//------------------------------// // Ch2. I Am Hell's Foul Vomitus // Story: Sunder // by Not Luna //------------------------------// Goddamn these vines are thick! I cut my way through another thicket of tree branches and black vines and trudged on. It might have been easier to just smash through them in my other form, but that was out of the question. The rage in me had worn off hours ago when it was replaced by worry. I couldn't work up the anger I had in the maze no matter how hard I tried. I was just so fucking nervous! I know where the vines took her, make no mistake. I just don’t know what their intention was. If I hadn't seen so much hentai in my day, I probably wouldn't be as worried as I am now. But still a little bit, damn things had thorns! If my hide weren't so thick I’d be covered in scratches. Unfortunately, every time my arm or wing brushed against something, I had to stop and force the pain away. Being set in stone for so long did diddly-squat for my injuries. I still had the broken arm and dislocated wing from thousands of years ago. The worst, however, was the huge magical burn on my chest. The metal strips that once made up my former armor, were blackened and stung like all hell. I needed to move, despite my injuries I needed to know at least what was happening in that cave. If only to leave and come back with an angry mob chasing me, I would do it. I shook my head. “Now is not the time for thinking. Now is the time for action!” I couldn't let myself be distracted when every second is precious as gold. I just needed to grit my teeth and march. Another wall of vines cut with my right glaive while the other hung limply in my left, the broken one. Carry on, carry on, like nothing really matters… My mind went all but blank and my body on autopilot. My vision narrowed and locked on to the general direction of the soul energy’s flow in the vines. I've been walking for hours now! The tree can’t be too far away. Course, the sun and moon had yet to move from their places so I really didn’t have any sort of reference here. Nothing in the Everfree looked the same either, the trees were more gnarly and twisted and the canopy had closed completely save for some clearings now and then. It was overall a more oppressive environment than when I first landed here. ------------------------------ No! Flashback, later! Luna, now! *pssss* *cough* What the fuck? *pssss pssss* *cough wheeeeze* That sounded like it was just up ahead! I increased my pace to try n’ see what the spraying and coughing noises were. It looked like there was another clearing up ahead, so I eased myself into the thick brush, minding my wing and arm, and looked through the leaves. “What the fuck?” I seem to be repeating that phrase a lot. It looked like the alicorn in the picture Luna showed me a couple of days ago. She was a unicorn that ascended apparently. The alicorn part didn’t catch my attention though, what did was the vine… things that circled around her, spraying some kind of shit in her face. I couldn't let this stand. Not only was she invaluable to me in finding Luna, it was also just the right thing to do. I couldn't go out there in my current state however. I needed a distraction. I looked around in the bush for anything to help, when I spied a small rock at my feet. “Perfect.” I banished my right glaive and picked up the rock. Giving a few tosses I let it fly to the far side of the clearing. It did it’s job by making a commotion among the underbrush over there. As expected, the fly trap things all turned their attention to where the rock landed. “Insert battle cry here!” I sprinted out from the bush with my glaive back in my hand and severed the nearest fly trap. When they felt their brother had fallen, the other fly traps turned and converged on me. I cut the one that got closest in half and the others began to get more wary, sensing a real threat. They circled me, waiting for a weakness in my defenses. “Good, if they are all on me, that alicorn has time to recover.” One of them noticed my dislocated wing and flew to hit that. When I heard the rush of air, I spun around to greet him with the tip of my glaive. This however, didn’t stop my wing from flopping around, making me feel like my back had caught fire. I bit back the pain while another three fly traps emerged from the ground. “C'mon purple! Wake up!” *pssss* “Shit!” One of the fly traps had the bright idea of spraying me in the face. It didn’t make me dizzy and disoriented like purple did, but it did distract me. I barely had enough time to register the rushing wind before a fly trap slammed into my chest. If it felt like my back was on fire before, my chest felt like someone had just poured fresh molten steel on it. The blow sent me flying back into the brush, right on my wings. *Crack!