CHAPTER 2 Of Cantrips and Mordenkainen
-Would you belive in a knight like this? one with such impossible strength? or a legendary sorcerer with such power? legends, heroes, what is real and what is myth? a simple trick? or an incomprehencibly complex web of lies among truth? what to belive, what to cast away as false; would you belive in a knight like this?- excerpt from the secret book of Bemnal the Fallen
Applebloom stood within the center of the King's Palace, her head twitching around the area as she awaited her new companions that said king had informed her of.
Sweetie Belle shrugged and pulled out her sono-crystal guitar only to begin playing away a simple soft tune.
*Bard's song by blind guardian*
"now you hooonor, the bards and their sooongs, when hours have gone by, IIII close my eye, in a woooorld far away, we may meet again."
as they waited, Hoofsteps sounded within another area...
Two Ponies walked through the halls, one of them carrying one Katana that had cost all he had, the other a gift from the one who had taught him the way of the sword.
Next to this pony was a skinny toned equine with no weapon but instead a mere shield.
as they neared the end of the corridor, they heard music sifting through the halls.
"but now hear of our song, of the dawn of the niiight, let's sing the baaard's song, tomoooorow will take us away!"
The two ponies entered into the next room whereupon they came in contact with the King's guards.
"please come with us" they said monotonously.
The two ponies shrugged and followed along.
Finally the two adventurers found their way into the large main room of the King's great hall and stading in their was a Bard, a Ranger, and a Barbarian.
"faaar from home, nopony will eeeeever know our names, but the bard's songs will remaaiiiiin. tomooorrrow will take it away! the fear of today! it will begoooone into our magic sooooongs... (guitar solo) There's only one song left in my miiiind, tales of a braaave stallion who lived faaar from here!"
"... who is this?" the pony with the Katanas asked.
It was then that the King turned to the other two adventurers who had answered his call "not supprising, the story is one that is rare even amongst the Bards and story tellers of the Magic Towers. But before I get into that lot, you should be introduced to the other two ponies who answered this 'calling of heroes' as it were"
"now the Bard's songs are over and it's time to leave. Nopony should ask you for the name of of the oooone who tells the stories. tommooooorow will take us away! far from home, nopony will eeever know our names, but the bards songs will remmaaiiiin, tomooorooow alll will be known, and your not a lone, so don't be afraid in the daaar and cold! cause the bard's songs will remaiiiin they all willl remaiiiiin"
Applebloom turned to look upon the two new adventurers that would be joining her companions.
"n my thoughts and in my dreams. There always in my miiiiind, these songs of hooobits dwarves and ponies and as come close your eeeeyes! you can see them truueeeeeeeeeeee"
The King held out his hand to gesture at the pony on the left.
"this is Omnifarious, he is a Fighter from Equestria"
The ponies turned their heads to see the Earth Pony, about five hooves seven inches tall, skinny and not to physically intimidating as most Earth Ponies let alone Earth Pony Warriors tended to be. He looked about as young as the CMC themselves, his black mane was side-swept with a thick bang that traveled down the right side of his forehead, blue eyes stared out at the three mares with a fairly calm demeanor, his Torso was covered with an Equestrian styled blue jean jacket and jean Kilt, very thick with cloth padding to provide at least some armor;
he also carried on his left for arm a small 1 hoof long small bronze shield, the edges looked much thinner than the rest of the shield as if they had been sharpened, turning the shield into a weapon of its own right. There was also a shimmering black scale gauntlet on his right hand that seemed to shine with an arcane light, obviously enchanted with something and would no doubt add prowess in hand to hand combat if used as such.
His hooves were bare and his coat color matched that of his jacket and eyes, only ofset by his black mane and tail.
While he didn't look to terribly strong, he did look very agile and extremely healthy as if he made up for his lack in strength with a high dexterity and constitution.
"well hello Omnifarious, nice ta met ya!" the hulking Ranger said cheerfully.
"oh, um, you can just call me Omni... and nice to meet you as well" the Fighter replied midly. and as he looked from the big oaf of an Earth pony to the scar riddled Barbarian he shifted a little, then when his eyes turned to the luscious beautiful form of the Unicorn Bard his head cast downward with a blush.
The King nodded, "and this is Urvesher... a err, Swordsstallion of some merit."
The three looked at Urvesher who stood five hooves and 10 inches tall with an extremely athletic toned and skinny body of highly disciplined muscles and tendons that often came with being a Kensai.
Urvesher's mane was very short but still longer than a buz cut, it was an ash black with a blood red strkeak running through it, his tail much the same, hanging down softly yet taught as if not even that part of him was allowed to be relaxed, every inch of his body was tense and spring loaded as if he were expecting an attack at any moment and was prepared to decapitate anypony foolish enough to try.
His coat was a greyish black but was mostly concealed by a pitch black leathery suit save for his Pegasus wings, the suit itself shimmered oddly in the light as if hidden magics were enchanted within.
The Kensai seemed to be the same age as Omnifarious if only slightly older, the Kansai's bright blue eyes pierced into the souls of the three mares, his gaze seeming to burn with a hundred haunted memories of pain and rage.
There was a shortbow strung around his torso with a quiver of arrows along with two Katanas slid through a tight shash belt, but only one of them was positioned for drawing, the other seemed to be merely a back up.
"Well ah... Nice ta meet ya too!" Applebloom chimed.
"indeed good meet you!" the Kensai's demeanor completely shifted as he engaged in conversation.
"oooooh did you grow up in Ébány?" Sweetie asked as she rushed over to the Kensai.
"well yes I did!" and thus the Pegasus proceeded to ramble on in an extremely rushed and loud proceeding of conversation similiar to a certain pink Bard that Sweetie knew of, babbling on and on in an almost manic fashion hardly stopping for breath.
"well I think Sweetie's made a friend." Scootaloo chuckled.
Appbloom rolled her eyes and walked over to the Fighter and pulled him up in a one armed hug. "welcome aboard the Cutie Mark Crusaders!" she greeted cheerefully.
Omnifarious smiled meekely "ya uh thanks, um, 'Cutie Mark Crusaders'?" he asked quizically.
the Ranger smiled "yep! it's a name we all came up with when we were just little fillies! we never found our cutie marks so we made a little club called the Cutie Mark Crusaders, it's kinda been like a little family for us." she looked over her friends with a nostalgic smile.
Omnifarious blinked "really? you don't have your Cutie Marks either?" he asked.
Applebloom's vision snapped back to the Fighter "you don't have yours?!" she asked haphazardly.
