//------------------------------// // The Vessel // Story: Hail to the king, Hail to his Horde // by Emo Rainbow //------------------------------// Arkius was frustrated with this hole full of dust he couldn't get any answers from it like it was supposed to do. Lately everything had been going terrible for him. Not only the dust situation but the locust were starting to get angry that he hasn't been giving them answers. He honestly could not have cared less about what they wanted but their weapons could hurt him so he needed to play it smart. He conjured energy in his hand and fired at the dust pit once more hoping for some results. Soon the dust started glowing and lifting into the air. Arkius slightly rejoiced at getting some results. The dust swirled and created a book made of dust suspended in the air. It opened up and there on the blank page words appeared. ASK ME A QUESTION. Arkius walked up to it and took it into his hands he looked at it and wondered what he should ask it. He realized something that was troubling him earlier. After that large surge of energy he was certain Artemis escaped. He knew exactly what his first question would be. "My brother Artemis did he escape his prison? Is he looking for me?" He asked the book. As the text wrote down his heart dropped. •Yes He has escaped and he knows where you are and what you are doing. It displeases him• It replied. Arkius summoned the last two hunters in front of him. "Go find my brother and slow him down at all costs!" The Hunters nodded and disappeared. That should buy some time he thought. He knew the hunters wouldn't buy him much though. He looked at the book and asked another question "Can I perform the ritual with only two vessels?" •No• It replied simply. "Where is the final vessel and how strong are they?" The text wrote once more. •The final vessel is somewhere near the city of west wing far away from here. But this one is different he possesses a power much like your own Yet it is untapped as of now. And he walks this plane as if he lives but his heart had stopped long before now.• Arkius needed to ask one more question. "What is the final vessels name?" The text wrote out his answer giving him the information he needed to get his power. He called for the locust to bring him the final piece to his puzzle. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Verus' eyes were bloodshot and he felt so tired. He tried to sleep again but the nightmares only got worse. All he could do was sit there and read the books to keep himself occupied. He was now on the experts addition of potion brewing and he even started practicing with small amounts of the ingredients he found in the shop. Hal wouldn't miss them...probably. So far he made a speed potion, a potion to increase accuracy with weapons, and a migraine remedy. The sun started to shine and everything was quiet. Verus even felt himself drift off to sleep when Suddenly there was a huge crash outside of the door. Kindle got startled and fell to the ground on his head. Verus ran outside and saw his reaver had landed right outside of the shop. As the dust from the crash cleared everyone came out to see what happened. Verus got on the reaver and flew away. He sighed and sat there thankful that he had a reaver again. They flew into the air above the clouds. He saw his torque bow still in the holding bag in the reavers armor. He felt happy that his other gear was still there and kept on flying. He didn't know where he was flying to so he sat there and closed his eyes admired the wind. Eventually he flew back and tried to set the reaver down somewhere. He looked around for a place to set it down and decided to keep it away from the city. He saw a clearing that was very flat and void of tall trees and grass. It was not the ideal place to set down a large flying squid but it would do for now. He got off and went up to it grabbing his torque bow and other gear from it. After so long he finally had his torque bow back. Feeling ready for a walk balk to the city he looked at the reaver laying down. "Stay here and try to stay as hidden as possible." He told it before walking off. He traveled pretty far until he found a trail with a sign toward the city. He followed it as he thought about everything that had been happening to him. What am I doing? He asked himself. I was a rebellious locust who wanted to save sera the scars of war but now here I am in a foreign world chasing down the thing that sent me here. And when I catch him what then? Will there even be a home to go back to? Asking these questions made time fly by really fast and it was already noon. Lost in his own thoughts he bumped into a pony. "Hey watch it!" He said without turning around to look at Verus. In the city everyone walked around and talked to each other not even noticing him. He shook his head and walked some more. Twisting and turning through the streets he looked for the shop where kindle and Hal were. Cutting through an alley he looked for any familiar sights. He popped out on the other side seeing the playground from yesterday. Looking around for another sight Verus decided to walk down a very promising street. Soon Verus realized the street he walked into made him get even more lost than before. Hours passed by as the city tricked him over and over bringing him to give up and sit down on a bench as the sun descended in the sky. Feeling bored Verus pulled out his kryll grenade and examined it. After some time he felt like sleeping even more than before since he got no rest the night before. "Verus there you are we've been looking for you all day." Came Hals voice from the right. Verus looked at him and stood up ready to get back to a bed and try to sleep. "Come on let's go." Said Hal walking away. Walking to the shop in silence he looked up to the sky and saw the sun slightly inching further under the skyline. For the first time Verus noticed the rest of Hal's features. He had a short tail and his eyes were golden in color. His mark was a phial with a crack in it and Verus only understood half of what that meant. The sun, Casting an orangish hue on the sky, reminded Verus of what Sunsets on Sera were like. Upon reaching the potion shop Verus' fatigue reached an all time high and he could only think of sleep. "Ok so you need to explain to me exactly what happened out there this morning alright?" Hal said. Verus on the other hand was completely knocked out on the bed in the other room. "Tomorrow we have to have a talk." He quietly said to himself before heading upstairs. Hal walked up to his room and opened it up. Walking in he turned on the lights and locked the door. He walked to his desk and grabbed a quill and some parchment. 