I woke without a sound, something the flock has learned to be quite good at. I looked up and almost let out a shout of surprise, not a girly shriek of terror, because that would be lame. Towering over my prone form was a flyboy. My heart went berserk, and I readied myself for an assault that never came. The flyboy just stood there, completely immobile, as I prepared to take off at a millisecond's notice. They must have been programmed to await further orders on the other side. Breathing out a quiet sigh of relief, I sat up and took stock of my surroundings.
I was in a rather large field surrounded on all sides by a dark, oppressive-looking forest. The rest of the flock, along with the whitecoats, were strewn about around me, still unconscious. They were inter-spaced by the other flyboys standing at attention and looking for all the world like soldiers ready to go to war. Or maybe just finished with one.
On the edge of our impromptu dog pile, that same expanse of blue light hung about a foot in the air. It emitted a hum that was of a much more manageable volume than before. I decided to deal with my shattered worldview later. I crawled silently over to Fang, who happened to be closest to me. When I tapped him on the shoulder, his eyes shot open without the rest of his body so much as twitching. From there, the two of us navigated the minefield of idle robots and unconscious bodies, tapping shoulders and hands until every member of the flock was awake. All their eyes turned to me.
I looked around at the thick forest all around us and thought I could make out a mountain with some sort of structure built near its summit in the distance. Wherever this place was, it was a far cry from the sandy desert we had left. Sighing, I realized, not for the first time, that I was completely out of my depth. I decided the first thing we needed to do was get our bearings. I began to communicate this to the flock in our own made-up sign language, but was interrupted by a groan coming from behind me. I whipped around just in time to get a great view of Hitler lady's baby blues widening to the size of dinner plates. Great.
"Flock! Up and away! Now!" I screamed before she had a chance to react. I sprinted a few feet before launching myself into the air and flapping hard.
We were already in the air before I heard her yell after us "It's the mutants! Kill them!" I looked back to see flyboys shrugging off backpacks and giving chase. Catching up with Fang, I grinned with satisfaction as we flew side by side and watched the others pair up like we had rehearsed. Yes, rehearsed. We all split up in order to lose our pursuers. I thanked any and all deities that may or may not exist that these weren't the flyboys that had guns built into their arms.
After watching the flock pairs speed away with flyboys in pursuit, Fang and I sped up to keep ahead of our own pursuers. I looked over to check if Fang was keeping up with me, and for a moment, our eyes met. He smirked. "Just like the good ole days, huh?!" he shouted. Sadly, it was true, minus the good part.
I shook my head. Somehow, the dude is a brick wall ninety-nine percent of the time, but the second we're caught in a life-or-death situation, he becomes a freakin' stand-up comedian. "Let's lose 'em in the trees!" I yelled as a response, pointing at the thick, green carpet beneath us, and we dove into the forest.
Underneath the treetops, it was a lot harder to fly, but the flyboys had a much tougher time of it. Their much higher body mass meant a much larger wingspan, and they weren't built for maneuvering in tight spaces. We did it for fun. Even so, stray branches and twigs whipped at my face and clothes. I had a couple feathers painfully torn out by narrowly avoided collisions as well. The grunts and hisses of pain beside me told me that Fang was both keeping up with me and faring about the same as I was. Then, I heard a much more pleasant noise.
The flyboys were crashing into and through trees in a glorious cacophony of crunching metal and splintering bark. It took me all the self-control I had to keep my eyes focused in front of me. I barely resisted the urge to look back and feast my eyes on the havoc being wrought. They wouldn't be down for the count completely, but hopefully this would discourage them from following us and give us time to plan our next move.
As the crashes slowly faded behind us, Fang and I gradually killed our speed. My heart was still pounding, pumping large amounts of adrenalin through my veins, but I took a few deep, calming breaths and slowly began to relax. "All right, we'll take a breather here and then we're gonna go find the others," I told Fang, who nodded as he unzipped backpack, allowing Total to exit and let out a comically large gasp.
"You know," he boasted as he leapt from the backpack to the forest floor, "if you guys had just let me at 'em, those flyboys wouldn't have been let off with just a couple of dents."
I rolled my eyes, but otherwise ignored the yorkie's inflated ego. Leaning against a nearby tree, I finally got a good look at the forest around us. The trees were very close-knit and hung overhead menacingly. Even though it was mid-afternoon, the thick canopy above us made the forest as dark as night. Shadows lurked everywhere, around every tree, triggering my trademarked, birdkid paranoia. On top of that, there was an overwhelming feeling of... wrongness to the whole forest, as if someone or something was very unhappy about my presence. Good thing I'm so used to that.
Alright, Voice, I thought, I'm here now. Where is here and what should I do? I don't know why I expected an answer from the cryptic apparition in my head, but regardless, no answer was forthcoming. Fine. Be that way. I don't know if you can snarl a thought, but I sure tried my best.
