"Would you like to play with me?" A childish voice asked from behind me.
The question took me completely by surprise. I had no idea there was anyone around me, the section of the library I was in had been empty when I had sat down and I hadn't heard anyone walk by for a long while. Turning away from my book, I glanced at the rather small girl standing behind me. She was a tiny thing with long dirty blond hair and a pair of mismatched eyes. The right eye was blue while the left was green. I didn't recognize her, not that that meant much, Bakersfield was a large place and the library drew people from all over town, but I frequented the library a lot and new most of the regulars. She looked up at me, head tilted as she waited for a response. For some reason, she reminded me of a kitten gazing at a new toy, not sure if she wanted to play with it.
"Depends, what do you want to play?" I closed the book I had been paging through, slipping a blank sheet of paper in to mark my page. I had been studying for my midterms a while now and could use a break. Besides, the kid looked bored. She had probably been brought here by her parents or older sibling and then told to go entertain herself while they looked for a book.
I glanced around and sure enough there was a rather stern faced man a near the history books glancing over at the little girl. He sent me a look and raised brow. Deciding that he was probably asking if the girl was bothering me, I shook my head and smiled a little. Seemingly satisfied with my response the man went back to searching the shelf.
The girl had taken the seat next to me and shrugged off the small book bag she had. "A game of pretend! I brought some of my toys." From the bag a small assortment of plastic and cloth toys tumbled out. Most of them were cats of some kind, ranging from house cats to tigers and everything in between, though there were a few exceptions. A small plastic jackal lay next to a large scorpion, and a hawk lay next to a crocodile. A large half woman, half cat doll was already claimed by the girl, "I've got this one! You can be one of the others, but pick carefully! You can't change your mind after you pick."
Feeling slightly bemused, I shifted through the scattered toys, before picking up a plastic lion that was made to look as though it was snarling.
"You choose the lion?" She asked. Somehow, it seemed as though that question carried more weight than it should have.
"Yeah, I love lions. Always have." The girl smiled brightly, "It's my all time favorite animal, and the Nemean Lion is my favorite monster." I half expected her to ask what a Neman Lion was, she didn't look older than six, but she just smiled and nodded." Say, is it alright if we pretend this guy," I shook the plastic lion a bit, "was the Nemean Lion?"
She frowned for a bit, her mismatched eyes gazing past me as she thought for a moment. Man, she was really taking this question seriously. "Okay." She finally replied.
"Brilliant!" I said happily. "So," I began, moving the toy lion to stand before her doll, "we know who I am, but who are you?"
"I," She made he doll stand before the lion proudly, "am Bastet, my good lion."
I had the plastic lion lean forward, it's back half lifting into the air, to give a bow. Though, I admit, it wasn't a good one. "Ah, forgive me my lady for not recognizing you at once. Please accept my most sincere apologies."
She giggled and waved the dolls hand in a dismissive gesture. "It is alright, you are forgiven."
"Thank you, oh fair goddess." I once again had the lion preform the sorta bow.
We spent the next hour playing with her toys. She would have her goddess doll send my plastic Nemean Lion on tasks, often using the other toys as monsters or a damsel or two. Strangely, I never felt it necessary to ask her name, though I did enjoy the time we spent playing. Reminded me of all the time I used to spend playing with my little sister before she grew out of it.
"Would you like it to be real?" My little companion suddenly asked.
"Like what to be real?"
"This." She waved her hand over the scattered toys and books which had been used as scenery and landmarks. "This world, being a lion, going on adventures and exploring. Would you like it to be real?"
I thought about it for a moment. Adventure and possible fame in a foreign land while getting to run around in a body that was damn near impossible to harm? Sounded great. "Sure I would, it would be brilliant!"
"And would you be my champion?" She asked, face completely serious.
Well, considering I had been playing the part of her champion for the last half hour I didn't see the harm. "Sure I would, my lady. And what about you? Would you like it to be real?"
She smiled in an odd way, it looked almost sad yet held a victorious edge to it. "It is already very real for me." I was taken aback, she no longer sounded like a child, not that she spoke childishly before, but more like a woman in her early twenties. "And soon enough it shall be real for you, my champion. I thank you for playing with me, but now I must be going. Sleep, my champion, and when you awake you shall begin your adventure." I began to feel drowsy and found it hard to focus on anything, but I was still aware enough to watch as the small girl swiftly grew into a tall woman.
The woman who had moments before been a girl leaned down and kissed my forehead. "Take this blessing with you, my champion, as thanks and may it serve you well in the trials to come."
Just before unconsciousness claimed me, I noted the air smelt lightly of perfume.
I woke up with a roar. I'm not exaggerating either, I literally roared as I awoke, the sound echoing off the cavern walls of the cavern I was in. I'm not going to lie, I scared myself with that. The sound of it echoing off the caves walls just made it worse.
Climbing to my feet, I noticed at once something was wrong, more than just my roaring. I was standing on all fours, yet I was still as tall as I was as a human and I felt heavier than before.
"What the hell happened to me?" I growled out. Looking down I noticed that my hands had been replaced by massive paws, and by turn my neck and inspecting my self, I was able to see the rest of my body easily.
I was a lion. There was no other way of saying it. I could go into a long description of my new physical features, but it all came down to me being a lion. Male, thankfully.
Deciding it would be best to freak out about my sudden change in species after I discovered where I was, I began to explore the cave in search of an exit. I seemed to be in a small side chamber off the main one, which was easily ten times the size of the one I woke in, and the one I woke in wasn't exactly small. On the far side of the enormous cave was a small opening through which I could see a sliver of sky.
However, what drew my attention wasn't the exit or the sheer size of the cave, no, what drew my attention was the glowing statue of a cat that sat on the opposite wall. Now, I know that any sane person would avoid a glowing statue after waking up in a strange place in a different body. Hell, most people who hadn't would avoid a magical glowing statue. But curiosity killed the cat, and I was a damn big cat at the moment and I just felt the need to investigate the damn thing. So I slowly made my way over graceful as a cat, walking on four legs was surprisingly easy when your body was made for it.
I stopped a good six feet away from the statue to examine it, not entirely trusting it. The statue was rather small, being the size of a normal cat, and sat on a small pillar that left it at eye level. It seemed to be made of some black stone while the pillar was made of a white one. Golden magic flowed from the top of the cats head, falling like grains of sand down the statues body and flowing over the edge of the pillar like a waterfall that suddenly stopped inches from the floor.
Cautiously I inched forward, wanting to get a closer look at the flowing energy. However, it seemed as though I had gotten a little to close as the flowing energy suddenly surged towards me.
"Shit!" I screamed as the energy engulfed my head, blinding me with a sudden flash of energy.
When I next opened my eyes, I was no longer in the cave, and I was no longer alone. There, standing before three very familiar pyramids, was the women the little girl had turned into. I tried to speak, tried to demand answers but I was unable to speak.
"My champion," She began, "I am the goddess Bastet. The Eye of Ra, goddess of cats, protection and love." The self proclaimed goddess stated oddly, almost as though she were speaking to a empty room instead of to me, even though her mismatched eyes never left my form. "If you are viewing this message then you have arrived safely and the compulsion I placed upon the statue worked and drew you to it." So that explained the odd way she was speaking, I was listing to some godly recording.
"You are most likely confused and scarred at the moment, unsure if what you see is reality or illusion. Let me assure you, this is reality." I think I saw a flicker of sadness cross the goddess face, but it was gone in a flash. "I have brought you to this world, and yes it is an entirely new world you now reside in, and given you this form for one purpose, to represent me and mine kin in a game of the gods. You are not the first nor the last of your kind to be dragged into this game."
A game? I was taken and changed and thrown into a new world for a game? A spark of anger lit inside me.
"The point of this game varies from god to god. Some see it as a way to settle grudges by having their champions battle, others to see it as a way to amuse themselves."
That's great, I thought bitterly, I'm so glad we can amuse you.
"I admit that I have brought you here for equally selfish reasons. I shall not tell you my reasons, but I shall tell you this, by just being here you are doing what I require. As such, you are free to do as you wish." Except go home. "I have given you the body of the Nemean Lion as your own, and I have left a small number of trinkets that you may find and collect to better yourself." I wanted to ask where they had been left, as I had not seen anything in the cave, but the goddess just continued on. "And finally I have given you a blessing, unique to you and you alone. So long as you embrace the suns rays once a day, you shall need neither food nor drink. However, should you go a day without the suns light, all the hunger you should have felt shall hit you all at once."
Well, that seemed helpful. It would have been a pain to have had to hunt and eat the amount a lion would have needed to survive on a daily bases, not to mention removed the need to find water. Now all I have to do is be sure to act like a plant and absorb some sunlight each day. Sounds easy enough.
The image of the goddess and the dessert surrounding us wavers for a second, letting me see through the illusion to the cave, before settling once more. "I have nearly run out of time. Champion, I must leave you now. I have left other statues such as this one spread out around the world, each one holds a message that you and you alone may hear. Good luck, my champion."
And just like that I was back in the cave, the golden magic that had surrounded the statue was gone. I just stood there for a long while, not sure what to do. I was angry, at the goddess who had dragged me here, at myself, at the world at large. But I was also scarred. I had no idea where I was, what the world was like, what I was going to face from the world at large.
Eventually I managed to get my great furry self to move away from the statue and towards the exit. If I was going to be stuck in this world, I might as well see what there was to see. Barren, that was the first word to come to mind as I stepped out of the cave. As far as I could see the land was bare of green. I couldn't even see a hint of water. I guess I should thank Bastet for her gift then.
The earth was hard beneath my fee-er-paws, I suppose I'll have to get use to saying paws. The earth was hard beneath my paws, small sharp stones poked the pads of my paws in a vain effort to pierce my flesh. Though they failed to harm me, they were still rather annoying, and I soon found my self in a foul mood. I had no idea where I was going, I had simply picked a direction and walked that way, but I hoped I would soon find civilization, or at least some form of life.
It took me three days to find any form of life, and when I did it made me once again question my sanity.
I had stumbled upon a large canyon on the second day of my trek, and had decided to follow it in hopes of finding water. It wasn't that I needed water, I actually felt as though I had just finished a glass of the stuff after eating a filling lunch, but I figured that if I found a source of water out here I might also find some form of life.
On the third day, just as I woke up, I spotted movement down in the canyon from my place on the edge. Curious, and hoping it wasn't a mirage, I swiftly made my way down the canyons edge and moved to investigate. What I found was almost to strange to believe.
A small pack of what looked like dogs, though they had a almost gorilla like body structure, were chasing a small pony. A small pony with a cream coat and a main and tail that was half brown half pink. And it was screaming. Profanities. Now, I admit that I had no idea why this little pony thing was being chased, but I did know one thing: it was adorable as hell and I couldn't stand by and let those dogs get it. So, my mind set, I took off at top speed to try and save the pony. Besides, I never really liked dogs in the first place.
Neapolitan was having a bad day.
She dodged under a swipe from one of the diamond dogs chasing her before making a hard right, allowing another of the mutts to fly past her and hit the cliff side. Unfortunately, that was not enough to put the dog out of commission and it quickly rejoined it's fellows. The chase had been going on for over an hour now, and Neapolitan was beginning to feel the strain. Actually, that wasn't true, she had begun to feel it after the first half hour, but had been powering through on sheer determination and adrenaline. Even her natural endurance as an earth pony was failing her, and the wounds she had experienced while in the 'tender care' of the pack behind her wasn't doing her any favors. Unfortunately, she knew she was going to give out soon, and as soon as that happened, she knew that she would fall into the clutches of the diamond dogs and be sentenced to a life time of slavery. Unless, of course, she was eaten first. Either way, the future didn't look to bright for her.
She came upon a split in the canyon, and without a moments hesitation, took the left. Unfortunately for her, that was the wrong choice. As soon as she entered the split, Neapolitan realized her mistake. The path she had chosen quickly lead to a dead end, leaving her trapped against the wall with a severely angered group of slavers blocking the only exit. The pack slowly moved in on her, the dogs spreading out to prevent the tired earth pony from running pass them.
"End of the line, pony." The lead dog said with a leer. The mutt held out a rusty metal collar towards Neapolitan and slowly advanced, "You have nowhere else to run. Time to come back to the mines." Neapolitan backed away slowly from the approaching diamond dog, his pack mates growling like savage beasts.
Just as the slaver was about to reach the exhausted mare, a roar like thunder shook the air.
Seven of those ape-dog's stood before me, cowering as I slowly paced towards them, walking this way and that in a slow and deliberate manner. My roar, which sounded more like the Disney interpretation of a lion's roar, had shaken the beasts up. The one closest to me, a scrawny little thing with a pugs face, dropped it's spear in fear as I got closer to it. Even the taller, buffer ones looked ready to run at the sight of me, and for good reason. Not only was I a mother loven lion, I was apparently a huge one. I hadn't noticed when I had been examining myself three days ago, but I was big. I easily stood a head taller than the largest dog here, and the pony looked like it would barely be half my height! For a guy who had always been on the shorter side, this was a dream come true, I was tall!
Or they were all short. Damn you brain! Always ruining my fun.
The dogs let me pass without any interference, which was good, considering I didn't want to fight. That was the whole reason I roared in the first place, to scare them enough that they wouldn't want to fight me. It wasn't that I doubted that I could take these mutts on, I am the Nemean lion, my hide can not be cut by the sharpest of blades and my claws can slice through the strongest of armors with ease. Or at least that's what the legends say. No, I didn't want to fight because that's not who I was. I'm a lover, not a fighter. I took no joy in violence and the pain of others. The one time I got in a fight, I was in a depressed state for nearly a week after.
I won though.
Slowly I approached what I was guessing was the leader of the pack. He was holding a rusty metallic collar to the terrified pony's neck, frozen in fear as I stood in front of him, eye's wide in terror. My nose, now far more powerful than it had ever been when I was a human, could almost smell the fear wafting off him. The pony behind him collapsed, the poor creature had been shacking as I approached and it seemed it had just reached it's limit.
