Baa-Ram-Ewe!

by Darkonshadows

65. Situational Gravity.

-Equus, Ponyville, Market Square, Fluttershy-

“So they are really easy to take care of Fizzy.” I patted the little ewe on the head and she bleated in a friendly tone.

“Yeah, now if only Jade was as easy to ‘take care of’.” It seemed as if Fizzle was a bit stressed. “The only reason why I’m even willing to entertain the idea is because this Tiny Ewe has spunk.”

“Was that air quotes I heard?” I asked politely.

“See Fluttershy you’re learning to think like me!” Pinkie stated as she passed by, I just shook my head.

“Horrifying thought that.” Fizzle commented dryly.

“Yes, well… why are you putting off telling Jade about this? Maybe she could actually help with the situation?” I received a flat look from Fizzle, my wings flexed a bit in slight fear and she eased up on the flat stare slightly.

“Imagine someone needed a surgery Fluttershy. There’s a difference between carefully using a scalpel and then there’s dropping a full grand piano on someone from high enough that there is time for it to gain full velocity before impact. Which is Jaded more likely to do?” With that said Fizzle, I couldn’t help myself when I winced… audibly enough that the entire square was looking at us. I dug my face into my mane a bit. “That’s what I thought. While Jade can be discreet, she really likes making noise… wouldn’t have my kitty any other way though.”

Jaded was my friend, but she did have problems with not going to extremes even Rainbow would find assorted flavors of nuts.

Hmm… maybe I should get some honey roasted cashews today?

-Elhorn, The Far North, Frosty Checkpoint, Shanty-

Negotiations be going fine, we not being shot at for one. Nicole, Colleen and Ocellus are handling things, but the local dogs are not going to let us up to the mines or this mountain in particular. They sounded like Cooler faction or a smaller faction of mercenaries working with said faction at the very least.

I be wondering what someone with the name Cooler would look like, I probably not be doing him any justice.

“Shanty we have some good news and terrible news, what would you like to hear first?” Ocellus asked me as she came over.

“What being the good news?” Why do I be having this sinking feeling, like I’m about to go down with it?

“Well the good news is our trade negotiations are going pretty well and we might even make a few of the side objectives of coming here.” Yes, Ocellus that be sounding very nice, but what does that have to do with me? “Even if they aren’t going to let us into their base or the mines the base is strategically placed near on this mountain in particular, they’ll bring the stuff to us and we’ll hash out things from there.”

“And?” I quirked my right eye at her.

“We… have a good idea as to where Pom is and it would be a horrible idea to go after her at this time.” Wait… what did you just be saying Ocellus?! “Look it’s just eye witness accounts, but they are clearly describing things Pom can and would be capable of in the situation she’s in. I think she’s attracting a lot of attention to herself trying to avoid it altogether.”

“Why?” It came out of my mouth with a calm tone, belying my deep rooted need to go help Pom with whatever situation she’s gotten herself into. She be doing that for me enough times already.

“Huh, you’re taking this better than I thought you would.” Smolder stated as Ocellus did talk to her first before approaching me.

“She isn’t, she’s just acting calm and she’s doing almost a good enough job to fool even me if I couldn’t sense her emotions right now.” Right Ocellus do be knowing what we are always feeling all the time. That must be an annoying ability to have constantly going for your entire life. “To answer the question, Pom is kind of living her nightmare scenario right now. She’s basically become a focus of the various factions fighting in the region. That includes Wulfgar Faction, Cooler Faction, several tribe’s worth of mountain bandits and at least four mercenary companies. It doesn’t help that the location she is in… isn’t safe for any of us to traverse, much less Dodo.”

“Where?” My anger flared a little bit, but I wasn’t angry at Ocellus. She is being the big sister I never had… Smolder is more of the fun sister I never had. Neither of them were responsible for what was going on with Pom.

“To the east of here in a place called Gravity Gorge, apparently the Wulfgar faction accidentally destroyed an empty mountain and tried to play it off as a sign of their power some time ago. It’s become a wonder of this world and would be good for tourists if it wasn’t so dangerous to be near.” Nicole stated as she came over to us, while glancing over her shoulder. “Now there’s a lot of gravity distortions in the area alongside massive floating boulders, small planetoids and other flora and fauna where a mountain used to be. Suggested cause of all these alluded to gravitational anomalies in the area is that an anti-gravity unit from an ark transport was destroyed in the most idiotic a manner as possible. I would not be surprised to find out all the anomalies in these mountains are related to Yellow Dog infighting with technologies they are not fit to use properly.”