I turned back to Fang, who was observing me with a rare, worried look on his face. "What'd the Voice say?"
"Nothing. As usual," I snapped back.
"Great. I'm gonna be honest, Max. I don't like this. We have no idea where, or hell, when we are, and that worries me. There's not knowing what you're getting into, and then there's suicide. We are asking for trouble right now."
I was floored. Not only did Fang rarely say more than five words at a time, but now he was expressing genuine fear and worry. This was bad. I opened my mouth, presumably to say something witty, but I never got the chance.
I was cut off by a feminine, piercing scream sounding from deep in the forest, followed by the loud crunch of metal. I didn't recognize it as Nudge or Angel, but it didn't matter. Some poor girl was in trouble, being attacked by flyboys meant for us. Fang and I rocketed through the trees in the direction of the scream.
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Spike the dragon trudged warily through the Everfree Forest, eyes darting to and fro, keeping a vigilant, if terrified, watch on the shadows surrounding him and his companion. Said companion was a lavender unicorn by the name of Twilight Sparkle, who-Look, you guys know who these characters are. Let's move on.
Twilight had been aware of Spike's nervousness since they had entered the threatening forest, and finally decided to do something about it. "Oh, Spike. You need to relax. Just enjoy the scenery and try to stop thinking about the Everfree's countless, belligerent creatures that are indigenous to the area."
Twilight Sparkle is not known for her confidence boosters.
Spike shivered and hopped up onto his surrogate sister/friend/mother/it's complicated's back. "Too late, Twi. What do we do if-no-when one of those belligerent creatures find us. What then?"
The unicorn looked over her shoulder and shot her surrogate son/brother/assistant/it's still complicated a self-confident smirk, lighting her horn with a small amount of magic. "Then I handle it."
The young dragon met her smirk with a blank stare. "Like you handled the manticore, the cockatrice, the hydra, and the parasprites?"
Twilight sputtered for a moment before responding, indignant, "Manticores are usually fairly docile, it caught me by surprise, that one was in Froggy Bottom Bog, and those don't count because Pinkie Pie. Besides, I think I'm a bit more experienced in dealing with dangerous creatures since I arrived in Ponyville, don't you?" The unicorn nodded to herself, confident that her point had been made, and continued her determined walk through the forest. Suddenly, she paused, remembering an important part of her argument. "Also, shut up."
Spike just rolled his eyes. "I just don't think a couple potion-making lessons with Zecora are worth these strolls through the most dangerous part of Equestria."
"Spike, if you're scared, you don't have to join me in these lessons," Twilight pointed out gently.
The dragon grumbled something about not being scared and resumed his vigil, right up until a dragonfly crossed his field of vision. What's with that name, anyway? he wondered, idly tracking the insect with his eyes. It's not as if they look anything like us.
He was extricated from his thoughts quite violently by deafening crashing noises emanating from the trees to their right, sounding worryingly close. Feeling Twilight freeze beneath him, Spike tried to hunch down closer to her before inquiring nervously, "You heard that too, right?"
"Yes, Spike. It would seem something large is heading this way/" She gulped, trying to keep her voice from shaking. "I guess you were right about this one." The mare took a defensive stance and called up an aura of magic around her horn. Spike hopped off of her back and grabbed a nearby branch that he apparently intended to use as a bludgeon. Bless his little, reptilian heart. The crashing noises had now ceased, and had been replaced by the sound of not one, but several beings cutting a determined path through the underbrush. The sound of hoofsteps increased until, all at once, they stopped. Spike's grip on his branch tightened and the aura around Twilight's horn brightened in anticipation of some sort of attack.
The unicorn strained to make out a sound, until a voice pierced the silence. "Request directive confirmation." It sounded nothing like a pony. It reminded Twilight of recordings: tinny and artificial. Pony and dragon alike tilted their heads in confusion.
Another voice, sounding exactly the same as the first, but coming from a different direction, responded. "Directive is to eliminate mutants. Two new mutants observed. New targets acquired."
The second the voice finished, seven creatures unlike anything Twilight had ever seen leapt out of the underbrush. Twilight had just enough time to register the appearance of these wolf-like, bipedal monsters (who also had wings?) before they attacked as one.
The mare released an ear-splitting shriek as the creatures surged forward, and flung one of them into a nearby tree with a surprisingly metallic crunch. Spike was able to duck the swiping claws of one creature and swung his branch. By sheer luck, it connected, and the monster seemed to lose the use of its legs and collapse. However, the two did not get a chance to celebrate their minor victories, as two monsters grabbed each of the fighters and wrestled them to the ground.
