Fighting a Shade Beast in a small corridor in the dark alone is equivalent to dying by stampede and being revived ten times in a row, in mental and physical stress, and guess what I was doing. Thankfully, I wasn't alone.
The beast turns to me and snarls, but all I hear is a quiet hiss, although the effect is the same as the roar of a dragon: blood chilling. The beast rushes towards Wallen, talons quietly clacking on the smooth stone. He responds with a quick flick of the hoof to knock a grenade from his front right "Ready Belt" into the beasts path. A loud crack and a flash of light stops the beast, but renders us all blinded by the sudden light, except for me. I had my Spectra Goggles, letting me see in the extreme light and dark. While the beast was stunned I rushed close and wailed on him. Three hits each to both shins, a back left to the ribs, and a buck to the back left leg, and he wouldn't be pouncing on us anytime soon. I would have done more, but the beast flailed, trying to slash the thing hurting it, so I had to back off.
It was hurt, but not bad, just enough to be crippled. Pal rolls under it's stomach, kicking it multiple times. Finally recovering Piper was the next one to make a move. A cannon popped out of the side of her bag, and a bolas came flying at the beast. It caught the front right leg, but before it's lightning infused gem could discharge, the beast ripped it off. Cursing under her breath, she retracted the cannon and instead threw small spikes at the beasts feet. Backing up, the beast dodged all five of them. It marched toward her, probably thinking to take out the weakest one and take our waken our number advantage. What he didn't notice was the evenly spaced spikes around him. A thundering "BOOM" sounded as five lightning bolts struck the beast simultaneously, forming a terrifying net of pain. One.. Two... Three seconds of rest passed before the low voltage thunder spikes ran out of power. Three seconds was enough for Quicken to be in the air and to dive to towards the beast.
Landing on it's back claws out, Quicken lets himself be taken over by his families blood lust, and starts clawing and ripping small, almost opaque bits of fur and flesh. Quicken comes from a family of mighty griffin warriors whose blood lust could power them through entire armies, at the cost of losing all control until their target is reached, or they die. Quicken acts very civilized to disguise this frightening trait.
Quiet screams of rage seep from the beasts mouth, but it can't do anything to get him off, so it hops around, trying to shake him free. It's dancing slows as more and more chunks of shadowy meat fall from it's back and Quicken finishes the brutal onslaught of beak and claws.The beast then finally collapses, leaking dark grey fluid from its newly shredded back. Quicken lands next to me, as covered in the dark liquid as the beast is. He merely shakes it off flecking everyone too close to him with the blood of a mystical creature. We beat it. Now to see what it was guarding.
We step into the room beyond the corridor, and the first thing we see is a pile of half rotted animal and pony corpses at the side of the room. Victims of a hunting shadow beast. In the center is an altar and a brazier. On the right side of the room are some containers with strange markings on the side. A few look like organs... yeah, not opening them. Big disc calendar thing on the wall, scattered metal bits, a scroll, and an assembly of knives of varying shapes and sizes. Upon inspection, the altar seemed to have two sets grooves. One set was along the edges, like some kind of blood channel. The other was shaped like a pony laying on it's side. Creepy. There are a couple of random spike balls in the left hoof corner, a needle bed in the right, and your average torture tool set in the far back.
Wallen stepped in, took one look at the pile of bodies, turned the other way around and sat down. Wallen has a deep respect for the dead, so to see those mangled corpses, not able to properly bury them with their name, must have been heartbreaking. Piper just tried to ignore the bodies and focused on the engraved symbols all around the stone room. Quicken took a break at the side of the room, worn out from his bloodwrath attack. Pal was doing stretches. I just stood there, examining the room. Where was the Pearl? It had to be here somewhere.
Shhhhhk.... BOOM
The door shuts behind us. The wind force from the doors shutting blows out all the wall mounted torch, though it doesn't get dark. Instead, the shadows coalesce into a swirling ball of the abyss. Quiet, ghostly voices filled the air, saying things like "Leave, before it's too late!" and "You're all doomed." Let's see: Self closing doors + Shadow orb + Ghost voices; not a great sign.
ONLY ONE OF YOU WILL LEAVE THIS PLACE a voice boomed.
Just then, the orb burst, shrouding the room in darkness. A burst of adrenaline shoots through me like a crack of lightning through the sky. Another feeling floods my senses, one of pure strength. The shadows lift, and I'm in a different room, this one more extravagantly colored, but the same size and shape. Four shadowy figures stand around me, looking almost as if they wanted to fight. Thinking of a way to fight them all, a strange thought crossed my mind: "I'll stand up on my hind legs and fight that way." It was weird because I've never fought that way before, or even thought of fighting that way. So I reared up on my hind legs, expecting to fall over, but I kept my balance. The shadows beings seemed to be testing themselves, almost as if they were checking their own skills, one of them was examining itself, like to see if it was real or not. We all then sprang at each other.
