//------------------------------// // Chapter 24; Fight in the Everfree // Story: The Wander Through Lands Unknown // by Tomas Lutwig //------------------------------// “If you're honest about apologizing, then AppleJack should be willing to listen to you, even if she still is angry about what happened.” Celestia said after a few moments of consideration. “She's a good mare, and while I believe that in time she will forgive you, she may expect some kind of penance to make sure you're not just saying what she wants to hear, and that you're serious about making things right.” I was nearly right behind the alicorn, listening closely to what she was saying. 'This'll probably be much easier after this whole incident is over seeing as how they're the main catalyst to clearing up this problem' I thought scratching my chin. “Alright, my thanks Princess. Though for now I believe we should focus on clearing out the forest” I said. She turned back and nodded. The forest was quieter than normal, the normal sounds of animals moving through the trees and grass, now having vanished replaced by the quiet sound of the wind which blew softly in my ears. I reached for my hood, ready to throw it back up over my head, but I stopped. The whistle that was created as the wind blew over my ears sounded different from what I remembered, calmer, not the shrill sound that always sounded when I was walking home from school. 'Strange' I thought as I let my hand fall back to my side, the light of the clearing catching my eyes making me look forward to see a mix of expressions from the ponies. “Welcome back Sister, Wanderer” Luna said nodding to both of us as we neared the group. “I believe we are ready” A normal looking branch floated into view surrounded by Twilight's magical aura, a satisfied smile resting on her face. Celestia nodded back a calm radiating from her. “I believe we are as well” she said glancing back at me “Shall we proceed then?” The entire group turned around and started towards the treeline, staying back a moment as I jabbed my cracked walking stick into the ground just enough force to keep it from falling. I let out a sigh taking off my backpack, trying to calm my heart as I followed the ponies. 'Alright, no biggie I mean we got the alicorn princesses who can blast holes through these guys.' I pulled the axe from my belt and squeezed the handle of the small round shield, the leather strap used to hang it on my shoulders wrapped around the handle. As we neared the corrupted section of the forest, I had caught up with the group. Princess Luna explaining, mainly to me, what the plan was. “It's simplicity itself, Yourself, my sister and I will protect the element bearers as we make our way to the heart of the corruption. When we arrive, they will use the powers of Harmony to cure the corruption and restore the forest.” she said, determination plastered on her face. “Alright, now I just gotta keep from being thrown around like a rag doll by the bloatheads” I said smirking. The Nocturnal Princess rolled her eyes but a snicker behind me made me look back to see Pinkie holding a hoof over her mouth stifling a laugh. “See she gets it!” I said chuckling only for the remainder of the group to let out sighs. “We need to be serious here Wanderer” Celestia's voice sounded to her sister's right making me look at her. “These beings are powerful and this is not going to be easy” A look of seriousness fell across my face as I nodded. “Trust me, I know” I said looking ahead, my gut twisting as fear ate away at me from the inside. 'You can worry about dying later. If any of these six fall...' I thought, a shiver ran down my spine. The dark forest slowly started overtaking the natural one, our surroundings getting darker and darker before the red growths on the trees and slivers of light was the only thing illuminating our path. A growing sense of unease washed over me as I realized I couldn't hear anything besides the breathing of my companions. 'What in the?' I questioned mentally looking around for some signs of our enemies. After a moment I noticed a small cluster of red glowing dots in the distance that swayed to and fro making my stomach sink. “Hold on” I said quietly catching the group off guard and making them stop. The pair of alicorns beside me looked at me curious, the younger opening her mouth before I put a finger to my lips. “Alright, you know that magic you used on the monster attacking me?” I questioned in the same whispered voice making them both nod. “You see that cluster of glowing red lights over there?” I pointed making them look in the direction “I'm going to need one of you to shoot that right in the middle of them. Trust me” The curious look was directed at the cluster of lights for a moment before it turned into one of focus as the Lunar Princess' horn lit up and the same light blue beam fired off intercepting the dancing lights right as they swayed. The beam illuminated the forest as it tore through the space between the red dots extinguishing them, but drawing other red dot's to it's position. I nodded glad I wasn't by myself. Our group continued forward at a cautious pace, the Princesses shooting any bloatheads they saw and the ones I pointed out. 