* Yep, now the other one’s broken too. I was in too much pain to get back up. It was like my body was intentionally locking up due to the agony I was experiencing. If the ringing in my ears had subsided or if I unclenched my eyes, I probably would have noticed the scuffle going on in the clearing. For what felt like an eternity, but was really about thirty seconds, I laid there. I was helpless, in agony, and alone. If I could die, I would be wishing for it. I almost didn’t notice the feeling of something soft touch my cheek. “Mister? Can you hear me?” I merely grunted, both in pain and acknowledgement. The voice took that as its cue to do something. I felt the all too familiar tingling of magic and was lifted up. The voice kept me there for a good bit, probably examining my injuries, before setting me back down on my right side. I banished both my glaives, they only would have gotten in the way at this point. “There we go. I’m sorry I don’t know any advanced healing magics, but I’ll try to make you as comfortable as possible.” “Twilight! What in heaven’s name are you doing over there!?” The female voice, now identified as Twilight, turned her head to the direction of the other voice. “I’ll be right there girls! Just give me a minute!” She looked down at me again. “I promise I’ll come right back. I have to take care of these vines. Don’t try to move, okay?” She looked like she was about to get up and walk away. “Wait.” She looked startled. Whether it was because of the demonic effect my voice had, or the fact that I had spoken at all, I didn’t know. “What is your name?” She smiled slightly. “I am Princess Twilight Sparkle. And yourself?” “Terrorblade.” I said as I opened my eyes. I saw the trepidation flash across her face from my name and the glow of my eyes. “But you can call me Terry if you like.” I added sheepishly trying to ease her fears. The smile returned. “I think I would like that.” “Twilight! Hurry up! I’m getting stir crazy!” “Coming!” She trotted to the edge of the clearing before looking back to me one more time. “I’ll be right back.” With that, she and a crowd of other ponies of varying colors disappeared into the forest from whence they came. I closed my eyes and tried to relax with the pain I was feeling. It was surprisingly easy as it started to numb down after a while. It would probably do me a lot of good to get some shuteye. Being encased in stone for a couple thousand years, hiking several miles on pure adrenaline, and fighting vicious fly traps can be very taxing. I was asleep within minutes. Okay now we can have the flashback! -------------------------------------------------------------- (2,536 Years ago) All around me I could hear it: the birds chirping, the branches swaying with the breeze, and the cicadas playing their sweet sonata. I didn’t want to believe it, and yet all the signs were around me. I even wished to deny the fact that I could feel the grass underneath me, as if my suit were my skin. I layed there, face down, in a state of shock for ten more minutes before I got up and looked around. After the feeling of being dunked in water, I had woken up in a forest of some kind. A clearing to be more precise. All around me the trees were thick and tall. The canopy only partially covered the sky, and the places where the sunlight did drift down, underbrush and grass flourished. I could now see the cicadas and birds, singing together, a beautiful duet of nature. I listened for a bit to the sounds of their harmonics, then stood up and decided I needed a good place to look at myself. I walked for a good bit in a random direction before stumbling upon a natural reservoir made by a babbling brook. I inched closer, afraid of what I might see, considering I moved so much more fluidly in my suit than in San Diego. I peered over the edge of the pond… and was not surprised in the least. The eye holes and mouth hole that I had left in the helmet of the suit now glowed with a bright cyan light and moved every time I opened my mouth or blinked. “I’m getting too old for this shit.” I’m only thirty-six but you get the picture. I wasn't surprised by the sound of my own voice either, just silently accepting. I've read enough stories online about this type of situation to know that there is almost no way back to Earth at this point. *sigh* “Maybe I should try to find some civilization.” At least it’s a step in the right direction. Maybe this brook leads somewhere? I began to follow it upstream in hopes of finding a place to get some quests. Heh, at least I've still got my sense of