Twilight frantically tried to charge up a spell as the last one approached. "Resistance is futile," it droned but somehow still managed to sound smug.
It was then that two things happened. First, Twilight released the spell she had been preparing, loosing a blast of energy directly into the face of her approaching aggressor. The ferocity of the attack also startled their captors, causing them to release their holds in surprise.
The second thing that happened took the form of a shout from above.
"I beg to differ!"
With that, two new beings blasted out of the sky and plowed into two of the monsters that had been pinning Twilight and Spike, knocking them to the ground. The newcomers dealt vicious blows to their victims, finally caving in their heads with a pair of sickening crunches.
Twilight gasped at their brutality, but didn't have time to dwell on it, as the other two wolf creatures were advancing on their saviors while their backs were turned. She was about to shout a warning and release another blast of magic, but the new creatures never gave her the chance. They spun around at speeds that would make Rainbow Dash jealous in near-perfect synchronization, and squared off against the remaining two monsters. In seconds, the wolf-like creatures were dispatched in much the same way as the other two. Twilight gasped again. She had never seen a living thing killed before, especially in such a callous and efficient manner.
As the newcomers rose, their victims called out in voices that, even in the embrace of death, were completely devoid of any emotion. "We are many. You cannot overcome us. We are many..." As one, they trailed off. With a start, Twilight realized that the two she had taken care of and the one Spike had crippled were nowhere to be found.
Twilight's saviors seemed unimpressed. "Yeah, yeah. We've heard it all before," one of them-female, judging by her voice-growled contemptuously. Suddenly, a small, black dog came running towards the creatures from out of the bushes, right past Twilight.
"Oh, sure. Just leave the dog in the dust while you two go gallivanting off doing who knows-" he finally noticed Spike and Twilight. "What in the name of?!"
Twilight had thought that she had met her daily quota of nature-defying beasts today (minus Pinkie Pie, of course), but as she gawked at the little dog, who gawked right back at her, she reflected on the folly of offering the universe such an obvious challenge. Spike, on the other hand hoof, had just checked out and was waiting for things to become a little more sane. He was reclining on the forest floor and contemplating moving to a nice cave where his worldview wasn't shattered like a Derpy Express package marked "fragile" on an hourly basis.
The lavender unicorn finally tore her eyes from the talking dog and focused once again on her saviors, finally getting a good look at them. Both stood on two legs like the monsters they fought and were nearly twice the height of the average pony. One, presumably the female from earlier, had a slightly more slender frame with more pronounced curves. A dirty blonde mane cascaded down her shoulders, and incredibly large wings stood proudly from her back, their fourteen-foot span covered in tawny feathers. The other had a thicker frame, but was still very slim; Twilight guessed it was male. His wingspan was even larger than the female's and his feathers were as black as the darkest pitch. His mane was cut much shorter than his companion's and was the same color as his feathers. Other than their manes, they had no fur. Twilight thought they looked rather like shaved monkeys with wings stapled to their backs.
When they finally turned, the mare first noticed that their faces were rather... flat. They had no muzzle to speak of. When the two caught sight of Twilight and her assistant, they started and then froze. The female wore a look of shock and bafflement, while the male's face was a mask of indifference. Contrary to his expression, or lack thereof, the male's posture indicated he was just as surprised as his comrade.
----------
"Yeah, yeah. We've heard it all before," I spat, glaring down at the demolished flyboys. Watching their eyes losing the light behind them as they shut down for good gave me a sense of grim satisfaction. A bolt of pain came from my knuckles, and I glanced down to find that my skin had been cut in several places on my fist. The cuts around my knuckles dripped a bit of blood, and I groaned softly and clasped my hands together as they began to ache. Kids, don't punch metal, especially metal under a thin covering of artificial skin. Granted, I've only been to public school for a month, so I don't know how common that sort of thing is.
Behind me, I heard Total's complaint, and subsequent exclamation of surprise, so I decided that I probably wouldn't like what I saw when I turned around. I could only hope that it was friendly, as I had seen it single-handedly dispatch at least three flyboys without too much trouble. Unfortunately, I hadn't gotten a good look at it for all the weird, purple light it had been producing. Steeling myself, I turned, spotting Fang do the same beside me.
Now, I've been around. I've seen lots of things, horrifying and beautiful. I've seen miserable, failed genetic combinations and experiments that would make most people vomit, I've seen a friend die before my eyes, I've seen the looks of pure joy on the faces of the flock when I told them we were going to the beach or Disney World, and I've even encountered a grotesque being that the flock and I less-than-affectionately refer to as "brains on a stick," but believe me when I tell you that nothing, and I mean nothing prepared me for what was waiting for me when I turned around.
