Marabian Knights

by silvershad0

Desert Encounter

‘Snow. Winter. Ice. Boiling magma.’

“Uhhhhg, it’s no use,” Vinyl cried out. “No matter what I try, I can’t stop thinking about this unbearable heat!”

For once, Octavia was too hot and too tired to scold or otherwise reprimand her marefriend’s non-stop complaining. They had been trotting for a solid two to three hours through the hot sands and it was quickly taking its toll on the unaccustomed ponies.

“I don’t think ponies... are designed for this kind of environment,” Bon Bon huffed, stopping momentarily to take a drink from her canteen.

“This human body doesn’t appear to be faring any better. I can’t stop sweating and I think I’m even starting to burn,” Lyra said, staring at her quickly reddening skin.

The group stopped and rested, each drinking more of their precious water reserves and each regretting taking on this task just a little bit more. Redheart carefully took notice of how much each of them was consuming in her head, trying to calculate how long it would last if they continued drinking at this pace. And it didn’t look good right now. They had bought and carried as much as they could hold without weighing them down considerably, but would still run out in less than a day’s time at this rate. They had no way of knowing how far they still had to go, not to mention the return journey; If they returned at all, that is.

“I hate to be the bearer of bad news at a time and place like this, but we need to cut back on the water or we’re going to run out before we make it to the dens,” Redheart said, wearing a worried frown. “In fact, if we don’t find some water at some point soon, we may not even have enough to make it back to the village.”

The entire group stared at her in horror, each imagining slowly dehydrating in this hot wasteland before perishing. They each checked the water they had been given to hold onto to ensure the nurse was indeed correct about their current predicament.

“So then, should we head back to the village and restock?” Lyra asked with a tiny bit of fear still in her tone. “I mean, we can always try again when we’re better rested and supplied.”

“No.” Vinyl’s tone was deadpan. “That will take up way too much time and those villagers have waited long enough. Besides, Luna said she wouldn’t let anything happen to us, right?” she said in the best uplifting voice she could manage at the moment.

“Oh, that’s right,” said Bon Bon. “I keep forgetting that we’re in her dream...world.. whatever you wanna call this place.”

“Even so, this heat feels real enough to me... as well as the constant dryness in my throat.” Lyra puffed her bottom lip out as she lie down on her back and covered her eyes with one arm.

“Indeed, even though this is all a dream, everything here seems to follow all of the natural laws of our world,” Octavia thought aloud. “That should indicate that all of the creatures here must follow those same laws!” she suddenly cried out with excitement.

“And that means...what for us exactly?” Vinyl asked, trying to follow the grey mare’s thought process.

“It means, my dear Vinyl, that the kobolds who live out here must need to consume large amounts of water too,” she said with a confident grin of her own.

“I get it!” Bon Bon shared in her revelation. “The kobolds must have a large water supply somewhere near their den for them to live out here in the middle of the desert.”

“So what are we waiting for? Let’s get going!” Vinyl shouted with renewed vigor. ‘Just you wait, kobold scum. We’re coming for your water, then we’re coming for you!’ she said, her focus returning.

Another hour of traversing the cruel landscape was all it took for that focus to once again waver in favor of exhaustion. A few scattered clouds had gathered overhead, granting them small pockets of relief every so often, though none seemed to carry any signs of the precious hydration they each secretly prayed for. A small breeze had also picked up, although it carried only the warm, dry air and occasional bits of sand that beat into their bodies, causing them to itch like crazy as it mixed with sweat and fur.

“Arrgh, I can’t take this anymore!” Vinyl stopped and shouted into the air. “Is it too much to ask for a bit of rain or a nice, cool breeze! It’s hotter than Tartarus out her, for Luna’s sake!” She silently cursed the maze master for choosing a desert campaign.

Just as she finished her angry rant, the clouds overhead darkened and the breeze kicked into a violent fury. Thunder could be heard booming overhead as the clouds opened up, releasing their newly acquired cargo down upon the ponies quickly and without mercy. The group cheered at first as they were washed over by tiny droplets of something, but soon discovered this ‘rain’ was not as it appeared.

“Sand!” It’s raining bucking SAND!” Vinyl screamed out as her rage reached its peak. “Of all the no-good....” she started before a grey hoof quickly filled her mouth.

“Vinyl, this is all your fault, and if you say anything to make it worse, as Celestia as my witness, I will show you what it feels like to be critically hit by my cello!” Octavia yelled, matching her marefriend’s angry tone. Taking Vinyl’s lost expression as a sign she didn’t fully understood what she meant, she then clarified with even greater levels of umbrage, “I WILL SHOVE THE LARGER END OF MY CELLO SO FAR UP YOUR FLANK, YOU’LL BE BELCHING BEETHOOVEN!

