Chapter 5: Friend and Foe
[...]
>Lightly rousing from sleep, you turn to the other side to try and find a new comfortable position.
>A sharp and immense pain strikes your muzzle as a forceful impact is felt, sending your body tumbling the opposite way and sending you into shock on the floor, your heart nearly exploding from the sudden spike in beats.
>A form looms above you and in panic you reflexively buck your hind legs directly into its face, stumbling it with a sickening crack that you feel reverberate up your legs.
>From the side a hoof deals a blow into your chest, stealing your breath and causing you to curl forward as the figure in front of you quickly recovers and retaliates with a single legged buck to your skull.
>Colors fuzz into your vision for a split second before you lose all feeling.
[...]
>Your body is tugged backwards as you feel rocks scrape your soft underbelly.
[...]
>The rustling of underbrush is heard as your cold body is dragged, sharp objects snagging into your sides.
“Ggn.. get off of mme yo-”
>A deviation in the pacing is felt as you’re dragged downwards and feel a weightlessness.
>This is cut short by your body slamming hard into the ground.
[...]
>Various pains confirms you’re awake again, and still being dragged.
>Weakly you lift your head and open your eyes, and a dark forest clearing greets them.
>Alright, think. How can you get out of this?
>Turning your head, you can see two of what you presume are stallions dragging you by a rope wrapped around your legs.
>If you could angle the rope right, you could cut it on something like a rock, but then what?
>You would have just got the shit beat out of you, and you wouldn’t even know where to go if you got free.
>If they bring you to wherever they’re taking you, they’re probably going to rape and sacrifice you.
SNAPWhrrr
>Before you know it the stallion on the right is suspended in the air from a nearby tree, flailing around while the second stops dead and rapidly scans the area, an unnaturally slack jaw swinging about as he looks.
>With your rear legs bound you plant your front hooves in front of you and begin a pathetic crawl away.
>Immediately a heavy weight on your rear stops you, and you turn to see the stallion holding you down while still stoically analysing the situation.
>A blur rushes from the corner of your eye and slams into your captor, taking them off guard and bashing them into a tree.
>In the darkness you see the stallion now on the ground, attempting to get up as a figure gives a sharp and precise blow to their head, presumably knocking them out.
>The figure turns and looks to you before approaching at your rear.
>With the only discernable color in the darkness being a dingy grey, you make out the shape of a mare with a messy mane.
>The gleam of a blade is briefly seen before disappearing as the binding pressure around your legs is relieved.
>Before you can say a single word the sound of rope snapping is heard, followed by the mare collapsing face first into your crotch under the weight of a falling stallion.
>The stallion quickly rights himself and presses his hooves into the mare’s neck in an attempt to pin her.
>Using the last of your adrenaline you coil your hind legs and buck with all your might into his chest, staggering him and causing him to drop onto the ground.
>A desperate wheezing is heard as the edges of your vision are engulfed by rapidly spreading blackness.
>Once again you’re in the void of unconsciousness.
[...]
>A gentle crackling of a fire and a warm belly rouses you from the edge of sleep.
>Sideways flames greet your fluttering eyes as you try to remember what’s going on.
>Your vision swims about before finally settling a few feet away on a mare with a dark honey coat and a brown mane, and what looks like some kind of runic symbol on her flank.
>Rolling slightly and putting weight onto your front hooves you sit up despite your wavering and stiff muscles.
>”Awake already? You’re tougher than you look.”
“Ye-” your voice catches hard as your throat spasms into a coughing spell.
>”Go ahead and take a drink,” she nods to a nearby tin cup.
>Shakily you do so, your throat instantly appreciative of the soothing liquid.
”Hrmhrm. Thanks, I uh...” You trail off as you look around the fire, seeing nothing but an unsettling forest and thick underbrush, “What exactly just happened?”
>”Well, I just saved you from a pair of ponies I’ve been tracking. They took off before I could get another chance at them; but I spotted one with a saddlebag with a royal emblem on it. You’re some kind of guard unit, I presume?”
>Your mind seems to clear up at the mention of this.
“Sort of, royalty contracted me for a special assignment. There’s some trouble nearby that’s got them all spooked, so they sent me to take care of it.”
>”So the princesses finally have a heart to send some help then, hm? Well, you’ve found your trouble alright. I’ve been tracking them but I haven’t been able to find where they’re hiding out at.”
“I’m not from around here so I wouldn’t know; though we could search for them together if you have any ideas of where they’re at.”
>”Oh sure,” she rolls her eyes, “I’ll search through the most dangerous local area with a guardsmare who couldn’t defend herself. Look, I’ve been doing this sort of thing on my own for years now, as soon as dawn comes I’m going to take you back to town.”
“Hey, to be fair they kidnapped me from town while I was sleeping! Besides, the princesses wouldn’t have given me this assignment if they didn’t have full faith in my abilities.”
