//------------------------------// // Little Sparkle's First Hunt (Part 2) // Story: Puella Magi Maredoka Magica // by pinkamcna //------------------------------// When Twilight had felt herself being sucked inside of the labrynth, an immediate feeling of unease washed over her. She wondered why Kyubey hadn't just come along with her in the first place, however she knew it wasn't her place to question. The flash had blinded her in a bright white light, then she simply felt numb, and then there came the darkness. She could move her body, and it was apparent to her that she wasn't on solid ground, but she wasn't falling so to speak. It was as if she were floating with some sort of blindfold on blocking the view to her surroundings. Unless her only surrounding was the darkness, in which case Twilight had neither a plan or a response to. Soon enough, a confused voice sounded next to her, too close for any sort of comfort, not that it honestly would have provided any at a further distance. "Why are you just floating here? There's a Familiar to kill." "Do you think if I knew how to get to it, I'd still just be floating here?" "Oh, right." Kyubey flicked its tail and leaped back from Twilight, landing on thin air. "Transform and you should be able to see it." Twilight sighed and pulled her soul gem out of her pocket, mentally scolding herself for not turning it back into a necklace before she'd entered the labrynth. She positioned it close to her heart and held it tight, the indigo light enveloping her as it did before, though it still had the dimmer touch to it. The silk dress and heels appeared again, materializing from her very soul. However, she allowed the bow to float somewhere in material space, awaiting her summoning. As Kyubey had said, she did notice it then- a small white orb floating a few feet away from her. Why she could only see it when she was tansformed was beyond her, but the logic of magical girls didn't make much sense at all to her, so she decided to just not question this kind of thing. She could move her arms and legs, yes, but physically she couldn't move the location of her body itself. Twilight glanced nervously at Kyubey, wondering if she was doing anything wrong, but it had nothing to say to her. Being encased in an endless pool of darkness was beginning to take its toll on both Twilight's patience and stability. The white orb was just out of her arm's reach, her fingernail only inches away from accomplishing reaching it. Was there some moving trick she didn't know how to do, or was she simply supposed to wait for the orb to come into her reach? She tried to lose herself in thought, as perhaps visioning the orb floating to her would cause that to happen- oh, who was she kidding? She could have sworn she saw a blur of pink and yellow whiz past her and the orb in a downward path, but Twilight shrugged it off as her mind playing tricks on her. After all, she had been floating in the blackness for quite some time now. Trick or not, the orb was making rapid movement in her direction. With a quick extend of her arm, she grasped it, not knowing what it might do but simply clinging on to the hope that it would banish the abyss and she could finally make some progress on this hunt. The light began to expand ever so slightly, as what was only as big as Twilight's palm had extended its glow to be a bit larger than her hand. She closed her eyes, as she wasn't sure how quickly the light would continue to illuminate, if it chose to do so at all. It did at a rapid, almost too quick to track pace, as after the initial growth it needed not so much as a spark to ignite the entire abyss in cherished and much welcomed light. She wasn't exactly sure what she triggered, but whatever it was must have affected the gravity of the place as well as the lighting, as she found herself plummeting to a dusty ground below. Or at least, she thought it was dust. "K-Kyubey, what do I do?" The creature had no words for her, instead it simply gazed to the right, where it appeared marshmallows with red eyes, fangs, and what looked to be bat wings were gathered. "Oh, if I could get one with an arrow, I could agitate them and hopefully ride one to the bottom. Oh, my, there's a lot of flaws in that plan..." She bit her lip in frustration and summoned her bow to her grasp. Calculating how close to the ground I am... there's no room for error. I've only got one shot. Taking a deep, slow breath, she drew back her bow, the flaming indigo arrow's end at her cheek. She visualized the outcome before she shot, to mentally guarantee a hit. It didn't actually mean her hit would land, though, and she knew that. She was falling, and they weren't. They were almost so high from her now that they would be out of her sight; vice-versa, she would be out of theirs. Knowing there was no time left to think, she shot. Luckily, she managed to graze one of them in the wing, which was somehow enough to send them in an enraged fury