“There it is!” I smiled as the sickening glow of the crystal empire assaulted my eyes. After two days of walking we finally were cresting the final mountain. We had passed a white dragon corpse a few hours ago, nobody mourned for the fool. “Come on guys, you have twice my legs yet move at half the speed!” I shouted, looking back a growl escaped me as I saw the large mob of ponies slowly trudging through the snow.
“I’m sorry if our weakened and freezing bodies are inconveniencing you,” Celestia said bitterly. “Not all of us have dragon blood and stamina.”
“Excuses.” I shook my head. “It’s your fault for having those five funerals.”
“My ponies deserve proper respect!” Celestia gave me an honestly intimidating glare and growl.
“Ok, sorry.” I raised my hands defensively. “Can we just hurry? I’d like to get to the Crystal Empire before Luna begins the night.”
“Bolas! Cadence’s stupid rock city was further than I thought,” I said angrily as Luna began to raise the moon.
“Hey!” Cadence glared at me. “My empire is not stupid.”
“Whatever.” I shrugged. “Let’s just find somewhere to sleep.”
“Seriously?” Luna asked as I finished digging. “You want us to sleep inside the ground?”
“Well we would have the huts if somebody.” I turned to Shiny. “Hadn’t decided it was a good idea to try a new kind of shield.”
“I already apologized for that!” Shiny said indignantly.
“Anyway.” I returned my gaze to the blue alicorn. “These little ice cave/pits are our best bet for staying warm.”
“Fine.”
“Sean, stop making so much noise.” I felt Twilight kick me.
“What noise?” I asked sleepily. Listening for a second I heard the sound of something digging. “Bolas, what is some idiot doing out there?” Getting up I stepped over the purple unicorn before pushing my way through the snow door to my cave. “Hey, numbskull.”
Adjusting my eyes to fit the dark I began to look around, following the sound my eyes landed on a strange figure digging into one of the nearby caves.
“You, what are you doing moron?” Walking towards the digging figure I put a hand on its shoulder. The creature stiffened before quickly spinning and punching me. Falling back into the snow I clicked my jaw back into place. “Hey!” Standing up I glared at the creature, it turned its red gaze to me before the rest of the body followed.
By now it was standing at its full height, it was bipedal, the monster had a good two feet over me. Its white fur blew in the mountain wind. Baring its yellow fangs at me it growled before swinging a large fist. Ducking I quickly turned my hand into a blade before stabbing it in the gut, swiftly removing my limb blood began to spew from the wound. Letting out a cry of pain the monster grabbed me by the head before lifting and throwing me into a nearby rock.
“Ow.” Getting up I relocated my shoulder. The monster growled, one of its massive hands was pressed against its stomach. “You don’t look so good.” It growled before taking a handful of snow, pressing the cold substance to its wound I watched as the blood stopped trickling onto the ground. When the hand moved I was shocked to see no signs of a wound. “Now that’s just not fair.”
The giant roared before charging me at surprising speed. Unable to react in time I took the full force of the ram slamming back into the stone, there were several cracks as various bones broke. Some blood escaped my mouth, contaminating the beast’s clean white fur. As it backed off my battered body flopped to the ground.
“What is going on out here?” A pegasus poked his out through the snow door to a cave. He gasped before being grabbed by the monster. The pony cried out in pain as it bit into his neck, then the body went limp.
Ouch
Get up and help!
Working on it. Attempting to get up I winced before falling to the ground. Bolas! Some of my organs are still removing bits of rib.
Great.
Then a shadow fell over me. Looking up I saw the creature looming above me, the dead pony still dangling in its mouth. Removing the corpse it growled at me.
Come on, heal! I looked down my body to see my torso was still black and bruised. Bolas!
I felt its giant hand grab my head, the creature lifted me to look it in the face. Baring its yellow fangs it violently threw me across the snowy clearing. Weakly looking around I realized the snow dens were nowhere in sight. Then the ground weakly shook, moving my gaze forward I saw the creature charging towards me.
Then there was a flash of purple light and a howl of pain before the monster stumbled away from me.
“Get away from him!” Following the voice a saw Twilight glaring at the beast.
“Twilight! Get-” I coughed up some blood.
“Are you ok Sean?” Twilight came to stand next to me.
“Go.” I wheezed. “Away.”
“What?”
“That thing. Will kill. You.” The sentence left my mouth in bursts.
“Don’t worry, I brought back up.” I looked behind her to see Celestia, Luna, Cadence, Shiny, and her friends.
“Seems a bit. Excessive.”
