The Adventures of Damon Lipton
Chapter X - Pinchy’s Day Out Part II
Berry made her way through the town, humming to herself happily. The rain had just died down and she had decided to head out in order to collect some shopping, she arrived at the marketplace which was beginning to become busy once more as more ponies had ventured back outside to carry on with their daily routines. After purchasing some vegetable that she was planning to use in a soup for dinner that evening, she was approached by Rarity.
“Hello there, Berry!” Rarity called, “and how are you today?”
“I’m fine, just picking up some bits and bobs for later on, yourself?” Berry replied.
“I see, and how is Damon settling in?”
“Just fine, he’s spending the day with Pinchy today.”
“Oh?” Rarity asked, “is that so?”
“Mhm, why’d you ask?”
“Oh just asking dear, but you have reminded me of something…” Rarity said, a twinkle in her eye.
“And that is…?” Berry asked suspiciously
“Avast! Tree roots dead ahead!” Pinchy cried, “evasive maneuvers!”
“Aye aye, Cap’n Pinches!” Damon replied.
Damon gripped onto Pinchy’s legs tighter as she gripped his skull and he dramatically veered to the left, avoiding a large root that stood in the way. They had only been in the forest for ten minutes or so before Damon's natural curiosity had gotten the better of him when he spotted a large cave up the side of a nearby mountain, and had decided along with Pinchy that they had to claim in the name of ‘The PinchyBone Empire’.
He decided it would be alright to just explore it, mainly because from its position it still overlooked the town and navigating back to the town wouldn’t be too hard, plus, he was fairly confident his magic would be powerful enough for anything they found, despite his earlier concerns.
“So how long until we get there?” Pinchy asked him.
“I’d say.. fifteen minutes or so, give or take. Then about ten to climb and we could fit in a good half hour exploring before we go home.” Damon replied.
“Yay! Onwards!” Pinchy commanded.
Damon chuckled as he picked up the pace, lightly jobbing as he climbed over some roots and made his way towards the mountain side. Unaware of the watchful eyes watching him from the shadows.
“Let me get this straight, you want me, to convince Damon, into surrendering his robes. Just so you can make him some new ones?” Berry asked Rarity.
“Yes darling, that isn’t to much to ask, is it?” Rarity replied.
Berry blinked, swearing she saw Rarity’s eye twitch slightly.
“But… why? Damon already said he doesn't want to get rid of the robes for new ones, I think they’re sentimental or something.”
“Oh nonsense, stallions-”
“Men,” Berry corrected.
“Right… men, anyway. Men don’t know what they really want do they dear? It’s up to us mares to show them what they really want in life,” Rarity explained, a visible twitch in her eye.
“Rarity… are you okay?” Berry asked a little concerned.
“Hmm? Oh of course I am dear Berry, just didn’t sleep much last night. It wasn’t like I’ve been obsession for the past two nights about his robes and how much I must get him some more fashionable ones. Heavens no.”
Berry stared at the white unicorn, a little uneasily as she backed up slightly.
“Okay… well… I’ll talk to him later and see what he says, okay?”
“Oh thank you Berry! Thank you, thank you!” Rarity happily reply.
“Well then… I’ll see you later then?” Berry smiled nervously.
“Ta-ta darling, ta-ta!”
Berry turned around and quickly made her way home, wondering just what the heck was up with Rarity. She figured she’d stop by and see Twilight, given how close she and Rarity were, Berry figured that if anyone knew if Rarity was acting up, Twilight would.
“Oh yes… dear Damon, oh yes,” Rarity said as turned around walking to her boutique, “I will make you new robes… and you’re going to love them!”
She started to chuckle softly as she entered her shop and closed the door before using her magic to turn on the lights, revealing over a dozen bipedal mannequins all dressed up in bright, multi coloured robes. The product of an all night clothe making binge.
“You will wear my robes Damon…” she cackled, “and you will love it!”
“Hold on Pinches!” Damon shouted.
Pinchy clung tighter to Damon as he held her to his chest, running from the now very angry manticore. As they had approached the mountain, Damon had gotten spooked by a low growl and threw a small fireball in the direction as a warning shot, he was expecting the ball of fire to sail over the owner of the growl, not slam directly into them. So now he and Pinchy were running up the mountain side being chased by a half blinded, and furious manticore. He had thought about facing it one on one but because he had Pinchy, he didn’t want to risk getting her hurt so decided to try and out maneuver the beast in hopes to deter it chasing them further.