"uh well, no... never learned what my special talent was, that's kinda why I came to Ébány in the first place..." Omnifarious replied.
"well ah'll be! we gotta get you a CMC cape!"
At that, Sweetie Belle's head popped up "did I just hear what I think I did?"
and with that... Omnifarious was dragged off have hs measurements taken.
"WHA? WHEN DID SHE GET SO STRONG!"
"WE DON'T KNOW!"
XXXXX
an hour later everypony had been settled an the King had granted them their forward payment of 5,000 gold pieces in the form of small little cubes of mithrill to each.
Another cube of mithrill sat idle on the pedastle.
"...who's that for?" Applebloom asked curiously.
The King turned to the cube and gave a solemn nod "ah yes, well, I suppose there was one more adventure I neglected to mention being that she has mysteriously dissappeared but I belive she'll pop back up at so-"
"ooooh somepony call for me~?" a sultry voice sounded out from the corridor that Omnifarious and Urvesher came through.
"oh great" Omnifarious face palmed.
all ponies present turned to see a curvy luscious Unicorn enter the room, she was adorned with a white kimono robe intricately inlade with methodical violet webs along its entirety.
She stood a few inches above six hooves and was graced with a very seductive and volumtuous body, curvy and filled out in all the right places, her face the essence of beauty.
Her Alabaster white mane hung around her head in noble class curls, falling gracefully over her face, her coat the color of black shadow with flirtatious eyes of violet.
Strapped to her torso was a composite longbow with a quiver of arrows on her back, her white tail gracefully flowing behind her.
out from behind her came a handsome young guard with a flushed face and a dazed expression as he meekly spun around before passing out practically with hearts floating from him.
Urvesher turned with a raised eyebrow towards Omnifarious, "... how exactly did you two end up traveling together?"
the Fighter shook his head "long story, loooong story..."
"oooh well hi there all you cutites!~" the ebony Unicorn sang out as she crossed the threshold to the CMC, it was hard to tell her age, her natural beauty seemed to cover up any and all signs of weatherdness, as it wass she looked like a beautiful young but mature mare.
Both Abbplebloom and Scootaloo's faces flushed at the sight of the Unicorn while Sweetie Belle looked between her two friends and waved a hand infront of their faces "yoohoo! anypony home?" all's she got in response was incoherant mumbling and a dismissive wave of a hand.
Flushing with embarassment and anger, the Bard leered through narrow eyes at the other Unicorn 'I don't like her...' she mentally decided.
Omnifarious rolled his eyes, he could already see how things were going to end up...
The King spoke at last "ahem! yes well, this is Gumomo, a travelling Fighter"
Scootaloo snaped out of her stuper "wait, what? you're not even wearing any armor!" she blanched.
Gumomo shrugged with a cute smile, "some of us don't need to hide behind a wall of steel," she walked up and ran her finger up Scootaloo's throat and flicked her chin, "besides, it's funner to be bare" she finished seductively.
Scootaloo gave a stupid smile as her wings began to unfurl prompting a kick in the shin from Sweetie Belle accompanied by a glare.
The king cleared his throat to regain everyponies attention as the chamberlain handed Gumomo her forward payment.
"well then, that should set you all well off for expenses... but now it is time I explain the entirety of just what is going on," the King began, "you see there is a darkness brewing within Ébány, has been for quite some years, but only recently have we begun to piece together the bits of the puzzle.
For you see, well perhaps it's best if I start at the beginning"
a Large projection of illusion filled the room and showed the enteire world as it was oh so many million years ago near its birth.
"long before ponies walked the earth, and even before the long dead human race ruled, long before any sentient life existed within the planes of soil and ocean, back to the creation of the earth itself, there was Discord the god of Chaos.
It was from him that the world, the sun, and the moon were all created and as I'm sure you've learned from the old history books, the gods needed some way for him to be destroyed as his tyrany stretched beyond heaven throught all of existance.
Only with the proper vessel could Order the goddess of Harmony's power be focused"
the gods floated down onto the earth and gave life to the first of humans
"and so they created those in their own image, but they were flawed, too filled were they with greed and corruption that they brought about their own demise and nearly took the entire planet with them."
atomic bombs launched accross the earth obliterating all life.
"Discord merely sat back and watched, entertained by the human's conquering of oneanother, and thus the gods' plan had failed. But hope was not yet lost, they tried again, this time with ponies and thus the first of the Equines was born"
ponies rose from the soil as the gods gave them life.
"Finally there came about a powerful Druid who acted as the medium to focus Order's power of Harmony and sealed Discord away within what is now the Everfree forest."
a blast of rainbow light shot the god of Chaos into a large stone structure.
"but... thousands of years later the Druid was killed by a witch and a Cleric-Reaper who claimed her life in a stupendous battle of magic, and with her death, the prison of Discord was weakened and released."
Discord's darkness descended upon the world once more.
"but with the first defeat of Discord, Order had attempted to claim the universe for herself and thus her godly children rose up against her and ripped her into six pieces, what are known today as the Elements of Harmony, it was with Discord's freedome that two Alicorns were called upon by the gods to wield the Elements"
Celestia and Luna stood 15 hooves tall with golden and silver plaitmail, the Elements floating above them as they challenged one of the oldest gods in the universe.
"And with the grace of the divines, Discord was once again sealed within stone, inside of what is now Ponyville"
Years pressed on through milinium until the statue cracked and opened yet again.
"but Discord's will endured and again he was free, this time the Legendary Six stood against him"
Six mares exploding with power, a Ranger with Plaitmail and a Great axe, a Thief with two daggers and studded leather armor, a Bard with chainmail and a longsword, a Clerical Druid-Animal with a large wooden staff and brown robes, a tall strong Barbarian with Leather armor and two katanas, and finally a red robed Wizard-Transmuter with two wizard's staves all stood before Discord and clashed in a battle that could only be described as Epic beyond all reason.
"and at last he was sealed away yet again in Ponyville. But isn't it strange that Discord was released from his stone prison when the one's who had sealed him, Celestia and Luna, still drew breath?"
the Illusion dissapeared and left all five adventurers pondering.
"what we could not have ever expected was for an abomination of Discord's design... the Staff of Wishing, normally such a thing could never exist, such a high degree spell of the greatest caliber could never be enchanted into a rod or staff but... As the god of Chaos... Discord does as he pleases regardless what the laws of the universe say and thus he created an insult to all that is orderly, a staff that anypony could wield, a staff that could grant any wish, even those of greed and extremendious power;
one could even wish godhood upon themselves, or wish godhood away from others."
