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Chapter One1,074 words
Chapter Two1,013 words
Chapter Three1,302 words
Chapter Four1,264 words
Chapter Five1,523 words
Chapter Six1,868 words
Chapter Seven1,717 words

Chapter Seven

Emerald Breeze slowly shook off the shackles of sleep, which was REALLY hard, considering just how comfy she was. The insidious morning light which had penetrated both the Everfree forest and the window of the cabin bedroom began knocking not-so-gently against the eyelids of the sleeping mare. Her stubborn nature wanted to refuse its call, but something was niggling in the depths of her mind. Wait, why was she so comfy again?

“Snowy!” the mare exclaimed softly as she popped her head up to look around the bed. There, looking rather rumpled after her stint as a bed cozy was Snowy Skies; her gaze which blended exasperation with affection in a way that only close friends seem to be able to formulate boring into Emerald Breeze.

Giving an embarrassed chuckle while rubbing a hoof through her mane, the teal pegasus looked appropriately abashed and said quietly, “Thank Celestia you’re alright…”

“Yeah, I was almost smothered by some blanket hog in the night. Any leads?” Snowy Skies said with a deadpan tone while smirking.

“Uh…ninjas?” Breezie said while looking around the room intently.

With an exasperated sigh and a hard eyeroll, Snowy Skies gently pushed the other mare off the bed which resulted in a squawk followed by a tangle of limbs and blankets thudding softly onto the floor.

“Hey! Is this how you treat your savior? You know how long I dragged your flank through the Everfree marefriend?” came the muffled protest from Breezie while she struggled to free herself from the pony-burrito of blankets on the floor.

“That’s right,” Snowy said as if the thought just occurred to her. “Where are we? What happened after…I passed out?”

A mildly irate pony popped her head up to look over the edge of the mattress and glared for a second at her friend before she sighed and began to recite the tale of their adventures yesterday.

“You’re kidding! A…minotaur, out here in the Everfree. Not only, one that didn’t play croquet with your noggin, but a hornless one that somehow healed me with a machine,” the incredulity increasing as she continued to speak. “How much damage did you take in that fight girl?” Snowy Skies asked in a concerned tone while gently caressing her friend's skull as if it were a fragile vase.

Emerald Breeze snorted and batted her friend’s foreleg away in irritation. “I’m not crazy or delusional. You’ll meet him soon enough, considering this is his place. Also, you better thank him for being kind enough to save your flank! You were…” at this point, the mare stumbled over the words and began to choke up, tears forming in her eyes as the stresses finally came pouring out of the corners of her mind and heart where they had been crammed since yesterday.

“Okay, okay…shhhh, it’s fine, I’m fine…We’ll be okay and I’ll even kiss this minotaur’s hooves if that’s what it takes, okay?” Snowy Skies said in soothing tones while running a hoof gently through her friend’s mane slowly.

“Don’t…Don’t be s-stupid… He’s-He’s not a meanie. He won’t make you k-kiss anything…” Breezie said though some gasping breaths while trying to reign herself in.

“Hey, do you smell that?” Snowy Skies said after a moment of consoling her friend.

Emerald Breeze sniffled a moment and then gulped before smelling the air intently. “Hmm? Yeah, that’s…coffee!” Emerald Breeze said with some excitement. “This guy has coffee, out here in the woods? He’s so mysterious!” she added, small stars sparkling in her eyes.

Snowy Skies chuckled and began to gingerly maneuver herself off the bed. “Gee marefriend, sounds like somepony’s got a crush~” she teased in singsong.

Breezie’s gasp of shock and blushing muzzle were priceless. “What!? That’s…CRAZY! I, I barely know him!” Her stammered denials were not helping her case and caused her friend to start laughing.

“Calm down girl, I’m just teasing. Besides, you said he’s all covered up so you don’t even know what he looks like, right?” Snowy Skies laughed and she slowly lowered herself to the floor to find the floorboards surprisingly warm for being the middle of winter.

“Yeah,” the teal mare responded with a sigh. “It’s too bad, I’m guessing he’s all burned or scarred or something, which must be why he covers himself. He’s smart as a whip and really nice too. I didn’t even know minotaurs could be so…not…minotaur-like?” She seemed surprised at her own words. “That’s, really racist, isn’t it?” she finished with a despondent look.

“Eh…hey, no sweat. I know what you mean. It’s not like they have done much image building over the centuries.
Isolated, arrogant, brutish… That’s the image most ponies have of them, so it’s not surprising you might say something that seems insensitive at first, but we both know you didn’t mean it that way,” Snowy said comfortingly. “Even I’m amazed, because if this guy is a minotaur then he’s the first I’ve ever heard of that settled down in a cabin, built with his own hands and helping random ponies in the middle of winter. No matter how we look at it, it’s strange, yeah?”