I frowned a little as the little thing collapsed on the cold, hard ground. Sure, I was fine with sleeping on it, but my hide protected me from all those poky little rocks. And it was filthy! The pony was covered in dirt, sweat and . . . was that blood? My nose picked up a faint scent of copper coming from the pony. It was blood, and now that I was looking for it, I could see scratches littering the pony's body. It didn't take a genius to figure out how she got hurt. And I did not like the answer.
Turning my head towards the lead dog, who was looking quite a bit calmer than before, I frowned at him, which had him looking just as nervous as before. "Give me the pony." There. Short, sweet and to the point. I just wanted to take the poor creature away from these things, and based on her earlier actions, she wanted to get away anyway. I'd be doing her a favor.
The dog managed a strained smile. "I wont be giving you anything, kitty, for soon you'll be dead!" The dog cackled wickedly, before chocking, a look of disbelief and terror on his face. Behind me, the six dogs that had just oh-so rudely shoved spears into my back let out fearful whines as they dropped their spears.
Turning my head so that I could look back at them while still keeping the head dog in my sights, I shot a haughty smirk at the cowering dogs, "That tickled." I turned back to the head dog, giving him the meanest glare that I could muster. "That was not a very smart thing your friends did." I growled out, flexing my claws. The dog looked like he was about to soil himself, probably imagining all the horrible, horrible things I was going to do in retaliation for his comrades attack. I wasn't going to hurt him, physically at least, but I was going to use his fear to my advantage. "I should kill you now. You and all your little buddies."
The dog threw himself on the ground in fear. "No, no!" The dog cried, "Please spare me, demon kitty! I did not tell those fools to attack, no no no. They did it themselves! Spare me, please!" He pointed at the other dogs that had backed off after realizing that their little sticks were going to do them no good, "Kill them, yes. Kill them for attacking you, but spare me!" He bowed to me, actually freaking bowed, pleading for his life.
It made me sick.
He was just going to throw his followers under the bus to spare his own skin, as far as he knew I was going to kill them, and yet here he was, sacrificing them to save himself. Those dogs might have family, friends, pets that needed them, and yet he was willing to just throw them away to save himself. Pathetic. I almost wished I could kill the sniveling creature before me, but that wasn't who I was, I am no killer. I put one massive paw on the cowardly dogs back and pin him to the ground, he lets out a pained yip, and turn to the others. They stood still, fear in their eye's, but also loyalty. They had heard their leaders begging, they knew that he had tried to sacrifice them, but their they stood, spears in hand and ready to fight for their leader despite knowing their weapons will not work against me.
"Your courage and loyalty serves you well," I began, my voice slicing through the silence that had fallen over the canyon, "If you had fled upon hearing your leaders offer, I would have slain the fool and come after you." A lie. "I respect your loyalty to your leader, though he does not seem to deserve it," I unconsciously put a bit more pressure onto the leaders back, making him yip in pain," and your courage at standing against me. Your choice is foolish, yes, but commendable. And that is why I offer you two choices." All the dogs perk up, hope filling their eye's. "Give to me any slaves that you may hold, and I shall let you live."
"And the other choice?" One of the dogs, a tall one with long, shaggy hair, asks.
"You die." I bluntly reply.
"How you know we have slaves?" The really short one asked.
I jerk my head in the direction of the unconscious pony. "If you have the one I am willing to bet you have more. Besides, even if you don't, I still get this one. So, are you going to release your prisoners, your slaves, to me, or will you die?"
The dogs looked amongst themselves, and then to their leader, trapped beneath my paw.
The dogs led me through the twists and turns of the canyon slowly, doing their best to not appear to be running away. I had made sure they understood that ditching me would not be . . . pleasant. I walked gently behind the dogs, doing my best not to jostle the pony sleeping on my back. It amazed me that she was still asleep, we had been traveling for around an hour and a half now, and though I did my best, the trip was not necessarily the smoothest. Still, I was kind of grateful that she was still asleep. I had a feeling that she would be asking a lot of questions when she woke.
Eventually we came across a cave guarded by two more dogs, though these wore armor. The brutes at the entrance raised their spears upon seeing me, but the dogs I had traveled with had them quickly back at ease, though I could see that the guard dogs were not very pleased with the why of me being there. But they wouldn't do anything without their alpha telling them to, and currently that alpha was doing everything he could to keep me from killing him.
"Would you like to come inside while we get slaves for you?" The alpha asked, twitching ever so slightly in fear as he addressed me.
I smile at him, showing my teeth a little, "No, no. I am fine out here, just please hurry, I want to get out of this canyon as soon as possible. And I'm sure you are eager to see me gone."
The dog nodded his head like a bobble head, rushing into the cave as fast as he could, barking orders as he ran, others of his kind rushing to obey. I found it odd that he was the alpha, he did not seem particularly bright, nor was he the physically strongest of the dogs I have seen. Even from my position at the mouth of the cave I could see dogs that were both bigger and stronger than the mutt that claimed supremacy over the rest of his kind. Perhaps it was a genetic thing? Or maybe this race of dog-like slavers had a form of democracy? Or maybe he just killed the last ruler and took his place? I know dogs on Earth fought for the right to lead the pack, but what do gorilla-dog people do? It was really kind interesting to think about, and if they weren't a bunch of slaving scum, I'd love to study there culture.
Maybe you should focus on what they are doing, and not on how they choose their leaders! My mind screamed at me, snapping me back to reality.
I was surrounded by dogs. I don't know how they did it without me noticing, but they had somehow got into a semi circle, effectively trapping me and the pony between the canyon wall and a wall of at least thirty dogs, bearing all types of weapons. Lances, spears, swords, maces and even one with a bow and arrows standing further back. Hell, one guy was holding a net and trident.
I shot the alpha, who had foolishly decided to stand in the front, nearest me, a furious look. "I thought you were going to give me the slaves?"
He smirked, clearly confident now that he had his pack backing him up. "I was," He began in a cocky manner, "But then I decided that it would be better to just kill you!" He let out a evil cackle, though it sounded more like a series of cough-barks to me.
"You are not very intelligent, are you?" I asked sarcastically. Slowly, so as not to gain any unwanted attention, I lowered my self towards the ground in a crouch. "You saw what happened when you tried that surprise attack earlier, this wont work." I twisted my body, ever so slowly, allowing the pony to slip of my body and onto the ground. I didn't want her to get hurt in what was to come.
"That was a fluke!" He howled, "Those idiots could never do anything right, it was amazing they could even hold their spears! They must not have sharpened them before hand. Yes, that's all it was, a stupid mistake caused by my stupidest pack members!"
"And yet they were the ones you took to hunt down. But that doesn't matter now. I gave you the chance to give me your slaves and live. And you have refused." I don't like violence, I didn't want to fight, but there are times in your life when you must fight. One of those times is when you are surrounded by savage slavers who want to kill you and enslave a innocent (I think she is anyway) pony. "Now, you die."
The Alpha went down easily, caught off guard by my sudden attack. My claws, the claws of a beast of myth and legend, cut through his leather armor and skin like scissors through rice paper. He screamed in pain and agony as I tore my claws free from his flesh as I turned to the next dog, swiping at the beast’s chest, easily slashing through its protection, leaving a stream of his scarlet blood to pour from the four clean cuts on his chest. Flicking my paw, I cleaned it of residue blood, and received a spear to the chest and a mace to the head. It didn't hurt. Me, that is, the two who hit me though were now holding their intestines in after a swipe with my claws to their gut.
I'm fighting back the urge to puke.
I have already taken down four out of the thirty dogs facing against me, and still the others are coming. I had hoped they would have fled after the first few fell, but no. It seems more will have to fall. It scares me, honestly, how easy it is for me to kill these dogs. A single swipe of my claws is enough to decapitate a taller dog, I accidently crushed a smaller dog when I rolled out of the way of an arrow aiming for my eye. It was like I was fighting against an army of caterpies as a charizard, too god loving easy.
And it sickened me.
It shouldn't be this easy to take a life. Duck, head but, slash out, ignore the pained cry. I shouldn't even be killing in the first place! Slash, duck under arrow, rush dog, ignore sword strike to my side. And yet here I am, with the deaths of thirt-er-fourteen dogs on my hands. Paws, whatever, I still have fifteen deaths now to bear down on my soul. And it was so easy! It has gotten to the point that nearly every other move I make is a killing blow.
My movements have gotten smoother, every move is more and more precise. Is this what it means to be a predator? To be able to kill with ease, to dominate those weaker than you? To kill with nary a thought? I shook my head to rid myself of those stray thoughts. It wasn't that I was a predator that made killing these dogs a easy physical task, it was my form. The greatest armor for skin and the sharpest blades for claws. A beast that took a man with the strength of a god to kill it, now with the mind of a man. I was a deadly combination, a foe these dogs never stood a chance with.
The last dog fell, its face frozen in terror on its detached head. The ground, once a dusty barren patch of earth, now soaked with the blood of thirty dead dogs, the bodies strewn about. The only patch of earth spared from the bloodshed was where I had left the pony earlier, right next to the canyon wall. A patch of earth with a now very much awake pony.
Oh, this will end well.
Blood. There was blood everywhere, and bodies. Well, parts of bodies. It was like a scene from a nightmare. Or from one of my dreams. Neapolitan thought grimly, as she kicked away the detached arm of a Diamond Dog that had landed a little too close to her for comfort. She had been a slave to the dogs for nearly three months, by her count. It was hard to keep track of time when you’re underground. And in that time she had often fantasized about what she would do to her masters if she had the chance. It often ended in a blood bath like this, though she usually imagined she would be laughing right about now as she gazed at the remains of her hated enemies. But instead she just sat there and starred at their remains.
And she smiled.
She didn't stop smiling as the lion, the one who had slaughtered the demons who had kept her and many others trapped in their hellish home, slowly made its way towards her. Its pace was slow, its head was also low, and it had what could only be considered a resigned look upon its face.
What does it want with me? She couldn't help but wonder. Was it about to claim her as its prize? Eat her? Maybe it was just going to slay her as it had the Diamond Dogs. She continued to puzzle over her fate at the paws of this lion as it approached, right up until it came to a stop right in front of her.
"Are you all right?" The lion asked, worry in its rumbling voice.
Neapolitan couldn't help it, she laughed. Here was this enormous beast, the slaughterer of her personal demons, worrying over her. She laughed, allowing the relief over not being eaten, not being immediately killed as she had thought. She laughed at the deaths of her tormentors, and most of all, laughed in joy at finally being free. Free of those dogs, free of being forced to strip the earth of jewels with her bare hoofs, of carrying mine carts laden with thousands of gems. Free to face life as she wanted once again. Even if that life might be cut down by this lion if he decided to kill her later, it was still hers. Not the dogs.
Eventually, she managed to calm herself down enough to respond. "I'm fine, I'm just so fuckin happy right now." She stood up, stretching. "My names Neapolitan." She smiled up at the lion who even now that she was standing towered over her. "Thanks for killing those assholes, I suppose I owe you now."
The lion just looked at her funny for a moment, "You owe me nothing." The lion shook his head. "I killed them because they refused to release you and the other slaves they held. I killed them for your freedom, because all beings deserve to be free. You don't owe me anything, because all I did was right a wrong." He looked over the chunks of what was once a small army of Diamond Dogs, "Even if thirty beings had to die for me to do it." He sounded almost sad at the thought of the dead dogs, but that couldn't be right, could it? Who would be sad to see those bastards go? Not me, I'd be glad if I never saw another dog again.
"Well aren't you a fuckin saint? You do this often? Just, go around wastelands, saving mares and having a jolly good time?" She begin to pick her way through the bodies, heading towards the mouth of the cave. She liked to think that she was a good judge of character, and right now she felt that she could trust this lion.
"No, this is my first time. And I am no saint." The lion replied, laughing a little, and began following her through the field of death. "Where are you going?"
"Well you said you wanted to free everypony right?"
"Yes, that was my intent."
"Well, there all in here. And trust me, it's a maze down there. Luckily, I know where to go." Neapolitan shot the lion a cocky smirk, "Think of this as my way of saying 'Thank you Mr. Lion sir for saving me from those damn dogs.' Okay?"
"Mr. Lion?" The lion asked, a hint of annoyance in his voice.
Neapolitan turned around and gave the lion a bemused smirk, "Well, you haven't gotten around to telling me your name now, have ya?"
The lion stopped for a moment, before replying with a bit of a chuckle. "No, I suppose I haven't. My name is Godric. It is a pleasure to meet you, Neapolitan."
Neapolitan didn't lie, the place was a maze. I was lost after the third turn, and there were many, many more turns after that one. Down and down we went, passing chambers filled with the riches of the earth. Rubies and sapphires, gold and silver, gems the size of my paws. Rooms filled with wealth, and still down we went through the tunnels, going deeper into the bowls of the planet. The more polished tunnels that we had started in soon turned rough, jagged stones poking from the ground and walls, and parts of the passage way was missing, as though someone had torn chunks of it out.
My foul mouthed guide gave a running commentary as we delved into the lair of these Diamond Dogs, as she called the ape-dog hybrids I had killed earlier. I found it hilarious that there was a race named after a David Bowie song. Neapolitan looked at me funny when I laughed at the name, which only caused me to laugh harder, until I realized I was laughing at the name of the species I had just butchered thirty of. That brought me down fast.
We passed by a small underground river, which Neapolitan explained was the only source of drinking and cleaning water in the entire network of caves. Disgusting, but they had to do what they had to do. After all, it's not like they had a choice. We passed a small patch of farmland, somehow filled with plants even without the light of the sun. How that worked, I didn't have a clue, but I wasn't really wanting to question it.
Finally, we reached a large wooden door with numerous locks on it. It was obvious that this is where the Diamond Dogs kept their slaves. Whips and chains hung from racks on the wall near the door, empty mine carts with harnesses littered the hall way, and there was a sign with the words 'Slave Room' (the 'r' was backwards and the words were barley legible) hanging on the door.
"Well, here we are." Neapolitan began, walking up to the door, a sour look on her face, "Home sweet home." She turned back towards me, before pointing a hoof at the locked door, "How you planning on getting that sucker open? 'Cause, let me tell ya, stupid as those assholes may have been, they never let those keys out of their sight."
