Chapter V
Huh... Well there's something you don't see everyday, I thought as I examined the ponies breaking into my lair.
For starters, they were far less colorful than the various ponies that I had seen in the nearby town. While the ponies in town were literally every color of the rainbow, these ponies all had the same gray coats and dark blue manes and tails. These ponies also each bore sharp, vampire-esque fangs and yellow, cat-like eyes.
Those weren't the only differences I noticed, however.
The pegasi among them each bore webbed, bat-like wings, while their unicorn counterparts had curved, rhinoceros-like horns instead of the usual straight, spiraled ones of their cousins. As for the 'normal' ones, I couldn't spot any real differences other then the fangs and the eyes.
They were clearly soldiers, if the dark, night-themed armor and weapons were anything to go by. Overall, they looked pretty intimidating. Ya know, if you got around the whole four foot tall, adorable pony thing.
Whether they were from the government sent to 'take care' of the monster in the woods, or a mercenary band hired by the villagers to hunt down the threat to the village, I wasn't really sure yet. Didn't really matter to me which one they were though. If they were mercs, they would probably just kill me and be done with it. If they were the government, though, I could expect experiments followed by an autopsy. Everything inside me was telling me to run, to forget about my nice warm lair and make for the hills.
Yeah, I know what you're saying: “But these are ponies! They couldn't possibly do anything like that! Just look at how cute they are!”
...I've been kidnapped by aliens, turned into a monster, then stranded in magical ponyland. Frankly, I didn't care about how cute they were, I wouldn't put it past the universe to drop me in Care Bear land and have me vivisected at this point.
Again, I wasn't sure that these people would act like that. However, I couldn't be certain that they wouldn't, and as I have already stated, I had become downright paranoid after my abduction.
However, despite my overwhelming urge to bolt for the hills, I decided to observe for a few seconds more. I might not be able to understand what they're saying, but it was still interesting to see how much different they were from humans.
However, Murphy had other ideas.
A startled gasp to my right quickly broke me from my thoughts, causing me to thank Murphy for being such a total prick. I turned my head towards the sound, dread filling me as I laid my eyes on the source of the noise.
Three pony soldiers were standing there, two with their hooves over the mouth of the third, trying desperately to keep their colleague from revealing their presence.
All of their eyes were wide with fear.
We just stood there for what seemed like hours, staring at each other in shock. Slowly I raised a single finger to my mouth, then shushed them as I started to inch my way backwards.
This seemed to have the opposite of the desired effect, however. The two that were holding onto the other's mouth quickly gave their colleague a shove towards my lair, yelling something in their strange language as they did so. He immediately took off like a shot from a rifle, disappearing almost instantly into the thick foliage around us.
I am really going to kill that tree, I thought as I heaved the fish at the two remaining soldiers, then turned and bolted.
* * *
Princess Luna gently landed, her face an unreadable mask. “Captain, what have you learned from your examination of the creature's living space?”
“We think we know why the creature needed so many animal hides,” he said as he landed next to his Princess. “It was attempting to make clothing from them, though it is clear that the creature has no expertise in the art.”
“What makes you say that?” Princess Luna asked curiously.
“We found no fewer then fifteen ruined hides, all attempts at making pants,” Captain Seeker said ruefully. “I'm not sure why it's so desperate to make simple clothing, though.”
Luna thought for a second, then smiled sadly as an idea came to her. “It is trying to survive.”
Captain Seeker looked confused at this. Before he was able to ask her to elaborate on her cryptic statement, however, Private Longshot came barreling into the clearing, looking for all the world as if he had seen a ghost. “Captain! We found it! It was hiding on that ridge over there when my team stumbled across it!” the dust pony said as he gasped for air.
Captain Seeker gave a worried glance towards Princess Luna, but quickly took charge of the situation. “Come on ponies, let's move!” he ordered as he raced off in the direction that Longshot had indicated.
