//------------------------------// // Arrival // Story: Horsemen and Ponies // by Dark Krystal //------------------------------// It happened so fast. One second your in some asshole's lair next thing you know you’re sucked in some portal and now forced to face upwards to the sky while feeling air rush up. ”AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” Pestilence screams and flails his arms about in panic at the realization that he was indeed falling. At first he thought he had sometime to brace himself only for his back to collide with the ground. On impact he had makes a crater the size of a carriage.. ”AHHH FUUUUUCK!” He screams out in pain and arches his back, he shuts his eyes and grits his teeth. His spine was still intact as expected but damn it felt like being shirtless and getting whipped on your back. In an attempt to lessen the pain he rolls around in the crater for a bit before going limp and resting. ”Ughhhh…” He groans after as he slowly opens his eyes. Opening his eyes he finds himself laying on his side and flips onto his back only to be blinded by sunlight and instinctively moves his hand over his eyes to block it out while slowly sitting up. Once the light is out of his line of sight he moves his hand back and sweeps his eyes over his new environment. ”Oh you got to be FUCKING KIDDING ME!” He yells as he finds himself surrounded by nothing but sand and only some cacti. It was a desert……out of all the places he could’ve been teleported to, it was just HIS LUCK he had been sent to a desert. He immediately noticed something off about the land around him……the sand was well…sand it wasn’t black…it was normal earth sand. Upon this discovery he looked up to the cloudless sky and smiles to see a blue sky. He sighs. ”Well at least i’m on earth… ” He chuckles while getting up as he remembers that demons smug look when he was sucking them in the portal, oh that precious dumbass. He was definitely going back to hell and cheer on famine beating the life out of that demon. With a smile forming on his face as he thinks about it. He moves his hand in a circular motion through the air to make a portal with his eyes close as he imagines the scene and then jumps through the portal he made only to land on his face, he brings his head up and spits out sand. ”Twe hwell?!” He attempts to yell out with sand in his mouth before getting back on his feet and spitting out the remaining sand in his mouth. He huffs and does the motion again, concentrating this time but finds nothing forming. His eyes narrow and he spends ten minutes in the hot desert to attempt to make portal only for nothing to appear. ”Are you kidding me…!?” His hand falls to his side and he looks at the empty space where his portal should be with a tight lipped smile. He shakes his head and does breathing exercises and smiles. ’Probably just the heat that’s interfering with my magic, right? Right! Well the best solution is clearly to get out of this desert or find shade and try again!’ He chuckles to himself and with hands in his hoodie's pockets, he hums a tune and picks a random direction to travel. ……Two hours later…… ”LUCIFER HELP ME! GOD PLEASE! I KNOW YOU DISLIKE MY EXISTENCE BUT PLEASE SAVE ME FROM THIS HELL!” Pestilence screams out as he falls to his knees and raises his hands to the sky. The last two hours or six hours? Felt like an endurance test and if it was he clearly failed, the heat was too much for him even when he took his hoodie off to wrap it around his waist and pull up his shirts sleeves but to no avail. Sweat burned into his eyes and covered every inch his thin body as he called for help from his enemies above. He could only whimper as he knew the gods wouldn’t save him from this place or any place for that manner, all he could do is get back up on his feet and continue his journey for shade or out the desert. ……Four hours later…… He dragged his feet as he walked now, his eyes wide open. He felt as if he was fucking dying. Was really going to die in the most pathetic way for his title…………in a fucking desert on earth? He couldn’t help but start to laugh at this cruel joke that was his present life. He wished an oasis, large bent over cactus were here but instead he just had those trees over there. He chuckles at the blurry miniature trees in his vision until he wipes his eyes and realizes that the trees were actually real. He starts to pick up speed slowly upon realizing the chance to finally rest under some sweet, tall, leafy trees to rest. He starts running with a toothy grin on his face as he gets closer to these trees, he could swear the land around him was changing as well! Instead of sand he was now in some sort of dry lands though the ground was a bit greenish but who cares about the ground type when TREES are here! He quickly rushes to the tree and does a front flip with a mid air twist, he plops himself down and leans against the tree. “Uooooooooh……~ Truly one of the best feelings in the universe is when you go from deathly to a cool shady tree…~” He smiles and closes his eyes, the wind blowing over him just amplify the coolness granted onto the demon. His body relaxes and he closes his eyes to fully enjoy his well earned break, slowly he loses his consciousness. An hour later a shadow would loom over his sleeping form. “Girls cometh here!” ”Mmmn…” War opens his eyes and blinks a couple times. ’Huh. I expected to be plopped out into the sky……’ War couldn’t help but be disappointed at his lack of free falling. He at least wanted some time to analyze his surroundings and pick a spot to land. He groans as his body forces him acknowledge something crucial. He’s cold. Why is he cold? He sits up and looks around to realize he got plopped onto a tundra? No, seeing numerous mountains around him he can assume worst, a snowy mountain range. ”Huh…” War looks on with slightly widened eyes, he didn’t expect this of all place he could’ve plopped in. Luckily he was wearing socks today, that should let him be warm though……he glances down and sees he is barefoot in his sandals, 'Darn. I forgot.' War sighs and gets up on his feet and takes a gander to look all around him and notices two things. First, this was clearly earth. Second, there’s a nice barely