A taller one that looked fuzzier than the rest was the one to attack me. It had blades on what I guessed were it's hooves. On my hind hooves I could us my front hooves even more freely, meaning better hits and stronger combos. One that looks like it has claws at the end of it's hooves heads strait for me. We stop a hoof apart, getting ready. Taking a closer look, this one has some kind of long fur, layered over each other. It decides to take the first move, a low sweep, probably trying to end the fight fast.I block it by kicking it's leg back at it, but the claws still nick me on the way back. Using the momentum from my kick, it spins around, balancing on it's hind legs to sweep at my with both of it's bladed hooves. I jump back as the attack sweeps past, and I quickly spring forward bringing both hooves down in a heavy hit to the back of it's head. The shadow stumbles away by the force of the blow, then turns to face me, but it's movements are slowed and more distracted. I guess I hit it a bit harder than we both thought, because it's knees buckle, and it starts to slide to the ground. Seizing the chance, I tense up for a knockout blow, but I a surge of anger makes me end it's life with a spinning kick to the side of it's neck. With a sickening SNAP, it sprawls across the floor, dead.
I look to the other three shadows, but the larger one of the three is on it's side , with a smoldering hole in it's side, wounds probably seared shut by the heat of whatever it was hit by. The other two were throwing magic at each other, one using only explosive orange orbs, the other using assorted projectiles ranging from green lightning bolts to blue waves of energy to fireballs. Upon seeing that I had finished my foe, the explosive one turned and lobbed an orb my way. I ducked under it and, tensing up while crouching, sprang at the explosive shadow. The other shadow , seeing that I wasn't going to fight it apparently, slowed it's barrage and started waiting for openings. Between the two of us, an uppercut here followed by a bolt to catch the other in the air there, the bomb shadow wen't down fast. The magic shadow finished it off with a supercharged lightning bolt that kept his corpse up for three full seconds after being hit.
I turn to face the magic shadow, and it nods it's head in respect. I return the gesture, then we both take up a fighting stance about ten feet apart from each other. It starts of the fight with a bolt aimed at my legs, probably to slow me down. I jump over it, but it grazes my hoof, sending a jolt of pain through my body. Eight feet. I stumble as I land, and it shoots a fireball my way. Instead of jumping out of the way I duck to the ground, fireball nearly singeing my mane, and bounced off the ground getting even closer. Five feet. As I approached, it panicked and used a wall of sharp icicles to stop me. I duck my head and turn it to avoid any fatal head injuries, but it doesn't stop the the icy projectiles from cutting through my bare skin. Pushing through the searing pain, I shake to dislodge any icicles stuck to me, and step closer to my enemy. One foot. Seeing me so close, it simply stopped and braced itself for the incoming hit. I feel sad for it. It's almost like it has feelings or something. I stop, and I take a second to see what it looks like.
Standing on my back legs, I use my front to lift it's face up, hooves on either sides of it's head. Up close, it's got a kind of outline of a face, not just a shadow. Huh it looks just like Piper. I kind of wanted to leave it alone. A voice sounds the room "You will finish this whether you want to or not!. A sudden thought fills my mind, and before I know it, I had snapped it's neck. It's head now backwards, it's body fell to the floor. Well it's fine, right? I mean, it couldn't actually be Piper, right? Thinking back to how it had an outline of it's face, I look at the first one I killed, and a chill runs down my spine. It has a beak, and it has feathers: it's Quicken. I check the others. Pal... Wallen... they're both there, and they're both dead. We killed each other! Oh no. Oh please no. Why? Why did this happen? You see what you've done? You killed them. They were you're friends, and you killed them. How does that make you feel? the voice echos, but I don't care. Why should I care? The four closest people in my life are dead, at my hooves. Buck this. Buck all this hay. Why did we start all this buck in the first place?
The lights, the designs, and the extra bits all fade into dust and disappear, leaving me with my friends bodies. You have proved yourself strong. Now, take your prize and your friends, and begone. With this, the torches relit themselves, revealing a bit-sized gem on the alter. The pearl of souls. Not that It's worth it, but I'll take it anyway. Something to remember them by. Oh Celestia, why?!
One Hour Later
I can't believe that the last time that I would see their names was on the four makeshift headstones in front of me. I should probably say something. Here goes. "Well, goodbye old friends. We had some good times, bad times, and worse times, but we always pulled through. I guess we didn't manage this time. I'll keep you guys in my heart, but I have no guarantees about keeping you in my thoughts. You guys have a good rest, because you earned it. Well, I'll see you on the other side, I hope. Bye." That felt completely awkward. Wallen would have said something stupid, but he's gone now. They all are. It's still just so hard to believe. I better leave before I start crying because I had done enough of that. It was time to retire, and do something better. And with that thought, I quietly trudge away.