Ch. 8 Earth Versus Air
It had been a few days since the truth about me had come out and since then the crew as well as the captain had kept their distance, not that it really bothered me since I had Third and Red. One thing that I noticed about the crew was that they were more or less amiable with Red but Third seemed to be snubbed outright, like she was diseased or something. I secretly asked Red about it one day and he told me that pegacorns were considered a freak mutation and therefore shunned like monsters. Even he didn't know exactly how it started just that it has always been that way, I still didn’t understand as they looked almost like the mental pictures I had of… who were they again, Celestia and Luna? Maybe they thought pegacorns were a mockery of the princesses? Or maybe they were just jealous of a pony that could fly and do magic? Suddenly how she was treated back at the research station became clear to me.
‘Wow, are all ponies this racist? If they treat other ponies like this, I can only imagine how they treat other species.’
Red was nice enough to allow me to drain some of his magic for food, the first couple of times he was really wobbly on his feet but after a few more times he got used to it. My stomach would still twist and churn when I stopped but I was not about to kill him for a meal. I really couldn’t thank him enough but he said that he had no problem helping out a friend. Friend… that word that used to be so alien to me had now become as common as the air I breathed yet every time I heard it, I would get a strange feeling in my heart, not painful or pleasurable, just…strange. I spent most of my time on the deck of the ship since the doorway to the lower level was too small for me to fit through even if I did crouch so I resigned myself to living on the deck. It was a few hours after sunrise when Third came up from down below and sat down next to me.
“Hey Dia, how ya doing?” she was all smiles.
“I’m good, how’s your horn doing? Can you use your magic again?” I sat down cross-legged next to her.
“Yup! Just watch!” she pinched her eyes shut and stuck her tongue out in concentration.
I felt the tiny ping of magic flowing from her before I watched as her horn started spitting out sparks like a sparkler on the 4th of July. She could only keep it up for a couple of seconds but when she opened her eyes and looked at me, you would have though she just lifted the entire ship out of the water.
“Good job Third, won’t be long before your shooting fireballs.” I ruffled her mane with my hand and she wobbled a little when I pulled my hand away and gave me a big smile before running off to another part of the ship.
She ran past Red who was leaning against the mast of the ship and he gave Third a big smile when she performed the same trick for him and ran off to practice some more. Red hefted himself forward and clopped over to me and put his forelegs on the railing with his hooves hanging over the water.
“She really looks up to ya mate. Yer probably the closest thing she’s had to an actual father” that strange feeling in my heart came back at those words.
I looked down at the waves as they crashed against the hull of the ship, “yea… me a father. A Magic Eater that survives by syphoning magic from living things taking care of a pegacorn” I said with sadness and sarcasm.
“Look mate” he tapped me on the arm and I looked over at him, “she thinks the world of ya, it’s as plain as day, just promise me ya’ll take care of her, you already know how pegacorns are treated.”
“Yea.”
He suddenly slammed both his hooves into my shoulder; “promise me!” he shouted only inches from my face, making me have to catch myself with my free arm as I almost fell onto the deck.
“Alright, I promise I’ll take care of Third Gear.” He let out a sigh before returning to hanging his hooves over the railing, looking somber as he stared at his reflection in the water.
“What was that about?” I asked warily as I too returned to my sitting position.
He let out another sigh, “I’ve seen a lot o thing I wished I didn’t.”
“And that is?”
“Let’s just say… I’ve done something’s in the past… I’m not particularly proud of.”
I was about to ask him about his past but I was interrupted by a voice from above.
“ROC! ROC OF THE STARBOARD BOW!” I looked up and saw the brown pegasus that was sitting in the crow’s nest shout out.
“Bugger” Red jumped to his hooves while the rest of the crew scrambled around.
“Hey Red, what the big deal with a rock?”
“A Roc mate, big meat eating bird, nasty piece o’ work” he said over his shoulder as he drew his bow.
