//------------------------------//
// Chapter the Twenty-Eighth: Shattered Bone 
// Story: Failure, Eternally Retold, Part One: The Human Element 
// by Kiernan 
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Bone was down on the next floor, binding his war pick with a brand new handle wrap. He could feel it in his gut; There was a fight coming their way. After a seventy-eight year hiatus, he would finally be able to see the sun again. But before that could happen, he had to be ready. All of his weapons needed to be ready. His happiness soon faded, however, as Flesh once again strode into his workshop unannounced.

"How many times do I have to tell you, Flesh," Bone growled through his mandibles. "I'll come to dinner when I finish. You have your gymnasium, Blood has her lab, and I have my workshop. These places are sacred to us."

"I'm not here for dinner," Flesh explained. "You have guests."

Nik and Kai looked on in awe as the creature known as Bone turned around to face them. It was certainly not a pony. Much like Siegfried, Bone had seven appendages. However, Siegfried had seemed mainly quadrupedal. Bone was clearly bipedal. Instead of an extra pair of legs, he had an extra pair of arms. He was also without much skin, as much of his body seemed to be covered in an exoskeleton. There were bits of skin that covered muscle around every joint, but they seemed to have chitinous scales covering them. Most shocking was his face. The top half resembled a human skull, whereas the bottom half looked more like that of an insect. Neither his top nor bottom jaw were connected to each other, allowing him to open his mouth incredibly wide. Their only connection to the rest of his body was back near the holes where his ears should have been. Lastly, his eyes were covered up by two yellow transparent plates, making him look sinister.

"Guests, is it?" smiled Bone. As his jaws were covered in hard, bony plates, neither Kai nor Nik could see the smile. "Have you come to deliver news of war?"

Kai shook his head. "We've actually come to stop one from occurring."

Bone waved away Kai's statement. "That's no fun. Taking to the battlefield is what brings me to life! I want to feel my heart racing again, to taste the sunshine, to smell that irony spray. You would deny me that immense pleasure?"

"I'm certainly going to try."

The room fell silent. Kai and Bone locked eyes. The tension that grew between them could tear a tree out of the earth itself. Nik took a step back, not wanting to endanger himself unnecessarily. 

Both Flesh and Nik jumped when the tension finally broke. Bone had burst out in a cackling, gurgling laugh. "You have a strong will, my friend. Keep that with you as you move forward. Come, tell me what it is you want."

As they returned to the lower rotunda, Kai refused to let go of the tension he felt. "We're here to seek a token of the mauler of bones. We need it to stand before the great green dragon."

Bone sighed. "So the fight I feel coming in the near future will be between you and I? How disappointing..."

"Mayhaps it is. If so, I apologize for driving your hopes up. I strive to be honest."

"That may be wrong," added Nik. "There could be an even bigger fight afterward. If the assassins are close, there could be a big fight just to have my companion and I escape."

A shiver of excitement ran down Bone's exposed spinal column. "I look forward to that."

The group came to a kitchen, and for the first time since he'd come to Equestria, Nik saw a beautiful, fresh cut of beef loin. "Is that a strip steak?" he asked, his mouth suddenly watering.

"It is," answered Flesh. "We have to keep on the up and up with our diets. What with our bodies changing constantly, we need to make sure we stay healthy. For instance, I had a lion as my left leg last month. That takes up a lot of protein. And even if my parts are falling off all the time, I'd still like to keep them for as long as I can. Always a hassle."

"Especially when he can't keep his head," added Bone.

"Excuse me? I'm always level headed."

Bone looked up from behind the cabinets he had opened up. "That's not some kind of metaphor. Your head quite literally falls off sometimes." Bone pulled out a basket of root vegetables. "You ponies are vegetarians, right?"

Kai shook his head. "Most are. I'm not. Why do you ask?"

Bone shrugged. "It's not good to fight on an empty stomach. Nor is it good to fight on a full stomach, but I won't be having any fun if you pass out from exhaustion right away. I offer you a quick meal before we begin our match."

Kai shook his head. "I fight better when hungry. Like a predatorial animal, taking down prey not for enjoyment, but to stave off starvation for another day or two."

"How lovely," remarked Bone, taking a large bite of carrot. As he did so, Nik caught his first look at Bone's lips. They were retracted behind his mandibles. "And what of your friend? He's not really a pony, is he?"

"I am not," confirmed Nik. "I'm a human."

"Not a creature I've ever seen," shrugged Flesh. "And I've seen much. Are you of this world? And more importantly, would you like some steak?"

"I would very much like some steak," Nik said, nodding enthusiastically. 

"That settles it, then. You and I will have steak while we watch your friend being beaten by mine."

Worry crept across Nik's face. "He'll be okay, won't he? I mean, we're not the best of friends, but I'm supposed to make sure he comes back in one piece."

Bone chuckled. "Don't fret. Flesh is an expert surgeon who can reattach any limbs that fall off. And I promise not to hurt him too much."

All of a sudden, Kai was met once again with a familiar tightness in his abdomen. It had first showed when he had been thrown into a prison cell. He felt it again right before leaving Canterlot. Then again when he was assaulted by timber wolves, and the last time he'd felt it was when he'd set Fluttershy free. It wasn't quite fear, but it was close. He took a deep breath, calming his nerves. He had to win this fight.