Living Darkness

by vildtiger

Rescued Through the Portal

Note: This happens right after the last chapter.

He feels someone touches his head, shaking him lightly but the pain draws him back to the darkness. When he finally fights his way out from this darkness, Sniper sees a humanoid figure but cannot make out the face. He barely catches on this person tighten the bandage around his arm.
A female voice but he cannot make out what she is saying. The darkness threatening to draw him back again fades for a split second when a sharp pain at abdomen hits him like a truck but he is so weak that the only sound he can make is a hoarse moan. The person gets up, paces back and forward then stop and after some hesitating pulls out— even in his clouded state Sniper recognizes this object as a knife. He jolts up, or he tries for all that burst of adrenaline did was making him fumble around on the ground like Demo when he's wasted on that scrumpy of his. The person ignores him, cut through the air and… well Sniper thinks it's a door but that can't be right. The person sheathes the knife, returns back to him and drags him through this weird door.
Sniper passes out again, his mind can't handle the surge of whatever this door did to him.
When he comes to again, he manages to focus his mind. At least enough to understand he's not lying bleeding on a dusty floor inside a building, instead he is lying outside on a cliff if the hard cold surface holds any clue. He notices he has a sheet over him and not far away is an empty bowl. It seems someone has been taking care of him.

"Oh, you're awake." A light voice speaks.

Sniper turns and has to take a moment to comprehend what he is seeing. At first, he mistakes it for a cat, then he realizes this is a griffin- a young one and female from the looks of it. Her body shape looks to be a puma and harpy eagle, except the colors is a bit wrong. Like a harpy eagle, the griffin is grey but has a tint of blue in the feathers around the face and fur covering most of her body. He eyes himself and instead of a wounded man he sees a very ruffled up griffin. Takes him another moment to notices his colors have changed, his before brown with a tint of red now has turned into a warmer bronze feather and fur color with strong black spots dotting most of his body.
…. How the hell did he end up in Equestria? The young grey griffin child walks over to him, holding a bowl of soup in her claws. "I brought you something to eat." The child sits down beside him and offers him a spoon full of this soup. Sniper figures this child has been the one who took care of him, that's really sweet of her. He slowly sits up, his abdomen and right front leg still hurt but fortunately that is all he seems to be dealing with. Thank god for this form's fast healing.

The griffin child is very relieved to see him up. "Your pony friend wouldn't say when you will wake. But he did let me help by getting you food. My sister is going to charge you for the food though…" She explains.

Sniper raises a brow of two things: One; why does this sweet girl's sister have this none charity behavior? Could it be because the family is poor? Guess he does owe this kid's family a bit of money. And two: A pony brought him here? Well, he figures the kid can explain him about that small mystery. Emptying the bowl for soup, he returns it with a small: "Thanks." And is not sure how to react to the kid's reaction. She gasps and her green colored eyes wide in joy. "No one has ever thanked me before!" She cries and giggling ecstatically leaps around him.
Sniper is honestly speechless to this kid's overjoyed behavior for a simple thanks. What kind of people is this kid hanging around if she gets this excited for common politeness? Better yet what kind of family does not praise their child for such a charitable behavior? His mother… well, his adoptive mother always made sure to praise him when he did a chore without her asking him to do it, which encouraged him to continue on that behavior.

"What's your name mister?" The girl asks this older male griffin who hasn't tried to shove her away like the other adults often do. He's is a bit quiet though, but she prefers that any day over getting yelled at.

He is about to say his class name but consider otherwise, it's not like anyone in Equestria knows about him. "Lawrence." Sniper introduces himself. The griffin child titles her head in confusion for a moment, before she is back to this beaming joy she has going. "Wow! I didn't know griffins could have names that didn't start with G!" Sniper raises a brow at this. "I'm Gabriella, but most just call me Gabby." He simply nods and is not sure what to do when Gabby decides to take a seat beside him and starts talking about everything coming to her young mind. Parts of him wants her to leave as he can't think with her talking but he can't as this girl did help him out and something tells him she's lonely. So he lets her stay and continue on this waterfall of chatter. It's not much different from like when Scout decides to hang around him, only difference this girl does talk about stuff other than herself.