'Cray I think I need you to come here tomorrow I'm calling in the favor. So you need to come here and help me get some answers from my guests. The colt can only tell me so much and his Father seems to know something and I need to know. Just hurry please.' ~ Hal With that he rolled it up and held it over a fire. It blew up into smoke and flew away. Several moments later and a letter materialized in front of him. He opened I up and read it. 'Has it ever occurred to you that people might have plans for their weekend? No? I thought not. I'll be there at 8:00AM tomorrow you have one favor left.' ~Cray Hal smiled and got up yawning. He walked to the bed and settled himself into the bed. Lying his head into the pillow he felt comfortable and soon drifted off into sleep. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Several hours of questions and boring stories they came to several conclusions. They had been interrogating the general of King Verus, They had to keep an eye out for a power crazy pony, and he was very quiet. They flew through the air as Krogg ran as fast as he could fearing the worst had become of his King. Upon entering the town though he found nothing but destroyed buildings. The reaver wasn't there either so something had to have happened to it. Chaurus took out the mirror and contacted the princess. "Yes Chaurus have you found Verus?" She asked the changeling. "No princess but we have found his general who was separated from the King. We need to find the Verus' current location do you know where that might be?" Princess Celestia closed her eyes and channeled her magic to find Verus. "Got him he is in west wing City Forty-five miles east of the town he used to be in. Find him quickly there is something I need to ask him. Good luck to you all." With that she faded from the mirror and Chaurus put it away. "Alright everyone lets move." She said and everyone headed in the direction of West Wing city. The three soldiers took to the sky as Krogg ran through the trees fairly fast. The trio flying above were pretty impressed at how fast he could run in that heavy armor of his. They continued following the directions to the city for an hour or two until Krogg stopped. The others stopped too and flew down to him. "Why did we stop? Asked Diligent. Krogg just shushed him ignoring his question. The ground started rumbling like an earthquake and the others started hovering thinking it was. Krogg however knew what it was. The ground kept rumbling but soon thundering noises came as a monster of a creature walked near them. Looking up above the trees they all saw large guns mounted on top of a Brumak as it walked in the direction of the city Verus was in. "What is that thing?" Vance said rubbing his eyes. "Brumak." Krogg said as he stood up and formulated a plan. "Stay here." He jumped down and continued to run towards the city. The trio flew closer but stayed out of sight. As they waited Vance asked "What the hell is a Brumak?" Krogg ran up to the Brumaks side. He looked up at it and saw there were two beast riders piloting it. He jumped in front of it and yelled in the loudest voice he could muster. "HALT!" The Brumak stopped and looked down at it with an obedient look. The second pilot looked down at him and climbed down to meet him. "Kantus what is your name?" He asked. "My name is Skald and I need to speak with your co-pilot." The beast rider motioned for him to follow. Meanwhile from far away the three others were watching the whole thing unfold. Pretty soon the beast roared and a large fire sprouted from its back. It turned towards the ground behind it and it fired missiles. Within seconds however the Brumak exploded leaving nothing but a huge fire behind. Krogg jumped up to where they were and scared them. "Lets get going." He said to them. From that moment on they were glad he was on their team. At least they hoped he was on their team. They still wouldn't let their guard down around him though. Passing the remains of the Brumak they found a trail that lead to the city and they all walked from there. The path was nearly deserted with the exception of them, But that was probably for the better. A long silence came about, And the only noise was their steps on the stone trail. Krogg looked to the ground and thought of his life up until that point. He knew nothing but kill them, go here, do that, And saying for the horde. After he swore loyalty to Verus that all changed. The whole hollow changed after that, but now without any of his fellow rebels or his king what was he even doing. Was there even a point in any of this anymore? He didn't know at all what to think in this new world. Then that's when everything finally sunk into him. In the silence of his own mind he finally realized just how crazy everything was right now. Being in a different world, fighting more locust in said world, and destroying a Brumak single handedly. It's not like he'd never done that before but it had been so long since he last killed a Brumak