Everypony's eyes widened.
"I see that you are beginning to take in the direty of the situation we are presented with, if somepony say of an evil nature were to get a hold of the staff and wish godhood upon themselves, they could then use it to wish away the old gods and rule over all existence.
And that is exactly why they need to be stopped!"
"um... who?"
The king sighed "yes ofcourse... the Guild as they are known, my spies have learned that they are searching for the staff, presumeably for the exact reasons I just stated, they are an organization of power hungry mobsters who seek only to advance themselves and rule over as much as possible.
They must be stopped at all costs! and so we set our resources to finding the staff of wishing, we had come to the unanimous conclusion that the staff had been used to free Discord which means that Somepony out there has hold of it, this was ofcourse more than Ten years ago and thusly we have know idea who has it or where it remotely could be... Although, we have noticed throughout the last decade many strange occurances through Ébány and thus we have put our resources towards finding the origines of these strange happenings.
With a mixture of Scrying and magical detection of wish spell residue, we've been able to pin point several locations where wish spells most likely have been cast, from oldest to most recent, a path way towards the staff's location, It could be in the hands of one, or in the hands of many and as such it could be close to the most recent location or passed along back near the first, or it could be nowhere near any of them;
but we must start somewhere and where better than the areas full of wish residue? so this is your quest, to hunt down the Staff of Wishing through the various locations it most likely has been and bring it back here to be destroyed."
the Ponies looked at eachother "well..." Sweetie Belle started, "that's, quite a lot to take in."
The King nodded "indeed, and so I send you off, the oldest trace is within Falhorn Cave in the far eastern tip of the Large Forest Province. We have a Wyvern Carriage and some provisions to get you there"
The five adventurers nodded.
And far in the back of the room, a skulking Court Wizard left the scene, stepped behind a door and pulled out a small white crystal "Falhorn Cave in the far eastern tip of the large Forest Province" he spoke into it before pocketing the crystal once more and returning to the Great Hall.
XXXXX
Falhorn Cave in the far eastern tip of the Large Forest Province, so that was to be the next destination, A tall six hoof 2 inches Pony sat on a bed within the igloo Inn as he held a crystal connecting him with the spy the Guild had implanted in the court of the King, and now he knew of their next intended destination.
the door opened prompting the pony to hide the crystal within his black robe.
Vanilla Sanguine and Ironheart both entered the room to see a tall black robed and hooded pony sitting upon the bed with a staff clutched in his right hand, his head turned to meet them, and there they saw his coat, a pale ghostly white with patches of grey and dirt here and there, dark circles under his eyes which bore a silver empty color, the one on the left in particular contained and inverted white pentagram.
The Stallion's mane came down in long thin weak strands, parted by his horn which was visible through the hole on the front top of his mage's hood, the mane's strands were a disgusting shade of ugly grey and just barely covered the outer most edges of his eyes from view; his face was covered in wrinkles and lines of elderly age.
After a second or so the left side of his hood caved in gently and concealed his left eye containing the pentagram.
"aaaaahhh there you are" he spoke with a horribly raspy voice as one dying of plague might use, the Black Robed Wizard stood up with shaky weak legs as he leaned upon his staff as if he would litterally not be capable of standing without it, his Wizard's staff was tall and black, many engravings and hyroglyphs adorned the sides of the staff and at the top, four dragon claw shaped protrusions clutched a six inch diameter red orb, the orb itself seemed to contain a swirling sandblast of glass similar to collectable marbles.
"I was wondering when you'd ah, be retruning" his lips split apart as he smiled before he let out a series of hackling coughes, afterwards he spat on the ground, the liquid containing a mixtrue of phlem and blood.
Vanilla blinked "...ew..."
The Wizard chuckled as he whiped his mouth with the sleeve of his robe, "you must be theeee merceneries, ah, yes so here you are; well theeee others should ah, be wondering around the, city I imagine" he looked off to the side with a smirk.
Vanilla 'hmmed' before speaking "well, I'm guessing you're from the Guild?" she asked.
The Wizard weakilly turned his head back "nnnnnyyyesssss," he answered in his sickly voice, "I'm chairpony number ah, 4 yes that's it, 4, well I suppose we'd better, continue, with the matter at hand" he spoke with several pauses filled with a creepy smile and a raspy strained breath.
Vanilla nodded her response.
The Stallion slowly made his way over to the two merceneries using his staff for suppord and reached with his free hand into his robe before materializing three dosiérs. "The Guild, insisted that, you have acces, to these; foalish I, know but, what harm, is there? heheh*cackle and dry heave*" the Wizard finished.
Vanilla warily took the three manila envelopes from the Unicorn before slowly exiting the room with Ironheart close in tow.
"wow, that was um, different..." the white Earth Pony commented as she stood outside the Inn room.
Ironheart tugged on her kimono a coulple times to shake her out of her stupor "right, right" she said refocusing as she opened the first of the envelopes and began to walk outside of the inn and into the igloo proper of the main Hobbit city.
"ok first we have door number one," pulling out the file she was graced with a picture of the creepy Stallion she'd just seen "hmm, name: Palebreath. Race: Unicorn. Gender: Male. Choice of Proffessional Persuit: Wizard-Illusionist. Age: 65. Mental State: highly questionable? what the hay is that supposed to mean? Experience: Heavily Seasoned. Misc: afflicted with a terminal illness, enchanted ring sustains his vitality." Vanilla finished reading off the dosiér before replacing the files and opening the next one.
Before her now was a picture of another Unicorn, this one also wearing a robe from what she could tell but the hood was lowered and reavealed his lava colored coat and from what she could tell of the small photo, red eyes, but something looked odd about them. What that was, she couldn't tell from this picture. "stupid paintings..." if only they would adopt the Equestrian style of flash photography instead of relying on painting artists... oh well.
His mane was an amberish color and styled in a similar fashion to the Legendary Rainbow Dash's. There was also something strange looking about one of his eyes, cheeks, and neck but again from the size of the photo she couldn't discern the details.
"Name: Grotimnos. Race: Unicorn. Gender: Male. Choice of Proffessional Persuit: Wizard-Necromancer. Age: 28. Mental State: Average with slight distortions. Experience: Seasoned. Misc: suspected non equine genes. Versed in the old Canterlot Speech." Vanilla idly wondered if the Guild had a file on her and Ironheart as well, the probably did, the Guild had a way of knowing everything and everypony everywhere every second.