Well, that was unfortunate. Briefly, I thought back to what Bastet had told me, about how this was all a game to the gods, and wondered if this was the beginning of a fetch quest, find the key and save the civilians, maybe I would get one of those 'trinkets' Bastet had mentioned. The thought of this, all of this, being a game was comforting. If this was a game then the lives I had taken didn't really matter, they were just a part of the game, inconsequential.
I shook my head to rid myself of such thoughts. Bastet had also insisted this world was real, and a game to a god was something much different than a game to a mortal. My actions had consequences, and that was the death of some for the life of others. I would have to deal with the fallout of that later, but for now, I had slaves to free.
"Well then," I strode forward confidently, "It is a good thing I have a universal key."
"A universal what?"
I didn't respond with words, instead I sliced through the locks and part of the wood with my claws, opening the door. Who needs fancy lock-picking skills or fancy magic keys when you have claws that can cut through nearly anything? Eat your heart out Sora!
The door swung open, letting light poor into the darkness that was on the other side.
Fourteen Ponies like Neapolitan, three unicorns, six pegasi, fifteen griffons, a minotaur and a small black bug like pony creature were all crammed into a room much to small for such a large group. They all looked roughed up, beaten, and in most cases, defeated. Fur was missing on a couple of the ponies, the minotaur had lash marks across his torso, and handfuls of feathers were missing from the griffons. The fur on the ponies was matted and disheveled, and every being there was chained to the floor. They all flinched away from the light provided by the torches along the wall, spilling into the dark room. The minotaur just stared straight at me.
"Are you here to kill us?" The minotaur asked, a hint of hope in his voice. The other slaves perked up at that, looking at me expectantly.
I didn't respond for a moment, just gazing at the poor beings before me in sadness for a moment. How horrible it must have been, to be a slave, that the thought of death brought hope. Neapolitan stood quietly behind me. I had thought that they might be like her, full of spirit and will, ready to be free. Not, for lack of a better word, broken. How long had they been here, how long had she been here? Why had no one done anything before hand?
"No." I finally replied. "I am not here to kill you." They all seemed to deflate, losing what little hope they had for the future. I couldn't just let them sink into despair, so I blurted out my purpose with little. "I am here to set you free."
One of the ponies snorted, "Yeah right." The pony sent a weak glare my way, "You're probably just going to enslave us as well, or eat us. Don't lie to us, the dogs would never just let us go. You probably bought us, didn't you? Or they caught some more unlucky bastards and figured they would get rid of us to make way for some fresh blood." He snorted once again and spat at the ground before me in disgust, "Free, yeah right."
I was about to respond, probably with some kind of flowery speech that was totally not stolen from Transformers, when Neapolitan got impatient and shoved her way past me into the room. I don't know what she had been doing while I had been in the room, but she now was wearing a small gold circlet, had a ruby earing and now looked and smelled much better than before.
"What's taking you so long? I thought you said you were going to free these guys?" She asked with a huff, clearly she was not a patient one.
"I did, and I plan to, but they seem skeptical about my desire to free them."
She rolled her eye's. "Alright, I'll talk to them." She walked a little bit further into the room.
The pony who had spoken up earlier look shocked at Neapolitans appearance, in fact they all did. "Neapolitan, is that you? I thought you at least had made it!"
"Yeah, it's me Emerald. And I did make it, about a mile before those damn dogs caught up to me. Luckily, this guy," She jabbed a hoof in my direction, "Came along and beat those dogs down. Then he dragged my unconscious self back here, demanded you guys to be free, and when those mutts said no? He killed every last fuckin one of 'em!"
An excited round of whispers broke out among the slaves at Neapolitans declaration. I shifted uneasily as the eyes of nearly everyone shifted onto me. Everyone in the room seemed more, well, alive now. Whispering in earnest with each other. Maybe their beaten down behaver was an act, meant to fool the dogs into thinking they were all truly subservient?
"Are you serious, Nea? Are they all really dead?" He asked in a feverish tone. The one known as Emerald seemed to be aptly named. His whole color scheme seemed to be just various shades of green. Though, his mane was streaked with silver to give it variety. Personally I would have called him Lucky, because he reminded me of the leprechaun from the cereal. But that's just me.
"I had to walk through a pile of dismembered dogs just to get here." Neapolitan replied smugly. It kind of disturbed me how casually she spoke of the deaths of all those dogs, but then again I wasn't the one who was enslaved by them. So, I really couldn't really judge her.
There was a moment of silence, and then an explosion of noise. All the beings around me cheered at the news of the dogs death. They all cheered, some hugged, and the little bug pony thing with the moss like hair seemed to be almost glowing with joy, and a strangely satisfied look on its face. Almost like it had just eaten a satisfying meal, strange that. While the now former slaves were cheering, I decided to start the actual 'freeing' part of 'freeing the slaves' and went from one to another, cutting chains as I went, being careful not to cut into skin.
Most that I freed simply thanked me, before moving on back to joyfully talking with their friends, most talking about plans they had once they made it to a place known as 'Equestria'. A few, however, hugged me and barely managed to stutter out thanks through their tears of joy. One stuck out among all the others though. The little bug-pony chattered something in some strange language, before buzzing it's wings and flying onto my back. There it sat regally, as though it was a royal sitting upon their loyal steed. Or, I could have been reading to much into it and the little creature just wanted to rest on something that wasn't stone and I was one of the few things there that was big enough to bare it's weight, slight though it was. Either way, I really didn't mind. It was rather cute, in a alien sort of way.
As I made my way between all the cheering beings, with bug-pony sitting comfortably on my back, I happened to over hear one of the unicorns ask Neapolitan if they had to worry about me growing hungry and eating them.
I actually laughed a little at that, catching the two off guard.
"Princess fucking Celestia, don't sneak up on me like that Godric! You damn near gave me a heart attack!" Neapolitan berated me, glaring up at me.
I laughed again, even when she was glaring at me, the little pony was still pretty dang adorable. Seeing her glare was not having her desired effect, Neapolitan opted to pout and turned away, walking over towards a couple of adamantly talking griffons. With a simple shrug, that got me a little bit of angry chatter from the thing on my back, I sliced through the chain holding the unicorn. Luckily, that was the last one.
"Thank you." She mumbled looking away from me.
"You are welcome." I reply with a smile. "You know, you don't have to worry about me getting hungry and trying to eat you."
"I don't?" The unicorn asked, not sounding as though she believed me at all.
"No." I shook my head, sending my mane flopping about. "Thanks to a blessing I received by Bastet, I no longer need to eat or drink to live. That is, as long as I get a little sunlight each day." I explained, not at all concerned about revealing my lack of a need for food, or talking about the goddess. I had no reason to hide it.
"Really?" The pony asked, surprised. "Wait, who's Bastet?"
"Bastet is a goddess, and the reason I am here." I walked away from the pony towards a frantically waving Neapolitan. It was easier to move through the room now, as a few braver souls had wandered out to the hall. She was standing next to the minotaur, the largest of the griffons, a unicorn and a pegasus. "Is something wrong, Neapolitan?"
"No, nothings wrong." The others nodded their agreement, "It's just, we were wondering, what now?"
I blinked in confusion. "What do you mean, what now?"
"She means," The minotaur began, his voice rather soft, "What will we do now? We are free, but what are we to do? Where are we to go?" He waved his arm in the general direction of the others, "We have all been taken from our lives, some of us have been down here for years. Our country men most likely think we are dead, so we have nothing to return to. What are we to do?"
They all looked at me, waiting for my response, hoping for some great words of wisdom or reassurance. I was very sorry to disappoint them. "I don't know."
They all just looked at me in shock for a moment, before Neapolitan spoke up. "What do you mean, you don't know?"
"I mean what I said; I don't know. I don't know where you could go, because I don't know where I am. I don't know what you are to do, because I don't know what I am to do. We are all lost here." They all looked so dejected, did they really think I would have some kind of magical answers for them? "However, I can offer some advice." I couldn't leave them high and dry, "Gather whatever you can, food, water, gems and gold, though mostly focus on food and water. Gather as much as you can carry, load up the mine carts if you must, and then go."
"Go where?" The griffon asked harshly.
"Wherever you feel is best. Personally, I am heading out north tomorrow." I reply with a shrug. The thing on my back chittered something and then bonked my head, before lying down. "And I guess this thing is coming too."
They all shared a look between themselves. "Then we shall follow you and the changeling. At least, until we reach Equestria." The minotaur announced decisively.
Changeling, hmm? Interesting. And again someone mentions this 'Equestria'. I shall have to look into it latter, it sounds important. "If that is what you want, your welcome to tag along until we reach this 'Equestria' place." I said with a grin, "It will be nice to have companions to travel with. Though I must ask, do any of you know the name of the changeling on my back?"
Neapolitan sauntered over to me, pilfered jewelry gleaming in the torch light, "Not a clue, no one knows her name. But that's mostly can understand what the fuck she's saying." She shrugged her shoulders, or whatever you call them on a pony, "Most of us just call her changeling or 'hey you', but I guess you can pick something more permanent out."
I thought for a moment. Did I really have the right to give her a name, when she most likely had one of her own? I didn't even know her! But, still, I couldn't just go around saying the changeling all the time, now could I? If worse came to worse I can just say it was a nickname, and use her real one if I ever figured it out.
"Well, I guess I'll call you Mimi, unless you have any objections?" I said to the newly dubbed Mimi, who just shot me a lazy look, before curling into a ball and falling asleep. "I'll take that as a go ahead." I chuckled and turned back to Neapolitan, who was frowning a little. "What?"
"Mimi? Really? That's a stupid name."
"Well I like it." I replied with a huff, and turned and began walking down the tunnel.
"Where are you going?" Neapolitan asked as she raced after me, having to lightly trot to keep up with my longer paces now that I wasn't following her.
"Looting, and maybe a place to get some sleep." I replied honestly, while peeping into some of the side caverns that already had others going through them in earnest.
"You're looting?" She asked with a look of disbelief.
"Yeah, why?" I asked as I finally found a room that someone hadn't already claimed. It was mostly filled with jewelry, unlike the other storage rooms that had contained raw and unrefined metals and gems. This must be where she got that circlet and earing. I realized as I shifted through the many, most likely stolen, items.
She walked up beside me and began shifting through the treasure as well, occasionally inspecting one thing or another before discarding it. "You just don't seem the type."
I hooked my paw on a rather nice looking ankh on a chain. What an Egyptian symbol of life was doing in a place like this, let alone attached to a chain big enough for me, was anyone's guess, but I liked it. While attempting to get it on, I replied, "Oh? Then what is my type?"
"You know, the morally uptight guy that doesn't like it when ponies try to have fun. You know, like the royal guard." She picked up what looked like a golden apple, and turned it in the torchlight inspecting, before tossing it over her shoulder.
"You figured I was a stick in the mud? You've only known me for maybe two hours, three hours tops." I turned from the pile of jewelry and made my way over to a corner of the room.
"Yeah, I guess your right. So, what you doing now?" She asked as she trotted over to where I had carefully laid myself down, careful not to wake Mimi.
"I'm going to take a nap. We have a big day tomorrow, after all." I let out a loud yawn, "And today wasn't exactly without excitement itself."
Neapolitan nodded with a yawn. "You got that right. Between running from those bastards and the excitement from finally being truly free of them, I'm beat. Mind if I sleep with you?" I raised a brow. "Not like that! It's just cold in here and you look all soft and warm."
I chuckle lightly, and motion for her to lie next to me. "There is only one way to find out." With the invitation extended I rested my forehead on my fore paws and rested my eye's. It wasn't but a moment latter that I felt Neapolitan curl up next to me with a content sigh. It had been a trying day for us all, and I could not help but wonder what the future held.
It had been a long three days since we had left the Diamond Dogs lair. Three long days of trekking through the canyon until we found a way out, three days of my companions having to survive on the meager food rations they had been able to scour from the stocks they had found. Though, they would not want for food should we find a town, as they had managed to gather three wagons worth of jewels and gold, items that they had been forced to mine. We had faced a monster reminiscent of a graboid, a giant worm-like creature with tentacles in it’s mouth that grabbed at us and burrowed under the ground.
Sadly, we lost Grey Back, the minotaur, to the monster. It had attacked him first, and had managed to devour him before I had a chance to drive it off. The others of the group mourned his loss heavily, as he had been the leader of the former slaves and had been the one to keep their spirits up in the dark times. Fortunately, he was the only one we lost in our trekk.
“Are we there yet?” Neapolitan asked from her position on my back. She had taken to laying across my back to conserve energy. She was light, and the burden was thus nothing to complain about, but she tended to do her best to annoy me by constantly asking if we were ‘there yet.’ Apparently, it didn’t matter which world you were in, the young will always ask that question during a long trip. Mimi, the changeling, also was upon my back, but she tended to stay there most of the time and never bothered me. Aside from chattering in her strange language every now and then.
“I am afraid we are still nowhere of note, though, you are always welcome to get off.” I reply as calmly as I can, which is pretty calm. It helps that the sun is shining brightly today, even as it begins to set. Thanks to Bastets blessing, whenever I am in direct sunlight I feel completely content, unless an outside factor draws my ire or pleasure. It is almost as though I am always in that period just after eating a great meal or a good night's rest, satisfied and full of energy, ready for anything.
“What, and miss getting to ride aback the great ‘Chosen of Bastet’? Fat chance!” Neapolitan shot back with a laugh.
I groaned at the mention of the title that had been bestowed on me by the self defined ‘high priest of Bastet’. I am not sure exactly how it had begun, but slowly the group had wheedled out any and all information I had on the goddess responsible for my presence here. Apparently the unicorn I had spoken to, a talented beekeeper named Honey Bee, had told everyone else that I was sent by a goddess to free them. Due to the fact that I was only able to save them due to her interference, they felt honour bound to repay said goddess by following her devotedly. And so the First Church of Bastet was founded around what little I knew of the goddess. It started with only a small few, but it very rapidly engulfed the others.
