep three of them at bay, while Rarity blasted away any more of them that tried to out-flank her.
Fluttershy had become a trembling huddle as soon as the battle started and Pinkie stayed close to her, fending off any incoming Gryphon with her confetti cannon.
Markus had taken on three of them in a swordfight and, even though his hand was noticeably stiffening from the wound, he still greatly outclassed them. The first one tried to stab him with his sword, but Markus swatted the blade aside with his own, directly going into a stab himself and hitting the gryphon directly into the heart, killing him instantly. He pulled his sword out and, within the same motion, slammed the pommel into the beak of a second Gryphon and then brought his sword around in another stab towards a third Gryphon, who was about to deal a blow with his mace. Now, two Gryphons lay dead before him, while a third was unconscious, his beak split in two.
The Leader stepped towards Markus and, without leaving time for him to prepare, swung a mighty battleaxe towards him.
Realizing that his Sword might not be enough to stop the much heavier weapon of his opponent, Markus instead made a quick dodge to the side, causing the axe to slam into the ground and dig deep into it. While the leader tried to free his axe, Markus brought in a mighty swing towards his head, only for it to bounce off. He didn’t let this irritate him, instantly bringing the sword around into a stab towards the cuirass, which, unfortunately, bounced off as well. Meanwhile, the leader managed to un-stuck his axe and Markus took a few steps backwards. He then did something I had never seen anyone do before: He turned his sword around, gripping it at the blade.
The leading Gryphon brought his axe down in yet another swing, which was yet again evaded by Markus. Taking his opportunity, Markus made a mighty swing of his own, bringing the hoofguard of his sword down onto the Gryphon’s helmet. The result was a dent, deep enough to squeeze the Gryphon’s skull. Markus made two more such hits, until the leader finally went to the ground and stayed there.
Meanwhile, Rainbow had managed to lose her two pursuers and was now helping Applejack to finish off the last few Gryphons. I turned around just in time to see Rarity blast another Gryphon past me into the bushes.
After that, a short moment of silence overcame us. Around us, there lay more than a dozen Gryphons, two dead, the rest unconscious. The mare had fled the scene as soon as the fight began and was by now probably too far away to pursue her. Also, we didn’t get out of this unscathed either: While Markus managed to evade all attacks taken towards him, he still had that wound in his hand. Applejack and Rainbow both had multiple cuts and scratches along their bodies, some of which were bleeding. Rarity had taken some bruises and I, myself, was not in the best of shapes either. Still, we managed to survive and none of us was too badly hurt.
Rarity went to help Applejack and Rainbow with their wounds and I wanted to do so as well, when suddenly, I heard something in the bushes behind me. I turned around and slumped back in shock, as Dash’s two pursuers and the one Gryphon, Rarity just blasted away, were jumping out of the bushes right at me.
There wasn’t enough time to cast a spell and even if there had been, I was too shocked to do anything. All I could do was to watch, as the three Gryphons came flying towards me as if in slow-motion, the left one with an axe, the middle one with a sword and the right one with a hammer.
However, before they could reach me, suddenly Markus stood before me, with his sword in his right and his knife in his left. He brought himself between me and the gryphons, blocking the Gryphons to the sides and keeping them locked with his blades. The one in the middle, however, managed to bring in a blow and hit Markus across the face. His head jerked away from the force, however he did neither wince, nor cry out in pain. Instead, he righted himself again, almost immediately, and went to his counter-attack. He yanked the pommel of his sword upwards, slamming it into the underside of the Gryphon’s beak and causing him to stumble backwards. He then used this position for a strike towards the middle one while he released the one on the left. He hit the one in the middle right into the head, splitting it in two, while the left one stumbled forward towards me. Yanking his blade free, he then went into a spinning motion, slicing the left Gryphon across the neck, while simultaneously stabbing the one on the right, who just managed to regain his balance, with his knife.
With all three Gryphons now dead on the ground, Markus stood still for a moment, before he put away his knife. I heard my friends quickly approaching, so I turned around, just in time to find Fluttershy in my face, frantically looking for injuries.
“Oh dear, Twilight, are you hurt? Oh no, no, no, look at this bruise... and this cut, oh dear.”
I gently pushed her away from me, to allow me to move a bit. The rest of my friends were now arriving as well and I smiled, seeing that all of them were well.
“Is everyone alright?” I heard Markus ask behind me.
“Yes, we are all alive and well.” I answered, as I turned around. However, as I saw Markus’s face, I had to fight the urge to vomit and quickly looked away, seeing that Rainbow and Applejack weren’t faring any better. Rarity promptly fainted and Fluttershy was so utterly shocked that she could only hold her hooves up to her mouth, while her coat lost all color.
A long gash now ran across Markus’s face, starting just over his right eye, making its way down between his eyes and along his nose and ending after it lastly passed his left cheek. The whole right half of his face was covered in blood, some of it even spilling down into his eye, while bubbles were forming over his cheek and nose, as he drew air through the two new holes in them. Underneath the gash, the blood-reddened bones were visible and some strands of flesh were still struggling to keep the two sides together.
“Good…” He said, weakly trailing off at the end. Then, suddenly, he collapsed forward onto his knees, quickly leaning onto his sword for support.
“Markus!” I gasped and rushed to him. He was panting heavily, while still struggling to stay conscious. Yet, somehow, he was smiling. Dear Celestia, how could he smile in this situation?!
“Markus, are you alright?!”
He gave me a short, ridiculing look. At least he probably wanted to, but he was barely even strong enough to speak by now. “Ehehe, I might be able to suppress my emotions, but… bloodloss… different… story…” He slowly trailed off, as his eyes slowly began to close. I tried everything I could think off, from simply tapping him to giving him magic shocks, but there was only so much I could do and finally he slumped down, rolling onto his back. He was still panting heavily, but no longer conscious and the cut in his face was still bleeding heavily.
I was in an absolute panic at that point. I couldn`t use magic to heal him, because I didn`t know enough about his body, to picture his muscles be mended in the right places, so all I could do was sit there and desperately try to think about something.
It was then that I remembered how Markus patched up Luna without using magic and I was relieved to find another of these prepared needles in his red pouch. The only problem was that I didn’t have much experience with sewing things, especially not ponies or any other creature for that matter. Yet, Rarity was still fainted and the others couldn`t hold a needle in their hooves, so it all came down to me. I quickly stitched the wound shut as tight as I could, hoping that the weird pattern I had made was strong enough to hold, at least until we got him to the hospital.
Rainbow and I then quickly lifted him off the ground and carried him, while Applejack took Rarity and Pinkie took Markus’s sword. We went as fast as we could, running out of the Everfree and straight towards the hospital, the fear of losing Markus clinging to my heels and the doubts of my own abilities gnawing at my hope, constantly reminding me that we might not make it in time. That we might not be able to save him…