//------------------------------// // (Edited 4-3-17) Chapter 2: It's because I'm black isn't it!? // Story: Nine Lives, Cat's Eyes // by Campanula Monkshood //------------------------------// I awoke to the smell of rotten eggs, ”Oh god, did I forget to empty the fridge again? That smells rank…” “That’s because we’re in the Volcanic Wastes you idiot,” I heard Bonbon’s voice screech at me and my eye snapped open when I remember where I was. The sky was cloudy with smoke coming from several large volcanoes and the surrounding ground was grey stone that flaked easily; possibly shale. “Do you realize you’ve doomed me?! What was Celestia thinking; it’s dangerous outside of Equestria… even as a member of the T.R.T. this place is a bad place to be, nopony in their right mind would willingly come here!” “Tert?” I stood up and gave a long stretch, Man it’s great being a cat- er, Bakeneko, I’ve never felt so great!” Bonbon sighed heavily before answering, “Well since I’m stuck here with you with no obvious way back home… Lyra is going to be in such a fit when I don’t come home… The T.R.T., the Tartarus Response Team, is dedicated to tracking down creatures deemed too dangerous to be around normal ponies and relocating them to where they can’t cause damage.” She stepped in front of me and gave me a seething glare and hissed, “Like you…” “Please, I’m about as dangerous as a marshmallow,” I thought back to my time in the woods, “a flaming marshmallow but it’s still a marshmallow…” I heard several cracking sounds and my ears swiveled to pinpoint it but it was coming from almost everywhere, “Do you hear that?” Bonbon took a moment to listen for the cracking, “Oh buck… we must be near a vent or possibly thin shale… either way I don’t want to be here.” She started walking in a direction that didn’t seem to be cracking. “H-hey wait up,” I shouted as I ran after her being sure to keep my pawsteps light, “Listen Bonbon or Sweetie Drops, whatever your name is, I didn’t mean for you to get stuck out here with me. I’m not even psyched that I’m out here but that’s in the past I guess. Let’s just let bygones be bygones, I mean what’s stopping you from just going back to Equestria?” “It’s Bonbon and what; be on the run for returning to Equestria after being banished?! Why did I even want to turn you in, I was finally settling in at Ponyville…” I hopped up onto her shoulders and gave her a soft pat, “Well we’re birds of a feather now so I guess I can forgive you, I’m pretty far from home as well.” She started bucking like a bronco and I had to sink my claws in to keep from being sent flying, “What are you doing?!” “Get.Off.ME,” She shouted after each kick, “You’re not going to bewitch me as easily as you did Twilight! What did you do, offer her forbidden knowledge?!” “Bonbon stop or you’ll,” I tried reasoning with her but there was a loud crack as the ground beneath us started to spider-web and fell apart, “to late…” She pitched forward as her hooves fell through the ground while she screamed, it was some kind of chute that went straight down several feet then angled off sharply where we gained a bit of speed despite Bonbon trying to slow us down. We came to a crashing halt where we went skidding across the floor in opposite directions, Bonbon was on her hooves in an instant, “Where are we?!” “We’re underground, that’s the extent of my knowledge.” “Ponyfeathers, I can’t see a thing down here,” Bonbon swore as she frantically starting turning in place. “Odd, I can see just fine…” “You’re a cat for Celestia’s sake! Of course you can see in the dark,” Bonbon said as she walked around and straight into a wall, “Buck!” I held my tails in front of my face, "Alright, let’s see if I can do something about the dark…" After a couple of false starts the tips of my tails were engulfed in balls of blue fire that lit up the entire room in blue light, “There we go! Can you see now?” “Now I can,” She complained, rubbing her snout. “Would have been nice a few seconds before-hoof.” “Hey you’re lucky that I got lucky with that idea,” I shouted as I walked around stone pillar-like formations. “What do you mean by that?! That’s a skill that all of your kind possess, it’s called Ghost Lights. If that’s difficult for you then you must be a newly transformed Bakeneko… which raises the bigger question of how in Tartarus are you speaking?!” I just shrugged, who knew cats could shrug, “Twilight thought it was magic.” “Tch, that mare thinks everything unnatural is related to magic… most cases she’s right,” She scrapped a hoof along the wall and licked it. “Gross!” “Oh shut up, you lick your own butthole. We’ve fallen quite a way; Thirty-eight meters… maybe forty,” she spit out the dirt and walked around a bit until she came to a dark opening. “But it’s way too warm, even for the Volcanic Wastes.” “Hey! I