Chapter 24: Tooth and Nail
"It was written I should be loyal to the nightmare of my choice."
-Joseph Conrad
Charlie POV
Somewhere in the White-Tailed Woods
"Will you two hurry up! Even with my wing the way it is I'm leaving you in the dust!" An irked Rainbow shouts out from behind as she hops over a large rock in our way.
"We're trying back here, asshole! I don't see you helping us carry this crap!" I shout in frustration as the weight of the sled makes me slip some and it snags on a root behind me. "This terrain sucks donkey dick like you do!"
"They could be right on our tail and you're taking a leisurely stroll?" She shakes her head as she trots further up the path. "C'mon, put your hinds into it for goodness sake! We don't have time for this!"
"What the fuck does it look like we're doing!?" I scream at her as she turns a corner of the path without glancing back, "We could use some help back here! Hey! Didn't you hear me?! Rainbow!"
She never peaks back out from where she ran off too making me grind my teeth to dust as I try and get my footing once more on the snow-covered rocks. My mouth twists with disgust as I wipe my forehead, dripping with a warm sweat despite the dropping temperature and I feel my clothes underneath stick to my skin in an uncomfortable manner.
Shaking my head while the rope slacks, I look back at the sled, "Ugh! I don't fuckin' believe this…"
The dragon peeks over the edge panting as his ever color fading scaled head enters my vision and his frustration seems to match my own.
"What? The fact that she's refusing to help or the fact that she thinks we can march for five plus hours through dense snow-covered woods without being somewhat exhausted…" Spike mutters as at least he tries to get the sled untangled, but it's pretty useless all in all because of his size.
"Neither, it's the fact she can still be a pain in my dick even in a life-or-death scenario!" I growl out as I swing the rope around my shoulder and pull as hard as I could, "You hear me up there, you fuckin' walking case of cunt rot!"
It was at this point the soaked and frosted lead snapped causing me to jerk backwards and land my now sore ass onto the hard stony surface in a grunt. I growl as I wipe my forehead to only see Spike peer around the sled with a sympathetic look, no doubt feeling guilty that he can't really do any heavy lifting himself. I look down at the torn rope like it was mocking me and angrily throw it to my left towards the raging river before I begrudgingly clamber to my feet wishing I never got out of bed this morning.
"Well? Now what?" Spike says quietly as to not infuriate me any more than I am.
"I don't know… Just give me a damn minute." I say with a cool tone as I slowly stewed in my quiet temper.
"We could leave it…" He suggests with some grimace, "I'm actually surprised we managed to get it this far."
"After all this time? No fuckin' way." I day aloud as I struggle to stand, "That and it has all of our shit in it. So, unless you can somehow grow into a roided out linebacker with mommy issues and help carry some of it, I'll be struggling back here."
"Is it worth it though? We keep having to stop because of it and you already know Rainbow isn't going to help," He asks with some hesitation while he looks over his shoulder down the hill from wence we came, "And as much as I hate to say it, she is right about something; stopping isn't an option."
I simply hummed at his point and stared at the sled where it sat while I put my hands on my hip trying to come up with a new tactic to go about this without the struggle. Nothing really came to mind making me sigh and just as I was about to curse the foundation of reality for this bullshit, something pushes passed my leg. I looked down to see that Rainbow had seemed to have backtrack back to us, no doubt hearing my insults, while donning a face that let me know she thought of us as pests. She walked around the back, nudging the dragon out of the way and with a soft groan started shifting the sled forward.
Without any words from myself, I take a hold of the other remaining lead and heave it with a little less of a fight this time around. The sled unlatches from the root and slides forward making Spike sigh in relief and Rainbow simply growls as she marches passed us once more.
"We're running out of daylight and you two are playing patty cake!? I've never seen two more useless baboons in my life!" She hollers and she doesn't even have the decency to give me a glance as she tosses the insult.
"You think we want to get eaten?! Maybe if you'd just slow down and help us we wouldn't have to stop all the time!" Spike yells and a swift chill makes him chatter.
She gives the dragon a harsh glare and pokes his chest, "Slowing down is the last thing we need! Now you better hurry up before you turn into chow! C'mon, double time!"
"We've been going as quick as we can, but my feet are killing me, Rainbow!" The dragon screams, not liking the physical motion from the mare.
"Well, you're going to have a lot more to worry about than hurt feet in a minute, you little twerp!" She shakes her head and growls as she seemingly bubbles with ire. "We've been having to pick up after you since we started walking and they're going to catch up to us because of it!"
The drake slinks down a little in a kind of guilt as her words sliced through the air and it didn't sit well with me as I heard it.
"Hey, give him a fuckin' break. He's goddamn kid!" I say in defense of the drake, and she looks at me oddly. "Considering this is the fastest I've ever seen the turd move in his life, I'd say he's doing quite alright if you ask me! If you fuckin' can't wait for us, then go fuck off ahead. Since, you know, we're 'holding you back' or some shit!"
Her glare edges into a thin crust of shame and she doesn't say anything to that. Instead, she walks further up the path a second time with at least the common courtesy to stop and gaze back to make sure we were on her tail. She gave me an agitated impatient look as we both just stared at her instead of getting a move on and I got the fuckin' hint.
Well, it looks like she's not gonna leave us, at least not yet. I don't know what's worse…
"C'mon, boots, let's get going…" I whisper and I hear a sigh behind me.
"C-can we stop soon? Its freezing out here…" He asks with a pathetic whimper.
"You know we can't! Just suck it up for now, Spike. Alright?" I say in an impatient yet comforting way. "No matter what, we're gonna have to stop when the sun goes down so you got a few hours left. Just be happy that I lent you my quilt for the time being."
"I… Okay, I'll try to m-make it a little farther, but I'm getting really cold, Charlie…" He whimpers out in a miserable voice with a sniffle, and he snuggles up into the quilt some more.
"So am I, Spike. So am I…" is what spits out of my mouth as a chill swim through my thin shirt and tackles my bare chest.
I groaned as the lead found its way over my shoulders once more and I started on after her with poor Spike trying his best to keep up. If I didn't pack the sled with much needed wood for a fire, I'd have let him ride on the back to give little Gimli behind us a break. That and moving has been keeping him somewhat warm, though I can tell that's not going to last too much longer as his color has started to fade again as it did on that fuckin' shoreline.
Speaking of longer, Spike's right about one thing and it's that we've been walking for what feels like forever with no sign of civilization anywhere. I can't be to upset though as you all know the alternative if we'd stayed at the river and it'd end with us being turned into mounds of steaming shit dumped by you know who. In no time at all and after no more complaints over taking as soon as possible, we left the sanctity of our makeshift shelter behind us. We ransacked the camp of anything useful with heavy hearts as we start the trek back upstream towards what we hoped was our salvation.
I'd decided to take the sled along for the ride even though the terrain hasn't been kind to us for it, as you've seen, because of the amount of usefulness we could get out of it outweighed its awkward size it came with. I've made it apparent to stack as much shit that we could use on it that we may find given that it isn't too heavy, anything to balance our odds of outrunning or surviving those assholes again. On top of being a helpful device to haul shit more easily, it doubles as a shelter should we get too desperate out here and run out of daylight though I'm hoping it doesn't come to that.
Though, I was beginning to hate this decision as it bumped into a tree behind me, jerking my shoulder backwards for a moment. I felt my lip curl in displeasure as I knew it was only a matter of time before it was snagged on something else due to the thick foliage and sharp rocks for miles and miles all around us.
This countryside fuckin' blew, man, at least where we were. Hills and slippery icy rocks as far as the eye could see with no end in sight. Since the stream and rivers in general follow gravity, the entire trek has been an uphill battle quite fuckin' literally. I've only been in the Appalachian Mountains one time when we were crossing Pennsylvania, but it is astounding how similar this shithole was to it. Rolling ranges of forest covered peaks with valleys carved through with thick rivers and many tributaries. Even worse, it had the same elevation issues that came with it if y burning calves had anything to say about it.
God, I miss city streets so fuckin' much, you have no idea…
The warmth of the desperate fire fleeting with every footstep forward also wasn't helping as the chill starts to worm its way in once more while we battled head on winds the entire way. That and the spray from the river every now and then showered down making us not only cold and miserable but wet, cold and miserable on top of it. A common fuckin' theme of this little adventure or so it seems. I swear on my fat sack, I'm moving to the equivalent of the Goddamn Bahama's in this shit world after this or so fuckin' help me…
We followed as close to the river as possible, making sure it was always at least a glance away so there wasn't a chance of walking in a complete circle in the forest getting lost in the process. It was our only real landmark to give us any idea of where we were, and it certainly wasn't helping that it was winding the entire way up as well. The problem with following it though was sometimes we had no choice but to walk inland away from it due to terrain and large mounds of impassable rocks. At least we could always hear the rushing river as it was no doubt the loudest thing around here, even droning some wildlife if there even was any out here.
In fact, I haven't even seen a thing out here that resembled wildlife besides that fish we lucked out on now that I think about it. It was eerie and made the impending doom even more prominent at least to me. No rabbits hopping about, no birds chirping and fluttering around, and no squirrels racing through the empty branches. I get its winter and critters hibernate, but that doesn't mean they literally sleep the entire season. They still have to go out and forage for food and shit. That's why squirrels spend like four months digging holes and filling them with acorns.
Thank you for that tidbit, National Geographic…
As we were coming around a bend, I couldn't help but feel the hike starting to take its toll on my legs especially through this thick fuckin' snow. My lack of appetite also has done me no favors in the energy department and had I known I'd be fuckin' Liam Neeson in the Grey I'd have at the very least choked down some of that leftover apple pie from this morning. To think I actually gave Twilight shit about it as she tried spoon feeding it to me. Despite maybe some injured pride, at least I wouldn't feel dead fuckin' tired right now if I did baby mushed that shit up like I should have.
I sigh quietly trying to banish the thought so I could ignore the hunger pangs and look up to see the athletic mare bounding about up ahead. My face curls into distaste at her fuckin' attitude this entire trip, but I don't make any attempt to start another argument that we had a few boulders ago about 3 miles back. I also just wanted to avoid wasting another calorie of shouting as it would fall on deaf ears anyhow.
She's been acting strange since I woke up on that riverbed, like she's trying to prove something, and I have no idea why or what it even is. She questions my every move while also on the other hand following my order to the letter as if she's waiting for it to fail so she can rub it in my face. Though, she has seen my ability to keep us going and I don't see her coming up with anything anytime fuckin' soon so maybe she's just being difficult for the sake of it.
Maybe she's on the rag… Like Twilight when I just want to sleep in on Sunday… or Rarity catching me throwing pencils at the ceiling to see how many can stick… or Applejack when I take a tactical prolonged blink in a hay pile. I'm sensing a pattern here as you can tell.
I glanced at her nimbly trekking uphill as my amused thought wiggled its way in. Rainbow clearly had no problems at all out here navigating around easily as she'd already been the nimblest of us all from the get-go. Even with her broken wing, she'd gracefully hop from rock to rock like she was playing a game at times to make the boring hike less monotonous. I guess I shouldn't complain about her too much and her hastiness as it was useful all in all. She was basically my designated scout for anything ahead calling back some obstacles to look out for and such which did help in mentally preparing for a steeper incline should one be on the horizon.
Though her nagging to hurry the fuck up was very irritating as she wasn't the one carrying an entire campsite on my back. At least I thought I was making good distance as my steady pace made sure my footing was proper as I had no intentions of sliding into the river again. The sled was a definite hindrance, but I'd still be going at this speed regardless of what the tumor with broken wings thought. Especially now that I know that there is an army of jaws waiting at the end of it.
Even though the mare and I were doing alright in our desperate run away from certain death, the same could not be said about poor Spike behind us. I turned to see him whining some as he lifted himself onto a log in our way and pathetically tumble onto the other side in an exhausted huff which made me feel for the little dude. I stopped out of pity and waited for him to catch up once more and let him pass me as I was much more comfortable being the caboose here than the slim pickings like him.
You know, for a fuckin' dragon I really thought he'd be a little sturdier for something like this, but man how wrong was I.
His stubby little legs made the entire march a miserable slog for him as you can imagine not to mention his inability to regulate body heat like the rest of us mammals. A lot of the time I had to circumnavigate back to help him up a boulder or to pull him out of a crevice of snow wasting what little valuable time we have left. I can't truly blame him as it's not really his fault which is why I defended him against the pegasus even though her words rung true. I had to yell out to Rainbow to slow down many a time, so she didn't lose us much to her annoyance and was she quite fuckin' vocal about it.
For Spike's sake and my own mental duress, I eventually positioned myself at the rear and basically followed in the drake's footsteps like he was good King Wenceslas so I wouldn't have to keep turning around. The process slowed us down a lot, and I understood what that meant, but I saw no other alternatives knowing just who was behind us and gaining quickly. A boulder in front of us made me have to lift spike over it told me that this was the right decision even if those walking poison ivy shrubs eat me first because of it.
After about 20 more minutes of walking, I heard… something and it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up straight. I paused and turned with primal eyes searching for any movement at all. It wasn't howling, growling or barking as you might think.
It almost sounded like… whispering… Whispering bouncing off the cliffs around me, so the origin was impossible to find. I couldn't make out what it was saying as it was unintelligible nonsense, it almost felt like it was being carried on the wind itself as it blew around me. I turned around to see Spike and Rainbow moving on ahead so it sure as shit wasn't them and even stranger, they seemed to be completely unaware that this was even happening.
Huh, am I just imagining things? Yeah, maybe the cold is just getting to me and I'm-
"charlie…"
My eyes snap upwards after my little introspection knowing damn well what I heard wasn't just no fuckin' wind. I dropped the lead to the sled and fish for the ax slung around my shoulder from the sling I had crafted from the leftover rope and held it firmly. I stood there looking back as if someone was going to show up any second and the tension starts to build all around me.
"Hello!?" I scream at nothing. "Is someone out there?!"
My voice echoes down the hill, but the cold wind swirling around me, and the raging river is all that answers me. My eyes narrow and I take a few steps with a terrible resolve as the motionless landscape encompasses my entire view. After about 30 seconds of this, I take a small rock near my shoe and chuck it down the newly wandered path when the stone eventually comes to a stop after hearing it clack against the stony earth and I hear it reverberate off the valley. As the noise thunders around me, I painstakingly analyzing every crack and crevice to see if anything stirs.
The terrain answers with its ambiance once more without a single soul giving any indication of its presence.
I frown heavily at this though as I stood there, some memory flashes of Pee Wee hit me and it was almost debilitating. I saw him smiling at me at the lunch table, then shaking his hand once again when he showed up in Boston, before finally that fateful night that took his life. The gunshot and the spray of red chunks and his body lifelessly hitting the floor. A pain flares through my head as the visions slap me one after another and my hands grip my temples, trying to squeeze the torment away with desperation however it persists.
My shut eyes opened to see the bulbous man smiling gently, though it was like every version of him I'd ever known was mishmashed into one.
"You're only here for one reason, Charlie… and you're wasting it…" He says in a disappointed tone.
The moment I blink he's gone and the flared lightning bolt of suffering in my skull ceases entirely. I'm left gasping in a crazed manner as my eyes flick left to right looking for my old friend a little beyond spooked. Who… Why am I…
"Charlie?" The voice of Spike behind me causes me to jump and I spin around to see him standing on a rock further up the hill. "Oh, there you are! You had me worried for a second when I turned, and you weren't there! What are you doing?"
"I…" Clearing my throat, I glance back from where we were with heavy suspicion and start the trek towards him putting the event in the vault to be forgotten, "I thought I heard something was all, but I guess not. I think we're still in the clear. Those shit bags probably haven't even crossed that river yet."
At least that's what I'm telling myself…
He hummed as I reached him and followed my pace walking at my side, "So… how long until those things are gonna catch up to us do you think? It's only a matter of time, right? You saw how fast they were."
I shrug as I wipe my cold runny nose, "Don't know, but its best not to think about it and keep moving. Just focus on moving your feet and nothing else."
He hums again which sounded like it was open ended to something on his mind making me sigh. I've been around the turd long enough to know that he was going to follow up with something that had nothing to do with what I just told him. I just pretend I didn't hear it and hope that I'm wrong.
"So… you don't seem to be worried about this whole thing." He says after a moment.
I fuckin' hate when I'm right.
I glance down at him as he hops over a small gap between some rocks, "What do you mean? Of course, I'm fuckin' worried. Why wouldn't I be?"
