To the End of the Moon

by dashie76

The Underground

After a few moments of silence, the shock of the situation finally overcame Wind, and he fell to the ground with a dull thud. As his head spun from the adrenaline rush, he struggled to form words in his dry, cracked throat.

"That...you j-just..."

Kiesh seemed to drift across the ground, staring into the eye of the spider. Swiveling his head around, he swept the full body of the creature with a steely, scrutinizing glare before he calmy collapsed his crossbow back into his cloak with a flick of his wirst. He trotted over to stand at Wind's side before offering the fallen farmpony a hoof. Tentatively reaching up a hoof in return, Wind was pulled to his hooves by Kiesh. After a few moments of silence, Wind finally spoke.

"Alright...okay. Two things. How did you just do...that?"

"I'll assume that you are referring to my defense of you from that rather abnormally large arachnid. I am quite an effective combatant when faced with a dangerous foe. I'm not quite as weak as I may appear.""

"...good enough. Now, could you please explain what those weapons of yours are and...how they...well, you know."

Kiesh pulled his hood over his head and recovered most of his face. Wind then realized that, despite standing right next to the cloaked traveler when his cloak's hood was down, Wind still had yet to look at Kiesh's face. The farmpony shrugged inwardly, slightly indifferent.

"I have two double-bladed swords and two crossbows that I can use," Kiesh explained. "At any one time, I can utilise any combination of two weapons, using one with each foreleg. Specify the last part of your question."

"How do they - well - okay, putting aside the fact that crossbows are meant for unicorns and that, without a unicorn, you have no logical way of triggering the mechanism and that it shouldn't be physically possible for you to lift a crossbow with one foreleg - much less one on each foreleg - how do they fit underneath your cloak? That makes (or "amounts to." Input?) four large, heavy objects, all somehow invisible beneath your sleeves!"

Kiesh held up a foreleg and flicked back its sleeve. Expecting something to spring up from the depths of Kiesh's cloak, Wind flinched and took a step away from the traveler. Kiesh sighed and thrust his hoof towards Wind, who embarrassedly rubbed the back of his neck as he shuffled back to Kiesh's side. He saw a band of metal wrapped around Kiesh's foreleg, its surface glowing with a dim golden hue.

"All ponies, earth ponies included, have magical resonance. A unicorn's horn simply allows for the amplification of that resonance, resulting in a noticeably powerful influence. There is one band on each of my forelegs, each made of a enchanted stone that connects to my magical resonance. The bands are designed to summon objects upon my mental command - in this case, my swords and crossbows. The crossbows are also magically enchanted - they trigger upon my mental command."

"Huh...that's pretty interesting," replied Wind. "And even if one weapon is damaged, the bands can just summon another one?"

"Magic doesn't usually work that way," droned Kiesh. "Summoned objects are almost never a product of thin air. Only a select few ponies in all of Equestrian history could break scientific law and create matter out of nothing - I, on the other hoof, only have the four weapons that I mentioned. Their molecular structure is converted into energy by the bands and then stored in the same place, so if a weapon is damaged, I still need to repair it."

Wind blinked dumbly.

Kiesh sighed tiredly. "I only have four weapons. They can shrink and grow."

Wind's eyes lit up. "Ah, now I get it!"

"Good," replied Kiesh. "Now - you left me earlier and ran here. That monster happened to be here, as well. I do not believe that to be a coincidence. Now, tell me why you came here so suddenly."

"Heh...well..." Wind fidgeted nervously for a moment under Kiesh's dull gaze before sighing and straightening his posture. "Alright, look - that mask that I'm looking for? It's in this clearing. I...can't really tell you how I know. I, myself, don't really understand it. But you're just going to have to trust me. The mask is somewhere close by."

Kiesh pondered on this for a few moments. "...very well." He abruptly left Wind's side, trotting across the clearing at a brisk pace.

"Anyways, now we - hey, wait up!" Taken by surprise, Wind made a dash to catch up to Keith before slowing his pace to match the cloaked traveler's. "Want to tell me where you're going?" Without replying Kiesh continued his march across the dead earthen ground. Rolling his eyes, Wind resigned himself to trusting in Kiesh's judgement for the time being. However, just as the pair had settled into a comfortable, silent march, Kiesh halted. "Wait here," he said.

Wind obliged, bringing himself to a halt. He noticed that they had stopped in the rough center of the clearing. From here, the distinct lack of trees unburdened the cool wind, which flowed around him softly.

"Alright...why are we here, exactly?"

"The spider from earlier was not from the edges of the clearing," Kiesh explained. "It simply appeared in the clearing's center. Therefore, there must be an underground nest in the area. If that mask is close by, like you say it is - that's the only place where it could be."

"I see," Wind replied. "And if you're right, then that also explains its eye being so fogged up. It's eyesight would have been dulled from living underground."

"Precisely." Kiesh stepped forwards until he was a few feet in front of Wind. Kneeling down so that his cloak touched the ground, the pony slowly swept his gaze across the ground before him. He felt one part of the ground with his hoof, knocked it, and finally stood up. Confused, and seeing nothing unique about the earth before him, Wind decided to step back even further to give Kiesh more space.

Grunting, Kiesh threw his left foreleg out to his side, causing a sword to slide out of his cloak and click into place above his hoof. Now that he was seeing it up close, Wind saw that it was double-bladed and wickedly sharp, tapering down to a point that hovered a few feet from Kiesh's body. Kiesh glanced at the ground once more before taking aim and plunging the blade into the cracked soil, hilting it easily. He yanked the sword up, shook off the dirt and seemingly allowed it to slide up his sleeve again. Watching closely, Wind openly grinned when he noticed that the blade was actually shrinking, not being pulled back up. That's so cool...

Suddenly, Wind gasped as he felt the ground beneath him shift. Nearly losing his balance, he planted his feet firmly into the dirt. After steadying himself, Wind looked back towards the spot that Kiesh had stabbed. He noticed a small indent in the soil for a split second before it rapidly grew. Suddenly, a cloud of dust was thrown up into Wind's face. He coughed for about a minute until it cleared out, and once it did, he squinted towards the ground. His eyes widened. A large hole, no less than ten feet across, had simply appeared before him. Looking down into it, he saw only darkness with no traces of a bottom or of light. Gulping, he turned his head to look at Kiesh, smiling nervously.

Kiesh grinned for the first time since they had met - although it seemed to be more like a smirk. "You first."