“I’m sorry alright? I didn’t mean to hit you!” Damon shouted back.
As he was expecting, this didn’t yield and resulted in a roar from the manticore. Pinchy clung tighter to Damon as she whimpered slightly as he lept over a boulder in the way, they soon could see the mouth of the cave approaching and they lept over another boulder only to come face to face with the wall of the mountain, trapping them. Wheeling on the spot, Damon heard the manticore snarling and put Pinchy behind him and his hands engulfed in flames, seeing he now had no choice but to fight it.
“Stay behind me Pinches, shut your eyes… I don’t want you to see this…”
Pinchy whimpered and nodded, hiding behind him as Damon charged his spell up, suddenly, they heard the manticore yelp and the sounds of its paws hitting the ground and running away soon followed, Damon was confused as to why the manticore was no longer chasing them, peeking over the rock to see it disappear into the bush.
“That… was odd,” Damon muttered, “you ok Pinches?”
Damon turned round to see Pinchy wasn’t behind him anymore, rather, she was standing on the boulder shaking her hoof in the direction of where the manticore had run off.
“You better run! The brave and fearless explorer Captain Pinches fears no beast!”
He sigh and shook his head with a soft smile, walking over to her and picking her up before wiggling a finger into her stomach causing the coated filly to giggle uncontrollably.
“You’re adorable, you know that?” He chuckled.
“N-no!” Pinchy cried between giggles, “I-I’m brave and f-fearless!”
Damon pressed on with the tickle attack, making Pinchy writhe and wriggle and giggle happily as she tried to break free.
“Nope, you’re adorable,” Damon insisted, “admiiiiiiit iiiiit!~” he said in a sing song voice.
“N-nooo! T-the fearless never w-will admit it!” Pinchy replied defiantly.
“Is that so?” Damon smirked, “okay… I guess I can just give up.”
Damon pulled his hand back and pretended to look away, whistling nonchalantly as Pinchy eyed him suspiciously, as Damon placed her on the ground she gave a grin of victory and just as she was about to move, he swooped down and picked her up again, holding her to his chest like an infant and began a relentless tickle attack on her.
“Nooooo!” Pinchy wailed in between giggles.
“Haha! I have you now, Hooded Shadow!” Damon laughed.
“Okay okay! I give in!” Pinchy giggled as she wriggled in his hold, “but I’ll get my revenge, Skeletal Overlord!”
“I know you will, Pinches, I know you will,” Damon smiled, stopping his tickle attack and placing Pinchy on the ground gently.
“So what do we do now, Uncle Bones?” Pinchy asked.
Before Damon could reply, an angry cry echoed from inside the cave although very faintly. Both he and Pinchy peered into the cave as another angry cry echoed followed by a third, Damon tried to think on why they sounded familiar when Pinchy gasped suddenly.
“That sounds like the cutie mark crusaders!”
“The who?” Damon asked.
“You met them yesterday?” Pinchy said.
“Oh right, them. Why would they be inside the mountain? More importantly, how the h-” Damon stopped himself from saying ‘hell’ and corrected himself, “ blue blazes did they get into the forest without harm?”
“Oh, they always seem to be in the forest for some reason,” Pinchy replied, “it's just a normal thing around her really.”
“How is that normal?” Damon questioned, “you know what? I don’t care, lets just go see what’s wrong.”
Damon began to walk into the cave, but he stopped when he noticed Pinchy hadn’t moved, he turned round to see her looking away slightly and gently kicking the ground.
“Something wrong, Pinches?” He asked.
“Can you… can you carry me? I’m a little scared of the dark…” Pinchy asked.
“Of course I can, climb aboard!” Damon grinned as he knelt down.
Pinchy giggled as she climbed into Damon’s arm, Damon smiled as he waited for her to get comfortable.
“But how are we going to see?” Pinchy asked.
“Magic,” He grinned.
Damon began to mutter under his breath and a ball of light shot out of his hand with a light pop and floated above the pair, illuminating the area in a soft light blue glow.
“Wow… its so pretty…” Pinchy whispered as she stared at the glowing orb.
“Mhm, now lets go find those fillies and find out what’s with all the ruckus.”
Pinchy nodded as they began to enter the cave, the little ball of light following them overhead.
“Ah told yah, we’re lost!” Applebloom cried.
“Are not! I know exactly where we are!” Scootaloo protested.
“Then where are we, Scoots?” Sweetie Belle asked.
“... Okay fine, I don’t know where we are, happy?!” Scootaloo grumbled.
