Author's Notes. Hello everyone! Nice to have you all back. As a side note: did anyone notice that FF was down yesterday? It was maintenance, and I am assuming they were reworking the website in some way in order to fix the fact that the view-counters had stopped working in its entirety. Anyways, how are all you doing? I hope you are all faring well, despite the fact I am sure school has started for the majority of you. Now, about this chapter... I am going to say that this was one of my most favorite to write, almost passing by the chapter "Haven" on my "favorites" list. I certainly hope you all find this chapter equally enjoyable, but be wary: You may find run into surprises along the way.
Also: I have released a new addition to the guide for "A Mending Soul"! This new section makes a consensus on the physical appearances of my OCs, as well as adds some new information about them. In addition to that, it gives some in-depth descriptions on the nature of the mysterious Imagination Energy and Dimensional Energy. I suggest you read it. You may not understand it, but it will give you some insight into what will be happening with the Catalyst Corps and the Inquisitors in upcoming chapters. Now onto answering some reviews.
To Vibrant Sound: You nose is serving you well. We have reached the major pivoting point in this latter half of season 2. I timed it so that most of the major plot developments would come into being around the same time. (About 5-7 days after Lyric and Summer started their little adventure in the southern jungles of the Stallion Empire.) Expect these new development to occur soon!
To SuperVegito33: Hah! I knew my time travelling powers worked! By the way, sorry about your house. I didn't know you weren't supposed to not keep stoves running in the 21st century. Anyways, I have indeed given a lot of thought as to whether or not offspring of Dimensional Travelers' should inherit powers, even if they are only technically "half-bloods". However, if you refer to the guide, you will see that Starlight in particular had them, but also had them taken away. As for Summer, she just was dealt a bad hand, and is lacking that gift among other things. She doesn't have very good luck, now does she?
To R4ptorCS: I knew my time machine would yield something fruitful. I'm also glad that you look forward to the flashbacks! I do too! It's something entirely fresh, and will return the joy of writing to me. Oh, if you ever find that mistake in that chapter, or find any other mistake for the matter, do not hesitate to hit me up! Things like that must be fixed immediately. I hope you've been doing well... Besides high school. But trust me, you have a whole lot more school ahead of you, so don't fall apart on me now. By the way... I have a feeling that you'll rather enjoy the ending of this chapter. Read on.
To xCrysis-x: Honestly I never thought of that! The idea of the Inquisitors and the Mane 6 was never in my general story line, but I can certainly add that. Thanks... This give me a whole lot to think about. I really appreciate the fact that you appreciate my writing! I've actually spent years working and refining it, and so seeing it impact people like this makes me quite happy. Would you really give me $50? I'm honored. But keep it on you. If I lose everything in a fluke sharknado or something I'll call on a favor then. Also, you need some writing tips? I'd be happy to give you some! I'll send you a PM with some stuff. Just let me know if you ever start on that one story. I'd be happy to help beta read it or even co-author it! (If I have the time.) Keep holding onto your drive to create and write. Imagination is something this world will always need.
To BlazeWriters69: The death of Regal Crescent is something of a staple in AMS culture. I'm pretty sure that even if I brought him back to life in here, no one would believe it. RIP Regal Crescent. May your ill-spent life serve as an example to all writers of how not to kill fan-favorites.
To FocusedStream: Why, thank you! I love them both too. And honestly I'll just have to say I love them equally. They're like the sisters that I never had. (Don't tell my sisters I said that.)
That just about finishes the reviews! Now read on and enjoy my latest chapter!
Dimension: My Little Pony
Planet: Equestria Earth
Specific Location: The Southern Jungles
Time: Five days after Lyric and Summer ventured into the Southern Jungle.
Lyric grunted in pain as he leapt from one tree branch to another. The burns and bruises that covered his body still hurt like fire, sending shudders throughout his body. However, adrenaline was also pumping through his frame counteracting the wildfire within his nerves. It wasn't until Summer leapt from the branch he had been on seconds before and landed beside him with the help of him and Brag that he realized how much pain he and she must have been enduring. As she landed, Summer gave a small feminine squeak and then shut her mouth tight, but she couldn't fool Lyric. That squeak had pretty much conceal a scream of pain. At that moment Lyric didn't know what hurt more: his burns or the realization that this fourteen-year-old filly had learned to hide excruciating pain with the skill of a tired veteran.
"We… We need to stop," mumbled Lyric, doing his best not to sob. Not only was his body a mess, but his mind was also in shambles.
Something in the trembling undertone of Lyric's voice tipped off Brag. He bit his bottom lip and sighed. They had been running from the savages throughout the night entirely through the canopy of trees, not touching the ground once. It had been hard going, and though it was not as taxing on him as he had thought it would be, he could definitely see the wear and tear on his two friends. Then again he was neither blind nor crippled like them. He shook his head and cursed silently. Neither of them should even been in this kind of situation.
"We need to keep going, but we're going to take to the ground for a bit. Just a little further mate, that good?" He made sure he made eye-contact with Lyric.