Placing that file away she drew the next one, a picture of a purple maned Unicorn with a leather hood, his mane coming down the sides of his face a full hoof or so down his torso from his jawline and his coat a darker shade of purple leaning closer to black.
what could be seen of his forehead was bare indicating that his bangs must have been brushed or combed back in a 'lordly' style.
his eyes were completely yellow, no iris no whited area, just yellow with black cat-slit pupils.
There also seemed to be a cloak that was tied around his neck with the hood down, black by what she could tell.
"Name: Obsidian Sparkle. Race: Unicorn. Gender: Male. Choice of Proffessional Persuit: Cleric-Reaper. Age: approximately 200?! Mental State: Sociopath, physically unable to comprehend fear, remorse, empathy, or guilt; known to kill at the slightest provocation and lacks any and all concience; handle with caution. Experience: Seasoned. Misc: Suspected non equine genes. distant relative of Twilight Sparkle. We'll I'll be a son of a bitch..." Vanilla stared at the papers for a moment longer before placing the file back inside the envelope.
A tug at her kimono grabed the Kensai's attention to her Assassin companion, "ya?"
"..."
"hmm I dunno, I thought Vampires couldn't be magic users of any kind too... I think I'mma have a chat with thim when I find him..."
"..."
"ofcourse I'm sure! you Think I'm scared of a sparkly fairy colt?"
"..."
"ya I know vampires are a lot different then the books I was mocking him"
"..."
"ya I was, you know what? just shut up for a while"
"..."
the two of them found their way into a nice quaint section of the City whereupon they encountered a White Robed Wizard using a simple Cantrips Spell to entertain a group of Hobbit foals who jumped up giggling as they attempted to cluctch the floating spectral butterflies that floated around them "pretty!" one of them cried adorably as she hopped up and jutted her hands out for the glowing whisps.
The White Robe smiled as he stood up and turned to face the Kensai and Assassin in tow.
The Necromancer wore a white leopard skin robe indicating his magical alignment towards good.
up close, Vanilla could now make out the details that the file had not revealed previously, on the right side of his face was a series of scars forming an N. His right eye was also adorned with an eye patch.
His throat contained a skull tattoo from his collar bone up to the bottom of his jaw, the skull itself contained a crack ontop of it as if impailed.
and his eyes which she now saw were crimson but with black diamond shaped pupils.
the White Robe stood before the merceneries "good evening!" he said in a chipper voice.
"uh, hey. I'm Vanilla Sanguine and this is Ironheart" the Kensai reffered first to herself, then to the Assassin.
"well it's a pleasure to meet you! I'm Grotimnos nice to make your aquaintance" the Necromancer held out his right hand which Vanilla reluctantly shook.
In Grotimnos' left hand was a tall silvery staff containing a sphere similar to the one on Palebreath's save for this one being blue and being held in place by ten thin strands of silver from the rod of the staff swirling around it in multiple spirals.
"ya, I'm aware of that, we're with the Guild" Vanilla quiped.
the Necromancer nodded "I see, well then just a moment," the Wizard turned back to his seat and picked up his war scythe in his right hand, resting the staff of it on his shoulders and somewhat using his staff as a walking stick as he returned to the mercs.
Vanilla nodded and turned, guiding the three pony party through the rest of the major district and as she did so, she threw a glance at the Necromancer's weapons belt which was armed to the teeth with several small weapons ranging from a tanto to a wakizashi to a steel shortsword.
"... there's no way a Wizard knows how to use that many weapons..." Vanilla squelched.
Grotimnos smiled "not all, but some, and my opponant will just have to hope they make the right guess" he quiped.
The Earth Pony furrowed her brows "hunh, well, what's a White Robe doing with the Guild anyway? I mean they aren't exacly known for their 'ehthics'." she inquired.
Grotimnos nodded sagely "Being a Wizard is expensive, Alchemy is expensive, and materials for smithing is expensive."
Vanilla blinked "you're a smith?!" she practically blanched.
The Necromancer chuckled "yes, strange hobby for a magic user I know but I enjoy it." he finished with a firm nod.
Vanilla contemplated his response "hm" was all she gave for reprieve.
The Necromancer spoke again, "well anyways, I need coin, and the Guild offered just that, and quite a lot of it; as for the details I'd rather not ask and not have them tell."
Vanilla gave a laugh at that, "I think we're going to get along just fine." she said with an amused smile.
Ironheart nodded his response.
Grotimnos noticed just then that there was indeed a third pony among them "ah, I belive you introduced his name but, is this 'Ironheart'?" he asked.
Vanilla looked at him puzzled before turning to the Assassin "oh! ya, he's kinda easy to not notice sometimes; well ok often times. Buuuut he's a cool guy when you get used to him." enhancing her comment, she drew the Assassin closed with an arm hooked around his neck and gave him a noogie which the black Pegasus didn't take to kindly to and swatted her away with his hand like an annoyed little brother.
Grotimnos smiled, he could tell these two were very close to oneanother.
"oh by the way," Vanilla began as she looked down at the Wizard's hooves which bore golden horseshoes and... "you wear socks?" the Kensai comented as she looked at the lava colored socks covering the Necromancer's hooves.
A screem from their right tore the three ponies from their friendly conversation.
Vanilla turned in the direction of the sound "the hay was that?"
Grotimnos looked in the same direction as well, spotting a tavern with Hobbits fleeing some scene or other, "Not sure but it can't be good."
the three rushed to the Tavern and managed their way past the panicked Hobbits until they saw a Unicorn squating on a bar table in an eagle perch with his elbows resting on his legs "oh really?" he chuckled out in a sadistic voice as he leered a twisted smile towards the Hobbit Tavern owner.
"I-I'm s-sory sir but that's how m-much the drinks cost! n-now please pay your tab o-or I'll be forced to call the guard!" the Tavern owner stuttered out on the edge of wetting himself.
The Unicorn chuckled and licked his lips, "oh goodie, I can get some practice in while I'm at it!" he spoke with an old Equestrian accent.
"ahem" Vanilla coughed.
The Unicorn turned around, "eh? ooh the bludy ehy are you?" he asked with a cocked eyebrow.
The Unicorn was adorned with dark dry blood stained studded leather armor, a leather hood with dark purple strands of mane running down the side of his face onto his torso, his horn piercing through a hole in the hood.
The stallion's eyes were yellow with catlike slit pupils, his coat a color of blackish purple, his body was also adorned with a dark cloak synched at the neck.
Every inch of him save for his face was covered, even his hands wore leather gloves and his hooves covered by leather boots.
