> Bulwark of the Weak > by Scolipede > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Calm Skies > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Well, this oughta be interesting." Perhaps I should explain. I woke up in a field, at night. I had no idea what was going on, and after standing up and looking around, promptly panicked and fainted. When I got up, I saw some stuff that's going to take me a while to get used to. I was dressed as Providence, from my favorite game, Risk Of Rain. I had been going to a meeting with some friends before a trip, and then there was an explosion. But I can't remember anything else, and now, I seem to be the spitting image of Providence, thanks to the reflection from a nearby river. I was freakishly tall, my face was covered in darkness, and I had a weird blue fire in between where my eyes should be. I couldn't take off the hat I was wearing. No idea why. I had a massive sword, one that seemed to be glowing blue slightly. I was wearing a big half-circle shaped piece of cloth, and mysteriously seamless black leather underneath. It went all the way down to my toes, and as far as I could tell, up to my neck. But enough about me, I should talk about where I am. From what I could tell, I was in this big open field, with a scary looking forest to my left, and nothing but opens fields behind me and to my right. Miles in front of me, I could see a huge mountain. And on the left of the mountain,(from my point of view) there was a castle built into the side of it. Big spires, a large town, and train tracks leading up to it. It looked oddly familiar, though I couldn't tell why, even though there wasn't a cloud in the sky, nor was it very dark, as the moon cast plenty of light on the surrounding area. Holding back any confusion and slight panic at having no idea where I was, or how I got here, I decided exploring was a better idea than standing around looking at everything. Since the castle was the only source of civilization in sight, I figured that heading there would be best. After a while of walking, I came over the crest of a hill and noticed I would have to go through a large section of the forest to close to the castle. Hopefully this sword would be of some use. It would certainly protect me if I came across anything particularly nasty. As a sort of demonstration, partly to myself, I walked up to a nearby tree and swung my sword at it with what I would expect would be only just strong enough to cut the wood. What I did NOT expect, was for it to go all the way through the tree, and keep going, me having to forcefully hold my hand so it wouldn't fly out of it. As I stood there in shock, I noticed the tree starting to slip off the trunk. Quickly thinking, I realized when that hit the ground, it would make a lot of noise, and any nearby animals would likely come to investigate, and good as my sword was, I didn't want to fight anything. So, quick as I could, I took off into the forest, hearing the loud thump of the tree hitting the ground behind me. ------------------ I swear, the forest was so dark you'd have thought someone had turned off the moon. I had a hard time seeing ten feet in front of me. Luckily my sword cast a nice glow all around me, making sure I didn't trip over any roots or fallen tree branches. Bad news was I couldn't turn it off, and it seemed to be making me look like a big flare. I thought I saw eyes in the forest sometimes, and decided that trying to look intimidating was my best chance of defense at the moment. I noticed my sword seemed to be made out of some of odd material, as it was just passing right through any tree branches I decided to touch with my sword. Upon closer inspection, they seemed to have been cut with a scalpel. I was rather glad that it wasn't like a lightsaber in the way that it didn't leave a burning trail or anything. Otherwise, it was like a sword shaped lightsaber. A few minutes later I came across what looked like a big patch of blue flowers. Raising my sword over it, I noticed there was a path through it closer to my left. When I walked up to it I started to notice something about the flowers. They looked... familiar, somehow. "Wait, isn't that--" Before I could finish my sentence, I heard a distinct sound behind me. A growl. I whipped around and saw one of the strangest animals I had ever seen. It was like a massive lion, tall as I was, with bat wings and a scorpion tail. Something about the flowers bothered me, but because I was panicking, I couldn't imagine why, so I tried to stay away from them for now. I went to my left and backwards at the same time, making sure to keep my sword ready and my eyes on the beast. It took a step forward for each of my steps back, forcing me to stop to confront it. Heart pounding, I was now left in a staredown with it. I saw it crouch down, and in response I grabbed my sword with both hands and got ready to swing it like a bat, using the flat of the sword, so as to not make a mess. Suddenly, it jumped in the air, making a loud roar, and like a massive baseball, I swung at it with all my force. It contacted with its head, and with a resounding *CRACK*, it changed directions entirely and flew off into a tree to my left, breaking it in half. As the adrenaline started to wear off, I walked over to see if it was dead. I couldn't tell, but it definitely wasn't moving now. I noticed something glimmering on the ground in front of its face. I crouched down to see what it was, and noticed it was a key of some sort. Suddenly, and oddly enough, a term went through my head. Explorers Key "Well that's odd." "What..." I heard a voice say. I quickly turned around, sword ready in my right hand, key still in my left. In front of me appeared to be a zebra. I studied it. It looked like it was wearing rings around its neck and a few on its right leg. It also appeared to have a mohawk. Wait a second... "Zecora?" I said. "Who is it that says my name?" She spoke. I stood there in shock for a moment before I keeled over backwards, landing on the beast and mumbling "Ponies..." before I blacked out. > Early Showers > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Darkness. That's what I woke up to. When I looked around, I noticed I was in a hole. Even if it was dark, I could still see dirt on the walls. When I looked up, I noticed someone had placed a net, or something on top to block out any