Lyric put a hoof on Summer's cheek and leaned in to whisper in her ear. Summer's body was trembling, and Brag could see her bones through her seared flesh. Her mane was long and straggly, clinging to her small frame by sweat and blood. Summer's breath came in short gasps and her eyes swept the dark surroundings without seeing a thing. She nodded jerkily as Lyric touched her shoulder inquisitively.
Lyric looked back to Brag who felt close to desperation as well. "She says okay. How much further?"
Brag dragged a sweaty hoof across his rough-hewn features as his brain whirled at the speed of light. "Let me think mate… Let me think… Ummmmm…"
His dark eyes scoured the surroundings with keen prejudice. Dawn was coming, filtering through the east-most clusters of jungle trees, just barely capable of dappling their faces. The jungle floor below was still engulfed in dank darkness; humid and buzzing like a hot mid-summer night. The war cries of the savages could still be heard: they had not given up on their quarry. It was unlikely that they would stop now. Brag squinted to the south. Though almost everything was drowned in a muddy ocean of decaying green and rotting brown he could see a rocky plane. He knew it would stretch out to a massive plateau that held up a desert biome that stuck out of the vast jungle like a bright pimple. That was their target. It was well beyond the territory of the Agrinians, and they revered it. They would not follow them there, but they needed to get there first…
"Okay kids… I've got an idea. We're going to keep heading south. We're only a score of kilometers or so from the rocky planes that lead up to the plateau. On top of the plateau is a safe-zone for us, but not the planes. If we try to cross while spotted we will be dead meat."
"Plateau?" asked Lyric suddenly. He looked excited, his eyes shining from his exhausted face like a beam of sunlight through a thick layer of dark clouds. "That is where we were headed in the first place! There's an illegal airstrip up at the top! Remember what we talked about earlier?"
Brag nodded. He remembered, and had factored it into his observations, but kept on going with his plan. He had no time to discuss a place that they would go to "if" they survived.
"Right, mate. We will be heading to the plateau, but we have to cross the planes before it first. But they are open, and we cannot cross it without being spotted and chased down. However, I know of a large tree that will act as perfect cover for us until the savages have passed us by… But we need to get there first. Summer… Summer, mate… Keep it together, 'kay?" Brag paused and looked directly at Summer, who had been listening intently.
Summer looked down at her hooves and mumbled: "… 'kay…"
Brag pulled some long twines of rope from his bag with his teeth and flung it around the branch they stood upon, securing it strongly. He hurled the remainder to the jungle floor below and helped Lyric onto the rope. He did his best to ignore the fact that he could feel the colt's ribs blatantly. Slowly he let Lyric to the earth, doing his best to keep the rope from zipping against the bark too loudly. He knew the savages were on them, but they had yet to pinpoint their exact location. That bought them a lot of extra time. When Lyric was on the ground he gently helped Summer hold on. Brag looked away, pretending not to see how boney and disheveled she was, though he had a pretty good idea now that Summer was one of those ponies who didn't care too much about how they looked when being chased by an army of savages. When the two foals were on the ground and waiting for him, Brag stretched his neck high into the air and took in a deep breath, inhaling the damp pre-dawn air like an elixir.
"Hmmmmm… A storm's a-brewin'," he muttered more to himself than anyone. Saying no more on this subject, he looped himself about the ropes and lowered himself to the ground far below, giving the end of the rope an expert flick as his hooves touched the earth. The action traveled up the twine like a wave, unraveling his knots that held it fastened to the branch high up above. The twine flipped loose, falling earthward where it was caught deftly by Summer, who was standing right beneath it. She shrugged and gave it to Brag who then looked to Lyric.
"Brag… Where to next?" said Lyric breathlessly.
Brag turned a full circle to make sure he had his bearings right. Then he nodded decisively and pointed a hoof in a definite direction. "Follow me, kiddies. If your ole' uncle Brag has got it right, then we might not be dining with those savages tonight."
The trio set off at a brisk gait into the dissipating shadows, doing their best to keep up a good pace in the musky atmosphere all the while trying also to not to collapse from complete and utter exhaustion and starvation. They moved like wraiths, with Brag leading the way, and Lyric leading Summer while she supported his lopsided movements. A couple of hours and several detours later and Brag decided to make a stop. The sun was beginning to reach its zenith, but that was hardly noticeable from beneath the umbrella of the jungle canopy. The war cries still echoed out into the mid-morn air now and then, but they were fainter than they had been before. They were safe for now. Summer crumpled to the earth where she just lay, her breath making soft whistling noises that rattled her throat. Lyric lay behind her, doing his best to fight his sheer worry for Summer and uncontrollable panic that ate away at his stomach and his mind.
Brag sidled up to Lyric and began to mutter in his ear.
"Hey mate. Lil' Summer doesn't look too good," he said softly. "I'm thinking I'm going to be having to carry her soon enough. That okay?"
"I don't… I don't know," replied Lyric breathlessly, making no effort to whisper. He knew that Summer would be listening very carefully to every word they said, no matter how quietly they tried to speak. "I think… I think… I think you should talk to her and ask her…"
Lyric rolled around a bit and let his tongue loll out of his mouth. Brag crept up to where Summer lay, her blind eyes staring off into the distance.
