A Different Visitor

by AppealingOtter

Home Sweet Home?

The sheer fact that Mute was not, had surprised me more than the scenario it had gotten me in, and the surprise took me aback so much that I did not have anything to say once it had spoken: All questions I once asked it had faded away from my memory. All but one, which I eventually mustered up the nerve to ask:
"Why can you talk?"
"Because I watched. I learned." Other questions triggered were formed in my head from the answer he gave, but the anger in its voice was enough to drive me to silence again. As the forest rushed behind me from the speed of Mute's sprint, I questioned what it meant by home. Did it intend on leaving Equestria again? Going off of this world? It said we. Mute was going to take me with it?

Magical sparks surrounded a nearby tree, when it fell down in front of Mute, stopping him to back up for a second. Twilight and Applejack returned to sight, coming up from in front and behind, closing in. This hardly bothered Mute, and it turned right, into a thick wall of trees, and jumped against one, climbing up it like it showed in the Boutique. Once it peaked the forest's canopy, it began to head along the same trail I had two nights ago, only more careful, and less eager. Mute was very hesitant on each branch it leapt to, taking half a second to examine it and weigh out whether or not it could handle the weight of a heavy alien and a baby dragon, and then jumping to the safest one. The minute gaps between jumps jolted me around enough to dizzy me, though I had the assurance Mute wasn't going to drop me. For whatever reason, Mute had use for me.

Twilight and Applejack, with no means to follow, did their best from the ground below to trail us the rustles in the trees above. Unfortunately, Mute was very silent, and usually only rustled to throw them off of the right path. Glancing through the leaves, I saw Applejack and Twilight begin to follow a false lead, and leave me alone with Mute. I wanted to call out, but didn't in case Mute threw me down the trees - I had barely survived it the first time, and purely due to sheer luck did I not die in the end.

An opening appeared in the roof of the forest, and as soon as Mute noticed it, it made his way over there. Looking down, I could see a long pit which quite resembled a whirlpool: the earth swirled a flat walkway almost all the way to the bottom. In the center of it was a pool of water, Celestia knows how deep, with a rather wide range. The top of the crater spanned about Twilight's Library, whilst the bottom was about the size of the sleeping quarters. Carelessly, Mute shrugged me off of its back, landing me on a small mass of branches and leaves next to it. It looked down the hole, evidently weighing down mathematics. What was it planning on doing? Throwing me in? Panicking, I decided now was the time to ask questions.
"Why have you been protecting me?"
"Because I need you alive." Mute said dully.
"What for?"
"The creatures here are very unique. In the short time I arrived here, I acquired abilities. That pit is not bottomless, and most definitely not lifeless." As I looked closely into the hole, I noticed some more things. The water in the pool refused to be still, as if something unsettled was moving around inside of it, and there were some jagged edges around it, a bit like teeth. Then I realized it.
It wasn't a pool of water: it was a mouth.

"I acquire the traits of any creature to find its way into the mouth alive, either on purpose or not. Whilst the horns were a feature of a ram that slipped on the edge and found its way into the pit, the hedgehog spikes, and the bug feet were less than an accident. I even considered taking a unicorn like your mentor, and having her in there, but that was for later, for your town seems to be a close one, where all ponies know each other. If one pony goes by my hand, then the whole town, perhaps even country of Equestria will find and put me to rest, because of your ridiculous connection to each other. I would need something to protect myself, first. Something like scales, able to endure sharp things and many forms of pain." I gulped, and he grinned, and looked down into the pit again.

"Did your meteor crash down there?"
"Indeed it did. I was but a smaller, devolved form of myself a few days ago. I am a new species, and that down there is my mother: The transformation my transportation has undertaken." The rhyme of the sentence, notable as it was, did not lighten the mood. Clouds had gathered overhead, and the rain only just began pouring down. And yet, I refused to acknowledge that this was the end. As much as I struggled in my ties to loosen them, he paid no attention, and for good reason: A knot this powerful is hard to create, and felt impossible to undo.

As it looked down at me, I could tell that his wait was over. "Spike, you have made me waste my time enough, following and studying you, ensuring every decision I made was the right one. I can tell from your struggling in your knots that you are beginning to think straight again, so my punishment of keeping you waiting must end now, sadly. Goodbye." It picked me up with its mouth and threw me into the pit. A scream could be heard, from Twilight, who had arrived a second too late, as I span towards the gaping mouth, opening its jaws, embracing me, encouraging me to make the mistake of giving up.

