Falling asleep that night was rather difficult considering that there was no perception of time, the sun and moon meant nothing underground. I had taken it was time to go to 'bed' when Legion curled up in his own warm bundle of fur. So, laying down on the hard cold floor of stone, sleep eluded me to leave me to a state of but my own thoughts and semi-consciousness.
I tossed and turned as I tried to find a comfortable position, but being as that I was lying on rock instead of soft blankets and a nice pillow tucked under my head, I would have to settle for a boulder and a sheet of dirt as a replacement. Tuckering myself down and giving a little snort of disapproval at my conditions, My mind began to wander to past memories and how I had ended up goddamn fucking Tartarus.
I could remember Alamo, that was for sure. He played a big role in sending me to...Los Pegasus? Yeah, that was the catalyst that sent this whole chain reaction of events into motion. Then Zola...very odd, if not sweet zebra. I had only known her for three days, and she helped me out of a jam, even fighting some of her former employer's goons. Partly I thought it was because she was tired of working for the lout, but the thought was dearly appreciated.
Then...a storm. I could remember a great big storm thrashing about angrily and with enough destructive force to devastate all in its path. A brief flash of the King entered my head, only to be replaced by Strife, cackling wildly over the winds. I fought her, but everything past that was a blank only to be overcome by the darkness that clouded the nerves holding my memories. Only brief flashes of bodies and voices dimly came to memory, but that was it. The next thing I knew, I'm down here in Tartarus with a diamond dog who has a thousand voices dancing around in their head.
Talk about a shitty break.
My thoughts briefly flickered to what Legion had said early about the 'taint', the corruption within me. Obviously, it had been put in there by Discord when he popped me up this body to be sent to Equestria. Man, if I had known clicking 'yes' on that email would have sent me into a spiral of all this, I would've thrown my laptop out the window right then and there.
...Actually, I wouldn't have. Or I might've. I don't know...being sent to the land of the cartoon that I loved was a dream come true, but everything in it from giant worms to crime families to chaos gods has left my head reeling for a bit of normality. I could just picture my room in my home back on earth. I could just smell the scent of breakfast lazily drifting through the hallways, past my door, and into my nostrils, urging me to leap out of bed and grab some grub before the rest of my familia ate it all. Usually they did, only leaving me a muffin or two and a soggy bowl of cereal. I chuckled to myself in the dark of the cave, the memories so far away they seemed unreal.
How was my family even doing? Was I still there, my human body, or was both my conscious mind and self sent flying towards the land of ponies? Or was this all just some timey-wimey, wibbly-wobbly trick of Discord's? I had no clue.
With a final sigh, my eyes grew heavy and my breathing slowed to allow a light layer of rest to fall upon my weary body. My last thought was of home before sleep turned off my brain for eight hours.
"Awaken, Oddjob."
"...No." I grumbled out bluntly, blindly swatting out with my head and hitting a fuzzy snout as my reward.
"If you are to stay down here with us, you must pull your own weight in the pack."
"This isn't a pack..."
"You stay with us, you are part of Fenrir Clan pack now."
"..."
I rolled over to turn my back to him, mumbling for him to shove a certain sweeping tool up his arse. A few seconds passed, and I thought him to have given up waking me, much to my relief. I was only returned with a heavy strike and something snapping in my backside. With a yelp, I jolted up to my feet, whirling around to see Legion only staring at me with that dead glaze in his eyes.
"We are sorry that we had to pluck some feathers from one of your wings, but we thought it the only way to awaken you."
"Well, you should have...wait, did you say wings?"
"We did."
I blinked once or twice before moving my mouth."I don't have wings."
"You do." Legion stated.
"I don't."
"Do."
"Don't."
"Do."
"Don't."
"...Do."
"I will ram my fist down your throat."
"There is no need for such violent statements, Oddjob. You do have wings, it is a fact."
With a defeated sigh, I turned my arms around and began to rub them down the feathery folds of my back just to prove the mutt wrong. My bird and bear appendages worked their way down from the tip of my shoulders , only to have something obstruct their descent right in between the shoulder blades. I rolled in the muscles in my slinky spine, feeling a bit of extra weight, slight, not too much, somewhere along there. I felt two tiny pieces of something fluttery jutting out of my back, and with a mental thought to these new muscles, they flapped to my thought.
Well. I had wings now.