"You're not really acting like it…" He says as he looks up to me, "In fact, you almost look calm. Like you're in you're element. Even after you almost drowned, you haven't once acted uh… Well, like you usually do."
"And how exactly does shitting my pants help us?" I spit out as I tug the sled forwards some out of frustration.
"Well, it doesn't. I'm just…" He sighs again like he was trying to find a way to word his sentence carefully, "I don't know, I just thought it was a little odd was all. Fighting off magical plant wolves would be something I thought for sure you'd be losing your mind over for the last three hours if experience has anything to say about it."
My brow falls at that, "What pray tell does your fuckin' experience tell you, asshat?"
"Charlie, you freaked out over Twilight's ability to give me a mustache the first time you saw her do it." He deadpans. "You went into a 30-minute rant about it if I recall correctly."
"Because it's bullshit!" I say aloud in anger, "How the fuck can you even grow hair if you've got scales? You have no hair follicles! It doesn't make any sense!"
"My point exactly…" He shakes his head, "I'm just saying that-rock."
I roll my eyes as he stares at a stone taller than him, and I diligently lift him up over it by gripping underneath his pits like he was a toddler. I leap up a face of a boulder myself with some strain after he was secure on the other side and a prayer that he'd forget his sentence.
"Anyways, I'm just saying that I could have sworn you would have torn apart the timber wolves by now." He says after a minute and then snorts, "'These Goddamn fuckin' logs think they can eat me?! I don't think so! By Satan's curry slapped ballsack, what Jim Henson muppet gloryhole bullshit did I just walk into!' End qoute…"
"…I do not sound like that…" I mutter a tad offended at his piss poor Bostonian accent.
He snorts again and chokes a laugh, "Rarity seems to think so, though she does get a little upset when I use a potty mouth or whatever." his high spirit falls short as he looks back behind him with a nervous face, "I sure do hope I get back to her again. Oh, to smell her hair right now…"
My eyes involuntarily roll hearing this, "Yeah, I'm sure she'll parade you through the street with kisses on you cock when we get back…" I mutter as we start walking down a small incline, making my legs cry in appreciation. "She might even miss you so much she'll want to go get hitched as to not lose you again."
"You think?" He says with serious hopeful eyes completely missing the dry intention of my words.
I chuckle softly at his naivety as we trek forwards, "Whatever gets you through this, man."
My amusement grows as I watch him move even faster than before, invigorated by his one true maiden so far away and out of reach. This fuckin' dragon, dude…
Though the levity doesn't stay long as I look over my shoulder downstream one last time with a sense of uncanniness at the whispering voices and the vision of my dying friend, not knowing if what I had seen was actually there or not.
My own internal debate was put to rest with Rainbow calling us with some distress.
"You two are gonna wanna see this!" her voice rings out ahead.
The drake and I give each other a quick look and make up for lost ground in a hurry. Soon we crest a small hill where the cold lifeless trees start becoming scarce and come to a small clearing that makes our jaws drop at the scene. We join the mare who Rainbow turned to me with a looming smirk as we looked down at the impossible.
"Oh, you have got to be fuckin' kidding me…" I murmur in an astounded shock at what I'm looking at.
"I'm afraid I don't see any goats around here, Charlie…" Spike responds with some hesitation.
As we've been marching uphill more and more, the terrain has been getting more and more rocky and mountainous with each step. It seems the country finally came to a head as we stared down a wide ravine about a football field width apart to the other side and an about lengthwise as deep to add insult to injury. It almost like a giant struck the earth with a pickax, cracking the ground with a thunderous strike as the jagged rocks poked out the sides and decorated the bottom as if it were a spike trap in Super Mario Bros.
The main river we'd been following had branched off in a huge waterfall that sprayed use with misting of water that felt like it was christened by the Snow Miser himself. The deep and tall waterfall fell down into a torrent of rapids and small pitfalls of an unnavigable tributary that would have turned us into tenderized assholes if we were stuck in the current. We watched a floating log tumble down and quite literally explode into pieces as it struck a boulder sticking up out of the white frosted river.
This sight made me very grateful we had floated down the calmer section of water as we'd have never survived this express route to hell. But that's not why I'm losing faith in God right about now.
No, it's so much worse.
In front of us stretching across the canyon was a beaten, battered, old, ruined, unmaintained, straight out of the temple of doom, rickety ass suspension bridge made of rope and rotting wood. There were spaced wooden step platforms about 3 feet wide, some of which were straight up missing or simply hanging on by a thread, as well as a thin safety rail of rope tied to two wooden posts sunk into the ground as support. The other side was slightly fogged from the misting water so it was kind of difficult to see, but I could make out the other supports holding if not by its silhouette. As you can already imagine it's not exactly pulled tight, so it sinks downwards with the middle being the lowest point and of course its covered in enough snow to tell me that it sure as shit hasn't been used.
"So, what now, oh glorious leader?" Rainbow asks with a cynical chuckle.
"My first order is for you to jump down headfirst, dickhead." I rolled my eyes as the reins drop behind me as I take in my surroundings, but it sure as shit wasn't good news.
Following the new river, I could see no passable way down as its almost a sheer cliff straight down and would be our doom if we even tried to navigate the slippery surfaces. We obviously can't wade through the river to our left as it's still far too wide and we'd definitely drown before freeze to fuckin' death for sure. We lucked out that the last time…
Looking behind me was still shit news as the cliffside we'd been following had might as well have been the great wall of China. We'd been hugging it while we walked for about an hour possibly even more and just as going down was impossible so would going up. And walking back from where we came? Yeah, go fuck yourself with that one. I'm not kibble the last time I checked and it's going to stay that way.
"Rainbow, do you know where we are? Or at least recognize something? This is a landmark if I've ever seen one…" I say to her a tad irked by her attitude all damn day.
She huffs as she scratches at her head and looks down the new river and the rapids below, "Uh… I think this is the beginning of the White Whirly Twirly Rapids… maybe…"
"Maybe…" I repeat as I rub my forehead and turn to her, "Can you just once just say yes or no to my fuckin' question instead of pulling names out of your ass like it means something. We are either here or we're not, there is no fuckin' maybe!"
"Fine! Then I have no idea where we are then, jerk!" She sits on her ass and crosses her hooves, "I don't know why you keep asking me when I haven't recognized any of this bucking wilderness…"
"Because you're the only one who might have an idea. Spike sits inside all day touching himself so he couldn't tell me the difference between a pinecone and a turd!" I quickly look down at the drake, "No offense."
"No, no I agree with you!" The dragon says shivering a little.
"And I'm literal mutant monkey from a different dimension! I have no idea the scope of this place is. The closest mountain range to where I used to live literally scales almost 25% lengthwise of the fuckin' planet! I have no fuckin' grasp of where we are!" I yell down at her again.
She doesn't move from her spot as she stares off into the distance like I'm not there, clearly hurt by my comments though too proud to say anything about it. Fuckin' women, man… It takes me a minute to calm myself and eventually I let out a sigh as I didn't really have a play here.
"Okay, to get something actually accomplished let's say this is the 'White Whirly Twirly Rapids'…" My eye twitches at the name and look at her with a pleading expression, "Where does that put us exactly? How far is this new river and could we follow it possibly. Maybe there's something closer than the farm or anything!"
She sniffs from the cold after a moment and looks back and forth taking everything in before she nods down the rapids, "That should lead to Froggy Bottom Bog eventually, but its even farther than the town. That and it's quite known for being a little… rough in the terrain department."
"N-not to mention the other t-things living there! We got enough m-mythical creatures on our tails as it is, thank you very much! I'd rather not add g-gorgons and Hydra's to that list!" Spike shouts as he starts stomping in a circle to keep warm, no doubt feeling the cold from standing still for too long.
"Well, what we do then? Go back?" She asks with some caution as her gaze views the trail where we stumbled up. "We'd have to at least walk another 45 minutes before we get to a clearing again…"
I don't say anything as her words start to burn onto my brain and the literal dead-end starts to build up in front of us. With my options wilting before my eyes, I walk over to the rickety fuck ass bridge and look down at the first step with a minute feeling of anxiety.
"We're going to have to go across then." I say after a moment and walk towards the back of the sled to peel off any excess equipment off me just in case.
"W-what?" The dragon asks, surprised by the answer. "How are we g-going to cross that! It'll barely hold my weight let alone all of us!"
"We have to…" I say as the ax swings down onto the back of the sleigh with a small thud and I start fastening the pile of lumber down. "There's no other way and we can't go back even if it's the safest option."
My vision shifts from the snow-covered wood to the water below and let me tell you, the depth of the crevice seemed to get even deeper with every second of staring. I shake my head slightly at the feeling to knock it away while I do some quick breaths to drum up some confidence. Before I know it, I take a literal leap of faith and my feet land flat on the surface making the entire thing creek some, but it settles.
I look behind me as the two watches in horrified curiosity if It'd collapse or not and I decide to take my test a step further. Taking a moment to mentally prepare, I grapple onto the side ropes and start jiggling the bridge about, up and down, side to side, even doing small jumps to try and simulate someone walking. Not much really happens except one of the hanging wooden platforms snapping off and falling straight down into the ravine, smashing to pieces against a large dagger of stone before disappearing into the water below.
I blink in a stunned silence and slowly back off the bridge as I contemplate the best way to go about this.
"Screw that!" Spike suddenly screams out and almost starts hyperventilating. "You're out of your mind if you think I'm going out there! I'll take my chances with the wolves!"
"And get torn apart limb by limb while you're still breathing?! Choking on your own blood as they go to town on your innards!? Huh!? You want that!? Because that is exactly what's going to fuckin' happen if we don't do something! Dying ain't pretty no matter how you go fuckin' believe me, pal, but I'll take my chances plummeting to my death than that!" I shout as loud as I could at him with closed fists.
He flinches hard and takes a step back out of literal fear of the mental image making me regret snapping and putting the fear of God into him almost immediately. I'm just too tired, hungry and cold to have an ounce of patience right now. I look over at Rainbow and she kept a neutral expression knowing that what I said had weight to it and she glances at her crooked wing as if it were a reminder to the alternative that I spoke of. After an icy moment, I stooped to one knee with a huff and motioned for the lizard to come closer which he does.
I grab onto his shoulder as I try my own definition of comforting, "Look, its either we do this, or we backtrack through almost all our progress and most assuredly get nibbled on in the middle of the night which we both don't want. This is gonna suck and I ain't gonna sugarcoat it for you, but it's this or nothing. I know this shits scary, man, but believe me when I say it could be worse. It'll be over before you know it. Alright?"
Spike looks down at his feet scared out of his poor childlike mind contemplating between a rock and a hard place. Truly almost an impossible decision if anyone else his age was in his metaphorical shoes. He takes a small, hitched breath and squeezes his eyes shut as he seems to fight within himself the only apparent option. He finally sighs in a defeated yet fearful way and looks up at as if to find some assurance and flash him a confident wink and shoulder pat which he seemed to take in stride.
"And what about you?" I say to the pegasus looking at me with a neutral expression, "Anything to rebuke? Now would be the time since you've made a fuckin' career out of talking back to me at this point."
"That bridge sure doesn't look stable, and I can't fly if it falls out beneath us…" the mare says aloud as her face falters some.
She looks around just as I had, weighing the options and quietly sighs while cursing under her breath. Her face clearly shows worry, a rare scene for the mare or at least as much as I've seen from her myself. The thought gives me an idea to win her over on my plan a tad faster.
"Or are you just too scared…" I allude with a small smirk. "It's okay. I'm sure the others would understand seeing just how dangerous it is." I look down at Spike, "We'll just have to find a slower, safer route for Rainbow it seems since she's being a big pussy."
Her eyes flashed with anger as her head whipped towards me hearing the words of subtle mockery.
"What did you just call me?"
"Meow…" Was my only smart assed response which enraged her more.
Her teeth gnash together like they were grinding wheat. "Why you… I'll have you know I'm never scared!" She announces proudly as she points to the bridge, "I could run to the end and back before you could even lift a weird, booted foot, you monkey! Let's just get this over with so I can go tell Scoots how awesome I was out here."
I couldn't help but breathe a small sigh of relief at her new zeal. She's impossible to work with all in all, but at least we're on the same page for once. I'll take her spiteful anger over trepidation any day, especially in this scenario.
As I stand, I wipe my brow and look at the bridge pretty dubious that the sled would make the trip, but it'd be a shame to leave it after all that bullshit pulling it… With my mind made up, I turn to the both of them I take the lead to the sled and roll it back closer to the pitch it came from so it should be easier to guide.
"Alright, you two are going to cross first…" I mutter as I start making sure my belongings are snugly secured on my person.
"Why don't you go first." Rainbow spits out, "If it collapses, I'd rather It happen to you. Might even make the trip worth it if you fall funny on the way down."
I flash her a murderous glare, "As much as that feeling is fuckin' mutual, do you really want to be then stuck between a canyon of doom and a pack of bloodthirsty weeds?"
Her mouth twists as an answer letting me know that she'd at least play along for now.
"Fuckin' exactly. And for your information there's a reason for it." I point behind me to the Toboggan. "I'm going to bring the sled with me and seeing that I'm the only one with enough strength to pull it properly right now I have to go with it. That means the safest bet is for you two to go first and I'll come in right behind you once you're both across. If the both of you make it together then I might have a cunt hairs chance with the weight."
The dragon shakes his head vehemently, "Just leave the stupid thing! There's no way that things going to make it!"
"Spike just-" I growl as I try not to yell at him again, "Just do what I say, everything will be fine. I didn't drag the fuckin' thing for half a day for nothing like I told you already."
He shut up but he really didn't like it and I don't really blame him.
"Now, Rainbow, Spike's going with you because he might not be able to make some of the gaps by himself." I explain as I stand up looking at the two of them as I start to fold the blanket around some items. "When I see that you cross, I'll then test my own luck to see if I should play the lottery when we get back to town. Got it?"
"Sure… But this is really dumb even for you." Rainbow grumbles though there's a hint of apprehension.
"Duly fuckin' noted…" Sneers out of me as I look to the panicking drake, "And what about you? You get what I'm selling here?"
"I guess so…" The dragon whimpers out.
"Alright, good. Now listen to me very carefully. If you see that bridge break and I tumble down, no matter what you can't stop. You gotta keep moving." I explain as I hand the makeshift backpack to the drake, "In here is everything you'll need to make a fire. The lighter, some leftover bark for tinder, and of course the blanket. Remember to make sure your wood isn't wet, or it'll just suffocate the flame and you'll never get it started again."
He takes it from me with an unnerved look and his eyes dart to me, "Charlie, I don't-"
I grab onto his shoulders, shaking him some as I punctuate my last point. "If I fall… you'll do what?"
He pauses as he takes in my serious look and turns to rainbow for help. All she does is give him a curt nod as if to say to listen to me.
"…We won't stop…" He says quietly as he looks at the blanket, though I can tell he really doesn't like it.
"Make sure he listens to me." I say to the mare, but she remains quiet as she watches me with an unusual look. "And another thing you two, don't look down. You'll get fuckin' dizzy, believe me."
The two after much preparation on their mental state, took a couple steps towards the entrance of the bridge with Spike leading. He looks at the first step and audibly gulps before attempting to turn around, but Rainbow actually nudges him forward. He holds a bated breath as he lands on the first platform, and I could see him tense up in front of the mare before he let out a relieved sigh seeing as he didn't immediately plummet to his death. He took another step forward and the pegasus follows him with the steely reserve she had shown during my remarks.
"Don't look down. Don't look down. Don't look down." He repeats as he gets farther and farther across until he is drowned out by the rapid moving water below.
Rainbow, for all her worth, was pretty levelheaded out there not once really showing any real struggle. She did exactly what I instructed her helping him across some gaps, but other than that everything was running smoothly. Their bodies started to disappear a little as they crossed into the foggy mist and I could only make out their shapes as they got further and further, however something went wrong. For whatever reason, they halted and stood there for a moment before I could hear a call.
"Charlie!" Spike cries out scared out of his mind.
"Yeah! What is it?! What happened?!" I had to scream over the roaring noise fearing the worst.
"I looked down!" he shrieks, and I imagine he's straight up pissing his pants.
You've gotta be kidding me…
"Jesus Christ, call me fuckin' Shrek cause he's a donkey…" I mutter under my breath and cup my hands around my mouth, "KEEP MOVING, YOU IDIOT!"
I could hear Rainbow's voice garbled to only a tone and they started off again, completely disappearing into the fog. I sat there looking off waiting for some kind of response or just anything at all from the pair, but after a worrying amount of time had passed, I started to get a little nervous something had happened. I actually took a step forward on instinct to start to cross myself when I heard it.