Hell, they even got me to say a prayer (that they made up) as a representative of Bastet, for Grey Back instead of their traditional one. I only knew they did a substitute thanks to Neapolitan, who complained about it. She was still a firm believer in the church of the sun.
Personally, I wasn’t a fan of the church they had so hastily put together. Not only because it centered on Bastet, who I was having mixed feelings about, but because it stank of desperation. I know the had a rough time, and many felt betrayed by this ‘Celestia’ for not coming to save them, but this, this was just sad. They were singing the praise of a goddess they knew next to nothing about, and pledging their lives to her, and they didn’t know if she would turn around and demand sacrifice. I know that in dark times people will turn to religions, but this was a bit too far. Still, they were free to do as they choose and I will not stop them.
“Please, do not bring that title up.” I groaned quietly, not wishing to offend one of the new ‘bastetits’ around me. “You know how uncomfortable it makes me, and . . . wait, what’s that?” We had just crested a hill, and there before me was something I had yet to see in all my time in the this wasteland.
“It looks like. . .” Neapolitan began, only to be cut off by a gleeful shout from one of the others nearby.
“A town!” With energy I didn’t know the weary group possessed, they charged past me and towards the town, screaming and shouting in joy at the first sign of civilization they had seen in who knows when.
Neapolitan let out an indigent ‘humph’ before sliding off my back, and began to lightly trot towards the town. “I know they’re fuckin excited, but that’s no reason to cut me off! Oh well, let's go and make sure those idiots don’t get us banned from the place by trying to convert everypony to their stupid ass religion.”
Mimi chattered in a chiding manner from my back. I had begun to get a vague sense of what she was saying after listening to her for three days, but this completely went over my head.
“Apologies, Mimi, I didn’t understand you this time.” I apologized, before walking briskly after the others. Hopefully, someone in this town would have a map, I was growing tired of not knowing where I was or where I was going. As we began to get closer to the town, Mimi grew restless and started shifting uneasily on my back, chittering and chattering constantly in a hushed manner.
Mimi only acted more agitated the closer we got to the town, and that put me on edge. Mimi, was normally calm and composed, not overly excitable and not scared easily. She had only quivered at the sight of the monster worm instead of the outright panic of the others, so what was it about this strange town that had her so nervous?
Feeling a little on edge, I slowly made my way towards the entrance of the town with the rest of my group, to find a small group of ponies and griffons waiting for us.
“Welcome to Granite Junction!” A stallion said with a smile.
I give a small smile as I approach the greeter, Mimi burrowing herself in my mane as I entered the town, hissing softly. “A fair welcome indeed, kind sir. I am Godric. And these,” I gesture towards the others, “Are my friends.” I refused to address them as ‘bastetits’ in front of strangers. I should really think of a better name for the group, that name just sounded dirty. “We are weary from our travels, and wish to rest in your town for a short while.”
The ponies grin widened, and he made as though to reply, but was cut off as a pair of diamond dogs came barreling around a corner, screaming bloody murder and being chased by a black cat.
***Felix’s POV***
As I slept I felt myself rocking back and forth much like when I was too lazy to walk or my paws hurt and hitched a ride on Bonbon. I opened my eyes then immediately closed them, “Gah, that’s bright… where are we and why am I on your back?”
“Well good morning,” Bonbon said in a happy voice laced with barely concealed contempt, she called out ahead of us, “Hey Geoff, the drunk’s awake!”
“…Who the fuck is Jeff?”
“Are you serious,” she whisper-yelled at me, “You don’t remember the vulture griffon that you brought back to our room drunk off your butt?! Well congratulations; thanks to you drunkenly agreed to help him, we’ve got to go back to that horrible town.”
“Don’t blame me, that was drunk Felix; that guy’s an asshole… or so I’ve been told,” I groaned as I sort of remember agreeing to it. “Did he happen to say why he needed our help?”
“Something about purging the town of the evil magic and finding the party responsible for creating it because it’s his job or something,” she complained as I rolled off her flank and landed on my paws. “Watch out for that little monster he keeps on his back, there have been many a meeting I wish I could have ditched regarding Lurkers of the Black Marsh. Their claws can pierce Royal Guard armor and they have a poison spine they can shoot out of their tail with incredible accuracy.”
“Got it, stay away from the red, white, and blue,” I yawned as I kept up with her pace, an odd looking but familiar black griffon landed near us, “Oh, it’s that guy. I totally remember him; I met him in that tavern place.”
“Morning greets your life with warming embrace, Felix,” Geoff said as he nodded once. “Pierce is waiting for us near the place you collapsed. We will have to set up camp some ways away from the town if we wish to formulate a plan without being ambushed. “
“Right, so what is the plan? Go in claws ablaze?”
“Something like that, my higher ups have developed certain… techniques… for dealing with things of this nature,” Geoff scratched his neck absentmindedly before flapping off and calling back to us, “I’ll explain at camp, don’t worry it’s not too far away!”
Now that it was just Bonbon and I she visibly relaxed, “What’s the matter?”
“Nothing… or maybe everything, this guy shows up right after we escape that horrible place,” she said then took a calming breath, “It’s just too coincidental for my taste, last time something like this occurred the organization shattered itself to provide deniability.”
“Something like this happened before? You’ve faced down a ghoul-town before?”
“Not the exact same, flea-brain. I meant someone coming along and offering help after just we finished a job; a Bugbear was terrorizing Tall Tale so my team was sent to handle it, we succeed in capturing it but we lost Gum-shoe in the process. It was thanks to one of the locals that we did so, as payment he wanted to sign on to T.R.T, and two weeks later the Bugbear escaped.”
“Damn Bonbon, I don’t know what to say.”
She rubbed her nose with a hoof and sniffled, “It’s fine, I holed up in Ponyville and met some great friends… also it’s pretty entertaining watch somepony else run after all that craziness. Oh look; that must be the camp,” she said, pointing a hoof to a makeshift campsite, we must have talked the distance away. Geoff was scribbling something on a notepad while his red and blue armored pet feasted on a massive salmon that looked so good but I blame that on the cat body.
“Ah good, you two managed to get here on time. I just finished the order for the supplies we’ll need,” he held up a small leaf of paper with an intricate circle in each of the corners.
“Holy shit, Amazon actually makes deliveries out here,” I asked jokingly.
“No but my troupe does, I’ll need to carve or etch a beacon rune-circle before I send this off but since we’re close enough to Saddle Arabia the transfer shouldn’t take that long. They should have everything together in a while if not sooner,” He set took a second to scribble a circle with a strange marge in the center on the back of the card then tossed it into the fire, “Et mittes eas ad centrum.” The fire flared brilliant green as the paper was consumed.
“Great… Tell me something Geoff, were you dropped as an egg, cub, or whatever a child griffon is?”
“I was never dropped…”
“Right… I’m just going to ignore what just happened and hope that you actually have a plan.”
“I do have a plan,” Geoff walked over and started scribbling in the sand a crude map of the town, “Don’t you find it offputting that the town is circular? A trading bazaar in the center while residential areas and watering holes encase it?”
“Maybe but I’m not an architect, who am I to judge how they design a town?”
“Would you be able to judge it if I told you it was in fact a Geometric spell-circle?”
I perked up at the mention of spell-circle, “What like Fullmetal Alchemist? Oh man, I loved that show when it came on.” Bonbon and Geoff just gave me confused looks, “Ignore the rambling cat, so spell-circle as in witchcraft or alchemy?”
“It’s more of a Geometric Rune-circles; if the spell-work at the town’s entrance is anything to go on I’d say that place is an energy-well,” he sighed when we didn’t show signs of knowing what that was, “Someone is using that town to absorb the life energy of anything in the town and storing it somewhere. Like I said before; my higher-ups have developed techniques for dealing with this kind of thing; enchanted silver pins in the spell’s focal points, there’s usually five or six depending on how experienced the circle caster was.”
“Right…”
There was a flare of green fire and a leaf of paper was spit out where Geoff could catch it, “Ah good, they have a fresh baker’s dozen ready for translocation. One second,” he apologized while nodding and went off a way to draw yet another set of circles in the sand. He pricked his claw letting a drop of blood fall in the circle before chanting some words, there was a flash of white light with the crack of thunder and a black case stood in the circle. Swinging the case onto his back he brought it back over to us, “Sorry about that, as I was saying; we jam a pin into each of the focal points then cause them to resonate which should unravel the circle and release any of the living that may remain inside.”
“What about the ghouls and ghosts,” I asked, remember the little filly and the ghoul-dog.
“Ah yes… that… Well that’s where you come in Felix; you’ll be rounding them up with Pierce while Miss Bonbon and I will be hammering-“
“You want me to be bait,” I yowled, fur standing on end.
“Distraction but I see your confusion, we need you to cause as much destruction and confusion as possible so that when we start hammering the pins in they’ll be too busy to feast on our innards like trail mix.”
“Uh… and why is Miss Bonbon coming with you,” Bonbon asked as she looked him in his tiny eyes.
“I’ll have need of your strength to break through the hard soil,” he explained calmly.
"So what happens when you break the circle will the ghouls turn to dust and that’ll be that? Fanfare plays as the town explodes," I asked idly while he opened the case to show silver rods that glowed with etched symbols, each of which was five feet long with a pointed end. He pulled out what looked like a rather large tuning fork, "What's that for?"
"The pins need to vibrate at the same tone for the enchantments to activate. Once the pins are in place they will need to struck one at a time then the circle circle should shatter like glass and effectively freeing the living inside," Geoff explained as he looked them over with what must have been a trained eye, "On another note I think it would be best to prepare some additional protection."
"That's all well and good, Geoff," Bonbon said with a huff, "If you know how to stop this then do you have a way to keep them from recognizing me?" He simply hummed while scratching something in the sand then wiping it away, he did this several times so we just turned away to watch the river flow past and listening to the ripping of salmon flesh.
“Alright then,” Geoff said as he finished up a necklace with two circles hanging from it, each circle held an intricately designed circle with a symbol that looked like someone praying, “an illusion circle for fur and mane color and one for your voice. These are always easier than using dyes and better to hide from prying eyes”
“Thanks,” Bonbon said hesitating a moment before she placed the necklace over her head and the change was immediate; her fur flared white while her mane turned purple and pink. She gave a squeak in her new voice, “Sweet Celestia, I look like Rarity’s little sister... and I sound like her!”
Geoff took one of the circles in his claw and pointed to a specific portion of the circle, “This part right here is where it gets the colors from, it scans your memory for a template; either someone who wouldn’t be recognized easily or someone who you saw at one point but never really paid attention to.” He began loading the case with the pins and fork onto his back, “Here’s the plan; I’ll be flying myself and Miss Bonbon when Felix and Pierce cause enough damage to draw the ghouls and others under the spells to deal with them. While they do that we’ll locate the focal points. Are you two okay with this?”
Bonbon nodded and gained a serious looking face, similar to when she hunted me down back in Ponyville and I just gave a grim grin, “I don’t like being used as bait… I just hope I don’t run into that minotaur again, I couldn’t burn him last time.”
"Here's hoping," He gave a small laugh, "It's almost sunset, we best get into our positions. Would you like to sit on my back or have me fly by and pick you up in my claws?"
"I don't mind sitting on your back, but doesn’t that bother you?"
"Of course not, Pierce spends all his time there," his small eyes twinkled at the mention of his pet. "Hope aboard Miss Bonbon." He laid down low enough for Bonbon to get on his back and held onto the case with her forehooves. "Pierce," the little monster snarled to let him know he was listening, "Remember what I said, don't eat our new companions... feel free to eat the ghouls though." Pierce gave a happy couple of clicks as he jumped in place and Geoff took to the skies with a running start and shouted to me, "Don't forget to give us the signal to start!"
"What's the signal," I shout to him but their already small dots in the sky, I turn to the little monster and jokingly ask him, "Do you know what the signal is?"
"No, but a good explosion or pained screams are always a good one to use," He hissed a gravelly voice that was higher pitched than Geoff’s but still down there.
"Holy shit! You can talk," I shouted in surprise and it just laughed then took off for the front of the town, "Get back here! We're suppose to work together on this!"
"That's not what I heard! He just said not to eat you!"
As I chased him through the town there were guttural roars and howls of the ghouls that escaped me before calling for back up, we soon had Diamond Dogs and Griffons tailing us with spears and bows. Pierce launched himself up the side of a wall to leap at one of the griffons and speared his front claw into the base of its neck causing them to fall without a cry.
"Alright pooches," I hissed at the dogs who chose to chase me, "Who wants to be the first Equestrian hot dog?"
"Foolish cat, this not Equestria, this-"
I gave a grim grin as the dog went up in flames screaming, effectively cutting off what he was going to say. He chased after his still living brethren who were running away while screaming about a demon. I chased after them towards the town's entrance, firing blue bolts at them while laughing crazily, "Stop, drop, and roll! Stop, drop, and roll!"
The two living dogs –the ghoul had succumbed to the fire on the way- ran around a corner and I heard them begging for help from someone. “Oh god, I hope it’s not that minotaur, I don’t want to deal with that guy,” I groan to myself as I turned a corner and found the three dogs, Mauve the tour guide, a ton of different races and the biggest gold lion I have ever seen, “Oh my- fuck, they have a six feet tall lion,” I screamed at the top of my lungs, hoping any of my companions had heard me. I turned tail and made a mad dash while the dogs hooted and hollered obscenities at me, “I draw the line at human-sized lions! That’s even worse than that fucking minotaur and that fucker was immune to fire! I change my mind universe; I would rather fight that minotaur!”
“That can be arranged," a familiar voice of the minotaur said as a spiky crystal ball hit me, sending my back towards the giant lion. "Ignis."
I shouted to the sky as I landed, "I was joking!"
***Third Person POV***
The dust settled as the large grey minotaur stepped out swinging his flaming ball and chain which he launched but hit one of the dogs behind Felix by mistake, "What the hell?! Fire's my thing, get your own thing asshole,” Felix yelled as his hackles rose in anger and his flames cloaked his entire body instead of just the tips of his tail, “Enjoying the loss of your arm? Good because I’m missing the life your goons took!”