* * *
Nope! I thought over and over again as I tried to put as much distance between myself and the two ponies chasing me. Luckily for me, the two that were on my tail were both unicorns, and therefore a bit slower then their pegasi and 'normal' cousins.
Unluckily for me, however, was the fact that the two chasing me were reality warping unicorns. Any moment now, I was certain that one or both of them was going to take my head off or strangle me from a distance using their telekinesis. Every so often I could hear the weird humming sound that usually precluded unicorn spell work, but for some bizarre reason nothing was happening to me.
Briefly, I glanced behind me, only to realize what it was they were doing.
While it was better then trying to kill me outright, it was still pretty bad, seeing that they were throwing up signal flares into the skies every couple of minutes. At this rate I was going to have the whole freaking troop breathing down my neck unless I did something to shake those two.
The combination of the terrain around me and my bipedal nature was working in my favor, though. What took me only a couple of seconds to navigate was taking them much longer due to their less maneuverable frames. If this was a simple race, I knew that I was destined to leave them in the dust.
This wasn't a race though, this was a chase. I knew that the two of them would run me into the ground given the chance, and as soon as my strength failed me, I was theirs. I didn't have all that much strength to start with, either. I was still exhausted from my earlier attempts at fishing, not to mention chasing down the wild boar earlier, or the fact that I hadn't gotten to eat either of the animals I had caught and killed.
The plain truth of the matter was that, despite the heavy body modifications I had gone through, I was still only mortal. They were going to catch me and put me on a freaking autopsy table and there was nothing I could do about it.
As my strength lagged, I pulled around one last tree and spotted my salvation. If I still had the facial muscles, I would have been smiling like a troll. Sure it was dirty and underhanded, but I didn't feel like I had any other options.
Reaching to the side, I took a single swipe of my claw at the thin tree to my right. As expected, my razor-sharp claws sheared straight through the weak sapling, causing it to slowly tumble to the ground. I then accelerated, trying my best to make it to the river that I knew was close by.
Right on cue, I heard the tell tale sound of the tree falling, followed closely by the sounds of frightened swearing in an unknown tongue, followed even closer by the sounds of a thousand angry hornets rising from their destroyed nest.
Now that the uni-pair are off my tail, I can make a clean getaway, I thought as I dived into the river, hoping that the fast current of the water would carry me to relative safety.
I felt a little guilty at leaving those two in such a state, but I quickly got over it. I'm a rat, but I'm a live rat, I thought as I was swept downriver and out of the two soldier's reach.
After what seemed like an eternity swimming with the current, I finally pulled myself up to the bank of the river, exhausted, freezing, but still very much alive. Grunting softly, I crawled along the riverbed, hoping that I would be able to find someplace to hole up and build a fire.
I was just so tired though. Not just from the running or the swimming, or even from the lack of decent food. No, this was an exhaustion that ran far deeper, that had plagued me ever since I had crawled out of that accursed spacecraft and into this strange, yet familiar world. In the back of my head I was faintly aware that hypothermia was setting in, but as my eyes closed, I couldn't seem to build up the will to care.
I had fought so desperately for survival, determined to beat the odds, beat the despair that had threatened to consume me, only to die here on this miserable little beach. The thought brought tears to my eyes, and I cried openly as my arms gave way underneath me. I tried to gather the strength needed to continue, tried to fight the fear and despair that had been chasing me through this whole ordeal, but it seemed that my despair had finally caught up to me.
I am going to die alone, I thought as I rolled over on my back. It was my greatest fear, that I would die alone and afraid somewhere, and no one would even care at my passing. Valerie had changed that for me, had made me feel like I was the most important person in the world. She had become everything to me, had given me purpose and passion, had erased my greatest fear with her presence alone.
And I was never going to see her again. The thought rattled in my head as I stared up at the beautiful starry sky, faintly aware that the warmth of my body was quickly slipping away.
Valerie, I'm so sorry. I tried my best, I thought, as my eyes slowly closed.
