//------------------------------// // Chapter 10: The past // Story: Universum der Ponys (Universe of the Ponies) // by Poisonian //------------------------------// "He's late...As usual." "He may be always late but he's still my brother, and you should treat him just the same as you treat me." "But Reaper, he's a nuisance! He has been nothing but trouble since you first gave him his starter kit." Reaper a tall, red hoofed, black bodied Alicorn, who was wearing the infamous Death Stench armor pushed himself up against the pony he was arguing with. "He is not a nuisance! You need to learn to respect him more....Smoke." The pony Reaper was arguing with was his best friend a grey Pegasus with an even grayer wavy mane, he wore Kushala Dorara armor. He scrunched his muzzle and said. "Fine..." "Look there he is now." It was a beautiful day as usual at the harbor-tavern open hunting guild, everyone was bustling as usual, ships coming in and out, hunter ponies coming and going through the departure entrance. And there was a bright green pony with a spiked purple mane appearing over the bridge horizon with a set of Rathian armor on but no helmet unlike his colleagues Smoke Rodriguez, and Reaper...Just Reaper, nopony really knew his full name, in fact he never had a family to remember. All he could remember is that he raised himself, as a foal he ate anything that could fit in his mouth. And then as a young alicorn colt he trained himself to fight in the deep deep jungles of the flooded forest. But as a full grown stallion he became leader of the death duo. Which consisted of just him and Smoke, things went pretty smoothly for a long while. They both reached high rank by the time he came along... "Hey guys! Sorry I'm late!" "You're always late as usual fucktard..." "Smoke...." "What I meant to say was that you're late but i can understand what ever made you late..." Said Smoke sheepishly. "Poison, you need to be on time more often. What do you think would happen if just Smoke and I went on an urgent quest by ourselves?" Poison Fire , a young energetic stallion full of passion for hunting was the adopted brother of Reaper. After being brutally abused by his step father and his mother doing nothing about it he ran away never to return to the Pokke village ever again. After almost freezing to death in the snow, Reaper found him bundled up in a ball and lifted him with his magic to the Moga village. A warm tropical settlement floating on the water where it's hunting grounds were absolutely amazing. There Reaper raised him to become a grand hunter and soon enough he joined the Death Duo and it became the Death Trio. "Sorry Reaper, it's just that there was traffic with the transport ships." "Stop with the excuses, I raised you better than that." "Fine, but remember, you also trained me too." "Yeah and you should be a better fighter as well." said Smoke "I am a good fighter!" "Not to mention weak." "Oh so you wanna go there? How about a little hoof wrestling?" "Your fuckin' on." So the two headed toward the barrel in the middle of the tavern and put their hooves on it. Reaper held their hooves together with a small rope. "Alright you two nimrods, you know the rules." "How about we make this a little interesting Smoke?" "How so?" "Whoever loses has to give up half of their full potions." "Deal." So the two went at it, Smoke actually almost lost in the first few seconds but then once he realized it would be a challenge, used all of his strength on Poison, he still lost. "OH YEAH FUCK FACE! HOW'S THAT FOR WEAK!" "Fuck you..." "Alright, pay up." Poison said with a smirk. "Fine here." Smoke hoofed over half of his full potions. "Only 3? Seriously?" "Hey these are hard to come by nowadays." "Enough you two." Interrupted Reaper. "Now you both know why the Guild and I called you here?" "Of course brother, you sent a letter about something about a new enemy that came in the tens of hundreds?" "Yeah and you also sent something about a queen?" Reaper looked at the bright sun, his Death Stench helmet blocking the sun rays he said. "Well I did not tell you both entirely everything...." "What do you mean?" Poison said with concern. "They are called..,.Changelings." Both Poison and Smoke were dumbfounded as they had no idea what these creatures were. "Of course you boneheads wouldn't know what they are." Said Reaper with disappointment. "They are pony like, except with a dark and powerful magic inside them. Nopony knows what it is called but it can be used to kill..." Reaper paced right to left. "They have holes in their bodies and wear armor made of this, energy goop. Powerful enough to power the strongest of switch axes." "Even an Ankantor Switch Axe?" Interrupted Poison. "Yes" "Damn..." "Now back to what i was saying, they have a queen." Reaper paused almost as if we here frightened by the fact of imagining the Changeling Queen. "She goes by the name of...Chrysalis." "So we have to kill her and her 'subjects'?" Said smoke. "Affirmative." Replied Reaper. "So lets go kill this thing YEAH!" Cheered Poison. "Don't worry brother we will depart eventually but first we need to get them..." "You don't mean.." Said Smoke. "I think he does." Said a fearful Poison "With the three of Death, Comes three more. And those three will wear the skin of Death itself." Riddled Reaper. "The Fatalis Brothers." Said the Death Trio all at once. So they went to their homes and changed into their specified Fatalis armors. Smoke was the Black Fatalis, Reaper the Deviled Red Fatalis, and Poison, while he may be the youngest and weakest of the group the White