"Gabby!" An older griffin calls an hour later. Sniper looks up and spots another female griffin, she looks to be a mix of a bald eagle and a plain lion. "Time to leave the homeless griffin!" Sniper feels quite offended being called that, and he would've called her out but then remembers that he is sorta homeless as he left his camper back in the human world.
Gabby is more disappointed she has to leave. "Aww… can't I stay just a bit longer? Please?" She asks with big puppy eyes and Sniper is starting to see why parents at times gave into their child's begging if this was the look they had to resist. It's adorable, but this older griffin does not want to hear it, she grabs Gabby around the neck like a feline would and leaves without looking at Sniper. It's only when he is alone Sniper realizes he is in a town filled with griffins and all of them has this rude behavior going on, when the passing griffins do pay him any mind it's all with a degrading look that he is wasting space.
One of them snorts at him but whatever word he was going to say never leaves his beak from the death glare Sniper sends him. The owl griffin does the wise choice in leaving him alone. Sniper grumbles at this brief confrontation between the other griffin. "Now I see why Dashie thought those things of me..." He muses, pulls the sheet closer around his neck and lies down to get some sleep.
Sniper wakes when someone nudges his talons gently, for a moment he thinks it's one of those griffins but before he allowed his darker side to attack the other one, he notices the one who poked him isn't a griffin but a pony, a crystal pony in fact from how sparkly the reached out hoof is. Rest of the pony's body is hidden underneath a white cloak and the head covered by the hood. The hooded pony stares quietly down to him, then pulls down the hood and Sniper gasps at seeing this pony's messed up face, the same scarring as a certain legendary sniper has. "W-White Death?" He stutters in disbelief. The crystal pony smiles, twisting up the deeply scarred face even further and nods that he is indeed White Death. Sniper stares, not only is White Death here in Equestria, a pale amethyst with several shades of blue hair and tail crystal pony but he is the one who saved his life! "How? Did that talking hare call for you?" He asks White Death dumbfounded. "How did you bring us to Equestria?"

White Death raises a brow and titles his head in confusions, then he reaches into his cloak and pulls out a notebook, not the one he uses for every time he makes a kill. He puts down the book, then grabs a pen and starts to write with his mouth, the sign he has been here before. When done he pushes the book over to the still very baffled Sniper.

'I am surprised you know of this world. Saves me explaining that part though. Yes, the talking hare brought me to you. She's from another world and has been my companion for years now. You were badly wounded when I found you and when it became apparent I couldn't reach a hospital in time, I brought you here. When your wounds have healed, I will take you back to your comrades.'

"Can you travel between worlds?" Sniper asks after have read White's reply. The crystal pony nods but won't reveal how when Sniper asks. So instead he asks about that white hare. "Where is she?" White Death replies this time by writing.

'She cannot walk in this world. Don't ask me why; I do not know.'

Seems like some worlds have certain rules, does makes Sniper wonder how many worlds White Death has been seeing these past years? Not that it matters, other than: "Thanks for saving me. If it wasn't for you… I would've been dead." White Death smiles, does drop and replaced with a small frown from his request. "Could you tell my team I am alright?" The crystal pony title his head and Sniper explains, even if he does not fully understand himself. "Something tells me you bringing me here wasn't a coincidence. I think my skills are needed here once again." And he has to find something that has been lost for a very long time, what that is? No idea but Sniper trusts whatever power brought him so far will give him a sign.
White Death blinks, then bobs his head and chest— Sniper realizes the turned man is laughing, still having an amused smile on his scarred face White Death nods and writes down in that book of his.

'Alright, I will tell your comrades. I am curious about what great things you will do in the future. Best of luck fellow brother of the scope.'

Sniper must say that he truly feels honored that White Death addressed him as an equal, he smiles up to the scarred pony who returns it before the legendary sniper leaves this world once again.

**Next day**

As early as allowed, with an armful of griffin scones, Gabby runs over to where Lawrence is sleeping. She nudges him and when sure he is awake, she offers him the scones. "Hey, I brought you something to eat."

… He's not sure these 'scones' are edible, they look like rocks with branches smacked on just for good measures. But then again, Pyro eat gems and he has seen the ponies eat rocks, so maybe this world's rocks can be eaten? Sniper takes one of the rocks and carefully tries to bite it, it breaks like a very hard piece of bread and taste like one there has been out in the sun for too long. He's hungry enough to eat them though. "Thanks, kid." and again she gets all happy by a simple thanks, must admit she is really adorable with those beaming eyes.

"Hey."

Sniper and Gabby turn around and Gabby smiles up to this young adult female griffin. "Hi sis! Lawrence really likes your scones!" She exclaims cheerfully.

The older griffin eyes Sniper in a grumpy manner. "Well you are still going to pay for it— and everything else Gabby brought you." He narrows his eyes slightly but does find it somewhat fair he needs to pay her. "How much do I owe you?"

"Fifty-four bits."

