2nd of the-
5th of the sixth
1st of the 3rd, Year of the Awakening.
Morning, nearing the Forgotten Sea.
5 days since I left home.
Dear journal, though it has been a long time since my quill has brushed your pages, I feel I should document the coming adventure. I have lived a secluded life, and I cherished every minute of it, but I now find myself being thrust back into the world by tradition. The journey back to Equestria will be a long one full of fright and peril, but I couldn't call myself an immortal if I was worried by a few raging seas. Never the less, I must find the nearest village and see if I can find myself a captain brave enough to get me close to It, from there I can hopefully find a few old friends.
As I signed the small journal entry, I looked around the scenery and noted anything out of the ordinary. The endless grasslands and trees that separates the mountains I called home and the rest of the world passed by a few days ago and now I was nearing the coast. I was walking down a lonely dirt road, made long ago by travelers on pilgrimages like myself, though I was going in the opposite direction and I was a bit more prepared than most other people. The path was lined with tall trees which leaves blocked out the sun casting shade over the road, and the only sound that could be heard was the constant rustling of leaves from the strong ocean breeze and the sounds of animals running about somewhere deeper in the foliage. Stopping for a second I closed my eyes and let my hooves burrow slightly into the moist dirt, allowing the grass covered in early morning dew to brush against my fur. I breathed deep in and relished the taste of the morning wind combined with the gentle breeze from the sea.
"Ahhh...I love mornings." I said to no one. But before I could continue on, a branch snapped behind me, spring into action I drew my sword with my magical grip and raised my walking stick/mystical staff into a defensive position. Weapons at the ready and with my dark robes on, I would look menacing enough to deter most interlopers.
"Hark! To whom thought it wise to ambush me, come forth and show thine self!" I shouted as menacingly as I could in common, It had been years since I had used the basic language of most races as I preferred to use the Old Tongue. Standing at the ready, I awaited the fiend to show himself. I was expecting a blood thirsty Minotaurian raider to come screeching out of the woods with a battle ax firmly in his hands and a mad glint in his eyes, instead a cute baby Jackalope shuffled out of the foliage. Brown Jackalopes were somewhat of a rarity as they weren't native to colder climates like Teria, The Everfree Isles or anywhere near The Tear or the Western lands in general, but somehow they end up in the forests. Some people call them pests due to their insatiable hunger and sharp antlers, I can't get enough of the cute, demure things. The baby was small enough to fit in my satchel and couldn't have weight that much, then again they were deceptively strong and could run like a bat out of hell so I wouldn't try touching one unless it wants to be touched. This one's shaggy brown fur looked dirty and stained with what looked like...Blood. Upon closer inspection I could see small cuts and gashes along its body, could it be poachers? It was clear from its constant shaking and it's wet, matted fur that it was scared, injured and alone. Instantly, I lowered my weapons and slowly walked closer to it, trying not to scare it off.
"It's ok young one, I won't hurt you." I said calmly in Old Tongue as I got near the frightened babe. It was trying to look frightening by growling and staring me down but it was clearly terrified.
"I wish to heal you, please let me help you." I said quietly as I got down near the ground and levitated my saddlebags off. The Jackalope was shaking like a leave but he didn't shy away from me as I inspected him or her from a safe distance making sure to stay away from the antlers.
"Minot cuts, possibly from a sword, arrow head or a trap. A sprained hock and knee on the left hind leg, either from continuous running or a trip wire of some kind. Definitely poachers..." I muttered to myself as I looked the shivering animal. Reaching my left hoof inside the brown bags I had placed next to me, I opened the flap and looked inside for a small pot.
"Lavender, coffee beans, paprika-ah here it is." I said aloud, slightly spooking the bunny as I pulled out a small, earthy clay pot with a few scratched lines on it.