"Hey mate. Are you okay?" he said awkwardly. He wasn't quite sure how to approach her, as so far she had only done what Lyric had asked her to do, no more.
"I… I think I'm okay," she said. She definitely didn't sound okay.
"Kid… I mean Summer, your legs are shaking like jelly," continued Brag. "I want to know if you'll let me carry you. We're close, but not close enough. I don't think you're going to make it."
"If anypony… If… If anypony is going to carry me, it's going to be Lyric. No one else," mumbled Summer, still staring off into nothing as she battled to keep her breathing constant.
Brag looked to Lyric. "I can't work with her mate… But look at her…"
Lyric looked up from where he had been adjusting his artificial leg and bit his lip as he saw Summer. He knew very well that she needed help, but he also knew she wouldn't take it from anyone other than himself. After a second of thought he rolled his exhausted body over to where Summer lay. He glanced at Brag expectantly, who then quickly excused himself to scout the surroundings. Lyric turned back to Sumer.
"Hey," he said, bumping her hip with his.
Summer said nothing for a moment as she returned the bump. Then she sighed, "Lyric… How do you know we can trust him?"
Lyric snorted. "Come on Summer. He's already fought a whole horde to help us escape. I think that means he wants to help us."
"I also think that means he's as mad as a March hare."
"Don't be like that Summer! I don't know much about him, but he's honest. I'd trust him, and I'm asking you to trust him as well. Please. For me."
Summer gave him a side-long glance, despite not being able to see a thing. Finally she mumbled something about her killing him if he touched her wrong. That was as close to a consent as he was going to get. Lyric kissed Summer on the head before rolling over again to allow him easy access to his artificial leg. He began to tweak it, doing his best clear it up from the fire damage it had received. It was in pretty good condition now that he had readjusted it.
A couple minutes later Brag returned, a grim look on his face. Lyric felt his heart fall into the pits of his stomach when he saw the steely look in Brag's eyes. Even Summer's ears flicked back and forth in worry as she sensed the negative shift in the air.
"Damn savages are getting smarter every day," he said. "They're closer than we thought… In fact they've probably pinpointed our location already."
"I thought they sounded pretty distant…" sighed Lyric.
Summer groaned as she realized it. She looked in Lyric's general direction with a look of anguish upon her face. "The war cries were a distraction. They've given us a false sense of security as they crept in on us. I knew I heard some strange rustlings as we came to a stop. I'm sorry…"
"Not your fault kid, but your realization is right-on," Brag said immediately. "They are onto us… But this just means we need to start moving faster. Lyric, you ready to go mate?"
Lyric gave one of the wingnuts in his artificial lower calf a sharp twist. He then proceeded to get up with a wince. "I would like to say that it is a miracle that I'm actually up."
Summer immediately tried to get up as well, but collapsed with a body-wracking cough. Brag was the fastest and closer to Summer in the clearing, but Lyric somehow made it to her side faster than he could blink.
"Summer? Summer?! You okay?" he said, his voice becoming high-pitched with panic.
Summer nodded with a drawn-out grunt of exertion. "Just fine. Okay, Brag. I guess you get to carry me after all. Yay."
Brag lay down beside Summer without a word, letting Lyric roll Summer onto his back like a saddle bag. A minute later and the trio were dashing into the jungle once more, with Lyric now running vanguard, with Brag trailing with Summer and some of the supplies draped across his back. An hour later and they began to see a thinning of the jungle as it gave way to the rocky planes that acted as a prelude to the steep banks of the desert plateau. That was the good news. The bad news was that the savages definitely had pinpointed their location and were now bearing down on their position. They had still not given up the daunting chase, and now the true bloodthirsty war cries were back, as loud and fierce as they had been when the chase first began.
"Keep moving, mates, we're almost there," murmured Brag, breathing heavily, feeling the limp weight of Summer dragging him down. Then the first crude arrow tore its way to bury its rough-hewn flint head in a tree beside Brag. It was followed by another, and then another. Fortunately none of them hit the mark, all of them either splintering against jungle wood or buzzing harmlessly into passing foliage. However, if arrows were coming in, then hails of spears were not too far behind, and Brag knew this to be a fact. But he hadn't given into complete despair yet, for the tree he had been dashing for was coming into view, and he knew that they were still out of visual range of the attackers. They were being tracked closely by trail, not followed by sight. In a minute the surrounding jungle foliage cleared a bit more and the dusty stone planes that fed into the rises of the plateau became visible… And there was the tree.
Its bark was rough and mottled, and the trunk stretched high into an umbrella of extremely thick leaves and thin branches. The perfect cover. However, there were woeful few hoof-holds on the bark, making it seem to the average passerby to be impassable; that was exactly what Brag wanted ponies to think. As he drew up to the tree and Lyric looked to him in panic, he pulled out climbing spikes and strong rope from his pack.