Sniper nods curtly. "Fine." and decides to get bit info of the place White Death brought him to, it's clear this area is the home for the griffins. "What is this place?" He asks and Gabby replies happily. "This is Griffonstone! The biggest town of the griffins!" Sniper scans the area and must say that he has been in slums looking better than this and that's saying a lot.

"What rock have you been living under if you don't even know about Griffinstone?" The older griffin asks suspiciously.

Getting about enough of this female griffin's attitude, Sniper gets on his feet, proving to be a head taller than her. "None of your bloody business." He sneers, and for a split second his sinister side whispers that he should teach her a lesson for being rude to him. Sniper realizes this in last second and does not attack when the female griffin backs intimidated away from him. "Whatever, just be sure to pay me back." She does a good job hiding it though.
The sister of this griffin, however, she didn't notice the hostility between them and starts leaping around him. "I know how to get jobs to earn bits! Come let me show you!" But the older sister stops her with a harsh remark. "You shouldn't show anyone anything unless they have paid you bits first."

"But I want to show him…" Gabby argues softly.

"And you can." Sniper assures Gabby and walks past this white-headed and rude female griffin. Passing her, he makes his own remark. "I can now see why she wants to hang around me if you're her daily company." The female griffin scowls. "Oh yeah, says the loser living out on the street." Sniper ignores her and follows Gabby to certain places where he might get a small job to pay back her sister.

When a safe distance Gabby apologizes for her sister's rude behavior. "She's still sad she lost a good friend." She explains.

He can sort of relate to that, not that he is going to voice it out loud. "What job do griffins do around here?" Sniper asks the kid instead. Gabby shows him and Sniper quickly learns why the older sister was rude: because that's how everyone in town is and the way earning money does not really help the town's prosperity. There is only one trader, barely any shops and those there are have only dry food and what he caught when he and Gabby passed; demanding more money that the food is worth. Rest are either gamblers or roaming around being hostile to one another.
Sniper stops when he notices a pony, a sand-colored pony with multicolored grey hair and tail. He can just barely see her cutie mark behind all that gear she is carrying around, it's a book with a compass rose on. This pegasus is currently discussing something with another male griffin. Not sure why but he thinks that pony is the sign and decides to walk closer and hear why this pony is here.

"Come on, that's what I gave you the last time!" The pony exclaims annoyed by whatever the brown griffin had said.
The griffin merely shrugs and leaves. The pony sighs loudly and clearly annoyed by her current situation. "Well that's just great…" Pushing up her glasses, she notices someone approaching and when spotting a bronze griffin with black spots. He is limping and looks to have been in a nasty fight but besides that, he looks capable of what she has in mind. "Are you interested in earning some bits?" She asks this spotted griffin, well aware that's all griffins are interested about. This male griffin nods and asks. "How much are you paying?"
She pulls out a bag filled with bits. "Two hundred." The griffin ponders for a moment, then he nods. "Done."
So far so good. "Great, now the journey will be long so I suggest you pack some gear." The child beside him speaks before he can. "Lawrence does not have anything, but he can keep my old blanket."

That's very sweet of her, but from how these griffins live, Sniper rather not take what little Gabriella here have. "Give me half of my payment and I'll go with you in a half hour." Sniper tells his new client. Not exactly how he is planning on earning money but he thinks he much rather wants to do an extended job for a pony than a few days around these griffins who is really pushing the deadly side of his psyche and he rather not test his strength on how well he can keep that side under control in his current state. The pony is a bit surprised but does give him half of the money and he heads out to get the proper gear for a walk into the wilderness. As promised he return a half hour later. "Let's go." She nods and heads out.
Sniper follows but stops when he notices that Gabby is following him. He stops her. "You can't come along kid."

But Gabby really wants to, in the short time she has known him, Lawrence has been really kind to her. "Please? I promise I won't get in the way." She begs him with the biggest puppy eyes she can make. Lawrence shift on his feet, musing. "Doubt your parents will allow it…" So she runs over to ask. "I'll ask mother!" Running over to where she last saw her mother, Gabby explains to her mother who is more interested in doing bets on dice. "Can I go with him? Can I mother?" Gabby asks hopefully, not aware her mother has been barely been listening to her. "Sure, whatever. As long you don't interrupt me again." and Gabby runs over to Lawrence and the other pony. "Mother said yes." She beams.