"Hey, monkey! We're across, no thanks to the scaredy cat here!" The raspy voice carries over.
"Alright! I'm heading over now!" I respond as I start to grab the ropes slinging them over my shoulder.
"You heard me!" Rainbow screams and I get confused as to what she was on about until I kind of heard Spike too, "You froze out there and I had to-OW What was that for!"
A smirk appears over my face at their antics, and it was well needed to be honest. Is some levity around her too much to fuckin' ask for? My grin fades as I now look to the monstrous task at hand knowing that there's a good chance I'll be dead in the next five minutes.
Oh well, kill me once shame on me, am I right? What the fuck else do I got to lose.
With a magnanimous step forward, I feel the platform sink some as it did when I had tested it earlier and without another thought I was off to the Goddamn races. Everything was going dandy until the sleds full weight dropped onto the primitive bridge and the entire thing swayed a little as well as the ropes tightening with eerie creaking and dared not to move a muscle until I knew damn well that this thing wasn't going to snap, and I get the Clayton treatment from Tarzan.
After a nerve-racking couple of seconds, I give a silent nod as if I was still convincing myself that all was well and started off again, sometimes having to take larger steps over missing platforms. Overall, aside from the nut clenching noises, the bridge seemed to be acclimated to my weight, but I wouldn't bet I could be out here for too much longer. The thing looked like it was made when these ponies still lived in caves, fearing dinosaur reprisals and discovering the usefulness of fire.
"C'mon, Charlie…" I whisper to myself like a loon, "Didn't you ever pay attention to Kris Kringle when you were little? You loved that fuckin' movie. Put one foot in front of the other and soon you'll be walkin' cross the floor~"
My nervous singing wavers some as I look down, not following my same advice that was given to Dumb and Dumber and I watch some chucked snow tumbled down into the misty river below.
"Holy fuck nuggets, Batman…" Is all I say as I shake my head, "Haven't been this fuckin' high up since the roof of the Kutz plaza and there sure as shit wasn't no fuckin' water at the bottom of that."
I keep moving despite a small spell of vertigo hitting me and I ignore it like a red headed stepchild as I make good pace. Eventually the fog around me starts to whisp away like I was a wedge and I see the other two sitting on the other side that was a picture-perfect definition of anxiety. Spike was biting his nails like he was a fuckin' typewriter and I'd be lying if I said Rainbow wasn't watching intensely, like she'd have to spring into action at any minute.
I smiled some knowing that I was now at the home stretch, but then something… happens. Something I didn't account on when I came up with this garbage plan…
The bridge shifted up and down rather suddenly. It wasn't the bridge collapsing as I first thought, or some of the lines failing like you'd think. But rather, it felt like someone had stepped on the other side making the tension bounce me around and I held on for dear life confused as hell. My head snaps to the other two and they were nowhere near the bridge and I sure as shit didn't feel a strong gust of wind so what the hell.
The bridge then bounces again so I know for a fact it wasn't no fuckin' fluke or my sanity failing me.
I turn around and look back from where I came with a wrinkled forehead as the white fog shows me absolutely nothing. Well, except the rope guidelines swaying slightly in a kind of rhythm to where they vanish as if someone was using it…
"What the fuck…" I say in almost a stunned delirium as I feel the bridges tension tighten some more.
The hot breath swirls the mist around me as I intently stare off into the abyss not really sure what to make of it. My hands glide off the rains some and I reach over the back face slowly and grip the end of the ax handle. Time felt like it was stopping as I watched onwards as my gut tells me it's something I don't want to fuck with, so I turn to make my way to finish line.
But something stops me again.
"Charlie…"
My eyes harden with suspicion knowing I heard my name called out from out in the fog and I see a dark humanoid figure approaching closer. It was moving, taking steps in tandem with the feeling of the bridge with each step and my confusion started to grow as it appeared from the threshold of the fog. I felt a gasp leave me as I looked at someone I knew very well as he stared at me with a somber smile.
Dylan stands there almost transparent as he looks at me with a slight nod and his hand raises pointing an all too familiar revolver at me, almost recreating Bill one for one that fateful night.
"You always liked the odds being against you," he says calmly in a voice as clear as day, despite the thunderous noise around me.
His hand moves slightly as he cocks the hammer, the sound reverberates through my skull while I'm stunned into a corner, not believing what I'm seeing. I stared down the barrel of the gun that did me in and my blood freezes awaiting the darkness that proceeded it.
His somberness increases as he looks me down, "And we both know that this is no different."
Just as I was anticipating that fateful gunshot, his visage swirled into the mist around him as a Timber wolf lunged forward with a freight train of a roar.
Raw instinct alone saved me from a dagger filled maw and becoming one with the cycle of life as the ax handle was lifted in time to take the full brunt of its attack. The sled being between us was thankfully acting as a barrier which stopped him from completely tackling me to the ground and an insufferable death coming after. The damn thing thrashed back and forth thinking it had a clasp on its prey, whipping me around from one side of the bridge to the other as I kept a death grip on my only weapon. This thing was beyond my strength as it threw me around like a ragdoll or a toddler and I struggled to not fall backwards.
To my complete horror, I managed to take a glimpse over this thing back and could see a linear line of brown humps slowly making their way towards us with deepening growls, though that may have been a part of my imagination too for all I knew. Fearing being overrun in a matter of seconds, I took a chance and released one of my hands to assault the face of the creature. I threw hard weighted punches to the side of its head causing it to shrink back some pulling me along with it as it still would not relinquish the ax.
As it recoiled and I was pulled in closer inside the sled, my eye catches the draw knife hanging off one of the pouches making my look harden. With my slim window to make a move, my hand rockets towards the farm tool, grabbing one of the handles, and I yank it free before I raise it over my head with a war cry. Despite this thing not being a weapon in any way, shape or form and it even being awkward to wield, I cleave downwards like a machete and the tool embeds itself on the outer portion of its cranium right next to the ear. The strike almost lops off an entire chunk of wolf shit and it dangles in a kind of sickly way with green goo squirting outwards.
The wolf shrieks in agony releasing the ax, but before I could follow up on the initiative with a killing blow, another clambers over its wounded pack member in a murderous frenzy. With my main weapon freed, I left the draw knife sticking out of the reeling creature and put a full force swing down onto the oncoming foe. Unfortunately, the blade was not aligned for a proper cut so the side of the double-sided ax simply whacks it over the head like a club, stunning it momentarily from the hefty blow.
It was at this point I noticed a third wolf had started up and over the literal dog pile to get a taste of my pasty white ass in a hurry and started pinning its friends from freely moving. Before it too could lunge at me, I twirled the ax with the momentum from the earlier blow and jabbed the heavy metal forward like a spear right at its mouth causing some teeth to shatter like fireworks. It fell backwards into and slipped between some of the floor supports, struggling to climb back up.
A growl to my left showed the first attacker was recuperating from the devastating blow and tried once more to pounce me but I don't let it. With the draw knife wolf coming back into the fight, the ax swings around once more and strikes true splitting the wolf head almost completely in two with much assistance from the first gash It sputtered pathetically, and its luminescent emerald eyes started pulsating like light bulbs losing power.
The bridge around me groaned from the herculean struggle but I didn't care as I felt adrenaline surge my body as it had many times before.
"IS THAT ALL YOU FUCKIN' GOT!" I scream in a manic rage knowing full well I'm making these bastards bleed for every inch they give. "I'LL TAKE YOU ALL ON!"
The second wolf, still pinned underneath the last attacker, threw a clawed paw at my abdomen with the tearing of fabric from my shirt and I felt the searing pain of flesh being sawed into. My teeth gnashed in agony and the veins in my neck clenched as pain scoured my torso, a daring blow, but I was far from being out of the fight. Quite the opposite in fact.
The wet hot liquid starting to drip down my stomach pulled my senses away and I fell into a frenzy of sorts as they had now drawn first blood against me. A free hand reached for the still stuck draw knife embedded inside of the dying creature to pull it out as if I were king Arthur. It twisted out of the wound with a sickening wet sounding splatter and the green lased tool slashes around wildly at the one who landed the strike. I scored hits tenfold and paid back the amount of blood spilled with fervor as chunks of shit fall off the timber wolf into the depths below. When the fury of a blood drunk berserker starts to ween out, the face of the second wolf was akin to an aftermath of a lawnmower accident and it too starts to twitch and sputter.
My pleasure of seeing this thing deep fried, seasoned in Old Bay, and served in a plastic basket to God wasn't around for long as one of my wild swings connected to one of the rope guidelines, severing it completely in two. The whole bridge shifted around like an earthquake and twisted like a Twizzler as more and more supports started failing, snapping like gunshots. My mistake was felt almost immediately from the strike and slowly started to turn to make a run for it to safety.
Just as I started off and slung the ax over my body like a stringed bow, the third and final wolf pounced onto my back biting down onto my shoulder. I could feel each individual tooth pierce into my shoulder and shout unintelligible growls trying to free myself, but it was almost impossible with how he was pinning me. I looked up as I squirmed as hard as I could to see Rainbow pulling Spike away from the bridge as he was calling something out that went unheard as the attacks continued and I knew I was done for.
No one was coming to save me this time and this thought made me fight even harder.
The draw knife, still in my hand, swung over all around me, however because of the angle it was useless as he thrashed me around content with his dinner. It wasn't until the tool nicked another rope and I saw it unwind slowly did I know how to escape. How by a cunt hair of a chance I was going to make it out of these here woods alive.
Let me tell you, it was a hail Mary of hail Mary's…
With my free hand, I took hold of one of the wooden platforms and to the best of my ability, started purposely hitting all the supports severing each one. My movements make the wolf attack even more, but I didn't care as it I was now in the endgame of this fight. The pain was almost simply put aside as if it was just an object placed onto a shelf to be forgotten as my cornered ass used up my last life. The bridge started tilting to the side heavily as my arm lifted above and I gave one last yell as it came down onto one more support and the deed was done. The pressure of the creature on top of me instantly disappeared as soon as it was cut and the that funny feeling of G-force hit my stomach.
The bridge was now completely in two pieces, and I was in a full swing down towards the cliff side like I was George of the jungle. I barely had time to brace as I felt the full force of the momentum slam into the hard stone knocking the wind out of me entirely and pain surge down my shoulder. The sudden blow makes the knife tumble out of my hand and it falls down into the unknown unlike myself.
Don't ask me how I'm still holding on despite the fall and the wounds because I can't come up with a proper answer.
I hung there for a moment before my hands mechanically moved by themselves and I climbed up the broken bridge like a latter, using each wooden platform as a knew step. After a great struggle and a lapse of memory, I found myself peering over the edge with shaky breathes and heave myself up and over and somehow, for reasons that are far above me, I found myself on flat land once more. I crawled quite a few feet away and turned over onto my back to stare up at the sky cold uncaring sky and feeling my whole body shaking from the entire ordeal.
I leaned upwards in almost a delirium after a moment and something touching my thigh.
I slowly look over to my two surviving companions who had descended upon me immediately with Spike gripping my shirt with teary eyes and Rainbow looking at my wounds. Their lips moved, but they said nothing as my ears rung either from the loss of blood or the fact that I slammed into a cliffside like a train collision.
The mare and the dragon yelled out in a muffled way making them come back into focus. I saw the two looks in complete surprise towards where the bridge was, and I turned to see the wolf that I had cleaved in two from the ax. One part of its head was sagging downwards held on only by a string of plant fibers that leaked and oozed what I assumed was some kind of chlorophyll blood. I could tell the thing was hurting bad because it could only pathetically crawl its way towards me like it didn't hear no bell and it had a snowballs piss chance in doing anything to me.
Seems the thing climbed up after me and I didn't even notice, but overall, I wasn't too alarmed as it was no longer really a threat. The thing was on its last leg as it got closer, limping and sputtering of the sorts. It was at that moment, with my ears still ringing and my shirt being tugged away from it by Spike, that reality started to close back in.
And that reality was blistering rage…
I clamber to my feet, pushing Spike aside in the process, and shuffle towards it as I pull the ax around my shoulder. The weapon lifts over my head as I start to pick up some speed and it tumbles down onto its head once more, finishing the cut I had started with draw knife moments ago. Half of its head flings off the shit gobbler once and for all as my strike was fatal to the creature. The thing slumps down and the eyes fully go out finally like no one was home, this however, didn't stop me from unleashing my anger on it.
The ax lifts again and falls onto its meaty logged neck with a thwack and spurt of its strange liquid splatters onto my shirt in contrast to my very own blood.
The ax lifts again… and again… and again… and again…
The corpse of the hell beast that become sickly strings of confetti from each strike and my yells progressively get louder and louder with each swing. Some of my screaming is incomprehensible, some of it is just obscene profanities about its mother, and some of it is just primal shrieking as the strikes continue. I kick and shout between each swing as months of pent-up fury which had been locked away is finally unleashed for all to finally see.
Days of pretending like I don't give a shit… Weeks of dealing with whatever fucked afterlife this is with talking fuckin' horses… Months of remembering who fuckin' betrayed me without any fuckin' recourse… All released at the same time at the poor dead sod below me.
The feeling was… cathartic and I was lost in it.
My swings started to slow as exhaustion starts to set in, but I keep going taking longer between each swing, but I manage it still somehow. Finally, I collapse onto the ground in front the newly made mulch and the ax clatters to the stony ground next to me making the metal ring a tad unlike my ears as sound starts to come back to me fully. My heavy breathing was all that I heard and felt as even then my wounds were negligible. After a moment of collecting myself, I let loose one last enraged scream, and it echoes across the valley however it didn't ring alone.
AWWWWWWWWWWWWWhhhhhhhhhhhhooooooooooooooooooo
A singular howl could be heard across the concealed landing on the other side of the foggy ravine and other savage tones join in. I couldn't tell you how many were left, but there must have been still a sizable chunk left given the harmonizing sound that rung out across the landscape. The group howl was ended with barks and growls as they disappeared, heading down the rapids, no doubt looking for a new crossing once more. All this told me is that the fight still ain't over.
All I did was just buy us time…
My breathing normalizes after that thought and I sit there in silence for who knows how long as a much-needed break wash over me. The river spread its ambience around us as it always had, and the wind swirls around me. The sun was cresting underneath the mountain and the sky was full streaks of orange fire, yet it yielded me no warmth. The cold was as ever present as always and the only cruel reminder of where I was.
It wasn't until a scrape of footstep made me jump and prepared for a fight once more, but all I saw were two awestruck and terrified people instead of a bloodthirsty piece of birch. They held the faces of someone who'd never seen unbridled violence on a scale quite like that before from me or anyone before.
Rainbow looked very uneasy at the sight, like she was glad it wasn't her. Her eyes were glued to the ax and the remains of our friend Fido with something akin to a sickly, horrified look and if she didn't have fur, I would have no doubt seen her face pale. Her look bounced to me every now and again, though her eyes flick away when I made eye contact. She didn't seem scared, as I've never seen her scared ever before, but cautious was a better word for it.
Spike was along the same lines as his mare counterpart with the exception of his gaze never leaving mine. He stared, what seemed like, through me with a face that looked as though terrified and relieved had a child that was raised to adulthood in his eyes. His head cocked as I sat there in complete silence still getting the motions around me in check.
My clenched fists fall open and look back to where the bridge sat moments ago to see no sled or bridge that was once behind me. There were now only two wooden posts with ropes slung down over the edge as a fateful reminder of the fight and a foreboding message that there truly was no way back now.
"Charlie?" Spike asks like I was bound to explode again.
I sigh as I look back over at him to see he had taken a few careful steps forward, but I don't respond as my eyes were still wild, ready for a fight. He looked in between me and the remains with a twisted mouth before making eye contact again.
"I think you got him…" He says eventually with a small smirk.
I blink hearing that innocent sentence as it completely ignored my brutality altogether, something I wasn't expecting. The words send all senses of combat into a retreat as it makes me realize I got out alive just I had done many times before. I fought my way out and lived to tell the tale…
Giving a quick small laugh, I nod my head slowly, "…Yeah…. Yeah, I guess I did…"
"You guess?" Rainbow snorts as she gets closer, still staring down at the corpse a tad unnerved. "It looks like you put it in a blender…"
"What did you want him to do? Give it a hug?" Spike sneers back at the pegasus.
"No, I wanted him to throw it a birthday bash!" She rolls her eyes at the dragon and eyes me some. "I was just pointing out how dead it was thanks to… him." She looked as though she was going to say my name and stopped at the last second.