Grotimnos narrowed his diamond eyes, "he's a vampire" he said, his Necromantic training telling him all he needed to know.
Vanilla's jaw fiddled a bit in contemplation, "I'm guessing you're Obsidian Sparkle."
Obsidian tilted his head with a twisted smile as he hopped off the tavern edge and landed infront of the three merceneries.
"ahhh! Guild I'm guessin'?" he asked while baring his fangs.
Vanilla nodded, "guess all around I guess..." she quiped.
Obsidian chuckled, "well, jolly old good to know the twats I'll be spendin' time with" he licked his lips, "hope you're not squeemish 'round blud love heh heh" The Cleric walked passed and picked up his scythe before exiting the Tavern.
"uhm! th-the tab!" the tavern pony cried.
Vanilla rolled her eyes before tossing a few gem fragments onto the counter.
After leaving the Tavern, the three mercs caught up to the vampire.
"what's a vampire doing in a tavern anyway? it's not like you could drink anything." Grotimnos scoffed.
Obsidian turned around with his scythe resing on his shoulders, his arms around its staff and walking backwards, "cole it 'role playin'', spewing out sick can be a louvily experience ifn' you want to feel alive hmhmhm" he replied.
At last the four of them returned to the Inn within the igloo city.
"ahh! the protigal ponies return *cough* so *wheeze* I see you've *wheeze* collected everypony..." Palebreath said in his raspy voice but paused when he spotted Grotimnos.
The Necromancer stared right back at the Illusionist.
"..."
"..."
Both Wizards burst out laughing.
"oh this should be an interesting adventure!" Grotimnos said ruefully.
Plebreath hacked and coughed before spitting out some more blood filled plhem, "ah yessss... A White Robe *wheeze* and a Black Robe travelling together... and of opposing schools *wheeze* of magic no less..."
It was true, the irony of the moment couldn't be left unchecket by the magic users, a White Robed Necromancer and a Black Robed Illusionist in the same party; this was proving to be a most entertaining day for the both of them.
After some forethought, the Black Robe turned to the Cleric-Reaper. "oh my, a vampiric Cleric *wheeze* now I've seen everything ahahaha *cough and spit*"
Obsidian gave a chuckle with his tongue hanging out and body tiled to the side "ahhhh hahahahhhh... yes a bit precurious in't it? funny thing that... Cerilics of Nightmare Moon must be vampires, no gettin' 'round that little tart!"
Ironheart silently observed all in the room while Vanilla leaned against the wall.
"oh ya!" the Kensai suddenly spoke while turning to the vampire, "your name, Sparkle... are you?"
"naw, well ya, but naw..." the Reaper cut in, "I'm her great grand daddy's grand daddy's brother so, very distant relation" he finished nonchaluntly.
"well, we have the coordinants for our *wheeze* next destination... so everypony get some rest *wheeze* you'll need it." and with that, the Black Robe leaned against the wall in his seat on the bed while clutching his staff in his right hand for dear life.
Grotimnos hopped up on his own bed and leaned against the wall in a similar fashion, puttin his scythe down and holding his staff in his left hand in an iron grip.
Obsidian shrugged and left the room, "where are you going?" Vanilla asked.
"heh..." the vampire paused, "don't really tend to get a lot 'o sleep nowadays if ya catch my drift" he replied before leaving the room.
Vanilla huffed, this was to be a very... interesting experience.
But for now it was time to rest.
XXXXX
The CMC and their three new companions were getting ready to rest when a soldier came charging into the palace "MY LIEGE! The goblin army is upon us! Corshervon is demanding we surrender under threat of attacking the city!"
The King stood up from his throne, "ha! let them come!"
"but your highness, they've allied themselves with the Do'thraklin liegion!" the soldier cired.
The King paused, the Do'thraklin liegion... a group of inbred Barbarians with nothing to lose...
"hmm, set up defense formations around the city, awaken the Paladins and station them around the civilian settlements, evacuate the city through the south eastern entrance, have Rangers see them through safe passage." he commanded.
the Soldier bowed before sprinting out of the Palace.
the CMC and their companions came rushing out of the guest chambers "what's going on?" Omnifarious asked as he rubbed his eyes.
"dunno, but there's an awful lot uh noise outside" Applebloom remarked.
gearing up, the six ponies found their way downstairs.
Gumomo yawned "aawwwm, well that was a most unpleasant way to be awoken... oh dear..." the Unicorn entered into the Greath Hall to see soldiers and war mages filing through outside of the Castle.
the six ponies charged outside to see an army of goblins assulting the city, Paladins fighting them off, citizens fleeing, and then it came, a huge purple dragon entered the city; the Wizard riding it opened the protective dome with hardly any effort and closed it behind her.
The CMC's eyes widened as a fully grown and legendary status dragon landed infront of the Palace with a resounding rumble among the earth, the dragon's head turned to the invading goblins, emerald eyes flashing with battle rage, it opened it's sharp long mouth and let loose a torrent of green flames that incinerated dozens in a single fell swoop.
"...S-Spike?" Applebloom sputtered.
The dragon turned to see his old friend "Applebloom! I was wondering if I'd see you here!" he called in a loud deep rumbling voice exploding with power.
From there, a White Robed Wizard hopped off of his back.
The Wizard wielded a staff of the magi in her right hand, and a staff of power in her left.
"Twilight!" Sweetie Belle cired out.
The Grand Master Arch Majii turned with a smile on her face, her eyes were missing, replaced with empty sockets, her skin mummified and crisp.
"woah..." Sweetie recoiled.
Twilight waved her off with her armed hand, "oh relax, it's not that bad"
"YOU'RE A LICH!" Sweetie cried.
Twilight shrugged, "had to find some way to beat death, I still have so much more to learn from this world." that having been said, the Wizard turned to face the goblin army and lifted her left arm up and spoke in an ancient arcane lunguage.
A violet glyph seperated from her wrist and grew into a large etheral ward, then flew high into the air; within moments, a malestorm of meteors rained down on the goblin and do'thraklin armies, killing hundreds in its wake.
Next she brought about another glyph raising from her wrist into the air, this one flew forward and expanded into a circular rune gate, spining slowly in the air as a door opened and from it, a Balrog emerged.
Everypony's jaws dropped.
The Barbarians still pressed on regardless, only to have a streak of rainbow flash through their ranks leaving a river of blood in it's wake, Rainbow Dash paused at the other end of the army with her two katanas dripping red.
from atop one of the buildings, a commander barked out orders when he gave out a sharp gasp and fell to his knees with a dagger in his back, Rarity slit his throat and hopped off the building landing over a dozen hooves below without a single injury.
