An Empty World

by The_Unnamed_Pawn

Chapter 6

The birds swept down on Stinger instantly, but the mare had clearly been expecting as much. By the time the flock reached her, she had already planted her back hooves firmly in the ground and readied for the counter attack. Spectrum watched in slow motion as Stinger punched a few of the larger birds right out of the sky and through the rock wall on the first pass. He counted three, but it was hard to keep track.

“What the hay are you doing?!” Stinger shouted once the flock had finished its first pass, “Get the branch.”

Spectrum nodded as the world snapped back into full speed. The birds hadn’t moved to attack him, so he had merely sat stunned as he watched them swarm Stinger. Apparently he needed something to snap him back to reality every time something exciting happened.

Spectrum was able to snap the branch away from the wall with ease. The floor of the meadow was solid dirt, but it seemed the rock around them was still incredibly brittle, and it crumbled away the second he gave the branch a single solid pull. By the time he’d armed himself, the birds had returned for their second pass.

Spectrum didn’t aim as he flew into the fray. He just floated forward and swung his stick as hard as he could the moment that he got into range. He managed to knock quite a few hummingbirds and a falcon out of the group with his swing, though they simply tumbled to the ground rather than flying into the cave wall. He noticed an eagle and a buzzard land beside them a couple of moments later.

“Nice swing, princess,” Stinger panted. Spectrum turned back to see that the mare had been hit pretty hard. Her mane had come undone and was hanging in a lengthy mess around her face, her bandages were beginning to come undone, and Spectrum was pretty sure one of her eyes wasn’t opening.

“Are you alright?”

Stinger let out a full blown laugh at the comment. “I feel fantastic,” she shouted. Spectrum wasn’t quite sure if she was being serious or sarcastic. “Never mind that though, next groups coming.” The pair looked up simultaneously at the oncoming flock this time. It had thinned a touch now. It was hard to be sure how many were there, but at least most of the birds of prey had been taken out. No doubt that was primarily Stinger’s doing.

Once again the birds chose to ignore Spectrum completely and head straight for the mare. The pegasus readied his stick for another swing as the swarm approached, and the moment they came into reach he swung once more with all the force he could muster. This time though, the flock broke apart just before he struck, he only managed to take out a single sparrow.

The birds on the other hand were much more successful. While there were only smaller creatures amongst their ranks now, there had to be at least a dozen of them that struck Spectrum at once. The pegasus was thrown to the ground with a thud, but thankfully no breaking ground.

About four more of the small birds hit the ground around Spectrum a moment later. What followed was a loosely wrapped hoof being extended to him. “Get up. They’ll be back soon.” Stinger said cheerfully. Spectrum rolled over rather than grab the hoof once he realized who it belonged to. Sure they were in the middle of combat, but he didn’t trust Stinger to not at least give him a playful slap once he got near her.

Spectrum grabbed the branch again once he got to his feet and immediately looked up. The birds were still retreating upward at the moment, along with a few dozen butterflies. “Do you think they’ll split again?” Spectrum asked as he floated back into a ready stance. Stinger didn’t respond for some time. When the stallion took another look at her, he saw it was because she was busy tightening her hoof wraps.

After spitting the cloth back out Stinger took her own look up at the flock and answered. “Doesn’t matter, either way you need to swing that thing more than once.” She turned back to Spectrum and grinned. “Flail that thing if you have to, but take out more than one bird.” Spectrum shot the mare an annoyed look, but he nodded nonetheless. Whether or not he liked it, she obviously knew more about fighting than he did.

Spectrum took another look up. The birds were moving in again. The flock was much thinner now. They probably only had one more pass in them before they couldn’t really attack anymore. Spectrum figured that if he and Stinger could just take out ten more, the remainder of the flock would be smart enough to retreat.

Again Spectrum waited until the birds were right next to them before he swung the branch. They still headed straight for Stinger initially, this time however they circled around the mare just in time to avoid Spectrum’s branch. When Spectrum attempted to swing at the flock again, he only managed to smack Stinger right in the face. Thankfully though, the flock was just as surprised by this as the mare was, and quite a few birds were smashed aside as she flew backwards.

The birds didn’t back off this time though. Instead they attacked even more fiercely. The dozen or so leftover birds focused solely on pecking Stinger. The mare put up a fight even while prone though. Time slowed down for Spectrum again as he watched Stinger’s precise flailing smashed several of the birds straight into the dirt and send others flying.

This time though, Spectrum didn’t remain still during the slowdown. He charged slowly forward the entire time the birds assaulted Stinger. Spectrum swung his branch once more the second he was within reach. This time he managed to knock about five hummingbirds away in addition to smacking Stinger’s snout though. The mare rolled into a few other birds as well after the smack, though whether this was because of Spectrums swing or in an effort to dodge it was anypony’s guess.