"Well, I'm not going to refute that!" The dragon screeches as he looks to me excitedly. "Oh, by Celestia, Charlie! You should have seen yourself out there! You took on so many all on your own! You were swinging and punching and hitting and fighting with all you had! The way you snapped down on the one with the ax was-eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee"
It was at this point my ears started ringing once more and the sound of the animated kid falls silent. I watched Spike turn into a mime of sorts, consisting of exhilarated flamboyant movements, no doubt recreating the events that just transpired given that he was almost playing charades. One being swinging an invisible ax around and throwing punches at an invisible target. Rainbow looked at him with a chagrined annoyance as hit kid like wonder to wander about though she'd look at me from time to time, analyzing my movements or what little movement I made.
I stared at them slack-jawed from the shock or what have you and over their shoulders I could see someone looming further up the trail and my focus falls to it only as the other two are quickly forgotten.
Dylan was standing alone just as he had on the bridge, but that all knowing smirk he liked to wear wasn't there. He held a sour face as if he hadn't counted on something happening and it ruined his fuckin' day. A face I actually knew quite well at Mr. Cheng's hotel room when he had voiced his thoughts on how the matter was dealt with and especially towards the end with my decision making.
However, this time it felt different. Like he was different.
I… I can't explain it, but I just knew it wasn't Dylan if that made any sense because it sure as shit doesn't to me.
My gaze upon my old fallen friend was quickly squashed as something nudges my leg and I let loose a gasp like I was in the middle of a never-ending daydream. Rainbow had walked closer after who knows how long I was gaping like an idiot and stared at me expectantly.
"Are you…" She pauses as if she was second guessing her own question, but then silently huffs, "Are you alright? Spike asked you a question and you just kinda gave us fish eyes. I don't have to carry you, do I? Your Charlie slime won't get out of my fur if I'm not careful."
I look back over their shoulder once more to only see a dimming countryside without someone who had no business being here. Taking a moment to collect myself, I just wave the two off.
"I'm fine…" I mumble, weary from the beyond fucked day.
"I don't know, your back is bleeding pretty bad." She says aloud as if to say otherwise and gives me an expected look.
I shrug without saying a word as I truly didn't know if I was or not. I felt the wounds she was asking about, but it must not have been serious as the pain was tolerable if not annoying. Looking down, I could see a small drip of crimson leak onto that fugly stained yellow shirt and soak into it adding to the hundreds of stains from a week of painting.
"I said I'm fuckin' fine." I say more sternly, and the mare grows a look that just screamed that she wanted to persist. "I'm just winded is all. It's not every fuckin' day you become King Leonidas at Thermopylae, Persians present and all."
Shifting my leg forward to plant a foot onto the ground, I use it as leverage to rise off the snowy covered cliff side. As soon as I'm standing, my legs felt like jelly as I looked down at the predator turned prey with hatred. Or looked at what was left of it. I wasn't kidding when I called it a pile of mulch earlier as there seemed to be no clues to even give to what it was before if you'd never seen one before.
I clear my filled sinuses and hock a loogy on its corpse. "Piece of fuckin' shit…"
"Well… it's certainly a piece of something now alright." Spike says in a careful tone as he stares at it and then over to the wrecked bridge.
I grumble to myself for a moment and then voice the concerns aloud, "How did they catch up to us so fuckin' fast? I thought for sure we had at least a day on them…"
"They must have been working overtime to find that crossing or we were a lot further downstream than we thought." Spike surmises as he looks at the wrecked bridge, "We must be really juicy if they keep tailing us like they are… But why? We're nowhere near the orchard anymore. Something must be drawing them toward us…"
"Who cares about those bucking wooded creeps!" The mare finally barks out as she joins us, "What are we going to do now is the right question around here! Its getting dark and cold and we just lost all of our wood and the only thing we could use as shelter."
"Is that all you care about?" Spike sneers back with narrowed eyes, "He just somehow fought through an army of those things, got out practically unscathed. No thanks to you by the way."
"What's that supposed to mean?" She says with an insinuative tone.
"You just stood there and while he got knocked around out there when we should have gone out there to help!" He points a finger at the seething pegasus, "You watched him with complete indifference, but now you're worried about some stupid wood!?"
"No, Spike, I'm worried about freezing tonight! Sure, he took down a timber wolf, but how does that help us right now." She warns as she looks around. "If anything, we're in an even worse state than before…"
"You're truly unbelievable, you know that?" Spike spits back as I just stare at the two. "To think you stand for the name of your element."
She shakes her head some as she looks up towards the sky, "You're not understanding me. I'm not downplaying the situation, I'm on the weather patrol so I know how cold it can get over here. The temperature is going to get to a point not even a northern yak could live through, and we don't have enough time to go forage for a new home. Something you won't have to worry about since you've been sooo helpful since we got out here. Maybe we should get a foal stroller just for you…"
"Excuse me?!" Spike screams, outraged at her sarcasm and the two start a shouting match.
The both of them fall into a bickering mess as I look back towards the bridge, the thoughts of Dylan standing out there reverberates through my head once more. My frown is only matched by my knitted brow as I try to contend with my apparent loss of reality. Of all the fuckin' days I can go spend down memory lane, why the fuck does it have to be now…
Some movement in the pile of timber wolf, catches my attention as it starts to shift some. I thought for a second this thing was about to Lego build its way back to a standing creature once more and almost shit a brick. However, this thought is soon squashed as I watch the green goo spread all around the ground start to summon patches of adolescent grass quickly sprout upwards, maturing in seconds and wildflowers start to bloom. I could only gaze in wonder at the flowers for only a few seconds longer as they now start to wilt with pedals falling below. The grass surrounding the sudden floral display starts to turn brown falling downwards toward the earth into a fine powder.
Something touching my finger makes me snap my head straight down to see the green that was covering my hands, arms, shirt… well, it would be easier to say where I wasn't covered.
Anyways, the goo doesn't grow patches of grass as it had done on the ground, however, it did turn a dirt brown and I could feel my skin feel unnaturally dry as it too turns to this powder. I rub my thumb against my pointer finger to get a feeling of this new powder and it was reminiscent of very fine sawdust. I looked back down at the pile to see some of it whoosh off the wood pile as the once lively logs now resemble the dead hollow trees back on the orchard.
Dry and hollow… Huh…
While the two were a stretched condom away from strangling one another, I walked over to the bundle of necessities I'd given the small turd in case I kicked the bucket. Peeling through the items after unrolling it like a red carpet at Hollywood, the brass lighter finds its way to my beaten and bruised hands with a weight that might as well have been equal to gold. With a flick of my thumb, the cap lifts off and a small flame emits from it, and I almost shudder as the foreign warmth reaches my wrist.
Finally, I wander back over to the pile of just an ordinary pile of wood if a passerby had gazed at it and rearranged them into a kind of Lincoln log hut, the perfect fireplace formation for a blazing bonfire. The lighter flicks to life once more and I hover the flame over some of the dust, it crackles and pops almost immediately as the flame travels around like a plague before it whooshes to life with a blaring bellow.
Spike pokes the mare whilst shivering like heavy machinery. "-And another thing, you flying crash dummy, you're always-"
The sudden burst of light causes the two to snap their heads over, not expecting the sudden wave of warmth.
I wipe my nose and grimace towards them when the task is complete, "You two fuckin' done yet? Or am I gonna have to build brick walls in between you two because I've got time if it fuckin' comes to it."
They both gave each other a look like they weren't sure if they should continue or not, but the heat seemed to make them concede in a cease fire at least for now. Rainbow rolled he eyes heavily before sulking over with a drooped head collapsing in front of the flame mere inches away in a huff. Spike all but dove into the fire doing back strokes and he quickly got comfortable making sure his small, battered feet were propped upwards taking the brunt of the small sun I've made.
The blanket unrolls entirely and the large tarp like covering wraps around me seeing as Spike has made off with my quilt like a bandit. Can't say too much about that though as he lost his hat and scarf in the river, so he needed something, I guess. Even though the fire felt wonderful as I took a seat next to the others, we had no cover to speak of as I had no energy to move all that wood someplace else.
That and we ran out of the precious daylight which battled the ungodly cold that now pounced on us.
The sun was about set entirely at this point and the moon was in its new phase so there would be no lunar luminescence this terrible night. The trees wash away into the thick darkness as if it were swallowed by the abyss and only a small yellow ring of light around us could be seen. I watch the mountainside completely disappear as if it wasn't there at all. The only sign of it was the outlines against the starry night slowly concealed by my hot breath, showing the infinite cosmos and all its wonder as light pollution is nonexistent in this realm. A redeeming quality from the blank sky of Boston and I find comfort in for some reason.
Sitting there stargazing at Luna's handy work like it'd be my last chance do so, I didn't notice Spike crawl over towards me and the only clue to his movement was sudden weight sinking into my lap as I sat Indian style. Looking down, I saw the turd curl into a ball and whimper some as he looked at the flame agitating my wound. I was going to yell at him to get off me, but he looked absolutely miserable as he was far ill-equipped for this kind of extreme weather, so I let him be.
Another reason being, this could be our last hurrah to sleep so I deemed it appropriate to give him at least that much.
"You t-think anypony knows we're g-gone yet?" Spike whimpers, cutting through the silence with a stuffy nose. "T-they gotta know by now, r-right?"
"I don't know, Spike." I truthfully answer with a certain calmness to my voice. "As far as they could know, the others probably thought we fucked off somewhere quiet or something… Maybe Applejack put it together with her sled gone, but she's not gonna be able to find us anytime soon. Not out here in this bullshit."
The wind picks up with arctic fury to exemplify my point and we all openly shiver at its touch.
He hums quietly and I feel him wiggle some as he rolls into a pitiful ball, sapping as much heat from me as possible and falls silent once more. After a few minutes, his soft snores could be heard as he falls unconscious into a warmer dreamworld hopefully. My eyes slowly descend on his cocooned form, his small, clawed hands squeezing a loose piece of quilt like it were his prized childhood blankey with tired eyes. I see his now gray colored snout was poking out of the hood he fastened for himself, and I see the teeth chatter nonstop.
Seems he pushed with all he had today… But what about tomorrow.
"Does he need any more blankets? Maybe I should pull off my fur for him too while we're at it." Rainbow says with a giant load of snark, and I give her a harsh glare. "What? He gets all of our covers, and we freeze? This wood isn't going to be enough, and I wasn't joking about the temperature plummeting. Tonight's going to be the coldest night of the year."
"Quit bitching. As of right now, we got a fire and about a day between us and maws of teeth." I say with a tired tone, "Fuckin' enjoy it while you can…"
"Yeah… enjoy this…" she mutters as she waves around the emptiness around. "Right away, boss."
"You'd rather we didn't have a fire?" I say as a rogue wind could be heard battering against the cliff side.
She huffs like she knew I made a point but didn't want to admit it so she just curls up into herself and watches the flame dance in our stony fortress. At this point the ax was in my hands once more and my grip on it turned my knuckles white as I stared out of the dark crevice waiting for our visitors who could be 2 hours away or 30 seconds from bursting in.
Rainbow snorted at my action, and I turned towards her with a scowl just knowing she was planning on pushing my buttons.
"I think we're fine after the thrashing you gave them." She says as she rolls her eyes. She waves a hoof at me, "They probably buzzed off back to the farm by now. It's far too cold even for them to follow us."
I lift the ax a little and motion towards her maimed wing, "You really want let guard down after that? I know I sure fuckin' wouldn't."
She looks at her twisted wing and grimaces, "I just don't see a point in worrying… If they find us, we're screwed anyways."
She hears me give a strange laugh at that and her brow falls along with her ears.
"What's so funny?" She asks with a tinge of annoyance. "That wasn't a joke."
"Nothing, it's just I thought you'd have a little more iron in your gut is all." I say with a chuckle. "Since, you know, you carry all that bravado around 24/7. Could at least pretend that you don't want to die."
"Who said I wanted that?! I want to get out of here as much as you do," she defends like I hit a nerve. "You think I want to be stuck out here and rely on you?"
I blow air out of my nose, "No, but you could at least stop being so fuckin' negative. Ever since we washed up on that riverbed you've been almost no help at all in the morale department that's for fuckin' sure."
"That is hilarious coming from you." She says and she shoots me a nasty look, "You are by far the most negative pony I've had the displeasure of meeting. You practically radiate misery wherever you go, and it sure does spread like wildfire to ones around you that's for sure."
I shrug as my face scrunches, "So what? Would acting like that now really help us at a time like this?"
"It's just-" He growls in annoyance before she sulks a little, "I'm just saying it doesn't matter is all."
I shake my head in a miraculous manner as I poke the flames around with a stick. "Man, you really are pathetic."
"What?!" She screams at me. "Say that again, I dare you!"
"I said you're fuckin' pathetic. You get your ass kicked one time and you just give up… tch you'd never make it where I fuckin' came from that's for sure." I pull the stick out and blow on the embers that formed on the end, "You've obviously never been kicked while you're down and it sure fuckin' shows."
"When the hay did you become the beacon of hope all of a sudden?" She spits out and stands up, "I'm surprised you didn't just lay down to die as soon as those wolves showed up."
"Yeah, well I fuckin' didn't, did I?" I snarl at her, "I didn't on that fuckin' bridge and I sure as shit didn't do it at the orchard either. In fact, you better count what lucky fuckin' feathers you still got left that I didn't let that thing chew you like jerky. Might have pissed on ya too to mark its scent if I waited long enough."
"And I didn't ask for your help!" She screams out like it slipped out by accident.
I stared at her for a moment before I started to chuckle heartily, "Oh ho ho ho ho… So that's what this is all about. You're just upset that I saved you and you can't come up with a good reason to hate me for it!"
"I don't know what you're talking about…" She growls as she wraps her good wing around her.
"That is sooo it! Haha! Oh my God, that's the sweetest irony I've walked into in quite a while." I clap my hands together as I rub them with some enjoyment, "Aw man, just wait till I tell the rest about this! They'll be all over you like flies on shit! 'So, Rainbow, what was it like crying when the heroic Charlie fought off that big bad wolf?'"
"That's not it at all!" She screams and it reverberates off the closed walls.
"Whatever you say, damsel in distress… I'll make sure you're in a different castle the next time I come to the rescue in full plated armor. Might save you the embarrassment too if I'm feeling merciful." I laugh out making her groan some more.
"Shut up!" She stands again like she's ready to tussle. "Or I'll go over and buck you to-Aarrrg!"
She collapses after she flexed her bad wing by accident as she stances for an attack and her face scrunches in agony letting out some small huffs of pain choked breaths. After a minute of getting her shit back together, she slowly turns to the broken wing with a defeated look as it twitched helplessly. I watched the mare hold back whimpers as to not look weak in front of me, but experience told me that it was still there. She sat there for a time trying her best to recover, but it seems she really aggravated her injury this time as she showed no sign of returning to normal anytime soon.
This was fine by me. Ain't my problem after all, though hearing her whine for twenty minutes… well, it starts to get annoying. I looked over at the outstretched appendage in question and even if you didn't understand horse physiology you could easily tell it was twisted in an odd way.
Actually, now that I'm looking at it, it almost looks like its… Hmmm.
After one last pained yelp from her, I moved the ax to my side and making sure Spike was snuggled into my blanket. He whines as he does so, but still doesn't awake. The turd is really out of it is what I muse to myself. I stood up with an unenthused look donning my face for I knew just what I was about to get myself into.
Taking a step towards her on a mission, her head immediately snapped over at the noise and she scowled at me.
"What are you doing?" She demands as her ears perk straight up like a cat giving me a warning not to come too close.
"Something that's gonna hurt you a hell of a lot more than it will hurt me…" I groan feeling like I was wasting my time.
She looks me over and then down at her wing before her eyes bulged out of her head like she put two and two together.
"G-get away from me! Don't touch it!" She inched away, but she couldn't properly escape, not with the pain being as it was.
I leaned down and she starts swinging her hooves to swat me away, but I stayed just out of her reach and simply gave the mare a deadpanned face as she tires herself out. I was about a foot away in a squat watching her pant like she was a few seconds away from complete exhaustion.
"You get that out of your system?" Her panicked eyes give me my answer and I rubbed my forehead before I point at the injury. "It's dislocated."
"W-what?" she says after a moment.
"Your wing. It's not in its socket and its only gonna get worse until its, you know, back where it belongs." I say with a bored tone.
She looks at it with a pursed lip and back to me, "How do you know? You're not a doctor!"