humor. -------------------------------------------------------------- “Psst. Terry! Wake up!” I was roused from my dream memory by the voice of that Twilight character form before. I was still on the forest floor, but it was noticeably darker than before. The vines were also gone. “Huh? Wazzit?” “Shh. Don’t speak. I snuck away from the party we were having to get you, but I think I'm being followed.” She frantically looked around, ears swiveling to catch any noises being made. “I think we’re clear.” “Hold on,” I interjected, having an idea. “let me try something.” I concentrated energy into my eyes and switched to my own patent-pending Soul Vision. Through this, I could see souls within living creatures. I saw Twilight and her lavender soul. The cicadas and birds were asleep, but I could still see their mundane, non-sentient grey souls. I looked a little farther out and saw… no way. Hiding in the bushes a few meters away, was an alicorn shaped mass of familiar cyan soul energy. Luna. I immediately tried to get up and go to her, only to be pushed down by Twilight. “Terry, I told you not to move!” I struggled against her magical bonds as best I could. “Let. Me Go!” Luna’s soul energy made a graceful bound from the bushes of which it was hiding, leaving a blurry trail of light that dissipated when she stopped at the center of the clearing. She pointed a hoof at Twilight. “Ha! We found you... Twilight… Sparkle.” Her eyes set on me, and time seemed to slow for a second. She opened and closed her mouth again and again, trying to find the right words. I didn’t fare much better. My own mind was still racing from the overwhelming circumstances that brought her to me. I mean, anyone could have followed Twilight! It could have been Celestia and all her demon hating malice, or any one of her supposed friends. Someone could have even followed Luna! But it wasn't and no one did. It was her. She was here. It was enough for me to pass out, knowing that everything was going to be just fine. -------------------------------------------------------------- “How did you find him?” Luna asked in an uncharacteristically soft voice, not wanting to wake Terry up. “I was going back to help my friends find you and Celestia, when I was attacked by Venus Flytrap vines in this clearing. Terry jumped out and fought them off long enough for my friends to arrive and finish the job. We needed to get rid of the vines, so I left him here to come back later.” “You left him here!?” Luna whisperingly shouted. “I couldn’t very well bring him back to Ponyville now could I? He absolutely reeks of demon magic! Any unicorn with a brain cell can put two and two together and get a mob going.” Luna calmed down some, knowing that Sparkle had a point. She had her own experiences with Terry and the general public. Not pretty. “”You speak truth Sparkle, but it was not a wise decision to leave him here. What if and unsuspecting civilian had found him, or worse my sister? She has an unnatural hate for anything pertaining to the seven realms below and goes out of her way to remove any and all traces of it here. I just didn’t want anything happening to him is all.” She ended her statement of his safety with a chaste cheek nuzzle. She could feel that even though the plates that made up his face were metallic in nature, they were warm and had a slight give to them, as if it were flesh. Just like she remembered. “I’m sorry Princess Luna, I was in a hurry and didn’t have time to think of anything better.” She lowered her head to the ground, out of shame. Luna placed her hoof on Twilight’s chin, brought it up, and wrapped her forelegs around her. “You need not apologize Twilight. I probably would have done the same thing were I in your hooves.” Twilight, not expecting the sudden contact, instinctively hugged Luna back. They stayed like that for a solid five seconds before Twilight spoke up. “Not that I don’t enjoy hugs or anything, but what are we going to do with him?” Luna detached herself from her lavender cousin and thought for a second. “I think the safest place for him right now is my chambers. It’s the last place Celestia would think to look, and I know she will start a search soon. Sister has made a habit of checking the gardens for missing statues every time something happens after Discord was freed the first time.” As Luna was about to teleport Terry and herself to her room, Twilight spoke up. “Wait! Can I come with you? I want to tell him thank you when he wakes up.” Luna allowed a large, genuine smile to grace her features. “I think I can allow that. Come” With that, they were all blinked away to Luna’s personal tower in Canterlot, leaving behind the clearing that could have been the grave of two exceptional individuals.