“It really isn’t,” Cadence said as she came to stand with us. “That’s a yeti, unfortunately they rarely travel alone.”
“Great.” By now I had fully recovered and got up. “You guys can leave, I’ve got this.”
“Right, because you were doing so well.” Celestia rolled her eyes.
“Shut up.” I growled before looking at the Yeti. It was weakly picking itself up from the snow. Looking over all of us and realizing the number shift the monster took a step back. “Not so tough now!”
“Don’t taunt the Yeti!” Cadence glared at me. “It might-”
The monster then let out a howl. The ponies all covered their ears, I just smirked.
“Trying to deafen us?” I asked. “That has to be in the top five of lamest-” My face then became better acquainted with the snow. Rubbing the back of my head I slowly got up. “What was that?”
“The rest of them,” Cadence said, obvious fear in her voice as she looked up. Following her gaze I saw several glowing red eyes from the hill.
“You see what you do!?” Luna glared at me.
“Shut up, how was I supposed to know there were more?”
“I did-” Cadence began.
“Silence!” I interrupted the pink alicorn.
She did warn you.
I will kill you.
I’m primarily a voice, the best you could do is annoy me to death.
Maybe I will!
“Sean!” I stopped my conversation in time to be hit by a massive snow ball. Digging my way out I shook the cold whiteness off my body. Celestia was glaring at me. “Stop talking to your boyfriend and fight!”
“I am offended by that implication.” I returned the glare.
Ditto.
“Shut up and help!” Celestia ordered.
“Fine.” I cracked my knuckles. “Let’s kill some yeti.”
“Duck you idiot!” I shouted as a yeti took a swing and Shiny. Luckily his training was still good and the unicorn managed to dodge before hitting it with a magical blast. The yeti roared in pain before running off. Then a massive fist hit me in the face, sending me flying back.
“Take your own advice,” Shiny said smugly.
“I will shove your shield down your throat.”
Stop arguing and focus the white freaks!
“Racist.”
Shut your mouth.
I rolled my eyes before blasting the attacking yeti with a fireball. The beast cried out in pain as it rolled in the snow, once it had put itself out it turned and ran off.
“You’d better run!” Smiling I looked around. There were at least five dead yetis on the ground around me and three pony corpses. “I believe that’s the last of them.”
“Good,” Celestia said, breathing heavily.
“What’s wrong with you?” I asked.
“I’m still not in the best shape.”
“Seriously? We’ve been traveling for two weeks.”
“With limited food and a lot of walking,” Twilight said as she stepped over a dead monster. The purple unicorn didn’t seem much better, nor did her little friends outside of Pinkie.
“Whatever.” I shrugged before turning towards the caves. “Anyway, we had better-” I was cut off by a loud roar. “More of them?” Looking back I watched as a gigantic monster jumped down from one of the mountain tops. As it landed in front of us the ground shook.
This one seemed different, it was at least three feet taller than the others. Two large tusks jutted out from the sides of its mouth. The weirdest feature was two extra arms on its shoulders.
“The alpha,” Cadence said while taking a step back. “This is bad.”
“Why?” I looked at her confused “It’s just a bigger freak. I’ll have it gutted in no time.” Transforming my arm into a blade I charged at the giant. Paying little attention to me it raised a hand and merely knocked me aside. As my head collided with a rock everything went dark.
“Sean!” Luna watched as the human slammed into a stone. His body fell into the snow, he was dead and or unconscious. “That is just great!”
“What do we do princess?” Shining Armor asked. Similar to his spouse there was fear in the unicorn’s eyes.
“We run,” Luna said. “Our group is in no condition to fight that thing.”
“What about Sean?” Twilight asked with concern.
“The beast does not seem interested in our bipedal friend.” Luna noticed that the yeti had not gone for the limp body of the human. “We shall return for him after we lose the monster.”
“Let go of me!” Luna watched in horror as the massive yeti grabbed her sister with one of its arms. It then tightened its grip until Celestia lost consciousness.
“Celestia!” The princess of the night began to charge her horn. Unfortunately the monster noticed and swung a fist at her. Luna was able to dodge but it interrupted her spell’s channel.
The beast roared as a bolt of purple magic hit it in the face. Twilight was currently running circles around it, attacking every few seconds. Growling in annoyance the yeti slammed a fist into the ground. The impact caused a shock wave that sent Twilight flying back. As the unicorn tried to get up she was grabbed by the yeti. Following the routine against Celestia it knocked her out.
“Twilight!” Cadence and Shining said at the same time.
