Shadows of the Revenants

by MegaCartmanX


Chapter 4: Nightmares in Real Life

    Every creature, big and small, worked their butts off, desperate to break out of the cave before the water consumed them. The water level was now up to their knees, and it, along with their anxiety was only building up from there.
    “Keep digging, skin suits. I may not need to breathe, but that doesn’t mean you don’t need to.” Revenant said, using his long, metal claws to grab hold of the bigger rocks while the Young Six pushed away the smaller ones. They all did their fair share, spending no time slacking off. All except for Yona, who was cowering in the far corner of the cave, slowly watching the water levels rise. At one point Sandbar began looking around for the yak, only to find her by herself. The pony ran to her side, wondering why in Equestria she wasn’t helping them escape the cave.
    “What are you doing, Yona!? Come on, we need to get the heck out of here!” Sandbar shouted, tugging against Yona’s hoof with his own.
    “No! Yona don’t want to move. Yona too scared to move.” She replied.
    “But… why?” Sandbar said. He knew that screaming at the yak wasn’t going to make matters any better for the both of them, so he tried to choose a different approach, lowering the volume of his voice and trying to understand what was going on through Yona’s head.
    “Yona too scared. Yona don’t want to drown.”
    “Yona, you are not going to drown.” Sandbar said calmly. “None of us are going to let you drown. But we need your help if we wish to all make it out of here alive.”
    “But… Yona can’t do it. Yona too weak.”
    “Yona, please.” Sandbar stopped talking and just stared at her with big beady eyes. He couldn’t keep this up, he knew that he was now being of no help. All he could do know is hope that the yak would help them with their cause. Yona replied with nothing but a sigh.
    Sandbar looked down to find that the water had gone up to their necks. There was no more time to waste. Sandbar left Yona to go regroup with the others. About half of the rocks were pushed away, but if they were to continue at the rate they were going at, then it wouldn’t matter how far they got. They would drown.
    Moving more frantically and sporadically, Gallus and Revenant used all their strength to push away the rocks while Ocellus, Silverstream and Smolder helped roll them away from the pile. Moving around became a lot more difficult with the current water level. Ocellus being the shortest one in their group was the first to begin floating on the water.
    “Ah! Guys, I can’t touch the floor!” Ocellus screamed, waving her hooves around to keep herself above the water’s surface.
    “Don’t worry, skin suit! We are almost there!” Revenant shouted. Sandbar ran to their aid, but he and Smolder were soon next to be lifted off the ground. Leaving just Revenant, Silverstream and Gallus left to push the rocks, the team was now full throttle, working with every bit of energy that could muster.
    For those who were unfortunate enough to begin floating on the water, they realized the cave was almost entirely flooded in. Only a hoof’s worth of space was left for them to breathe. They paddled and paddled, keeping their heads above the water and preventing themselves from drowning.
    Sandbar looked over at Yona, who had also begun to be lifted off the ground due to the height of the water. The earth pony locked eyes with the yak, seemingly accepting their demise.
    “Sandbar… Yona sorry!” Yona shouted to her pony friend.
    “It’s ok, Yona. *gasp* No hard feelings.” All of the sudden, Sandbar fell beneath the water’s surface, going deeper to the bottom of the flooded cave. Yona screamed out for Sandbar, but the lack of light prevented her from even catching a glimpse of the pony.
    In time, Gallus and Silverstream were forced to breach the surface, as the water level was too much for them to fight through. With the Young Six now stuck with almost no room left to breathe, Revenant was the only one left to remove the blocks. His naturally heavy body made it easy for him to stay on the ground, but removing the rest of the rocks still proved to be a challenge.
    Yona called out for Sandbar another time, but there was still no sign of him. Yona began to cry out for help, but the rest of them knew that there was no one nearby to save them.
    “Yona, just face it. We’re doomed!” Gallus shouted.
    “There was nothing we could’ve done.” Smolder added.
    The group of friends breathed their last, the water reaching the top of the cave and completely flooding it on all sides. Yona looked down below the water to find Sandbar’s body laying across the ground. No signs of life showed from him. Yona teared up and shouted for him, swimming down to the bottom and reaching out for her pony friend. She was soon able to touch him with her hoof, but something was wrong. His body felt cold and lifeless. Yona began to cry, thinking that he drowned because of her lack of aid. There was no hope of escaping, and now no hope of being with Sandbar anymore. All hope was lost.