have never, ever, everevereverever licked my own asshole! Quilted all the way!” Pausing for a moment to take in what she said I noticed it was rather warm around here. “Why is that anyways?” “Who knows with the wastes, let’s see if this leads back up to the surface. I don’t know about you but I’m not up to climbing up thirty plus meters up the way we came,” Quickly taking several steps until she reached the light’s border and stopped, “Well come on then, get walking.” A quick hop later and I was sitting on her flank, “Solve two problems at once; you need light and my paws are hurting.” “Wuss… Just no funny business, furball.” “Seriously, how can you be so angry at me; I’ve looked in a mirror and this face is flipping adorable,” I cried out as I smooshed my face at her. She just continued walking as she ignored me, “You have ice in your veins woman.” The tunnel started dipping slightly and the temperature rose some more, there was rumbling to our right then rocks started falling away to reveal massive pincers, “Holy shit! The hell is that?!” Bonbon quickly backed up as the rest of the pincers came out, it was a large dark red beetle with chunks of rocks sticking out of it, “I-I think it’s a Gem Bug but I heard they only live directly under or in the vicinity of volcanoes.” “What do we do,” I whispered in her ear, “Run, don’t run? Will it try to eat us?” The beetle set its glossy eyes me and I gave a squeak, it was as big as Bonbon is and Bonbon just stood stock still, “Unless you happen to be made out of solid ruby then I doubt it, they only eat the type of gem they’re made of.” “Dang~ bet they’re worth a pretty good bit,” I tried giving a long whistle but it came out as weird moaning sound, “Forget that I just tried that.” “Yeah whatever,” Bonbon just stared at the thing and followed it where it was going, “Why is it here though, I’m going to follow it.” “Meh, do what you want, I’m just a passenger for the moment but if you get yourself and by extension me killed I’m going to be peeved.” We followed the Gem Bug further into the tunnel until I saw red light mixing with my blue light further down the tunnel as well as becoming swelteringly hot. Exiting the tunnel we saw pools of magma where even more Gem Bugs were sitting on the edges and some bathing in it. “Whoa, what are they doing,” Bonbon shrugged then stiffed as one of the pools of magma pulled itself. “Ha! Well at least I know what you’re scared of now, burning hot magma!” “I’m perfectly fine with normal magma, it’s the moving type that worries me,” She followed the hulking pony shaped blob of magma as it stepped on several of the bugs, “It looks like they’re crushing the Gem Bugs to eat-,” The magma pony’s form rumbled slightly as the bugs it stepped on came crawling out of it shimmering, “-or not…” That’s just fucking weird… I hopped down only to hop back on her, “Shit the floor’s boiling. How are you not in pain?” “Hooves?” “…Right. Can you see any entrances around here,” I asked as I looked around frantically.” “No,” she started to shout and I clamped my paws over her mouth with a hiss, “Wait, there’s one, on the other side of that creature that looks like it goes upwards.” “Then step lightly, twinkle hooves. That fur coat looks highly flammable,” She just nodded and back into the wall to keep as far from the magma pony as we made our way around. As soon as reached the entrance of the tunnel the Gem Bugs started chattering and hissing, it seemed to have a strange effect on the magma pony; it started rumbling deeply and turned to face us, “Shit it’s seen us! Go!” The familiar shading of green on everything returned and I used the magic to snap the supporting structures around the room and chucked them at it in an attempt to stall it but they just passed through it harmlessly. With the cave’s supports gone the place fell to pieces while we ran, “Okay, that wasn’t my best plan…” “You think?! Sweet baby Celestia in a rainbow, don’t rip the supports out of anything while we're still inside it!” The road split up ahead, “Right or left?!” “Right.” “Left it is,” she cried as she leaned left and I pulled her ears until we went right, “Ow, ow, ow, bucking quit it!” “Then listen to me! You almost got us trapped!” I let go of her ears when she stopped trying to go left, “The smells that way circled back so it must have been a dead-end.” Nodding she kicked up the pace when the heat rose some more and I saw the edge of the magma gushing up the tunnel. “Is there anything coming up the tunnel,” Bonbon cried out without looking back.” I spared a glance back at the oncoming magma, “No~ but I wouldn’t slow down if I were you.” Bonbon twisted her head around and screeched, “Idiot! Why didn’t you tell me it was that close!” “I didn’t want you to worry alright?! Why can’t you just trust me when I say something,” I