//------------------------------// // Chapter nine: castle chasers // Story: The Equestrian Venture // by TheCrimsonDM //------------------------------// THE EQUESTRIAN VENTURE Chapter nine: castle chasers Written by TheCrimsonDM Pinkie Pie and Rita had continued stalking through the Everfree forest until they came across the ruins of the old castle. The Castle of The Two Sisters, was from what Rita had been able to learn, one belonging to the princesses. Rita hadn’t been able to gather much information about the castle, after hearing about the magical secrets here, she forgot to ask and essential ran out the door to find the place. Sometime Rita was a little too head strong for her own good. Despite the wolves on their tail, finding magical artifacts or gems was still Rita’s priority for this expedition to the castle. After she learns enough Equish she promised herself to return in the pursuit of knowledge. The old castle itself was in decent shape for thousand year old ruins. The majority of damage seemed contained in the entrance hall. Judging by the destruction wrought in this room Rita guessed that this may have been the sight of a battle. Pinkie Pie fallowed closely to Rita bouncing joyfully next to her. Normally the quick movements from Pinkie Pie would scare her a little, but right now Rita was still on a combat high. She felt like nothing could stop her, although she knew better then to entertain such thoughts for more than a few seconds. The cocky soldier was the dead soldier. Rita was still worried about the timberwolves coming after them. From what she could tell they traveled in packs. And that means that Rita had just killed one of their scouts, this could prove to be dangerous very dangerous as the wolves would most likely seek revenge. Rita looked over at Pinkie Pie who didn’t seem to realize that they were still in danger. Pinkie Pie looked so happy, and Rita enjoyed that. Happiness was such a fickle thing in her life. Rita let out a sigh and swore an oath to herself. “I won’t let anything hurt you Pinkie.” Pinkie Pie looked over at Rita and asked. “What did you say?” Rita looked up and felt a little embarrassed; she didn’t want to ruin any of Pinkie Pie’s fun so she lied. “Nothing. Has anypony ever fought timberwolves in the past.” Pinkie Pie put a hoof to her chin in a thoughtful way while she continued to bounce on three legs. Rita couldn’t understand how Pinkie Pie managed to bounce in the first place, but on three legs, this was getting plumb ridiculous. Pinkie Pie explained, “I know that Applejack has fought them before, and Spike actually killed a giant one. I mean it was like the king of all timberwolves.” That was not a happy thought for Rita to contemplate. The normal timberwolf was bad enough, but giant ones. Those had to be there pack leaders and that could be very devastating for the two of them. Rita began wondering more about these creatures as the two of them continued walking, again Rita let Pinkie Pie take the lead. Pinkie Pie said excitedly, “Oh hey look, that’s the place where we defeated Nightmare Moon. And that’s where me and my friends all became the elements of harmony.” Rita looked around the room they now stood in. it was a long chamber with several sets of old cracked pillars and open spaces along the walls where murals used to sit. There was an old destroyed statue of a horse at the end of this room. Rita then thought about exactly what Pinkie Pie had said and quickly asked. “Wait you did what with who now?” Pinkie Pie grinned from ear to ear at Rita, Rita nervously took a step back fearing that Pinkie might decide to bite her. After a second Rita realized that it was probably a silly fear…probably. Pinkie Pie then explained. “Oh yeah, Twilight came to Ponyville two years ago, and then she became friends with me, and applejack, and rainbow dash, and rarity, and Fluttershy. All six of us came up here to stop Nightmare Moon from covering the world in eternal night. That’s when we learned we were all elements of harmony and we were used our powers to defeat Nightmare Moon.” Rita felt dumbfounded after hearing Pinkie Pie’s story. Imagining all six of these ponies in any kind of confrontation was simply…strange, save for Applejack and Rainbow Dash. The other thing which bothered her was that this Nightmare Moon almost sounded like a monster that she was all too familiar with. Rita then asked nervously. “What happened to Nightmare Moon?” Pinkie Pie looked out towards the bright sun in the sky and said. “Well after we defeated her we rescued Princess Luna from the Nightmare spirits that had turned her into Nightmare Moon. Eventually those mean little guys came back and turned Rarity into Nightmare Rarity, we saved her too but this time we used the power of friendship…a little different then the elements of harmony…I think…sometime I get confused by all this magic stuff.” Rita stood there feeling like her entire understanding of this world was destroyed. Rita cocked her head to the side and exclaimed. “But you’re a bunch of ponies. How can you fight such terrifying creatures? I can’t believe you girls could do any of that, I mean from everything I’ve seen so far. You all should of just ran and hid or cried or something. Not…fight back.” Rita felt out of breath after saying all of that, which allowed Pinkie Pie time to explain. “We do stuff like that all the time. We save the world about once every three months. From things like Discord, Queen Chrysalis, King Sombra, and even Lord Tirek. I guess that’s a lot of fighting compared to your world huh.” Rita sat down hard on her butt and sat there on the hard stone floor for a moment attempting to take all of this new information in. The world of ponies was threatened every three months and saved by six barely stable characters. And yet everypony was always so happy and cheerful and nice. Did this have a connection to the danger they were all constantly in? Was it simply that everypony was trying to ignore the horror of it all by being so happy and innocent? Rita was beginning to realize that there were layers of darkness to this world comparable to those of her own. And did Pinkie Pie just say King Sombra? Rita quickly opened her mouth to ask her who this person was, this person who sounded again very much like someone from her world, but stopped when she heard a loud howl echoing throughout the building. The timberwolves had arrived. *** The two of them were running through the hallways of the old castle. Rita had her stick in her right hand, and was hoping not to need to use her magic quite yet. The sounds of claws scraping against hard stone could be