//------------------------------//
// Tunnel vision 
// Story: Theory of nothing 
// by Elidjz 
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"Space is cool." Neil





Crying is quite soothing. It's calming and clears the mind. It allowed me to come to the conclusion that Cosmo is enjoying my suffering. I had been sobbing on his back, which is still wet from my tears, yet he kept humming to himself and flicking his tail at our pursuers. Most of which looked like they were about to drown, others seemed to be floating and a few could clearly breathe underwater. We were all in an underground river.

But all could barely reach us. They were a meter or even less behind us. Sometimes they tried to bite at Cosmo's tail as he taunted them with it, sometimes poking them on the snout with it. I don't even know if he was doing it on purpose or if his tail acted on its own, as he was busy humming some very familiar sounding song.

At least he swam with such grace' I'll admit that, that I could easily stay on his back without falling off. Which allowed me to nurse my wounds. I tried to cast as many painkilling and anesthetic spells as I knew, but the throbbing pain coming from my ear was still there. I couldn't see it, having no mirror on me and it being too dark for me to see my reflection on the water, but from what I could feel it was a horrible tear with exposed flesh and nerves everywhere.

My ear was the most obvious, painful and likely to get infected wound but it wasn't the only one. I was covered in bruises and cuts, my snout was still bleeding, there were splinters everywhere ,my horn ached as I used a light spell to see and said light was starting to hurt my eyes. I also found Cosmo's back to be very uncomfortable and cold. Makes sense as part of it is covered in steel.

"Oh, almost forgot." Cosmo suddenly said. He then lifted one of his arms up holding something shiny in it. "I did not have enough time to finish all of it but..." He didn't even finish his sentence before starting to hum another tune again. He held his arm out at an awkward angle so that I could grab it. It was armor. A helmet, hoof guards and what seemed to be a chestpiece. I put them on without hesitating, they felt surprisingly warm. As much as I may dislike him, if this armor allowed me not to lose any other body parts, then I would not refuse it. 

All pieces of armor had a light blue ethereal glow to it, which was quite nice to look at. There were three leg pieces, meaning that he probably did not have time to make the fourth one. The two for my rear legs were shorter and only covered the lower part of my leg while the one for my front leg was made out of two separate armor pieces attached to each other by chainmail and covered most of my leg. It also had a star inscripted into it, which glowed slightly brighter. The rear ones had no inscription and looked a lot more utilitarian. 

The helmet looked like a bowl with a very big brim. There were two holes in for the ears with chainmail attached to them to protect the ears and one hole for my horn. This would have been very useful less than half an hour ago. There was also more chainmail attached to the back to protect the neck. There was also another star inscripted into the front of it. This one had a dark purple glow. There also was a small pike on top of it. 

I put it on as to avoid any other future unfortunate events that may result in lost appendages. I flinched in pain as the lukewarm chainmail pressed against my open wound. I tried to move it around, but it just caused me more pain.  

The chestpiece covered my whole chest alongside the upper part of my stomach. It was made out of multiple intertwined metal plates. It had a tiny neck guard and a loose hanging metal plate protecting the stomach.  It had what looked like a unicorn skull with wings behind it inscripted on it instead of a star. I found that to be slightly morbid. It was also the heaviest and hardest to put on.

I noticed that all the armor pieces were padded, making it more comfortable. It also wasn't that heavy. A few kilos at least, but less than any other armor that I had ever used (when you work with fireworks or gunpowder you sometimes need to take precautions). The leg pieces were surprisingly flexible.

"Like it?" Cosmo asked. I answered in the most neutral tone that I could manage. "Trixie appreciates it." He then went back to humming, flicking his tail. I had no idea what went on his head, probably never will and don't want to. It would just give me a headache. He probably knew that I was thinking about him, but clearly seemed content ignoring it.

Which was infuriating as he obviously knew how I felt and purposefully kept acting nonchalantly. 