"Tie this around your waist and hold on tight kid," said Brag in a low, urgent voice, tossing the colt the rope as he strapped Summer to his back with an extra strand of rope. The arrows were coming in thicker now, but they were still falling long and wide from their targets, denoting the fact that the savages were still shooting blind. Brag wrapped the climbing spikes about his fore- and hind-hooves and then attacked the bark of the tree with a will, digging in deep with his hooves. He then proceeded to climb the tree slowly, carrying the weight of supplies and two teenage foals with stoic bravado. He reached the leafy canopy and drew Lyric up with him just as the first spear clattered against the tree adjacent to him. A couple minutes later and the Agrinians leader rushed in, followed closely by over a score of his compatriots. Brag, hidden by the thick foliage, leaned in close and closed his eyes, listening carefully as he did his best to interpret the grunts and growls of the savages as the discussed the whereabouts of their quarry on the ground below.
"Where they go?" hissed one of the grunts, clearly disappointed that he did not get the blood he had been promised.
"Shuddap," snarled the leader, looking around carefully. "I know they be here…"
"Hey," piped up a spear-carrying grunt, trying to please his leader. "What if they climb this tree here?"
He pointed directly at Brag's face with his spear, waggling it to accentuate the cleverness of his little suggestion. The leader looked at him balefully.
"Aye… And mayhap they be in them trees over there… Or over there… Or over there. Use your brain idgit! The one we captured had no sight, and the one other has a bewitched leg. No way could they climb trees 'afore our warriors getcha them. No. They must be around here somewhere…"
Brag leaned back away from the screen of leaves and branches gave Lyric and Summer a side-long glance. Lyric was looking at him with apprehension, not understanding a word of what was going on below. Summer was lying there, her eyes closed, letting her small belly rise and fall in rhythm as she did her best to get the shaking of her limbs under control. Brag gave Lyric an almost apologetic grin, and then leaned close to the foliage that separated him from the savage-infested earth below. He took a deep breath and then shouted to the ponies below in perfect Agrinian tongue.
"Hey! Leader! I think I see them running over that way!"
The leader almost leapt a meter in the air in surprise. In an instant the horde was at the ready and impatient to start the chase once more.
"Who said that?" mused the spear-carrying grunt.
"Who cares?" snarled the leader, feeding off the adrenaline that was pumping into the air anew. "He said that-a-way! Follow me my warriors!"
He dashed off in no direction in particular, and his entire horde followed him unquestioningly, drawing them off to the east, along the border between the southern rock planes that fed into the desert plateau and the jungle lands. Brag leaned back and sighed a sigh of relief.
"You… You speak Agrinian?" asked Lyric, looking to Brag in surprise.
"I'm full of little surprises like that mate," chuckled Brag. Lyric shrugged and then turned to whisper something to Summer. She murmured something softly and gently touched his cheek. Brag cocked his head to one side as he considered them. They had been through hell, but had only been strengthened by their ordeals, becoming more and more dependent on each other. Trial by fire; forged in the flames of adversity. They were the true definition of a team, something even he had not witnessed properly. True, he had come very close to seeing something as true as this before, but nothing of this magnitude. Brag began to think upon his past and slowly lay down on the branch he sat upon, giving Lyric and Summer some privacy. An hour passed, and the storm that Brag had anticipated began to manifest itself in large dark storm clouds, building and frothing like angry waves of gray crashing upon a sickly blue beach. A single peal of thunder rumbled across the sky, charging it with the electricity of an oncoming monsoon. Brag pulled himself up onto all fours and balanced expertly upon the branch he was perched.
"Alright mates, up and at 'em. That storm is coming in fast and I want to be at the slopes of the plateau before it gets too bad."
Lyric scrambled to all fours and whispered to Summer. She nodded and pulled herself upright as well. She was still shaking, but not as bad as before and her breathing had gotten under control.
"I… I can walk fine now," she said.
Brag shook his head. "You still look weak, mate. I'm as right as rain, even more so with that hour of rest. You're riding shotgun on my back until I know we are safe from the savages."
Summer snorted sharply through her nostrils in protest, but said no more on the matter. She still looked an exhausted and disheveled no matter how hard she tried to hide it. Brag looked up at the sky and then pulled out the rope. He tied it upon the branch he stood upon and then motioned for Lyric to approach him. He helped the colt down, lowering him through the branches and leaves of the hiding spot to the earth below. When Lyric was safe on the ground he turned to Summer and looped the rope about her midriff in preparation for letting her down to Lyric. Then he heard it: A long, dry, snapping noise. The branch he was standing upon was milliseconds away from shattering from stress.
"Damn," muttered Brag. He no time to move, so he did the only thing that came to mind: He pulled Summer up to him and twisted his body so that his back was facing the ground. The branched snapped and the two ponies fell 10 meters. They landed with a grunt, but Brag's strong form absorbed the shock. He had bruises, but Summer was entirely unhurt. She scrambled to all fours and shook Brag.
"Are you okay?" she gasped, her unseeing eyes sweeping his features.
"I'm… I'm fine, kid," Brag replied with a rueful wince. He then got up and realized that he wasn't fine. He stumbled sideways with a soft gasp of pain. He was caught by Lyric, who held him up, preventing him from falling over.
