//------------------------------// // Chapter III // Story: The Marks of War // by DungeonMiner //------------------------------// 48 hours before Apple Bloom’s arrival. 5 717 999.M41-Arconar The jungle forest of the Feral world of Arconar was famous for a few things. The first, was that this was the location of the infamous Battle of Arconar; in which, in the year 861.M41, the Ultramarines, led by Marneus Augustus Calgar, fought off an alien enemy, and claimed the planet for the Imperium of Man. The second thing these forests were famous for was its unspoiled beauty. Nothing could tame those forests, not the bronze axes of the natives, not the bulldozing tanks of the Imperial Guard, not even the flamers of the Ultramarines themselves could stop the forest. Anything that was cleared away, grew back within a few months. At this time is not known whether the plants or the soil itself were the sources of this amazing growth. The third thing was that the jungles were also incredibly humid. Water constantly dripped from almost every surface, from the leaves of the trees to the boat-shaped huts of the tribal natives. Water permeated the air, to the point where some of the smaller lifeforms simply had gills rather than lungs. This made the change from Equestria’s cool, temperate climate, to the humid jungle forests all the more obvious to Sweetie Belle. She was spat out her portal, her hooves catching a thick limb that sent her spinning. “Ow!” She caught a trunk this time, which brought her around like a top. “Ow!” Finally, she landed, face-first into the largest mud puddle she had ever seen. She lay there for a moment, before pushing herself up. “Ew...Ow…” As she pushed herself up, out of the muck and grime, she felt the humidity hit. The curls in her mane went crazy and sweat began to soak her fur. Her sore body groaned as she stood, and she looked into the thick foliage where the sky should have been. “Hello? Hello? Anypony there?” The only answer was the buzz of a thousand insects, hiding just out of sight. “Apple Bloom? Scootaloo? Anypony?” She called again. Again, no answer. “A-anypony?” There would be no answer. ---=][=--- “Okay, Sweetie Belle,” she said to herself as she moved through the never-ending mud, hooves schluck-ing all the way. “You’ve just gotta keep going, if you keep going in one direction long enough, you’ll get out of the forest. Once you do you can find directions. Once you get directions, you can find Twilight. Twilight will help. She helped last time we all went through a portal, she can help us again.” The memory of the last time they had gone through a portal, while a funny memory, provided no comfort. It was during their short campaign to become Cutie Mark Crusader Advanced Quantum Physicists. They had, with the help of an unwitting unicorn, gathered enough magical energy to create a simple extra-spatial portal. Or was it an interspatial portal? She could never tell the difference. After creating the portal, with the help of a few devices that they really shouldn’t have gotten their hooves on, they did a little study and experimentation. This, of course, went badly. After traveling the equivalent distance of 14,000 miles, and spending 15 bits (promised on the account of not carrying change on them) on a dragon-breath letter to Twilight, they found themselves waiting in Saddle Arabia, waiting for the purple alicorn to arrive. “It’s just like last time, Sweetie Belle,” she said to herself. “You just need to find somepony, get them whatever they need for the letter, and then go home. That’s all you need to do. You just need to get out of the forest. Just get out of here, and when will this mud end?!” She screamed at the mud she had been slogging through since her arrival. The wet ground unable to dry for the moisture in the air had provided almost no stability to her march, serving only to slow her down, as well as get her hooves dirty. She sighed, before a slight smirk graced her features. “Rarity would hate it here.” A low, deep growl answered her. Sweetie Belle froze, before she very slowly turned her head to get a look at the thing behind her. The monster had leaf-green coat of thick, moisture-absorbing fur, making it hard to see as it stood, crouched on a nearby branch, ready to pounce. It’s wide, hammer-like head swung back and forth as the small, u-shaped mouth beneath it opened hungrily, revealing rows of razor-sharp teeth inside. It approached with feline grace, its shoulders high and hunched as it tried to stay low to the ground. Its short, powerful legs ended in wide, stubby paws that promised sharp, flesh-tearing claws and a terrible end by them. The thing got closer, moving slowly as it stalked her. Sweetie Belle’s eyes snapped forward, and her gaze began to fly all across the forests, searching for some way out. Her heart began to beat faster as adrenaline began to flood her tiny body. As her breathing began to quicken and her legs began to shake, her mind almost slowed to a crawl. “I...I...I need...out...I