> Camp Half-blood: Equestrian Chronichles > by NewCaran > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Chapter 1 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 1 Dinky couldn't sleep, not because of the long nap she had taken that afternoon, but because she had been hearing strange noises outside her home for the past couple nights.These weird hoof-steps on the cobble stones outside the house, like somepony was walking around on their hind legs with a pot stuck on one hoof. But they sounded like they were getting closer this time. It also didn't help that her mother was working for the night at the post office. She suddenly recalled Snips telling Snails that he had saw something wandering around on two legs in the square the night before, during recess that day. Her house was very close to town square, she was frozen to the bed with fear, all she could do was pull the covers over her head. When the steps suddenly stopped, Dinky peeked out the window near her bed, still in her protective, blanket armor. It took a moment for her eye's to adjust to the still dark square of ponyville. She was about to dismiss the steps as her ears playing tricks on her, when she saw the two glowing, red, globes staring at her from the center of the square. The steps began advancing toward to her home at a frightening pace. clop! thunk! clop! thunk! clop! thunk!. she was relieved when the mismatched hoof steps stopped at her backdoor. "Thank Celestia!" she said happily popping her head out from under the covers. surely her mother had remembered to lock the door!....didn't she? The sound of the backdoor slowly creaking open quickly silenced that hope, and sent her under the covers again. The monster was in the house! she wanted to scream for her mother at the top of her lungs, but all that came out was a strangled "eep". As the thing continued through the house Dinky could hear each step getting closer to her room. clop! thunk! clop! thunk! clop! thunk!. She began to shudder when the steps began moving up the stairs clop! thunk! clop! thunk! clop! thunk!. The steps continued down the hall and stopped just outside of the shivering fillies room. Dinky could hear the monsters lips smacking in anticipation behind the thin wood of the door, and with a slow, hungry hiss the thing slowly turned the door knob and cracked the door open. When nothing happened the terrified filly peeked up from under her blanket only to be greeted by a pale skinned claw gesturing through the cracked door for her to step into the hall way. "Come here little filly." said a normal, teenage mare's voice. "I'll protect you from the monsters." When the young mare failed to comply the beast let loose an angry growl and said it's strangely out of place voice "Fine, then I'll just have to come in!", and with that she threw open the door and exposed her full form to the filly. The figure in front of Dinky was easily the most frightening thing she had ever seen. She had glowing red eyes, sharp fangs, white skin, and shiny claws but the most off putting thing about her was her mismatched legs. The left was the leg of a very muscular donkey ending with a large hoof, the right leg was made of solid bronze, but the filly couldn't place the shape, A straight leg that ended with a flat base with five little bumps protruding out of the end, explaining the weird sounding steps. Just as she was about to pounce on Dinky, the monster was stopped cold by another voice coming from the darkness of the hallway "Well, well, well". said a confident stallion's voice. "been awhile since Iv'e taken on one of your kind, emposa". The monster apparently called an emposa looked almost as scared as Dinky, as she turned in the direction of the voice. "Do all of you ugly bastards, just get the same idea?" the voice said sounding quite annoyed. "You all come here looking for a nice piece of deep fried demigod but, once you get near town you decide that a pony makes an easier meal!" The emposa had recovered from her fear and gave a toothy grin. "I'm not looking for a demigod". she said crouching. "I've found one!" She hissed while pouncing out of Dinky's view. Dinky Could hear a struggle out in the dark hallway, she thought about looking into out of her room, but wasn't sure if she wanted to have a visual on the current events taking place out side her bedroom. After a couple of minutes of grunts and hissing and at one point the sound of glass breaking, SHLOCK! Dinky heard a pained yelp and a strange sifting sound For a long dragging moment, Dinky stared at her open door, awaiting the stallion that saved her. But the creature that rushed into her room and, closed the door behind him definitely wasn't a stallion. Dinky noticed that he, too stood on two legs like the monster, but he didn't strike her as scary, she actually thought he looked kinda funny. The thing was almost six hoofs tall, he had bushy brown hair tied back with a black bandanna, a bright orange shirt, camo cargo shorts, healthy tan skin, and despite the darkness was wearing sunglasses, but the most memorable thing about Dinky's odd hero was his bronze, robotic, right arm. first thing he noticed was the small, unicorn filly staring at up him. He gave her an awkward but kind smile. "Oh....uhh....hi." he fumbled for something to say."you don't have to worry about her anymore." He said gesturing to the closed door behind him with his