“Your life would have been welcomed by my master,” the dark grey minotaur pulled back on the chain, using the force to make it spin again. “You should have joined us, you’re soaked in dark magic so you will fit right in. Abandon that second-rate goddess, Hecate, and help us; we could use someone with your abilities.”
“Not that I’m not flattered but you kind of have me at odds, I say no and your crew tears me a new asshole. I say yes then I go back on a deal with said goddess and that’s just not my style.”
The minotaur just laughed as he looked at the giant lion that had apparently been following the conversation, “Fine then, how about you? Will you abandon your goddess and join us?”
Felix looked confused for a moment, “You- he- you mean the giant ass lion isn’t part of your crew? Well this just got easier, don’t think I could have taken the two of you.”
Ignoring the cats comment for the moment, Godric shook his head, “I am sorry to say that I will have to deny your most . . . generous offer. I may have my grievances with Bastet, but I made a deal with her and I am not one to go back on my word.”
Felix perked his ears up with the lion’s statement, “Hate to interrupt your wheeling and dealing but-,” The fire coating his fur traveled to his tails and shot the large fireball at a building that burst into flame after a short pause, “Looks like you might want to deal with that. I don’t think your ‘master’ would like having their town being burnt to hell and back.”
I’m really glad I asked Neapolitan and the others to wait outside of the town now. Godric thought with a grimace as he watched the building go up like a stack of old kindling. With a frown on his face, Godric turned from the burning building and swiped his paw at the two-tailed cat that had started the fire. Random acts of pyromaniac destruction was not something he could ignore. Unfortunately, the cat managed to quickly jump over his paw, and sent him a dirty look.
“Hey, what are you doing?” Felix gave a quiet hiss.
The lion growled, “I do not care for random acts of destruction. If your quarrel is with the minotaur, aim for him. I am sure that the building has done you no wrong.”
“It wasn’t random,” giving a look to the minotaur to see if it had heard them, “I’m pulling bait duty, I need all the ghouls in the town on me… for reasons.”
Godric just looked confused, “Ghouls?”
“You know… undead? zombies?”
“I know what ghouls are, I just don’t know what they have to do with the current situation and you attacking random buildings!”
“Oh! You didn’t see the ghoul-dog… oh right, he burned before he got to you… Well long story short, this is a demonic town that absorbs the life energy of the residents.”
The minotaur gave a disgruntled sigh, interrupting Godrics’ response, and looked in Godric’s and Felix’s direction, “Well that was something… I think we might have gotten off on the wrong hoof; let’s exchange names ...That is typically what you humans do in this situation is it not?” The minotaur gave a mock bow, “I am Ashfur, Guardian of Granite Junction.”
The massive lion returned the bow, though with a touch more sincerity, “I am Godric, Champion of Bastet. A pleasure to meet you, Ashfur.”
Felix stood stock still with his muscles flexed, “Felix Azuretails… Receiver of Celestia’s ban-hoof.” He swished his tails in a circular motion, creating seven balls of floating fire and fired two at Ashfur while getting some distance, “Let’s see if you’ve kept that fire immunity I hate!”
Seeing that the cat known as Felix was the aggravator here, the minotaur at least tried to talk things out,Godric decided it would be best to subdue him so he could figure out what the hell was going on. All the talk of zombies was crazy! Or was it? Godric shook his head as he pounced at the cat, he would sort this all out when he had caught that cat.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold up there thundercat. If anyone should be attacked it’s this guy,” Felix jumped out from under the oncoming lion as he pointed a tail at Ashfur, “He’s keeping innocent people and souls trapped here!”
“And what proof do you have to this claim? All I have seen is a city guardian defend his home from a pyromaniac telling tales of the undead. So what reason do I have to believe you, Azuretails?” Godric asked as he darted after the cat, iddly noticing that Ashfur had just picked himself from the ground where he had most likely dived out of the fire's path. Unfortunately, his dodging had caused yet another building to ignite.
“ Why would the city need a guardian when the town literally locks you in the town after dawn? How do you think ass-fur lost his hand; I dragged him past the town border and it got cut off while I was trying to save my companion.” Felix’s eyes glowed as a section of the cobblestone was ripped up then shattered as it blocked a flaming flail from Ashfur.
Godric turned to the minotaur to see if he was alright, but stopped dead at the sight of the minotaur. A good chunk of his side, the side that he had been unable to see earlier, was missing. However, that wouldn’t be the case for long as the wounded area was slowly patching itself up, leaking a black sludge as it did. Now, he didn’t know if the whole ‘locked in after dawn’ thing was real, but he was now convinced something was definitely not right here. Possibly something zombie related.
“I suppose I owe you an apology.” Godric sighed. He had really hoped there was nothing wrong with this town, but Mimi’s nervousness and the fire slinging cat should have clued him in sooner. Now he was really glad that the others had left while he investigated.
“Terraemotus,” Ashfur chanted as he shot the flail-head at the pair.
“Apology accepted- oh shit, spikey thing,” Felix shouted as he dove to the side to avoid the attack which collides into the building behind them. On contact the ground quakes heavily and the building collapses as a large crack forms in the street, Felix looks around in a panic, “Hey, the hell are you doing?!”
“What do you think,” Ashfur gave a harsh laugh, “I’m shaking things up.”
Felix stood there for a moment, “”I’m going to light you on fire now… I don’t know when it’s going to stop.” The remaining five floating balls of fire meld together, expanding in size until it’s nearly three and a half feet across, then flinging it at Ashfur with a flick of his tail.
“I told you, that pathetic fire doesn’t,” he swiped his flail down on the incoming fireball, causing it to explode a few feet in front of him and setting fire to his surroundings, “do anything.”
“Then let us see if my claws fair better in harming you!” Godric roared as he pounced on the minotaur, face in a snarl and claws extended. The massive lion managed to land on the minotaur and knock him over, a tactic he had used to slay more than one Diamond Dog, but Ashfur was a veteran fighter and was able to kick him off, though not without gaining a series of large scratches across his body. With a growl Godric rolled across the ground, before righting himself and charging the minotaur once again. This time however, Ashfur was ready, and brought his mace down on the charging lions head. To his great surprise, the mace did little more than tilt the lions head downwards from the force. Godric, now close enough, swiped at the minotaurs hooves, managing to cleanly slice one off, before being pushed away by the raging guardian.
“Shit what’s this guy made of…” Felix stole a few glances around, his eyes glowing as he lifted a gas lamp out of the ground and crumpled it into a crude spear shape. It started to spin for a while he also picked up a support and several large chunks of rubble from the recently destroyed building. The makeshift spear shot through the air towards the fighting pair, “Dodge!”
Godric watched as the spinning spear launched at the minotaur and couldn't help but shout, “Special beam cannon!” Before leaping away from Ashfur, leaving the minotaur confused for a moment, before the spinning spear drilled through his chest, and continued on it’s way into a building.
Which then exploded . . .as you do.
Ashfur fell to his knee while grasping at the hole in his chest, he tried standing as his black blood pools on the ground when Felix slams the support on top of Ashfur’s head and into the ground, “I am getting sick of this crap, don’t even stand up.”
“You won’t win, you might get this town but not the rest,” Ashfur said, coughing heavily as he stood once more.
“Stay. The. Fuck. Down,” Felix shouted, each word punctuated with a chucks of rubble to the back of his head.
Godric watched as the hailstorm of rocks and pebbles and building chunks rained down on the undead minotaur, and sighed. He may have been a evil undead bastard, but this seemed to be a bit much. So with a single swipe of his claws, Godric decapitated Ashfur, finally ending the guardians’ un-life. Or so he hoped.
“Christ on a bike, it’s finally over.” Felix sat down hard causing a little dust to kick up, “Thanks for the help, didn’t know what I would have done if that hole healed.”
“You would have found a way. You seem the resourceful type.” Godric calmly stalked towards Felix, before looking down on the smaller feline with a light glare, “Now, would you kindly tell me what in the name of all that is holy is going on here?”
***With Neapolitan***
Neapolitan stared at the town with slight worry in her eyes. From their position on a nearby hill, the entire group had a great view of the town. The town had caught fire the minute they had left the town, and it felt like a mother fucking earthquake had gone off not long ago.It was like a war zone in that town, and Neapolitan was begining to worry. She knew Godric would be fine, but she wasn’t to sure how the rest of them would fare if what was happening in the town happened to spill out.
“Maybe we should move back a little, it looks like things are getting nasty in there. What do you think, Mimi?” Neapolitan asked the changeling, wincing as another fiery explosion rocked the town. The changeling failed to respond. “Mimi?” Neapolitan turned to her small changeling friend, only to find her gone. Glancing around, Neapolitan managed to spot the changeling flying frantically towards the town. “Shit.”
Without a second thought, Neapolitan raced after the changeling, cursing as she ran.
***With Geoff***
"Don't forget to give us the signal to start,” I shouted as I flew miss Bonbon high above the town by using the thermals. Sweet ancestors this mare is heavier than she looks.
“Quick question,” miss Bonbon asked as she gripped me tighter around the neck, “how are we supposed to find these ‘focal points’?”
“Normally they’re made with chalk but this one appears to be magically manifested so we’ll need to apply this gel to our eyelids in order to actually see it,” I pulled a my small jar of Conspectu gel and applied a dab over one eye and passed it to her, “Only one eye, coating both causes sensory overload.” I glanced down and viewed the ambient magic of the area and gawked at the complexity, “This might be a problem… ancestors I hope this isn’t a problem.” One, two, three, four, five, six… “Oh no, it is.”
“It is? What’s the matter,” miss Bonbon asked as she finished applying the gel.
“There’s seven Points...”
“I take it that that’s a problem,” miss Bonbon asked with a tinge of worry in her voice.
“If by problem you mean I’ve never seen a circle with seven points before and thought a six point circle was the strongest that was possible and I have no idea if my normal procedure will work then yes, it’s a problem.”
“Well what do we do? Felix can’t pull them forever.”
“Right… let’s pin them first then figure out a way to dispel it. We just need to wait for the signal.”
“Alright, what’s the signal we should be looking for?”
“Uh…”
“You didn’t tell him what signal to use did you?”
“Well pluck,” I muttered while mentally berating myself I turned into a spiraling descent, “Hey do see that?
She looked down to where I was pointing, “You mean the glowing lion? Kind of hard not to- wait what’s with all the colors?”
There was a flash and one of the buildings burst into familiar blue flames, “Looks like he made his own signal, let’s go.”
Folding my wings I took us into a dive to the closest focal point, “Time to get to work.”
“Is it just me or is this place really quiet for a place where things are on fire,” Bonbon asked as she hopped down with the case of Purification Pins.
“I doubt the undead really care about the town, though the lack of ghouls is unsettling. I just hope Felix isn’t being overwhelmed,” I popped the latch and the case swung open, choosing one of the pins out I set it in the focal point, “I’ll hold it, you hammer it?”
“Got it,” miss Bonbon tensed for a moment before launching herself into the air then with one kick she caused it to sink into the hard soil.
“Hey, what do you think you’re doing,” a shrill male voice called out behind us and I cursed under my breathe.
I turned around and found myself face to face with a living griffon that had a fluffy blue aura, “Why nothing good griffon, simply on… a date, yes a date.”
“What,” miss Bonbon hissed at me.
“Just play along, he’s living. We just need to knock him out.”
“Hmm,” she gave a grunt of affirmation.
“No one is allowed-” the griffon started saying when Bonbon springboarded herself from the pin and made a mad dash to the griffon and bucked him into a nearby building.
“There, he’s handled,” she shook a stray bit of mane out of her face as she walked back to the case and punched me in the shoulder, “If we’re caught again don’t ever say we’re a couple. Let’s get the rest of these things in and get this crap over with.” I simply nodded silently as I put the case on my back and followed miss Bonbon to the next point.
***With Neapolitan and Mimi***
“This place is a fuckin maze!” Neapolitan screamed in frustration as the duo came face to face with yet another dead end. Mimi, having been on edge since entering the town, was hiding behind her long moss-like green mane, and let out a short bit of unhappy chatter.
“Quiet you.” Neapolitan snapped at the changeling, “If you had just stayed back with the others, we wouldn’t be stuck in this creepy ass town!” The two backtracked and continued down the road. “And where the hell is everypony? I mean come on, we should have run into somepony by now! Fuck, where’s Godric when you need him?” Neapolitan let out a huff, “And what the fuck’s up with this place anyway? From back on the hill you’d think this place was ready to be burnt to ash, and the whole time we’ve been here we haven't seen so much as a bushfire!”
Mimi, looking around her, concentrating on the scents that only a changeling could detect, before chattering excitedly and poking Neapolitan in the side, before rushing down a side alley.
Neapolitan just let out a sigh and raced after the changeling through the dizzying maze of buildings. “Damn changeling. She’s lucky she’s cute.”
“Miss Bonbon, please, I don’t know what I’ve don’t to upset you but it wasn’t intentional,” a male voice called out from further down the alley.
“It’s nothing, just drop it Geoff,” a high-pitch little filly’s voice answered him.
Mimi slowed to a walk upon hearing the two, allowing Neapolitan to catch up. “You really need tostop doing that, Mimi.” Neapolitan glared at the changeling, “I mean, I swear to Celestia that if you don’t I am going to make it so that you won't be able to ride on Godrics’ back for a month! Do you understand me!” Mimi hastily nodded, before chattering and pointing at the corner that the voices had come from, bringing it to Neapolitans attention. “What? What’s so special about that corner?” Walking towards the corner, Neapolitan peaked her head around, and accidentally bashed her head into a slightly shorter pony.
“Oww,” the white pony moaned as she held a hoof to her head, she looked up and blinked several times, “Changeling!”
“Miss Bonbon, wait,” the male’s voice shouted as Bonbon tried to charge past Neapolitan at Mimi.