"Damn," Brag growled in hushed tones. "My left back hoof is sprained. Not badly… But this is gonna keep me from running…"
The rest of what he was going to say was cut off by an arrow which shot through the air and stuck itself in the tree trunk, not two centimeters from his face. Brag looked up slowly. The Agrinian leader was standing upon a stony rise on at the tree line, less than two kilometers away. Though that was still quite some distance, Brag could have sworn he could see that the savage was grinning victoriously. The leader then threw back his head and let forth a war cry, as bloodthirsty and wild as ever. Lyric, Summer, and Brag had been spotted, and now each and every single one of the tired trio were hurt badly in one way or another.
Brag sighed. "Well mates… This doesn't look too good."
Lyric looked to Brag, then Summer, and then to the horde which was bearing down on them once more. He closed his eyes and groaned. "Right. I have an idea."
Brag raised an eyebrow. "Great kid. Spit it out."
Lyric didn't immediately reply. Instead he sat down on his haunches with his hind legs sticking out. He leaned over and began to fiddle with his artificial leg. Summer guessed his intentions immediately and looked in Lyric's direction with interest.
"Does it still work? I thought the professor stripped the power source out of it when he gave the leg to you…"
Lyric shook his head. "He left the emergency back-up power pack in. This thing can still be charged for a burst of speed."
"Waitwaitwaitwait…" interrupted Brag, giving Lyric a curious look. "What are you doin'?"
"I… I can charge my leg with a special energy," grunted Lyric as he continued to make adjustments to his artificial leg. "It may be damaged… But it should give me a couple hours of additional speed… I think… Just a little more… There! I got it. Right. Brag, you take Summer and make a break for the plateau; but make it as covert as possible. I'm going to intertwine these stray sticks and leaves to my tail and dash out onto the plane. If it is as dusty as it looks I should be able to kick up a noticeable cloud of dust. They will assume that the cloud is us three running for it. They'll chase after me and leave you two alone. I should be able to outrun them if all goes well… If that turns out well then I'll meet you… Ummmmm… Look! See there on the plateau's slopes? I think that's a cave…"
Brag turned to look to where Lyric was pointing and nodded his head, choosing to not question why Lyric had an artificial leg that had things like "back-up power packs".
His keen eyes spotted the target cave in an instant. "Aye. That's a cave. Don't know why I didn't see it before. Okay. I got you mate. You send them on a wild goose chase while I get Summer to safety. We'll meet up at the cave after you've outrun them."
Lyric nodded, and then there was a moment of silence, where the only thing that was head was the distant yelling of the incoming horde and the ragged breathing of Summer.
Lyric pulled a face. "Summer, aren't you going to tell me to be safe?"
Despite still being exhausted, Summer rolled her eyes and leaned in close so she could kiss him on the forehead. "I gave that up eons ago, silly. Run the heck out of them."
The next minute was spent feverishly attempting to prepare for their final maneuver. Brag searched for suitable branches and leaves as Summer intertwined whatever they could find into Lyric's tail. Soon later they were ready, with Lyric ready to run one way and Brag and Summer ready to run another. Summer kissed Lyric and Brag gave him a firm "good luck, kid" hoofshake. Lyric gave them a grin and then smacked his artificial leg hard. A long string of blue sparks shuddered up the frame of the mass of springs and pistons, and a strange whirring began to emanate from the depths of the machine. A second later and blue lights began to flicker from within. Lyric gave Brag and Summer a final nod and then shot off with incredible speed. He was moving three times faster than his usual gallop, using his artificial leg as a kind of pogo-stick to propel himself through the air. He shot off into the rock planes toward the charging Agrinians, suddenly changing directions to head a little more south, toward the plateau, but still well away from the cave. He was indeed kicking up a massive cloud of dust, and the entirety of the horde shifted like a cloud of insects to trail him. The plan, so far, was working.
"Oh Lyric, be safe," mumbled Summer, clutching herself worriedly.
"Godspeed, kid," said Brag, nodding his head slowly. A large dollop of water tumbled from the sky earthward to smack him on his forehead. That was followed by another fat water drop. Then another… Then another… Then another. Brag pulled a face.
"By Celestia… Here comes the rain."
Dimension: My Little Pony
Planet: Equestria Earth
Specific Location: The rocky planes before the desert plateau, the Stallion Empire.
Time: Five days since Lyric and Summer ventured into the Southern Jungle.
Things weren't going exactly as Lyric had planned. The good news was that his artificial leg was still running, giving him great speed, albeit less than it had on the advent of its activation. The bad news was that it was midnight and the Agrinian leader had still not given up. Over 99% of the horde had collapsed from exhaustion or given up (or both), but the leader was still going after him, followed by three of his spear-wielding cohorts.
Though his mechanical leg showed no real signs of stress, Lyric himself was trembling from exhaustion. He couldn't keep up for much longer. The rain wasn't helping, either. It was still coming down in sheets, running in earthen rivulets through the rocks and dust. Thunder would rumble across the sky, occasionally tearing through the night with long, jagged bolts of sizzling lightning, illuminating the buckets and buckets of water being dumped onto the beleaguered runners. All of this did nothing to assist Lyric in his desperate dash to safety.