"Rarity!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed.
A cave troll came charging through the ranks towards the Palace when a great axe bit into the top of his skull, it fell flat on its stomach, dead, with Applejack in full plate mail standing ontop of its neck.
Fluttershy stepped in behind the armies as they began to retreat, a large series of gren rune circles filled the air. From them poured forth dozens of equinewolves to charged in and tore the goblins apart.
The leader of the armies snapped his head around, seeing his soldiers fall left and right "no.. NO! wait..." he looked around at the six Legendary Heroes. "...where's the pink one? HURK!" a rapier impailed him from behind.
"HERE I AM!" Pinkie Pie shouted gleefully as she yanked the blade out from the Hob Goblin's back.
Pinkie quickly ducked as two goblins attempted to stab her, then lunged upward uppercutting them into the air before jumping up and spinning around with her sword, decapitating the both of them.
Hundreds Wyverns came flying through the air, they crashed into the city's shield a few time before breaking through, Barbarians riding on their backs.
They didn't get far before green flame plumed forth from Spike and engulphed a large chunk of them, the Dragon crashed into a seires of the wyverns, snapping his jaws and shredding with his giant claws.
The CMC and thier companions were awe struck when Twilight got their attention "ahem, you guys should probably get going." she recomended before turning to the battle.
"wha? but what about you guys!" Applebloom pleaded.
Twilight turned back to them with a cocky smile, "I think we can handle ourselves." then turned back to the battle and raised her staves, fireballs and lightning bolts launching forth into the fray.
Applebloom frowned but obeyed non the less and headed off towards the south eastern entrance with her companions in tow.
As the six of them approached the gate, they found themselves in the wake of a Wyvern Carriage which currently had a few goblins attempting to board it.
Gumomo unsheathed her bow, knocked an arrow, and sent it singing through the air with a THWL.
The arrow bit into the Goblin's back just as a follow up shot sunk into its skull, it limped over and fell to the ground unmoving.
Urversher charged up to the next goblin and with a cry he burst ki throughout his body as his Katana slashed at the shocked creature, the blade made a perfect slice along its torso and severed the spine clean through; the goblin spasmed and sputtered as his body fell apart into two halves.
Omifarious dashed up to the last goblin and launched into the air, bringing down the sharpened edge of his shield, it penetrated the goblin's flesh like a push dagger before Omni spun around to his left and attempted to slash the monster with the same shield; this time the goblin dodged it but didn't see the follow up of Omni's covered fist slamming into his face and sending him tumbling to the side.
The goblin rose and launched itself at Omni, hacking away with his crudely made shortsword, it was just enough force to cut through Omni's padded cloth armor and cut ever so slightly through his flesh.
Omni returned the attack with a rabbit punch of his shield blade, he scored a powerful critical strike on the goblin's neck, the thrust slicing straight through its throat; the goblin fell to the ground clutching its neck futily as blood rushed forth.
"QUICK GET ON!" Applejack shouted as she neared.
All of the party members hopped up on the carriage, including Omni who clambered up to the steering side, next to him Gumomo held the reigns before blinking.
"... do you even know how to drive a carriage?" Omni asked skeptically.
"..." Gumomo lowered the reigns "no..." she said foalishly.
the blue coated fighter snatched the reigns and snaped at them to draw the Wyvern's attention, they squaked as they rose to their hind legs in a rapter position with thier winged armes curled at their sides and charged off.
Once they reached a certain pace in speed, Omni pulled back on the reigns with a series of clicks of his mouth and the Wyverns lunged into the air with their wings spread; the carriage was dragged into the air.
They soared through the skies at a frightful speed, Omni pulled a lever that activated the enchanted equalizer within the cariage to keep it level with the Wyverns in a stasis counterbalance.
"ugh..." Scotaloo shook her queezy head, "that was almost as bad as the wush wagon.
Applebloom grabbed the Barbarian and pulled her close "never! never mention that thang ever again ya here?!"
Urversher looked over the carriage at the hundreds of ponies scattering below, the Rangers guiding them into the forests while the Paladins and soldiers fought alongside the Legendary Six against the invading armies.
"... hmm..." Urversher thought alowed methodically.
Sweetie Belle cocked an eye brow as she shifted next to the black Kensai, "what's up?"
Urversher blinked, "hm? oh... nothing," he looked back at the chaos of war with half lidded bright blue eyes, "some things just never change... Violence begets violence." he finished with a disgusted look on his face.
the Carriage took of towards the east.
Eventually the Wyverns became exausted from carrying such a load at such a speed.
Omni brought them down with the central area of the Large Forest Province, from there they would need to travel by hoof to their destination.
"well at least we got a carriage with us!" Scootaloo cried optomistically.
SQUAAAK!
"what... was that?" a large, and I mean LARGE, bird like creature swooped in and snatched the entire carrieg Wyverns and all in a single talon foot.
o.O "... ok... never mind..."
what followed them was a half hour of traveling before the oversized animals of the Large Forest cought their scent and moved in for some lunch.
the three adventurers turned to their left to see a greater Shedu trot out from the forest's huge greenery while from their right, a plant like creature with multiple tendrils crawled out.
The entire party drew their weapons.
the monsters got the go on initiative and struck first.
The Shedu gallopped for Urversher and swung with its hooves at him but missed on both accounts thanks to his dexterous dodging.
The Wolf-in-sheeps-clothing crawled for Gumomo and lashed out with its slimy tentrils, the first she agily dodged, the second whiped her side with a seering stinging snap, and the third strike landed on her head with a hard thwack. Gumomo shook her head out of the daze.
Now the CMC struck back, Applebloom hacked at the Shedu with her hand axes, both strikes bounced off of the creature's hide even with all of Applebloom's incredible strength.
Next Gumomo knocked two arrows between her fingers as she launched them at the tree stump plant creature, both arrows pierced into it's flesh cuasing it to squelch in a gooy cry of pain, the arrows did a massive amount of damage, shredding through the monster's internal biological system.
Omnifarious Decided to aide Gumomo and lunged at the creature with his shield "hyyyyaaaaa!" he shouted as his shield slashed at the creature, the edge took off one of it's tendril eyes leaving it wailing in agony, his next strike with his shield however missed, and his closed fist bounced off of the bark of the monster's torso.
Urversher's eyes flashed with battle rage as he sprinted passed the Shedu with a powerful slash of his sword, unfortunately the Shedu saw it coming and ducked under the blow.