need out.” The hammerhead panther gave another, low, satisfied growl. “I need out,” she thought again, her brain trying desperately to make sense of those three, simple words. “I need out.” A long, spiny tail that ended in a long, curved barb snaked behind the panther, before slowly rising into the air. Sweetie Belle’s brain screamed. “I. Need. Out!” She bolted forward, mud flying up as her hooves came free of the massive puddle. “Out! Out! Out!” The panther leaped, missing Sweetie Belle by inches and splashing into the mud. The small unicorn filly leaped away, screaming as she did. She ran forward, up the branch of one of the nearby trees, running up the wood, and spraying mud behind her as she did so. The panther moved to chase, only to have mud splash into its eyes, and its tail lashed out blindly as it growled in pain. Sweetie Belle kept screaming, running much faster now that she was out of the mud. Her hooves clacking against the bark. A second after that came the roar of the hammerhead panther. She ran, still screaming as the panther gave chase. Deeper and deeper into the forest. She ran, losing all sense of direction under the massive green canopy. She ran, into the endless forest of Arconar. ---=][=--- Sweetie Belle leaned up against one of the many trees, gulping down air as she rested against the solid trunk. Sweat dripped down her head, limbs, and back as the humidity kept her from drying. Somehow, some way, she had lost the panther, and now she just had to catch her breath. She had no idea where she was now. No idea which way she had been chased. Any sense of direction had been totally lost from running underneath the thick canopy. There was nothing that could even hint as to what was East or West. There was no North, no South, just endless trees. At the very least, she had learned to travel along the interconnecting branches rather than the ground. She just needed to get out. She needed to get out. She just needed to get out of the trees. Out… “Okay, okay…” she said, taking another deep breath. “I...I just need to go straight. I’ll get out eventually. I just need to—” The shrill cry of a massive bird sounded, behind her, causing her to jump forward, and into the undergrowth. The thick brambles and tiny, claw-like branches grasped at her, catching her and scratching along her skin. It held her. It touched her. It stroked her. She wrestled free, coming loose of the bush and landing on another branch. She wanted out. She wanted out so bad. Out. Out. Out. She froze, only to realize that she had been running. She looked back, unsure of where she came from and where she was going to. She had no idea. She sat down. “It’s...it’s okay...it’s okay, Sweetie Belle. Everything’s fine...you just need to get…” Out… She looked up, into the endless trees. They stood, silent watchers, staring at her with uncaring eyes. Their arms reached to the heavens, offering unheard prayers as they sacrificed her soul. Their mouths twisted in silent cries. She blinked. They were trees. The darkness beyond them was total. The world around her went silent, making her suddenly aware of the fact that the forest was alive all around her. Breathing. Hungry. It was just so...hot. It was hard to breathe. She felt like she was being smothered by a thousand blankets, all being forced into her face and around her body. She couldn’t breathe. So hot. Soaked to the bone with sweat. The forest roared to life. Roaring with insects and crying with birds. The roar of the panther and the growl of the bear echoed in her mind. “Sh-…” It was screaming. Filling her mind with words that had no meaning, and meaning that had no words. Her brain began to throb as pins of things she did not understand began to stab into her brain. "Shut up..." She shook her head, clearing every thought and trying to take command of her mind again. “Focus. Focus Sweetie Belle. We just...we need...we need to go…” She looked left. Right. Left. Right. Straight. It didn’t matter. She just wanted out. Out… Out… OUT! She ran. Ran into the undergrowth, where the bushes eagerly waited. The brambles grabbed at her. They grasped her. They wanted her. They needed her. They thirsted for her. She was screaming. Howling. Running. Howling. Screaming. Panting. Running. Screaming. Panting. Howling. Panting. Screaming. Howling. Running. Running. Running. Running. Screaming. Out. Howling. Running. Out. Screaming. Panting. Out. Running. Howling. Out. Running. Panting. Out. Out. Howling. Out. Out. Running. Out. Out. Out. Out! Out! Out! Out! Ou— A hand grasped around her mouth while another picked her up, off the ground. Her back was pressed against cool, almost plastic-like armor, and a thin, strong, almost spindly hand grasped tightly around her mouth. A face, hidden by a cloth mask glared down at her angrily, and a voice hissed in her head. “Quiet!” She stared at him, eyes wide and lucid, before she struggled. “Quiet, beast!” The thing’s mental voice said again. “You’ve alerted the mon-keigh.” The thing holding her looked