//------------------------------// // Chapter 9: I hate harpies // Story: The Tales Of A Night Stalker // by Don Pedro von Poltergeis //------------------------------// I woke to find myself with a monster headache and my face aching from what seemed like various cuts all over my face. I groaned, signaling to the world around me that I was awake, and tried to stand up, only to be stopped by a pair of hooves being placed on my shoulders. “Don't move,“ Windy's voice commanded me, “You're hurt.” “What happened?” I asked while looking around me and seeing that we were in some kind of plain with campfire burning a few feet from us and we were surrounded by a thick fog from all sides. “The airship crashed and you got thrown around a bit,” Night's voice said from behind us. “And then you flew through a window,” A.T chirped in from the other side of the campfire. Well, that explains that, I thought with a grimace and then I realized something. “Where is the Empress and her crew?” I asked, concerned about the safety of the filly. “We, umm, don't know,” Windy said with her ears folded and head hung low causing my eyes to widen. “Then we gotta go find her!” I said and made another attempt to stand up but was stopped again, this time by Windy using her magic to levitate me. Did I mention that the magic of every unicorn haves its own, unique, feeling? For example Windy's magic feels like velvet. “Not so fast!” Windy said and gave me a disapproving look. “But my legs aren't hurt,” I whined with a pout. “No, they aren't but you still hit your head pretty hard, so one of us will carry,” I gave her the puppy snake eyes, yes that's a thing now, deal with it, but it was ineffective, “That look won't help you any and if you don't stop your protesting or I am going to dye your fur pink!” After being threatened with my fur being dyed my most hated color I stopped my protesting and let myself be carried over to A.T where I was promptly placed on her back. “A.T you're on carry duty,” Windy said and levitated Cue over to me. I got comfortable on A.T's back and with that we departed in our search for Empress Winter Rose. “What is that? A harpy?” I muttered as I looked through the scope of my rifle at what looked like a pony version of a harpy flying in the distance. “Lemme look,” A.T said and I held Cue's scope over her right eye, “Yep, that's a harpy,” She said after a while of observing the avian creature. Suddenly a there was a rustle in the bushes to our left, catching the attention of us all. We stared at the bush for a while before a harpy emerged from the bushes and shook the leaves from her feathers and looked at us with a small smile. “Sorry for startling you----“ Suddenly the harpy's eyes widened and she licked her lips, “A NIGHT STALKER!” She shouted and launched herself at me. I let out a small 'eep' and rolled off of A.T's back to dodge the harpy's attack and landed on the ground on all fours with Cue safely slung across my back. What followed next was the strangest and most terrifying thing I have ever seen, and trust I have seen a lot of things. Dozens upon dozens of harpies flew in from all sides, all of them having this look of hunger on their faces, and started trying to dive-bomb us causing us to dodge and hightail it out of there. “Those things are pretty persistent, eh?” A.T shouted while dodging another harpy's attempt to dive-bomb us and as soon as the harpy touched down on the ground A.T punted her in the face sending the harpy flying. “You don't say?!” I shouted back before being struck down by a harpy that got lucky. “No one touches my mare!” Windy roared in anger before she grabbed the harpy by her crow-like tail and used the harpy as a makeshift mace and hitting a few harpies from the sky before throwing away her harpy-mace and turning to me, “Are you okay, my love?” “So hot…” I muttered with a dreamy look causing her to giggle before using her magic to lift me onto my hooves. We continued our run across the fog covered island with the harpies still on our tail, some of them tried to dive bomb us, only to be turned into a mace and used against their comrades, and after a while of running I spotted what looked like the faint outline of a temple in the distance but before we could reach it a giant harpy landed in front of us thus stopping our advance towards the temple. “Here comes mom….” I said breathlessly, staring up at the behemoth of a harpy. “Spooks, hold my glasses,” Nigh Heart said and without waiting for an answer she walked towards the giant harpy, placing her glasses on my muzzle on her way. She marched up to the giant harpy and cracked her forelegs, “Come on, big and ugly, show me what you got.” What followed next was the most awesome thing ever. When Night stopped in front of the harpy she tried to stomp Night, only to be stopped by Night lifting a single hoof followed by the foot of the harpy being twisted in a way that made my bones twitch a little. Then Night proceeded to fly up to the harpy's face and deliver a set of devastating blows to the face of the harpy with speed that made her legs look like a blur, leaving the harpy with bruised and bleeding face and also knocking her out. “Thank you,” Night said as she landed in front of me and took her glasses back causing us to stare at her in disbelief, “What? Is something on my face?” She asked completely obvious to the reason of our stares. I shook my head and started towards the temple, only to remember the dozens of harpies behind us that were now looking at us in anger. “Oops,” I said and galloped towards the temple as fast as my skinny legs could carry me.