“Oh, fuck no!” Neapolitan slammed into the other white pony, a scowl on her face. “No one is allowed to hurt Mimi! Godric left me in charge of her and I am not going to let anything happen to her!” Neapolitan slammed a hoof on the ground in emphasis. “Also, she happens to be a friend.” Neapolitan waved her hoof a little, “Well, friend of a friend. Point is I’m not letting you hit her.” Mimi chattered a little and tilted her head, not even a bit worried about the pony struggling against Neapolitan. “You’re welcome, I guess.”
As the pony was sent sprawling to the ground an odd looking griffon poked his long neck around the corner, “Miss Bonbon, you don’t have to attack everything you see- Oh, hello there.”
“Geoff, don’t just stand there like pigeon doo on Discord’s nose, get them!”
“Why? They have done no harm,” his beady eyes settled on Mimi and Neapolitan for a moment before turning back to the fallen pony who was getting to her hooves, “They’re not even under the town’s spell. Merely a misunderstanding, a chance encounter.” He walked up to the pony and held her tail to the ground, “Sorry for my companion, I’m Geoff Plaguewing and this is Miss Bonbon.”
“Idiot, don’t give our names to a changeling!”
“Hey, shithead, she has a name you know!” Neapolitan growled out.
“Oh do tell,” Geoff interrupt the rude pony’s remark, “I wasn’t aware of any changelings that speak Equestrian.”
“She don’t,” Neapolitan let out a grunt as she pushed the struggling pony back down to the ground, “But Godric gave her one, and she seems to like it.” Mimi let out a series of clicks in confirmation. “I’m Neapolitan and that's Mimi. Remember that.” She addressed the last bit towards the struggling pony.
“I don’t trust a changeling… especially one that looks hungry, how are you feeding it,” the struggling pony asked as she rolled over a little and shoved Neapolitan’s hoof away. She gave a huff and muttered something about a cat and a past mistake and she sat down.
“She,” Neapolitan stressed the word, “Has been feeding off of Godric, who is more than happy to let her do so. Something about how he has energy to burn thanks to being able to exist off of sunlight or some shit like that. I don’t know, but the point is the big guy has been taking care of her and he would be very unhappy to find out you tried to hurt her.”
“Well I’m glad to hear that,” Geoff gave a slight nod of his head, “This has been a wonderful encounter but sadly we must go, we have a job to do.”
“Ya,” Neapolitan began, slowly backing up towards Mimi, being careful to keep an eye on Bonbon, “Thanks for the meet and greet but we have to find Godric and get the hell out of here. Knowing the damn lion, he’s probably right in the middle of whatever shit’s going on here.”
“A lion you say,” Geoff and Bonbon shared a glance.
“Yeah, big guy, ‘bout six hooves tall, wide as two ponies, fancy necklace and speaks all fancy. You seen him?”
“That I did,” he pointed a claw towards the center of town, “When we were flying in we spotted a glowing lion and our companion who’s running decoy. Speaking of which, you haven’t happen to have seen a red and blue Lurker running around?”
“The fucks a lurker?” Neapolitan asked in utter bafflement. Mimi let out a confused clicking sound.
“It appears not, you’d know it when you saw it, oh well. I’m sure Pierce is fine.” Geoff picked Bonbon up and tossed her on his back, “Just in case you want to attack more passersby.” As Geoff walked off Bonbon was yelling profanities.
“Think we should follow them?” Neapolitan asked Mimi. “We’re lost as hell and at least they seem to know where they’re going.”
Mimi seemed to consider this for a moment, she was not a fan of the pony in disguise that had threatened her, but it was possible that following the two would get them somewhere that wasn't a dead end. Mimi nodded, letting out a small string of chirps and chatter.
“Alrighty then.” The two took off after the griffon and his annoying friend.
They followed the two quite a ways until they reached the edge of town, Geoff rolled Bonbon off his back and set the case he was carrying down, “Miss Bonbon, you can’t keep giving me the silent treatment. You know their response was completely justified and haven’t you learned your lesson with Felix?”
“What?! How the buck do you know about that,” the annoying one shouted, her face red.
“Felix has loose lips when he’s drunk,” Geoff pulled a large metal rod from the case, “Now come on, this is the last one. I think I’ve come up with a way to activate it but nothing definitive.”
“Who the hell is Felix?” Neapolitan asked as she and Mimi trotted up to the two. “Some poor smuck you beat up ‘cause he looked different? Is that a habit of yours?”
Mimi let out a happy chirp and waved at Geoff.
“Kinda,” the annoying one scraped a hoof in the dirt before hopping up on a wall, “Besides it’s none of your business.”
“Felix is this little and not so little cat with two tails that miss Bonbon captured and ended up getting her banished with him… roundabouts here.”
“Geoff! They don’t need to know that!”
“So, you fucked up.” Neapolitan summarized pointing a hoof at Bonbon, before turning towards Geoff. “So what's up with the stake? You guy’s hunting vamponies or something?”
“No I was doing my job,” Bonbon said as she jumped off, landing on the metal spike and sinking it into the ground.
“Sadly no vampires, haven’t hunted one of those in years. This is a ghoul-town,” Geoff said almost too happily, “or it won’t be here in a little bit.”
“Ghoul-town?” Neapolitan asked in a dry voice.
“Ghoul-town,” Geoff said matter-of-factly.
“Ghoul-town. Of course. The first sign of civilization in days and it’s infected with the fucking undead. That, or you guy’s are bat shit crazy.” Neapolitan sighed, “But considering the explosions and the fact Godric hasn’t come back after chasing that pyromaniac from the gate, I’m going to go ahead and believe that you guys are sane. Or at least telling the truth.”
“Little of column A and a little from column B.”
“Pyromaniac? That’s probably our decoy and don’t worry, the ghoul and ghost problem will be solved. ...As soon as I test a theory,” Geoff said as he shook the rod to make sure it’s in there properly.
Mimi walked up to the metal stake and tapped it with her hoof, before suddenly letting out a screech of fear. The little changeling ran away from the stake and hid behind Neapolitan, curling up into a little changeling ball of black and green.
“Well that was… odd.”
Neapolitan rolled her eye’s before turning around and facing Mimi, “What’s wrong with you? You know you can’t touch silver! Don’t you remember what happened when we were loading the wagons back in that hell hole?” Mimi looked up with tear filled eyes and let out a mournful chatter. “I don’t care how shiny it is, you can’t touch silver!” Turning back to the other two, Neapolitan let out a sigh. “Forgive my friend, she’s an idiot.”
Geoff clasped the case shut and strolled over and patted the tiny changeling ball, “I wasn’t aware changelings were affected by silver, how about I make it up to you? Would you like to find your friend?”
Mimi looked up with big watery eyes and nodded, letting out a weak chatter.
Bonbon picked the case up while Geoff gave a small smile, his beady eyes twinkling, “You have the case Miss Bonbon? Good, allons y.”
***Third Person POV***
The fantastic four arrived at the town’s trading center to find their friends talking to each other. Felix was laughing as he and Godric sat some ways away from a decapitated minotaur, “And that’s why I fucking hated that minotaur!”
“Felix,” Geoff called out as he waved a talon, “Our side of the plan is complete… just one hitch; it’s a seven point circle and normal means won’t work.”
Mimi raced past the griffon towards Godric, letting out a rapid series of clicks as she raced towards her friend. Neapolitan calmly trotted after her, though she bore a irritated look upon her face.
Godric frowned as his friends approached, “Nea, Mimi? What are the two of you doing here? I believe I requested the two of you to remain with the others as I investigated the town.”
“That was the plan, until somepony,” She glared at Mimi, who had flown to her usual perch, muzzling the lion's mane, “decided to wander off into this shit hole.”
Godric frowned a little, but sighed. “That is unfortunate, but I am glad to see the two of you unharmed. This place is very dangerous, we will leave immediately.”
“I’m afraid we can let you go,” Geoff stated, “You see, this town is under the influence of a dark spell circle that grants the residents eternal life by siphoning off energy from newcomers-.”
“Skip the bull and get to the part where we do something.” Neapolitan cut the griffon off.
“Right, sorry. We need you two to roar, as loudly as possible. If you both roar at the same time they should strike the rods, activating them simultaneously and therefore breaking the spell,” Geoff said, ecstatically, If this worked it could be a new branch of magic or a fusion of two types.
“So you want to use the sonic vibrations to vibrate your rods, Felix informed me of them, in hopes that this will be a sufficient substitution of the traditional method and break the foul spell that affects this place?” Godric asked the smaller creature.
“Exactly, isn’t that fascinating?!”
“It sounds like you came up with the idea on the spot once you realised that the gear you brought might not be sufficient to do the job required. Basically, you are winging it, and hoping it will work.” Godric gave Geoff a flat look.
Geoff gave a polite cough, “True, it’s just a theory but it’s all we have. Will you help us?”
Godric gave Geoff a long look before sighing, “Very well. I shall aid you in this endeavor, if only to save me and mine. And to rid the world of this horrid place.”
Neapolitan looked from Godric to Geoff, “So you mean all that scientific bull crap I had to listen to while looking for you guys on how he planned to finish this place was all a bunch of bull shit?” At Godrics nod, Neapolitan threw her hooves in the air, “Un-fuckin-believable!” The ice cream named pony stomped away, muttering about smart ass griffons.
Godric looked over at Felix, “Do you believe that you shall be able to match my roar?”
Felix stood, gave a shake, “Can you?” A couple seconds later a large black version of Felix stood in his place, “I hate getting this big, it makes me hungry. Lezdodis.”
Godric took a step forward, and smirked. Felix, stepped forward to match him, the two stood back to back and breathed deeply. And then as one they roared. It was more than a simple noise that left the maws of the two felines, it was the release of their desire, their power, their will given a focus and let loose. A veritable wall of sound was released as the two roared, shaking the foundations of the homes and tossing about the remaining ghouls. Spirits, once full of despair, felt hope once more. And then it reached the stakes.
The sound vibrated the seven stakes at exactly the same time, working perfectly, and began to tear at the spell circle. The ground began to hum and the air shimmered, startling any nearby wildlife, the groups both inside and outside the town looked to the sky as seven colored beams soared into the sky. The beams collided in the air, turning into a brilliant rainbow that soon turned to the town, once it collided with the town. White light flared throughout the town, wiping the dark magic from the face of Equis, when it cleared there were ponies, griffins, diamond dogs and all manner of races coming from their homes looking around in awe.
Felix shrunk down and plopped on the ground, “Well… guess it worked. Go team.”
Godric looked about at the gathered townsfolk, free at last and smiled, “I suppose it did. Are you faring any better, Mimi?” The changeling in question popped out of Godrics’ mane with a wide smile as it jumped to the ground, practically bathing in the positive vibe the town now held.
Neapolitan walked back towards the group, “I guess Geoff wasn’t completely full of shit then.”
“I have my moments!”
Felix pushed himself up, “So what now?”
Just then a large group of beings rushed into the trading center, cheering and laughing, celebrating their freedom. Another cheer came from the southern gate as the freed slaves Godric had been traveling with came in, singing praises to their goddess, and going on and on about the miracle they had just witnessed. And with both groups celebrating the group of six knew exactly what they had to do. Join the festivities.
“This is goodbye, my friends.” Godric stood tall before Felix, Bonbon and Geoff. Mimi and Neapolitan sat upon his back, looking down upon the friends-er-acquaintances they had made within the formerly cursed town. “Though I hope it is not goodbye forever.”
“Of course not, just look for the things on fire or are exploding,” Felix said laughing, “Again, I’m sorry for draggin’ you guys into this.”
“Do not be sorry, Felix. If not for you and Geoff here, me and mine may very well have been trapped in this town indefinitely. Though, I do hope the next we meet it is not under such dire circumstances.” Godric let out a laugh, ”Besides, we humans must stick together.” Godric adopted a more serious tone, “If ever you need me, friend, look in the north. I shall be heading that way for a while.”
“Too true, I’ll be heading to Equestria to poke the bear, see if she can banish me to somewhere nicer.”
“No he’s not,” Bonbon said, shoving a hoof over his mouth. “I’ve had enough banishment thank you.”
“Don’t put your hooves over my mouth, you walk on those,” Felix shouted at her after removing said hoof. It soon became an argument about how dirt don’t hurt.
Neapolitan let out a sigh, “Are we done here? Those two idiots shouting is giving me a headache.” Mimi gave a sound of approval, lightly bopping Godric's head.
“I believe that is my cue to leave. Farewell, Felix Azuretails. May Bastet protect you.”
“And may you never need a spell done by Hecate.”
And with that Godric turned and began to walk away, continuing on his journey north.
It had been a long three days since we had left the Diamond Dogs lair. Three long days of trekking through the canyon until we found a way out, three days of my companions having to survive on the meager food rations they had been able to scour from the stocks they had found. Though, they would not want for food should we find a town, as they had managed to gather three wagons worth of jewels and gold, items that they had been forced to mine. We had faced a monster reminiscent of a graboid, a giant worm-like creature with tentacles in it’s mouth that grabbed at us and burrowed under the ground.
Sadly, we lost Grey Back, the minotaur, to the monster. It had attacked him first, and had managed to devour him before I had a chance to drive it off. The others of the group mourned his loss heavily, as he had been the leader of the former slaves and had been the one to keep their spirits up in the dark times. Fortunately, he was the only one we lost in our trekk.
“Are we there yet?” Neapolitan asked from her position on my back. She had taken to laying across my back to conserve energy. She was light, and the burden was thus nothing to complain about, but she tended to do her best to annoy me by constantly asking if we were ‘there yet.’ Apparently, it didn’t matter which world you were in, the young will always ask that question during a long trip. Mimi, the changeling, also was upon my back, but she tended to stay there most of the time and never bothered me. Aside from chattering in her strange language every now and then.
“I am afraid we are still nowhere of note, though, you are always welcome to get off.” I reply as calmly as I can, which is pretty calm. It helps that the sun is shining brightly today, even as it begins to set. Thanks to Bastets blessing, whenever I am in direct sunlight I feel completely content, unless an outside factor draws my ire or pleasure. It is almost as though I am always in that period just after eating a great meal or a good night's rest, satisfied and full of energy, ready for anything.