"No, but I've gotten my ass kicked more times than I can count, and I know a dislocated shoulder when I see one." I scratch at my mangled hair, "and I've also popped enough of them back in to fix em too."
"I'm not letting you touch me!" She screams back stubbornly, and I roll my eyes.
"Listen, I don't want to do this anymore than you want me to, but this only gonna hurt for like a minute and then you'll be able to stand up straight again." I say assuredly and I point at my nose, "Remember when I set this honker back in place when you gave me a shiner back in the court? Same thing except there's no fuckin' magical princess God around to zap you better."
Her eyes drop to the floor like she was thinking back to that moment in the court room all those weeks ago, but she doesn't say anything.
"Is it numb and tingling on each side of the joint? Possibly going up the tip of your wing?" I say as a way to convince her, and her eyes lights up with confirmation. "Then it's dislocated and a pretty easy fix all and all. Something even a monkey like me can do. Should consider yourself lucky that I just need your cooperation and you'll be right as rain."
She looks at me still with crazed defensive eyes and still doesn't respond.
I stand up with a silent huff and turn to walk back to where I was a minute ago, "Or fuckin' sit there and suffer. Worst case is you get eaten when those things come back because you can't properly run away. Like I give a shit…"
Just as I was about to sit down and rest once more her voice ring out again.
"W-wait a minute!" I turn slowly with an impatient look as she still brews with trepidation. "…You can fix it, right?"
"It's gonna hurt like hell if I can, but no promises." I shrug, "No matter what you're still not gonna be able to fly, though at the very least it wouldn't hurt as bad if we had book it again."
She bites her lip as pain sways her conviction against allowing me to help her and one final twitch of her wing seemed to convince her.
She turns to me with a soured face, "Alright! But no funny business! You try one thing and so help me…"
"Do I look like a fuckin' clown to you?" I say and her amused face causes me to then I wave my hands quickly, "Actually, don't fuckin' answer that. Let's just get this over with."
I walk back over and lean down to examine if it was even something I could fix or not as I might have been wrong about the injury. Not being able to see the joint properly, I stand and essentially swing my leg to the other side so her back without feathers blocking everything. Being the first time, I'd actually taken a look at some wings on one of these things up close I couldn't help but to stare in curiosity at the bizarre nature of it.
As you know, these ponies are covered in fur like any other horse. However, on these pegasus, the fur only goes up to these mounds sticking out of a pegasus' back where two balled joints started that looked incredibly similar to a shoulder. Like a bird, or maybe in this case a bat I suppose. Where a few small feathers start to manifest and soon enough replaces the hair altogether as the foreign avian quills make up the majority of the wing. It just looked odd as the fur and the feathers held the same exact color and tone, so it cohesively looked as if they weren't two separate mammals mishmashed together like God playing scrabble.
For more understanding of what I was looking at here, I outstretched her good wing and I felt every muscle pull against me while doing so and her head flips around with a glare.
"Having fun back there?" She angrily shouts. "I'm not a filly doll!"
I blow a soft raspberry at her as I examine her, "…I'm trying to understand how your wing moves. Don't want to twist it in the wrong direction now, do we?"
"Just hurry up!" She yells as her head hits the ground in a thud. "This is very uncomfortable…"
"For you and me both." I say as I look down at her. "Now shut up and let me work."
She tensed the appendage some more and eventually I felt it relax so it could be outstretched as far as it could go making hum at the sight. The profile didn't really resemble that of an eagle as I first assumed. It more or less was akin to more of a seagull or a falcon than anything else, but I guess I shouldn't be too surprised as its literal usable wings on a half tonne horse… Though I thought for sure it'd look like a vulture for sure knowing this whore.
"How's your wounds… I can smell the blood and it's making me nauseous." The mare spits out to make this less awkward on her part.
I look the shoulder and just shrug, but then realize she wouldn't have been able to see me. "Just a splinter…"
She actually laughs at my crack however I can tell she really didn't want to. "Really, that's surprising. You didn't look like it was just a splinter out there the way you were squirming like a worm when it was on your back."
"What? I thought you tossed off dogs every weekend with back shots and all." I hum out as my devious mind starts its wordplay, "You should be used to things like this by now. Hell, you probably even see Flash with his sheep friend while you're at it, you naughty thing…"
"You know about Flash?" She asks incredulously. "I thought it was just a rumor… huh…"
I give a deep chuckle knowing my amorous plot against that stupid stallion was working, though I couldn't help but miss his presence out here at the thought.
I moved the wing around gently as I felt all of its different movements, and I watched the joint move around exactly like a shoulder would with almost 360 degrees of free movement with some limitations of course. This similarity to my own arm was probably why I was able to catch the injury so quickly as this was the most human feature on these fuckin' things. Which is absolutely a jar of wet dog shit if you don't mind me saying so.
God, I miss seeing other normal people with hands…
"Where did you learn to fight like you do?" Rainbow asks suddenly, still thinking about the bridge battle.
"Does it fuckin' matter?" I say annoyed at her sudden interest of my existence.
"Not really… I'm just curious. I've seen anypony so…" Her words die in her throat as she can't seem to find the proper word.
"Savage? Barbaric?" I finish her line of thinking and she nods silently, still not meeting my eye as I looked at her back. "Ironically enough, I guess good old dad did. Living with him was like a cage match everyday and it just sorta… carried over, I think. Why do you want to know?"
"Do you lose yourself when you get like that? Like you can't control it?" She questions and I see her head turn to side eye me. "Because that's what it looks like."
"Is there a fuckin' point these questions?" I demand as my hands find themselves on my hip. "You never gave a fuck about how I do things before so what gives."
Her head turns away from me and she looks at the fire, "The way you… dealt… with the wolf was very similar when you lost your mind in town. When you almost dealt with me the same way." I remain quiet as I try and ignore her words. "Were you telling me the truth that day on the farm. You really don't remember what you did?"
I silently huff as I scratch at my beard, "…I get flashes of it every now and then…" I say to her truthfully. "But overall, I've got no idea what the fuck happened that day except for the aftermath. And no, I don't know why I did it so don't even bother asking me…"
She doesn't give me a response to that one allowing me to continue my exam unimpeded.
Looking over at the damaged wing it overall looked pretty okay for the most part. The wing was still in one piece more or less minus a small section of feathers missing with dried blood already scabbing over where the wolf went to town on her. Well, there still is the deformed joint that looked like an open and shut case of a dislocation I'd ever seen, but she's lucky that her wing wasn't destroyed any more than it was.
After confirming my suspicions and making sure I understood how the wing moved, I unbuckled my belt and slid it out of the worn loops, folding it in two. Moving it in front of her, her nose wrinkles at its sight.
"Uh… What do you want me to do with that?" She asks with a lifted brow.
"I need you to bite it." I say and I drop it in front of her as I crack my beaten knuckles in preparation. "This is really gonna hurt…"
She looks at it like she wanted to throw up, "Ew! I'm not doing that! It's got Charlie germs all over it!"
"You know, I never took you for a Rarity, but we're both learning something new today…" I say with a shit eating grin.
She gave me a look that should have sent me straight to the crematorium and she grumbles as she takes the beat-up leather in mouth and bites on it hard. I can't help but laugh a little at this as even she knew how much of an insult that was. With her all prepped for Dr. Charlie's procedure, I place one hand on her mid-back between the wings and the other gently on the front end so pushing it down was easier on me.
She tensed up like hell and I sighed, "You need to relax, or this isn't going to work."
She mumbled nonsense as the belt was still in her mouth, but it wasn't hard to figure out what she was saying.
"It's easy, I'm gonna count down from 5 and then you're gonna feel a pinch. Just fuckin' breathe and it'll be over before you know it." I try to comfort, but as you could guess she didn't look convinced. "Fuckin' trust me. It'll be over before you know it."
I wave her to lay her head back down and she does so with a shaky breath no doubt wondering how painful this was going to be. With my hands positioned back to where they needed to be, I get ready to count aloud.
"Five…"
Feeling her relax a little I immediately jerk the wing down and out in a quick solid motion that took the mare by complete surprise. It crunches a little, but then does the signature pop that I knew meant my job was done. Her scream of agony was muffled by the belt, and I saw a small tear slide down her face and I look at her indifferently.
"snirk Hey, I told you it'd hurt… Can't say I didn't warn you."
She spits out my belt angrily and looks at me like she was going to murder me with her mind, "What happened to counting down to one!"
"I lied." I state quickly like it was no chip off my shoulder, "If I did that you would have tensed up again."
"You lying, conniving, abominable ape! You could have torn off my…" Her words die in her mouth as she looks towards her wing and moves it a little with some surprise. "Wing… It… it doesn't hurt anymore."
"Yeah, you're welcome, asshole…" I wipe my mouth a little disgruntled at her reaction, "Don't try flying yet either, your muscles are gonna be all pulled and useless for a while, but you should be able to at the very least sleep properly now."
I grab my belt from in front of her and start looping it around my baggy pants as I made my way back to my seat. Getting comfy once again I start to cook my hands in the flame that's been gradually shrinking since I lit it due to the wood being burned through. Spike moved a little and I placed him back in my lap, making sure the blanket was draping over us again.
Rainbow sat there where I'd left her with her mouth parted slightly as she watched me, and it definitely didn't go under my radar as I glanced over at her. It looked as if she was trying to read something off of me yet couldn't seem to put pieces of a puzzle together. We sat there for quite some time however her look never recedes.
I groan after trying my best to ignore it and look over at her finally, "Didn't mommy and daddy explain to you how rude staring is? That would have been right before the conversation about the birds and bees and making sure you swallow so you don't get pregnant."
She doesn't break eye contact as her head slightly shake in disbelief. "I don't get it…"
"Don't get what exactly? I fixed your fuckin' wing, it's pretty self-explanatory if you ask me." I snark towards her.
She stands and looks at her wing moving it slightly and then back to me with the same look. "No, not that, its you… You don't make any sense…"
"I think Twilight said the same thing to me at one point," I rub my chin as if to recall the event, "Or did she just call me a hopeless invalid…"
"Why?" She asks as if that wasn't the most loaded question in existence.
"You see, in the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth, Et cetera and 1200 pages later you were squeezed out of your mom's vagina after she did some Kamasutra saryadaw type fucking with your daddy." I look at her blankly as I put my arms to my side, "I don't know what you're asking me here, man, but I'm not in the fuckin' mood though."
"Why are you helping me?" She says aloud and she doesn't avert her gaze. "Even after everything I've did to you! It just doesn't make any sense! So why!?"
The fire crackles and pops as the intense staring competition starts as I ponder her question.
After a moment, I sigh and shrug overtly, "Listen, God has been shitting in my Cheerios my entire fuckin' life and your little pesky attempts to fuck with me is nothing in comparison." I point at her with a hardened look as she didn't look convinced, "I don't care what you did to me, but Spike needs you at your best to get out this shiitake mushroom mess we're in because I can't fuckin' do it by myself. So just fuckin' say thank you and try to get some sleep so we can get this kid out of here."
She looks down at the dragon in my lap and her look softens as she watches his form move slightly from his deep soft breathing. Rainbow looks at her wing one more time, flexing it some with discomfort as the soreness I promised was there and huffs as she curls closer to the fire without saying another word. She looks at me every now and again with globes full of thoughts, but she at least keeps it to herself.
Time feels as if it is moving slowly now, however I'm completely unsure as the only watch I have on me has been permanently broken for years. So, I won't be able to figure that little thing out until Celestia had her morning suck and fuck before she gets the hell out of bed to do her fuckin' job.
One thing I will say is that the promised chilled night these two mental defficents had predicted was finally upon us. The temperature fell even more, and I could tell as my beard started freezing stiff from the wet snot dripping out of my nose. Even being practically inside a bonfire didn't help at all and stray chatters slammed into me every now and again making me wish I'd just let those wolves eat me like Rainbow had suggested.
Speaking of the cunt, a small whine makes me slowly look over to see Rainbow also in a desperate state as she wrapped her wings around herself. She huddled close to the swaying fire to stave off the wind like a shield, but it was unsuccessful if her chattering was any indication. This fire was the only thing keeping us alive but only barely and there was still a good chance we were going to freeze out here, her included.
I suck in a sigh through my nose watching her and make a decision I'm regretting even before making it.
I whistled to catch her attention and her head swivels to me with half lidded eyes while my hardened brow furrows deeper. She sees my arm lift upwards with the blanket in hand, making room by my side for about the size of an annoying blue pegaus I fuckin' know so well. Rainbow gave me a look like she was about to laugh at me for even thinking she'd consider my silent invitation, but a rogue wind pelted her even harder making her eyes squeeze shut in a considerable amount of discomfort. Her globes peer at me again, this time with a bitten lip as she no doubt is fighting every bone in her body getting any closer to me than she already has to.
Finally, a terrible groan leaves her, and I watch her quickly trot over taking a glum seat next to me with an averted gaze, embarrassment to the level she now has to stoop no doubt. She still kept a noticeable gap between us, still wanting to keep some of her dignity in one piece, but that changed when the blanket drapes over her back. Almost as if it were instinct, she clambers closer as the heat was insatiable even to her pig headedness.
I feel her side against mine and her fur rubs upon the bare skin of my forearm, and it tickles the flesh as she breathes.
"Comfy?" I ask with a playful grin on my lips. "I could get hail for the butler to get you some caviar if you're quite famished."
"Stop talking to me…" The mare warns without so much as moving her head so much an inch.
I feel a snort come out at that as I dig through Spike's blanket, looking for my flask.
"I'm just being friendly…" I say in a tone that would get my ass kicked in any other situation as the cool metal container finds its way into my grip. "It's not every day I've got the privilege of being sooo close to the legendary Rainbow Dash herself without a flurry of hooves flying at me."
"Have you ever been told you're very annoying?" She spits back at me, and I can almost feel her try to scoot away however my body warmth is too succulent to actually pull through with it.
"Fuckin' plenty…" I say aloud looking at the sloshing reciprocal.
I unscrew the top and gulp a small amount of the liquid gold setting leftover jitters still. Man, what I'd give to be in a bar right now sharing drinks and jokes with a friend. My fingers subconsciously glide across the blank tin colored flask as the many memories of happy hour and late-night parties of our lucrative office tremble in my mind. Those days are long gone now though.
Never again will I find myself inside Casper's with the same sense of joy…
The mare moving some causes me to look down at her as she tries her best to get comfortable in the blanket, what little there is in this predicament, and she shakes her head as if she too was reflecting on the past. I know that look, it's a look that I wear more often than not, and I know just what makes it better.
My hand holding the flask moves towards her and she sees the uncapped flask tantalizingly in reach of her mouth. She looked very unsure as she smelled it and stared at me strangely before her hard hooves pincer the flat cup together in a primitive hold. Something that most of these ponies who can't cast magic have to do since the lot of them go without opposable thumbs. How they get by in life is beyond my understanding.
I watched in a piqued interest as she takes a small sip as I had done, knowing how little was left and her face sours while she smacks her lips obviously not used to the sting of the strong liquor. Despite the discomfort, she quickly went in for seconds and much to my alarm it weren't no little gulp either.
"Hey! Don't fuckin' drink it all!" I say to her and quickly pry it from her cold hooves in a fright, "This ain't a Goddamn tap house! This is all I got and then I'm more fucked than I already am."
She licked her lips some more and wordlessly looked as I twisted the cap back on once more and stuffed it back into the sack known as Spike. He shivered some as the cool metal touched him, but he doesn't wake despite the yelling. With my only hope safe and secured, I pull the blanket around me closer which in turn mad the stupid horse bundle up closer which makes her narrow her eyes at me.
"What?" I ask at her silent mad dogging. "You still thirsty? I've got something else you can suckle on if you are. I hear it hits the spot this time of year and its quite warm too."
"I hate you so much…" The mare murmurs tiredly and her glare shifts toward the fire.
"Take a fuckin' number then. I've got a lot of other people who hate me a lot more than you." I say back, in my usual sardonic tone.
She surprisingly gives a soft genuine laugh at that one as she sinks to the ground to rest her head, "Those wolves out there sure got me beat in that department, sure, but I've been giving them a run for their bits I'll tell you that much, monkey."
"I wasn't talking about the wolves…" I say cryptically as the fire spun and danced in the air in front of us.
The mare doesn't reply with words, but rather with faint snores as she too was now fast asleep, showing that she hid her fatigue well leaving me the last awake of our dwindling party.
A twig snapping behind me causes me to slowly turn in its direction with a nasty glare. The war-torn ax in my lap creaks from my tight grip and I sit there silently waiting for something to happen, but it never does. It may have been just my own paranoia rearing its ugly head at me however I don't let my guard down for the remainder of the cold night.