God Fatalis chose him to wear his skin and so he slew him and gained his body around his. They all gathered back at the port departure entrance. "Are you two ready?" Asked Reaper. "Yes sir!" Said both Smoke and Poison simultaneously. "Then lets..." Said Reaper "Head..." Said Smoke wanting to finish Reapers sentence "Out." Finished Poison. So one of the guildie ponies stamped the "Mystery Queen" quest pamphlet, and the three set off on their adventure. They were on the ship standing in silence when Reaper finally broke the ice. "I still haven't told you all the full truth about this quest..." "What do you mean brother?" "I mean that we may not all come back alive." "Wait? WHAT!" Yelled Smoke. "Smoke the only way i knew you would come is if-" "IF? IF! OF COURSE I WOULDN'T COME I HAVE A FAMILY TO LOOK AFTER." "Smoke i can understand why your mad-" MAD? OH NO I'M SO HAPPY THAT I'M GOING ON A LIFE THREATENING QUEST THA- "ENOUGH YOU TWO!" Interrupted Poison, both of the stallions glared back at him "I'm sorry I yelled it's just that, you two are best friends and you shouldn't be fighting, you're best friends. The two stallions heads drooped down. "Yeah, i guess you're right Poison, sorry for you know freaking out at you Reaper." "Yeah sorry I didn't tell you about what we were up against." "We're here." Said Poison. The three had arrived at the old castle fort, death surrounded the area, dead trees, no grass, and even some bursts of boiling tar in some cracks in the earth. The castle from a distance was all broken apart and it seemed like little bugs were surrounding it. "Are those birds?" Asked Smoke. "Oh fuck..." Said Reaper with fear in his voice. "What is it brother?" "Changelings..." They were coming by the hundreds, no thousands, no not even that, they were coming in the millions. The Death trio drew their weapons, Poison wielded his White Fatalis Red Lighting (or W.F.R.L for short) Dual blades, Smoke wielding his Black Fatalis long sword, and Reaper wielding his infamous bone scythe fought off millions of changelings. Both Smoke and Poison were new to these enemies, they were fast, faster like anything they've ever seen. While Reaper on the other hand, with the grace of a samurai fought off 10's of millions of changelings, doing flips, cutting thousands in half and sometimes just beating some to death with one swift punch from his hoof. "Hey Reaper! How Ya holdin' up?" Yelled Smoke. "Could be better!" Said Reaper as a changeling bit his rump. "GAH!" Reaper piked in the mouth with the sharp butt end of his blade the changeling, he stuck it in so far that the changeling turned into a corndog. "HA YOU GET EM' REAPER- Oh shit..." Said Poison as he looked up only to see about 500 changelings going at him at rocket speed. One of them got lucky and jabbed his right hoof with a green energy goop blade. "AH MOTHERFUCKER!" "POISON, I GOT YA BROTHER!" Reaper ripped open with only using his bare magic the changeling, his guts spewed to the ground, revealing a glowing green sac where it seemed to produce the goop that changelings created. "So that's how you make that stuff huh?" Reaper picked up the sac and put it in his pocket. "REAPER BUD!" "WHAT IS IT SMOKE!" "That's all of em." Joked Smoke as he finished stabbing the final changeling. "So all that's left is the Queen right?" Questioned Poison. "Affirmative." Confirmed Reaper. "MUHAHAHA" "Poison stop laughing." "That wasn't me." "Reaper?" Reaper shrugged in response. "Oh fuck I think I know who it i-AH" With almost the speed of light the changeling Queen stabbed Poison Fire, the young stallion who Reaper loved as a brother for almost as long as he could remember, in the heart. "..." Poison was speechless as he could not do so. And as if in slow motion Smoke attempted to counter attack the Queen but was just batted off by her wing. "SMOKE, POISON, NOOOOOO!" Reaper drew his scythe and cut off the changeling Queen's left wing. "GAH YOU FOAL YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING!" "GET OFF MY BROTHER!" "FINE! BUT I WARN YOU, YOU WILL LIVE BUT YOU WILL NOT LIVE WELL MUHAHAHA" Reaper cursed in ancient alicorn tongue, and ran towards a now lifeless Poison Fire. He wept for hours, crying next to his new fallen brother and soon joined by Smoke. They were both wounded but the guild managed to find all of them lying on the ground. Carried by a blimp the three were returned back to the guild where Reaper still lying next to his Brother. 3 Days later It was Poison Fire's funeral, all of his friends and only pony he considered family, Reaper mourned for him that day at the guild tavern. It was the first time it was not sunny or happy or bustling. Just mourning, especially the now back the the old days Death Duo. "I will never hunt again..." Said Reaper as he trotted away never to kill or see anypony again. -_-_-_-_-_-_-_- "And so I, Smoke Rodriguez lived out the rest of my days to write the Death Trio's story. I give this book to the descendants of Poison Fire in hope that one day another form of him would be re-incarnated." Poisonian closed his ancestors book and shed a tear. "So it vas ze green energy zat changelings produce zat can power mine teleporter." "You wanted to know what it was...And I found out who i truly am." "Unt vat is zat?" Replied Richthofen, Poison looked up from his gloom from his fallen ancestor that from what he read made him feel like he had a family, when his abandoned him long ago. "A hunter." "Zen let's go kill us some changelings!" Cheered Richthofen as he grabbed a makeshift, lighting in an ammo capacity bottle, wunderwaffe DG4.