The Mare that eats The Monsters

by Skijarama

Chapter 9 - A Garden of Monsters

The tall winter trees blocked out a fair amount of sunlight, causing the surrounding landscape to grow gradually darker as Drifter led Twilight to the garden. By Drifter’s estimate, they would be coming to it’s outer edge in a few minutes. Twilight wrinkled up her nose and tried to resist the urge to gag as an absolutely abhorrent stench reached her nostrils.

“Stop.” Drifter whispered sharply as she herself stopped in front of a small wall of bushes, holding a foreleg up as her claws extended. Twilight did as instructed, slowing to a halt and looking at the Fiend mare expectantly. Drifter looked back to Twilight with a hesitant expression. “...Brace yourself.”

Twilight only nodded and did as best as she could. Drifter nodded after a few seconds before gently pushing aside the bushes that blocked their path, allowing Twilight to see what rested beyond. Twilight felt her eyes widen and her stomach convulsed as the sights, sounds and scents became clear.

In the center of the garden was a tall pod, covered in veins and organic tubes that connected to various other parts of the growth. The pod was open at the top, like a pitcher plant and was colored a sickly green. It was slimy and sticky looking. Black, heavily decomposed and corroded materials slowly dribbled down its sides from the top to form a large, horrid puddle on the ground.

Branching off from the central pod were massive, fleshy tubes that formed an unusual, twisted, spider web-like shape. The tube pulsed and writhed subtly as broken down materials were sent pumping through them into the dozens of membranous sacs that hung off of the tubes. Some of the sacs had been split open from the inside, their occupants, various types of fiends, spilling onto the ground and flopping around uselessly as their bodies began to grow into their full size at a startling rate.

The horrific odor of decomposing flesh, dry blood and the nameless, unspeakable fluids sloshing through the entire garden hit Twilight. It was all she could do to keep herself from throwing up. She looked away and covered her mouth with a hoof.

“...It’s only going to get worse until we get rid of it.” Drifter said solemnly without looking to Twilight, her voice dripping with venomous loathing for the creatures before her. Twilight groaned nauseously before looking back to Drifter.

“O-okay…. Buh, ugh… where is the enchantment usually placed?” she asked, gaging partway through.

“In the center, beneath the feeding pod.” Drifter said, pointing at the central point with a claw. “Raw materials are put in there. Fiends born with disabilities, mutations or physical hindrances are killed and put into the pod for recycling. Whatever you do…”

Twilight gasped as Drifter poked her sharply in the chest, not enough to draw blood, but enough to get her undivided attention.

“Do. Not. Go inside the pod. The adhesives, acids and corrosives will kill and digest you faster than I could hope to save you. All that would be left would be a formless black goop.”

“O-okay…” Twilight gulped and used her magic to draw the saber she carried from it’s scabbard. “I’m ready…”

“Good… I’ll go in first from the air, draw their attention. Try and sneak to the central pod and disable the enchantment while I have them distracted. I’ll do what I can to cover you while you're doing that, if the fiends start coming after you more than me.” Drifter laid out the plan before her claws extended fully. “Let’s go.”

Twilight watched with held breath as Drifter took to the air on her wings and soared over the garden. “Hey, plotholes!” She shouted down, drawing the attention of the entire population of infant fiends. There were at least thirty of them. “Catch me if you can!”

The air vibrated with the violent snarls, shrieks, howls and cries of the fiends as they began to close in on Drifter. Even with their varied shape, they all had two things in common; a vague resemblance to ponies, and an entire mouth full of rows of razor sharp teeth. Some had wings, others looked like worms or snakes, and of course there were the ‘Ducks’ that Twilight’s magic was useless against.

“Okay, I can do this…” Twilight breathed before quickly hopping from the bushes to the snow and dirt in the garden. She cringed and shuddered in revulsion as it squelched and practically bled unidentified liquids from her impact. “I can totally do this…”

On reflex, Twilight was able to look to her right and step back as a duck lunged for her, dodging it by mere inches. Acting fast, she drew the sharp blade of her saber across it’s side as it passed, drawing plenty of blood and sending the scrawny thing flailing to the ground in a quickly dying heap. With a gulp, Twilight broke into a gallop for the central pod, already searching for enchantments.

She found it and already didn’t like it. Even with as academic as she was, she had no desire to learn about this magic. Even knowing of its presence was enough to make her skin crawl and her fur to stand on end. She glanced over her shoulder to make sure she was in the clear for now. Most of the fiends were tailing Drifter, who was at present on the other side of the central pod from her, dueling in mid-air with a similarly built fiend to herself.

With that noted, Twilight closed her eyes and concentrated as hard as she could on dispelling the enchantment. Her mind instinctively recoiled and tried to shun the unorthodox, sickening magic as she studied it for a point she could break. Like the weakest link in a chain, if she could erase a certain component of the enchantment, the whole spell would be undone and the garden would begin to die.

“Look out!” Drifter shouted to her. Twilight snapped her eyes open and turned around just in time for a fiend that looked like a hummingbird with bath wings and pony legs to descend and plunge its proboscis deep into her chest. Twilight instantly felt a pulling deep in her chest as well as a liquid fire spreading through what was left behind.

Venom? Toxin? Poison?!

Twilight gasped and shuddered in agony as the creature pulled its beak from her chest, dripping with freshly drank blood. If Twilight’s lungs or vocal chords were working, she would have screamed as loud as she possibly could have as the fire in her veins felt like it was melting her from the inside out. She wobbled and fell down, clutching her forehooves to her chest and gasping in pain.