behind him, beyond the tree, motioning with his eyes. Her eyes followed his gaze, and she saw a number of other, much stockier creatures searching the woods with broad, bronze axes and long spears. “And they will not be as merciful as I.” Sweetie looked up at him, fear shining in her eyes, before the thing mentally spoke again. “I will remove my hand, but stay silent, or I leave you to them, understand?” She nodded, tears beginning to form. The hand came away slowly, before reaching to an L-shaped thing at his side. The creatures moved slowly, poking through the underbrush, before one of them spoke. “I can’t see anything, Harth.” “Then it’s coming from the Dark part of the woods,” another said, pointing with his spear. “We’re not going in there, are we?” A third asked, holding his ax in both hands. “Are you crazy? No one goes in there!” “So what do we do?” “Nothing! Leave the Dark Woods and its tricks. Let’s go home, tell the chief what’s happened.” There was a sound of agreement, and the creatures, the mon-keigh, began to retreat back into the forest, and out of sight. The creature that held Sweetie Belle released a breath. “Ceiba-ny-shak,” the thing muttered under his breath. “You are lucky, you little beast,” the creature said, pulling down his hood to reveal a round head with long, pointed ears. “Lucky enough that I came across you first. Come, we must move from here.” ---=][=--- Oraban was his name, and he was something called an “Eldar.” A “Ranger” to be exact. She really didn’t know what that meant. He was strange and wore a cloak that seemed to melt him into the forest around him. A ghost given form. “Save the rest of your questions for now,” he said, speaking into her mind. “I have my own after all.” “How did you know I have more questions?” Sweetie asked. “That is a question,” Oraban noted. “I suppose I must make my commands simpler.” Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes. “I understood you, I was just curious.” “Keep your voice down,” he said, before adding, “Curiosity is a dangerous thing, besides.” Again, she rolled her eyes, as she sat in a pouch at his side. “Fine, just ask already then,” she said, quieter than before. The ranger smirked under his mask. “You amuse me. Now. What manner of creature are you?” “I’m a pony,” Sweetie Belle answered. “A unicorn, to be exact.” Oraban raised an eyebrow. “Most interesting. Now, tell me, from which planet do you hail from? I have traveled all across this planet, and I have never seen one of your kind.” “Um...I come from Equus, is that what you mean?” The Eldar shrugged. “I am not familiar with that name.” The Ranger then dropped to a lower branch, holding some strange, blue tube in his hands. “How did you get here then, I must ask?” “I’m...I’m not sure. There was portal, and we were sucked through it.” “We?” “My friends.” “And they are not here?” “I didn’t see them.” “Then they are dead.” The words were cold, hard, and offered no other option. They were dead. It was a fact. A fact as hard and cruel as any other. “W-What? No. They’re not dead!” “If they did not come with you, then they either died on landing and if not, then you should wish they died.” Sweetie Belle gasped. “H-How could you say that?!” The Ranger turned his head, leveling his stare at her. “If you came through the Warp, and I assure you, you have, and you came without protection, then you are lucky to be alive and untainted. If your friends did not leave it, then they are doomed to wander it. Eventually they will be found, and then their very souls will be tortured and destroyed. “If they are lucky, that will be the end of it. If not, then they will be turned, becoming monsters and daemons that will haunt the depths of the Warp, waiting to inflict unending pain and suffering on all life.” The ranger turned his two, brilliant eyes to her as she sat in his pouch. “Hope they are dead. For it is the best thing that could happen to them.” Sweetie Belle stared up at him, tears in her eyes. “But...but…” And then those brilliant eyes softened, and he spoke to her with his own voice. “What is your name, pony?” “S-Sweetie Belle…” “Sweetie Belle?” he asked. “Such a simple name…” The woods cried and echoed, alive with the voices of birds and beast alike. “Sweetie Belle, I swear upon my Craftworld, my home, that I will care for you.” ---=][=--- “A mind without purpose will wander in dark places.”—Imperial Thought of the Day Another chapter, a little shorter sadly, but Eldar was never my strong suit. I’m working on it, though! “Working hard!” Thank you, Pinkie. “So what’s next?” Back to Apple Bloom. The Imperium’s going to move forward, and things are going to change. “Imperium? Change? When was the last time that happened?” Roughly 10,000 years ago. Nothing big though, just a small thing. “Hm...suspicious. I’m watching you, Miner.” Keep watching, this is going to be good. “That was a little more sure of yourself than usual.” I finally watched all of Gurren Lagann. "Ah." Anyway, we'll see you next time, guys. "Bye!"