…What kind of parents says yes just like that? Sniper has no idea. He eyes his client for a bit of help for he has no idea how to tell the kid this will be dangerous and he really cannot resists those puppy eyes.
His client tries. "Look, where I will be going to is not a place for a child. It is very far and might be dangerous." But Gabby is not so easy to persuade this is a bad idea. "I can help to carry on the gear, I am really good at learning new stuff! Please? I promise I will be good." The child griffin begs in a sense of desperation to come with them.
Sniper can't help but see parts of himself in this kid and sighs in defeat. "Fine, you can come along." Much to his client's disbelief. But he knows that look in Gabby's eyes. "She will go with us whatever we want it or not. So I prefer she is close instead sneaking after us where she might get hurt."

"…If you say so..." The pony muses and a bit reluctant heads out with the unexpected kid in tow.

**A day later**

His client, Aid Keen Yearling has brought them further East and currently taking a river through this forest they find themselves in. He hasn't been asking what she needs him for, it's pretty clear Aid Keen simply needs a bodyguard.
Gabby, on the other hand, is very curious about where they are going. So Aid Keen explains.
"You can sort of call me a treasure hunter." Sniper raises a brow of this, Miss Yearling is not what he would call a treasure hunter, she is a pegasus but for some reason, she can barely fly and her eyesight is horrible without those glasses. "Yeah, I know." She smiles weakly at his unspoken words. "Not exactly the pony best suited for the job." And that makes him wonder enough to open his mouth. "Why are you doing this?"

"I have my reasons." She replies simply, clearly not feeling up to telling him the true reason going out on a dangerous adventure. "Anyway, all you need to worry about is keep me safe."
Sniper nods, that's all he pretty much needed to know but that's not good enough for a certain kid. "You still haven't replied to Gabby's question."

"Right, well, I am heading to some old ruins rumored to have been the temple of the alicorns." Aid Keen explains.
Gabby titles her head in confusion. "What's an alicorn?" and Aid Keen explains. "It's a pony with the magic of a unicorn, flight of a pegasus and strength of the earth pony. Equestria's rulers are all alicorns but according to ancient books, there once existed a whole tribe of them but nopony knows what caused their disappearance."

"And you are planning on solving that riddle?" Sniper asks.

"Yes and no." Aid Keen replies, she is not a pathologist and never will be one. "I will record down whatever we find, but what I am truly after is any artifacts these ruins might protect. Will be dangerous but I am sure we can get past the traps."

Sniper raises a brow on what this wannabe treasure hunter think how searching through old ruins will be. "Don't get your hopes up, most ruins holds nothing but dust and forgotten history."

This catches Aid Keen's attention. "Been in many ruins before mister Sniper?"

"A few." Sniper replies and tells her in case she got the wrong idea. "No I am not a treasure hunter. Simply went into ruins for shelter or if the prey went there."

"I see, may I ask where you are from or do I have to pay you bits for this information?" Aid Keen smirks to the griffin.

Sniper chuckles ever so slightly of her sass, he's starting to like this pony. He lowers his head so his hat hides most of his face. "Nah, the money I'm getting is fine." After a moment of silence. "I'm from a country far away. Spent most of my life out in the bush."

"Wasn't you much around your own kind?" Aid Keen asks, watching the fish pass by under the river's surface.

Sniper shrugs. "Not really, I prefer being alone." Turning to Gabby when she remarks softly. "Sounds lonely." He turns his gaze to the water, for when really thinking about it: "Sometimes it was..." He admits slowly. Sure he likes to be alone from time to time, but sometimes he does want to be around people. He didn't have much of socializing as a child, thanks to being a runt who didn't like doing fistfights as the "real Australians" liked to do.

"This is out stop."

Nodding Sniper grabs his gear and the silver bow. Gabby jumps onto his back and holds onto the sleeping bag; thinking she will keep anything from falling. In reality, Sniper let her believe that so she would stay close to him and not run off to do anything stupid. After the boat has docked itself, Aid Keen leads them into the forest and more than once has her nose into some old map. "I found this during my last expedition." She explains his silence question.
"Was it that other griffin who escorted you?" He asks and does wonder why that other griffin demanded more bits. "How did that trip go?"

Aid Keen puts the map back into her bag. "We got into a small scuffle with a herd of deer, there was a misunderstanding on why I was in their area. Other than that, I say the trip went pretty well." Other than her last griffin escort refused to help other than be her bodyguard unless she paid him more bits. One of the reasons why she didn't agree on paying more on the escorting. This new bodyguard griffin is way more tolerable than the last one. "Anyway, this map will lead us to the ruins." Lawrence simply nods and follows her through the forest, slowly the path gets steeper as they approach the mountain the map says holds the ruins.