The last of the birds, a particularly enraged looking robin, was taken out by a final swing from Spectrum that sent it flying through the mountainside. The pegasus took a quick look back at Stinger in order to make sure it was finished. There weren’t any more birds attacking the mare, but the look on her face made it clear that the fight wasn’t over just yet.

Spectrum moved to flee, but by the time he had turned it was too late; Stinger had already tackled him and grabbed him by his mane. “One!” the mare shouted as she smashed his face into the ground. The second smash came almost immediately after, and was followed by, “That’s two,” said in a much happier tone. Stinger let go of the pegasus after that. Unfortunately for Spectrum, the third smash came instantly after he raised his head. “And that’s three,” Stinger concluded in a sing-song voice.

“I only hit you twice,” Spectrum said, his voice muffled by the ground.

“Yeah, but I like to stay ahead of the curve.” Stinger laughed. Spectrum got to his feet and shot her a glare. Interestingly, he found he was more annoyed with the mare than angry. Maybe that was because he hadn’t been surprised when she assaulted him.

Stinger actually winked this time when she noticed Spectrum’s glare, but she didn’t respond further. The stallion suspected this was probably because her mouth was busy tearing off a section of her wrap. Spectrum sighed. He had been wondering why she bothered with that cloth. “If you’re going to fight this much you should just cut your mane,” he complained.

Stinger chuckled and spat the torn cloth onto a hoof. “Hey they make for great bandages too. If one of those big birds had scored an actual hit, you’d be thanking me for bringing something to tie back my hair.” With that the mare began wrapping her mane back into its tidy bun.

Spectrum sighed and turned his attention upward. As he suspected, a few more of the butterflies were flying away. “Why do you think they’re going to the peak?” he asked.

Stinger paused in her work and glanced upward. “Oh horseapples,” she cursed, “They are heading to the peak aren’t they?”

“Is that a problem?”

Stinger chuckled and finished tying her mane. “I sure hope not,” she said with a grin. Once she had tied the knot nice and tightly she got walking again. “Who knows, maybe we actually are freeing them.”

“They’re going to kill us aren’t they?” Spectrum sighed as he sidled up beside Stinger.

“You don’t think I can take some butterflies?” Stinger laughed for a minute. “No no, they’re not going to kill us, princess,” she said, catching her breath, “I can’t say they won’t try though.”

“Should I grab the branch?”

“Do you want me to slam your face into the ground again?” Stinger made a point of cracking the ground as they spoke. They were back on the rock. Spectrum shook his head, but didn’t give off any expression. “Right back to being dull huh?” Stinger chuckled. Spectrum smiled and nodded. “In that case,” the mare smirked, “I never finished my story.”

“I have an idea,” Spectrum interrupted nonchalantly, “Why don’t I scout out the peak? I think I can fly up there from here, and that’s where the hippogryphs should be right?”

Stinger nodded. “That’s what the bunny told me.” Spectrum stopped and stared at her for a moment. “What, did you think I just assumed there’d be hippogryphs up there?” The stallion nodded. “Well I guess I showed you then.”

Spectrum shook his head and floated off the ground. “I’m going to check just to be safe,” he said. Before he could fly any further Stinger reached up and wrapped a hoof around his leg.

“There’s no way I’m letting you go up there alone, Spec,” Stinger said while doing her best to pull the stallion down gently. “C’mon, it can’t be more than ten minutes trot from here.”

Spectrum shook his head and started to fly higher, inevitably dragging the heavy mare with him. The last plateau was less than thirty seconds flight away. He figured that he might as well go this way even if he had to drag Stinger along with him. Either way he wouldn’t have to listen to the bunny story again.

Stinger let loose a sigh after realizing she had been pulled well beyond safe landing distance. “Be careful,” she warned on their climb up. Spectrum was a touch surprised by the concern, until he realized that he was putting her in danger as well. Then it suddenly made sense.

The climb was a touch longer than the thirty seconds that Spectrum had predicted. He blamed this on the fact that Stinger weighed as much as a ton of bricks. Stinger on the other hoof was very vocal about it being his fault for not exercising. Spectrum couldn’t argue too much with that, mostly because in the end it would be futile, and luckily he didn’t have to. By the time the mare had started insulting him, the pair had already reached the mountain’s final plateau.

Sitting in the middle of the plateau was a single hippo with four wings surrounded by a rather large swarm of the pink butterflies from before. Upon seeing the insects, Spectrum immediately started searching for a place to hide. He settled on a large rock not far from the cliff’s edge. The beast was, thankfully, sleeping at the moment; as were the butterflies.

“Okay,” Spectrum panted as he set Stinger down behind the rock, “You were right about flying to Cloudsdale. You’re way too heavy for anything less than a dragon to carry.”

“I’d smack you if I didn’t think it would wake that thing up,” Stinger mumbled as she got to her feet.

Spectrum landed beside her and glanced around the rock. “So what was your plan?”