In front of me, trembling in fear, was... a pony. An honest-to-God purple pony with a unicorn horn growing out of its forehead and a brightly colored lizard thing on the ground beside it was giving me Bambi eyes. Just... What even is my life anymore? Xena: Warrior Princess never had to deal with this crap.
I sighed. I was totally at a loss on how to approach this. Obviously this thing was not a normal pony. If the odd coloring, Disney eyes, strange companion, and frickin' horn wasn't enough to tell me that, the fact that it had taken out three flyboys certainly was. Since my mouth was working uselessly, producing no sound whatsoever, I directed my thoughts at my unwanted roommate. Uh, Voice? Any thoughts?
I am just as shocked as you are, Max. I'm afraid I have no advice to offer you about this particular... predicament. Hey, the Voice responded to a direct question. Of course, he/she couldn't help me at all, but it's the thought (get it?) that counts.
I sighed again. I seem to be doing that a lot lately. I turned to Fang to suggest finding the rest of the flock, but the lizard thing chose that moment to sit up with a groan, open its mouth, and, I swear I'm not making this up, the thing talked. "Any more monsters? N? Great." The little reptile jumped to its feet and warily stalked towards us. "Alright. Let's take it from the top. What are you? What are those things? Where did you come from? Why did those things attack us? Are you planning on doing the same?" The little thing had been ticking off his claws with each question, and it-he I guess-recounted them after he finished. He then nodded to himself, satisfied, and waited for answers.
Fang and I just stared dumbly, our mouths open so wide that I felt grass on my chin. Before I could scrape the smithereens of my brain off the inside of my skull, the unicorn stepped forward and scolded the lizard like a misbehaving child. "Spike! They just saved our lives! Be nice!" She, judging by her voice, cleared her throat and looked sheepishly down at the ground for a moment, before continuing. "But I would like to have those questions answered, along with one more. What are your names? I'm Twilight Sparkle and this is my number one assistant, Spike."
Heroically, I managed not to make the painfully easy joke about a certain book series and its relationship to her name, and avoided commenting on her stupid title for her pet/indentured servant. It might have been due to the fact that I still could not form my thoughts into coherent words, but I still count it as a victory.
Suddenly, I regained control of my vocal cords. "Alright!" I began, clapping my hands together. "Fang, I am currently seeing a purple, talking unicorn and her pet lizard-"
"Hey, I'm not her pet, I am a dragon!" The tiny reptile seemed rather indignant. I didn't care.
"Whatever, figment of my disoriented brain. Fang, on a scale of one to Steve Martin in Little Shop of Horrors, just how crazy have I gone?"
Fang seemed to shake himself out of his own stupor at my words. "I don't think you're seeing things, Max. I don't remember ever hearing about two people having the same hallucination."
"I was afraid you'd say that."
At this, the unicorn stamped her hoof in a manner that a girl my age who hadn't been through hell and back seven times would have found adorable. That's not to say I didn't, but I just wanted you to know that I'm still tough and could totally kick your ass for insinuating otherwise. "Hey! I'm right here, you know, and I'd still like those questions answered!"
To my surprise, I actually felt a little guilty for ignoring her. "Heh, sorry," I said awkwardly, rubbing the back of my neck. "Look, just give us a minute to gather the rest of us, then I'll explain everything."
The pony looked taken aback. "More of you? Just what have you gotten yourself into this time, Twilight?" I heard her mutter to herself before addressing us again. "Uh sure, I guess."
She's an eloquent one, that's for sure.
I knelt down and opened my arms, allowing Total to scamper up into them. Fang and I jumped straight into the air and worked to gain altitude. It's a workout and not an efficient way to take off, but it looks impressive as hell. I checked back to see the mare's reaction, but she seemed pointedly unimpressed, like she saw the same thing every day. Tough room.
I started scanning the skies for the flock.
----------
I stirred in my slumber, detecting a disturbance nearby. At first I assumed that it was some of the local fauna, but then I felt it. Power. Not the sheer, magical might of the fool moon princess I had previously inhabited, but a force of will unlike anything I had ever felt before. I could twist this will, and turn it into hate, delicious hate. I could be fed for millenia on the hate of a being such as this.
Willing my intangible body forward, I slowly realized that there was not one, but two sources of remarkable willpower nearby. As I neared, I felt a spike of hatred emanate from one of the sources that was nearly as potent as that of the moon princess for her sister after I warped her thoughts. I was absolutely giddy at the thought of what I could do with this being. For a moment, I was disappointed the the stronger-willed creature had left, but such qualms were quickly banished when I realized that the remaining one would be much better suited for my purposes.
If I possessed a mouth in my vaporous state, I would have grinned gleefully as I willed myself into my soon-to-be host's body. Projecting my thoughts so she could hear, I made my presence known. Greetings, my new host. If you are willing to hear me out, I believe I have an interesting proposition for you.