I twisted my head right around and extended it down until I had a good view of my backside. There, just as Legion had said, were wings sprouting out from the white feather coat. They were small and pretty pitiful looking, not even able to keep me aloft for any amount of time, but it appeared they had grown in overnight. The right one was dowry-looking smudged with brown feathers, while the left one appeared leathery and batlike in appearance.
Righting my neck and head, I looked down at Legion with an odd glance."You were right."
"We know we were."
"..."
"..."
"Not very humble, are ya Legion?"
"There is no need to be humble. We were correct, and you were wrong."
"...Before I get the notion to clobber you, why did you wake me up?"
Legion pawed his way over to the exit of his little hide-away cave on all fours, nodding with his head for me to follow.
"If we are to eat, It is time for the hunt."
Carefully...silently. No sudden movements, no loud breathing either. Even your thoughts must be quiet, or the prey will hear their sharpness. You must blend in with the environment, make it as your own flesh, breath it in as if it were a part of you, allowing your mind to freely flow amongst the land to hone in on the target. Do not underestimate it, for a good chance of the time, the prey is always faster than you, always smarter than you, it needed to be so that it may live. But you needed to live as well, that is why the great cycle of hunter and prey happened.
Or at least that's what Legion told me.
All I did was charge out with an angry roar and stomping feet, the sound of heavy hoof and paw echoing across the cave. With a shrill squeak, the cave grubs, each one the size of a fist, looked up at me and burrowed their way back into the ground and out of my reach. When I turned around, Legion already had two in each paw, looking at me with a hint of regret in his features. I bet every last one of his voices were saying "This fuckin' guy."
I blew out a breath of annoyance, a cinder crackling through the air only to die out. I approached the lanky hound and he handed me a grub, the thing wriggling in my hand. I resisted the urge to chuck it far away and find a nice place to heave a little.
"You are terrible at hunting." Legion said, crushing the head of his grub, sending a splay of goo across his white fur. He ignored it and took a great mighty bite out of the bug, the sound of fangs grinding into the carcass filling my ears.
"I thought scaring them would work..." I tried to explain, taking the grub in my left hand, pinching its head between my fingers and squeezing, a pop squelching through the air. I looked down and thought that I would save my own grub for later, maybe when its body wasn't still writhing.
"It doesn't."
"Thank you, Sherlock."I retorted as we walked back through the series of tunnels downwards to the bottom of Tartarus, the Styx's stench already filling the air, so thick you could cut cubes of it out and physically hold it.
"Who is this Sherlock?"
"Famous guy, very smart, very witty, always had a big magnifying glass with him."
"What is this...'magnifying glass' that you speak of?"
"You need to get out more, Legion."
"We cannot."
My face fell flat."It was a joke."
Legion paused, his face moving to that inquisitive glance of hearing something else. I had figured by now that whenever he did this, we was listening to some of the others that dwelled within the body. He looked back at me once he was done conversating internally with the rest of his pack.
"Oh. Ha ha ha ha ha."
"Your laugh...sounds forced."
"Only half of the pack found your joke funny."
"Okay, I really need to get out of here and away from you."
"We could take you up to the exit, if you wish."
My head jerked to attention at his words."...Really?"
He nodded."But of course, Cerberus guards the way."
"I can risk that."
"You really shouldn't, Oddjob." His tone took on that of...worry?
"Pffft."I blew out a raspberry."I've taken out a Mother Worm before, I think I can handle a three-headed mutt."
"...Very well."
The diamond dog turned around on his hindlegs, heading down another tunnel to the side. I followed behind, the tunnel leading straight up. As we progressed, the sounds and echoes of other monsters began to die away, leaving only the constant motion of our feet on rock and a drip of water somewhere else.
We went up, up, up for the longest time, nary turning a corner. The tunnel only inclined as we went further, signaling that the only direction was, guess what, up.
"Have at your chance of freedom, Oddjob." Legion stepped aside as we came upon the mouth of the tunnel, widening out into a large cavern of stalagmites and stalactites everywhere. The air was so much fresher out here, so much sweeter. I breathed in deeply, a lemony flavor washing over my senses. When did air taste this good?!
"I will."I cracked a grin of fangs, stepping forward. I could even make out a brief glimpse of light at the end of the cave! Maybe Cerberus wasn't around? That'd be the most luckiest thing to happen to me yet since I landed in Equestria.
The moment I neared the middle of the cave however, was when my usual bad luck kicked in. With a mighty combination of a snarl, a bark, and a grunt at the same time, something massive roared out of the shadows to come at me.