"Now then, I need to you to sit still, this is a special salve extracted from a mixture of herbs and a bit of my own magic. It might burn a bit but trust me it will help with the wounds. Will you let me apply it?" I ask as I took off the top of the pot, letting light shine into it, illuminating the orange cream. I looked down at the scared animal and I knew from the hardened look in its yellow eyes and its tensing body that it was ready.
"Ok...Don't say I didn't warn you." I said as I applied some ointment onto my hoof, giving it an orange shine, and slowly started rubbing the salve onto the few cuts on the side and back of the little jackalope. He made a few small grunting or screeching noises but didn't stop me, strange as they were usually easily frightened or angry, territorial creatures who would usually kick you with their hind legs or run off if you tried agitating them. After a few minutes of rubbing in the fragrant herbal cream the wounds were already closing up from the fast acting natural agents. The sweet little thing was now grunting, stretching its leg out to test the joints and running in circles around me with a heart warming smile on its cute, bunny face.
"Huh, you're a tough little guy aren't you? Now then, where's your burrow? A tiny thing like you shouldn't be out in the open without your mother, I believe Timber Wolves stalk the coastlines." I asked worried that he might be seen as a easy target. He seemed unsure but screeched something that I assumed meant 'follow me', It had been a very long time since I had talked to any type of creature besides birds and the very few visitors who made it up the mountains. Scampering into the thick tree line, exotic and poisonous flowers and past all the thick shrubs I raised my robes hood and trotted after him, I assume its a he, off the beaten path.
It was nearing mid day now and the sun was beating down on my covered back as I followed closely behind the beast, suspecting that a monster would jump out and attack either of us. The beating waves of the raging ocean where now clearly heard over the sound of wind blowing the leaves, the faint crackling of twigs caused by all kinds of creatures or the sound of wildlife flying over head or singing their songs. We had being seemingly avoiding the beach head despite us being so close to it I could almost feel the grains of sand beneath my hooves.
'If memory serves me right then the shore was less than a kilometer away and held much fewer obstacles so there must be a-' My thoughts were interrupted as I heard the sounds of screaming and running. Looking up I saw that the bunny had run on ahead through a large patch of grass and shrubs and if its alarming cries were anything to go by, he was in distress. Drawing my sword and channeling a hex into my staff, causing the fire opal to glow and the white shaft to radiate a faint light, I bolted through the thick layer of bushes and shrubs into the clearing on the other side. I expected a manticore in need of calming or a pack of Timber Wolves in need of a good trimming, instead I saw a blown out hole that could have once been a burrow and clumps of bloody and matted fur lying around. The clearing was barren of trees or shrubs, the only shade from the scorching sun being the tall blades of grass, but everywhere piles of dirt and...Jackalope gore. The young rabbit was in clear distress and was running around frantically and screeching, looking for its family.
"Why...Why would anyone do this?" I whispered in disgust and anger, stomping my right hoof into the ground in rage. It had been a long time since I was genuinely angry, annoyed and upset yes, but I had never been this furious. Someone had done this, and someone was going to pay for what they did...
As I breathed in slowly to try and calm myself I walked cautiously towards the now crying Jackalope, curled up in a ball in front of the smoldering ruins of his home. Sheathing my broken longsword, I placed my staffs end firmly on the ground and knelled down behind him.
"Let it all out, little one, for soon we won't have time for mourning. I promise you, I will find who ever did this..." I said in a calming then displeased voice as I scooped up the weeping babe and embraced him in a heartfelt attempt to calm him down. After a while of us just sitting there, him crying his tiny eyes out and me infuriated at the audacity of whomever intruded upon this clearing, I heard a noise unlike any other. It was like a thunderclap without the ground shaking volume or vibrations. It repeated multiple times before I stood up, placing the emotionally damaged bunny on my back through levitation as I decided to grasp my sword and staff in each hoof, using the staffs end as a walking stick.
"Do not worry young leveret, this will not go unpunished.
Elsewhere
The Western Plains, Coastline.
"merde, merde, merde!" I shouted in alarm as I flew full force away from my pursuers, who seemed content to either fly after or fire at me from below. I had been flying for what felt like hours when in reality it had being mere minutes since I had being spotted.