"Stupid… Agrinians…" he grumbled, glancing behind him. There they were, stumbling behind him, barely able to stand anymore. But they were following him nonetheless, and once and a while one of them was able to call upon a hidden ingot of strength that allowed them to hurl their spears at him. Fortunately they were so tired at this point that they had no ability to aim, and the spears would clatter harmlessly off the rocks around them.
At that very moment the Agrinian leader picked up one of the fallen spears and hurled it at Lyric himself. It missed, of course, but it fell closer to its mark than the others, letting the whole group know that they were closing in on their quarry. It was true: Despite the power that coursed through his mechanical leg, Lyric, in his starved and taxed state, could not keep ahead of them for much longer.
Irate with tiredness, Lyric could not help but turn his head and shout: "Is… Is that all you've got? You couldn't hit the water if you fell out of a boat!"
There was a good chance that he didn't understand the words, but the horde leader understood the tone all too well. With a howl of anger, the Agrinian and his compatriots redoubled their efforts, closing the gap further. Lyric groaned and poured even more energy into running as fast as he could, chiding himself all the way.
"I need to learn when to shut up," he muttered. "Summer always knew when to tell me to keep a lid on it…"
…
Far away to the south, inside the cave, Summer and Brag were waiting near a small smoldering campfire, doing their best to dry off. They had been soaked to the skin. Summer sat at the cave mouth, staring out into the distance. Even if she had sight, she wouldn't have been able to see a thing, the air was clogged with rain so. But she didn't stop. She just kept waiting and waiting with baited breath, hoping with every centimeter of her soul that Lyric would show up again.
"Where is he?" she mumbled to herself for the umpteenth time.
Brag looked up from where he had been banking up the small fire. He grimaced as he saw Summer. With her coat matted with rainwater, he could truly see how small and bony the little foal was. It was not a pretty sight. He turned his face away and called out: "I'm sure I don't know, mate. But I can tell you that ole' Lyric is somethin' else. He isn't going to let a couple drops o' water and a small group of savages keep him from you. Just keep that in mind."
Summer didn't reply. She just kept staring and staring and staring.
…
Lyric suddenly tripped over a rock jutting out of the wet slabs he had been dashing over. He fell bodily, his face splashing into a deep puddle. He lay there for a moment in a stupor, his limbs twitching.
"Stupid rocks… Idiots shouldn't be leaving their rocks around like this… Ponies could trip over them…" Slowly Lyric dragged himself to his feet again as a spear clattered to the ground to his left and began to gallop again. He looked behind him. One more of the horde had simply keeled over, leaving the Agrinian leader and two spear-throwing followers.
Through the sheeting rain Lyric could see a small splotch that represented the cave. He knew there was danger in leading even one of the Agrinians into the midst of his friends, but he also knew that Brag could deal with them without too much issue. Since these three refused to be shaken, he knew this was his last chance. It was either this or be caught and gutted alive. Lyric glanced behind him. The three trailing him had abandoned their spears, opting to run after him with teeth bared and nostrils flaring. Their limbs were shaking as bad as his, though, and he knew they were seconds away from collapsing… Just like him.
Lyric turned away and put in one final extra burst of speed, and then his artificial leg sizzled and its power-lights went out. He was out of juice. At almost the same second the Agrinian leader went down, collapsing from sheer exhaustion. He was immediately followed by his two followers, who tumbled to the earth like boulders. Lyric hobbled a couple meters more and then turned around. Breathing like a pair of bellows, he exclaimed: "I… I did it! I beat…"
He passed out, crumpling to the stony ground like a wet piece of paper.
The Agrinian leader actually grinned. His quarry was down completely. Utterly unconscious. He looked to his minions and barked out a breathless order. The two followers nodded and drew daggers, dragging themselves through the mud to slit the throat of the sleeping Lyric. Nothing could stop them now.
A small popping noise echoed from nowhere. One of the Agrinian minions stiffened and went slack, blood oozing gently from a neat hole that had suddenly just appeared in the back of his head. The other Agrinian minion met a similar fate, with a small puncture exploding through his throat in the wake of a second soft popping noise. The Agrinian leader blinked stupidly. What had happened? He growled angrily and shouted fruitlessly to his fallen comrades to get up and finish the job. That was the last thing he ever did. A second later and he too died: With a small bullet hole appearing between his eyes.
Lyric came two a moment later. He looked to the bodies of the savages, who lay around in a state of death not one meter away from him. He stared stupidly. They were dead… But how?
Suddenly a flash of lightning ripped through the water-choked sky once more, illuminating the form of another pony standing over him, armed with a long high-grade sniper rifle. The flash of light revealed a pair of tough-but-kind eyes and a battle-scarred muzzle. Brag?
"Nice… Shots… Brag…" gasped Lyric. He passed out again.
…
"Summer, it's one in the morning," said Brag tiredly. "You sitting out in the rain ain't going to make Lyric come any faster. Come on, mate. You need to get some sleep."