I didn’t actually feel like running off at the first sign of Pom being somewhere, just knowing she was alive to be causing sightings like this was good enough for me. For now anyway…

We be parked in a cave called Frosty Checkpoint. It being cozy and warm thus far, I wanted to eventually go out there and find Pom when the information was more substantial. It had some homes dug out by the mostly amiable dogs we were staying with for the time being.

The dogs not be liking Bruno much and are tolerating Jean and Ligstrun far better, our presence with the courier team made it obvious that we were working for Zebulos and Zephyrus forces.

How the locals treated Colleen with indifference wasn’t a bad thing, I be learning it was not necessarily a good thing either. It was how I was treated growing up, the indifference to my existence be a bit soul crushing.

Nicole surprisingly was received well enough, despite the fact that she was constantly being watched by everyone. With the kinds of machines that this world had to deal with, it be completely understandable to me with the likes of evil cores existing.

As for the rest of us? We be seen as not threatening, which is being good. They will underestimate us if they eventually have ill winds to show for our sails.

Dodo made a noise and I found a raspberry cheesecake muffin held out to me, I smiled and took the offered treat. I was always hungry for more and Dodo be knowing this.

-A few hours earlier, Gravity Gorge, Hunt Guildar-

Being a good guy in the middle of a war was hard to do, especially when you were in Yellow Dog and happened to be one among the many eponymous yellow furred canines our regions are known for. Specifically, I’m the Retriever wearing light armor.

Cooler wasn’t a bad guy per say and his faction was nice, but I wanted to forge my own path.

How did you get here Hunt? Well a whole slew of things led to me being in this position given I was the leader for my small and relatively unknown mercenary scouts.

It started with that group of mechs tripping over my particular mercenary group trying to follow our own goals, we try to do things for an honest living and tried not to step on any paws around here.

‘Tried’ is the key word in all of this.

When I tried to get a closer look at the bandits that were hovering nearby the southern pass where all those bombastic bot bunnies were, fighting erupted going straight into Gravity Gorge and I heard someone white and fluffy was around.

I hope it wasn’t the abominable snow dog, heard the big guy lives in this weird place that is said to get darker towards the center. He was stated as being very friendly, but suddenly it seemed like every faction wanted him for some reason.

So after taking out the bandits meagerly managed mechs, we were out of ammunition for the rocket tubes thanks to that, I lead my group a merry roundabout chase through the snow to get into this position where I was quietly gathering information from my surroundings.

The information I was getting was that everything was pure chaos, even a portion of Cooler’s people were part of the havoc in this floating rock field. The Cooler faction had better be thankful for all this if I survive.

Imagine coming to Gravity Gorge and seeing it for the first time. It was a vast cylinder of large floating rocks that swirled and stretched well into the sky after going over a hill to see the spot where a mountain used to be. If any of the rocks fell out of the spinning cylinder of floating rocks, they’d roll all down the nearest incline back into whatever was making them all float like they do.

There were some rocks that were affixed in certain places where they spun and had small pools of water that get filled with fish from the blizzards that blow through here. Don’t honestly know how the fish got up here though.

Lots of food to be found around here considering some of the floating rocks were also surprisingly covered in plant life, the gravity anomalies were what was said to be generating enough heat for plant life to thrive.

A dog wouldn’t survive forever on the random patches of food unless they were crazy or knew a few things, but there was more than enough to survive off of for years out here with a good infusion of meat every now and then. That required knowing where to find fish in the middle of this maze of hovering dirt, stone and water.

Not only that, imagine one moment you’re weightless and the next you’re falling into a boulder face first.

That was my reality and the reality of whatever factions that were chasing this so called ‘puffy white target of great interest’.

I was quite sure it was mysterious abominable snow dog, but I needed a second opinion and that why I was stuck in the middle of fighting for my life.

The snow dog hardly ever left the Gravity Gorge or wanted to take part in all this fighting, what would get him to come out of hiding or get the attention of so many wild mongrels?

The various factions were obviously not deterred by doing things like falling upwards instead of sideways like I had when I leapt off a cliff into this place. They still drove their melee mechs into this crazy place with wild abandon.

It didn’t help that I have spotted just about every Yellow Dog faction under the sun out here among the floating platforms now looking for what sounded like the snow dog, a dog that definitely prefers his peace and solitude.

You used get a lot of that around here, eh… up until now where every faction has a flea to itch with this place all of the sudden and it became a huge war zone.

I’m curious as to why this was happening. All this fighting going on around me and randomly coming under attack was not doing me any favors whatsoever.