Time passes and the fire wanes to a smolder before the crack of dawn is seen in the clouds above. My eyes sting, but I make sure not to get a single second of sleep as I'd like to at least see my death coming. I had that going for me the last time I kicked the bucket at least.
The sun finally peaks over the valley ahead of us and the bare sun shines down in its orange aura upon me unobstructed. The moment the world around me became visible once more, I sigh in relief knowing that the darkness hadn't swallowed us up like it seemed it was going to. Looking down at my sleepy miserable counterparts, I sat there a moment readying myself for the same crash course we had the day previous.
When I felt I was ready, I begrudgingly shake the dragon awake first as he'd give the most push back if any other morning spent with him told me anything.
Spike gasps awake at my movements like his dream was about to end with him getting nabbed in the night and I see his shuttering breath mist its way around him. He sits up a little holding himself as he shook and before he could say anything he falls into a coughing fit. It wasn't a small little sore throat kind of hacking either, as it sounded wet and deeper than it had any reason being. He eventually spits white phlegm onto a ground in front of us following pathetic small sickly breaths.
"W-what? W-where…" Spike says aloud with confusion as he scans the horizon for any clues.
"Up here, idiot." I say neutrally though I can't help but crease my own forehead watching the display of illness.
His head whips up and he stares at me for a moment before his shoulders droop in a dreadful manner.
"T-that all happened… Didn't it…" He says with a very nasally congested voice, "It wasn't just a nightmare?"
"No, it sure as shit wasn't." I pat his back a little roughly and he jolts forward a little. "So, get your head back in the game, boots, we gotta start moving again." I say and I feel his hand on my knee to prop himself up more.
He blinks up at me with crusty bloodshot eyes, "A-already? I was really hoping t-that was all just a-"
He descends into another fit of loud coughs, this time doubling over my thigh as he looks something akin to choking on food. The violent sounds of the drake wafts around the mare's ears and they begin to twitch in odd ways like sonar dishes picking up a distant signal. Rainbows eyes flutter open, dazed and confused with unkempt slobber matted into her fur. She looks up at me, then her close proximity under the blanket makes her pupils shrink with a realization.
In an instant, she leaped out of the blanket like her life depended on it. Unfortunately, she seemed to forget why she was in there to begin with and immediately began shivering as the crisp morning air assaulted her warm fur.
"Gah! It's freezing out here!" She starts tap dancing not wanting to have a single hoof placed firmly on the ground for too long.
"Preaching to fuckin' choir, Captain Dickvious. Is the sky being blue another point you got or are you all done?" I say to her quickly before I look back at the poor drake, who at this point looked like a shadow of his former self. "Spike, are you alright?"
"D-define alright?" He asks as his eyes blink out of tempo, looking quite weathered as Rainbow would no doubt say.
"Alright to move?" I elaborate, as the sense of burning daylight hits me.
"I… don't know…" He answers honestly and stands up though he sways some with a small painful cough.
Rainbow walks closer again and we share a look at his answer as he weakly rubs his eyes.
"Spike, maybe you should go back to sleep for a little bit. You look like you're going to keel over any second." Rainbow actually tries to console with sympathy in her eyes. "We'll go find some wood to start the fire again and we'll-"
"He can't." I sternly mutter making her look at me like I lost my mind. "We have to keep going or else we ain't making it."
"What? Look at him, you dimwit!" She points an incredulous hoof at him, "He can't go anywhere!"
"What happened to 'hurry up, Spike, you worthless worm'?!" I sneer with indignance. "You're such a fuckin' hypocrite. You barked at us like you were Gunnery sergeant Hartman with a hard on for Private Spyle for the better part of the day, and now that he got the sniffles you fold!"
"Well, that was before he started looking like Sweetie Belle's burnt pudding!" She hollers back and she turns to the dragon. "Spike, you're not going anywherel, don't listen to the monkey, his brain is too stupid."
I don't say anything back as I stand up but not before gently lifting the sick drake onto the cold floor and he winces at its touch. The blanket falls into the snow behind me and I start rolling it into a makeshift sling to carry it much easier in the snow.
"Hey! Didn't you hear me?" Rainbow orders as I hear her walk closer and I feel a hoof jab into my back. "He's going croak before we even leave view of camp let alone another trek through headstrong winds!"
I spin on my heel and look at her, "And we're all gonna croak if we don't start moving! Those fuckin' wolves move a hell of a lot faster than I thought. I'm actually surprised we're not their chew toys right about now." Turning to the drake, I motioned further up the path, "Spike, get your shit and count how many toes you got left cause we're leaving."
"I can't believe what you're asking of him right now!" She shouts, outraged in a rare defense of the twerp. "If you think I'm letting you have him march to his doom then you've got another thing-"
"He's right." Spike says to the blue mare as he orients himself and ties my quilt tighter around himself. "We have to go."
She walks closer and lowers her head to meet his eyes, "Spike, you know you can't. You're gonna-"
"I'm not going to get eaten by those things!" He shouts with absolute terror and small tears forming, "I'll freeze, sure… but I'm not getting eaten… I won't let that happen…"
The mare's eyes soften significantly at that, and she gives me pleading eyes as she seems to know that I'm the only one to talk sense into him, but it falls to deaf ears.
"I can keep going, Charlie… just say when and I'll be right behind you all the way to the end…" The small bundle of dragon whimpers out and I nod causing Rainbow to huff.
"Spike, help could be right around the corner…" She warns to the drake softly.
"Do you want to bet your life on that?" Snaps towards her with ire when I answer for him.
She looks around the desolate landscape, devoid of all sentient beings aside from us and full of man meat loving trees. She sits there, thinking hard and eventually her ears fall flat at the prospect of the only help coming for us is from ourselves.
"This is a bad idea, and you know it…" she iterates as she looks at the both of us.
"What choice do we have…" I say as I know deep down that she's right about the dragon not making it far.
The two start to move onward ahead, further up the trail and just as I was about to join them, the fire pit catches my eye one last time. The burnt-out head of the beast, still smoldering in the dying fire, stares up at me that instills a grim reminder of what lies behind. It was charred and barely recognizable, but I could see an ember in the remnants of its eye socket making it appear it was staring up at me with unending prejudice.
"The fuck are you staring at…"
I sniff and wipe my nose before unzipping my pants and take a morning leak onto its fuckin' face as one last insult to injury. It sizzled and steamed as Charlie juice lathers over it, and I give a satisfied smile, hoping I had at least given a warning to the fuckers still on their way and a message to know what will happen if they try me again. Zipping up my pants, I turn to see Rainbow and Spike peering back, watching the scene both with silent disgust and understanding before we were off once more, up the hilly slopes of the White-Tailed woods.
I don't know how long we'd been marching for, maybe a few hours, but it was quite the distance as I started seeing the sun shining above us, so it had to have been mid-day.
The walk was more dismal than the day before either from an unrestful night of sleep, pangs of hunger, or even the weather itself. The wind had picked up to an unbearable level and the constant incline upwards did us no favors either. Even without the sled swaying behind me I found my pace sluggish, and my breath shortened with each step.
Rainbow and I were tired, but we still had strength to press on because we had to.
Spike on the other hand… That was an entirely different story…
He was slowing down quite a bit, even making me straight up nudge him forward through simple obstacles that wasn't a problem yesterday. Rainbow and I would have kept a steady pace, but the mare insisted we had to make frequent stops on the dragons account as he was falling apart at the seams. His coughing was getting worse as well and he practically was leaking mucus from his stuffy nose. Also, the shivering was also to the point where it was worrying though there wasn't much I could do about it as stopping wasn't an option.
It wasn't until we hit another bend of the river did it finally come to a head.
In our way was a cliff shielding wide waterfall from swallowing the land around it. Because of the vicinity of the rushing water, the rocks were pretty slippery from ice freezing we struggled greatly or at least most of us had. Rainbow, having no problems at all, was sent off ahead at my request to see if there was any sign of life anywhere as took small breathers.
Spike, with my help of course, crested the lip of that would have been the end of the incline and he collapsed after taking only two steps forward. I grimaced as I passed him to continue on.
"C'mon, Spike, we're almost there… just a few more little climbs and we'll be back on flat land again. Just how you like it." I muttered as started my way to the other rock. "Now let's get yer stubby little ass up."
"…"
"Spike, I said let's get a move on!" I scream as I turn to him, and he doesn't budge. I shake my head as I walk closer to him, "We don't have time for this! C'mon get up!"
He still doesn't move an inch or give me any indication that he heard me at all making me groan aloud as I leaned down.
"Unbelievable… Lazy cocksucker." I mumbled as I nudged him with my shoe, and he moved in a way that was almost lifeless. "Alright, you had enough of a break."
"…"
"Hello! Equestria to Spike?! Anyone home!?" I yelled down at him, but he still remains completely still.
In fact, almost too still…
"Spike?" I say softly as I lean down and put my bare hand on his back, and it was cold to the touch. I shake him slightly, "Buddy? Can you hear me?"
"…"
Aw shit…
I quickly put aside my gear and flip him over and I almost let loose a gasp at what was my small, scaled companion.
His eyes were clamped shut with his lively lavender purple watered down to a kind of gray that had matched the sky around us. The small fins on his head were still green but they too turned into a sickly shade as far as I could tell as his chest rose slowly and fell at an equal pace. As you know he was already cold to the touch, but what I didn't see until now was the frost that was growing on him like parasitic vines.
"Oh fuck! You're freezing to death aren't you, ya bastard!" I scream as I lift him off the snowy rock.
I pulled over that blanket I'd made into a makeshift backpack and unroll it letting all the things I'd scavenged before the sled tumbled down the side of the mountain. The ax head clattered against the rocks with a soft ring and laid motionless as I got to work. I flap the blanket straight and place him on it while quickly wrapping him around like a baby that was being swaddled.
"What's going on back here?! I heard yelling!" Rainbow yells from the top of the cliff.
"It's Spike! It's too damn cold out here for a naked fuckin' lizard!" I scream up at her making her brow lift in worry.
She hops down next to as I went to work to save our little friend. "I told you he wouldn't make it, but did you listen to me?!"
"Not exactly helping right now!" I scream back as I went to work to save our little friend.
She watches me stuff the firmly wrapped drake under my shirt, looping the sling made from the extra blanket around my neck and quilt so he could use what little body heat I had on my skeletal frame. I nudged him upwards so that he was about at my mid chest before I tied the ends of my own shirt to my belt. This made a pocket that was almost sealed entirely from the cold at the cost of my own warmth as now the thin John Lennon blouse was all I had.
"We need to find shelter or someplace for a fire!" I yell at her push her forward and she gave a small yelp at the movement, "Go up ahead again and fuckin' find somewhere we can hunker down at least for a little bit to warm him up! At the very least someplace out of the wind."
She scoffs as she looks back at me, "Like where?! It ain't exactly the Canterlot Castle out here!"
"Any-fuckin'-where! As long as it's not too close to the river and make it quick, we're running out of time." I scream back at her and I use the ax to help lift me off the snowy stone.
She looks at me without giving a proper answer and without budging from her spot like time wasn't of the essence.
I growl in frustration at her clear neglect to follow my orders. "Fuckin' today, if you don't mind!"
She looks down at Spike who whimpered through chattering teeth, "I'm not sure this is the right thing to-"
"Just do what I say Goddammit!" When she glowers at me, I roll my eyes, "You know for the fastest pony in equestria, you sure do run that mouth a hell of lot more than your fuckin' legs!"
She gnashes her teeth at my purposeful jab and glares at me like she wants my being to be erased from the world, but some pathetic small groans coming from under my quilt makes her look soften. She shakes her head before sighing and says something under her breath that was no doubt insults directed at me before she bolts up the cliff to finally do what I asked of her. The mare disappears over a rock leaving me behind as I held Spike closer after he squirmed against me in discomfort.
I give a small groan to myself and start my way up the cliff with my new cumbersome load in the shape of a certain dragon. After climbing two rocks at a slow pace I heard something behind that was akin to a shoe scraping the ground. I spin around with my grip on the ax getting tighter as I know it wasn't in my head. Down the cliff was nothing except disturbed snow where we've been hopping, rocks of varying sizes and of course the river. Despite the darkening sky I still had a good view as my eyes flicked around looking for a predator that had canines with my name on them, but nothing ever moves.
"Rainbow!?" I scream down the hill at the exact opposite way she'd left. "If that's you, stop fuckin' around and do your job!"
Nothing responds and I let loose an involuntary growl as I now know it wasn't the annoying mare as she would have at least thrown an insult at me by now. I know I fuckin' heard something and I know it's down there, I'm sure of it. A bead of sweat drips down my forehead and my heart pounds in my chest as I stand there completely still to see if any movement from the swaying branches to the drifting snow to see if anything, anything at all was out of the ordinary.
But nothing ever does… Hmmm maybe I didn't hear anything after al-
"You are right about one thing, Charlie…" a voice rings out behind me up the cliff.
Despite its alarming surprise, my brow falls in anger as I recognize who it belonged to.
"…You're running out of time. Tick tock as they say." The slow resonating voice announces.
I squeeze my eyes shut and sigh, "Brad…"
A small, tired laugh was heard as I turn around to look up to see the man that I hadn't talked to in quite some time. He was sitting on a rock overlooking the river holding an apple as he looked down the stream away from us. He was wearing a charred and blackened tee with beat up pants and torn boots. His beard was at Thor levels of length and the blondness of it did him no favors for that comparison. The only thing he was missing was the never-ending anabolic steroids to get the same physique as he was always a lanky tall fucker.
"Can't get nothing by you, can I?" He chuckles out softly as he bites into that fruit with a crunch.
I grumble as I climb past him not giving this thing any part of my attention as I know it's not him.
"You can't ignore me, you know." He says at a different spot to my left now, leaning against a tree like he appeared there instantly. "That's like, the complete opposite of what you can do."
"I can and I will…" as I too walk past him once more.
"Now why would you go and do something like that?" He asks a little amused as he now standing on the cliff I was climbing up.
He reached his hand to help me up, but I looked at it like it was going to melt my face and helped myself up on my own.
"Especially if I can help you out of here." He murmurs as he motions his hand away after watching me struggle by myself. "You do know you don't always have to go it alone, right?"
"Help this dick in your ass, how about that?" I say adamantly as I don't give him another passing glance.
He looked rather hurt by that, "That's no way to talk to an old friend. What did I do?"
"You're not fuckin' real is what you did cocksucker." I snarl at him without looking back. "Go go back to depths of my FUBAR'd noggin where you belong."
He now was standing next to me without a single sound, like he just appeared, and gives me a strange glance, "For someone who thinks he's seeing things your mighty calm about it."
"And I'm not seeing things then, asshole?" I ask with an annoyed tone and climb the next rock. "Listen, I got too much on my plate to deal with my apparent schizophrenia right about now, so if you can go kindly fuck off and blame your death on me some other time, I'd fuckin' appreciate it, pal. Go tell Dylan and Pee Wee to ass blast themselves while you're at it if you see them, that'd be just great…"
"Ahh wasn't gonna be one of those conversations, Charlie." He says with that same calm monotone voice that got him out of so many ass beatings over the years. "I could just keep it a secret though and make your tiny head explode in curiosity… Besides, I already know deep down you want to talk to me. I can feel it."
I groan in frustration as he'd moved again, this time to the next rock I was headed, and I pause to look up at him for the first time since he'd eaten that bullet in the Den. The small circular mark on his cheekbone was still there where it hit him and just like the Pee Wee and Dylan his eyes were filmed over white like a corpse.
I shake my head and angrily lift my arms to my side to signify impatience. "Well?! What is it then?! The fuck do you want!?"
He looks at me blankly for a moment before he finally speaks, "You're gonna die out here, Charlie."
I give an incredulous laugh as I walk past him again, "Oh! You don't fuckin' say! What would I have done without that little pearl of wisdom!" I stop as I reach the new rock and turn around to continue, "Anything else, Confucius? Maybe something about breathing air to live? Drinking plenty of water?"
"No, but I could give you some advice on how not to do that." He smirks and puts his hands in his pockets.
"If you think I'm gonna stand here and listen to your force ghost then you've got another thing coming, you fuckin' parasite." I sneer as my fists tighten, "I don't know what you are, but dead's dead and I watched Brad die months ago… That I do know…"
"You're right about, I guess. Dead's dead… Just like you as a matter of fact or did you forget already." He states with an assured tone. "If that's the case, then what am I?"
