//------------------------------// // Chapter 6: ....And Into the Hell Fire // Story: Where's the Fire? // by Vin Diesels Go-Kart //------------------------------// After finally stopping the nose bleed, Thomas managed to get a few hours of sleep before Twilight woke him up in the morning. The two of them joined Spike for breakfast before heading out of the library and toward the edge of town. "So do you have any idea how we're gonna find these bandits?" Thomas inquired. "What? You're the one who wanted to go out and find them and you don't even have a plan for doing so?" she scolded. "Well no, but you live here! Don't you have a lay of the land your highness?" the Fireman shot back. The princess merely shook her head disapprovingly, and then summoned a paper and quill. "Assume that Thomas would have no idea how to track the bandits and rely on back up plan. Check!" she said as she checked off a box on her list. The paper and quill then disappeared and an owl flew over and landed on the alicorn's extended hoof. "Let me introduce you to Owlowiscious." Twilight said with a smile. "I had him fly reconnaissance all night in the direction that the bandits fled. He found a camp not too far from here, just inside the Everfree." "You speak bird?" Thomas asked, raising an eyebrow. "Of course not, but I did have Owlowiscious point out the site on a map of Ponyville and the surrounding areas." she explained. "Hey you two!" Pinkie Pie yelled, hopping over to the pair with the other Elements of Harmony in tow. "I'm glad we could catch you two before you left." Rarity said as they reached the two. She seemed to be doing much better than yesterday. "Are y'all sure you don't want us taggin along?" Applejack asked, clearly concerned. "I'm positive. Thomas and I will be able to handle anything those bandits throw at us and I'll feel much better with you five out of harm's way." the princess assured. "I don't like the idea of sitting around here waiting while you guys could be in trouble." Rainbow Dash protested. "I understand, but I really want you guys here. Plus for all we know, the bandits might come back and I'd rather have some ponies here to lead everypony to safety." Twilight countered. Rainbow Dash gave a reluctant nod before the group of friends embraced each other. "Stay safe." Fluttershy said. "Don'y worry, we'll be fine. If Princess Celestia arrives before we get back, just tell her to wait in the library." the alicorn instructed. After another moment of hugging, Twilight left her friends and rejoined Thomas. The two then headed off down the dirt path toward the Everfree Forest. * * * It didn't take long for the duo to reach the location where they would enter the Everfree Forest. Twilight looked at the treeline with hesitation. "So this place is pretty dangerous, huh?" Thomas asked, noticing her pause. "Yeah, going into this forest usually results in some disaster happening." she replied. "Such as?" the Fireman inquired, clearly intrigued. The princess rolled her eyes and took a deep breath. "Well some of the times I've gone in this forest, I've been attacked by a Manticore, poisoned by an annoying blue plant, turned to stone by a Cockatrice, and chased by a dragon. Timberwolves come out occasionally and hunt ponies, parasprites have pestered us before, and an Ursa Minor almost leveled the town." she finished, catching her breath. "Wow, you guys are really good at choosing ideal locations to build a town." Thomas responded sarcastically. Twilight giggled. "Yes well, I suppose nowhere's perfect, and it's not like we have to deal with that kind of stuff all the time. Plus it keeps things interesting." she admitted. "So how far in is this camp site?" "Not too far, we'll have to keep our voices down as soon as we enter the forest. I don't want us losing our element of surprise if they aren't expecting us." "Right. I'll let you lead." Twilight nodded and began entering the forest with Thomas following close behind. The two didn't have to travel long before the brush and bramble became thick enough to slow their progress. "You know, I could just start a fire, burn down the camp and surrounding forest, and save us all this heartache. We can just find my armor in the rubble afterwords." The Fireman suggested, freeing himself from a branch that had caught his shirt. "No! You can't burn down the whole forest just because we have to move a bit slower." Twilight whispered back, shooting Thomas a disapproving look. "Just a suggestion." he said with a shrug. The two continued for a while longer, navigating the thick vegetation, when finally Twilight stopped. "Okay, I think that's their camp in that clearing up ahead." she whispered, looking back at Thomas. A swarm of gnats was hovering around the Fireman's head. "Aren't those gnats bugging you?" the alicorn asked, noticing the bothersome creatures. Thomas simply stared at her while his body briefly heated up and the flying insects quickly combusted, falling to the ground as they burned. "What gnats?" he answered casually. Twilight just raised an eyebrow as the two made their way