Vinyl’s skin instantly evolved into a white so pale, it would need its own name and place in the color spectrum. Her tail moved between her legs like a terrified dog’s and her mouth hung agape as she imagined her fuming love’s threatening words in her mind.

“Now, now, I think we all just need to calm down a bit,” Bon Bon stepped in-between the two to ease the tension. “It’s been a rough day, and...”

“Look!” Lyra interrupted, each of them taking notice that the storm had disappeared as quickly as it had come.

“Well, thank all that is holy and good for that, but we’re still...” Octavia started into another rant only to be interrupted herself by the lone human of the group.

“No, not the storm, that!” she said, pointing to what appeared to be a desert oasis off in the distance. The group turned to where she was pointing and saw the small specks of green and blue clearly against the dirty brown of everything else in the area.

“So that must be their water source, then,” Bon Bon cheerily stated. “I could use a drink myself about right now, actually,” she said, licking her dry, parched lips. She still had a fair amount of water herself, but it had swiftly warmed since their journey began and the notion of cool, fresh water was now more alluring than ever.

“‘Water’ we waiting for!” Vinyl joked merrily, her natural color returning to her as well as her spirit. “To the waterhole!” She started galloping full speed to the oasis as the rest of the group facehoofed in unison at her terrible pun.

As the party neared the oasis, movement around the small pool caught their attention. They stopped and took cover behind a sandy hill to better survey what was going on, spotting a small group of kobolds around the water’s edge.

“Well that’s just great!” Vinyl scoffed as she kicked a hoof across the sand. “They would be here at this exact moment.”

“No, I don’t think they’re here just getting a drink. Look at the way they’re just pacing around it back and forth,” Lyra said. She squinted even harder as she tried to make out what they were carrying. They looked similar to the spears the royal guards of Equestria were known to carry, but shorter and made with much less care. “Only four of them, but they’re each wielding small javelins, so they can probably attack at close quarters or range.”

“One of them’s not getting the chance for either.” Vinyl’s horn glowed a bright blue and started to hum slightly. She focused the energy into the form she wanted and released it, sending a small cacophonic blast screaming at the closest kobold. The noisy missile struck its mark with pinpoint accuracy, exploding with a low, thunderous boom.

The kobold screamed out in pain, covering its ears with its hands as it writhed on the ground in agony for a few seconds before ceasing all movement. The other three stood looking dumbfounded at their fallen brethren before turning toward the missile’s source.

From their previous hiding place, the party looked at Vinyl in a similar fashion before Redheart asked what everypony else was thinking. “What was that?! I know pretty much all of the low level mage spells and I’ve never seen one quite like that.”

Vinyl just grinned as she stared at her recent handiwork for a moment longer. “It’s a variation of the basic magic missile spell I came up with. It trades a bit of its damage for a deafening bass explosion. I’m calling them bass missiles.”

“Well they certainly are effective, I’ll give you that. But now the other three are heading straight for us and they look none too happy,” Bon Bon said, pointing a hoof at the now-charging kobolds.

“Shoot’em again before they get here, Vinyl!” Lyra cried out with a bit of panic as their foes drew nearer and nearer.

“I need some time to recharge before I can do that again. Remember, we’re only lvl one so we’re pretty limited right now,” Vinyl informed the group, who were now beginning to share in Lyra’s panic. All except Redheart.

“Listen up!” Red shouted with a commanding tone. “Octavia, you take the front line and use your cello as a shield for the first wave of attacks. Lyra, you play a mana regeneration tune to get Vinyl back in the fight and then switch to a defensive booster to help Octavia. Let them have it as soon as you have your mana back, Vinyl. Bon Bon, immediately flank any of them that make it past Octavia and take them out before they can cause any damage to our squishies. So long as their focus is elsewhere, you’ll get your bonus sneak attack damage. I’ll use some of my light-based spells to lower their accuracy, while staying in range to heal should the need arise. Any questions?”

It took the rest of the group a second to process the information as well as picking their jaws up off of the ground. The sight of the approaching reptilians snapped them out of their stupor, each nodding, taking their position, and mentally readying themselves for their first real battle.

Two of the three kobolds leapt straight at Octavia with spears fully extended as soon as they were close enough, the third staying back and readying a ranged attack. A tingling sensation washed over her as the foes drew near and she found that she could now actually feel the evil aura radiating from the little monsters. Their presence invaded her mind instantly, a small voice in the back of her head screaming out in fury at their impurity. The voice grew louder and louder the closer they got until it melded with her own thoughts perfectly, its righteous fury becoming her own. Octavia easily moved her enormous instrument-turned-shield in between herself and the pointed stones with enough force to fully deflect the attacks off to either side of her, snapping their heads off to leave only splintered sticks in the kobold’s hands.

