Easy
Armed with the Cloudsdale Chaser and the Seeker Stone, Raindrop and Sentinel strode through the underbrush of the Everfree Forest, pushing aside bushes to forge a path. Sentinel was walking ahead of her, making a path wide enough for Raindrop to follow after having seen her wincing as she pushed aside a branch herself.
The Cloudsdale Chaser was a simple instrument that at first seemed quite hard to use. There was the little icon on the outer ring that showed the direction of Cloudsdale, and then, outside that, two different dials that had to be manually set. The first inner ring was rotated until it the marker was pointed straight at Cloudsdale, and the second outermost ring was set to point towards an object of reference; usually something high and static, like a mountain range. Then, with a little bit of dead-reckoning you could use the Cloudsdale Chaser to find direction.
Or, in this case, to make sure the two of them didn’t lose the direction of Ponyville. With Cloudsdale so far away, even if they travelled dozens of miles through the forest, the angle of the marker pointing towards Cloudsdale wouldn’t shift more than a few degrees. Therefore, they could just turn the Cloudsdale Chaser until the inner ring was lined up with the pointer, and then head in the direction of the outer ring to give themselves a travel line that would take them pretty close to Ponyville. Simple trigonometry.
The Seeker Stone was clasped in Raindrop’s good hoof, and she looked at it every now and again to make sure they were on the right track. Already, they were a good few miles into the Everfree Forest, heading deeper towards where the forest became a bog. Already, they were having to leap over the occasional point where bogwater crossed their impromptu path.
“I don’t like this,” Sentinel whispered, slowly down.
“It’s a bog. That’s the general impression it gives to everyone,” Raindrop stated, shaking her head.
“No, this bog is inhabited by the hydra,” Sentinel pointed out, his tone low and careful.
“Oh, a hydra. Wonderful.” Raindrop shook her head slowly, rubbing a hoof against her forehead for a moment. “Let me guess, it’ll be guarding the Element of Harmony and we’ll have to fight it.”
Sentinel paused a moment, and then heaved a sigh. “...knowing Discord? Yes.”
“I’m going to knock him the hell out when I meet him,” Raindrop stated flatly.
“I’ll hold him, you beat on him,” Sentinel agreed, as they bounded across the ever-diminishing lengths of dry land between the watery parts.
“If only it were that easy,” Raindrop sighed, stretching her wings slightly, fluttering them. “I am so just aching to fly.”
“Nurse says no,” Sentinel warned. “You were stabbed. You’ll probably only get off the ground and then end up falling back down.”
“That sounds fun,” Raindrop replied sullenly, folding her wings again.
“What’s the Seeker Stone say?” Sentinel asked as he sloshed around a half-sunken cart that had been abandoned to the bog. The odd discarded object floated amongst the murky water; old buckets, a leather coat, mugs, tables. Everything and anything that had been abandoned by wagons in days gone by trying to cross through the bog. There were even entire wagons sunk to their axles, abandoned where they were when they became too bogged down to move.
“It says to keep going that way,” Raindrop stated, waving a hoof in the direction the stone was indicating.
Sentinel grumbled and bounded to the next island.
“Soooo...what do we do if we find the hydra?” Raindrop asked, raising a brow. “Does the guard training cover that?”
“We attempt to make the heads attack each other,” Sentinel stated immediately, “But that’s plan B.”
“And plan A?”
“Running.”
The Seeker Stone continued to lead them further into the bog, until the forest opened up into a rather sparsely vegetated series of still water holes choked with algae. The water holes were hidden in the lee of a steep cliff-face leading up to a mountain range at the edge of the Everfree Forest.
As they carefully bounced from one tiny island to the next, Sentinel said, “So...I’ve been thinking.”
“I can see how this is rare enough of an occurrence that you felt an urge to notify someone,” Raindrop responded dryly.
“No, seriously,” Sentinel snorted.
“I am being serious.”
“About the dark guard,” Sentinel explained, shaking his head.
Raindrop raised a brow as she leaped to the next island. “And?”
“...It was too easy,” Sentinel stated flatly.
“I certainly didn’t get that impression when he was choking me...or stabbing me,” Raindrop retorted.
“No...take it from someone who trained with the dark guard...that was way too easy,” Sentinel reiterated, frowning deeply. “I just...can’t figure it out.”
“I was rather...confused that he kinda played with me,” Raindrop admitted, pausing on another small island to peer at the Seeker Stone.
Sentinel nodded in understanding. “If it had of been me, I would have done it silently and before you had a chance to react.”
“Okay then, talking about murdering me is kinda creepy,” Raindrop replied with a wrinkled nose.
“No. Seriously.” Sentinel lifted a hoof to halt her. “The royal guard is the only militia in Equestria. Outside of the Wonderbolts.If Equestria is invaded, we are the first line of defense. Princess Celestia is a kind, benevolent, peaceful ruler...but she’s also wise. We learn to do some very...despicable things in the name of protecting Equestria.”
“Like how to murder someone silently?”
“Like how to murder someone quietly,” Sentinel replied quietly. Something in his eyes made Raindrop drop her tone immediately.
“So you’re saying that...given what he did, he wasn’t a dark guard?” Raindrop asked helplessly.
Sentinel made a sound that conveyed uncertainty, “That’s what I feel. If it was a trained royal guard or dark guard, then they would have broken your neck and been gone before your wings stopped twitching. And then there’s the fact that he had trouble with you and yet took down two guards and faded into the night. Not to mention a dagger is a rather...uncommon thing for a pony to use. Especially a kris blade. The guard is only trained in straight blades, kris blades don’t carry a strike very well, and are prone to deforming.”
