Starve

by FaelaArts

Chapter 3

These creatures were certainly strange. For one, unlike the horses from his world, they were colored. The horned ones could levitate objects, and the purple one had even made a shield of some sort. The Pegasus could fly, naturally. And there was one horse, well they were more pony-sized in reality, who had neither.

It fascinated him, both their appearance and their magic. If he could harness that magic, it could prove very useful. Picking up four logs, he crafted them together into a plank, and tossed it into the fire. Bursting into flame, he noticed the ponies give cries of alarm. The sun set, and the area around them turned pitch black.

They seemed to have some sort of language, but it flew over his head. Likely, they would try to cross the language barrier. Tapping his chin, he looked toward the sky, wondering if he should give them a hint on how to do so. Deciding against it, he labeled it a test of their problem solving abilities.

Such fascinating creatures…

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“Amazing, look at all the items he’s just got laying around. Axes, a stove, that weird machine thing, so much!” Looking around, Twilight couldn’t help but fawn over everything. Sure, some of the items were rudimentary, but some of them she didn’t even understand. Rainbow Dash, naturally, was itching to go for a fly.

“Yeah yeah, can we hurry this up?” Hovering near the edge of the darkness, Rainbow Dash hesitated to go into it. Somehow, beyond a certain point, she couldn’t see a single thing. This was despite the moon in the sky, which was a crescent on this night. The creature watched this, but said nothing.

“Alright Dash, I just need to figure out how to communicate with this creature.” Tapping a hoof to her chin, she levitated up a stick, wondering if she could draw in the ground. It was difficult, the ground seeming to resist, but it was possible. Blinking, Twilight remembered she had paper with her, and pulled it out of her saddlebags. With that information in hoof, she glanced to Rarity and Applejack.

“You mean to talk via pictures? Will it be possible to even convey enough information using such mundane methods?” Rarity glanced to the small line Twilight had drawn in the ground, and tried to hide her annoyance at the slight dust the action had raised. When she returned home, she was so getting a bubble bath.

“It’s worth a shot at least. Maybe he’s seen them.” Levitating out a quill, Twilight crudely drew a picture of Celestia. Applejack sniggered, thinking it looked like a donkey with a sun on it’s flank. Drawing in a horn and wings, Twilight was about to move onto Luna, when she noticed the creature lean forward.

Making no sound, it picked up the picture, glancing toward the sky with a frown. Standing up, it walked over to one of the chests, and pulled out some sort of diagram. Walking back over, the creature took the Celestia donkey, and slid it behind the diagram. Taking it in her magic, Twilight examined the strange device.

“It...kinda looks like it has a face? I’m worried about that swirly vortex he draw underneath the face. Could it be another portal?” Glancing to the others, both Applejack and Rarity nodded. Rainbow Dash groaned, still hovering near the darkness. Spike yawned, knowing it was still not bedtime, but feeling tired due to it being night.

“Alright, now how to ask where it is…” Frowning, Twilight tapped her chin, sighing as she wondered if simply drawing a question mark would work. While Twilight mused, Applejack walked up, and drew a shape in the dirt. The creature crouched down, watching this. Still thinking, Twilight was stuck in her muse.

“Maybe ‘e knows about tha’ doorway.” Glancing to the others, Applejack noticed Twilight snap out of her muse with a shake of her head. Looking to her picture, the creature pulled out another diagram, this time in much more detail. Looking it over, Twilight glanced between it and the almost proud expression on the creature’s face.

“You, you made this?” Realising it wouldn’t understand her, Twilight frowned, and glanced toward a pile of hay. An idea sparking, she turned toward Rarity.

“Rarity, can you make a straw hat?” Pointing to the straw, Twilight smiled as Rarity tossed her hair, putting her magic to the task. While Rarity was doing that, Twilight turned back toward the creature. Pointing to the diagram, she pointed to Rarity crafting, and then to the creature. Giving a slow nod, the creature tilted his head.

“Wait, this guy’s the reason for those portals!?” Diving forward, Rainbow Dash glared at the creature, too close for comfort. Taking a step back, the creature reached for his spear, but didn’t pull it out of the ground. Twilight carefully pulled Dash back, giving her a cautious glance.

“Calm down, we don’t want it to attack us.” Standing up, Twilight gave the creature a smile she hoped was apologetic. Slowly, the creature let go of the spear, and sat back down. Holding out a hand, it glanced toward the drawings. Letting them out of her magic, Twilight watched as he pointed toward the door-portal, and then pointed to the face-portal.

“I don’t understand, they’re the same portal?” Tilting her head, Twilight eventually just shook her head. Pursing his lip, the creature rubbed his chin, where a bit of stubble could be seen. Sighing, she picked up the face-portal picture, and began to walk in place. Pretending to be looking around for a moment, she then pointed to the diagram, and waited.

Pulling out a map from a back pocket, the creature pointed to a section of the map with a mini face-portal on it. To Twilight’s surprise, the map was incredibly detailed. Rolling it back up, the creature put it back in his pocket.

“Great, let’s go,” spoke Dash, about to fly into the darkness. The creature seemed to almost reach out to grab Dash, but stopped inches short.

“!” The creature looked too Twilight, and she saw the pallid fear on its face, and grabbed Dash in her magic.

“Stop Rainbow Dash. I think it’s trying to warn us about something.” Breathing a sigh as her friend obliged, Twilight looked back to the creature. Grabbing a stick, it drew a large shape, and then filled it with many teeth. Snorting, Dash opened her mouth to comment, but was interrupted by Applejack.

“Ah think after those ‘ounds we ran into, ye’d be a little more cautious, Dash.” Raising an eyebrow, Applejack waited as Dash begrudgingly landed.

“Okay, okay, fiine.” Glancing to the creature, Dash noticed it seemed to be preparing a lot of torches. In the creature's hands, the components seemed to almost mould perfectly into place, creating identical torches within moments. Finished that, the creature rolled them toward Twilight, and pulled out a lantern.

“Alright, guess we want to take one each.” Picking it up, Twilight blinked as the moment she lifted it from horizontal to vertical, it lit. Tilting it back, she watched as it once more snuffed out. Passing the others one, she noticed Dash begin to play with it. The creature waited, pulling the spear out of the ground.

“I think we should stay in the light?” Spike, who had been silent this entire time, gripped his torch with a nervous fear. Walking closer to the creature, they all noticed the lantern light up as he raised it high, and made sure to stay in the circle of light it emitted. Dash continued to play with her light.

“Heh, red light, green light, red light, green li-” Cutting herself off, Dash noticed she had paused, and lost the group. Looking around in the darkness, she realised there were sounds of something approaching, something big. Putting the torch on, Dash noticed it begin to die, and felt a cold chill up her spine as something breathed on her back.

Breaking off into a full-speed flight, Dash could feel the thing gaining, and hoped against all hope that she saw them. Tears of joy in her eyes, she dove into the lantern light, almost falling right back into the darkness. To her surprise, the creature had caught her by the tail, and just as quickly dropped her, backing off rapidly.

“Yes, stay in the light,” spoke Dash, allowing herself to collapse in relief.

Comments

[Frission]

Silly Dashie; though I'd probably play around with magic torches too.

[Scarlet_Firesong_Wolf]

Well, she learned her lesson pretty damn quickly.

[Knightmare Neko]

Starve?
I thought you weren't supposed to do that.
A dapper man told me not to starve once... So I got eaten by dogs instead.