Arc Angel

by Valorousspectre

Surprise!

You know, I've heard a lot of ponies say that going on an adventure would be great. Just like a really long camping trip, I believe the best description was. I had thought about adventures my whole life. I thought getting into the guard would get me some adventures too. But now, as I lie beside the mare of my dreams, I'm wondering if any of it was worth it. I'm a wanted stallion now, for a crime I'm positive I didn't commit teamed up with the love of my life and a wanted criminal who admits his crimes but is possibly the strangest unicorn I've ever met!

On top of that, I've been sick, broken a leg and attacked by one of my best friends, all to get an antivenom to a princess I don't even really like.

Ugh.

In any case, it's been three weeks. Nothing has happened. My entertainment for all this time has been listening to the arguments of an arrogant unicorn and a hotheaded pegasus as they hurled insults at each other, or waiting for Nightspring to finally realise that Warlock had turned her mane a garish shade of pink or chartreuse or some similar absurd colour. Either that, or arguing with Nightspring or alternatively yelling at Warlock. Life is not all I thought it would be, and adventures suck. Anypony who says different can go suck on a rock.

We've been travelling steadily, headed for the Somerset Glades. We had to circumvent a mountain, which cost us a good week as we found our way around and, to my utter horror and Nightspring's disgust, we're now travelling very slowly through a swamp. The air stinks, the water is foul and purifying it with magic takes more effort than it's worth, although Warlock seems to have unlimited reserves of energy. He purifies water much more efficiently than I do. In possibly the nicest thing he's said to me the whole time I've known him, he told me one day:

"Don't feel bad about it. I grew up on this stuff, so it makes sense I'm better. You'll get there."

He's right of course, but it doesn't make the dirty looks Nightspring shoots me any better. She keeps complaining that her water is still too dirty, or that her mane is frizzing up, or her feathers are filthy. Warlock got sick of it once and picked her bodily up with his tail and carried her through the day, the fibres of his tail keeping her mouth shut and restraining her. I told him he'd have to teach me that trick. He laughed and told me that one day he might.

After you get through the arrogance, he's really not that bad.

The tent is our only real safehouse. The magical wards Warlock and I set up keep the creepy crawlies away, and the inside of the tent warm and dry, although that's more Twilight's innovation, not mine. We've been heading North-East, hopefully drawing closer, although it certainly doesn't feel that way. It feels like we're not moving forward at all.

I looked down at Nightspring as she moved, banishing these thoughts from my head. I smiled, gently stroking her mane. Even in her current 'frazzled' condition, her mane was smooth and shiny. I'm almost jealous.

Almost.

With a sigh, I decided it'd be best to get some sleep, burying my face in her mane gently.

I'd consider this tomorrow.

~*~

Twenty-one days, we'd spent a few days in the swamp. But by the thirtieth day, I was questioning my sense of direction, even if we're actually following Warlock, since he claimed he knew the way through the swamp. The Glade is meant to be in a southerly direction, and I'm sure we should have been out of the swamp by now. We're running out of supplies, and I don't trust even Warlock with finding food here. I swear, ninety percent of the possible foodstuffs here I've recognised as poisonous. I've given up the thought of actually not starving at some point in this adventure, and I've started to ration off the food. This has made Nightspring very cranky, and has made Warlock complain incessantly. He might not have to sleep, but by Luna does that stallion eat.

"Do you even know where in Equestria you're going?"

My concentration was broken as Nightspring snarled at Warlock, who was ahead.

"Because I'm fairly sure we've been in here for ages too long. What's the matter? Your tail not act as a compass?"

Warlock sighed from his vantage point ahead.

"Well, if you wanted to you could have flown through the treetops to get our bearings, but you don't even know what we're looking for, so who's useless now?"

She glared at me, and I gave her a look back. Leave me out of this. Her responding glare wasn't just a warning, it was a promise. She'd get over it.

"Useless? I didn't say that," She growled back at him, turning away from me, "But now that you mention it, You are kind of useless. I'll tell you what, when I want my mane recoloured, I'll let you know. Till then, why not actually do something helpful?"

Warlock's tail grew into two foreleg like shapes and shrugged. He didn't even bother to turn around, navigating over a fallen tree trunk.

"I'll keep that in mind Short Round, but at the moment I'm fairly certain you're the one being utterly useless. Why not go primp your mane somewhere else, like with the rest of your Canterlot hussies?"

That even hit me. Canterlot hussies? How insulting. I had to bite back my retort however, because it seemed Nightspring wasn't finished.

"Better than criminal scumbags like you!" She bit back, enraged, "Can't make it in the real world so you steal what everypony else has worked so hard to get!"

Warlock whirled around and stomped up to Nightspring, who looked smugly at him, as though she'd won the argument. I took a step back. If these two were going to get physical, I wanted nothing to do with it.

"I stole to survive," He spat. I've never seen him so honest to goodness angry. His entire form is sparking with energy, and I can feel power radiating off of him in almost suffocating waves of magic, "I stole food because without it I would starve. I stole money because without it I would die. I ate from the trash if I couldn't get food, and I drank the water from puddles and ponds so I wouldn't die of thirst."

Warlock's hoof pushed Nightspring back effortlessly, and even she seemed shocked when she stumbled back a step or three.