Out from the corner of his eyes, Sniper notices something strange, turning he spots a spider with a large gold spot on its back. He does know a lot about spiders from his time in the bush but he wasn't able to recognize this spider so he has no idea if it's venomous or not. It's gone now, so unless they encounter more he won't pay it much mind.
Nearing nightfall, they arrive at the ruins but since it's too dark to go searching for whatever treasure Aid Keen is after, they make camp for the night.
Sniper is sort of glad this pony knows how to make camp, does reveal he's not dealing with someone completely inexperience walking out in the wild.
With the tent made, he leaves Gabby inside, small thing fell asleep during the walk. He puts her under the sheet and leaves quietly so not to wake her.

"You're quite the unusual griffin." Aid Keen remarks softly from having watched Sniper doing something she has never seen another griffin do. "In a very good way." She adds from the stare he gives her. Aid Keen puts a bit more wood into the fire. "I have been around griffins a lot— they are the best bodyguards with their heightened senses and quick adaptability for new situations. But their biggest problem is they do not care about anything other than this:" She shows Lawrence a gold coin and unlike other griffins who ogle at the coin as if nothing else matters. He watches it with only mild interest, he knows what it's worth and he needs them but his world does not spiral around bits and that is something she has only sees in griffin cubs before their parents teach them their point of view on bits. "But you're not like that, you care about others." He does not answer, instead, he leaves to find more firewood. Aid Keen at first thought this silence treatment was because he does not want to talk but watching him, she realizes the reasons for his silence is because he does not know what to say. He's quite docile compared to other griffins, makes her wonder if he has the bite like other griffins when angered, not that she will push him as she won't stand a chance if it came to a fight.
Sniper returns with more wood and sits down before the fire, refusing to meet her eyes as he speaks. "You're not the first pony who has said this." This perks her interest. "A friend of yours?" He nods. "Yeah." But does not get into deeper details.
Aid Keen figures he will talk if he feels like it. Lawrence here seems more like a listener anyway. "Ponies are very good at making friends, I figure it's in our nature, but fighters we are not." He smiles amused by this and to her mild surprise, he speaks again. "That's not entirely true. I have seen ponies put up a fight against danger. But most of the time, yeah, you prefer doing parties and singing songs." Aid Keen chuckles but has to agree that ponies do that a lot.
"Must've been a surprise for you. Griffins don't do parties other than the Blue Moon celebration."

Sniper is not sure what this Blue Moon celebration is about, not it matters much. "I do enjoy a party now and then." His adoptive parents were very traditional when it came to the seasonal celebrations and he is thankful they did it as it gave him a reason to return home. Even if there was tension between him and his dad— the man who raised him… the man who loved and worried about him. Yeah, even with the disagreement about his job, his parents always made sure he felt welcome during the celebrations. "My parents always said that parties bring people together." And he agrees with them, he did come close to the team when they did victory celebration during the War Games. He wouldn't have called them friends, but the team had gained his respect enough so he wouldn't assassinate them even if the Administrator paid him for it. He did come to consider some of them as friends over time.

"Sounds like good griffins."

Sniper nods slowly. "They were..." but snaps his attention away when he notices movements. Scanning the area of these ruins of an ancient temple, he gets the feeling they are being watched. Sniper gets on his feet and stalks closer to one of the walls. He notices something weird and carefully reaches out for it.
Aid Keen joins him. "What is it?" He lowers his talon, showing her the web hanging from it. "Spiderweb." But not like something he has ever seen before, the spider web wasn't built like other spiders, instead weaved into the circular shape, this web looks like food and although it is old and greatly weaken, he had trouble getting just this handful down, good thing it wasn't sticky. He tells this to his client and throws the web off his claws. "The spider that made this hasn't been around for quite some time but what kind of spider lives up here?"

"I have no idea." Aid Keen muses. She scans the walls but the darkness makes it hard to see what little engraving is left on them. "It's not like I am afraid of spiders, but I would prefer they don't crawl on me when I sleep. We should make sure they stay away from the camp."
Lawrence simply nods and both start making small fires around the camp in order to keep any critter away.

Author's Note:

In case some of you will get angry at how I wrote A.K. Yearling, I did it because I found it way more interesting that she is not Daring Do, but an Autor who gets her inspiration on going out on adventures but since she cannot do what Daring Do can (bad sight and lack magic to fly), she needs to hire a bodyguard to protect her from any danger.

the other thing I want to mention is White Death, he is partly an OC but he is made from a real life person going by the same title. The changes I made to my White Death is he is mute from the shot he took to the face and he can travel between worlds.