Bionicle: Equestrian Saga
Chapter 11
Previous Chapter Next Chapter1 WEEK LATER
Autumn and I were sat at a café that was, rather conveniently, located at the start of the road that stretched from Trottingham, all the way to the border with Germaney, Autumn reckoned it would be a couple of days walk at least, a couple of weeks at most, depending on whether you ran all the way, to which I replied; ‘fuck that’, we were both sat drinking hot drinks, with Scar lying on the floor, dozing, and Boris perched on my shoulder, we were waiting for Vinyl to turn up, there was still a while before we would have to leave without her, so we could relax a little, after a while I spotted her bright blue mane sticking out amongst the crowd, I stood up and waved to her to which her response was to nod and quicken her pace, I noticed she had quite a few bags on her back and flanks, as well as a large set of headphones.
“Hey, guys, how’s it going?” she asked, sitting in chair that I had placed at the usually two-seat table
“Fine” I responded “were just having a drink before we set off, want one?” she nodded and I waived a waiter over, Vinyl ordered her drink and the waiter went away.
“So” Vinyl said “where exactly are we headed?” I went to respond but stopped and looked at Autumn, it took a few second before she clicked as to what I was getting at.
“Oh” she said “it’s a small town near Marelin, it’s called Trotterburg, nice place, I know some ponies there, they run a nice little B&B, so accommodation is sorted out, as for the walk, I hope you brought a tent”
“Why do you think I have all of this stuff” Vinyl said, pointing to the mountain of bags on her back “oh I also brought quite a large sum of money”
“How much?” I asked, she looked around and leaned in before whispering
“About 100’000 bits” both me and Autumn responded by choking on our drinks.
“Holy shit! You are loaded” I exclaimed between sputters
“It comes with being one of the most popular D.J.s and music producers in my genre, in Equestria” Vinyl said, smirking “I’ve got hundred of thousands that are still just sitting in a vault, doing nothing other than gathering dust”
“You have no idea how much that helps” I said “before you joined our group we had about 2000 between us to last for, well, the world”
“Why do you think I’ve brought so much?” she said
“Large room spell?” I asked, she nodded, the waiter brought her drink over before walking off to serve somepony else.
“Where do you actually plan to visit?” Vinyl asked, sipping on her coffee.
“Every major country besides the Changeling Alliance” I said “but if war gets declared, then the whole things off, you go back to being a D.J., and me and Autumn go to fight in the war”
“That’s understandable” she said, she downed her drink before saying “right, shall we make move?” me and Autumn both nodded before downing our drinks and standing up, Vinyl noticed Scar stand up
“Holy Celestia, is that a timberwolf!?” she exclaimed, backing up slightly.
“I told you I had a pet timberwolf” I said, she visibly relaxed at that “his name’s Scar”
“Why is he called that?” Vinyl asked
“Look at his left eye” I said, she looked at his left side before wincing slightly.
“That looks painful” she muttered.
“He doesn’t complain” I said with a shrug “right, let’s go”
We were about two days into our journey to Germaney and we were now walking through dense forest, me and Autumn were both decked out in full armour, minus our helmets, they were currently strapped to the outside of one of Vinyl’s saddle bags via a rope, I had learnt the quick-summon spell that Twilight had developed, so I needed to merely snap my fingers and they would appear on our heads, I was currently recounting to Vinyl how me and Autumn had defended the school from Timberwolves.
“… and then Scar looked between me and Autumn” I told Vinyl “now he must of realised that it would have been metaphorical suicide to try and attack us both, because he then whimpered and laid on the ground, I them slowly walked up to him before chucking my sword away and saying ‘he won’t hurt us’”
“So he gave up, just like that?” Vinyl asked.
“I guess, I mean he’s been with us for this past year and he hasn’t gone bad yet” I said, patting Scar in the side, his armour clanging against my metal gloves, he wagged his tail slightly and yipped “and then I knelt down and placed my hand on the back of his neck before flaring up my magic, and now he’s connected with my magic…”
*SNAP*
I looked down to see that I had stepped on a twig, next thing I knew I was being dragged into the air by a rope, which was now tied around my ankle.
“Shit!” I exclaimed, I was now hanging about 20 feet in the air next to a platform like construction “oh, that’s high” I wasn’t scared of heights, but the fact that I was basically hanging upside-down in the air with nothing but a rope to support me, did unsettle me a little.