stamped a paw several times on the small of her back. “I’m just trying to help!” She just huffed while I whipped my tails back the way we came, lobbing fire-balls at the magma that just absorbed it, “Figures. Idiot, why would fire work on that thing.” “I see light,” a shout from Bonbon shook me out of my mental reprimanding. “It’s outside, I smell a breeze! It freaking stinks of sulfur but it’s fresh! Whoohoo,” I cheered her on until we exited a cave into a terrain I didn’t recognize but who can blame me, everything looks the same. “There, we’re out of the cave now get off me!” I hopped off and kneaded the earth and sparse grass. “Now to do something about red-hot,” I looked around and spotted something that might do it; a large rock, “That’ll do it.” I picked it up with in a green aura but it gave me a slight migraine as I strained a bit, the living magma reached the entrance of the cave and bubbled at us but didn’t leave, “Come on then, I’ll smash you out of existence!” It slowly retreated back into the cave, I laughed, and two Gem Bugs crawled from the magma, “Shit…” “Just had to open your mouth didn’t you?” “Yeah well,” I slammed the rock down on top of the bugs with a loud crunch, “My threat still stands.” I looked off in the direction of the setting sun and I thought I saw the silhouette of some buildings, “Hey, is that a town?” “Yep it’s a town,” I read off the sign on the way in, “Granite Junction… and you said that ponies would have to be- I mean, meow~!” Several ponies and a couple of griffins ran up to us and placed a necklace with several ornaments decorating it much like a charm bracelet, “Welcome to Granite Junction, travellers,” a mare and stallion said while the griffin placed some kind of flower crown on my head and since I was pretending to be a cat I just purred, “You’ve just caught us preparing the town for Nightmare Month, we had a situation recently and were forced to start late this year, luckily we’re only a week late. Let us welcome you to our town; you and your cat must be exhausted!” “I guess,” Bonbon said with a pause while looking around, “I’ve never heard of a town like this so far outside of Equestria. There seems to be a member of every race here, that’s remarkable.” “Oh my goodness! Did everyone hear that,” a pink-tinged griffin shouted to the others, “She’s from Equestria, isn’t that just the most absolutely grandest thing ever?!” “Oh yes, we’re so very proud of our little town. Equestria just seemed to stop sending traders down south as of late so we’re what one would consider… self-sufficient,” a mauve pony said as they led us past the gate, when the air dropped several degrees, to a mult-floored stone building, “Here we have On the Rocks, our local watering hole and tavern where visitors sleep and across the street we have Madam Ting’s Café and Fortune Parlor.” “What about all the other buildings,” Bonbon replied, taking it all in with a smile like she took happy pills. “Well isn’t that just the grandest question ever? The rest of the buildings are residents except for the group over there,” the mauve one pointed over to a section of the town that formed multiple rings, “That’s the Bazaar, if you have things you need or just want to buy things then feel free; we may not get visitors from Equestria but we get a rogue merchant ship every now and again. Do you have anything you wish to trade?” Bonbon pulled out several chunks of ruby and amethyst from the Gem Bugs, Where was she even keeping that? She doesn’t have bags. “I have some gems we found earlier,” she said ecstatically, “Do you think they could be traded?!” “Why certainly my dear,” ‘Mauve’ said, placing a hoof over Bonbon’s shoulder, “Let’s go take a look then?” "Something about this place doesn’t seem right." I wound my tails together to hide them and shook the flower crown off while I broke off from their group, ‘Mauve' seemed to be the only one talking while the others would only speak to make a singular statement. “This requires investigation,” filling my limbs with the strange energy I launched myself on top of a building and spent several hours going around town. I started by checking the rooms of the tavern, On the Rocks; several rooms with belongings in them but none of their owners. Next I scaled back down to the street that was now lacking the bustling sound from earlier, a hop over to Madam Ting’s, looked in a window that revealed even less; different species, both the customers and waiters, just going through the motions of eating in a café. "Something fuck-y is going on around here," I proceeded down the street to check out the bazaar but a little foal was ushering me over to an alley, “Well this seems legit…” I jogged over to the filly and each time I got close to her she’d take off further into the resident’s area, noting the darkened and broken