“Let her go!” Shining ordered before attacking the monster. Paying no mind to the former guard’s attacks it scooped up a large amount of snow before compacting it into a sphere. Before anypony knew what was happening it threw the ball at a large group of ponies.
Thinking fast Luna raised a shield to protect them, the ball made contact with the shield before falling apart. As she lowered the shield she gasped in surprise as a large white hand grabbed her. Before Luna could retaliate it squeezed her until the pain and loss of air caused her to black out.
“Aunt Luna!” Cadence cried out as the lunar princess’s head went limp. The pink alicorn began to charge an attack. Noticing this the yeti slammed a fist into the ground, the blast created a snow cloud. Once it subsided the yeti was gone. “Oh no.” her gaze fell to the snow covered ground.
“What do we do now Cadence?” Shining asked as he came to stand next to her.
“I’m not sure.” She shook her head.
“Princess I think I found something.” The alicorn looked up to see Rainbow Dash hovering a few feet away. Walking to her Cadence smiled. In the snow there were giant foot prints leading away from them.
“Good eye Rainbow Dash.”
“So now what?” Shining asked.
“I’m going after it,” Cadence said confidently.
“What!?” Shining’s eyes widened. “No, it’s too dangerous to go by yourself.”
“I won’t be.” The pink pony then began to walk away.
“Sean wake up.” Cadence shook the human. “What’s wrong with him?”
“His neck likely broke,” Shining said as he look at the body.
“I know that, but why hasn’t it healed.” The alicorn then saw a red glow flashing against the rock behind him. Flipping the corpse she saw a sharp piece of rock lodged in the human’s neck. Electric sparks were flashing around the stone, but it seemed to be lodged in too far for his healing to remove. “Here we go.” Enveloping the rock in magic she quickly and efficiently removed it.
The bleeding hole began to close. After a few seconds coughs escaped the human.
“Ugh, someone get the plate of that carriage,” Sean said groggily as he sat up. “What’d I miss?”
“Twilight, Luna, and Celestia have all been kidnapped.” Cadence jumped to the point. There wasn’t much time to waste, who knew what the yetis wanted with them.
“I’m sure they are fine.” Sean began to close his eyes. “Let me just take a nap.”
“Oh no you don’t.” Rainbow Dash suddenly bolted in front of him and hit him in the head.
“Ow!” Sean glared at her. “What the heck!?”
“I’m sorry but you deserved that,” Cadence said.
“Don’t you care about your friends?” Rainbow Dash asked angrily.
“Sure I do.” Sean got up and dusted himself off. “Would I have done that whole rescue from the changelings if I didn’t?”
“So why don’t you want to save them now?” Cadence asked.
“Because they need the exercise.” Sean shrugged. “I was getting tired of dealing with their weakness.” He then turned and began to walk towards the camp.
Cadence groaned until an idea popped in her head. She had once come across a book about this stubborn human written by Celestia. It was surprisingly detailed and interesting. Closing her eyes she tried to recall the chapter on persuasion. Sadly the only bit she could fully remember was the part on some kind of aggressive transformation. Whispering in Shining Armor and Rainbow Dash’s ears they nodded.
“Well, what could we expect from a lazy moron like him?” Shining said loudly. At that the human stopped moving.
“Yeah, I bet he doesn’t even care about them. He always was selfish and vain.” Cadence smirked. At this Sean turned to glare at her.
“I bet he doesn’t even know what loyalty is.” Rainbow shrugged.
“Don’t you question my loyalty to those three!” Sean growled before spinning around. “I have spent more time with them than you idiots combined!”
“Then prove it go help them.” Cadence smiled. The glare left Sean’s eyes as his own smirk appeared.
“I see that Celestia gave you that book too.” He chuckled. “Shame you don’t have a good poker face or I might have fall for it.”
“I’m done with that part,” Cadence said angrily before blasting Sean with an electricity spell. The human cried out in pain before falling to the ground breathing heavily.
“Cadence!” Shining looked at her in shock.
“I’m done playing.” Cadence came to stand in front of Sean. “You are coming with me and you are going to save our friends.” When there was no response from him she rolled her eyes. “Ok, I’m sorry I attacked you.” The only response was a growl.
When the human looked up at her his eyes had turned green. As he smiled she saw his teeth had become sharp.
“What did you do?” Shining asked in shock.
“Something that will work really well, or go horribly wrong.” Cadence then turned and began to run away, following the yeti tracks.
“You will burn!” She heard Sean shout before picking up her pace.
“Hopefully I live long enough to avoid that threat.” Cadence said nervously.