In Blood We Stand - Face To Face
In Blood We Stand
Part One - Face To Face
By UniqueSKD
The air felt tense, the wind a cold chilled breeze brushing against Scootaloo's body, flicking strands of her cerise mane from her face, her grayish-purple eyes staring at the abomination before her, hers locked with its, both expressing a deathly glare to each other. The world almost seemed to have stopped moving, frozen in time, save for the slight swaying of the trees as they were moved by the currents of the wind. As of this moment, in this time and place in the Everfree Forest, the only living things were the orange pegasus mare, and the dark-clad white monstrosity that stood some several feet in front of her.
The creature was a horrible sight to behold. It was not like anything Scootaloo had ever dreamed or heard of, a beast that she would have once thought to have existed only in the world of fantasy and imagination, or for want of a better and more appropriate term, a nightmare. It stood tall and straight, easily towering over Scootaloo by at least a few feet, on two legs covered by black cloth, its thighs wrapped with bloody bandages. It had a lean, muscular build to its figure, which showed through a white vest underneath another layer of black cloth covering its body. The creature had a pair of long arms that jutted out from the sides of its body, its forearms - like its thighs - also wrapped in bloody bandages. A strap draped around the creature's body, fastening to a large leather sheathe on its back. The creature had one hand laid cautiously upon the grip handle of the sword contained inside of it, ready to draw it out the moment it decided it needed to.
But it was the creature's face that captivated Scootaloo the most, though not particularly for a good reason. Its face was so un-pony-like, no muzzle, and much smaller ears. Its chin had a few shaded wisps of hair clinging to it, and a scratch mark ran down along its cheek, the beginning of the mark starting beneath one of its small eyes, which held a cold and uncaring expression. Its mane, if anypony could call it a 'mane', was short in length, unkempt and black, that seemed to only darken in color further towards the back of its head. Its features looked worn, as would be expected of anything exposed to the effects of time, but did not appear weary or so old yet that it couldn't react if need be.
Pegasus and creature stand there, together, face to face. As still as living statues, staring into the eyes of the other. After a while, it was Scootaloo who finally broke the silence, the sound of her voice shattering the muteness into thousands of metaphorical fragments.
"I've found you", the orange mare said, her voice cold as a chill along the spine, her words venomous as a manticore's tail stinger. She took a few steps towards the creature, who remained still, frozen to his spot. "After all these years, I've finally found you."
The creature gave the slightest hint of a smirk, his cold eyes fixated upon Scootaloo. But it said nothing. It did nothing. Not so much as even twitch a muscle.
Scootaloo narrowed her eyes, irritated that the creature had not given her a proper response. But she kept her calm and took another few steps forward towards the creature, albeit slowly this time. Don't show it fear. This thing wants you to show fear. That's how it gets you, Scootaloo told herself in her mind.
She kept her eyes fixed on the creature at all time, being cautious of how it may react to anything she did. She knew not what this foul beast was, but she knew that this thing could be unpredictable. It was unlike any other predators she had known of. A manticore would roar before it attempted to slash its prey with its claws, and a timberwolf would stalk its victims before striking. With this beast, however, who knew what it was capable of, besides what Scootaloo knew of already.
After all, this had not been her first encounter with the creature. But she was determined to make it her last.
Scootaloo spoke up again, her voice harboring anger in its tone this time, her eyes narrowing as she glared at the still beast. "Tell me who you are, and what the hell you are."
The creature, again, made no reply, nor did it react in any way. It simply gave a slight smirk, and remained still.
Scootaloo grew tired of this silent game. She took one more step towards the beast, slamming her hoof down onto the ground, baring her teeth. "Answer me, you bastard! I know you understand me!"
The creature smirked again, but its grin was much wider this time, that Scootaloo caught a glimpse of its teeth, molars and incisors lightly stained yellow. Scootaloo allowed herself a second of thought, of a dentist she knew of back in Ponyville, whom, the orange pegasus mused, would likely have a hell of a field day working to correct were she given the opportunity.
But that thought was cast aside no sooner than it had formed in her head, when the creature gave a reply. "I do understand you, little pony", the creature spoke in a rough and deep voice, and with a mocking tone to it, "but do you understand" - it raised its arm, and pointed a finger to itself - "me?"
Scootaloo was able to keep herself from taking a step back out of surprise, having been caught off guard by the sound of the creature's voice. She quickly regained her composure, and stood her ground, her gaze remained locked with her foe's own.
The creature obviously noticed Scootaloo's surprise, however, as it chuckled darkly, and let its arm drop back to its side. "Are you surprised to hear my voice again, little pony?", the creature asked, raising an eyebrow and grinning widely. "It's been a long time, hasn't it?" its eyes quickly looked Scootaloo up and down, as if it was sizing her up.
"It's been twenty years, you low-life scum," Scootaloo exclaimed. "Twenty years since you took my family from me. Because of you, I wound up in a shitty orphanage! Every night I went to sleep and saw your face! You took my childhood AND my parents, you bastard!"
Scootaloo lowered her head, trying to fight the urge to close her eyes as she felt a flood of tears about to come, the memory of that horrific event flashing in her mind. She couldn't allow her emotions to cost her this one chance. The moment she took her eyes off the creature, she knew that would be all it needed to either make its escape...or see to it that she couldn't either.
Scootaloo took a deep breath to calm her nerves, and continued. "I've wasted my life away just to find you. Now that you're here, I want answers. After everything you've done to me, you owe me at least that much."
The creature actually seemed thoughtful of that request for a few moments, its eyes shifting to the side as it pondered. Eventually, it smiled, and removed its hand from the hilt of the sword, letting its arm drop to its side. It raised its other arm and gestured to Scootaloo. "So be it," the creature replied. "One of your kind deserves to know my story, I suppose." It pointed a thin finger at the pegasus. " You may ask me whatever you want. After that...well, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it, shall we?" A dark chuckle escaped the creature's throat.
Scootaloo raised an eyebrow, unsure whether or not this was a ruse, a trick to make her drop her guard. The creature took notice of this, and raised its arms up. "Go ahead. Ask me whatever you want. I give my word I won't kill you." It paused for a moment, before adding, "at least not yet, anyway."
Scootaloo, still unsure whether to trust it or not, decided to give it the benefit of the doubt, but stretched her wings out just in case it decided to try and make a move. She hoped she'd be able to fly fast enough if it should do anything.
Scootaloo cut straight to her first question, determined to get answers at long last. "What in Tartarus are you?" she demanded.
The creature tilted its head up to look to the sky, a dark canvas painted with stars. It inhaled through its nose, and exhaled out from its mouth, before it spoke. "I am a monster, plain and simple, little pony," the creature answered in an emotionless voice, not even looking at Scootaloo. "But I'm not just one of the many monsters that your kind wishes were existent in the realm of your dreams. No, I'm the monster your kind fears more than anything you could possibly imagine. I and my kind are the bogeymen that you all used to pray never lurked beneath your bed, or hid in your closets at night. But the terrible truth is that I and my kind are indeed very real. I, we, me, us, are all living walking nightmares, our feet treading upon the earth, our footsteps a trail of poison and destruction."
The creature slowly brought its head down to stare at Scootaloo, whose eyes widened in a momentary display of fright and unease. Its face held no expression, blank and emotionless, as it said its next words almost no louder than a whisper. "I am a Human, and I'm the greatest evil your kind will ever know."