I then heard a thunderous screech that drew my attention towards the ocean and I caught sight of the Roc. It was massive bird with at least a fifty foot wingspan and brightly colored feathers that reminded me of a tropical parrot as its main body was covered in red feathers and the tips of its wings were a mixture of yellow and orange feathers. It also had three long feathers that must have been its tail feathers that looked like a peacocks tail feathers sprouting from it and its claws where black as the night sky and glinted in the noon sun, each talon looked as large as an average pony. It beak was straight and tapered down to a point much like an eagle or hawk, meaning that it was meant to pierce flesh, but the edges were jagged and bent giving the impression of some type of saw. It locked it beady eyes on me and I felt a chill run up my spine.
I jumped up to my feet before looking back to Red, “Red, make sure Third is safe!” he gave a nod and took of across the ship to find Third and hopefully put her somewhere she would be safe. The Roc started circling the ship at a breakneck speed that I could barely follow with my eyes.
“LOAD THE CANNONS!” North was still shouting out commands to the crew and half the ones topside ran down the stairs below deck.
The Roc continued to circle the ship a few more times, surveying the meal to come before he quickly changed direction and came careening straight at the ship. It passed right over the top of the ship and snapped his beak down on the pegasus that was in the crow’s nest, wood and all. The wind from his passing sent the ship rocking and blasted everypony including me off our feet and hooves, some of the crew that were standing near the railing got sent overboard. The Roc then returned to its pattern of circling the ship as everyone who was still on the ship got to their feet.
The Roc had just crossed in front of the port side of the ship when I heard North yell out again, “FIRE!” and was followed by a cacophony of booms, thuds and explosions as cannonballs rocketed from the side of the ship towards the Roc.
The crew either sucked at aiming or the Roc was too fast, probably the latter, as none of the cannonballs even came close as it made another pass over the ship and another blast of wind rocked the ship and knocked all of us down again and it dragged its claw across the deck of the ship, leaving a huge gash on the deck as a couple of ponies were snapped up in its claws and carried away screaming.
‘Dammit, I can’t even get close enough to attack it, there has got to be something I can throw at it! I can’t just stand around till it tears the ship apart.’
I snapped my head around the deck of the ship, looking for something that I could throw at it before the ship got torn to pieces. As the ship rocked back to its neutral position, a cannonball that had been knocked loose rolled over and bumped into my hand. I reached over and picked it up with one hand, it was about the size of a baseball in my huge hand and weighed about the same.
‘This could work.’
I got back to my feet and located the Roc again before taking a pitcher’s stance; I wound up for the pitch and put all my strength into the throw as I sent the cannonball rocketing at the Roc. I threw the ball a little ahead of where the Roc was, hoping that by leading the shot I would hit it somewhere vital like the wings, chest or head but as always, luck was against me as I simply knocked off on of its long tail feathers, I heard it screech at me but it kept on flying as easily as before. I turned around and yelled at the crew.
“Get me some more cannonballs!” they just stared at me.
“What are you staring at!? Hurry up!” they didn’t move.
Suddenly the ship rocked much more violently before but I was able to keep my balance. I noticed that the sun was eclipsed from me by a huge bird shaped shadow.
‘SHIT!’
I dove to the side in a second, just in time to avoid a huge yellow beak smashing into the deck of the ship where I was standing; the Roc was perched on the railing of the ship, staring daggers at me. My body went on auto-pilot again as I scrambled back to my feet and changed my left into an axe, ready to take its head off the second it was exposed. It pecked at me again but I was able to sidestep to the right just enough to avoid it and I brought my axe around to take its head off but he pulled it back too fast for my axe and only met with the deck of the ship. It lunged again and again I was able to narrowly avoid it and again he was able to dodge my counterattack. This continued for what felt like hours but was probably barely a few minutes, I even changed my axe back to a hand, hoping that I could make a faster swing and make an opening but neither of us connected any attacks with the other, I knew that the longer this kept up, the weaker I would get as I had to make much larger movements to avoid its attacks then it did to avoid mine and the deck of the ship probably couldn’t take much more punishment as it was full of countless holes.