I was distracted by some creature flailing around in the water. It looked like it was trying to spit at me. One of it's three heads at the very least. Those things were trying to kill me, which I did not appreciate. And having some target practice would be a good idea and prepare me for the future. And help me vent a bit. I stood up on Cosmo's back, putting one of my rear hooves on his neck and one front hoof on his spine not caring if he felt uncomfortable. 

I thought about which spell to use. I then fired a simple fire spell. I physically facehooved as the spell fizzled as it hit the water.  I also groaned from exhaustion. My aim had been atrocious and the spell weak, proving that I desperately needed to practice. Also using fire on something that's half submerged underwater probably wasn't the best idea. So I used an electricity spell instead. I fired it in the center of a group of swimming creatures. They flinched a bit but kept on swimming unbothered.  Well, I could...

I felt a heavy rumble which almost made me fall off Cosmo's back. I managed to keep my footing, which did involve stepping on his head. Some pieces of stone fell from above hitting some creatures and taking them out. Some fell very close to me splashing me with water. Fortunately none fell on me. 

The tiny earthquake stopped as quickly as it had started. I could guess what had caused it. I took a better position and went back to casting spells.





I had managed to cast a dozen spells, before being too exhausted to even stand up. I might also have sweared loudly a few times. Most aimed at a mare of purple coloration, but a few were meant for the nondescript creatures following me. So I now lay on Cosmo's back thinking. Mostly angry hateful thoughts. A few did make me laugh as they involved humiliating said mare of purple coloration that I had mentioned. None lasted long however as the pain of my lost ear and the sound of the creatures behind me always reminded me of the dire situation that I was in.

I had almost started crying again multiple times, either out of pain or fear, but managed to keep it in. 

So I was now observing my surroundings with a weak light spell. It hurt, but it was bearable. what I managed to see reminded me of some old catacombs. I saw some tiny dilapidated wooden docks and canoes from time to time. It made me wonder who or what had made them. And where they might now be. Such thoughts made me worry even more, but it did not stop me from thinking about them.

I could ask Cosmo but I didn't really trust what he would say and he would probably make my headache worse with vague answers. Ancient beings are always vague, that's an universal rule. Or multiversal in this case. Wait, was this proof that the multiverse was real? I groaned as thinking about it made my headache worse.

Not that it mattered. The only thing that matters is to get home and get my revenge. A very well deserved revenge I might have. The amulet glowed slightly brighter at those thoughts. I had no idea how it worked. Was it confidence? Violence? Me being hurt and in pain? Or maybe it was me bleeding that was causing it to glow? A very grim possibility, but even if that was the case what was it doing? The amulet glowed brighter but I did feel any powerfuller.

it was but another question amongst many. I'll probably never find an answer for that. And most likely throw the amulet away, because with my luck I would never be able to sell it. 

I spotted what looked like an old stone bridge in front of me. It was hard to see, but became clearer as we got closer. On top of it were two gleaming eyes. Whatever they belonged to was basically invisible in the dark. The eyes were red and had black pupils. It quickly ran away as we got closer so I had no idea what it was.

I felt Cosmo grab me with his ever changing amount of limbs before leaping onto the bridge. He then unceremoniously dropped me onto the bridge. The creatures tried leaping after us, but to my relief none managed to jump high enough to grab on. There were hallways on both sides of the bridge. The left side had caved in so we could only go through the right side. Or jump back into the water.

"Trixie assumes that we are going towards what you call the rift?" I asked. "Trixie assumed correctly." He had a horribly confident smile on. Also travelling underground felt very familiar. "Trixie also assumes that we're going to move underground and peek out manholes until the light becomes blinding?"  "yup." The fact that I knew what he had planned and that it wasn't the first time that I had done it said a lot about my life. I also hated that fact. 

if I had a bit for every time I did that I would have nine bits by now. Which was enough to buy a decent meal and an abnormally high amount of times to have done that.

So I followed Cosmo Into the dark tunnels. At least I had experience doing this. 

And armor.