Chapter 3: Giddy Up
Finn didn't like this. Walking around this many skeletons just seemed so wrong to him on a primal level, yet it felt uncomfortably familiar. It reminded him of the time he and Jake chased the Lich down into his lair, where he kept his well of power. Finn shivered. As much as he loved adventure and danger, that fight had been a little bit too much for him.
Jake didn't seem thrilled either.
"Finn, I think whatever bad thing was gonna happen here, happened already," he said. "Maybe we should go back and-"
"No, man," said Finn assertively. "We have to keep going."
"I feel like saying that is something that we're going to regret almost immediately," said Jake.
They regretted it almost immediately.
All around them, the skeletons of the ponies began to rise.
"No!" gasped Finn. It couldn't be happening again could it? Hadn't he beaten the Lich? He had. Then it possessed PB and then Ice King froze it and then… bazoobs. Finn realized at that moment he never questioned what happened to the Lich's spirit after it escaped from PB.
Finn drew his root-handled sword and struck out at a pony skeleton's head. The blade burst the skull and the rest of the skeleton crumbled apart. Finn remembered from last time, that taking them apart bone-by-bone would only cause the skeletons to re-assemble. Jake stretched himself several times larger, and his right hand into a giant hammer, smashing at multiple attacking skeletons at once.
"Finn, there's too many of them!" cried Jake in horror.
"Jake, there's like twelve of them! Hold your ground!"
Finn was right, but they did keep coming and even he knew that at this rate, their numbers were likely to grow exponentially. He jumped into the air, landing on and scattering a pony skeleton wearing what looked like goggles and a jumpsuit with a lightning bolt on it and swung his sword, shattering the skull of a tall pony wearing a large number of golden bracelets.
"Jake, how are you-" Finn called, turning to see how his brother was faring.
But Jake was gone.
"JAKE!" Finn screamed, his voice cracking as he decapitated another skeleton.
And then he was flying.
Finn looked down as the writhing mass of skeletons (and there must have been almost a hundred now) shrank below him.
"Whuh?"
Finn looked up. A blue winged pony was carrying him in her hooves. This one was alive, though. Her mane and tail were striped with all the colors of the rainbow and on her flank there was the image of a cloud with a rainbow lightning bolt striking from it.
"Jake!"
Jake was rested on the pegasus' back, unconscious but still visibly breathing.
As confused as he was, Finn couldn't help but enjoy the sensation of flying. He loved it whenever Marceline would pick him up and soar away with him. The flying pony however, was much faster than the vampire queen. Finn spread his arms and felt the wind on his face, billowing his clothes slightly.
And then he was on the ground. The cold, uncomfortable stone ground.
And then so was Jake.
"Ow. What the ham?" Finn rubbed his slightly bruised backside.
The rainbow-maned pegasus stood before him and then was joined by a lavender unicorn. Now there were two ponies. This was moving too fast.
"What the lump is going on?" Finn shrieked, flailing his root-sword around.
"Easy," said Twilight, using magic to levitate the sword out of Finn's hand.
"My sword!" cried Finn. He hocked back in his throat.
"You're going to poke someone's eye out with-"
Finn released his wad of spit, which hit Twilight directly in the face, stunning her. Twilight dropped the sword.
Before Finn could reach it however, Rainbow Dash had flown into him, tackling him off the ground, but Finn crawled onto her back and pulled her into a flying headlock. The two crashed into a boulder, Dash taking the brunt of the hit, knocking her unconscious. Twilight wiped the spit off her face.
"Eww! What are you-"
"AIIIIIEEE!" screamed Finn, diving at Twilight, who this time levitated Finn himself so that he was floating helplessly a few feet from Twilight's face.
"Settle down!" shouted Twilight. Finn stopped thrashing.
"Who the nuts are you?" demanded Finn.
"I'm Twilight Sparkle," said Twilight. Finn paused, then giggled slightly.
"That's the girliest name I'm ever heard!" he laughed.
"I'M A GIRL!" yelled Twilight, now beyond aggravated. "What are you doing in Ponyville?"
"Are you from here?" asked Finn, suddenly placid. Had he just been beating on the people he had been sent here to help? That was totally not righteous.
"Yes. This place was… is my home," answered Twilight. "Something terrible happened. We were attacked."
"Whoa, man," said Finn, now feeling downright awful. "I'm totally sorry. My name's Finn. Me and Jake are here to help you guys."
"You… you got Celestia's signal?" asked Twilight.
"If she's your queen," said Finn, "then yeah, we got her message. We're from out by the Candy Kingdom and Ice Kingdom. It took us forever to find the Horse Kingdom. We didn't even know it existed."
"If by 'Horse Kingdom' you mean Equestria, then yes, you're here. And Celestia is our princess."
"Always a princess," mumbled Finn.
"What?"
"I said could you put me down now?" Finn's feet were still dangling several feet off the ground.
"Oh yes, of course," muttered Twilight embarrassedly, setting Finn gently down.
"So," she searched for something to break the awkward silence with. "Are you a monkey?"
Oh Lawdy is that some action violence? Hope you enjoyed that. EXPECT MOAR LIEK THIS. The factions (Finn + Jake / the pony survival squad) have met up and now the cool stuff really begins. Stay tuned for more action, violence, tweests n' turns. Peace.
Next Time: "Campfire Stories"