"Come on down here lil' birdy! We won't hurt ya, promise!" One of my attackers shouted in a heavy Trottingham accent. These guys where shaddy as all hell, I knew that before I took this job, but I had no way of knowing they were so well armed for a rag-tag gang of pirates.
"Here's an idea; how about we go our separate ways as connaissances?" I asked, trying desperately to distract, slow them down or just get them to stop trying to kill me.
"Sorry lass, you should have know to stay out of other people's business. I would say nothing personal but that's a bit cliche don't ya think?" He replied, turning my head around I got a good look of the coming horde. I was hovering about thirty feet in the air, well above the ever expanding treeline and crashing, blue waves. Behind me flew about three griffins and two pegasi, all wearing similar garb; torn shirts with makeshift leather armor and torn up pants mostly used to accompany the belt carrying their cutlasses and flintlock pistols, though the griffins leading the charge would most likely prefer to use their sharpened claws instead of their swords, for the personal touch. Below me on the sun bleached sandy shores where three changelings all armored up and levitating rifles and two earth ponies in light, leather body armor who preferred to use a Cestus over a conventional weapon, though when your greatest strength is your kick and punch, work with what ya got I guess. The group was shoddy to say the least and where nothing special, but their pistols and rifles made me a target, but if I go ground side I'm worse off. Thinking quickly I slowed down a tad to let my pursuers catch up to me. I kept turning left over the water then turning back around towards the tree line, all the while throwing in a few minor aerobatics to throw them off or confuse them.
"Got ya now sweetheart." I heard a griffin behind me cackle out. Looking back, I saw him wrap his talons around my back leg and pull me back. Just as planned. Faking a gasp, I donned a shocked expression and feigned struggling.
"Ha, where you t'ink you goin'?" He asked while laughing. As his buddies showed up, hovering around like a pack of hungry vultures, they realized a bit too late what my plan was as they screamed and flew off as I reached my left arm up to my chest, upholstered 'Anne' and aimed.
"Down, au revoir!" I said cheerfully as his jovial expression dropped. Pulling three of the eight flintlocks caps I aimed straight for the twits face and pulled the trigger. Two things happened next; his brains, teeth and eyeballs were now flying through the air in a pasty, red mess and I was also now in free fall. Quickly adjusting, I flapped my wings and changed my trajectory so instead of slamming head first into shallow water, I changed directions at the last second, barely touching the water and then sand. I was going to fly straight into the treeline that was two hundred or so meters ahead and closing, and from there safety.
'Ok, almost home free-' my thoughts were rudely however, as I heard a loud, ring bang and a tearing, searing hot pain through both of my feathery wings as I came crashing down into the sand, rolling a few dozen meters forward.
"Gah! L'enfer putain! La douleur est insupportable!" I screamed in pain as I looked behind my back and saw the wound, it wasn't as bad as it could be and was mostly a flesh wound, but I wouldn't be flying anytime soon. As I sat there twitching my bloodied wings, I slowly got into a kneeling position and looked around the area to find a strategically sound area. I had thankfully crash landed behind a row of big rocks about twenty meters away from the treeline, but if the constantly whizzing bullets flying around where any indication, then running out of cover would be suicide. the shade provided by the massive, bending over trees provided a nice amount of shade that could hind my if I leaned out of cover, but it also hid their shadows if they were approaching, and this sand made moving around a bitch. Deciding it would be wise to prepare, I ran into cover behind the small wall of rocks. Sadly, the griffins above me where still pretty miffed about their old friend who's now food for the sharks.