* * *
Captain Seeker rounded another tree, just to run headlong into Corporal Jade and Corporal Lancer running in the opposite direction. This confused the captain at first, but that confusion quickly gave way to terror as a thousand wasps began to bombard the entire column, making sure that every single pony there felt their displeasure at being awoken at such an early hour.
The chaos that followed would have gone on for at least an hour had it not been for Princess Luna's quick thinking. With a single stomp of her hoof she formed a protective bubble, quickly expanding it to simultaneously drive the insects away, while protecting her soldiers. The wasps continued to beat against the shield for a few more seconds, but eventually gave up.
“What in Tarterus happened corporal?” Captain Seeker asked as Lieutenant Burst started to apply healing magic to the whole column.
“We were tailing the creature as ordered sir, but it was far more cunning than we thought,” Corporal Jade said, saluting smartly despite the pain that still lingered in her forelegs.
“It escaped? We need to-” Captain Seeker started to say, but was interrupted as Luna gasped, her face pale. Captain Seeker looked at her in alarm, concern written clearly in his expression. “What is it Your Highness?”
“A nightmare, filled with anguish, despair, and longing, but it is fading...” she said, her voice filled with pain. “We have to move now. Thestrals, with me. Everypony else, stay here until I have sent for you,” she ordered as she took off in a flash.
Fear gripped her heart as she pushed herself faster and faster towards the source of the nightmare. Even as she pushed herself, however, she could feel the nightmare slowly slip away. She knew that there was only one reason why a nightmare would fade like this, and it wasn't because the person having the nightmare was waking up.
It was because the person having the nightmare would never wake up.
I can't think of much to say except that it's a good chapter. It sure feels short though. After reading so many stories where the chapters vary between 5k to 15k, anything less seems too short. Despite that, you do a good job with pacing and fill out the chapter with enough story that it's more than filler and not an over cramped pile of sped up plot points. Looking forward to the next one! :)
:3 Yay, an update! Really like this story, hope that we don't have to wait to long for the next chapter!
Well that escalated quickly
Painfully short, but good. You said "Thestials" in the second-to-last paragraph. Is that a misspelling of "Thestrals", or is that what the curve-horned unicorns are called?
Luna to the rescue! Let's see how he'll freak out when she suddenly pops up in his dream and starts speaking to him
Awesome chapter, but he needs an cool mask later! remember stay classy
Very nice chapter, and I eagerly await the next
edgying up the featured box I see.
Easily entertaining and captivating, i look forward to future updates.
Care Bear Stare= Magical Lobotomy
So... expect another chapter within the week?
5010268 A chapter's length isn't measured in the amount of words, but how much content there is in it. A 2,5K chapter could very well be fucktons bigger than a 60K one. I've seen it happen in this very site.
Wonder if she'll be able to dreamspeak to him before he kick the bucket?
5011344 thanks for the catch!
5010781 The chapters come out whenever I feel like it. However, don't expect a new chapter for this story this week.
You can expect a new one for The Nautilus Protocol though.
5010752
5010297 Yeah, that was a misspelling. Thanks for the catch though!
5011816 Woo Hoo!!!
SUSPENSE!!!
5012235 It's a natural place to end the chapter. Besides, just because we know he won't die doesn't mean we know how he's saved or what happens to him next.
Now I want the next chapter....
I'm Intrigued.
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Wooh hoo !
MOre alien madness, more alien madnnes!
imagine that to the tune of im radioactive, radioactive.
For all they've said to themselves, the ponies really aren't at all acting like they have any interest in peaceful interaction. While searching his lair out of curiosity I can understand, having immidiately set off in pursuit of him when his first reaction to meeting them is to run, it makes the whole thing seem more like an hostile invasion. Considering how they first found out about him was when he saved a mare and brought her to town, attempting to hunt him down and capture him like they very much seem to intend and attempting to explain this away with wanting to "protect their subjects" will ring pretty damn hollow. Personally it all smacks of "A thing we don't know about? It must be a monster, let's attack it!".