he was surprised he did it so quickly. Was he dead? Thankfully his out of control thoughts were interrupted by the changeling. "How did you kill that massive thing by yourself?" She asked curiously. "This isn't the first time I've done it." He replied casually. She gave him a curious look. "You've killed more of those things? You can't be serious." She said to him. "Believe me I have. About four others now that I think about it." He replied to her. Chaurus looked at him closely, and when he stared back something in his eyes genuinely scared the day lights out of her. She snapped her head forward and slightly gulped. She knew he wasn't lying and that scared her even more 'I can't believe he can talk so normally about killing four of those huge beasts. I sure hope the princess is right that we can trust him.' She thought. "Four others? What the hell?" Vance said under his breath while looking at Krogg. The talking ceased and they continued walking down the path. Time was going by slightly faster after the idle chit chat but even then it still seemed like it would take forever to reach West Wing. The long silence continued growing longer with every passing moment. No one felt like breaking it though the silence was a welcome sound. Suddenly rumbling was heard approaching them quickly. They all heard it and looked around for anything that could be coming. The rumbling stopped for a moment causing everyone to be listening closely for it to return. Krogg turned quickly and ran at Vance tackling him to the ground just as five large appendages burst from the ground right where he was standing. They snapped at the air trying to rip anything it could down.They returned underground before the rumbling continued but more aggressive this time. Small dust and debris trails were following each of them. And then three giant spider like creatures clad in armor and with really strange faces burst from the ground. They screeched at them and started to charge at them. Krogg took out his gorgons and fired volleys of bullets at them. "I'm guessing these are locust. Do you happen to know what kind." Dill dodged the large limbs swinging at him in mid air. "Corpsers. But I've never seen one so small before." Krogg said while reloading his pistols. 'They get bigger than that?' Dill thought to himself and flew towards a corpser stabbing it in the eye. The Corpser raised its limbs and screamed in pain. Krogg seized the opportunity and threw an ink grenade into its mouth. It started coughing as the poison mist filled its lungs. It thrashed about and crashed into the other Corpsers hitting them and some trees. It burrowed underground but soon it's cries of pain stopped as it was no doubt dead under ground. One of the other Corpsers burrowed underground while the other charged for another attack. "They're weak to fire so if you have any fire tricks up your sleeves let them loose!" Yelled Krogg before he was punched in the gut by the other Corpser in the ground trying to impale him. His armor kept him from being gutted right there But it did knock him out cold. Chaurus fired a blast of fire at the Corpsers' eyes burning it to a crisp. Blinded the Corpser ran into a tree and Vance lunged at it digging his claws into its joints tearing at its ligaments and sockets. Thrashing in pain it tried throwing him off and tossing him around like a ragdoll. Quickly Vance ripped out his claws from their respective sockets. Soaked with blood two of the middle claws that the Corpser had fell to the ground leaking crimson liquids all over the ground. Vance whipped his claws trying to rid them of the same crimson blood. The Corpser desperately tried to burrow into the safety of the ground but it was futile. Chaurus gave it he killing blow with a spell to the head. There was a silence and Dill counted the dead Corpsers. "1 2..... Where's number three?" Behind them they heard an explosion and they snapped their heads around. The final Corpser grabbed Krogg by his leg and returned underground with the unconscious Krogg in tow. They all ran after him but it was too late as the ground returned burying him and the Corpser under ground. Chaurus casted a detect life spell and saw the Corpser digging through the ground as well as Krogg. "Follow me!" She yelled taking to the sky. Flying fast with the others in tow she followed the lifeline provided by the spell as best she could. The Corpser stopped and she started descending with the others. Closing in on the ground the rock started rumbling then boulders were sent flying towards them. She dodged some but then she heard Vance get hurt. She turned around to see him fall to the ground. Soon after she was hit in the back and she fell too. After recovering she looked around for the Corpsers lifeline but she couldn't find anything. "Dammit!" She yelled. "Come on come on!" Chaurus tried casting the spell again but all she could see was Vance and Diligent. "We lost him." - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Krogg was hurting terribly, and all he could see was blackness. He tried breathing in but he couldn't do it. He continued trying but nothing came in and his lungs felt like they were going to burst. His back hit something hard and cold that forced him to take a deep breath. His lungs burned like fire as his lungs greedily took in as much air as they could handle. His breaths quickly evened out and he laid there. A bright light was shined above him. "Well well well. It's you." Said an unidentified locust. Krogg tried to say something but he couldn't manage it all he could do was lay there. "Get me the spirit and tell him we found his piece." The locust said. Some footsteps walked away as one set came closer. "Goodnight." Was the last thing Krogg heard before a boot came down upon his face. Once more the dark embrace of unconsciousness grabbed hold of him.