windows, I continued on until I seen her enter a low stone building that looked extremely decrepit. Entering the building I found the foal huddling by herself near a wall with carvings and stains on it, she spoke in a reedy voice that could barely register as a whisper, “…Read the wall…” “Alright?” I spared a glance away from the small child to look at the wall, there were carvings all over it varying in height that said many things; ‘Moon always full.’, ‘Dawn slams the gates.’, ‘Can’t leave then.’, ‘Where’s my voice?’, and ‘Mommy won’t leave…’ “Well isn’t this scared-shitless-ville, population: me.” “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry…” The little filly started sobbing, I sat on my haunches and put a paw on her shoulder and she stiffened. “It’s okay, my name’s Felix. What’s yours?” She moved her mouth wordlessly and flickered out of existence when a guttural growl came from the entrance, “Oh… well shit.” I turned to face the growler and found two beings there; a large snake-man that seemed seriously dehydrated and one of those bipedal dogs that was missing all of its fur and covered in taunt skin. It opened its mouth and fog escaped to the floor as it spoke in a voice that’d make smokers envious, “The girl did well…” It slurped the piece of meat that used to be its tongue back in its mouth, “Shame she only brought cat, guess we’ll add her to feast.” I steeled my wits and spoke, “You’re not adding anyone to any kind of feast, freaks!” “So it talks, is still not enough for feast,” I sprung forward and tried to run past the zombie dog but with blinding speed it snatched me in its disgusting mouth and shook me before throwing me to the ground. It gave a harsh laugh, “Shouldn’t have come then, curiosity killed the cat.” “At least cats have nine lives maggot farm, what’s your excuse huh?” I stood up on shaky legs; his teeth did a number on me with bite-marks on either side of my shoulders that was already leaking blood. “Town is town… but not town also… *sluuurp* We live in town, never die but…” “But you have to feast on flesh!” “Small price to pay… feasts turn into bait like pony foal… *sluuuurp* or they trade while their energy feeds town…” “Bonbon!” I looked at the wall and remembered back to when we entered town; Bonbon was ridiculously happy after they put that necklace on her, “Stupid Bonbon, so worried the freaking cat was going to bewitch you that you missed the people eating town that did! Wait, why wasn’t I affected?” “Not know… *sluuurp* Will find out when we pick at your brain…” “Sorry pal, but that's not going to happen. Now get out of my way, I have a companion to save!” Blue flames coated my fur as I grew and grew until I was the size of a VW Bug from back home, I took a deep breath and let out a fearsome roar. The snake-man hissed before lunging at me, I swung my massive claws and easily took the snake’s head clean off with a spray of rotten smelling black stuff. “Much better… *sluuurp* Now there’s plenty to eat!” With the same speed as before he dove underneath me and flipped me onto my back as he snapped at my neck. I got my rear legs under him and sent him flying through a stone wall then stood up, he was still kicking but had now been disemboweled and was trailing bile and black stuff, “That’s fucking disgusting…” Before he could launch another strike I sprinted over and ripped him head off in my claws. Taking several deep breaths I started for the bazaar, getting jumped by more ghouls and each time I knocked their block off until an honest to goodness Minotaur started trailing me. I managed to ditch him a couple of times but he always seemed to find me, I spotted Bonbon at a bazaar stall with a massive stack of boxes and bags tied to her back, “Bonbon! We got to go!” “Are you kidding?! This place is great, there are so many things to buy here,” Bonbon shouted as she held up some kind of clothing. “Bonbon you have to listen to me; this place is dead!” “Are you kidding me, there’s tons of ponies shopping,” She looked around with glossy eyes at the empty bazaar. “Oh my god we don’t have time for this!” I picked her up in my magic and held her to my back as she started flailing, “You’ll thank me later!” With that I took off for the front gate and almost made it when the Minotaur came barreling through a house. “I’ve had enough of this shit! Let us pass or else,” I roared and my tails burst into flames. “Neither I nor my master fears your pitiful flames or your broken goddess,” it punched a fist into the ground and pulled out a chain that it swung at me and missed, “Once dawn comes you will be one… Your life will belong to my master and you shall serve.” Dawn slams the gates! I just need to get out of town, dawn’s almost here! I rushed the minotaur, leapt over him with ease, and made my way to the gate. I felt intense pressure