There's a difference between solitude and loneliness. - Maggie Smith
He had been running for almost a day and a half. Not once did he stop or even slow down. His new body allowed him to continue his stride for a long while. He never felt tired or thirsty or hungry, he just kept running. He had taken off from the town in the direction of the city into a big forest. The forest itself seemed to go on forever. He had traversed cliffs and jumped over rivers and even passed an old castle hidden in the trees.
He finally stopped near the edge of the forest after running for what felt like a day but the sky never changed. It was always stuck in the same twilight and he hadn't seen the sun or moon since he got here. He stood in the dark glen surrounded by thick trees and caught his breath. A want for drink and food had finally reached him and the AI in his system took the time to inform him of so:
>>>[ATTENTION: SEEK NOURISHMENT]<<<
>>>[ENERGY LEVELS: LOW]<<<
He started again as the bold words appeared in his vision. His curiosity spiked as he wonder just who was inside his brain. Suddenly, everything went white as a wave of dizziness passed over him and he stumbled forward and fell to his knees as he squeezed his eyes shut and tried to escape the light. But the light was still there behind his closed eyes and soon it faded into a soft glow. When he opened his eyes again he was greeted with a strange sight. The sky was now a great expanse of white and the ground was black with many lines of pulsating white lines travelling along the dirt and up into the trees and blades of grass. Even the rocks were covered in the veins of energy. He stood again and looked down to see he was completely whole again. He was no longer a cyborg but a normal human wearing a simple robe.
Where was he?
He looked up again and was surprised to see a human figure standing in front of him. He scurried back as he took in the human that came from nowhere. He was an elderly man with a long grey beard and a mane of hair as gray as smoke that fell past his shoulders. He wore a robe that looked like it was made of storm clouds that billowed around him and flashed every so often with light. He held a staff that was made of the same material as the ground, black with white veins. The old man stared at him with an indifferent look.
Suddenly a voice was heard, “Greetings, Elijah.”
Elijah’s eyes grew wide as he heard the voice for the old man’s mouth had not moved and it seemed to be coming from everywhere. He asked again who the old man was.
“I am the artificial intelligence installed in your conscious. I am designated: Abraham.”
He asked what this place was and why this so called Abraham was here.
“This is the inner realm of your mind Elijah,” he answered, “It is where I dwell and watch you. I am your guide and caretaker in your travels. I was installed for the sole purpose of maintaining your new body as well as to make sure you completed your objective.”
Objective?
“The objective set for you is to find the Elements of Harmony, defeat the invaders, and restore balance to this world at any cost.”
He thought about those words and was more than a little overwhelmed by them. Then he remembered something and pulled from within his robe the necklace he found in the wreckage of Ponyville. He stared at the golden piece and was surprised to see it was still glinting in the light. He showed it to Abraham who approached and studied the necklace.
“This is one of them but we must find the one who was chosen to wear it. Element is designated as: Element of Loyalty and belonged to designate: Rainbow Dash.”
He arched an eyebrow at the old man’s words and looked back down at the necklace before wondering what could have happened to this Rainbow Dash.
“I hope she is still alive,” Abraham said before a bemused expression crossed his face, “Curious….I am starting to adapt already. This hope is new to me.”
Elijah gave a questioning glance, to which Abraham answered in his normal, emotionless voice, “I am programmed to adapt and create my own personality as I study the way of life through your eyes and experiences.”
He then stepped closer and seemed to be studying Elijah’s throat, causing some discomfort in the man.
“Your vocal systems have not been completed. You will not be able to clearly communicate with your voice until you find her.”
At the mention of her, he knew exactly who he was talking about. He nodded and the AI stepped back and pointed down the forest path.
“My sensors indicate a stream not far from here that you can drink from before crossing and several berry bushes as well. You must hurry to the city as soon as you are ready.”