"Shes behind the boulders! Git her!" I heard a changeling scream in rage. Doing a once over I took stock of my supplies. 'Anne' with a few extra bullets that can get me through this, an iron dirk, a few pouches full of medicine and bandages, a pouch of dry food and my half empty canteen. using my talon, I ran a finger over my clothes and armor to see if anything was badly damaged. My dark red buccaneer jacket with golden buttons was still in good shape, with its usual sandy smears and rum stains here and there, the leather bandoleer underneath was there, the only difference being the opened holster. The nice, breezy puffy white undershirt was still somehow spotless. my black pants, despite being torn along the bottom of the pants legs, were still in usable condition and offered sound protection. My light, sandy yellow feathers contrasted well against the soft blue feathers I had around the edge of my wings and on my head where ponies would say my 'mane' was. The feathers on my head were held back in place by a dark red bandanna which let a few feathers hang loss underneath giving me a slight fringe. My sharp talons were stained slightly gray around the digits because of the copious amount of gunpowder I work with but I never mind the smell.
"Hey, if you come out now we might not kill you!" jeered one of the Earth pony who I could practically hear the smug smile on his face.
"I love it when they think they've won, makes tricking them so much easier..." I said slyly as I slid open my pistols chamber. Unlike most conventional weapons, 'Anne' was loaded with eight barrels that had to have individual pellets and gunpowder feed in and the barrels usually had to have some kind of lubricant. Thankfully though, I knew a better way; paper cartridges. Unlocking the flintlocks chamber, the front half of the gun came off on a hinge and sat there. After removing what was left of the spent cartridges, ash, I opened one of the pouches I had on my pants belt and pulled out three other cartridges. The cartridges were custom made to include everything I needed for the gun to fire(gunpowder, a bullet and other useful ingredients including some Oxidizer so I don't have to clean up any mess left over.
"We're going to give ya till the count of three to show ya face, or we'll blow it off when we get ya." I heard the Earth pony in charge of the pursuit shout in an aggravatingly loud voice. Using one hand to steady the other, I grasped Anne and prepared to fight for my life. Again.
"One..."
"Two!..."
"trois!" I cried violently as I raised my head over the rock formation. In front of me stood ten targets, all grounded and forming a firing line with melee troops behind them no doubt waiting to charge me. Clicking the first barrels lock back, I aimed for one of the Changeling rifleman who was a bit slow to draw. Squeezing the trigger, his green brain matter was now decorating the sand and trees while his black chitin did a good job of scaring his friends. Stepping into action, I clicked the second barrel and took out a Griffin armed with a pistol, like his friend his face exploded in a brilliant display of gore. At this point they were firing at me, thankfully their aiming was atrocious and all they did was chip the rocks around me causing flacks of the rocks to fall into the sandy ground. Now the melee line was charging and despite my Dirk, I knew I held no change of killing them in close quarter combat. Shifting priority I was able to ground two of the charging griffins by shooting their chests, which didn't stop them but managed to trip them up. Now with only four bullets I quickly shot at the other charging forces and was only able to clip them and slow them down.
'Two dead, six injured, good enough.' I thought as I readied my Dirk. I had no time to reload my gun, but I had softened them up enough to stand a chance.
"Come on you fuckin' bitch!" Shouted one of the Earth ponies with Cestus on all of his hooves. He was a sea green mess of brown hair and reeked of salt but he was built like a brick wall. He started swinging haphazardly and even though he missed, one of his leather gloves lined with steel studs clipped a rock and cracked it badly.
"Why. Won't. You. Die?!" He screamed, each word punctuated by a wild jab. It didn't take long for me to sidestep him before he got tired and opened himself up to a strike. Leaping back, I raised my Dirk and aimed for his throat. Hopping forward, he was unable to avoid my attack as the blade went clean into his veiny neck. The good news was that he was dead in seconds, the bad news is he took my knife down with him. As he fell to the ground in a pool of his own blood, I had just enough time to sidestep the coming murderer.