snow pathway with no snow up the mountain, nice! He quickly walks over onto it, next thing to do was make a portal head back to hell. ……Three attempts later…… ”Darn. I guess portals aren’t working……I guess I have to take the train to hell back.” He sighs in defeat. ”I guess I better head dow-” Suddenly the ground vibrates stopping the demon in his tracks and tense up his body. Earthquake!? No……strange enough it doesn’t feel like a giant slab of earth moving over each other instead it feels like……just a giant jackhammer……? He could feel the vibrations run from his feet to up his spine, very unpleasant but he could feel there’s was a source and it was up the mountain strangely enough…….he waited a few seconds to see if an avalanche would begin and gives a long sigh when it doesn't. ”No avalanche……not an earthquake………what is causing this?” War couldn’t help it. He was a curious demon even though going up there is clearly the wrong way, he needed to quell this question of his. ………An hour of walking later……… War was surprised to himself in front of what appears to be a fort. He a strange fort……it had a large wooden doors and beside it two large circular platforms with……bovines? On top holding a shield in their……uh hoof’s? In their other hoof they held holding giant torches. The vibrations going up his spines snap him out of his deconstruction of the forts strange entrance, it was time to solve this strange vibrating mystery. War pops his neck and jumps a couple times to prepare himself in case whatever was behind the doors didn’t take fondly to outsiders, now prepared he walks up to the gate and peeks inside. ”What…the…hell…?” "GOD FUCKING DAMNIIIIIIIIIIIIT!" Famine loudly cursed himself as he falls from the portal for multiple reasons. 1) for being like a bull and getting fucked by matador-like trick, 2.) because he was falling from the sky. He frowns and crosses his arms as he falls, he looks around the area around him mid fall to at least see if he was in hell or somewhere else. Blue sky and clouds, check. Forest surroundings below, check. Snow tipped mountains in the distance, check. So far this seems like eart-wait what the fuck is that? He squints his eyes as he spots a strange object among the normal earthly details, seeing in the distance what looks to be a giant dead tree leaning with houses all over it on top of the saddest plateau. ”……………………” Famine couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at what this strange city structure, surely humans wouldn’t live there unless they wanted to live on the edge. Literally. A place lack that should've been known, at least he should've heard of it due to his many trips to earth yet has never heard of such a place or seen such a place on earth unless…… ”This isn’t earth……” He takes a second to let those words sink into his brain. He always thought that the only dimensions or realms were Heaven, Earth, Limbo, and Hell but was he be wrong? Look at the tree and notes it looked almost like some type of modern bird’s nes-wait shit how close is he to the ground again? He looks back down and finds himself a couple of feet from crashing into a tree. ”OH SHIT!” He yells and braces his body for impact while also pulling out one of his thickest kitchen knives. He feels the impact of branches hit his back making him squint his eyes in annoyance to the feeling, using his knife and stabs it into the tree stopping his fall forcefully but dragging the knife down a bit until he stops at sixteen feet off the ground. He sighs and shakes his head before pulling the knife out and landing on his feet. He huffs and checks his knife; no damage? Good. He looks around finding himself in a tall tree forest. Honestly compared to that shitty wannabe bird house town it looks absolutely beautiful. Famine couldn’t care about the looks of this forest right now, he needed to figure out if this was earth or not, if not he would have to figure out a way back or find the others. “I have no choice then……gotta get to that town and see if this is earth……” He says to himself with a scowl, from the sky it looked like the only way to access it was either flying to it or climbing up to it. Not only does he have to walk a long ass way but he has to climb it too!? He sighs and walking to the direction he saw the town in. A large boom is heard throughout the forest, phoenix’s in the area take flight into the sky to escape the source. In the middle of the forest lies a large crater and in the center……Death has landed. He stays still kneeling and taking a moment to recover from the landing before getting up slowly and checking his environment with out a moments hesitation. A forest. Though strange, on earth he remembers that it should be summer in most countries around now but almost all the trees are filled with brown leaves, it could be a type of tree but he couldn’t shake the feeling that something about this land was unnatural. He hops out of his crater and starts walking while trying to take note of everything around him. He notices light pillars of smoke rising into the cloudy sky prompting him to climb a tree to see the source. Volcanoes in fact multiple volcanoes, interesting. He jumps back down and decides he has enough information. He checks if can go back to hell through a portal, his gut continuing to tell him something about this land was different from earth all together. ……two portal attempts later…… ”Hmph.” He scoffs to himself. The portal giving him the push to conclude that where ever he is was not earth, it is an entirely new foreign land or dimension. “I need to find some locals and get more information.” Death crosses his arms as he speaks to himself. ”A new land huh……” He didn’t want to admit it but he felt some excitement deep down in his dark soul, spending centuries in hell he made him felt like he had memorized the entirety of Hell itself. He loses himself to possibilities of what could be in this world as he walks until he hears the sound of heavy approaching footsteps and clear smug chuckling that he was used to. He stops as a large shadow from behind looms over him, he clenches his fist and slowly turns around with his deadpan face. ”What do you want, Dragon?” Death gives his normal deadpan face.