5013616 Maybe, maybe not. And either way, there's going to be a lot more detail to what happens than you included in your guess. So we'll just have to wait and see.
Celestia's gonna go ballistic when she wakes up
4997102 That's not a bad a thing at all. I know far more people who refuse straight out to acknowledge that the other party might be right, or claim to acknowledge it while not actually revising their behavior or arguments. The ability to not only accept, but act on criticism and corrections presented in a professional manner speaks volumes about your character and potential for growth as an author.
5015445 Thanks man, that means a lot to me.
5013341 Thanks for the critism, but I think you're forgetting a couple of key facts.
They have the ship he crash-landed in. This has made Celestia and Luna both incredibly nervous, believing that this is only a sign of things to come. Luna believes that the protagonist might know something, so she is very anxious to talk to him, even if that means capturing him. She would prefer to avoid this sort of conflict, but will not hesitate if it comes to it.
The guards could have attacked him when they saw him, but they were under strict orders to merely follow. No actual violence has happened between our protagonist and the ponies yet. If any violence does break out, it'll either be from our protagonist or from one of the Privates.
5013516 I had forgotten, actually. I always felt that that name could be used for either gender though, so this is a different fleet foot.
Care Bears are far more deadly than most people realize...
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One of the weaker chapters.
Lots of rehashin' and repeatin.
That's deep man.
Deep!
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5015946
Don't you mean: I'm a rat, but I'm an alive rat. ?
5119455 No, I think "live" is fine. It means the state of being alive.
>things seemed a lot worse then they were
*than
Ooh fancy.
Oh geeze. I think I'm hooked on this story.
given
5010268 tell me about it. My first story I read here was Fallout:Equestria. 45 chapters, each breaking 10k. The highest was about 35k.
Heh. Silly author. I think you mean
i love this too.
the latter part of the chapter hurt, though. it might be because i was listening to this. the feels, man. easy with them! they're fragile!
Seven nightmares.
Such a fright.
At least on the grammatical spectrum.
Why in the world would they chase him? Luna determined that he wasn't dangerous so they should have focused on gaining trust, even if it took a week or two.
Oh, non-pegasus Nocturne ponies? Nifty!
Yeah, it kinda makes your brain crash, doesn't it?
Curse that man.
Okay, I just find that an absolutely hilarious mental image
All according to plan! (sorry. It's the closest I can get to a tree smiley here )
Because... Winter Is Coming!
*gets shot by the lawyers of the Game of Thrones franchise*
Ah yes. That pesky magic
Oh, ouch
Yikes. It's a good thing she can apparently track him by that dream.
Remarks and corrections:
> I heard the tell tale sound
"telltale" is one word, or at least connected with a hyphen.
> into this strange, yet familiar world
Either split the "yet familiar" off with a comma at both sides, or leave the commas off altogether.
> What in Tarterus happened corporal?
"Tartarus". Also, comma before "corporal".
> “What is it Your Highness?”
Comma before "Your Highness".
5768730
I'm going to say, because Celestia is having sleepless nights over these aliens, and he's their only clue to who or what they are. Also, she never really determined he wasn't dangerous; just that he didn't seem to hunt sapient beings for food.
Dude, you should be so proud of yourself.
My heart is beating at a million miles an hour because of that chase scene.
6269393
Heh. Any faster and it would have burs-
*POW*
...shit.
will i been reading all night and stuff and by the way your story is about 20% Cooler now that that over on to the next chapter tomorrow
any hoof have a great derpy day ;3 or night, whatever ur timline is lol
7167628
.... Why... The equivalent of that would be any hand... Any who or ways would have worked as neither of those have any human connotation.
7284243
Any hand could refer to multiple options, and something despite them. Essentially the same meaning as anyway.
Its rather obsolete because we do have anyway.
Just wanted to throw my bits in.
Any hand, I need to be careful.