"A Ghostbusters extra!" I yell back, hating every word of this fictional conversation.
"Oh, I assure you, I'm as real as the earth and the oceans… and the cold killing you slowly." I turn slowly towards him with a scowl, "And I'm real enough to get you out of here."
"You gonna sprinkle fairy dust out of your fingers and whoosh me away to my 72 virgins?" I roll my eyes and try to ignore him again.
"Actually, it's up to you, the most I can do is just suggest how." He says with an amused tone. A tone that told me he conjured something from his torture pit of a mind.
"I'm not going along with one of your little games, Brad…" Quietly exits my mouth.
He crosses his arms, "The only game I see is the childish one in front of me and it shares your name too."
I laugh but it wasn't one of joy, "Fuckin' there it is… The ridicule followed by a smart remark and then the true intention comes out…" I turn to him with a glare. "Don't fuckin' play me like one of your marks, fuck nut. You can do that to anyone in Boston, but you don't fuckin' do that to me."
"Like how Bill did it, you mean?" He nods with a creased brow, "Yeah, I can see where you're coming from."
I groan a little and turn to him fully, "Since we're here discussing flaws, do you know what your problem was, Brad?" I say as I back track a few steps to get in his face, "Your problem was that you chose not to fight when it mattered! You always would come crying back to me when it didn't go your way. You did in Wellingtons and you fuckin' did it in Boston because you're a coward!"
"Coward or not, you can't tell me it didn't work…" He says and sits down onto a stone scratching at his old wound. "Well, for the most part."
Spike wiggles a little out of discomfort making me realize I had made too many sudden movements, and I looked down with an apologetic look at forgetting he was even there.
"But that little booger on you ain't working though, now is it?"
"Not much I can really do about that!" I snarl back at his captain obvious comments.
"Well, that's kind of what I wanted to talk to you about… there's one thing you can do." He alludes to which confounds me so.
He takes one last bite out of that apple and then tosses the core down into the raging river and it disappears under the waves. He turns to me with a knowing look and my mouth falls open as I realize what he's on about.
"You're… You can't…" I can't even finish my sentence as the shock of it barely registers.
Staying true to his calm demeanor despite his horrific suggestion, he leans back with a smile, "You were given something that no other person has ever gotten before, Charlie. Really won the lottery on this one I do say so myself."
"Won what exactly?" I ask though I'm afraid to hear it.
"Escaping death."He sighs flatly and then clicks his tongue, "Didn't even know things like that can happen, yet here you are of flesh and bone once more. Do you know rare that is? How improbable that air still fills your lungs? I'll tell you; I'd lose my mind even pronouncing the number needed to explain the probability of it."
"So, I'm not in hell boiling in shit or what have you! So fuckin' what! It's still hell if you ask me!"
"Quite the opposite in fact." He motions around him, "Look around you right now. What do you see? Do you feel the cold on your skin? The chaffing of your blistered feet? That's something you're not supposed to have when you pass into the next. You're alive, Charlie… You know what that means?"
I stare at him silently for my response.
"That means you have a chance to set things right… You are of course worlds apart, but the chance is still there. A chance to go home. A chance you're throwing out if you die out here." He points at the quivering Spike with a frown, "Are you really going to waste it for a pair of… meaningless idiots you don't even care about? Because we both know you ain't outrunning those wolves with literal chum wrapped around your neck."
I look over his shoulder as I realize I hadn't made much progress in the last 30 minutes because of Spike and a sense of what he was saying to me rung true.
I growl as I try to banish the thought away and glare at him. "What? And run away like a coward! That's not going to change anything!"
"Running could have changed how things went back home that's for sure…" He says with a somber wisdom to it. "Remember what I told you after you killed those Chinamen?"
I shake my head as the memory starts to appear and the words, he had said to me sung aloud like it was happening again.
"I told you to run off with Wally to Vermont or wherever you wanted to go retire yourself and you ignored me then too. Remember how well that went for us?" I don't answer as he gives a small nod like he knew what I was thinking. "You've got accounts that are still open back home and I'm depending on them being closed and so are you, but you can't do that if you die because of some pointless exaggerated gecko and a colorful llama with pride issues."
"I…" is all I say as I ruminate on his words.
He starts to fix my shirt and brush dirt off them like he was getting me ready for school, "Let them take the fall for you. Use them as a… what's the nice word for this… a distraction. The others won't even bat an eye that you'd be at fault too which is perfect. Who could have stopped all those wolves by themselves. Not you. There were soooo many of them, after all." He says in a mocking manner and gives me a grotesque wink.
"…" I don't answer as he gives a small sad laugh at that.
"Those worthless ponies will be sad at their passing, but you'll still be alive so you can go find a way home and get that revenge you need so much…" He pats my shoulder, "To make them pay for what they did because you can't have both here and you know it."
I sat there feeling sick to my stomach at what he was asking me to do and the worst part of it was he was winning me over. He's… right. There's no way in hell I'm getting out of these woods alive, not at the rate we've been going. I don't give a flying fuck about Rainbow in all honesty, she can go get mauled alive for all I care, and it would make no difference on my life. Perhaps it would even give me less of a headache every now and again too.
But Spike…
"You don't owe him anything." The apparition says like he knew what I was thinking with a growing dark look. "What has he ever done for you aside from being a nuisance? You aren't his daddy, remember that. Think logically here, Charlie, you know deep down that I'm right which is why you haven't marched off all pissy like you normally do. So what's it gonna be? Survival? Or certain death? It's quite obvious which one I'd pick, but what about you?"
The silence between us grew as the consequences of my actions I'd need to take grew less and less on my small conscious.
but… underneath the quilt Spike must have slipped free a little of his little blanket cocoon. His small scaled clawed hand could be felt on my bare skin as it softly wrapped its way around my torso in and he buries himself deeper into my body. I looked down at the tangible lump where he was resting, and some small moans of his misery could be heard that resonate within me in a way I can't really explain.
My hands move on their own as I hold onto him back and my face twitch into a feeling of rage as my eyes meet the other walking dead man with hatred. Any and all weight towards his plan goes right out the fuckin' window as I bump passed him harshly and continue my climb upwards. The look he had given me after this was like he had been taken aback by my action like he was confused or that this wasn't a possibility.
"Didn't you hear me?! You're making a mistake!" He screams out in a tone that didn't fit the Brad I'd knew at all.
That man was so laid back nothing ever got him on toes except when it was just me and him left after the set up, but even then, he took to a silent brooding more than anything explosive. That type of thinking was left all for me and I wore it well.
"Come back here! I'm not done talking to you!" He yells in outrage behind me and that makes me pause and I turn to him. "You're throwing away your chance at revenge for someone you've only known less than a year! It makes no sense!"
I nod softly as I take in the darkening river, "Yeah I guess I am, but you said it yourself. I needed to think logically." I flash him a knowing smirk, "In all the years you've known me and all the times you stitched me back together, when have I ever done that?"
His face falls to surprise and then a deep thinking as my words burrow into his blonde gourd.
He watches me for a moment and then he sighs with balled fists. "Very well, Charlie, but know this… You are going to die out here and something tells me it won't be as quick as the last time."
"You done? Good, now go unfuck yourself, Brad thing or whatever you are," I say impatiently, and I spin on my heels, "Cause I got a dumb dragon and cunt of a pegasus to get out of this damn mess even if it kills me."
I don't hear another word out of him and I don't even turn to look if he was still there as I marched onwards.
Finally, I reached the top of this Godforsaken cliff after a little struggle and I look forward to see Rainbow practically sprinting towards me at full speed. She slides to a stop bringing some ice chunks flying upwards like she was a hockey player, but thankfully I don't get pelted as it would have soured my mood even further.
"There you are! I thought for sure you'd have been further up the path by now!" She says huffing and puffing, "What took you so long? This is practically where I left you!"
My eyes fall down to the lump known as Spike as I rubbed his head through the fabric. "I… slipped on a rock and had to take a breather. Almost cracked my fuckin' head open like an egg."
She rolls her eyes as she looks back to where she came from, "Well, let's not slip again cause we got a little bit to go."
"Go where?" I say throwing the conversation I had with my passed friend away. "You find something finally?"
She wipes her nose annoyed and then nods, "Yeah, I think… there's a canyon or a crevice thing in the side of a cliff that looked like it was out of the wind. The problem is it's a little high up, but it should- Hey!"
I brushed passed her and started on towards it without hearing another word, "C'mon then, we don't have much time as you said."
"Then maybe you shouldn't take breathers then, idiot…" She mumbles behind me and runs forward ahead of me no doubt to lead me to our home for the night. "It's this way! I'll race ya!"
We walked for a good bit in relative silence as we traverse the trail heading up a hill. Thankfully, the incline wasn't as intolerable as that section before, so this was basically a cake walk. The snow still sucked though, but the path we took was along a cliffside so at least it was sheltered from the wind unlike the rest of trek before us.
Eventually Rainbow had halted up ahead and waited for me to catch up which gave me the inkling that we found her spot. When I arrived at her side, she motioned upwards on the rocky cliff, and I could see a sliver of an opening through the rock that was no doubt the shelter the pegasus had picked for us. With Spike groaning like E.T. trying to find Elliot once more, I made no hesitation to get up there as quickly as possible. I shouted down at her to go find some wood and she of course gave me more lip, but did as she was told as there wasn't much else she could do as I know she didn't want to freeze either.
The entrance was small and took some shimmying to actually get in especially with Spike hanging off of me making me scrape my elbows and knees to squeeze inside. My face lifts with surprise as I look at this new base the mare had found and it was exactly as she said, a rock overhanging a cliff like a sideways bowl. Next to it was a large divot about a foot in width sliced a soft slope moving further up the mountain. It must have been a channel for rainwater or something along those lines as it was very similar to a dried creek bed. Thankfully, because of the cold no snow has been melting rendering it completely dry.
Perfect for lost little runaways like us…
Rainbow ran inside with a few large sticks in her mouth as that was all the mares could carry up by herself and looked at me impatiently. She sat there instead and watched me set up the wood that would be the easiest to hold the fire to begin the grueling process of starting it. Even with the lighter, it was almost impossible as the frosted sticks she no doubt just plucked out of the snow. I had no choice but to pull out the flask and with a doleful expression I poured as little of the precious liquid and let it soak a minute before I stuck a flame to it.
The alcohol lit Immediately and burned softly for a moment before it roared onto the bark radiating its warmth in the enclosed space making the mare and I to give a relieved sigh. We were the winds victim no more. I look down at the flask and take a quick little gulp for my weary spirits and I packed it back into my back pocket to go onto my next task.
I untied the quilt off my belt and lifted it over my head, making a small nest like shape next to the fire. The drake in still wrapped in the only other blanket nestled closer to it though he gave off some weak groans being removed from my body. His eyes slowly open and then promptly close as he was left unconscious once more as the flames waved over him.
I sat there on my knees watching him, making sure he had everything he needed, and I brushed my hand over his sickly head in an uncharacteristically caressing manner. Even now, being basically on top of an open-hearth fire he still was cold to the touch and his color was still very faded, but at least he had somewhere to warm up now. He mumbled a little at my touch however he didn't stir much.
"We need to get him to a doctor as soon as possible…" I sniff and look around, "I say we stay here until the sticks burn and then head out again."
"Another wonderful plan by Charlie himself…" She mutters sourly, clearly hating our situation more and more by the second. "I wonder what he'll brew up next…"
My eyes narrow at her vague jab. "Is there something you want to say to me? Then just fuckin' say it."
"Oh nothing!" She sings out sarcastically, "it's only we're all just hungry, and tired, and cold and now one of us is going to die from getting sick… Great track record so far. Keep it up. I'm rootin' for ya."
I nod as sardonically as her words, "Oh yes, this is all my fuckin' fault… How dare I build up snowstorms and conjure hellbeasts that crave our flesh at the flick of my wrist… I'll be sure to fuckin' jot down some notes the for the next time I use my unwieldy supernatural powers!"
Rainbow sighs as she looks at the drake and turns to me, "I told you making him walk any further was a bad idea and you ignored me…" Rainbow barks out and she glares at me. "And now he's gonna die…"
"He wanted to go, so you can't pin all this shit on me." I say, irritated at her finger pointing. "It was our best option."
"Of course, he wanted to go! You fear mongered him with the wolves!" She shouts again, clearly reaching the end of her rope with misery and unfortunately so am I.
"I just told him the options we had and the lack of them, cunt sandwich." I yell out as I stand, "He was going to get sick no matter what even if we did stay, so I did what I thought best for us!"
"No! What you did was what you thought was best for you!" She exclaims and she walks closer as our argument becomes more intense. "Because that's all you care about is you! Even you patching my wing last night was still for your own benefit so you can use me better and this is no different!"
"Do you want me to break it again to moot your entire point? Cause I'm really considering it if that's what your Eohippus-ed brain is thinking!"
She shakes her head and looks at the ground with a mean glare before she looks up at me again with resolve.
"Is this what you'd do if he were Wally?" She asks and I feel my blood run cold. "If he were you're own brother?"
"You… don't use his name against me…" I whisper with wild eyes to match my cocked anger.
She ignores my warning and continues like the dribbling nimrod she is. "Would you push him as hard as you did to him cause I'm really wondering…"
"Of course, I fuckin' would have! I would have marched him as far I needed him to fuckin' go if that's what it meant to get him out alive!" I point down at the shivering sleeping drake, "And I'm doing the same exact thing for him!"
"For some reason, I find that hard to believe… You don't care about him and I know for a fact you'd have drowned me in that river if you could have gotten away with it!" She mutters and looks at me, "You have nothing, and you treat all of us like nothing because of it! I feel it every time I talk to you, and it makes it impossible to even think that you could care about anything outside of that bucking head of yours! You miss world so much that you welcome this one's destruction!"
I don't say anything as her comment about my brother still lingers and I glare at her like it were an olympic sport and brother, I'm getting gold.
She stands there with a stalwart resolve and shakes her head, "You know, I never really understood just what Princess Celestia was thinking jamming you with us elements… Like you'd ever comprehend any of it. You're allergic to magic so I don't know what Twilight is supposed to do for you aside from making you itchy. Fluttershy's kindness might as well be from another planet because you obviously never seen it before… Pinkies laughter is just a headache to you that you'd love nothing more than to squash anytime you could… And Applejack's honesty? ha! Well, you don't have an honest bone in your body. Just like when you talk about your long-lost brother."
"Shut your fuckin' mouth… I'm warning you…" I whisper but was backed up by the burning desire to remove her head from her shoulders.
"And then there's me…" She shakes her head in complete despondency like I was a failure. "What could a sad creature like you ever know what loyalty means?! You probably don't even know what it even stands for let alone how to pronounce it!"
My eye twitches as my hand starts buzzing, sending vibrations up my arm.
"…Loyalty…" I say it quietly as my breathing picks up and I take a step forward as my lid has finally been boiled over, "You're going to stand there and lecture ME… about LOYALTY!?"
She flinches at my sudden burst of anger and takes a step backwards no doubt feeling trapped as the entrance out of here is behind me. I take another step towards the mare as I loom over her with balled fists.
"I was NOTHING but loyal my entire Goddamn life! All I ever known was fuckin' loyalty and it got me nothing! I was LOYAL to my own brother for YEARS to protect him from my fuckin' piece of shit father! I could have left at any time, and I didn't! You know how many beatings I took?! How many broken bones I mended?! All for HIM and I would have taken a thousand more with glee because that's what big brothers fuckin' do!"
At this point the fires light casted my menacing shadow over the scared mare as I stepped forward some more. Rainbow was at this point backed up against the wall with a look of genuine shock as I went on and on. It didn't even feel like I was yelling at her at this point, just pent-up anger I'd been keeping since the day I got here being released.
"I was LOYAL to my best fuckin' friend of 14 years to the point I followed him without question! I did EVERYTHING for him! IROBBED and STOLE and made people BLEED all because he asked me to! I even fuckin' KILLED for him at times all in the name of loyalty to that asshole! I didn't like it, but I did it… Oh ho ho I fuckin' did it and I did it well… I hated it! I really did, but I did it anyways because he was what I thought was family and family was all that ever fuckin' mattered to me! And it was all for fuckin' nothing! Because as it turns out he didn't give a fuck about me at all! He betrayed me, and all my fuckin' friends like were strangers!"
I start bitterly laughing as I revisit my memories of Bill leading up to that day in Caspers. I look down at my hands and flashes of them being covered in blood smack me as I blink rapidly yet my rant continues yet it was still growing in intensity. I clenched my jaw as my hands lost their rage.