“What, and miss getting to ride aback the great ‘Chosen of Bastet’? Fat chance!” Neapolitan shot back with a laugh.
I groaned at the mention of the title that had been bestowed on me by the self defined ‘high priest of Bastet’. I am not sure exactly how it had begun, but slowly the group had wheedled out any and all information I had on the goddess responsible for my presence here. Apparently the unicorn I had spoken to, a talented beekeeper named Honey Bee, had told everyone else that I was sent by a goddess to free them. Due to the fact that I was only able to save them due to her interference, they felt honour bound to repay said goddess by following her devotedly. And so the First Church of Bastet was founded around what little I knew of the goddess. It started with only a small few, but it very rapidly engulfed the others.
Hell, they even got me to say a prayer (that they made up) as a representative of Bastet, for Grey Back instead of their traditional one. I only knew they did a substitute thanks to Neapolitan, who complained about it. She was still a firm believer in the church of the sun.
Personally, I wasn’t a fan of the church they had so hastily put together. Not only because it centered on Bastet, who I was having mixed feelings about, but because it stank of desperation. I know the had a rough time, and many felt betrayed by this ‘Celestia’ for not coming to save them, but this, this was just sad. They were singing the praise of a goddess they knew next to nothing about, and pledging their lives to her, and they didn’t know if she would turn around and demand sacrifice. I know that in dark times people will turn to religions, but this was a bit too far. Still, they were free to do as they choose and I will not stop them.
“Please, do not bring that title up.” I groaned quietly, not wishing to offend one of the new ‘bastetits’ around me. “You know how uncomfortable it makes me, and . . . wait, what’s that?” We had just crested a hill, and there before me was something I had yet to see in all my time in the this wasteland.
“It looks like. . .” Neapolitan began, only to be cut off by a gleeful shout from one of the others nearby.
“A town!” With energy I didn’t know the weary group possessed, they charged past me and towards the town, screaming and shouting in joy at the first sign of civilization they had seen in who knows when.
Neapolitan let out an indigent ‘humph’ before sliding off my back, and began to lightly trot towards the town. “I know they’re fuckin excited, but that’s no reason to cut me off! Oh well, let's go and make sure those idiots don’t get us banned from the place by trying to convert everypony to their stupid ass religion.”
Mimi chattered in a chiding manner from my back. I had begun to get a vague sense of what she was saying after listening to her for three days, but this completely went over my head.
“Apologies, Mimi, I didn’t understand you this time.” I apologized, before walking briskly after the others. Hopefully, someone in this town would have a map, I was growing tired of not knowing where I was or where I was going. As we began to get closer to the town, Mimi grew restless and started shifting uneasily on my back, chittering and chattering constantly in a hushed manner.
Mimi only acted more agitated the closer we got to the town, and that put me on edge. Mimi, was normally calm and composed, not overly excitable and not scared easily. She had only quivered at the sight of the monster worm instead of the outright panic of the others, so what was it about this strange town that had her so nervous?
Feeling a little on edge, I slowly made my way towards the entrance of the town with the rest of my group, to find a small group of ponies and griffons waiting for us.
“Welcome to Granite Junction!” A stallion said with a smile.
I give a small smile as I approach the greeter, Mimi burrowing herself in my mane as I entered the town, hissing softly. “A fair welcome indeed, kind sir. I am Godric. And these,” I gesture towards the others, “Are my friends.” I refused to address them as ‘bastetits’ in front of strangers. I should really think of a better name for the group, that name just sounded dirty. “We are weary from our travels, and wish to rest in your town for a short while.”
The ponies grin widened, and he made as though to reply, but was cut off as a pair of diamond dogs came barreling around a corner, screaming bloody murder and being chased by a black cat. The two dogs hid behind the stranger , and the cat, upon spotting me, let out a curse upon spotting me, and ran off in the direction it had come from.
This, can not be good. I thought with a grimace, as the two dogs began blubbering on about cat-hell spawn. I turned to my group, to find the majority staring at the two dogs with a mixture of contempt, fear, and loathing. "Everyone," I began, drawing all eye's onto myself, "There is trouble afoot in this town, I am going to see if I may be of any assistance. Please wait for me over by the hill. Emerald," The stallion turned to me in confusion, "I am trusting you to male sure everyone leaves the town safely." The green pony nodded in determination, before ushering his fellows out the gate. Turning to Neapolitan, I lowered myself so I was closer to her level, "Neapolitan, I need you to take Mimi and wait with the others."
"No problem, boss." Neapolitan replied flippantly. She dragged Mimi off my back, and began to drag the reluctant changeling away from the town. "Try not to die!"
I couldn't help but chuckle at her light hearted attitude. However, my mirth did not last long as I turned back to the matter at hand, or in my case, paw. Turning towards the path the so called 'hell-cat' had taken a moment before, I raced down the path. Luckily, it only took me a minute to find the cat, who seemed to be having a most interesting conversation with a grey minotaur.
Third person POV.
“Your life would have been welcomed by my master,” the dark grey minotaur pulled back on the chain, using the force to make it spin again. “You should have joined us, you’re soaked in dark magic so you will fit right in. Abandon that second-rate goddess, Hecate, and help us; we could use someone with your abilities.”
“Not that I’m not flattered but you kind of have me at odds, I say no and your crew tears me a new asshole. I say yes then I go back on a deal with said goddess and that’s just not my style.”
The minotaur just laughed as he looked at the giant lion that had apparently been following the conversation, “Fine then, how about you? Will you abandon your goddess and join us?”
Felix looked confused for a moment, “You- he- you mean the giant ass lion isn’t part of your crew? Well this just got easier, don’t think I could have taken the two of you.”
Ignoring the cats comment for the moment, Godric shook his head, “I am sorry to say that I will have to deny your most . . . generous offer. I may have my grievances with Bastet, but I made a deal with her and I am not one to go back on my word.”
Felix perked his ears up with the lion’s statement, “Hate to interrupt your wheeling and dealing but-,” The fire coating his fur traveled to his tails and shot the large fireball at a building that burst into flame after a short pause, “Looks like you might want to deal with that. I don’t think your ‘master’ would like having their town being burnt to hell and back.”
I’m really glad I asked Neapolitan and the others to wait outside of the town now. Godric thought with a grimace as he watched the building go up like a stack of old kindling. With a frown on his face, Godric turned from the burning building and swiped his paw at the two-tailed cat that had started the fire. Random acts of pyromaniac destruction was not something he could ignore. Unfortunately, the cat managed to quickly jump over his paw, and sent him a dirty look.
“Hey, what are you doing?” Felix gave a quiet hiss.
The lion growled, “I do not care for random acts of destruction. If your quarrel is with the minotaur, aim for him. I am sure that the building has done you no wrong.”
“It wasn’t random,” giving a look to the minotaur to see if it had heard them, “I’m pulling bait duty, I need all the ghouls in the town on me… for reasons.”
Godric just looked confused, “Ghouls?”
“You know… undead? zombies?”
“I know what ghouls are, I just don’t know what they have to do with the current situation and you attacking random buildings!”
“Oh! You didn’t see the ghoul-dog… oh right, he burned before he got to you… Well long story short, this is a demonic town that absorbs the life energy of the residents.”
The minotaur gave a disgruntled sigh, interrupting Godrics’ response, and looked in Godric’s and Felix’s direction, “Well that was something… I think we might have gotten off on the wrong hoof; let’s exchange names ...That is typically what you humans do in this situation is it not?” The minotaur gave a mock bow, “I am Ashfur, Guardian of Granite Junction.”
The massive lion returned the bow, though with a touch more sincerity, “I am Godric, Champion of Bastet. A pleasure to meet you, Ashfur.”
Felix stood stock still with his muscles flexed, “Felix Azuretails… Receiver of Celestia’s ban-hoof.” He swished his tails in a circular motion, creating seven balls of floating fire and fired two at Ashfur while getting some distance, “Let’s see if you’ve kept that fire immunity I hate!”
Seeing that the cat known as Felix was the aggravator here, the minotaur at least tried to talk things out,Godric decided it would be best to subdue him so he could figure out what the hell was going on. All the talk of zombies was crazy! Or was it? Godric shook his head as he pounced at the cat, he would sort this all out when he had caught that cat.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold up there thundercat. If anyone should be attacked it’s this guy,” Felix jumped out from under the oncoming lion as he pointed a tail at Ashfur, “He’s keeping innocent people and souls trapped here!”
“And what proof do you have to this claim? All I have seen is a city guardian defend his home from a pyromaniac telling tales of the undead. So what reason do I have to believe you, Azuretails?” Godric asked as he darted after the cat, iddly noticing that Ashfur had just picked himself from the ground where he had most likely dived out of the fire's path. Unfortunately, his dodging had caused yet another building to ignite.
“ Why would the city need a guardian when the town literally locks you in the town after dawn? How do you think ass-fur lost his hand; I dragged him past the town border and it got cut off while I was trying to save my companion.” Felix’s eyes glowed as a section of the cobblestone was ripped up then shattered as it blocked a flaming flail from Ashfur.
Godric turned to the minotaur to see if he was alright, but stopped dead at the sight of the minotaur. A good chunk of his side, the side that he had been unable to see earlier, was missing. However, that wouldn’t be the case for long as the wounded area was slowly patching itself up, leaking a black sludge as it did. Now, he didn’t know if the whole ‘locked in after dawn’ thing was real, but he was now convinced something was definitely not right here. Possibly something zombie related.
“I suppose I owe you an apology.” Godric sighed. He had really hoped there was nothing wrong with this town, but Mimi’s nervousness and the fire slinging cat should have clued him in sooner. Now he was really glad that the others had left while he investigated.
“Terraemotus,” Ashfur chanted as he shot the flail-head at the pair.
“Apology accepted- oh shit, spikey thing,” Felix shouted as he dove to the side to avoid the attack which collides into the building behind them. On contact the ground quakes heavily and the building collapses as a large crack forms in the street, Felix looks around in a panic, “Hey, the hell are you doing?!”
“What do you think,” Ashfur gave a harsh laugh, “I’m shaking things up.”
Felix stood there for a moment, “”I’m going to light you on fire now… I don’t know when it’s going to stop.” The remaining five floating balls of fire meld together, expanding in size until it’s nearly three and a half feet across, then flinging it at Ashfur with a flick of his tail.
“I told you, that pathetic fire doesn’t,” he swiped his flail down on the incoming fireball, causing it to explode a few feet in front of him and setting fire to his surroundings, “do anything.”
“Then let us see if my claws fair better in harming you!” Godric roared as he pounced on the minotaur, face in a snarl and claws extended. The massive lion managed to land on the minotaur and knock him over, a tactic he had used to slay more than one Diamond Dog, but Ashfur was a veteran fighter and was able to kick him off, though not without gaining a series of large scratches across his body. With a growl Godric rolled across the ground, before righting himself and charging the minotaur once again. This time however, Ashfur was ready, and brought his mace down on the charging lions head. To his great surprise, the mace did little more than tilt the lions head downwards from the force. Godric, now close enough, swiped at the minotaurs hooves, managing to cleanly slice one off, before being pushed away by the raging guardian.
“Shit what’s this guy made of…” Felix stole a few glances around, his eyes glowing as he lifted a gas lamp out of the ground and crumpled it into a crude spear shape. It started to spin for a while he also picked up a support and several large chunks of rubble from the recently destroyed building. The makeshift spear shot through the air towards the fighting pair, “Dodge!”
Godric watched as the spinning spear launched at the minotaur and couldn't help but shout, “Special beam cannon!” Before leaping away from Ashfur, leaving the minotaur confused for a moment, before the spinning spear drilled through his chest, and continued on it’s way into a building.
Which then exploded . . .as you do.
Ashfur fell to his knee while grasping at the hole in his chest, he tried standing as his black blood pools on the ground when Felix slams the support on top of Ashfur’s head and into the ground, “I am getting sick of this crap, don’t even stand up.”
“You won’t win, you might get this town but not the rest,” Ashfur said, coughing heavily as he stood once more.
“Stay. The. Fuck. Down,” Felix shouted, each word punctuated with a chucks of rubble to the back of his head.
Godric watched as the hailstorm of rocks and pebbles and building chunks rained down on the undead minotaur, and sighed. He may have been a evil undead bastard, but this seemed to be a bit much. So with a single swipe of his claws, Godric decapitated Ashfur, finally ending the guardians’ un-life. Or so he hoped.
“Christ on a bike, it’s finally over.” Felix sat down hard causing a little dust to kick up, “Thanks for the help, didn’t know what I would have done if that hole healed.”
“You would have found a way. You seem the resourceful type.” Godric calmly stalked towards Felix, before looking down on the smaller feline with a light glare, “Now, would you kindly tell me what in the name of all that is holy is going on here?”
Neapolitan stared at the town with slight worry in her eyes. From their position on a nearby hill, the entire group had a great view of the town. The town had caught fire the minute they had left the town, and it felt like a mother fucking earthquake had gone off not long ago.It was like a war zone in that town, and Neapolitan was begining to worry. She knew Godric would be fine, but she wasn’t to sure how the rest of them would fare if what was happening in the town happened to spill out.
“Maybe we should move back a little, it looks like things are getting nasty in there. What do you think, Mimi?” Neapolitan asked the changeling, wincing as another fiery explosion rocked the town. The changeling failed to respond. “Mimi?” Neapolitan turned to her small changeling friend, only to find her gone. Glancing around, Neapolitan managed to spot the changeling flying frantically towards the town. “Shit.”
Without a second thought, Neapolitan raced after the changeling, cursing as she ran.
“This place is a fuckin maze!” Neapolitan screamed in frustration as the duo came face to face with yet another dead end. Mimi, having been on edge since entering the town, was hiding behind her long moss-like green mane, and let out a short bit of unhappy chatter.
“Quiet you.” Neapolitan snapped at the changeling, “If you had just stayed back with the others, we wouldn’t be stuck in this creepy ass town!” The two backtracked and continued down the road. “And where the hell is everypony? I mean come on, we should have run into somepony by now! Fuck, where’s Godric when you need him?” Neapolitan let out a huff, “And what the fuck’s up with this place anyway? From back on the hill you’d think this place was ready to be burnt to ash, and the whole time we’ve been here we haven't seen so much as a bushfire!”