    Or so it seemed.
    Yona perked up to find Revenant dealing with the last layer of rocks. The yak knew from there that breaking through that layer would grant them safe passage out of the cave. It was their only hope. Planting her hooves firmly on the ground, Yona charged full speed towards the rocks, using every fiber in her body to gain enough momentum to ram through the rock wall.
    “Come on, you dumb rocks! Get out of my way!” Revenant shouted, looking back and finding all the creatures fully submerged in the water, holding their breaths for dear life. He flicked his head left and saw Yona charging at the rocks. With no kind of warning, Revenant jumped back and watched as Yona’s horns smashed into the rocks.
    The entrance to the cave was open once again, and the water was flushed out of the cave, spitting out Revenant and the Young Six with it. The seven creatures were washed up onto a patch of tall grass, freed from the cave’s clutches. Each of them gasped for air, taking every second to fill their lungs with the much needed necessity, with the exception of Revenant… and Sandbar.
    Yona got to her hooves and ran to Sandbar, sitting down by his side. Yona picked up Sandbar’s body and held him in her forelegs. She placed her hoof along his neck. No pulse.
    “No, no, no!!! Sandbar live! Sandbar must live! Yona make sure Sandbar survive!” Yona began crying out to her unconscious friend, begging him to show any sign of life. The others all saw the event take place, they themselves rushing over to help the poor pony.
    “Sandbar, wake up!” Ocellus shouted.
    “Come on, dude! Wake up!” Smolder exclaimed.
    “Snap out of it!” Gallus pleaded.
    Yona placed Sandbar’s body on the ground and began to give him CPR, hoping that it would be enough to force the water out of his lungs. However, no matter how hard she tried, it just wasn’t enough to bring him back to them. After a few more heavy presses, Yona stopped what she was doing and simply stared at Sandbar.
    The pain and guilt that Yona had felt for her friend was just too much for her to bear. Tears slowly trickled down her cheeks as she watched his body grow colder by the second. His fur began to shift to a grey, his life slowly fading from his body. The others couldn’t hide their pain either, as tears soon fell from their eyes as well. They knew right then and there that they had lost a member of the Young Six.
    Revenant watched as the pony’s life faded away from his body. There was one idea he had planned. He turned to his left and pulled out a special, metal skull from his side pocket. Pushing inward, a large totem appeared before him, taking full physical form once the process was complete.
    The simulacrum put the skull back in it's respective pocket and placed his hand on the totem. The totem took effect, turning Revenant's metallic body into nothing but shadows. Once fully corrupted by the totem, Revenant made his way over to the unconscious pony.
    The rest of the Young Six all looked at Revenant with a hint of fear as they gazed upon the shadow-version of the simulacrum. Once Sandbar was in reach, Revenant dealt down and used his claws to open his eyes manually. Then soon following, with a voice no louder than a whisper-
    "Boo."
    Sandbar's face went pale as day as he screamed at the top of his lungs. The jump scare he got from looking at Revenant in his shadow form was just enough to get him to expel the water trapped inside his lungs. A couple coughs later and the pony was back to his normal self, color and all.
    The Young Six all sighed in relief and gave Sandbar a passionate hug, expressing their gratefulness and gratitude to Revenant for bringing their friend back to them.
    "How do you feel, Sandbar?" Smolder asked.
    "I… *gasp* I never want to go in another cave ever again!" Sandbar shouted. The others got a good chuckle from his reaction, even Revenant had a moment of laughter to himself.
    "Oh good! Yona so happy that Sandbar okay!" Yona shouted with glee, gripping the earth pony tightly as she gave him a big hug.
    "Yeah… glad to be back." Sandbar said, struggling to talk with the amount of pressure Yona was applying. Their hug soon ended, leaving Yona and Sandbar blushing.
    "Yes, lover boy. Let's not forget that the yak did almost nothing to help us escape the cave." Revenant said, shaming Yona for her incompetence. Yona knew she was of no help. She hung her head in shame. "Listen here, skin suit, if you don't help out next time that happens, I will personally…" Revenant couldn't make himself finish the sentence. He knew there was no reason to threaten the yak, not now. They were all safe and sound now, so there was no need to bring up the past. "*sigh* Just be more helpful next time, got it?"