Scootaloo roared as red ki flared through her body sending it into a Berserker Fit; she charged at the Shedu putting all of her battle rage into her strength and swinging her war hammer and battle axe with insane fury, the creature dodged the deadly axe but was unable to avoide the hammer slamming into its shoulder with incredible force, the impact didn't cause too much damage but it atleast did something.
Sweetie Belle also attempted to strike the creature with her broadsword and dagger both in offensive stance, with a slash of her broadsword and two swings of her dagger, only one of the knife slashes made a successful hit, the blade sliced through the hide and left its mark.
As the next round began, the CMC's Warriors and bard were all too ready and got the first strike in.
Applebloom made for another hack and slash with her two axes, this time both strikes made it through the hide of the Shedu and it felt the full fury of Applebloom's ogre strength, the axes choped their way into the monster's shoulders causing a spurt of blood to rise into the air, at last the creature was showing signs of true damage.
Gumomo knocked another two arrows, one missed, another bounced off of the tree trunk torso of the plant monster, but the third arrow that she quickly managed to get off hit home, greenish black goup poured out from the wound; the monster looked like it was just barely keeping it together, it stumbled and swayed.
Omnifarious swung his shield around with a battle cry and took of the monster's other eye, the creature fell to the ground, conquered and bleeding out its black ooze.
Urversher spun around for another strike at the Shedu his sword slashed through the creature's rear, however the follow up strike glanced off of its hide.
Sweetie Belle began singing out in a bardic tune, bossting everypony's moral as she hacked with her broadsword and dagger for three more strikes, the first was a complete and utter miss, the first strike with her dagger missed and the second strike with her dagger bounced off of its hide wiht such furry that she nearly lost her grip on her dagger.
Scootaloo made another go at the Shedu with her Berserker fury, her battle axe bit into its thick back while her hammer's clumsy swing was easilly dodged by the monster.
Now the Shedu retaliated with its own strikes, this time it targeted Sweetie Belle and launched its powerful hooves at her but missed on both accounts.
For the next round, the Shedu moved to quick for the CMC and struck out with its hooves at Scootaloo, one of the hooves connected landing a powerful blow but it didn't even seem to phaze the Barbarian.
Applebloom spun around swinging her axes with a roar of fury, the first cleaved its way into the creature's ribs busting bones, the second one was narrowly avoided.
Gumomo spun around and launched off two arrows, the first one was a perfect shot right to the monster's throat while the second arrow whized by its head.
Omni turned around and lanched his shield like a deadly frizbee at the Shedu, unfortunately it completely missed and sunk into a nearby tree, he then charged at the beast with his fist raised.
Urversher roared with a kiai shout as he lunged into the air and dive bombed at the monster, the ki flared through his Katana as it sliced clean through the monster, Urversher stood back up once he landed and flicked his Katana cleaning it of blood before sheathing it and stopping an inch away from the hilt meeting the scabbard; the Shedu looked frozen like a statue. Urversher sheated the last bit of his Katana as the Shedu's head slid off exposing layers of muscles and blood vessles beneath, the red liquid spurted into the air while the body galloped in place before falling over limp.
The party let out a breath of relief and sheathed their weapons.
Omnifarious walked over to his shield and dug it out of the tree, Gumomo attempted to salvage her arrows, only three of them were still useable.
Scootaloo roared with fury, her Berserker Fit driving her into blood lust.
"oh ponyfeathers..." Applebloom groaned, everypony turned to the Barbarian who was heaving and twitching.
Urversher 'hmmed' "so this is the 'berserker fit' of the Barbarians..." he said monotonously to nopony in particular.
Sweetie Belle and Applebloom cautiosly approached the Barbarian, "ok come one Sctoots, you know us..."
Scootaloo mentaly fought against the rage but failed, she lunged after Sweetie Belle who yelped and began running "WHY DOES SHE ALWAYS PICK ON ME!" she whined as she fleed from the Barbarian.
"BECAUSE YOU'RE A MAGIC USER... SORT OF!" Applebloom replied as she chased after the raging Pegasus.
The other three companions stared with sweat drops at the comedic scene.
But at last Scootaloo's rampaging came to a stop as her running slowed and the red aura flared around her dispersed, her will having overcame it, "uhhhh..." she stumbled a bit before falling to the ground.
"oh thank Celestia!" Sweetie sighed while bending over and supporting herself on her legs with several pants.
The group debated travelling for a few more hours and decided to risk it just to make some head way, fortunately they were undisturbed for the rest of the journey and managed to find a nice shady area surrounded by brush and oversized bushes to camp out in.
(Sweetie Belle has leveled up)
After tents were raised and plates layed down, pots set up, everypony sat down for some food, Omnifarious used some local herbs around the forest to suplement everypony's rations in a delicious stew. After consuming the well earned meal, wounds were tended to, Applebloom used her herbalist knowledge to patch everypony up who'd sustained damage. Sweetie Belle managed to talk Scootaloo into letting her use her clerical magic to heal her, the wounds stitched themselves not even leaving a scar behind.
Sweetie Belle also(though reluctantly so) healed Gumomo.
As Omnifarious finished cleaning up the cooking utensiles while Gumomo took his padded cloth armor and pulled out a kit of assorted sewing needles, she pulled a needle out and made a quick glance to make sure that no eyes on her, once she was satisfyed, she slathered her tongue around inside her mouth before building up some of her natural webbing, bringing the eye of the needle into her mouth, she linked a thick strand of silky thread unto it and pulled the needle out until half a full 12 inches of thread were attatched, she gave a small bite, the secretion on her teeth allowing it to cut through the thread as she pulled the needle away from her lips.
Her violet eyes carefully watched the end of the strand as she wrapped it around her finger a few times before pulling it into a knot.
With that, the Unicorn pierced the needle through the slash on the cloth armor of Omni's jean jacket and pulled the threat all the way through until the knot hit, then she looped the needle through again and pulled the needle under the loop of threat and pulled it taught for increased strength; she repeated this methodical process while humming to herself.
Just as Omni finished packing away his cooking supplies, Applebloom plopped down next to him, "so ya said ya'll were from Equestria, what part?" she asked curiosly.
Omnifarious looked up while chewing his lip thoughtfully, "well, a nice little village... heh, it's kinda funny, neither of my parents were Earth Ponies, yet... well, yet I ended up like this" he gestured to his body, "but I was never really as strong as the others... Earth Ponies I mean, but I still made friends; and my parents always belived that I could excell at whatever I put my mind to. It was a nice life actually." he looked down smiling at the dirt.