It made another lunge at me attempting to hit me square in the chest, I stepped to the left to dodge it but my foot caught on a hole in the deck of the ship and the Roc’s beak connected with my chest and sent me flying into the main mast of the ship, I felt the wood of the mast snap and break as I smashed straight through it and crashed into the railing on the opposite end of the ship. The world was spinning and my chest was screaming at me and as I looked down at it, I saw that there was a spider web of cracks originating from where I was hit and some type of phosphorescent blue liquid leaking out from between the cracks.
‘Guess that’s what my blood looks like now. Not that I'm really happy to see it.’
I looked back up and saw the Roc had taken off from the side of the ship and was circling the ship again. I struggled to my feet as best I could but the screaming pain in my chest made me stumble as I struggled to stand up straight as the world was still spinning. I looked around as quickly as I could to try and spot the bird again but I was too slow to react as it swooped down on me and snapped its talons around my chest and hefted me into the air. My arms were pinned to my side and its grip was like a vice that was slowly tightening around me.
I struggled and fought as best I could but the wound in my chest was giving me constant pain. I was looking up at the bird so I couldn’t see how high I was but I could feel the change in pressure as we gained altitude but I couldn’t be certain as I couldn’t turn my head far enough to see the ground. I tried to transform my hands into weapons or even make spikes shoot out from my forearms but when I tried to focus I felt the pain from the wound in my chest intensify which instantly broke my concentration. I even tried to use my free legs to kick the bird in the gut but I was held too far away from its body to hit it.
It was then that an idea popped into my head and I focused my magic again, but this time instead of focusing on my hands, I focused on my left foot as I funneled my magic to it, the pain from my chest was still there but it was lessened the more I focused. Concentrating on such a distant appendage was much harder than when I first learned how to do it but it was my only option. My focus finally paid off as I felt my magic take shape around my foot; I had a five-foot crystal spike sticking out of my foot at the toes. I steeled my resolve and put everything I had into one strong kick as I swung my foot with all my might straight into the gut of the bird. I felt the spike penetrate the flesh of the bird, the organs tear, the blood gush from the wound, I heard the pained screech from the bird as it’s body seized up from the pain I inflicted on it as it began to plummet out of the sky, but its claws clenched down even tighter on my body.
I looked up (or down as I was falling head first) and saw that I was directly over the open water and was heading straight at it and very fast. The Roc’s talons were still clenched around me in a death grip and no matter how I struggled, it wouldn’t let go. I removed the spike from its guts and kicked it again; hoping that it was still alive and my hurting it more, it would let me go. On the fifth kick, my prayers were answered as its talons snapped open and I began free-falling on my own.
I pushed myself away from the bird and watched as it accelerated past me and slammed into the water at such a speed that it looked like it disintegrated on impact. I knew that if I hit the water at such high speeds, even with my new body, I wouldn’t survive the impact but then I remembered something that might just save me. I remembered that the reason people dive into water is so that it will be less painful than a belly flop but also so that their body doesn’t instantly stop when it hits the water and get torn to pieces from the sudden stop. I was maybe a few seconds from impact when I straightened my body into a dive and I clenched my fist together in front of me in order to break the surface tension of the water before the rest of my body impacts it.
I hit the water and I’m pretty sure I passed out for a second cause when I opened my eyes; I was under the water and slowly sinking. Everything was hurting, it felt like I had just been put through a meat grinder (or maybe a rock crusher was more appropriate) and I could barely move. I struggled to look up at the surface of the water and through my probably concussion-addled mind; I saw my arm, severed and torn off of my body was following me as I sank further down.
I kicked against the water and tried to swim to the surface with my one good arm, but it didn't even slow my desent.
‘Damn it, I should have realized that I can’t swim anymore. Ha, I guess I survived the impact long enough to drown. Shit.’
I was struggling to stay conscious, but with the pain from my wounds along with my waning magic, it was a losing battle. As my vision went dark I could have sworn that I heard a strange voice in my head say a single word.
“Pathetic.”