The third kobold launched its javelin at the grey mare once her defenses had been lowered, but she sensed the projectile just as it was leaving its hands and managed to sidestep just in time, the attack only managing a glancing blow to her side . She grunted at the pain, but quickly suppressed the feeling to ready for her counter-attack.

Vinyl was basking in the regenerative energies of the song Lyra had been playing since their preparation, and now had the energy stores she needed for another round. As she began charging another blast, one of the closer kobolds took notice and ran straight for her with its claws fully extended. Vinyl tried to gather the energy faster, but knew she would never beat the kobold to an attack. Just as the foul monster was about to impale her with its natural knives, a shadowy blur came zipping down from the skies and slammed into it with twin daggers of her own. Bon Bon looked up and smiled cheerfully at Vinyl before exiting back up into the air as quickly as she had come down. Vinyl almost lost the energy she had been gathering into her horn from shock, but managed to reel it back in and continue her chant, muttering a small “thank you” to the airborne rogue.

Redheart was busy gathering energy of her own as she surveyed the situation to pick which target she would release it upon. Deciding that Vinyl would handle the one at range, she fired a blinding beam of light at the other currently in combat with Octavia. It struck the creature in the eyes, instantly blinding it and causing it to thrash about from the luminous sensory overload.

Octavia didn’t need a better invitation. Seeing the kobold’s defense dropped, she called upon all of her built up fury into her cello, causing a faint silvery glow to outline it, and swung it full force at the unaware creature. The hit landed effortlessly, the silver energy exploding on impact and sending the kobold flying a good fifteen hooves before landing headfirst into the hot sands.

The last remaining kobold assessed the situation for only a solitary second before turning tail and running, screaming in some language the group couldn’t make out. Vinyl finished charging her spell as the group started to give chase, stopping them before they wasted any of their energy.

“I got this, guys,” she said as yet another screaming bolt of bass left her horn, travelling to its target like it was magnetized. The kobold tried to evade the missile by diving off to the side, but the magical missile could not be fooled, following its every movement until exploding upon touching the creature.

“Awww yeaah!” Vinyl shouted, hoofpumping as the creature fell. “We totally rocked that! And it was only our first battle!”

“I’ll admit, I found the combat most exhilarating myself,” Octavia confided with a small blush. “It felt good for some reason, punishing those kobolds. I got to relieve some stress and help out other ponies. Though I don’t think i’ll get used to the wounds I keep obtaining.” She grimaced as she ran a hoof over her fresh cut.

Redheart chanted a bit, and the wound was gone just as it had been before, much to Octavia’s delight. “All in all, we did well to only have that small injury in our first real battle,” the nurse stated with confidence. “Half of the times I’ve played with others, we end up losing a member or two in the first couple of fights.”

“It was really thanks to your amazing strategy that we fared as well as we did, Red,” Bon Bon said, bowing gratefully before her.

“Yeah, where did you learn to plan like that on the spot? That was so super cool.” Lyra added.

“Years of having to act quickly to save other’s lives keeps the mind sharp, I guess,” she sheepishly said, not used to all the compliments she was receiving.

“Well it sure saved out flanks today,” Vinyl said, raising her glasses and winking one of her fiery orbs at the pink-haired mare. “And speaking of flank saving, I guess I owe our resident rogue some thanks as well. While looking totally bad-flank as she did so, might I add.” Vinyl brought Bon Bon into a big bear hug and ruffled her mane a bit.

“Oh, it was nothing really. Just doing what Red told me to is all,” she said a blush of her own. “Flying really is as fun as it looks, though,” she added.

The group shared in a laughing fit for several moments, before remembering the water that was now free of guards. They turned to look at each other before racing to and diving into the cool, refreshing waters. After several more minutes of drinking and drying off at the water’s edge, Bon Bon flew back up into the air to look around for their destination and landed back on the ground.

“Good news and bad news guys,” Bon Bon said in her almost ever cheerful tone. “The good news is that the dens are just right over the next hill past this oasis.” She paused a moment for dramatic effect. “The bad news is that there are dozens of them spread out all over the place.”

The group ventured over the hill to see for themselves and, sure enough, their friend had been right. Dozens, if not hundreds, of tiny entrances were spread all across the small expanse of desert in front of them, all equal in size and shape. They stared for a few more minutes, each shaking their heads in silent frustration.

Vinyl was the one to finally break the silence to voice everypony’s thoughts on their latest predicament.

“Buck”

Comments

[bomble]

one thing I find annoying is that Luna dosn't get to interact with the characters very much.