to the edge of the clearing, being careful to stay near the thickest bushes. They peered out into the opening and saw several tents and crates scattered around. Bandits could be seen in abundance as well. Some were carrying supplies and working while others lounged by a fire pit. "I count nineteen." Thomas said, adding them up in his head. "Twenty-one." Twilight corrected, pointing at two more bandits leaving a tent. Thomas noticed a large pit in the center of the camp. The hole looked huge and the Fireman shuttered to think what it was used for. "Your armor's most likely to be in that tent." the alicorn said, as she pointed to the largest tent in the camp site. "Good call." Thomas replied, getting up to charge at the bandits. "What are you doing?" the princess whispered harshly, grabbing him with a hoof and pulling him back down. "Do you want to get us killed?" she scolded. "No, I want to go kill them." the Fireman retorted. "There's too many to take on at once." Twilight warned. Thomas didn't like it, but she was probably right. He was still low on salts from the previous day and he'd likely run out before roasting the lot of them. "What do you suggest?" he inquired. "I'll distract the bandits while you sneak into the tent. Suit up as fast as you can and then come out arms blazing." the princess suggested. Thomas liked the sound of that. "Okay, that'll work." he agreed. "Alright, once you hear my distraction, make your way into the tent. I'll try and avoid them as long as I can." Twilight said before moving along the treeline away from the Fireman. He waited for whatever distraction she had planned and almost laughed when he heard it. The princess began making strange noises that Thomas guessed were supposed to resemble animals. The sounds worked however, as the bandits began investigating the noise, leaving the tent unguarded. Now's my chance. Thomas thought, silently running over to the large tent while remaining crouched. He slipped through the flaps of the entrance and looked around. To his relief, the tent was empty. The Fireman quickly spotted his armor sitting on a nearby table and gingerly walked over to the suit, but stopped when he saw a blackened body lying on the ground, thin wisps of smoke still rising from the remains. On the ground next to the body was Thomas' spare bottle of Devil's Kiss, uncapped and empty. "Well, it looks like vigors and ponies don't mix very well." Thomas thought out loud, studying the charred corpse. He quickly got back to the task at hand and began putting his armor on, thankful that all of the pieces were still there. * * * Twilight was thankful that her distraction had worked. After watching Thomas sneak into the tent, she silenced herself and promptly backed away from the approaching bandits. Suddenly she walked into something behind her and turned around, looking right at a bandit who'd snuck around her. He smiled as he took a step towards the startled pony. The alicorn quickly teleported into the middle of the camp, which resulted in getting spotted by the bandits who had just reached the treeline. "Well looky here. We got us a visit from a princess." one of the bandits said mockingly. "Hey, what do ya think those snobs in Canterlot would pay to get her back?" another asked with a smile. "Doesn't matter. We ain't takin prisoners." a third responded menacingly. The bandits began surrounding the alicorn. Several pegasi quickly cut off any chances of an aerial escape while unicorns and earth ponies closed in, the unicorns charging up their horns. Twilight continued to back up until she felt her rump hit a crate. She realized they had her cornered and tried thinking of a plan. The princess was confident she could take them on for a brief while, but would ultimately be overpowered by their numbers. The closest bandit was about to lunge at the cornered pony, when a sound from the main tent caught their attention. The group of bandits as well as Twilight looked over to see Thomas step out of the entrance, fully outfitted with his armor. "So..." he said, lighting his hands on fire. "Any of you reckon to fight?" Not waiting for a response, the Fireman rushed over to the closest bandit, grabbing his snout and blasting fire down his throat. The stallion fell to the ground as flames erupted from his body. "Oh yeah, I'm back!" Thomas said through his welder's mask. The other bandits disregarded Twilight and quickly shifted all attention over to the new flaming opponent. Thomas didn't wait for an invitation and quickly ran at more bandits, tossing fire grenades ahead of himself. The exploding ordnance fried a few more thugs and distracted the rest, allowing the Fireman to take them out at close range. "Burn in the name of the Prophet!" he screamed as he released fury with his hands, using them as flamethrowers. Ponies burned before him, unable to retaliate against the armored foe. Thomas grabbed a nearby bandit and lit him on fire, swinging the shrieking thug at more ponies, who couldn't run out of the way. After several swings with his makeshift weapon, the Fireman dropped the