head. The next thing that caught Dinky's eye was what was in his...paws?: In his right, was a four foot long bronze sword, that glowed faintly in her room's darkness. in his left was a broken picture frame, he must have noticed her gaze on it because, he held it up for her to see, "Sorry, it got knocked off The table in your hallway during the scuffle." Even through the broken glass she could recognize her mother standing out side a blue box with an old friend: a chest-nut pony with a hour glass cutie mark. "I'm gonna fix the glass and get this this back to ya, okay" the boy said calmly, not wanting to shake the gray, unicorn filly more than she already was All Dinky could do was nod. they sat there for a moment in awkward silence. "Gods, seeing all this is probably gonna scar you for life kiddo" the boy said shaking his head. "Sorry about that." They both heard the front door open, and hoof-steps begin to move through the house, no doubt her mother getting home from her night shift. Dinky's hero shot across the room and threw open her window. "uhh, if it helps you cope with all this kid, you're dreaming" he said with a shrug, and with that, he vaulted out the window. ______________________________________________ Wrex totally felt like batman jumping out the window like that. What didn't make him feel like batman is the fact that he forgot he was on the second floor, needless to say he didn't exactly stick the landing. When he landed, his legs gave out and he almost impaled himself on his own sword. That'd been a heroic death. He mentally kicked himself for forgetting to explain to the filly that she wouldn't have to worry about the monster's body. When a monster is killed by a celestial bronze weapon it's body is vaporized. "Ow." he said plainly as he rubbed his stomach wear the point of his own blade pricked him, as he looked up he saw that the sun was coming up. If he wanted to knick some breakfast from sweet apple acres he would have to hurry before the apple family began their daily chores. he stood up, ran his thumb over the Greek Eta on the hilt of his sword, and before his eyes the bronze blade shrunk back into a normal Phillips head screwdriver and slipped the small tool back onto his belt. "Enchanted weapons made a demigod's life so much easier" he said as he began to stroll casually down the square towards the apple orchard. It took about fifteen minutes to get to the farm and, the apple family wouldn't be up until at least half an hour. Sweet. Once he had the cover of the orchard's many trees he was finally able to stretch! He had been cramped in that filly's hall way closet for nearly three hours, which was a very long time for him to hold still and be completely quiet, you see all demigods have an inherited ADHD attribute that kept them moving around in battle, made them harder to hit, but holding still was hell for them, and that fight with the emposa hadn't tired him as much as he thought it would. Wrex didn't like stealing but hey, he had spent the last month and a half slaying monsters before they took a bite of anyone, (or anypony as it were) that entitled him to some free breakfast right? After he had filled a basket up with apples, he had gotten to the far, fence that bordered the fields of Sweet Apple Acres and the outskirts of the Everfree forest, before he turned to the farm house and saw that lights had begun to flicker on which meant he got out of there just in time. Wrex simply hopped over the small, picket fence. "You'd think they'd build something a bit bigger than this, considering all the monsters in the forest", he muttered to himself but then considered how good of a landscaper could a pony be? He continued into the large, gloomy, forest taking in the various sounds of the animals and monsters in the distance. Wrex felt at home here, It reminded him of the forest near camp. After about an hour of walking, he reached the clearing where he set up his portable garage/forge, A Christmas present from his father he'd gotten the year he discovered he was a Half-blood, the offspring of god and mortal. A fitting gift seeing as his father was Hephaestus, the god of blacksmiths and fire. 'The Bunker' as he had become accustomed to calling it, looked like a small bank vault on the outside, on the inside it was a every grease monkey, child of Hephaestus' dream apartment: A garage fully stocked with every tool under Apollo's sun, none of which in the spot on the nail board they were supposed to be, but that was just the way Wrex liked it. His forge was complete with a solid, Stygian iron anvil, his fire pit held a small piece of Olympus' flame and his cooling tub held water from the River Styx. Oh and a simple small bedroom and kitchen. Wrex never asked how it was bigger on the inside, nor did he care, inside the Bunker was his idea of paradise. he sat down at one of his many work benches and began cutting a sheet of glass for the broken frame. after he had done that, he kicked back on his uncle Ferdinand's old chair with a couple apples just outside the bunker for some rest. just as he finished his apples and closed his eyes, he heard screams in the distance. "Yeah, i didn't think a nap was gonna happen either." he said to himself as he took off in the direction of the screams. (A/N) Well first chapter done! So?, what did every one think? would you read more? any feedback is welcome in the comments. Thanks