I clutched my rifle closer to my chest and peaked out of cover looking down below my current orientation. As for what my current position was?

I was sitting on the underside of a boulder and could look up at the ground below from where I was, it was a bit unsettling.

I was almost getting used to this place over the last few hours, now if only projectiles, explosives and machines weren’t flying all around me in a big mess. I’m not even sure if these canines even know who they are aiming at half the time anymore, kind of hard to tell which faction you were a part of without a decent means of identifying yourself.

Both Cooler and Wulfgar factions made a habit of barely being identifiable from one another at a distance. Wulfgar wasn’t smart, but the guys he fielded made up for lacking in the brains department by a wide margin.

You could use sight, but all the factions were using the same kind of machines, looked similar and probably couldn’t identify friend from foe without getting an up close whiff of them. There were many wolves and dogs going into or exiting camouflage magic in various places for ambushes.

This place was a death trap and nobody would want to be in the middle of this, especially if you were about to be crushed between the gravitational forces of two rocks slamming together.

The unwary wouldn’t last long here.

It was sufficient to say I was witnessing one of the weirdest battles I will have ever seen in my entire life, I’ve seen a few like the one with that submarine in the western mountains. That was more of a laugh riot than a battle and I was more of an information gatherer than a paid killer.

At least I knew that all these dogs weren’t trying to kill me intentionally, some of them were mine that got lost among the rocks. I think I gave most of them an opening to escape, but I was in a spot of trouble myself for doing so.

My guys would all hopefully fall back to the gathering point while I scouted around to see if there was something worthwhile going on in this mess, I haven’t moved from this boulder for the last twenty minutes.

It was kind of flattering that someone out here was going to this much trouble to keep me pinned down. I was cold, I wasn’t safe and I wished I could howl, but that would just alert everyone to which floating rock I was literally hiding under. At least I had food in my stomach and fresh water in a canteen at my hip protected by some light armoring.

The sharp sound of a projectile cracking ripped into my hearing, as a shot ricocheted off my boulder making me wince.

It was time to move… wait… what did I just see?

I had been about ready to charge around my boulder and jump for another one with my gun blazing, but I thought I saw some movement that would put me in a crossfire zone from the right if someone wasn’t willing to check their target.

A lot of people weren’t checking their targets out here, so I stayed in place and watched the direction I thought I saw someone trying to get a line of sight on me from.

That’s when I spotted it, a small four legged white creature with a fearful look on her face among the floating boulders with battling going on in all directions around her. Well it looked like a female creature to me.

The poor thing was shivering as she peeked around a rock, she was panicked and breathing roughly. Her eyes were darting in every direction and the bags under her eyes didn’t read as being very healthy.

That was most decidedly not the abominable snow dog. In fact, it looked almost like a sheep. There was just something about her that wouldn’t let me look away even as the boulder I was under was being fired upon from above.

“There she is!” I peeked around the boulder and the wolf that had been firing on me pointed out the white being who started inhaling deeply for some reason. “Remember, shoot to cripple, Wulfgar will pay more for her alive and only if we can get to her first! He doesn’t care if we shoot at his people to do it either, he just wants that creature and the payday will be worth it!”

That… why? The creature didn’t look that impressive, but she was adorable and looked like a big cuddle toy. What was so important about that poor thing that Wulfgar would open up word to both bandits and mercenaries to be on the hunt for her for a big reward?

I wouldn’t be surprised if Cooler faction wanted her too given a number of them were here too, so I was going to have to follow this up and learn more about this.

I popped out and shouldered my rifle and pulled the trigger with the barest hint of aim thrown in, the wolf took the blast in the shoulder and fell to the backside of the rock he was on yelping in pain and a spray of blood that floated about as the weird gravity pulled it in all directions.

What happened next blew my mind as I was ducked down.

A rocket went flying towards the boulder the white creature was on, then she exhaled and whatever passes for heck here on Elhorn broke loose.

I tried not to blink and keep my eyes on the white blur that started bouncing around the floating rocks heading inwards towards the darker center of Gravity Gorge. She was actively dodging bullets through the field of rocks with a ludicrously hard to follow finesse as she leapt, twirled and rebounded off the various boulders.

She grabbed one particular small rock and swung herself around it twice to gain momentum and then released it to go flying off deeper into the floating rocks of Gravity Gorge.

All those changes in gravity was likely taking its toll on her body as she started slowing down quickly shortly after that, but she was putting quite some distance between her and all of those pursuing her.

Out of everyone in the general region shooting at her, which would have killed just about anything else to have that much firepower aimed at it, only two shots landed and that barely slowed the fluffy cute thing.