heard from behind them along with the sound of growling. One of the timberwolves was right on their tails. Rita knew that they would not outrun the timberwolf for long, even Pinkie was looking tired. Rita had decided not to ride Pinkie’s back this time because of how exhausted she was from the last time. The pair turned another corner and found a staircase leading down to their right, and could see the courtyard a floor below to their left. Rita stopped at the foot of the stair case and motioned for Pinkie Pie to get behind her. The timberwolf turned the corner and saw the two of them. It charged them without any loss in speed. Rita swung the stick like a baseball bat as hard as she could into the monsters face. The timberwolf was knocked onto it’s side from the blow, and the stick snapped in half from the force of the attack. Rita quickly created a fireball with her gauntlet and tossed it at the timberwolf before it could get up. The fireball exploded with enough force to send burning pieces of wood splintering everywhere. Rita raised her arm just in time to shield her eyes from them. After a momentary pause Rita looked at the beast again, only to find a pile of ash where the beast had once been. Fire it seemed was an effective tool to use against them. And Rita really liked her fire. Rita looked into the courtyard and saw two more of the Timberwolves down below. They looked back at her for a moment before they charged back into the building. Rita knew that they would be coming after her and Pinkie Pie, and they would try and flank the two of them. Rita wasn’t going to allow that to happen. The stick in Rita’s hand was broken and useless now, and she knew that with only one gauntlet she would not stand a chance. Fireball or no she couldn’t kill them if she couldn’t hit them, and they were quick. Rita looked over and noticed Pinkie Pie holding something that she wasn’t expecting to find in this castle. A spear. Pinkie quickly gave the spear to Rita. Rita took a quick look at the spear and realized that it was old, very old. It was made of a light metal, but would probably break after a few uses and considering how tough these guys were. Rita looked behind where Pinkie Pie was standing and noticed several sets of pony armor, along with various types of weaponry. Spear’s, lances, swords, and even an axe were all parts of the weaponry. Rita would come back here sometime looking for some daggers at a later date. There was nothing that Rita truly wanted to use here at the moment, but she had Pinkie Pie grab another spear. Considering the awkward way that Pinkie Pie held the spear in her mouth Rita assumed that she didn’t know how to use the weapon. That was okay though because Rita had no intentions of letting Pinkie Pie fight these things anyway. Rita began going down the stairs with Pinkie Pie behind her and once Rita got half way down she saw a timberwolf come running into view. The creature slid to a stop at the base of the stairs where Rita had already signed the monsters death warrant. With acrobatic prowess Rita leaps off the stairs and into the air. The spear pointed downward she collided into the timberwolf having the spear go right through the back of its neck. There was no blood from these creatures, they were after all only a bundle of sticks. The second that the spear stopped moving and with the creature now pinned beneath her, Rita took her left hand and placed it on the creatures back and unleashed another explosive fireball. Rita was sent flying back onto the staircase where she landed with a hard thud. The spear was launched forward and through the wall ahead of her. It stuck into the wall and jutted out awkwardly. The sounds of claws against stone were approaching again, this time from upstairs. Rita had Pinkie Pie come down the stairs next to her and took the extra spear from her. Rita could feel the burnt flesh on her skin from the close proximity of the fireball. Her hair was also singed a little, along with small burns on her clothing. With great speed the timberwolf came running down the stairs and it leaped into the air towards Rita. With spear held high Rita allowed the beast to come at her, impaling itself on her spear. The excessive weight and movement caused the Timberwolf to knock Rita down onto her back with its body atop hers. It wasn’t dead however as it began to claw at Rita’s arms and tearing through her jacket cutting her arms. Pinkie Pie used both of her hind legs to kick the timberwolf off of Rita. The timberwolf went flying down the hallway along with the spear. Rita was in pain but didn’t have the time to cry over it. She created a fireball in her left hand and then rolled over throwing it at the Timberwolf. The timberwolf was trying to stand up even with a spear sticking out of its shoulder. The fireball connected with the timberwolf and exploded into a fiery spray of burning splinters. The last timberwolf was dead. *** After taking a small rest and being thankful for not having any severe wounds. Nothing more than a few cuts and first degree burns. Rita also managed to loot the piles of ash for more broken green crystals and a few more gems of varying types. It wasn’t odd that these constructs would have gems inside them to give them life and animate them, but the fact that they had gems which they seemed incapable of using had confounded Rita. There was more to these timberwolves then what she could see at the moment. Pinkie Pie looked a little frightened but after Rita explained that she was okay, and after Pinkie Pie gave her a big loving hug, she seemed to feel better. Now that Rita had discovered the castle and explored it a little she felt that her curiosity was satisfied for the moment and decided it would be best to return home now. Maybe she could barrow one of Fluttershy’s sowing kits to fix up her jacket. Rita was disappointed it had been damaged in the fight, she wasn’t going to get a replacement for it after all. On the way home Pinkie Pie continued to talk excitedly about how ‘awesome’ Rita was in a fight. On several occasions Rita made sure to remind Pinkie Pie that this entire trip was going to be there little secret, to which Pinkie Pie reluctantly agreed. Rita couldn’t place her finger on exactly why, but for some reason she felt like something was off. Something was going to happen soon, and whatever it was it would be big. Rita didn’t like the feeling at all, and forced herself to pass it off as simple paranoia. After all she was going to start learning how to speak and read Equish tomorrow from Twilight, why ruin that with depressing feelings of an unknowable and frightening future.