"Years of my life flushed down the drain because he valued Paulie's fuckin' paycheck more than my Goddamn LOYALTY! So go ahead and stand there telling me I don't anything about it! As far as I can tell I'm the fuckin' Webster definition of it, printed in bold and distributed around the world for every jackass toy to see! Because I WAS loyal to Bill I WAS loyal when he busted me out Wellingtons at the cost of a future, I WAS loyal when I agreed to break heads for him in Boston, and I WAS loyal when I walked into his arms before he killed me for MONEY! COCK SUCKIN' USELESS FUCKIN' BLOOD MONEY!"
My eyes squeezed shut as my emotions finally exploded into an arrange of artillery barrage of rage.
"AND I WON'T FUCKIN' STOP UNTIL HE'S DEAD!"
My voice shrieks across the mountainside with a devastating echo, reverberating through the hills and valleys. My shoulders rose and fell in line with my short pants as every breath spreads fire along my vocal chords from the rough voice cracking shouting. My stare was directed at Rainbow who looked back up at me with wordless shock, her eyes showed me that she finally understood how all my dots were finally connected together.
A small fit of coughs makes my head abruptly shift towards the fire and I see Spikes sickly head. He had raised himself off his blankets some as he looks to me with sad small knowing slitted eyes like what I had said confirmed what he knew all along.
The real world starts to fall back into place and my body straightens and my face twitches not sure how to recover from the fallen masquerade… Something wet slides down my cheek and my hand instinctively wipes a droplet, appearing from seemingly nowhere. When I look at the wet fingertips, my brow knits together as the realization that it weren't no rain drop hits me in the gut.
"I…" Is all I manage to say before the inevitable finally happened.
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
The air around me stilled as my head slowly turns down the alcove, eyes wide as my heart wrenching anguish turns to silent terror. Four of the beasts we've been trying so hard to avoid had inhabited the slope, our only exit down back to the path with lowered heads and twitching ears as they slowly approached. Eerily enough, they too kept silent aside from low ground rumbling growls just waiting for the apparent cue to strike.
My eyes connected to the blood red wolf as he takes a single step forward in anticipation for the pounce. It's green, emerald eyes showed no emotion except for the malicious intention it had with its exposed teeth and curling and twitching twig lips. His shoulders lowered as if his attack was imminent and the rest were soon to follow, but it doesn't happen. A small breeze brushed into the fire, causing it to flair upwards into a large burst of light. Embers sprinkled from the flame trickling down onto the wolves and they whined and whimpered as well as recoiling like it were acid.
My eyes flicked down to the burning twigs and back up to the disoriented killer pack as the small window of opportunity manifests in front of me. In way that would be described as calculative and mechanical, I drop down to lift my ax and swing down onto the pile like a golf club sending a blizzard of hot sparks raining down. Their cries of agony as they flinched and desperately rolled onto the ground to put out the small bursts of fire spread onto their decorative leaves, singeing them as they spread.
In an instant, Spike was back into my hands, and I pushed Rainbow up towards the only escape root we had left before the teeth were sunk into us once more.
Up the mountain…
My breath is short, rapid… my legs are sore, unforgivably aching. My face is numb, dripping with perspiration. My wounds radiated pulsing pain in tempo of my pumping heart. My mind too was racing as fast as my body was able to move.
We dared not to turn around as the barking and howls commenced once more, closing in by the seconds as we struggled forwards. We hopped, skipped, ran and clawed our ways further and further up the rocky slope until something terrible happened. Something akin to a bear trap sprung onto my ankle with a weight of a Volkswagen beetle causing me to fall onto the sharp stone. Spike tumbles out of my hands as he rolls a few feet away and all he can do is look on in powerless wheezing. My head spins around to see one of the wolves who was much faster than its brothers had taken a hold of me, whipping its head back and forth like my leg was playing tug of war. My other leg swung and kicked wildly, but because of its thrashing I couldn't land a blow. My struggling also made his teeth sink deeper and a sickening crunch could be heard as my vision starts to glow with stars from the pain.
Before the wolf could have broken any more of my ankle, a pair of blue hind legs jutting backwards towards its face smash down onto it. My head whips up to see Rainbow had bucked the ever-living shit out of it, knocking it into a daze making it tumble down the slope hitting rocks as it tumbled down passed its pack members further down. The other three wolves watched it crash passed and turned back with zealous fervor to annihilate us and made no problems picking up their pace.
Wordlessly, the pegasus looked to me and bit onto the collar of my shirt to help pull me back up to my feet, and the pain of my leg quadruples when I place weight onto it. This left me to hobble like a desperate wounded animal as if my fuckin' odds couldn't get any fuckin' worse. I watch as Rainbow bites down onto the cocoon blanket encapsulating the sick coughing dragon and he swings around like a kitten held by its feline mother.
As we fled upwards, the channel started to turn into a small canyon with the walls growing larger around us making our route loud and clear. However, this was proved to be a mistake as we were forced into a literal corner with a large wall taller than you or I to climb quickly, especially with this leg.
"No, no, no, no!" I scream with a wincing face and bottom of my fist slams against the wall in anger.
I quickly spun on my one good foot to try and back track, but it was too late, the wolves already blocked our way leaving us literal fish in a barrel. They approached with their looming figures almost melting into a moving blob of murder, savoring our torment like they were marinating us in it. Unlike the bridge they were far to spread out to deal with like I had before, making this fight already decided before it even began.
"We're trapped! There's no way out!" Rainbow shouts after placing the dragon on the ground and she looks to me for guidance. "What do we do, Charlie! I mean, there's something we can do, right?"
My hands grip the ax as my eyes start flicking around trying to find any loophole or chance to get out of here, but there's absolutely nothing. My eyes slowly turn to hers and I stay silent as I don't have a plan to give her. Rainbow's eyes widen some at my neutral, almost accepting face, realizing that the end of the road had arrived. The growling got closer and closer and closer with my full attention on them, until I felt something hug my leg.
I looked down to see Spike had crawled out of his blankets for some kind of comfort in his last moments, something I wasn't even granted when I went…
"Charlie?" Rainbow asks with a quivering tone.
My head turns to her again and for the first time since meeting her, I see genuine fear plastered across her face like it was a cancer. Her teeth were chattering, but I wasn't convinced it was from the cold this time around.
"I'm sorry about your hat…" She admits with a stutter like she didn't know what else to say and she looks back to me, "and I-I'm sorry for everything I did you over these last few months too… I should have just listened to Celestia…"
My eyes look to Rainbow and then to the high wall that was impossible to scale alone… yet could be conquered with some assistance.
An epiphany of sorts starts to make its home in my head despite the eminent end fast approaching. I'm staring death in the eyes once more, just like with Bill when he blew a hole through my forehead. Before he killed me, my mind was so clouded by rage, anger, betrayal… Then after was grief and denial and despair…
But as of right now…
…Now… I don't feel a Goddamn thing…
"Hey, Rainbow…" I say rather calmly which did not fit the scene at all.
Her head whips to me in almost a fear induced frenzy at her name being called.
"You were right about one thing…" I take a deep breath and smirk a little. "I don't make any sense."
Her brow falls to confusion and her head shakes slightly as she tries to decipher the vague message but was quickly enveloped in my arms. She gives a small yelp and with as much might as I could have possibly dish out and she soars upwards and she instinctively flaps her wings, giving her that little extra boost she needed to grab the edge. She clambers over and peers down with her face almost looking pale before I grab Spike as well.
He gives me two small pleading eyes as if to say don't do it, which I only respond with a wink. I feel nothing but strain as I heaved him towards the sky and by the skin of my nuts just barely reached enough for Rainbow to snatch the quilt hugged around him. Her teeth sunk into the fabric like a hook, and I see both of them look down, knowing full well I had just signed my second death warrant.
Rainbow looks with a hurting confliction, but she pulls the poor weeping drake over the edge and that's last, I see of them…
At least I got Spike out of this whole mess… Rainbow too. I don't know if the trade was worth it, but truly hope they make it…
My eyes flutter towards the wolves still approaching, but they didn't seem to care about the other two as it was already apparent, I wasn't going anywhere. The ax was laying on the stony floor and was brought into my hands like an old friend once more.
"You know, I should warn you all…" I say to my soon to be killers.
My hand tears off a piece of my shirt and I slowly wrap it around the ax head.
"I've been fighting my whole life…"
I draw out the flask from my back pocket and look at it with a sense of somberness. Unscrewing the top, I take a savoring sip and sigh contented before pouring the remains of it onto the fabric, making sure it was soaking into it. When it empties, I toss it to the side and its metal clangs against the stone and its' echo rings as I produce the lighter, bring it close to the soaked cotton with flame and all.
The fire spreads to across the ax and flares light around me, causing the wolves shrink back a little and start barking crazily, but not daring to get close. Both my hands grip the handle with white knuckles and my calm face descends into the scowl I've worn for so long.
"…and I ain't changing that anytime fuckin' soon."
My own growls join the pack as I start motioning the flame back and forth for any wolf that gets to close and buying the other two as much time as possible as I know they won't stop at just me. The flame starts to wane, and the wolves grow bolder with every second as they know this shield won't last forever. I knew that too and it finally became a reality as I watch charred strip lonely small flame to go dark.
The very moment it extinguished, the painted one pounced with a murderous roar fully intent on being the one to get the kill. This was expected though, and my swing was true and fast as it connected to its skull. While the ax was still embedded in the very live wolf, I twist and turn the handle to try and free it, but its rather pointless as the others descend upon me to.
Kicking, screaming, barks and growls was all that was known to me as I felt and saw teeth all over me. Puncturing and piercing my flesh, sending searing agonizing flares of pain, I fought back as best I could, but there were too many and my fight was too little. Feeling weaker and weaker and my swings and kicks became less and less. Almost started blacking out a little as well, though that's to be expected when you're getting mauled to death.
Just as I felt I was heading into shock city for the forever sleep, everything goes quiet.
Well, I guess that's it then… Maybe I'll be sent to talking walrus world next just to spice things up a little. Meet Dandelion the Blubber and crash at her house until icicle orcas decide to eat me. Gotta keep up tradition and all that bullshit.
Though as my conscious is sitting in the void, I couldn't help but notice I was still in agonizing pain which is… odd… Does that shit transfer over or…
Wait a minute…
My eyes creak open and instead of pitch black or fiery pits with my name on it, I'm still in that chasm barely breathing. Encompassing all of my view was one of the wolves, but it appeared… lifeless. The light was gone entirely and its green foliage was brown and decayed looking similar to fertilizer or mulch. It was almost as if it just crumpled under its own weight to become a huge pile of shit like dry bones in Bowser's castle.
With as much struggle as you can imagine, I crane my neck over to see the others had been served the same sentence as well, leaving me completely alone in unmistakable freezing cold. I laid my head back down onto the pool that had been collecting underneath me and sigh as I listened to the wind. It held a beat which was strange… almost like it sounded like the flapping of wings…
Huh…
I head lifts once more and I see an outline of a winged creature approaching swiftly yet its color was far too dark to conceive just what it was. Could have been vulture for all I fuckin' knew, ready to finish my remains. My vision starts to blacken once more and moments later, consciousness comes to once more and I see a pair of dark purple hooves standing in front of me.
"It appears mine own sister's student hast succeeded in her task without a second to spareth." A very familiar voice says aloud. "The life tree of these vermin art nay more."
My look shifts upwards through strain and shaky breaths to see Princess Luna smiling down at me.
"How art thee, Sir Charlie…" She croons and all goes black.
OoOoO
"I will say, Charlie… You have certainly turned into quite the puzzle that I wasn't expecting." A voice calls to me with admiration gleaming around the edges. "I thought for sure you would have alleviated yourself of that little one but alas, I will figure you out eventually, my friend, figure out what makes you tick. It's only a matter of time…"
OoOoO
My eyes creak open slowly and a blurred vision of a ceiling fan spinning slowly fills my view along with the residual sound of steady paced beeping. I glance down to see that I was lying in a bed that hadn't conformed to my shape yet as it was firm and smelled new. Maybe even too new. My bandaged arms were on top on the covers, and I could see a tube pinched into the back of my hand leading to an IV stand and next to be that annoying fuckin' heart monitor.
Hospital… I'm in the hospital…
As I was staring at the medial instruments, movement behind its focus' my vision and I see another bed that was occupied by someone very familiar. Rainbow was snoring uncouth like as she sprawled over the bed with pretty much the same hookup as I had. Her wing was wrapped tightly, and I saw a cast, so I know that she was at least treated…
Wait! SPIKE!
I panicked at that thought when the heart monitor sped up a little and I tried my best getting out of bed. Before I knew it though, a pair of hooves pushed me back onto the mattress and my eyes snapped over to see Fluttershy smiling and she releases a caressing coo.
"Shhhh its okay. You're at the hospital where you should be." She gleams as I still am fueled by my wild search.
"S-Spike!" I whisper yell as my parched throbbing throat made yelling impossible.
She smile grows and she nods, "He's perfectly fine in the other room unlike you if you don't settle down. You're going to tear your stitches." The pegasus orders and I manage to sink into the bed, feeling the sewn areas that she mentioned pull on my skin.
"Wolves…" I mumble out almost incomprehensibly.
"They're all gone now." She says softly, "Twilight made sure of it herself when they destroyed their den. Thankfully they were so busy hunting you it made it pretty simple for her hehe."
My head hits the pillow hearing that and the fan takes my view once more. "How long…"
"Oh… um about a week or so…" She says with a forlorn expression, "We all have been taking turns watching you. It was really touch and go there or so they tell me."
"How…" I say again in one-word responses but thankfully this hermit is a mind reader.
"After Applejack found the scene of the attack we got to work, but you all falling into the river made it impossible to track. We tried using Winona but she kept losing the scent. Princess Luna personally led the search effort because the town was so busy with winter wrap up. She was a tremendous help, though if it wasn't until Rainbow and Spike running right into us, we would have never found you. She said you were fighting the whole pack by yourself!" She starts shaking. "How scary that must have been! A whole pack!"
I grimace as she mentions the attack and my pain flares making me groan.
She notices this and her mother hen routines starts to kick in, "I'm… going to find Nurse Redheart to maybe give you something a little stronger. I'll be back, I promise."
Only a grumble escapes me as I see the yellow mare trot away leaving me alone with my thoughts.
We all… made it out alive… huh… I hadn't… accounted for that.
A light randomly shines into my eyes, blinding me some and I feel warmth that I hadn't felt in a while. I looked over from where it was coming from to see an open window holding quite the picture if you had a camera. A large tree sat almost centered and the full green branches holding hundreds of blossoms swayed in the wind, blocking a clear blue sky and a sun peeking through the leaves to say hello to yours truly.
Sounds were also streaming in of the outside world that I hadn't heard since winter arrived. Children laughing and giggling playing hopscotch. Townsfolk walking and greeting one another with many conversations following. Sounds of workers hammering and vendors trying to sell fruits and veggies and what have you.
It sounded like…
A strong warm breeze hit the window making the curtains sway a little and carried a scent that brought memories, good ones too surprisingly. Along with the scent, one the blossoms off the tree floats inside and dances around the room until it lands right on my bedside and flutters like it was teasing me. My hand creaked to life as it slowly slid over towards the flower and soon enough it was in my hand. I stared at the pink pedal as my aching fingers rubbed the smooth surface between my fingers.
Spring… It's finally fuckin' spring…
My head hits the pillow with a smile and a small, exhausted chuckle comes out as the tyranny of the Snow Miser's throne has been thwarted.
"…Fuck yeah…"
End of Act 1
Hey, everyone! Ducere here!
Personal Note: ITS OVER AHHHHH Act 1 is finally over after being 150,000 words longer than intended. This has been such a journey as this has been the longest piece I've ever written. I've learned so much and I can tell my writing even from chapter on to this one has changed spectacularly, especially in the grammar department. Thank you all again for your growing support of this fanfiction. I'm not big into fandoms and what not, just reading what's interesting, but having a place to give meaning to it has definitely given me more purpose to write as opposed to me just rereading every two months or so and that's that.
Project Announcement: Act 2 will start up once again come the new year. I know the wait is sucky, but I'm spending the holiday with family, so I won't have the time for another chapter this month. Also, because my chapters have been getting longer (This one being 31,685 words to be exact) editing and writing has been taking longer too. I love my biweekly upload, but there will definitely be delays if a chapter like this behemoth comes out again.
Thank you all again so much and as always, stay safe!