He nodded again and the light dimmed and the strange white veins disappeared as everything reverted back to the normal twilight. He looked down to see he was changed back into his cyborg self. With a sigh, he began to move forward and soon he could hear the rushing sound of the stream as Abraham had said. He pushed through the bushes and stopped when he saw they were covered in blackberries. He grabbed a good many and walked over to the stream. It was a decent sized river and the water was surprisingly clear. He knelt down and began to drink, cupping the water in his hands. The water was cold and rejuvenating and he was thankful for it. He then dropped a berry in his mouth and bit down, the juices bursting over his tongue and filling his mouth with its familiar flavor. He continued to eat and drink before he finally felt satisfied. He then put the rest of the berries into a pocket in his coat and stared down at his reflection in the river.
The fly from before emerged from the confines of his hood and flew away in search of food but he could still keep track of it and it did not fly far.
He removed the glasses and pulled down the hood and scarf and looked over his face. It was a handsome face with prominent cheekbones and a straight nose with round nostrils. His lips were full and smooth and the one eye he had left was large and colored a stark blue. His one ear was medium sized and held close to his bald head. He ran a hand over his smooth head before tracking the metal down his right ear and to his chin. He sighed as he took it all in and wondered why he was like this…
Then he noticed something in the water….
There was a rippling in the clear liquid that reverberated every three seconds…like there was an earthquake or…..
>>>[ALERT!]<<<
>>>[HOSTILE LIFE FORM DETECTED FROM BEHIND!]<<<
He spun around to see a large shape walking through the trees and knocking them down with each step. It was so big it went past the heavy clouds. He quickly pulled the hood and scarf up and donned the glasses before turning and diving into the river. He swam to the bottom and anchored himself to the bottom and prayed the beast had not seen him. The booms from the creature’s footfalls grew louder as the river literally vibrated with each step. Suddenly a huge foot broke the surface and stomped into the riverbed mere inches from his body. He remained absolutely still in the water as he watched the weight of the beast move through the step and the foot move up and out of the water. It was a massive sized boot clad in a dark iron metal with a red cloth underneath it.
As the beast cleared the river in one step, he let go of the mud and slowly rose up and peeked through the surface and took in the monster before him. It was wearing all black armor, roughly put together with a huge plate that covered its chest and bulging gut with a long red cloth covering the groin. There was one shoulder plate on the right shoulder that looked like a screaming face and it wore a helm that covered its face with long curved horns that almost met in the front. Its skin was an ugly red color with bulging muscles, open sores, and pus filled boils covering the surface and it breathed with a ragged growl as it dragged a huge, jagged axe behind it. In its other hand it hauled a large and full burlap sack that looked like it was about to burst with its contents whatever that may be. It moved with huge, loping strides as it crashed through the forest.
He made sure the beast couldn’t see him and slowly moved out of the water to the other side of the river before running after the creature. He followed it a good distance before he saw that it was descending into a valley. He then sidetracked to the cliffs that looked over the valley. When he cleared the trees, the sight before him left him frozen in shock and fear. Right in the middle of the valley was a tall and wide spire embedded into the earth and reaching out into the sky and into space like some kind of twisted splinter. Black smoke billowed from several smoke stacks that peppered it in random places. At the base of the spire was a congregation of even more of the sick creatures. They ranged in a wide variety of size and shape though all had an aura of pure evil.
There were some as tall as trees with helms that had long antlers, rusted metal with huge shields and long broadswords, and smaller ones the same size as Elijah with sleek and bright armor with horrifying depictions in the plating, ranging from awful sacrifices to an unholy deity, to entire battlefields painted in bloods of all kinds. They too had either shields and thin swords on their backs or two long, curved sabers. There were other giants like the beast from before with awful patchwork armor and large clubs or axes or hammers that they drug about. Some didn’t wear any armor at all, just a loincloth and a helm that could give a child a slew of nightmares to haunt him to the end of sanity. They spoke, no, communicated, in a guttural dialect that he could not understand and many were fighting like a pack of feral dogs.
The giant from before appeared at the edge of the clearing and approached the large crowd. He held up the sack and let out a roar and some strange noises. All activity ceased and the crowd began to cheer and rush towards the giant who threw the bag open and spilled the contents onto the ground. And the sight of what came out almost made the man throw up all of his berries. For it was a large mountain of dead bodies, all of them ponies. The same ponies he had read about in the book. All ages of ponies lay there, lifeless. There were a few elderly and a score of young ones with their mouths open and tongues hanging out as they stared with blank, cold eyes. The sight caused a rush of disgust in the man followed by anger as the monster began to grab at the pile and stuff the bodies past the openings in their helms and into their mouths filled with jagged and broken teeth. Blood spurted out everywhere and fell down their chins as they gorged themselves on the mass of bodies. He finally averted his gaze and tried to shut out the sound of crunching bones and organs popping.