Drifter swooped down and plunged her claws into the winged fiend’s chest before tearing her forelegs outward, disemboweling the creature and practically pulling it in half. Blood and gore splattered everywhere, but Drifter didn’t seem to care. She quickly turned and reached into a small pocket in her armor. “Twilight, here!”

Twilight didn’t make out what Drifter said. Her vision was going blurry and all of the world’s sounds were becoming muffled to the point of being incomprehensible. The fire in her veins was still growing worse and the pain was so bad she couldn’t breath. She could only twitch and spasm uncontrollably in pure agony.

Then, she felt something touch itself to her lips. She reflexively began to swallow as a soothing, cool liquid began to dribble down her throat. It tasted awful, but she was fine with it as the fire in her veins began to fade away.

“Cannibal!” one of the fiends that now surrounded them snarled. Drifter turned as the potion emptied itself into Twilight, who slowly began to relax and return to her senses.

“You’ve got us boxed in. Congratulations.” Drifter scowled viciously, drawing her claws threateningly along the ground. It squelched and bubbled as more of the unspeakable liquids within began to bubble free from the slices she was putting into the surface of the garden. “Why not see why an animal is considered to be at it’s most dangerous when backed into a corner?”

“Traitor…” another fiend sneered as it prowled closer, its own claws quivering in anticipation and desire.

“I’ve heard every single name you buckers could ever throw at me. Trust me, I’m not going to be enticed into an attack because you taunt me.” Drifter shot back, putting on a cocky grin. Just back off… she thought.

“Heretic…” another one added as it drew around to one of her sides.

“Pfft. Please.” Drifter scoffed with a roll of her eyes. There was a long, strange moment of silence as the fiends all came to a stop. Then, with manic grins on their faces, their teeth proudly on display, they all spoke together in unison.

“Sister.”

Drifter felt a furious tingle run up her spine, but shoved it down. “Oh, getting creative are we? Well, congratulations, that pissed me off.” her own teeth began to become more visible. “But I’m not coming to you. You wanna kill me? Then come on!” she began tapping her claws against the ground as if she were growing impatient. “Standing here bickering with you abominations is all well and good, but I’d rather be pulling you bunch apart.”

Drifter’s eyes fell on one of the ducks in front, somewhat smaller than the rest and looking far more eager. Drifter felt her smirk widen a bit. It was young, still. Impulsive. Good.

“Awww, what’s the matter?” She cooed mockingly to the small fiend, earning an angry snarl from it. “Is the wittle pussy puppy gonna run away with his tail between his legs?”

In response, the fiend charged her with an enraged howl. Drifter smirked before lifting her claws and stabbing it in the chest, running it all the way through and then pinning it to the ground with a harsh thrust. Drifter showed it her fangs.

“See this?” she hissed, her eyes glowing and going wild as her fangs almost seemed to get longer. “This is what happens when you piss me off!”

The duck was silenced as she bit down onto it’s throat, teeth clamping around it’s spine within and pulling. Blood and tubes fell away and splattered everywhere as Drifter pulled with a mighty jerk of her head, bringing the entirety of the duck’s spine out of it’s body, it’s skull following through the new hole in the neck.

Drifter deliberately chewed, making sure the sounds of crunching bone could be heard before she hurled the spine and skull into the crowd. Her eyes glowed with bloodlust. “Any other takers?”

“No need.” Twilight said weakly from behind her. Drifter glanced back with a small smile forming as Twilight finished her spell, still in the same position she had been in when she had fallen. The entire garden shuddered and began to wither as the enchantment anchoring it into reality was undone. “Thanks for the distraction…” her words were almost sarcastic.

“Bitch at me about it later.” Drifter replied before turning her attention back to the horde of fiends. “We’re still in pretty deep here.”

Twilight nodded and began to get up. She paused and grew unsettled after a moment. “Wait… why aren’t they attacking us? Did you scare them or something”

Drifter went rigid as soon as she actually thought about it. “...Fiends don’t fear me, they hate me… just seeing me normally throws them into an uncontrollable rage.” Her eyes narrowed with suspicion as she studied the horde. “They’ve never been this calm around me before…”

“Well, to be fair, Drifter, I never told them to hold back.” a new voice said, causing their blood to go cold. Drifter and Twilight looked up, past the horde to the edge of the garden. A newcomer was approaching, a Unicorn. He was bright blue in color, a slight gradient making it somewhat darker at his hooves. He had no mane or tail, it seemed. His fur was missing in patches all across his body, the skin underneath having turned dark and lumpy. His eyes were deep blue and glowed with malice.

Just like Drifter, he had long, sharp teeth.

As he drew closer, the last surviving growing sac burst open next to him, a small, scrawny fiend falling to the ground, it’s body horribly malformed. One of its hind legs was fused with its belly and its head was bent backward to an unnatural degree, it’s neck having fused with its back. “F-father… I can’t… I can’t feel… can’t feel my-”

The unicorn didn’t let it finish it’s thought. His back suddenly rippled before six long, tentacle like appendages tipped with razor sharp blades sprouted, one such blade stabbing into the creature’s head and ending it instantly.

He looked to Drifter and smiled. “We meet at last, Moonrise Drifter.”

Drifter huffed. “Took you long enough to show up, Horizon.”

Luminous Horizon gave a smirk as his tentacles pulled back into his body. “Well, I hope you aren’t disappointed.”

Comments

[Destiny Chaser]

This story is very exciting and gritty, good stuff!