//------------------------------//
// Down the Rabbit Hole Part 2 
// Story: Guardian of the Everfree 
// by KaBar42 
//------------------------------//

Guardian of the Everfree

Chapter 12



The first thing that hit me was the stench. It smelt like the mass graves that the Taliban had dug after they stepped up attacks on civilian targets. My company was one of the groups that investigated them. 

My stomach chose this time to reject it’s contents. I don’t blame it, the mixture was fetid. Smelling like a mix of urine, feces, and decomposing bodies. The second thing I noticed from my precipice was the twenty foot pile of dead bodies in one of the corners. It seemed to be mainly composed of ponies but… was that a gryphon? The entire area was almost as large as the mammoth dome in Mammoth cave, and circular. To my far right there were cages stacked in columns of two.

The dogs hadn’t noticed me, yet. The precipice I was on had a drop off to my right, forming “steps” to get down. But before I did anything, I had to do something about this fucking stench. I grabbed for the gas mask that was in it’s pouch on my waist. I slip my NVGs off of my face. There was enough light in here. I slipped my gas mask on, clearing it of the ambient air. I crouch down, slinging the UMP, I pull my LMFII in an underhand grip. I slip down slowly and quietly from the drop off, which was only about ten feet. There was a dog keeping an eye on the precipice below. How had it not heard me? Must have been another loud sound that masked the door and my retching. 

The dog was about a head smaller than I, I shoot my hand over his mouth and plunge my knife his neck. The dog went down quickly, and I dragged him behind a large rock that was nearby.  No sense in leaving his body in the open.

I finished heading down the “steps”, and head into the shadow of the room. I have to work my to the cages, I can’t leave these sapient beings to live in abject misery. As something less than living, something less than personhood! Treated as nothing but mere animals, stupid creatures that cannot form abstract ideas! To be tossed disgracefully into a pile after their last breath leaves their bodies! It’s disgusting! These dogs were never going to see the light of day again.

I make my way to the cages, thankfully no dog patrols pass me.  Right before I make it to the first cage, a dog begins making its way towards me. Probably a warden. It’s a little ways off, so it doesn’t see me. I finish my making my way to the cage and stop on the side. I look to the cage and see a stallion staring at me with his eyes wide and mouth open.

Before he could scream, I put my finger up to the filter on the gasmask. Than continuing, I pointed at the warden’s direction and then drew my trigger finger across my neck. The stallion seemed to get the idea, and shut his mouth. 

I waited about thirty seconds until the warden passed. As he passed me and left his back open, I rushed up to him and repeated the same process as I had the other dog. He fell, and I dragged him to the shadows.

Now that I could see that stallion without worrying about the guard, I could see that he was pretty well built. The muscles in his legs pretty proportional. Not too large, not small. With a solid blue body and a red ma-. Oh, god. He’s a unicorn, with half his horn missing. The remaining horn was jagged, and had obviously been broken off. There is also another mare in the cage, she’s in the shadows so I can’t see her.

I can’t help him in the horn department, but the freedom department. Well, I’m an American. I began to rifle through the dog’s vest. Something catches my ear though. It’s on the other side of the cage, it sounds like labored breathing. 

I walk over to the left side of the cage, and what awaits me there is sickening. An orange mare, lying on the ground. Her two front hooves broken, and wound in her gut.

I go to my knees and scoot closer to her. The stallion… begins growling at me. I do a short and slow “shh”, the sound being muffled the gasmask . He stopped growling, but seemed to keep an eye on me. 

The mare wasn’t good, at all. I could tell that the hooves had gone gangrenous, and the wound in her gut was septic. Her gangrenous hooves were… covering something. I reach my hand down to move them. Thankful for the mechanix gloves I had put on earlier. As my hand drew nearer, however, the mare’s eyes shot open and she began growling aggressively     .

Well, growling as aggressively as one can when they’re dieing of gangrene and septic shock in their own feces and urine. I begin shhing again. Hoping to calm the mare down, show I’m not a threat. She seemed to calm down. I moved my hand slowly to on hoof and moved it.

“Oh my god.”

A baby. Couldn’t have been older than a couple of hours, it was still covered in amniotic fluid. Wait a minute!

Oh my god! Its still breathing!

I gently pull the little foal away, and the mother gives no resistance. The little bugger is asleep. Off to my right, the stallion is straining for the baby. Damn, the mare must have been his wife.

I pull my blouse off, detach my gasmask. Oh, god. That fucking smell. I vomit a little in my mouth. It was like a mix of mold, shit and piss, and decaying bodies. I pull my undershirt off, and gently wrap the foal in it. While giving the head a short rub to wipe off.  Than give the little guy a scratch behind the ear, as he begins to squirm around. This seems to calm him down, and he pushes his head into my hand.

Unfortunately, all cute things must stop being cute one time or another. I move to the cage, and slide the foal on the ground next to the stallion. I don’t trust their hooves. He moves, and is somehow able to pick up the baby and cradle it. At this point, this isn’t that surprising.  The mare, though.

I walk back to her, and quickly slip my unbuttoned blouse back on, and examine the wounds a bit more. No. There is no way I can save her. Even if I got her out of here right now, I don’t think she would make it even if she was back on our world. I highly doubt that the ponies have the technology to deal with gangrenous wounds and septic shock. 

But another idea comes to my head.

“Faust, can you help her?” I ask.

“Opening a trans-dimensional portal, Dante, would be easier right now than saving her life. She is nearly dead, and I’m not at my full power. Her fate is currently in your hands, Dante.” Faust says.

Damn it. I fucking hate life or death decisions. Okay, pros to giving her a mercy killing: She is going to die anyway, she is probably in extreme pain, and her believed husband is watching her die. Cons: none really. Okay, mercy killing. Brilliant.

I kneel down and gently pull her head up and expose her neck. She seems to be smiling. I bring my knife about midway down her neck, where the carotid is normally located in horses. I press the knife against the skin lightly, and then quickly dig in and slam the knife point down into the arteries, slashing them open, causing a bilateral injury. She would be unconscious in one to three minutes, and death will follow shortly.

The mare, despite having both carotids sliced opened, still has a smile on her face. She dies happy.

I return to looting the warden. Ah, there they are the keys. I take the spear and the keys and go to the front of the cage. Open the door, neither the stallion nor the mare, who now has a baby attached to one her teats, notices me. It isn’t until I knock on the bars with the spear do they look at me. The stallion looks at me, and seems to take a defensive posture, and the mare just looks at me with even wider than normal eyes.

I hold the keys up, and then motion to all the other cages with the spear. I turn the spear around in my hand, with the pointy side facing me, as a sign of trust. The stallion looks hesitant at first, but grabs the spear after a few seconds.

I depart and leave them be.