"Oi! You killed Tommy, you twat!" shouted the Trottingham pony from before, he had a mish-mash of browns and blondes making up his fur and mane. He was decked out in basic leather armor and a striped shirt, but it was kinda useless as I jumped him, causing him to drop the parrying knife he had in his magical grip. With him on the ground, I punched his horn hard enough to crack it, causing him to scream profusely. As he raised one of his hooves to punch me, I raised my right and and dragged it across his face in a quick, jagged motion. Believing he would soon bleed out from the massive gashes and chunks now missing from his once mangy head I looked up and was ready to charge the coming Griffin. He was scared but accompanied by the only other melee troop who seemed determined to crush my skull, either that or he was constipated, kinda hard to tell with ponies, their angry faces are kinda stupid. Running over to the now dead Tommy, I was reaching down to pull out my Dirk until-
CRACK! It hit me like a ton of bricks, the pellet ripped straight through my side. I don't know when, but one of the riflemen though it was a grand idea to fly over head and shot at me, and as I felt the sensation of tearing flesh and searing hot metal, I knew it was tactfully sound. Collapsing on the ground, I was truly scared.
"Merde...Putain je ne peux pas mourir ici se il vous plaît ... Père pardonne-moi ..."I sputtered out in between sharp gasps of air. Shit, this is the end, I thought as I heard the sound of sand crunching under the weight of hooves as a tall pony covered in a dark robe stood over me.
"Ha, la mort m'a finalement pris ..." I said faintly with a smile as I drifted off to sleep.
one minute ago.
"The noises are getting louder..." I stated aloud as I ran towards the beach and the sound of the thunderclaps. I had been running not stop and despite the large amounts of branches and shrubs I had slammed into or avoided for the Jackalopes sake, I was blazing down the dirt path.
"We're almost-"
""Merde...Putain je ne peux pas mourir ici se il vous plaît ... Père pardonne-moi ..." I heard someone sputtering out in Grific, from the sound of it, a young women. Roughly translated, she said:"Damn... Fuck, I can not die here please ... Father forgive me ..." Stopping, I levitated the little bunny of my back and onto the ground, he looked at me like he was pleading for me to stay.
"Listen little one, whatever happens, don't run out there, let me handle this ok?" I pleaded as I tried to calm him down. He looked up at me with his tiny rabbit eyes and nodded before bouncing into the small bushes that lined the beach. Sighing, I readied my sword and stepped past the trees blocking my path. The beach was beautiful. Gorgeous yellow sand, clear, sparkling water and an endless line of green, lush trees. If it weren't for the dead bodies, this would be someone's paradise. The bodies were mutilated beyond the point of this being a simple sword fight, the faces seem to have been blown clear off and the bodies had gaping holes in them. What was used? Spells can't do this kind of damage to a physical form. As I stepped forward onto the beach, the first thing I noticed where the small group of people, the other was a female griffin lying on the ground with a small hole in the side of her body.
""Ha, la mort m'a finalement pris ...", death finally caught me, she said with a small laugh and a cough. Her voice was young and charming, her accent clearly a mix of old Grific and the accent of most pirates or deckhand. Her features were both delicate yet hardened, as if born beautiful then forced to grow strong. Looking up at me, it was clear she thought I was Death, and seemed to be openly embracing her fate as she passed out. Kneeling down, I pulled out the jar I had used before and started rubbing the gel onto the bleeding wounds on the Griffin's wings and sides, I then searched her for bandages and got to work levitating them and bandaging the wounds. After that was done I checked her pulse and saw that she was fine for the time being, looking up I realized I had more pressing matters to attend to.
"Oi, what the fuck are you doing helping her you bloody idiot! Don't you know who we are?!" One of them shouted at me, not amused by their arrogance, I stood back up and leveled up sword at them while also pointing my staff at one of the, Changlics I think their called, who was holding a strange wooden stick with metal in it.
"I shall only ask this question once, so listen well knaves: Was it you whom assaulted this maiden and killed the Jackalopes?" I asked with malice lacing my words as I stared down the cocky, marauders who were oblivious to the winds picking up and the waves growing stronger.
"Yeah, we did. Jackalope make good game and the nosy bitch had it coming. What are you going to do about it?" One of them mockingly asked as a fire started burning in my eyes...