"Don't go lecturing me on working hard at life, because my life is all I've ever had. And now, I'm stuck with you two out of some stupid sense of moral obligation that I've never felt before. Why? Because I've never been stupid enough to let myself be taken in by this stupidity!"

He grabbed her mane and wrenched her forward. At this point, let it be known I tried to intervene. But that tail of his seems to have a mind of its own, and it hit me like a hammer, holding me still as he continued.

"I'm doing this for a pony who treated me like an equal. Better yet, thanked me and told me I saved his life. I'm doing this because I know the agony of being alone and helpless, and Whichever princess it is that's poisoned doesn't deserve to be."

He took a step back, now looking upon a stricken looking Nightspring in disgust.

"I'm doing this because I care about the Princesses, and I'm sick of walking around and being hunted wherever I go. I'm doing this for a good reason."

He leaned forward and spoke softly, darkly.

"What's your reason?"

He held there for a moment before, without really waiting for an answer, turned and stalked away, his tail letting me go. I could feel malevolent energies cascading off of him, chaotic and unfocused. Nothing harmful thank goodness. I looked back to Nightspring in time to see her face change into one of contempt, but she didn't call out anything to him. Instead she glared daggers at me and stomped away, following his lead once more.

I just might have made a big mistake.

~*~

It's been so long since we've had a decent meal. Jeez, I'm thankful that Warlock is so skilled in purifying water and Nightspring's incessant complaints are getting on my nerves. It's been forty days, and we're still not through the place. Warlock's attitude and ego had dwindled rapidly as the days went by, and he frequently was quiet now, not speaking or even bothering to acknowledge our presence. Nightspring keeps insulting him, and she almost hit him before I stopped her. Since then, she's been picking relentlessly on me. Intervention's been on Warlock's mind, but I warn him away with a glance. When she's off on a tirade, she won't stop till she's spent.

They're getting worse though, and she's blaming me for everything. Perhaps she's right, it is my fault that I'm in this mess, but I gave her the option and the opportunity to stay away, to keep her nose clean, and she didn't take it. When I remind her of this, she gets even worse, so I've stopped mentioning it entirely. I've rationed us down to nearly nothing. We found a few roots earlier, so I volunteered to try them. They were sweet, and had a red center. If I haven't keeled over and died by the end of the day, we'll pick more and eat them. Warlock and I are growing increasingly concerned. Not for the lack of food, but because we're sure we're being watched.

The survival knife went missing two days back, and I haven't seen hide nor hair of it. I'm not getting any sleep. If I can't clear my name now, my deal with Warlock goes out the window, and Nightspring won't keep my bargain. Warlock is a criminal, she'll turn him in, if he doesn't kill her first.

This is getting bad.

Warlock and I have started talking at night, when I can't sleep. He's our guardian at night, and appreciates the company. I brought up my worries and confessed my concerns, and he agreed. But to my surprise, he told me not to worry about him.

"I've survived on my own before, I can do so again."

It didn't make me feel any better and he merely laughed at me. We're not friends just yet, but I think we're working towards it.

~*~

It was late afternoon when they struck. I should have seen it coming. Warlock cursed from his place up front and, to my shock, his tail shot from its normal place at his rump and encircled Nightspring and I. She cried in alarm, something accusatory no doubt, but I didn't hear it. I was too busy yelping myself as a dart no thicker than a strand of hair pierced the wall of hair and stuck, halfway through, dripping with some sort of liquid. I could hear fighting outside my cocoon of safety, no doubt as Warlock fought our assailants. The wall on the side I was pressing myself to, opposite of the dart, suddenly concaved and I was thrown forward and I was scratched by the barb. The effect was instantaneous. I felt woozy, dizzy and nauseous.

Almost the same description of Sea Sickness, but this was no sea sickness. The world around me tilted, but I closed my eyes and swallowed, trying to breathe shallowly and slow my heartbeat. It wasn't working well. My heart rate increased instead, spreading the tiny bit of poison in me instead and my head throbbed. The last thing I remember before I lost consciousness was hitting the floor and the walls around me shuddering as they sagged and collapsed, revealing a silhouette of... something...

Blackout.

Comments

[Discorded Q]

"Don't go lecturing me on working hard at life, because my life is all I've ever had. And now, I'm stuck with you three out of some stupid sense of moral obligation that I've never felt before. Why? Because I've never been stupid enough to let myself be taken in by this stupidity!"

Did I miss something or is there a forth character?

[Valorousspectre]

2651027
whoops! Thanks for spotting that!

[Valorousspectre]

2651308

Might I have an explanation for this?

[Blazinblade7]

2651031

Warlock got sick of it once and picked her bodily up with his tail and carried her through the day,

Here ya go

[Valorousspectre]

2651356
No, that's actually accurate ^^
I checked up on that one, I got it right. Thank you for the effort though. Did you enjoy the chapter?

[Blazinblade7]

2651365

Yesh i did but i missed you, its getting boring over here and im sick :c

[Sneaky]

Cliffhangers >.<

[ChillaxBrony]

Valorous... it is good to see you again...

[-Brutus]

Wooooo update soon please~

[Vrilix]

Hey I got an idea!

Update.

[Valorousspectre]

3647025 If you wish to read a story that's currently being updated, I would direct your attention to Utopia. Please, this story is on Hiatus for a reason. I'm afraid it won't be leaving so anytime soon.