“So I’ll take your word for it,” Raindrop stated with a shake of her head. “What’s the bigger point you’re trying to get at?”
“...I think Luna is telling the truth. I don’t think that dark guard was one of hers,” Sentinel stated, sitting down on his rump and staring at Raindrop.
“Okay then...so why would a dark guard be attacking me?” Raindrop asked blankly, not understanding.
“Someone wants to drive a wedge between Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. That’s the only thing I can think,” Sentinel said with a shrug of his shoulders.
“So...a dark guard, attacks me, with the intent of causing Celestia and Luna to stop speaking to each other and mistrust one another or something. And the person that you think did this had no problem overthrowing both of them at once before, when they knew where the Elements of Harmony were? Why would Discord bother attacking me?” Raindrop queried, staring at the guard, raising a brow.
“I have no idea. I don’t know all the answers. I’m just going to say it all now so I can say ‘I told you so’ at some unforeseen point in the future,” Sentinel admitted, standing back up and waving a hoof towards the cliff. “Do you think it’s close?”
“The glow moved a fair amount in the last leg of our trip. Seems like we’re getting pretty close...Maybe over that hill,” Raindrop said, pointing towards a hill to their east.
Sentinel nodded, and then launched from his little island, flying over to the island and landing lightly, padding up over the hill to peek over the edge. He was frozen for a few moments, before very, very carefully drawing back and creeping as quietly as possible down the hill.
Raindrop bounded over the last few bits of land and to the large hill Sentinel was on. The guard lifted a hoof to halt her, his eyes wide behind his helmet as he hissed, “The hydra is right over that hill!”
“I’ve never seen one of those before,” Raindrop said calmly, stepping up the hill, ignoring Sentinel’s hissed rebukes.
Raindrop’s eyes widened as she stared down the hillside to the scene beyond.
The cliffside ahead had been hollowed out, into a kind of lair. Random detritus had been gathered around the hollowed out section of cliffside, leaving a wide ring half-submerged in the oily bogwater that lay at the mouth of the hollow. Further back in the hollow, there was a portion of the ground that was raised above the waterline, flattened by constant trampling. There was a treasure trove of shiny objects there; random pieces of metal, coins, gems, jewellery, what even seemed to be a severed unicorn’s horn.
And in the centre of the pile, placed there seemingly at random, was the Element of Generosity. It was just like the Element of Loyalty, except the swirls inside its centre were blue rather than red.
It would have been a perfect scene, if not for the hydra curled around the treasure pile.
It was huge. Each of its four heads were larger than a pony by themselves, and its long, slender necks had an impressive length. A body that looked to belong to a full-grown dragon was curled around the treasure pile protectively. Three of the heads were laid down, apparently resting, and the fourth was awake, alert, looking around.
“They take turns watching out for prey or dragons in the sky,” Sentinel whispered as he crawled up beside her. “And that would be the Element of Generosity down there, wouldn’t it?”
Raindrop nodded grimly. “It sure looks like it. How are we gonna get to it?”
“We could try sneaking past it...but that’s unlikely. We’ll need to distract it. Since you can’t fly, I’ll go flit round above it, get its attention, and then draw it away so you can grab the element. Then we’ll meet up on that mountaintop,” Sentinel said, pointing a hoof towards a peak in the distance.
“I can’t fly,” Raindrop stated flatly, wiggling her wings for emphasis.
“I’ll see you coming,” Sentinel stated with a shrug, dipping his head forwards to remove his helmet, and then starting to slough off the rest of his armour, dropping it quietly into a neat pile.
Raindrop paused a moment, an ear perking at the guard. “And if you get eaten?”
“Well, I’ll be dead and I won’t care. See ya on the other side,” Sentinel said with a mock-salute.
The guard took a running start to the edge of the hill, and then leaped off it, spreading his wings wide, gliding down the edge of the hillside. His hooves almost touched the brackish water as he swept across the shallow length of bogwater and then skimmed across the edge of the hydra’s tail, swiping at it with a hoof.
Raindrop laid her ears back and winced as a chorus of angry roars rose throughout the bog.
The hydra was awake.
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"Armed with the Cloudsdale Chaser and the Seeker Stone, Raindrop and Sentinel were well on their way to starting their own Quidditch team."
I was just so sure that was where that first sentence was going to end up.
Yay update! Hmmm... They need to be longer.. :( Good chapter though!
Well shit.
Oooooo, action scene next chapter, can't wait.
906323
I am making a fanfic and wonderd how do you add pics and A great story!! i loved it!
906577 There's a button with a picture on the bar thing with the buttons when you edit a chapter. Iy goes: Bold, underlined, italics, color, link, then picture.
Even though not much happened it was still a very good read!
"I'll be dead, so I won't care."
After an arguement with a friend over whether or not people should fear death, and how stupid it is to flirt with danger....this made me laugh my ass off.
"And how smart would you feel if you missed the jump and fell to your death?"
Insert Sentinels reply here.
" The odd discarded object floated amongst the murky water; old buckets, a leather coat..."
Im wondering where the leather coat came with regards to the fact of what leather is made of.
906364
That cracked me up!!!
This is a really good story! And i want more!
As always. Gusta.
A "kris blade" ? Are you trying to make a reference to a keris ?
930651 From wikipedia. Took me less than a minute.
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9c/Kris_bali.jpg/170px-Kris_bali.jpg
930679
Eeyupp !! That's the weapon from my culture.