charred stub of a stallion and looked up. The pegasi were still watching in shock as their grounded allies became smoldering corpses. Thomas decided they should get in on the action as well. "Who want's some righteous fury?" he asked, pointing his hands up at the hovering bandits. Several flew away at this sight, while the more stubborn ponies flew directly at the Fireman. He charged himself up and then released an explosion of fire that overtook those foolish enough to stick around. Most tents in the camp burned as the fight ended as quickly as it began. "And that's all she wrote." Thomas said, brushing himself off and walking over to Twilight as ashes rained down. "You okay?" he asked, hoping she wasn't too disturbed by what he did. "Yeah, I'm fine. Though I don't think I'm ever going to get over the brutality of your fighting style." she responded. "Well if everything works out, you won't have to deal with me much longer anyway." As Thomas said this, a spear struck the ground between him and the alicorn. The Fireman looked over and saw another bandit standing by the large pit he'd noticed earlier. "Oops, guess I missed one." he said, charging up a fire grenade. The bandit seemed unsure of himself, but held his ground and when Thomas tossed the grenade at him, the stallion leaped out of the way, and right down into the hole. "Not the smartest pony." the Fireman muttered as he opened up a nearby crate, shoving a few grenades in before closing it back up. He then put his foot against the burning box and pushed it hard with his leg. The crate slid across the ground and down into the pit. "A tad bit excessive, don't you think?" Twilight commented. Thomas put his hands up innocently. After a brief moment, the pit lit up as the box exploded and a large roar ripped through the air like a typhoon. "What was that?" the alicorn asked. "Hell if I know." The ground began shaking as something made its way up the hole. "Sweet Mary mother of God." Thomas said under his breath as a massive serpent-like tail emerged from the large hole, barely able to snake through the opening. It wrapped itself around a nearby tree and pulled as the rest of the creature pushed its way out of the pit. Thomas half expected to see a snake's head revealed at the end of the creature, but to his surprise and horror, he watched as a large claw grabbed the edge of the pit, followed by another. Suddenly the creature jumped out of the pit and landed in full view. Thomas' brain did its best to identify the creature, but nothing came to mind. The serpent tail was attached to a large humanoid torso with two arms and razor sharp claws. The creature's head looked like that of a bull, with two large horns jutting from the sides. Its eyes glowed orange as it roared again, allowing several serpent heads to slither out of its mouth. The Fireman quickly turned to Twilight, who was frozen with fear at the sight of the monstrosity. "What is it?" he asked. "I.........I don't........I mean.....it could be......" she stuttered. The creature instantly noticed the Fireman as its tail coiled around the camp's perimeter. The snake heads moved further out of the creature's mouth as it bared its claws threateningly. "What the hell am I fighting!?" Thomas screamed at the alicorn. Twilight snapped out of her daze and answered the Fireman. "Its an Ophiotaurus!" she yelled. "A what?" The creature paused no longer, and lunged at the Fireman with debilitating fury. "Shit!" he shouted as he dodged the incoming attack. He hopped backwards as one of the monster's claws rammed into the ground where he had been standing. It quickly recovered and swiped at the Fireman again. He ducked down as the claw whipped past, missing Thomas by mere inches. The Fireman got up and noticed the broken chains that were attached to the beast's wrists. He followed the chain to its end, where the metal looked melted through. Goddammit! I must have set it free when I finished that last bandit. he thought. Thomas launched a fireball at the creature, which only succeeded in making it angrier. The snakes quickly retreated back into the creature's mouth and the bull head let out an unholy shriek. Its midsection burst open as a large spiked tentacle emerged from the teeth filled hole. The appendage of mangled flesh and spikes slammed on the ground as the snake heads appeared out of the bull's mouth once more. Two more tentacles snaked out of the monster's midsection, eagerly reaching out toward the Fireman but stopping just short of him. The creature regarded Thomas with predatory anticipation and an unrelenting hunger. Thomas charged up his hands defensively as the beast slowly slithered in front of him, ready to attack. "Any ideas Twilight?" the Fireman asked. "Uh.......Twilight?" When Thomas looked back, the alicorn was nowhere to be seen. "You've gotta be kidding me!" he cursed. Thomas didn't realize his mistake of breaking eye contact with the creature until it was too late. He felt himself being lifted off the ground by one of the tentacles as it began pulling him toward the creature's newly formed maw.