Summer didn't move from her spot. All she did was flick her ears, letting him know that she had heard his plea, but had opted to disregard him altogether.
Brag rolled his eyes. Summer wouldn't listen to anyone but Lyric, and she made that point very clear. He dropped a log onto the roaring flames of the campfire. He then settled back, using one of the packs of supplies as a pillow. "Suit yourself, missy. But you're going to have to explain to Lyric in the morning why you slept in when we get an early start tomorrow."
Summer glanced irritably in Brag's direction. There was a pause…
"Fine."
Summer got up on all fours and began to walk over to the campfire. Then she stopped. Brag was immediately on the alert. She had stiffened. That meant she had heard something out of the ordinary. Quietly he got up and drew a hunting dagger from his belt. Less than a minute later a strange pony with Lyric draped across his back trotted out of the curtains of rain to the campfire. He trotted straight past Summer with the casualness of an evening walk and sat down by the campfire. He set Lyric down gently and began to tend to the bruises and reopened wounds that covered the colt's body. Not a single word had been said, as both Summer and Brag just stared in dumbfound silence as this stranger welcomed himself in like he owned the cave.
Brag squinted at the stranger as he finished tending to Lyric's wounds and put him to bed. The stranger turned to face the fire and smiled a little. "He'll be okay, in case you were wondering. This guy is tougher than ponies twice his size… And he's missing a leg. Man, you still have good choice of travelling companions, Brag. Can't say much about that girl back there, though. She looks a little young, doesn't she?"
By the flickering firelight Brag could pick out the features of this new pony. He was middle-aged, with a long yellow mane and a brownish coat. A small scar ran down his left cheek. His eyes were a brilliant blue and the mark upon his flank looked like two sniper rifles, crossed in a large "X". Brag's eyes widened in shock.
"Well I'll be… Franklin Montgomery."
Franklin smiled tiredly. "The one and only."
Brag dragged his hoof across his forehead in disbelief. Then he laughed. "By Celestia… I thought for sure you were a goner when that old tub of a boat sank with you on it... I thought you were dead!"
Franklin shrugged. "I thought I was a goner too… But… Well… Surprise!"
"You two know each other?" interjected Summer, looking in Franklin's general direction curiously.
Franklin glanced at Summer. He stopped and stared hard at her for a moment as if trying to remember something. Then he gave up and just winked. "You bet we do. This dude and I were partners a while back."
"We were mercenaries, really," admitted Brag, almost apologetically. "We fought together as a team on this hellrock known as Redzion. It was just me and him against damn-near impossible odds."
"Brag, aren't you forgetting the third member of our team?" chuckled Franklin, smiling as if he was having a casual stroll down memory lane.
Brag thought about it for a minute, then he winked. "Ahhhh… That's right, mate. Little Starlight Amber. By my auntie's pinny… Now there was a fighter."
Summer blinked. That name sounded familiar somehow. But she tossed the feeling aside a moment later. "Who was she?"
"Oh, just a pony that joined our little group and helped us raze the whole damned place," chuckled Brag. "She was around your age too… I'll tell you, kid… Ponies your age are worth a whole lot more than society makes you out to be."
Brag shook his head slowly, chuckling to himself. Then he looked to Franklin. "Tell me mate… What brings you here? I mean, you were considered dead by the agency! You could have gone anywhere, been anything! Why end up here in this hellhole?"
Franklin sighed and lay himself down by the roaring campfire. "I technically am 'going anywhere.' After I managed to build a raft on Redzion – thanks for leaving me there, by the way – I decided to sail to the closest land… That was here! You know, the southernmost bay that feeds into this jungle. I was travelling north, hoping to find someplace to hold up in Stalliongrad. Eventually I would get on a boat and sail home to the Crystal Empire."
"You know that all international flight has been cancelled here, right?" commented Summer, her head cocked to one side; listening carefully.
Franklin blinked. There was a moment of silence. "Damn. I knew I should've checked the news more often."
Brag grinned. "Don't feel too down, mate. I mean, why you want to go back to the Crystal Empire? I thought you hated that place after your wife Sapphire Anemone… Well… You know."
Franklin winced as Brag's words brought back a memory he had been trying to repress for years. "Yeah, yeah, yeah… Well, after nearly meeting my Maker on Redzion and being trapped there for such a long time I decided that that was the only place I really could call home. It may have a few unpleasant memories hanging around, but I've traveled far and wide and I have never found a place that felt so like… Home."
Brag nodded. "Truer words have never been spoken, mate. Tell me, how do you plan to get home now?"
Franklin opened his mouth to speak, but Summer interrupted. "Ummm… Excuse me? On this very plateau is an illegal airstrip. Lyric and I were travelling to there before we fell in with Brag. If you want to leave, we can give you a ride."
Franklin facehoofed. "Shoot. I knew I should've climbed this plateau instead of going around it. Well… I would love that, little filly. Brag, you heading with them?"
Brag shrugged. "Guess I am, mate. Didn't really think about it. I don't intend to leave the Stallion Empire, but I'll take you kiddos as far as the airstrip."