'Maybe... this won't be so bad?' I thought hopefully I noticed then that there was group of red dots to my left an absolute darkness flared up for a second before flying towards the group behind the princesses and myself. 'Shit!' I yelled mentally jumping in front of a certain cyan pegasus to intercept the magical blast with my shield. Time seemed to slow down as the blob of darkness neared, but as it drew closer, I watched as it flowed around my shield my chest it's intended target. Much to my surprise though, a familiar yellow glow emanated for a brief moment before it seemed to absorb the darkness. I looked down at my chest shocked a coolness washing over me before what sounded like angered growls caught my attention, looking back up I saw the dim shape of the bloathead sorcerer stomping it's feet on the ground before raising his catalyst again this time the darkness growing much larger than before. My eyes widened and I put my foot forwards about to charge it, but a beam shot past my head going through the sorcerer's making the darkness dissipate. Turning back I saw Luna looking at me like I had grown a second head. “What..?” she started only for a violet bubble to form around us deflecting an orb of darkness from hitting the purple alicorn's friends. “Talk later!” I said as I pointed towards the glowing dots that was the sorcerer. Princess Luna spun and launched a beam at it killing it as her sister took care of a few in front of us. Looking behind us I saw a bloathead dash out form the forest towards us, it's eyes, if you could call them that, glowing an angry red as it let out a deep growl. Dashing towards it, I intercepted a swing knocking it out of the way leaving the monster defenseless, and allowing my to plant my axe in the middle of it's face. A gurgle sounded as the lights dimmed to nothing and I shoved it off with my foot. My eyes darted around looking for more enemies, my fear having vanished with the wave of coolness that had flowed through me. A smile came to my face as a glob of darkness flew towards me and being absorbed by the same yellow light making me turn towards the cluster of red dots that it have originated from. I ran towards the cluster of red laughing from the feeling that flowed through me. The bloathead sorcerer raised it's catalyst once again, but I was too close. My axe bit into the sorcerer's arm nearly taking it off, and causing the spell to disperse as the catalyst it the ground. Something similar to a shriek of pain emanated from the sorcerer as it clutched it's nearly severed limb. Not giving it much time to grieve, I replaced my axe in it's neck turning the shriek to a gurgle as blood spilled into it's throat. I picked up the catalyst eyeing it for a moment before sound behind me caught my attention making me whirl around to find the ponies under attack with the princesses nearly being overwhelmed just from the numbers. The violet bubble still surrounded the small group, though it was obviously putting strain on the caster, and the fact that AppleJack and Rainbow Dash were not too happy about being trapped inside while the two bloatheads wailed away at the bubble. I tucked the small staff into the back if my belt before sprinting towards the closest of the monsters and sheared off it's right arm as it brought it back spraying the bubble shield with dark blood. The bloathead's shrieks were drowned out by Rarity and Fluttershy's own terrified screams. With a swift motion I brought my axe back up and reduced the neck of the creature to a bloody stump like it's arm. The bloathead on the other side seemed to grow angry at my killing of it's comrade, shouting before jumping up onto the bubble shield and attacking me. It's fists curled together were brought down at my face, barely giving me enough time to put up my shield, though it did little when the impact sent me to a knee. The bloathead landed in front of me and slammed a fist into my chest sending me the short trip to the ground with ease. I struggled to get my breath as the bloathead readied to bring it's fists down again. This time stopped what seemed to be part of the bubble shield that shot out impaling it through the chest before the spike retreated the monstrosity groaning before falling forward on top of me. Shoving off the corpse and regaining my breath I gave a mock salute to the purple alicorn before rushing forward towards one of the enemies that was quickly advancing on the alicorn sisters. As we neared the heart of the corrupted forest where I had found the stone amulet, the bloatheads started attacking more savagely forcing the Elements of Harmony to join in the fight, though Twilight stuck to ranged attacks keeping Fluttershy, Rarity and a quite scared Pinkie Pie under the, now smaller, bubble shield. AppleJack and Rainbow Dash on the other hand