Emerald Breeze shrugged in both response and to throw off any lingering feelings of guilt. “Maybe, but I don’t know what else he could be. He walks upright, has hands, and even has a golem! That talks! Besides that, he literally saved both of our flanks and…He. Has. Coffee!”

Snowy Skies chuckled, “Okay, you’ve made your case counselor. At ease.”

This comment was met with a rather moist raspberry before Breezie moved beside her friend and offered support.
“Let’s go greet our host, huh?” she said, the excitement poorly hidden in her face and voice.

Snowy Skies leaned against her friend while exiting the bedroom while also eyeing every corner, wall, and ceiling and soaking in the details; she was a detail oriented pony after all. This was the main reason the head office paired the two of them together on long range missions.

Snowy’s attention to detail and calm demeanor were there to balance Emerald Breeze’s headstrong and impulsive nature. The two were quite the dynamic duo. Even though they had been in plenty of scrapes, yesterday had been the closest call they had ever been in.

Flying over the Everfree? Just what in Tartarus was she thinking? She could only chalk it up to feeling flushed from the success of Appleoosa after a difficult run and overestimating their abilities while underestimating the danger. Now with both of them injured, they still had to make it through Celestia-knows how many miles of deadly forest to make it back to Canterlot. Things were looking a little grim.

Of course, counting the fortuitous encounter with the supposed minotaur, Snowy recalled Breezie mentioning that their host offered to help get them home. She wasn’t trying to be pessimistic but the proof, as they say, is in the pudding.
She’d believe it as soon as they were on the road again, heading to the capital.

The cabin was surprisingly clean and warm. A cheery fire was cracking in the fireplace built into one of the walls. A door leading to what she assumed was outside had sunlight seeping in from underneath. The aroma of coffee was much stronger as well as the smell of some sort of cooking. Snowy Skies swore that if this minotaur offered her a half-burned squirrel or something, she would toss her cookies all over his nice clean floors. In protest.

The voice that greeted the two of them was strange. It was like listening to one of those Canterlot disk jockeys over a magic crystal radio; tinny, manufactured, and a little cold. It didn’t exactly scare her but it was a little…unnerving.

“Good morning you two,” the strange voice said. “I hope you like coffee, although I have water if you don’t. I also made pancakes. Now, before either of you freak out, just know I’ve donned my armor prior to our trip and I might look a little scary. Sorry in advance,” the smooth but artificial baritone voice drifted out of the kitchen area before they spotted their mysterious host.

“Oh, hey H-Hornless. Good morning! Uh, it’s fine I know you won’t hurt us, no matter how creepy your armor is,” Emerald Breeze responded with awkward shyness, causing Snowy to look at her sideways with a little surprise. Maybe the mare really did have a thing for this bull. How interesting.

The sound of heavy footsteps broke Snowy out of her musings as they approached from beyond the cloth curtain separating the living space from the kitchen. They caused feelings of minor distress within Snowy’s heart; the cadence was wrong as she was used to a four-legged creature’s rhythm and these steps sounded massive and final. Her imagination was really starting to run wild.

From beyond the curtain emerged a tall, foreboding figure dressed in a bulky black material. From the ends of its hooves going up the legs and reaching its chest, the black armor covered every single bit of the creature. Most of this was covered by a white mantle that hung open from the shoulders and draped around its back like a superhero cape.

Its head was fully enclosed in a terrifying helmet and facemask, the mouth and nose covered by something like a breathing apparatus used in high-end hospitals, with tubes flowing back into the depths of the mantle. The eyes were the most frightening though; both were behind some kind of opaque red glass that seemed to penetrate a pony down to her core and uncover all its secrets. This was a passing fancy however, because after a few moments Snowy realized that she felt no bloodlust or malice in that brief gaze, before the tall beast passed both the ponies and emptied its hands of two plates piled high with fresh pancakes.

Emerald Breeze’s response was markedly different.

“Wow! That’s so cool! You look freaking scary! I about ran away from fright there!” the mare spouted through suppressed giggles. The creature’s return chuckles eased Snowy’s fears even more and she sighed in a bone-weary kind of exhaustion.

“This day is going to be sooooo long, I can just feel it,” she thought as she carefully maneuvered her way to the dining table for some remarkably enticing breakfast.

Author's Note:

Breakfast!

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Phantom Night

Phantom Night #1 · Mar 21st, 2018 · 1 · ·

Oh, an update

rikusorasephiroth

rikusorasephiroth #2 · Mar 21st, 2018 · · ·

... So, precisely what sort of armour is he wearing?
Marine armour, like from Far Harbour, or is this Power Armour.
If it is power armour, what model? I know it can't be Raider or X-01, so I'm going to take a wild guess at T-51.

Death Pony