Mimi, looking around her, concentrating on the scents that only a changeling could detect, before chattering excitedly and poking Neapolitan in the side, before rushing down a side alley.
Neapolitan just let out a sigh and raced after the changeling through the dizzying maze of buildings. “Damn changeling. She’s lucky she’s cute.”
“Miss Bonbon, please, I don’t know what I’ve don’t to upset you but it wasn’t intentional,” a male voice called out from further down the alley.
“It’s nothing, just drop it Geoff,” a high-pitch little filly’s voice answered him.
Mimi slowed to a walk upon hearing the two, allowing Neapolitan to catch up. “You really need tostop doing that, Mimi.” Neapolitan glared at the changeling, “I mean, I swear to Celestia that if you don’t I am going to make it so that you won't be able to ride on Godrics’ back for a month! Do you understand me!” Mimi hastily nodded, before chattering and pointing at the corner that the voices had come from, bringing it to Neapolitans attention. “What? What’s so special about that corner?” Walking towards the corner, Neapolitan peaked her head around, and accidentally bashed her head into a slightly shorter pony.
“Oww,” the white pony moaned as she held a hoof to her head, she looked up and blinked several times, “Changeling!”
“Miss Bonbon, wait,” the male’s voice shouted as Bonbon tried to charge past Neapolitan at Mimi.
“Oh, fuck no!” Neapolitan slammed into the other white pony, a scowl on her face. “No one is allowed to hurt Mimi! Godric left me in charge of her and I am not going to let anything happen to her!” Neapolitan slammed a hoof on the ground in emphasis. “Also, she happens to be a friend.” Neapolitan waved her hoof a little, “Well, friend of a friend. Point is I’m not letting you hit her.” Mimi chattered a little and tilted her head, not even a bit worried about the pony struggling against Neapolitan. “You’re welcome, I guess.”
As the pony was sent sprawling to the ground an odd looking griffon poked his long neck around the corner, “Miss Bonbon, you don’t have to attack everything you see- Oh, hello there.”
“Geoff, don’t just stand there like pigeon doo on Discord’s nose, get them!”
“Why? They have done no harm,” his beady eyes settled on Mimi and Neapolitan for a moment before turning back to the fallen pony who was getting to her hooves, “They’re not even under the town’s spell. Merely a misunderstanding, a chance encounter.” He walked up to the pony and held her tail to the ground, “Sorry for my companion, I’m Geoff Plaguewing and this is Miss Bonbon.”
“Idiot, don’t give our names to a changeling!”
“Hey, shithead, she has a name you know!” Neapolitan growled out.
“Oh do tell,” Geoff interrupt the rude pony’s remark, “I wasn’t aware of any changelings that speak Equestrian.”
“She don’t,” Neapolitan let out a grunt as she pushed the struggling pony back down to the ground, “But Godric gave her one, and she seems to like it.” Mimi let out a series of clicks in confirmation. “I’m Neapolitan and that's Mimi. Remember that.” She addressed the last bit towards the struggling pony.
“I don’t trust a changeling… especially one that looks hungry, how are you feeding it,” the struggling pony asked as she rolled over a little and shoved Neapolitan’s hoof away. She gave a huff and muttered something about a cat and a past mistake and she sat down.
“She,” Neapolitan stressed the word, “Has been feeding off of Godric, who is more than happy to let her do so. Something about how he has energy to burn thanks to being able to exist off of sunlight or some shit like that. I don’t know, but the point is the big guy has been taking care of her and he would be very unhappy to find out you tried to hurt her.”
“Well I’m glad to hear that,” Geoff gave a slight nod of his head, “This has been a wonderful encounter but sadly we must go, we have a job to do.”
“Ya,” Neapolitan began, slowly backing up towards Mimi, being careful to keep an eye on Bonbon, “Thanks for the meet and greet but we have to find Godric and get the hell out of here. Knowing the damn lion, he’s probably right in the middle of whatever shit’s going on here.”
“A lion you say,” Geoff and Bonbon shared a glance.
“Yeah, big guy, ‘bout six hooves tall, wide as two ponies, fancy necklace and speaks all fancy. You seen him?”
“That I did,” he pointed a claw towards the center of town, “When we were flying in we spotted a glowing lion and our companion who’s running decoy. Speaking of which, you haven’t happen to have seen a red and blue Lurker running around?”
“The fucks a lurker?” Neapolitan asked in utter bafflement. Mimi let out a confused clicking sound.
“It appears not, you’d know it when you saw it, oh well. I’m sure Pierce is fine.” Geoff picked Bonbon up and tossed her on his back, “Just in case you want to attack more passersby.” As Geoff walked off Bonbon was yelling profanities.
“Think we should follow them?” Neapolitan asked Mimi. “We’re lost as hell and at least they seem to know where they’re going.”
Mimi seemed to consider this for a moment, she was not a fan of the pony in disguise that had threatened her, but it was possible that following the two would get them somewhere that wasn't a dead end. Mimi nodded, letting out a small string of chirps and chatter.
“Alrighty then.” The two took off after the griffon and his annoying friend.
They followed the two quite a ways until they reached the edge of town, Geoff rolled Bonbon off his back and set the case he was carrying down, “Miss Bonbon, you can’t keep giving me the silent treatment. You know their response was completely justified and haven’t you learned your lesson with Felix?”
“What?! How the buck do you know about that,” the annoying one shouted, her face red.
“Felix has loose lips when he’s drunk,” Geoff pulled a large metal rod from the case, “Now come on, this is the last one. I think I’ve come up with a way to activate it but nothing definitive.”
“Who the hell is Felix?” Neapolitan asked as she and Mimi trotted up to the two. “Some poor smuck you beat up ‘cause he looked different? Is that a habit of yours?”
Mimi let out a happy chirp and waved at Geoff.
“Kinda,” the annoying one scraped a hoof in the dirt before hopping up on a wall, “Besides it’s none of your business.”
“Felix is this little and not so little cat with two tails that miss Bonbon captured and ended up getting her banished with him… roundabouts here.”
“Geoff! They don’t need to know that!”
“So, you fucked up.” Neapolitan summarized pointing a hoof at Bonbon, before turning towards Geoff. “So what's up with the stake? You guy’s hunting vamponies or something?”
“No I was doing my job,” Bonbon said as she jumped off, landing on the metal spike and sinking it into the ground.
“Sadly no vampires, haven’t hunted one of those in years. This is a ghoul-town,” Geoff said almost too happily, “or it won’t be here in a little bit.”
“Ghoul-town?” Neapolitan asked in a dry voice.
“Ghoul-town,” Geoff said matter-of-factly.
“Ghoul-town. Of course. The first sign of civilization in days and it’s infected with the fucking undead. That, or you guy’s are bat shit crazy.” Neapolitan sighed, “But considering the explosions and the fact Godric hasn’t come back after chasing that pyromaniac from the gate, I’m going to go ahead and believe that you guys are sane. Or at least telling the truth.”
“Little of column A and a little from column B.”
“Pyromaniac? That’s probably our decoy and don’t worry, the ghoul and ghost problem will be solved. ...As soon as I test a theory,” Geoff said as he shook the rod to make sure it’s in there properly.
Mimi walked up to the metal stake and tapped it with her hoof, before suddenly letting out a screech of fear. The little changeling ran away from the stake and hid behind Neapolitan, curling up into a little changeling ball of black and green.
“Well that was… odd.”
Neapolitan rolled her eye’s before turning around and facing Mimi, “What’s wrong with you? You know you can’t touch silver! Don’t you remember what happened when we were loading the wagons back in that hell hole?” Mimi looked up with tear filled eyes and let out a mournful chatter. “I don’t care how shiny it is, you can’t touch silver!” Turning back to the other two, Neapolitan let out a sigh. “Forgive my friend, she’s an idiot.”
Geoff clasped the case shut and strolled over and patted the tiny changeling ball, “I wasn’t aware changelings were affected by silver, how about I make it up to you? Would you like to find your friend?”
Mimi looked up with big watery eyes and nodded, letting out a weak chatter.
Bonbon picked the case up while Geoff gave a small smile, his beady eyes twinkling, “You have the case Miss Bonbon? Good, allons y.”
third person POV
The fantastic four arrived at the town’s trading center to find their friends talking to each other. Felix was laughing as he and Godric sat some ways away from a decapitated minotaur, “And that’s why I fucking hated that minotaur!”
“Felix,” Geoff called out as he waved a talon, “Our side of the plan is complete… just one hitch; it’s a seven point circle and normal means won’t work.”
Mimi raced past the griffon towards Godric, letting out a rapid series of clicks as she raced towards her friend. Neapolitan calmly trotted after her, though she bore a irritated look upon her face.
Godric frowned as his friends approached, “Nea, Mimi? What are the two of you doing here? I believe I requested the two of you to remain with the others as I investigated the town.”
“That was the plan, until somepony,” She glared at Mimi, who had flown to her usual perch, muzzling the lion's mane, “decided to wander off into this shit hole.”
Godric frowned a little, but sighed. “That is unfortunate, but I am glad to see the two of you unharmed. This place is very dangerous, we will leave immediately.”
“I’m afraid we can let you go,” Geoff stated, “You see, this town is under the influence of a dark spell circle that grants the residents eternal life by siphoning off energy from newcomers-.”
“Skip the bull and get to the part where we do something.” Neapolitan cut the griffon off.
“Right, sorry. We need you two to roar, as loudly as possible. If you both roar at the same time they should strike the rods, activating them simultaneously and therefore breaking the spell,” Geoff said, ecstatically, If this worked it could be a new branch of magic or a fusion of two types.
“So you want to use the sonic vibrations to vibrate your rods, Felix informed me of them, in hopes that this will be a sufficient substitution of the traditional method and break the foul spell that affects this place?” Godric asked the smaller creature.
“Exactly, isn’t that fascinating?!”
“It sounds like you came up with the idea on the spot once you realised that the gear you brought might not be sufficient to do the job required. Basically, you are winging it, and hoping it will work.” Godric gave Geoff a flat look.
Geoff gave a polite cough, “True, it’s just a theory but it’s all we have. Will you help us?”
Godric gave Geoff a long look before sighing, “Very well. I shall aid you in this endeavor, if only to save me and mine. And to rid the world of this horrid place.”
Neapolitan looked from Godric to Geoff, “So you mean all that scientific bull crap I had to listen to while looking for you guys on how he planned to finish this place was all a bunch of bull shit?” At Godrics nod, Neapolitan threw her hooves in the air, “Un-fuckin-believable!” The ice cream named pony stomped away, muttering about smart ass griffons.
Godric looked over at Felix, “Do you believe that you shall be able to match my roar?”
Felix stood, gave a shake, “Can you?” A couple seconds later a large black version of Felix stood in his place, “I hate getting this big, it makes me hungry. Lezdodis.”
Godric took a step forward, and smirked. Felix, stepped forward to match him, the two stood back to back and breathed deeply. And then as one they roared. It was more than a simple noise that left the maws of the two felines, it was the release of their desire, their power, their will given a focus and let loose. A veritable wall of sound was released as the two roared, shaking the foundations of the homes and tossing about the remaining ghouls. Spirits, once full of despair, felt hope once more. And then it reached the stakes.
The sound vibrated the seven stakes at exactly the same time, working perfectly, and began to tear at the spell circle. The ground began to hum and the air shimmered, startling any nearby wildlife, the groups both inside and outside the town looked to the sky as seven colored beams soared into the sky. The beams collided in the air, turning into a brilliant rainbow that soon turned to the town, once it collided with the town. White light flared throughout the town, wiping the dark magic from the face of Equis, when it cleared there were ponies, griffins, diamond dogs and all manner of races coming from their homes looking around in awe.
Felix shrunk down and plopped on the ground, “Well… guess it worked. Go team.”
Godric looked about at the gathered townsfolk, free at last and smiled, “I suppose it did. Are you faring any better, Mimi?” The changeling in question popped out of Godrics’ mane with a wide smile as it jumped to the ground, practically bathing in the positive vibe the town now held.
Neapolitan walked back towards the group, “I guess Geoff wasn’t completely full of shit then.”
“I have my moments!”
Felix pushed himself up, “So what now?”
Just then a large group of beings rushed into the trading center, cheering and laughing, celebrating their freedom. Another cheer came from the southern gate as the freed slaves Godric had been traveling with came in, singing praises to their goddess, and going on and on about the miracle they had just witnessed. And with both groups celebrating the group of six knew exactly what they had to do. Join the festivities.
“This is goodbye, my friends.” Godric stood tall before Felix, Bonbon and Geoff. Mimi and Neapolitan sat upon his back, looking down upon the friends-er-acquaintances they had made within the formerly cursed town. “Though I hope it is not goodbye forever.”
“Of course not, just look for the things on fire or are exploding,” Felix said laughing, “Again, I’m sorry for draggin’ you guys into this.”
“Do not be sorry, Felix. If not for you and Geoff here, me and mine may very well have been trapped in this town indefinitely. Though, I do hope the next we meet it is not under such dire circumstances.” Godric let out a laugh, ”Besides, we humans must stick together.” Godric adopted a more serious tone, “If ever you need me, friend, look in the north. I shall be heading that way for a while.”
“Too true, I’ll be heading to Equestria to poke the bear, see if she can banish me to somewhere nicer.”
“No he’s not,” Bonbon said, shoving a hoof over his mouth. “I’ve had enough banishment thank you.”
“Don’t put your hooves over my mouth, you walk on those,” Felix shouted at her after removing said hoof. It soon became an argument about how dirt don’t hurt.
Neapolitan let out a sigh, “Are we done here? Those two idiots shouting is giving me a headache.” Mimi gave a sound of approval, lightly bopping Godric's head.
“I believe that is my cue to leave. Farewell, Felix Azuretails. May Bastet protect you.”
“And may you never need a spell done by Hecate.”
And with that Godric turned and began to walk away, continuing on his journey north.