surprised me. Though weaponless, the two made excellent use of their smaller size, and in Rainbow's case flight, to keep away from the bloatheads while dealing hard hits that quickly took down their opponents. The three princesses focused more on the sorcerers, though the diarchies were not above spearing the bloatheads on their horns or slamming their hooves into them if they slipped past their barrage of magic. “We're almost there” I shouted as I looked forward, pulling my axe free of it's latest victim. The trees covered in the red growths with a patch of ground that seemed darker than the surrounding earth. “AppleJack, Rainbow Dash!” Twilight's voice sounded making me turn to the last place I had seen the pegasus and earth pony. AppleJack was in the middle of bucking a bloathead hard enough that it flew into a nearby tree. The pegasus in question on the other hand seemed to of been caught by one of the monsters, it's long spindly fingers closed around her back hoof even as she tried kicking it off. “Let go of me you freak!” she shouted at it as it started trying to pull her closer so it could grab her with it's other hand. I ran towards the endangered pegasus watching as AppleJack did the same before slamming into it taking out it's legs and making it let go of her blue friend. I arrived in time to slam my axe home on the bloathead's way down. I nodded towards the orange mare as she looked at me before focusing on four more bloatheads as the neared. “Thanks AJ” I heard Rainbow's voice sound responded by a quick, “No prob” I rolled my eyes as I knocked aside the a strike the nearest bloathead threw at me before chopping into it's head and using it's corpse as a shield from it's three companions who quickly tried to gang up on me. Two magic blasts quickly evened the odds, but the last one continued it's assault, slamming it's fists into it's comrade's corpse. As it stopped for a moment I let go of my axe and pulled my knife from it's sheath before slamming the bloathead with the edge of my shield quickly burying the knife into it's neck before quickly ripping it sideways. Gurgling and clutching to it's throat the bloathead died before a bright light shown behind me making the remaining bloatheads and bloathead sorcerers cover their faces. I wiped my knife on one of the dead bloathead's loincloth before replacing it in it's sheath and pulling my axe free. Squinting I looked towards the light show though I was only able to make out six long maned and tailed pony forms as the rose into the air light surrounding them. After a moment of nothing, a wave shot out from around them at a high speed. The white wave of magic quickly returned the forest to normal, and I watched as the nearby bloatheads and bloathead sorcerers seemed to instantly vaporize. Fear entered my gut again as the light approached and I put up a hand in front of my face with my eyes shut tight, preparing myself for the intense pain that was about to take me. After a moment, I felt the impact of the wave and the coolness flow through my body relaxing some of my tense muscles, but there was no pain. A warmth echoed from my hip where the pouch rested coaxing my eyes open to pull out the stone amulet and watch as it shuttered. Another wave of light shot from the six figures washing over me again, but this time the amulet shuddered before a large crack appeared in it and a roar sounded as a black smoke in a familiar shape shot out from the crack before quickly dispersing. The amulet's orange-red markings seemed to dull slightly, but the crack didn't spread. Looking back up to the six silhouettes, I watched the orb of light that surrounded them dulled as they were lowered to the ground before going out completely revealing the six still glowing mares that were covered in markings similar to their cutie marks and had streaks of different colors through their extended manes and tails. After touching down it was, but a moment before they turned back to normal in an orb of light that enveloped each one ending at Twilight. Smiles were spread across the pony's faces as the diarchies approached only to vanish as I started laughing and fell on my butt. “Thank you God!” I shouted before laying down on my back breathing heavily, muscles burning from exertion after fighting. The sound of Princess Luna clearing her voice, made me look up from my place on the ground as the ponies were looking at me. Some with smiles from my antics too happy to of won, others wearing stern expressions. “I think as ponies would say, 'it's later'” Princess Luna said eyeing me as I got up. 'Of course... Couldn't be that easy' I thought, moving to brush myself off only to see that I was still covered in dark blood from the bloatheads and letting out a disgusted “ick”. “Right you are Princess, it is later.” I said picking up my axe and tucking it into my belt before pulling the leather strap for my shield over my head. “This might take a while to explain though” I said before pulling the glowing amulet from under my shirt.