He suddenly heard more shouting. A door opened at the base of the spire and a figure walked out. He was wearing a regal set of white and grey amour with a white cape and on his head……was a crown made of petrified branches…..his face was hidden behind a mask of white with one side featureless and flat and the other had a black eyehole with a mouth that curved in a sick smile. The monsters stopped in their feast and turned to the figure. Then every single one of them bowed low to the ground with their faces touching the dirt. The figure began to speak to them in the grunts and growls of their language.
Elijah had decided he had seen enough of this and looked to see the city in the mountains was on the other side of the valley and he just had to make it across. Suddenly his sensors went off as he picked up movement behind him. He turned to see an armored figure emerge from the trees. It was one of the smaller ones with grey plate armor and a helm with a demonic skull on it. It spoke in the dialect and motioned with its hands to Elijah and then to the congregation. Elijah just stared back too afraid to answer. The creature spoke again, louder this time and seemed to be confused. Elijah just stood there and began to shake with fear.
The creature started to slowly reach for its sword and raise its shield as it spoke again more slowly. The minute it touched the hilt a flash of red and bold text appeared in Elijah’s vision.
>>>[ALERT!]<<<
>>>[HOSTILE THREAT DETECTED!]<<<
>>>[INITIATING DEFENSE SYSTEMS….]<<<
But Elijah did not feel like defending himself at all. All that went through his mind was panic and fear and it overwhelmed the programming within. His cybernetic body lit up with red lights but the rest of him was frozen and nothing was responding. The creature drew its sword and advanced and Elijah backed away quickly. Not paying attention to where he was stepping, he tripped over a root. He landed hard on his back and the creature came at him even faster. At this point, Abraham was certain that Elijah would not be able to kill the creature and save his own hide. So he directed all of his power into the metal arm causing servos and hinges to move the metal plates in his hand and forearm around and inward and outward but Elijah paid no head as he scrambled backwards with his only working arm.
It was a mad crawl as he watched certain death creep closer, sword held high. He kicked and pulled and thrashed on the ground in an absolute panic as his arm transformed itself into a blade of his own but Elijah felt nothing but fear. It warped his vision and caused his mouth to open and close in silent screams as the monster approached. The ugly creature stomped down on Elijah's metal foot, trapping him like an animal in some hunters net. It raised the sword and readied to deliver the blow but Elijah then heard a voice.
"Raise. Your. Arms."
Elijah then felt his panic move to his arms as he instinctively raised them both up in defense and as the monster brought down his sword, it was blocked. Elijah opened his eyes in surprise as the black blade in his arm managed to stop the monster. But it wasnt over as the beast put pressure on Elijah and Elijah pushed back desperatly as his arm shook, unable to handle the constant pressure. Elijah scrambled his other arm around when he grabbed something hard and flung it into the monster's face. The rock impacted right in the beast's eye as it reeled back in pain. It roared as it held its bleeding eye.
"Run!"
The voice commanded Elijah and he was more than happy to obey as he clumsily pushed himself up and scrambled away but the titan was not done as it tackled Elijah from behind. They both slammed into the ground again and Elijah struggled against his assailant. His elbow went into the gut of the beast as it grunted and moved up onto its feet and Elijah whirled his arm in a messy swing. But it managed to find its mark.
The beast howled as the cut across its chest began to bleed. It was shallow but still hurt, enraging the beast. Elijah's eyes were wide as the monster kicked him right in the chest as sent him over the edge. He tumbled and crashed against the side of the valley before sliding down the rest of the way. He coughed as a cloud of dust surrounded him and felt several sharp points of pain across his body but nothing seemed broken. He looked back up to where the beast was but then heard it let out a cry. A signal for other cries echoed it from the spire in the center of the valley and several alarms sounded.
Elijah knew he had been found out and took off running at full sprint through the valley as sirens pierced the air.......