“Well, no, no ah ain’t! How do ya think we’re gonna get home now?” Applebloom asked.
“You ain’t!”
The three fillies jumped in shock from the low grunt that came behind them and Applebloom swung the lantern she was carrying in its direction. They screamed as they back up from the tall, bipedal looking creature, it had dark green skin and fangs jutting from his mouth, a grubby looking beard clinging to its face. It had two long pointed ears and several warts dotted its face and it appearing to be wearing some form of basic armour, that’s when they noticed the creature was carrying a, if not poorly made, sword.
“W-what are you?” Scootaloo asked it, swallowing a lump in her throat.
“Not important, important fing is dat you free is gunna be our dinnar! Right boyz?!”
The three heard jeers behind the creature as more of them came out f the darkness, all various sizes and shapes but the one thing that remained the same was, apart form their ugly appearance, was that they had a strange red skull crudely painted on their armour.
The creatures charged the fillies armed with rope as they screamed at the top of their lungs.
“I wonder how deep this cave actually goes, let alone how far down the cutie mark crusaders are...” Damon said aloud, taking care as they walked over some rocks jutting up.
By now, they had been walking down the tunnels for a little while now, using the sounds of the arguing fillies as a guiding point. With each step he took, Damon was silently contemplating explaining their day out to Berry given at the rate of how things were going, they were going to be a while before they got home.
“W-will there be any m-monsters in here, Uncle Bones?” Pinchy asked nervously.
“I doubt it, I can’t sense anything magical in here and besides, I thought you were brave and fearless?” Damon grinned.
“I am!” Pinchy replied, “the bravest pony ever!”
“More so than Daring Do?” Damon asked.
“... Maybe not like Daring Do…” Pinchy admitted.
“Well you do have one thing she doesn't,” Damon said, turning down the left of the pathway they were on.
“What’s that?”
“Adorableness.”
Without warning, Damon began to tickle Pinchy in his arms again much to her protests. He chuckle and began to let up, giving her a little hug before he came to an abrupt stop, his head snapping up.
“Uncle Bones? What’s wrong?” She asked him.
“I’m not sure… something doesn't feel right…”
As soon as the words left his mouth, they heard the loud screams of terror of the cutie mark crusaders followed by the loud jeering of something unknown, Pinchy clung to Damon tightly not knowing what was going on. Damon, however, felt his body go cold as he processed the other sounds.
“No… can it be?” He muttered, “Pinches, hold on.”
Pinchy nodded and clung tighter to him as he broke into a sprint, the ball of light struggling to keep up with him.
The creatures were dancing around a campfire, laughing merrily as they drank from wooden tankards, singing a deafening and awful sounding song as the trapped filles trembled in the small, crude cage nearby.
“W-what are they going to do to us?” Sweetie Belle asked.
“They already said!” Scootaloo hissed, “they’re going to eat us!”
“Like in a sandwich, or a pie?” Sweetie Belle whimpered.
“Ah don’t want to be ah pie! Ah don’t like gravy…” Applebloom cried.
“SHUT IT!” One of the creatures barked.
It smacked the cage with a wooden spoon that it had been using on the pot that was dangling over the fire, grumbling to himself.
“I don’t want to be eaten…” Sweetie Belle sniffled.
The girls were about to cry when they felt the cage being tugged into the darkness, they turned and were about to scream when they noticed that the thing pulling on the cage was none of the Damon, who was partially invisible. He quickly put his finger to his face shushing them as he slowly pulled the cage away from the fire, amazingly, without alerting any of the creatures.
Soon he had managed to get them far enough away and opened the cage door, silently picking them up along with Pinchy, who had been hiding in the shadows by a rock, and begun to sneak away from the camp. Just as they started to head down the corridor, Damon cringed as an angry roar rumbled behind them.
“OI WHERE DA FUCK IS OUR DINNAR?!”
“SOME GITS HAD IT! FIND EM BOYZ!”
“Hold on tight!” Damon whispered.
As the fillies clung tightly to his robes, he began to sprint as fast as he could down the tunnel, soon joining up with his orb light which he had left a little way before finding the makeshift camp. Behind them they could hear the thunder of the creatures charging after them shouting and roaring loudly.
“M-mister Damon, what are they?!” Scootaloo cried.
“Goblins, nasty creatures,” Damon replied, taking a sharp left.
“Goblins?” Pinchy asked.
“Aye, and judging by their armour. They’re from the Dalmora mountains.”
“Dalmora mountains?” Sweetie asked, confused, “I’ve never heard of them.”