on both of my tails, I turned around and he had them both in his meaty hands completely ignoring the flames. “You cannot hope to defeat me in time to beat dawn, accept your fate plane-hopper. Forgo your pathetic goddess and join us.” “I don’t need to beat you,” I strained as I pulled him along the ground with each word, “I only need to get… out!” With that final word dawn hit and I was sent sprawling into the dirt. I still felt the grip on my tail, looking back I saw his hand still there but it started crumbling to dust in dawn’s light. Bonbon was suddenly silent as well, her kicking as well as her screaming had stopped as she laid slumped on my back, “Ugh… come on Felix, you put one paw in front of the other~” I sang the song as I walked west and found a sandy bank of s large river, It’s weird, ‘Mauve’ said they had visitors come in on ships and there was a harbor but they’re several miles from the ocean or even this river, what’s with that? The blood loss and ravenous hunger finally won out and I collapsed on the sand, “So… hungry… and tired… man I could go for a chicken quesadilla, like twenty of them.” My body shrunk until I was back to small cat size with Bonbon lying on top of me, listening to the sounds of the river as I accepted the darkness. “Is he going to be okay, Doctor Petpal,” I heard Bonbon’s voice over a sea of static. “It appears as if he’ll make a full recovery, if I didn’t know any better I would say your cat was mauled by a Diamond Dog,” ‘Doctor Petpal’ said as I felt a hoof run over my wounds but it felt odd, “It’s simply remarkable, three hours ago the poor thing was at the Green Pasture and then its heart-rate returned to normal and the wounds were almost gone.” Seven Left… Wait, why did I think that? “Yeah, he’s something else, do you think I could have a moment alone with him,” Bonbon asked the doctor who hummed and left the room with a click. Bonbon walked over and laid her head on me slightly and started cry, not like full on family death but really sad character death kind of cry. “What happened,” I asked as I cringed internally as the tears hit my back. She sniffled and cleared her nose on a hankerchief, “Well I finally came to we were on a beach and you were underneath me, bleeding heavily. I looked down and saw the thing that I was wearing, it was disgusting; it was made of bone, sinew, and teeth. When I took it off, flung it into the river, I started to remember what happened while I was treating you… I just wanted to apologize… and to say thanks; you really saved my flank out there and for that I’m grateful and I should offer an apology for how I've been acting. I should have know something was wrong, nopony has celebrated Nightmare Month in centuries since it was cut down to only one night about five hundred years into Luna's banishment.” “It’s cool Bonbon, by the looks of it you managed to keep the loot you bought… that’s an upside,” I said, trying to be light-hearted, “Where are we anyways??” She stood up and dried her eyes, “After I bandaged you up I followed the bank north until I found this place; Port Redstone. Don’t worry about anything, this town I actually know of; it’s the only town that’s safe for travellers and is close enough to Equestria. Remember what I said about they’d have to be out of their mind to come to the wastes? It mostly stems from this place.” “Huh… well if we’re so close to Equestria why don’t we just go on back there? I know we’re banished or whatever but you said it yourself; this shit is cray,” I stood up easily as my wounds were almost gone, “Honestly that white bitch can screw a red-hot poker.” “You can’t talk about the Princess like that!” “Why not? She’s not my princess… especially after kicking my ass to hell both figuratively and metaphorically. Help me get these things out of me, I’m fine, I’m starving. How long was I out?” “Two or three days?” “Whelp looks like I can go without food before it starts really effecting me for almost a week. Good to know,” I flinched as she pull the last of the monitoring equipment out of me and I eased my stiff body on her back, “Tally-ho Bonnie, let’s hope this place sells fish! I mean if they live on a river then they must but who can tell, you ponies are crazy.” “Bonnie?!” She gave a snorting laugh, “What’s with the sudden familiarity?!” “Well we’ve apologized to each other, haven’t we? That makes us friends as far as I’m concerned so I came up with a little nickname for you. …We are friends right,” I asked in an unsure voice. “Sure,” She gave me a smile, “We can be friends… and thanks.” “Excellent! Now let’s eat~!” We left the vet’s office and headed for a restaurant looking building and I ordered so much fish I was filled to bursting. The waiter was great; didn’t even react to the fact that a small cat had just ordered a cubic fuck-ton of fish.