towards her. She mentally panicked, knowing that the bow or just one arrow wouldn't be enough for what she wanted to do. She envisioned a sling of arrows on her back, not sure if it worked like that. It didn't. They were almost upon her, and she couldn't fight back all of them with her current arsenal, no matter how she looked at it. Even if she managed to get on top of one of them, the others could easily overpower her with one measly arrow, or at the very least push her off. But she knew that this wasn't the sort of plan that could be ditched halfway through its execution: it was do or die. She knew full well that it probably wouldn't be do. However, even knowing that, she wasn't about to lay down and die, whether it be the attackers or the ground that claimed her. There was no time to think of another attack plan that could save her- it was all up to her instincts now. As they swarmed around her at her sides, she realized they'd forgotten to block out the most key area, which was above. The bow disappeared, freeing her hands for what she needed to do. She extended her arms, resting her hands above two of the marshmallows, one on each side. In one quickly executed move, she brought down her hands as hard as she could and used the momentum to propel herself above the marshmallows. That was tricky enough on its own, what with gravity not exactly playing in her favor at the time, but she realized she'd now have to make a safe landing on one of them. They were glaring up at her with enraged eyes- all except for one, which seemed frozen in place yet managed to float along with the group. She didn't and wouldn't question it, for she knew that could be the only way she'd save herself. She landed shakily on one of the angered marshmallows, quickly and momentarily stunning it with a hit to the eye from her bow before leaping to the next. She didn't even bother stunning that one, noticing how the rest of the pack looked ready to swarm her at any moment. After a few more leaps and her almost missing the one, which could have easily sent her falling to her death, she made it to the stationary one. Her heel didn't even indent its surface as it had the other ones- solid and frozen as a rock, though Twilight had absolutely no idea how that was even possible. The pack was on the offensive now, the one she'd stunned managing to send the pack into even more of an enraged frenzy than before. She mentally cursed at not thinking that one through, but there was nothing she could really do about it now but re-call forth her bow and prepare for the oncoming attack. Within a few seconds, she realized just how much of a tight spot she'd gotten herself into, and it certainly didn't help that Kyubey seemed to have disappeared into thin air. She managed to fight one off with an arrow to the wing, causing it to limp away weakly. The faint glimpse of hope sparked in her eyes, probably thinking that if she could just hit them all in their wings, they would be down for the count. Of course, that required them to not be circling around her, the occasional snap of malicious fangs in her face. One of them even lashed out at her leg, causing her to wobble about frantically, closing most of the distance between her and the pack. The grip she had on her bow tightened in fear- was it over for her? "She isn't close enough to the bottom for me to let her handle things herself... Rats," The magical girl now identified as Shy whispered, scoffing in aggravation. "And I can't jump in there and simply take them out, because I could hit her... Ugh." Having identified the only real possible solution, Shy summoned a shotgun in a dazzling pink light; Twilight might have noticed it if she hadn't been too distracted with the onslaught she had herself stuck in. She aimed the gun at one of the wings of the stationary marshmallow, taking a calm breath and pulling the trigger. Even the most solid of marshmallows goes down if its wing is injured, and the one Twilight had secured was no exception. It drew back just enough for her to unluckily lose her footing and go plummeting once again toward the ground below. Shy closed her eyes and focused, a pale yellow ribbon enveloping Twilight, cushioning her fall onto the dusty ground. Without even so much as checking to make sure Twilight was all right, she leaped into action, summoning dozens of shotguns out of seemingly nowhere. Twilight watched on in both awe and shock as all of the marshmallow pack at once were barraged with a shotgun onslaught, wiping them all out in virtually no time at all. Shy sighed in relief and cautiously stepped towards Twilight, who couldn't believe what she had just witnessed. Be calm, Twilight. Apply logic. So another magical girl followed me in here and just saved my life, and while that may be true, I'm all tied up... She could kill me if she wanted. Instead, to Twilight's surprise, the girl leaned down beside her and smiled a warm, honest smile. "I'm Fluttershy."