“Wouldn’t expect you to,” Damon replied, dipping down another tunnel as the cries behind them got softer.
“Why?” Applebloom asked.
“Can we hold the questions off until we’re safe?” Damon grunted, “it’s distracting me from saving your lives.”
The girls quickly remained hush as Damon suddenly ducked into a small passageway and cancelled the orb light, soon after, the mob of Goblins thundered past with their torches, swearing every curse word under Celestia’s sun before disappearing down into a different tunnel. The four let out a collective sigh as Damon re summoned his light orb and began to backtrack his way through the tunnel.
“So… why wouldn’t we know about the Dalmora mountains?” Pinchy asked him.
“Because, the Dalmora mountains are in Cyrium. My world,” Damon replied, “and I think I have a sneaky suspicion on how they got to Equestria…
Berry slowly walked back to her home, a little confused as to the behaviour of Rarity still, and now the behaviour of Twilight. After her rather interesting encounter with Rarity, she stopped by the library to ask Twilight what was up with Rarity when Spike had answered the door.
“Oh, hey, Berry, how’s tricks?” Spike asked.
“Hello, Spike,” Berry replied with a smile, “I’m fine thank you, is Twilight around I need to… speak… with her…”
Berry stopped and blinked in confusion, she starred as Twilight sat hunched over a desk, a manic grin on her face and her mane slightly askew as several scrolls filled to the brink with scribbles floated around her and lay on the floor, she had a crazy look in her eye as she furiously scribbled down on blank scrolls with a quill pen.
“Is… she okay?” Berry asked.
“Honestly… I don’t know, but I’d give fair warning to you know who?” Spike replied.
“What do you mean? Da-”
Spike shushed her by putting a claw to her lips and looked over at Twilight with a panicked look, Twilight slowly rotated her head towards the two and both Berry and Spike felt a cold shiver go down their spines as Twilight’s eye twitched.
“What was that?” Twilight asked sweetly.
“N-nothing Twi, go back to your work,” Spike replied with a nervous tone.
Twilight’s eye twitched again as she went back to scribbling down as Spike closed the door, placing him and Berry outside.
“She’s been writing questions to ask,” he paused in order to whisper quietly, “Damon, and hasn’t stopped in over three hours. So my advice, tell him what’s happening and brace himself. I haven’t seen Twilight like this since she did an all day and night study session for a test due the next day.”
“Okay… I’ll bear that in mind, Spike… thanks,” Berry replied, processing everything.
“Good, and may the Princesses have mercy on his soul…” Spike mumbled walking back into the library.
Berry blinked before turning around and walking back down the road to her house, still trying to process everything. As she arrived home and entered the building, she sighed and headed to the kitchen in order to begin preparation of the evenings meal. She caught sight of the picture of Pinchy she kept on her counter, which had the filly grinning with a huge smile as she stood beside a Royal Guard, a photo from a trip to Canterlot the previous year.
“I wonder how their day out is going?” Berry wondered to herself with a smile.
“HURRY UP, DEY IS GETTING AWAY!”
“GIVE US BACK OUR DINNAR, BONE MAN!”
“I just had to take a flaming right…” Damon grumbled.
He was now running away from the Goblins again, the fillies screaming in terror. Soon after losing the Goblins, he had somehow managed to do a complete u-turn and run right into them again and they soon started up the chase although this time, they were too close for Damon to out run and fool them again. However, luck wasn’t on his side.
“Oh come on!” Damon cried.
He skidded to a halt in front of a dead end with only a couple of rocks jutting from the ground and spun round hearing the jeers and laughs of the Goblins as they slowly approached him.
“We ain’t got no beef wiff you, Bone man, but if ya don’t ‘and us our dinnar… we is gunna kill you as well” One of them said.
“You’re not going to eat my niece and her friends…” Damon replied coldly, “I’ll make sure of that…”
“Wot you gunna do, eh?” The Goblin laughed along with the others, “der’s only one of ya!”
“Girls… get behind the rock,” he said quickly, “I don’t want you to see this…”
The girls obeyed him without question and hide behind the rock, huddling together, shivering slightly. Damon took a sharp intake of air before exhaling and let his hands glow, they soon exploded into fire that illuminated the entire area, making the Goblins back up slightly.
“WOT DA FUCK? HE CAN USE MAGIC?!” A Goblin cried,
Damon chuckled as he took a defensive pose, his flaming hands in front of him as he gave the Goblins a wicked grin.
“Let’s do this…”