Applebloom blinked while tilting her head, "well, why'd ya'll leave then?"
Omnifarious chewed on his saliva in thought.
"Ah'm sorreh, Ah didn't mean ta pry..." Applebloom said looking guilty.
"oh! no, no, it's fine really!" the Blue Earth pony assured while waving his hands comedically, "eheh... I never really, well I never really found my 'place' you know? I couldn't quite..." he looked off into the distance, "I couldn't find my special talent, I felt like I was sort of like one of those shape playing things that foals use to help them learn, you know the one with the triangles cirlces and squares and the hollowed out box to put them trhrough? I always felt like the undersized circle, I can fit into any shape but... I don't really belong in any of them, it's wierd and that probably doesn't make sense I know..."
"naw, Ah think it makes perfect sense" the Ranger said as she patted the Fighter on the back with a warm smile.
Omnifarious chuckled, "ya..." he blew the thick strand of black mane out of his face, "well anyway, I somehow found myself traveling with 'that'," he gestured towards Gumomo with his thumb.
"I take offense to that." the black Unicorn said absentmindedly without really paying attention as she continued to stitch.
"and then well," Omni continued, "we ended up here taking up a contract for the King." he finished.
Applebloom nodded with a smile, "well Ah'm glad the universe slapped us tahgether" Omnifarious smiled back.
At last Gumomo finished up Omni's jacked and rose into the air stretching while popping the bones in her back, "ahhh! oh ladies..." she called while batting her eyelashes.
Applebloom and Scootaloo turned at the sound of her seductive voice.
Gumomo gave a shake of her head cuasing her white mane's noble curles to fluf in the air while she leaned on her hip flirtatiously, "anypony care to help a mare set up her tent?"
Applebloom and Scootaloo quickly looked to eachother before dashing forwared, yanking at eachother's hooves and clampbering over oneanother until they both stumbled up to Gumomo's hooves.
"I WILL!" they both exclaimed in unison, then looked at eachother with glares.
"fillies, fillies, there's pleanty of me to go around." she giggled tantalizingly.
The Ranger and Barbarian then proceeded to set up the Unicorn's tent while elbowing eachother along the way and fighting over each ligament of the contraption.
The whole time Sweetie Belle glared at her two friends as she plopped down on her rump with a hurumph! her cheeks puffed our foalishly as she fumed in jealousy, it wasn't that she wanted her friend's physical attraction that would just creep her out, but she liked being the center of attention and having everypony fawn over her.
"Im guessing your the pretty one..."
Sweetie Belle yelped as she jumped in the air and landed painfully on her tail.
"ow... what?" she looked over to see Urversher's dark form standing silent and cold.
The Pegasus calmly sat down in a practiced crosslegged sit, his main sheathed Katana grasped in his left hand.
"I'm just guessing but, Scootaloo seems like the dumb muscle, Appebloom the voice of reason and widome, and you the pretty one." he elaborated.
Sweetie Belle's eyes went downcast, "...maybe..."
"hmmm... you feel threatened by her."
"GAWAH?! I do not! w-why would I feel threatened by that undignified hussy! th-that's absured! J-just because she's beautiful and flirtatious and get's everypony's eye doesn't mean she's like, better than me or anything! That's ridiculous!" Sweetie Belle shrieked over defensively.
Urversher's bright blue eyes blinked, "oh, my mistake then!" he said cheerfully.
Sweetie Belle did a double take, it was a little unerving how this Kensai could go from so quiet, cold looking, and eyes steeled as if he were ready to commit murder any second; and suddenly switch to bright and bubbly when conversation struck up.
"...I think you have some major issues, no offense." Sweetie commented.
Urversher went quiet with a slight cringe on his lips, his eyes glazing over with memories.
Scotalloo and Applebloom finally finished setting up the tent as they sprinted over to Gumomo, yanking on eachother's manes and shoving eachother along the way, when they arrived behind her, Scootaloo shoulder rammed Applebloom out of sight before she came up behind Scootaloo and put her in a head lock only to throw her to the other side.
Scootaloo tackled Applebloom's legs and the two wrestled around on the ground until Gumomo turned around with a raised eye brow.
"IT'S DONE!" they both shouted out with stupid grins on their faces.
"awww, you're such noble knights." she giggled before leaning down to give each of them a kiss on the nose and then walking off to her tent, "good night sweeties!" she sang out and then retreated into her tent.
"GOOD NIGHT!" the Ranger and Barbarian called out with hearts floating above their heads, they both fell to the ground with happy sighes.
"oh get over yourselves!" Sweetie Belle shouted at her friends.
Hours passed, Urversher was dreaming of his foalhood, so long ago now...
the young colt ran around his homestead atop a meadowy hill, his parents had finally finished up gathering the necessary foods for winter and thusly, they had a day to simply relax.
Urversher ran for a few more minutes, he thought idly that he should be heading back home about now but decided to go have some more fun first.
making airplane noises, he found his way climbing up a tree to get a good view of the farm, laying back against a thick branch, he dozed off.
his eyes awoke in the tree, it seemed as if he'd merely blinked yet the sun low in the sky begged to differ.
His head turned to his side to see his homestead... it was on fire.
"wha!" he nearly fell out of the stree as he clumsilly clambered his way down.
Sprinting he made his way back to the hill, but when he reached its apex his eyes were molested with the sight of his home in flames, but then his eyes turned to an even more hideous sight, his Mother held in a bandit's arms, struggling kicking and screeming while his father fought to save her; he swung blindly with fists he didn't really know how to use, the bandits laughed as they kicked him down.
One of them rolled his eyes as they lifted up and axe and drove it into the back of Urversher's Father.
His Mother was thrown to the ground, clothes ripped off and violated.
"MOOOMYYYY!"
The bandits raised their heads to see the young colt on the edge of the hill.
Down by the forest, an elderly old stallion walked along the meadow supported by his cane.
as he walked, his head turned to see smoke rising from atop the hill.
"hmm... I'm too late then..." he thought aloud just as a young colt came barrelling down the mountain with three bandits chasing after him.
Just as they reached the bottom of the hill, one of the bandits yanked Urversher up by his hair and put him in a bear hug.
The colt struggled futiley against the bandit as the other two drew their weapons.
With tears running down his face, the colt shrieked, black spikes launched out from his back and impailed the bandits behind him.
Urversher awoke in the middle of the Large Forest Province drawing his Katana in panic.
"woah! s'th matter with you?" Scootaloo called.
Urversher shook his head, "nothing... just a nightmare."
END OF CHAPTER