In fact, I think I saw one of the two shots that landed bounce off of her fluffy body entirely. She kept going after that direct hit with a fear stricken look on her face as her cheek started bleeding from a painful looking deep graze that nearly went through her left eye.

Had to follow this up and find out what this was all about, going to this much effort to catch or kill this one being that wasn’t actively fighting back was a bit ludicrous!

I stood up and started hopping sideways clockwise through Gravity Gorge, heading out of the heavily conflicted areas where everyone was fighting to the south eastern and lower boulders.

Things got much quieter as I started to quietly pursue that curious thing from a different direction, I eventually pulled my rifle out and got her on the scope with my safety turned on. She stopped and was ripping into a bit of fruit voraciously once she got some distance between her and her chasers.

She was tired, hungry, cold and possibly thirsty… seriously hoped that poor thing ran into one of the floating pools of water around here. I was currently feeling tense like she was, except I was far fresher and had only been lightly shot in thigh.

Really shouldn’t be jumping around with my injury, but I’m in the middle of the floating debris of an entire mountain. Jumping was a requirement to get around in this place.

Speaking of, I started moving higher up the field of floating rocks and further away from the planet’s surface. I wouldn’t want to miss a jump at this height or fall out of the gravitational cylinder or be near the edge of it this far above ground. A fall from this far up would definitely kill me, it’s a good thing I don’t get vertigo and had a healthy fear of heights.

I’m going to watch this creature that has earned the attention of just about every canine in the given region, I was not going to approach her though. She was an intelligent hooved entity and seemed highly paranoid, I would be too with so many people shooting around me for the last few hours while giving chase.

I might have to help cut off her pursuers or else that poor thing would be captured or die running herself ragged at this rate.

It didn’t help that the general Yellow Dog melee mechs were being fielded by everyone out here, at least spare parts weren’t at a premium with the destruction derby going on further down and to my right.

“AwoooOOOwwwwooooo.” I howled out and received an acknowledgment back a second later, my howl was for my guys to make haste to Cooler faction and tell them that some of their guys ran into trouble out here. I also wanted them to pick up some salvage if they could swing it safely.

I was also calling out for them to not wait for me, I was going scouting.

Had to move quickly, as anyone could get a shot on me after giving away my position. I kicked off the rock I was on and landed in a patch of grass on a small round mass of dirt.

I took aim and popped some shots back into the fracas going on below as several bandits honed in on my howl. That scared them off of me temporarily.

I took a few flying leaps and tried to find out where that creature went, she must have been spooked by my howling.

Five minutes later I saw the fluffy creature on a large landmass with big patches of grass facing down six… bandits… just judging by the smell.

Something was off about the look in her eyes as they had her surrounded. I watched what happened next, apparently something gave away within her.

She began growling and started clawing them down with her bare hooves.

Her hooves didn’t have claws and yet still somehow made claw marks in the flesh of two of the unlucky bandit wolves as she leapt into them with a sudden feral aggression.

She bit and clawed down another with a deranged ferocity.

She was actually moving like an animal as she darted around shots from the three guys who hadn’t gone down screaming.

They were panicking and unable to hit the creature before she got another one of them by the neck with her teeth. After she almost savagely crushed that guy’s windpipe, she then looked to the last two with blood dripping from her mouth and growling like a beast.

The last two quickly threw down their weapons and jumped away from the flat landmass screaming.

Slowly the creature looked dizzy and shook her head, she started sputtering and spitting the blood from her mouth.

She looked at the carnage she caused with horror, fear and sickness, what she just did clearly hadn’t been natural for her.

That poor thing started vomiting badly afterwards.

The guys on the ground around her weren’t dead, but they needed immediate aid.

I took a step forward and small rock went flying from the floating mass I was standing on and struck the ground near her, she looked up at me for a second.

After a moment, she whimpered and took a flying leaps towards boulders leading deeper into the thickening field of rocks.

What did I just witness?

Author's Note:

Pom is going through some stuff.

Also the technology going on here is all something Robotnik is capable of causing and feasibly occurring in Rocket Knight Adventures.

It's weird enough there's a reflective red river of liquid that kills any biological being on contact, which is far deadlier than Mega Mack was meant to be.

Comments

[Shadowshame]

Hunt seems to have a better grip on himself than any of the other dog in that mess hopefully he can help Pom

Edit: also why do I get the feeling the abominable snow dog will actually show up

[Sigmacipher]

10783853
Because if it's actually who I think it is then it's one of Collen's old allies.