Looking to the left, I noticed a tree's root sticking from the end, and twisted my back towards it, so to have the bondage of my arms caught in it. The jolt given when my plan worked pushed my back away from my arms, causing me to yelp out in pain. The knot gave out and snapped to the strength of the root, and I began to fall again, until I clasped my claws onto the edge of the thin slope. The rain caused my hands to slide vertically down the slope, moving downwards into the epicenter. Cautiously, I dug my feet into the wall, just before the slope ended, causing my right hand to slide off, but my left holding a strong grip. Looking up, I tried to find a way to get out of this bad situation. A beam of magic shot across the top, and Mute jumped over the gap, over the beam, onto the side which it was fired from. They were fighting. Twilight wasn't prioritizing saving my life. That probably meant she had already assumed me dead.

Swinging my right hand up against the wall, I began to climb up it, using the same maneuver that I had done on the tree. This was tougher, however, as I fought against crumbly, wet rock, and my imminent peril was very possible at this point in time. As I fought against the weather pounding against me, I found myself nearing the tree root from earlier. The creature below growled, and this reverberated across the walls, causing many small avalanches of rock to fall down. Scuttling up, I reached the root as a large rock tumbled down towards me, dived to grab it, and swung to the side to avoid the rockfall.

I didn't have time to stop and allow the terror building up inside me to fade away, as the root began to give way from all the pressure on it, and it pulled out into the abyss below as I clung onto a nearby rock. The rock too came loose, and I felt myself scrambling, panicking for anything I could possibly grab onto. The top was still so far away, and the rain wasn't relenting. Desperate jumps higher were starting to look futile, as each one would get me closer to falling down below. The rocks seemed to be getting more and more worn down by the rain the higher up I went. Squeezing my eyes shut from the rain pounding down on my, I pulled off any attempt of perseverance I could, slowly getting higher, forcing back the thought that I had no idea whether or not I was going to grapple onto thin air on my next dive. Gripping my hand down onto what first seemed like a rock, my confidence failed me as for a second I thought I had fallen due to the lack of anything grabbed for a second or two. It was just another slope. My eyes drooped open as I contemplated giving up in my head, when I looked up. There were no more slopes. I was at the top.

Pulling myself up with all of my might, the scene became clear. Mute pushed down Twilight, and stood over her, placing his hoof on her neck. Applejack was on the floor, cut from Mute's spikes, but her chest steadily rose and fell, showing she was still alive. Shame filled my body. If anything happened to them, it would be my fault. My curiosity to venture out and do what they once did: have an adventure. Pathetic old me could be causing them their lives. None of this would have happened if Mute never existed. My sadness turned into rage, and I screamed out as I ran at Mute, pushing him off of Twilight.
"Get your hooves off of my sister!" I yelled, as I shut my eyes, clawing into whatever I could reach: My scales protected me from his spikes. When somebody ruins my life and tries to kill me, that is one thing, but going on to try and kill my sister? My family? Mute cried out as I scratched its eye, and it stumbled around furiously, trying to buck me off of it. Suddenly, we both dropped as he fell into the hole, and I fell after him, hands first, when Applejack abruptly bit my tail, keeping me from falling. My eyes opened.

The mouth's teeth were gnashing around, hungry and impatient. Mute craned his neck around to me, angrily, and his spikes protruded again, stabbing into my hands. Out of pain, I let go, and Mute began to fall, until its feet fell against the wall and stayed there. The creature in the pit, mad with hunger, began crashing about against the walls. A creaking came from behind Applejack, and as I looked, I could see a tree slowly falling towards her. Knowing it was probably too late to warn her, I did what I could, and scratched out at her cheek with my foot, causing her to recoil and let go. I fell back down into the pit again, and the tree followed, preparing to flood all sunlight and chance of escape. Looking down, Mute began to panic, as the tree lowered down, and it scrambled up against the walls, attempting to keep stable, before simply falling down into the mouth, which swallowed him whole without hesitation. Before I joined him in the beast's belly, there came the poof of Twilight's teleportation, and she appeared beside me, placed her hoof against my arm, and teleported us back up to the surface. She fell to the ground, collapsed, and I watched as the tree sunk down, suffocating the mouth.

"Twilight, I'm sorry... this is the worst thing I've ever done. I'd understand if you wanted to get a new assistant now, since I'm so useless at everything." She looked at me lovingly, smiled a warm smile and hugged me. Without saying a word, she rolled over and passed out, and I stared up at the rain, lying on my back, and wishing that I had listened to Twilight all that time ago. My arms ached, I was sick to the stomach, and I didn't think at that moment in time that I would ever manage to walk again, but I had played with fire. These were the repercussions.