>She seems to ponder this for a second before shaking her head.
>”I’ve dealt with plenty of supernatural phenomena in my time, it’s my job, what I specialize in. To me you’re simply a liability at this point. Just taking you back to town is going to set me back a day while more ponies are taken.”
“So take me along so you don’t get set back, if I get hurt you can just leave me behi-” You’re stopped as a gust of wind blows a paper into your face.
>Annoyed, you grab the paper and scrunch your face as your eyes try to focus in on… a map?
>Laying it flat on the ground so as to let the light of the fire illuminate it, you notice it’s your map from before, with everything but The Everfree Forest blurred.
>”What’s that?”
“It’s a map one of the princesses enchanted for me, it shows me where to go and changes sizes at times to give local information... That’s odd, it’s got a route marked on it that was never there before; maybe it’s them?”
>The mare scooches over and takes a look.
>”That couldn’t possibly be where they’re at, it’s… just too cliche. The center of the Everfree.”
“I don’t know, maybe it rubbed on them and set to where they’re going or something? Any way you look at it it’s the best lead we’ve got right now.”
>She looks thoughtfully at it for a moment.
>”I… I suppose it is the best place to look for them, they’re probably trying to do some ritual relating to the origin of the Everfree.”
>Seeing this as leverage, you pull the map close to your chest.
“So we’re a team then?”
>She eyes the map and gets a glint in her eye before blinking it away.
>She sighs “I suppose it’s for the best if we work together.”
>Setting the map back to its spot near the fire, you get up and stretch your body, followed by your legs and your… wings?
>Huh, you had forgotten you had those. Hopefully you won’t be expected to fly, because you don’t know how.
“I’m a little sore, but that’s never stopped me before. I’m ready when you are.”
>”You’ve got remarkable strength for someone who just took a beating like that, are you sure you’re ready to head out so soon?”
“As opposed to stopping the cult before they take any more ponies? I’m sure.”
>The mare gets up and dons a saddle bag before kicking dirt onto the fire, leaving nothing but a few smoldering ashes.
>She looks at the map before folding it into her saddlebag.
>”Come on, it’s this way.”
>You follow as she cranes her neck to look at you.
>”Say, I never caught your name.”
“It’s Anon.”
>“Anon, eh? An odd name.”
>She straightens her neck back on track and you two make a good paced trot.
“How about you?”
>”Everyone just calls me Myst.”
“Myst? As in the weather, or like mystic, or…?”
>”When I first started this job, I never left my name. Ponies called me Myst, said I rolled in and out like it, and ponies do like their wordplay so it doubled as mysterious.”
“So you’re one of those nameless vigilantes then?”
>”Vigilante? Please, vigilantes dream of being me; I’m the real deal paranormal investigator. I’ve been hunting down anything from dark occultists to demons since I was a filly.”
“Demons?” You manage to restrain a twinge of fear from reaching your voice.
>”Yeah, some of the most difficult monsters I’ve been up against. They try to get in your head and play mind games. Sometimes they’ll try to make a deal, other times they’ll try to act like they're your friend.”
“Sounds pretty challenging.”
>”Not to fear, every demon I’ve met I’ve put down for good. I can’t have them coming back from the underworld after a few years with a score to settle, now can I?”
“I uh.. I suppose not. How about this cult? Have you had anything like it before?” you ask, hoping to change the subject.
>”I’ve had a few groups of ponies that have meddled too far into dark magic before, they might try to get some locks of hair or some earwax from ponies while they sleep, but never outright kidnapping, and especially not in this high of number.”
“I suppose that’s why the princesses got worried enough to send me then.”
>”Bah, the princesses, like they care about this sort of thing.”
“You don’t seem real keen on the princesses, why’s that?”
>”The only time they care enough to intervene in this sort of thing is when their element bearers are in jeopardy, otherwise they leave it to hunters like me, even when the odds aren’t good. I… I probably shouldn’t be telling you this, but since you asked.. I had a case where a pony was xperimenting with advanced dark magic. The kind that’s more likely to end up with ponies dead on one hoof and a lich on the other. Long story short, I defeated the magician, and I was about to put them out of commission for good when Princess Celestia herself stops me, claiming that her student had simply gotten a bit misguided in her use of magic and that it’d never happen again. Like it all just ended there and then, like some kind of fable where everyone walks away happy and no-one’s hurt.”
“And what happened then?”
>”As much as I’d like to think, I’m no match for the princess. I had to let the magician go, but that’s not to say I didn’t keep tabs on them. Luckily they had enough morals to not do it again, and their identity was kept secret between me, the princess, and a few others.”
“Wow. I’ve heard of corruption and all, but that was just… that’s unbelievable.”
>The rest of the trip is spent in silence as you wonder what kind of ulterior motives the princesses may have had in your task.