Franklin nodded his head in appreciation. He was about to say more when he was interrupted by a soft groan from Lyric. He was waking up. The disheveled colt opened one eye, and immediately turned around to look for Summer. Summer was by his side in an instant. She nuzzled his face desperately and hugged him as if she would never let go again. Lyric just lay there with a huge smile plastered upon his face.
"I did it, didn't I?"
"You sure did," chuckled Franklin. "Oh yeah, I helped a bit, but don't worry about it. Bask in the glory of it."
Lyric looked to Franklin. "Oh, hello. You're the one that saved me from that trio of Agrinians, right? Thanks."
Franklin winked. "Nothing to it. All it took was three pulls of the trigger."
Lyric nodded his head in acknowledgement. He then looked to Summer. "I think I passed out for a bit. What did I miss?"
Summer sat back and composed herself, taking a second to actually comb back her straggly mane with a grubby hoof. Then she said, "Franklin and Brag knew each other. They were a team a while back on this island called Redzion."
"So, your name is Franklin?" asked Lyric. He leaned up with a pained grunt to shake Franklin's hoof.
"Sure am," replied Franklin. There was a minute of silence, and then Franklin laughed softly. "Okay, dude, I gotta ask: How old actually are you two?"
Lyric pulled a face as if Franklin had offended him. "Fourteen. Is that a problem?"
Franklin began to laugh more, a little louder this time. "Oh my God! Two fourteen-year-olds braved the jungle? By Kytax, that's crazy. You two are totally like little Starlight."
"That's not the half of it!" exclaimed Lyric indignantly. "Summer and I made our way through the Frozen North while we were thirteen!"
Franklin could not stop grinning. "That's incredible. Wow… Just wow… Okay, I know you're tired, but please humor me: Would you two mind telling me a little bit of what has happened to you guys in the past year? I'm really, really interested."
Lyric looked to Summer, and then back at Franklin. Then he smiled too. "Sure… But only if you two tell me about this 'Redzion' place and the adventures you had there."
Franklin nodded readily. "Sure thing, dude. Brag, want to go first?"
Brag thought about it for a moment, and then he nodded as well. "Sure thing, mate. But this story isn't really ours… It's really the story of little Starlight Amber. She did the bulk of the work I would think…"
Lyric sat up on his haunches, and Summer scooted close to him, laying her head on his shoulder lovingly. The duo began to listen as the rain continued to pour down in buckets outside the cave, drowning the midnight sky in rainwater. But that didn't matter to the four ponies inside the cave. Protected by the age-old rocks and shielded by the rays of heat from the crackling campfire, the small group of friends began to exchange old stories late into the night.
Author's Notes. So... Does anyone remember Franklin? I'm sure some of you do. He was all the rage a while back. I know many of you have questions as to why he is here, and why he is a pony. I also know many of you are curious about why and how Lyric managed to get his artificial leg outfitted with special abilities. To all of those questions I'll simply say this: Just keep reading. Your queries will be answered in due time.
Now! Let the flashbacks begin! I will still have the same cycle of chapter-posting, with one chapter on the Inquisitors/Catalyst Corps and one chapter on Starlight Amber, but now instead of there being one chapter on Summer and Lyric, there will be one chapter on the flashbacks. There are going to be two flashback mini-stories that I will be writing. The first is titled "Shadowchess". This story talks about Brag, Franklin, and Starlight. I will say now that Shadowchess is going to be dark. It'll be blatant in its bleakness, and very brazen with violence, language, and sexual content. I'm interested in seeing how close to the M-rated line I can press. Naturally I'll have an alpha-reader(s) whom will check my stories beforehand to see if I've gone too far and to help me keep it in the T-rated area. It may be dark, but I'm going to be careful to ensure that Shadowchess never truly crosses the M-rated border. The second mini-story is titled "Into the Storm." This story will talk about Summer and Lyric after they escaped Haven of Star Circle. This story will follow the usual pattern of AMS, being firmly planted in its T-rating. I'll use it to contrast Shadowchess. I'll (probably) post chapters of the flashback stories Into the Storm and Shadowchess intermittently in its own little pattern, but that really depends on how these mini-stories develop. I'll say now honestly that I've actually written three whole chapters of Shadowchess, each with 7k+ words, and not a single chapter of Into the Storm. Don't worry though, like always, my story will reach an equilibrium in the end, despite any perturbations.
Anyways, that is it for the flashbacks. Let me know what you thought of this chapter! As stated previously, I enjoyed making this particular addition to the story. Character development and descriptions have always been my forte (though apparently I'm mostly hailed for my use of combat). And so, please leave a review! If you leave a review... Hmmm... I guess if you leave a review I'll start my work towards the second version of my teleporter. Ever since the successful advent of my time-travelling device, I've been trying to work out what went wrong with the teleporter and its bread. You leaving a review will fund my Kickstarter for my Indiegogo for my Fundable that will fund my work towards Torrenta Teleporter 2.0. If I am successful, I will let you all know and will then proceed to teleport to you all a lifetime supply of gummy bears. (Gummy bears are the new gold fish... Well, not really, but you know what I mean.)