Stinger smiled and moved to a place beside him. She had callously walked right out from behind the rock. “If I can get on its back I don’t think it should be able to get me,” she whispered as she walked steadily closer. She then suddenly stopped. “Hey Spec, you think you could fly me over the butterflies?”

“Not without disturbing them,” Spectrum responded as he inched his own way out from behind the rock. There must’ve been more than forty of the little things surrounding the creature.

Stinger sighed. Spectrum turned to get another look at her and saw that she was smiling again in spite of it. “Well then I guess we’ll just have to disturb them.” The mare chuckled and trotted forward a bit more before lowering her body. It was clear to Spectrum that she was preparing to leap. Rather than argue, the pegasus floated upward in preparation for the oncoming storm.

The storm struck instantly and with full force the second that Stinger landed on the hippogryph’s back. After hearing the ground crack and seeing the beast sink when Stinger landed, Spectrum was unable to see anything but the color pink. The butterflies that swarmed around him didn’t do much to actually hurt him. They just obscured his vision and made flying difficult.

This caused enough problems though when Stinger called for Spectrum’s help. The demand was simple, “Spec, get these things off me, I can’t see what I’m doing,” but since the stallion couldn’t even figure out the mare’s relative location after a few minutes of struggling with the insects, he was unable to help.

“Can’t you handle them yourself,” Spectrum shouted back to the mare as he swatted at the troublesome butterflies. To his surprise the insects moved out of his way with ease after only a few swats. This surprised was muted however when the stallion discovered the reason behind it. That reason was a winged hippo flying straight toward him. Needless to say this was much more surprising.

Spectrum managed to veer out of the hippogryph’s way just in time to avoid its charge. Unfortunately for him, he chose to move upward rather than to the side, and he failed to avoid the grip of the mare riding it.

“Sorry about that,” Stinger shouted. “Halt, Hipster!” Immediately after the mare spoke the hippogryph let out a roar and moved to a stop; allowing Stinger to let go of her companion and motion for him to sit. The butterflies had them surrounded again in moments, but ‘Hipster’ didn’t move past a touch of jerking as he tried to avoid the swarm.

“I never would have guessed you were good with animals,” Spectrum said with actual awe showing both in his voice and on his face.

“I’m not,” Stinger laughed, “Turns out that hippogryphs are just really good at understanding ponies. Plus they’re really responsive to pain.” The mare let go of the beast with her right hoof for a moment and displayed her leg to Spectrum. She was wearing a new bracelet with a pink wasp shaped gemstone adorning it; complete with stinger.

The second after she removed it however, Hipster began to flail, and Spectrum was forced to throw his hooves around Stinger’s waist. It wasn’t until the mare placed her hoof back and the hippogryph roared once more that it stabilized.

“I found this thing on Hipster’s back,” Stinger clarified once the beast was properly righted.

Spectrum was going to ask before if torturing the creature was necessary, but it seemed he already had his answer. Instead he asked, “So what do we do now? We can’t fly straight with these butterflies floating around.”

“Well now that you’re safe I’ve got a plan.” Stinger turned around and shot the Spectrum a particularly devilish smile. “Hipster,” she shouted, “Eat.” Spectrum noticed the mare jerk her hoof before the hippogryph roared again and flied forward. It was clear that Hipster understood the order clearly, because within a second he had chomped down on no less than a dozen butterflies.

The remainder of the swarm put up a valiant effort from there. Most of them were focused on trying to dislodge the ponies from their seating. They were completely unsuccessful though. Every push did nothing to disturb the pair any more than Hipster’s movements as he tried to devour them did. Eventually Stinger even took to using Hipster’s method for dealing with the pests whenever they came close. It wasn’t more than a couple of minutes before they had all been finished. Although, as usual, it took about four minutes for Spectrum.

“Alright Hipster,” Stinger shouted once the last of the swarm was finished, “Steady.” This time Stinger removed the wasp’s stinger as she spoke. The hippogryph complied nonetheless. “Good boy.”

Spectrum snapped back to normal speed and looked around. There were indeed no more of the insects left to pester them. Did that mean they had made it? “So what now?” he asked. Honestly he was more thinking aloud then actually asking. He hadn’t honestly expected to make it this far. He’d figured that, if nothing else stopped them, then the hippogryph wouldn’t have even been there, and they had clearly already passed over that particular speed bump.

“Well I don’t know about you,” Stinger responded with a tired laugh, “But for me the first order of business is getting away from this mountain and those ominous eyes.” Spectrum looked back to the mountain. There were no eyes. The closest thing was a pair of cracked holes on the mountain’s final plateau.

“What are you-” this time Spectrum was cut off right before the most important word by a roar from the hippogryph. He still blamed Stinger for it though as it was clear she was back to prodding the creature.

“Alright Hipster,” she shouted, “To the clouds.”