light. It was covered in leaves and sticks. Then I started to think: Wait, what happened? I saw a zebra--Zecora! I saw Zecora, panicked and fainted and now I'm here. Crap. What could've happened? Maybe she thought I was dangerous and dragged me into a freshly dug hole? I wouldn't put it past her. How am I going to get out of here? Oh wait. I'm freakishly tall. I'll just stand up. So I stood up, and my head pushed the "roof" off the hole and onto the ground. Seems it was getting lighter outside. Must be morning soon. It looked like I was about ten feet away from the big patch of poison joke, and beyond that, her house. After a bit of thought, I figured that the poison joke would make a nice defense for her house, so naturally her house should be over there. So I pushed myself out of the hole and remembered my sword. Crap. Where was it? It wasn't in the hole, nor was it anywhere near the hole. I looked around for a bit and noticed a big mound where the manticore used to be and decided not to think about that. Maybe it was in the house? So I carefully walked over to the house, making sure to walk through the small path through the poison joke. Her house looked rather imposing in 3D. Although that diminished a bit when I looked at it with my height. So I crouched down to the door, not needing to stoop too much, but it was still rather small. Anyways, it looked like there was a note on the door. It said, "Gone to Twilight Sparkles house. Will be back shortly. DO NOT GO NEAR THE HOLE!." -Zecora Well, that answers a few questions. 1. They wrote in English, thankfully. 2. Apparently Zecora did not rhyme when she wrote, and 3. She was gone to Twilights house. Well, I guess I'll just let myself in, and wait for them, so I can sort this out without too much trouble. I tried the door. Locked. Crap. Wait a minute! I reached into my pocket(they were where normal pockets would be on pants, thank God.) And pulled out my Explorers Key. If the notes from the game were right, this thing could open ANYTHING. But how does it work? I reached down to put it in the keyhole, but just before it went in, it stopped dead and started glowing. A second later I heard a click from the other side of the door and the key stopped glowing. I put it back into my pocket and tried the door. It opened. Now then. I stepped inside, looking around carefully. There were tiki masks scattered around on the walls, ingredients on the various shelves, and an empty cauldron in the middle of the room. And there was my sword on the far wall. I walked over and picked it up, suddenly feeling refreshed, much like the feeling of stepping out of a hot shower. I'll need to make sure to keep a good hold on this next time. The best thing to do now would be to wait for Zecora to return so I can calmly explain the situation. Hopefully things wouldn't turn out too badly. Since the inside was getting rather cramped, I figured I should wait outside. As I made my way over to the door though, I started to hear something. It sounded like something big stomping around. I paused before the door to listen. I heard muffled speaking from the other side, then a surprised shout, then more shouting, and then it got quiet. I learned in closer to the door as I heard something stomp up to the door, and I heard somebody say something along the lines of "get out of the way, I don't want you getting hurt." Suddenly, the door burst open and I was flung backwards into the cauldron in the middle of the room, tipping it over. The next thing I know, an explosion went off, and I barely heard gunfire. Some small part of me registered a very large person in blue armor standing in the doorway, an equally large shield held in front of him. I felt something like rubber hit me, which hurt quite a bit by the way, several times before I managed to get my bearings. I attempted to hold my sword up in front of me as makeshift cover, but I tripped over the cauldron again and fell to the floor. I heard quicker gunfire join in with the first set and more rubber smash against me. I swung my sword in a random direction, trying to end this loud torment, and connected with the wall. It pierced straight through, and I dimly cut another slash into the wall before running through it. I somehow jumped over the poison joke and charged off into the forest in a random direction. I quickly glanced being me long enough to see someone clad in orange run out of the building, jump into a roll over the poison joke, and stop to continue shooting me. I also noticed the guy in blue charge straight through the flowers, stop before his orange friend, and launch a grenade or something out of his gun. A small part of me thought "He's going to regret that in the morning." Before it hit me and it the me and threw me a few feet. I got up as quickly as I could and sprinted off into the trees, hoping they wouldn't be able to catch up. An adrenaline fueled person sprinting can run pretty fast. I ran for what felt like 10 minutes before I came across a rickety bridge spanning a gorge. I paused for a split second before somewhat carefully running my way across. I panicked for as moment when a board broke, but otherwise it was safe. At the end I stopped too finally catch my breath. It was surprisingly easy to return to normal, though the welts on my body world certainly still hurt. As I turned around I distantly saw the orange one exit the trees. By now it was early morning, and visibility was getting better. I suddenly realized he would try to follow me across the bridge, and so I walked up to the edge of it and cut the ropes. As I watched the bridge fall to their side of the gorge, I saw him stop at the edge of the pit and point his guns in my direction, but not fire. I now recognized him as the Commando, and thought that the "blue guy" was the Enforcer. Which brought up several bad questions. Why we're they attacking me? Were they like me, stuck here in a costume that was real? Or were they actual mercenaries, here to hunt me down? I saw him lower his guns and holster them at his sides, then make the "I'm Watching You" motion with his hand. I bowed my head in understanding. Which I assume he took as understanding before turning around and running back off into the woods. I sighed. This would be a problem. I turned around and walked into the decrepit looking castle, hoping that I would be safe for a little while longer.