The Battle of Hollow Shades Part 2
Speech Increased To 2.5
In the darkness of the underground vault, the beaten Guard grunted as the Mayor’s bat henchpony tightened the straps to his binds. They ran across his neck, over his chest, arms and wrists, his thighs and legs. Clearly designed to hold humans, our hopeless Guard also noticed that within this hidden section of the Machine there were also many other means of confinement. Most of them were meant for inhuman creatures, and some were designed for beings he couldn’t begin to imagine...
“We’re all brothers and sisters in binds now, thief,” the nord said beside him. They were all strapped to the Machine, separated only by a thin metal plate, like a fin, between them. Suspended above the Guard was a strange, needle-like proboscis of glass and iron, aimed right at his scalp.
“No...” the thief wheezed. The Guard did not need to see him to hear the shudder in his words. “...this can't be happening. This isn't happening..."
But strangest of all was the dreadful feel of the metal against his body. It thrummed! with a powerful vitality, almost like a monstrous heartbeat. It was warm to the touch and every so often he would feel a tremor course all through the machinery, pulsing and pumping like veins under the rigid framework. A cold chill gripped him as he realized that his own heartbeat fell in sync with the Machine’s hideous palpitations.
Then it began to rumble. A terrible groan that spread from its innards and over the crater where it stood, until it reached the outer walls of the underground cavern. Dust and pebbles crumbled down from the ceiling as it shuddered, and the stone and earth over the Guard’s head began to part. It happened then... the Machine began to rise.
“What is it?” he asked no one in particular. There was no possible answer to calm the terrible feeling in his gut.
The very earth underneath them groaned and suffered under the strain as the Machine tore free from its binds and levitated high above the crater at a slow and steady pace. The bat pony watched from a distance away, frozen in fear as the aura that had permeated the air around the Machine intensified into something more... something beyond evil and malice, otherworldly and so terrible no mortal being could hope to understand it.
It was then that it spoke.
The Guard grunted in pain as the Machine’s insides shook and rattled, and a word was expelled into the air like so much refuse. He did not know what it meant or how he knew it was a word at all, for it was spoken in a speech he did not understand. But its very utterance froze the blood in his veins.
And as it spoke, the Machine rose higher, and the ceiling parted wider to invite the cool midnight moon through the gaping maw of the cavern. It flooded over the captured Guard, almost blinding after the near-total darkness of the cave. But soon he regained his sight, and before him, on a charred and lifeless glade, stood the Mayor...
“It is time,” he said, robed in black and completely invisible underneath. A book in his unseen hoof, with strange etchings that made the Guard’s eyes water if he looked too long. “The final preparations are complete, the carriage is here and the moon is highest! My moment of triumph is now!”
Even as he rambled, the Machine rose higher, until it had cleared the wound in the earth and levitated a few meters over the ground. Almost at once, with another word uttered in its foul language, that injury seared shut into a scar of rock and loose earth, blackened by the dark magic that had sealed it. There it hovered, awaiting its master’s next command.
Pierre approached the Machine. Though he could not see him, the Guard knew his eyes were on him as he spoke.
“...and now you die, monster.” He could almost feel the smile through his words. “But don’t worry. It will be for a worthy cause... my new home in Griffonstone will be just lovely! AhahahaHAHAHAHA!”
The Guard turned away from the deranged pony, to look at the trees of the swamp. Perhaps, he hoped, he might catch a glimpse of his friends before the end. Something to give him hope and solace before the inevitable. But his heart was at peace, for he knew his death had bought him something precious. For that he could die at ease.
The Mayor’s laughter stopped, as though these thoughts had also crossed his mind. A cruel chuckle escaped through his teeth, full of venom.
“I hope you’re not looking for your marefriends, monster...” That chuckle again. It tensed the brave Guard’s shoulders to hear it and set his every sense on alert, like a wolf’s howl on a full moon. He turned to face Pierre.
“Did you really think I would just let them go and ruin my beautiful plan? Hmm?” A cold, terrible feeling washed over the Guard and made his insides tighten. But it couldn’t be! He had promised! His life for theirs... he had promised...
“There shouldn’t be much left of them by now...” the sick grin the Mayor sported needed no eyes to be seen, “...not after the cave troll is done with them... ahahahAHAHAHA!”
The Guard strained against his bindings.
“You’re already dead!” he hissed through gritted teeth, but the Machine came to life even as he spoke. Like snakes, the leather straps shrunk around his neck and chest, and dragged him back against the metal of the monstrous thing. The thrumm! grew in strength and a red glow seeped from within the cracks and spaces between gears and levers... and soon the Machine had awakened in full.
On the ground the Mayor stepped back and when next he spoke his voice was sobered and almost sane. A heavy weight hung on the air around the glade. It made the very air denser, almost impossible to breathe.
“It’s time we begin...” Pierre said and moved to open the book...
*Ribbit*
“What?” He turned around towards the source of the sound. But there was no one he could see, at least on his own eye level. A brief glance down revealed a small, reddish little creature on the ground, with a tiny toothpick strapped to its back. A small frog.
“What the-?” Pierre sneered in disgust as he raised a hoof over the little amphibian. “I told that Midflight Indigo idiot to clear this field before tonight! Ugh!”
The Mayor stomped down with all his pony strength. But the frog was quicker, and in one swift hop! it cleared the area and landed safely away. Then, as quickly as it had appeared, the tiny amphibian sped away into the underbrush of the forest to parts unseen...