    "Y-Y-YEAH, Yona g-g-got it!" Yona said, intimidated by the simulacrum's gestures.
    "Good-" Revenant closed the totem and shifted back to his normal, metallic self. "-now let's go find this medallion before Gladiator gets there first."
    The team dusted themselves off and began to devise a plan to find the medallion before Gladiator could. But just when things started to go their way, lightning struck from above, giving the Young Six a jump. Revenant giggled slightly at their reaction, the others joining in with their own laughter. They laughed the night away… until another lightning bolt lit up the sky.
    Standing right in front of Revenant, face to face, was a timberwolf. The simulacrum gingerly stood up and stared down at the wooden creature. Neither of them made any sudden movements, taking the time to study each other. Revenant knew that the timberwolf was hostile, as it let a low growl rumble from its throat.
    The Young Six grouped together and hid behind Revenant, keeping their distance from the timberwolf. But that didn’t matter. Three more timberwolves came in from different directions, prowling around the group of young creatures and circling them, almost like they were discussing over who would be the first to perish.
    “Ummm… you skin suits wouldn’t happen to know anything about taming these things, would you?” Revenant inquired, slowly backing away from the timberwolf standing in front of him. The timberwolves began closing in on the group, shortening the distance between them and their meal.
    “I don’t think that’s even possible.” Gallus replied, his legs shaking where he stood.
    They were eventually packed tightly together. The timberwolves had gotten close enough to where their warm breath could be felt hitting against their prey. No pony knew what to do by this point. Just when they thought they were out of all the danger, the Everfree Forest proved yet again why it was widely considered the scariest place in Equestria. The low growls from the timberwolves increased in volume, and the others knew that it could only mean one thing.
    Time to eat!
    Out of nowhere the timberwolves began to whimper and whine as if they were in pain. The Young Six and Revenant looked at each of the timberwolves, watching their bodies contort and lock in place, their bodies fighting against some unknown threat. Within seconds, green orbs of light escaped each of the timberwolves, hovering in the air above each of them respectively. The group looked down once the orbs had escaped their bodies, only to find that the timberwolves had been turned to stone.
    The group of friends along with the simulacrum were all left with confused looks, (except for Revenant who couldn’t make an expression even if he wanted to) processing the events that just took place.
    “Uh, what?” Gallus murmured.
    “Why are they stone?” Smolder inquired.
    “And what are those green lights above their head?” Ocellus added.
    While the Young Six did their best to figure out what this phenomenon could mean, Revenant already knew the answer. He realized that the green orbs that were extracted from the timberwolves were their life forces. If they were stripped of their souls, then that could only mean one thing.
    He has the medallion…
    “Looking for this, Revey boy?” Everypony turned around to find Gladiator standing menacingly behind their backs. The bounty hunter held the medallion in his fingers, dangling it and swinging it side to side like a hypnotizer. “You didn’t really think that you’d make it out of here alive, did you? And look where your incompetence has led you… with the lives of six young animals at risk, all because of you.” Revenant stepped out in front of the Young Six.
    “Leave them out of this, Gladiator! They have nothing to do with me.” Revenant shouted. “This battle is yours and mine alone… not theirs.”
    “But, Revenant! We can’t leave you here!” Gallus said.
    “We can’t let you get hurt!” Sandbar shouted.
    “Leave now, skin suits. This is not your fight.” Revenant stated, forcing the Young Six to leave.
    “But…”
    “Now!!!”
    The Young Six took the simulacrum’s words to heart and ran away as far as they could, leaving Revenant and Gladiator by themselves in the forest. The two bounty hunters circled around each other, keeping the other in their sights at all times.
    “So, you plan to turn me into stone?” Revenant asked, throwing taunts at the masked man.
    “Nothing personal, just orders that I must complete.” Gladiator replied. “Who were those creatures, anyway?” Revenant flicked a mean look at Gladiator.
    “You lay a finger on those creatures and I will kill you.”
    “Oh don’t worry. They won’t be a part of this.” Gladiator pulled out his dagger and held it in hand. “You on the other hand… I don’t think you’ll like where you’ll be in fifty years, trapped in stone and all.”
    “Try me.”