“Vuur Koning, Are you Ok?” I heard Autumn shout, I looked down to find her flying up.
“Yeah, just hanging around” I said, crossing my arms, when she got to my height I pointed to the platform “this rope seems to be on a pulley system, see if there is any way to pull me onto that platform” she nodded before flying over, she found a pulley reel and was about to turn it when a human, dressed in a dark hooded trench coat, holding an army utility knife, silently walked up behind her and pressed the blade to her throat
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you” He said, for some reason the voice was familiar “I don’t like your kind touching my stuff, back away” Autumn slowly backed away from the pulley wheel, I could see the fear in her eyes, she never showed fear, and that scared me.
“please” I said, raising an arm to the figure “j-just, don’t hurt her”
“Give me one good reason not to” he spat “after what you did to our family”
“W-what!? Who are you?” I asked, I was really confused, and the blood rushing to my head wasn’t helping, he slowly raised a hand up to his hood and pulled it back, revealing someone I never thought I would see again.
“How can you forget your own brother!” he said, his face was thinner, and it now had several scars
“Holy shit, brother?” I said.
“Don’t call me that” he spat “you lost the right to call me brother, when you up and left to the land of magical talking ponies” ‘Oh that’s it’ I thought.
“YOU THINK I HAD A FUCKING CHOICE” I shouted “NOT ONE, GODS-DAMNED DAY GOES BY, THAT I DON’T WISH I COULD GO BACK!”
“WELL YOU SHOULD HAVE COME BACK!” he shouted back
“I ALREADY TRIED” I said, he did a double take.
“What?”
“I tried to go back the way I came” I said “but I just ended up in the halls of the gods of this world, they told me a have to for fill my destiny before I can go back”
“you expect me to believe that bullshit!?” he said, he took the knife from Autumns throat and pointed it at me, Autumn took the opportunity and reared up, she turned around and knocked him to the floor, knocking the knife out of his hand and standing on his chest.
“Don’t ever fucking touch me again” she snarled, extending one of her hood blades and pressing the tip against his throat.
“Autumn, Don’t” I said, trying to stay calm, her snarl softened into a scowl, she snorted before retracting her hoof-blade and stepping away “bring him into the Platform, now” she said.
“Why” he asked, crossing his arms
“I’m a sergeant in the royal guard” she said “and a special ops, when I say to do something, you do it, and as a sergeant, I am ordering you to bring him onto the platform, before I throw you of this platform to feed to his pet timberwolf” she pointed at me as she said this, he hesitate for a moment, before sighing and walking over to the pulley wheel.
“Only because he’s my brother, not because you ordered me to, I don’t take orders from talking ponies” he pulled a lever and I started to move towards the platform, he cut the rope and I dropped to the platform, I stood up and walked over to him, when I was close enough I punched him in the stomach and he collapsed to the floor, winded
“That’s for being an arsehole” I said “and for assaulting my superior officer”
“You’re…in…the army” he gasped.
“Royal Equestrian Guard Reserves” I said, I held out a hand for him “now get up, you’re coming with us” he grabbed hold of my hand after a couple of moments and I pulled him up.
“Why” he asked.
“Because you are my brother, and I’m not leaving you behind after I’ve just found you” he thought for a moment before nodding.
“O.K. where to?” he asked.
“Well, off of this tree for a start” I said, he nodded before walking off.
“Just let me get my stuff” he said, before walking around the back of a tree trunk, when he walked back around a few minutes later he was wearing bulky armour, in his right hand he had a large sword that resembled a scimitar and a small canon of some kind in his left hand, he also had had a large shield on his left arm, his helmet had an eye piece with 3 lenses on one side.
“No fair” I said “you got a canon and a sword, all I got was a sword”
“You’re forgetting the helmet with heat vision and night vision” he said, I could practically hear him smirking behind the mask, Autumn looked confused.
“OH, fuck you” I replied.
“How can you go from wanting to kill each other to being best friends?” she asked
“Brothers” we both said at the same time, Autumn just groaned in exasperation.
“Just, lead us off of this tree” she said, face hoofing
“This way” he said, he led us to a ladder and started to climb down it.
“So, brother” he said, climbing down “what do you call yourself here?”
“You’ve got the same problem?” I asked him.
“Yep” he responded
“I’m now known as Vuur Koning” I said, climbing down after him “what about you?”
“Just call me Minion” he said “so, you and the pony?..”
“What about us?” I asked, a little suspicious
“Are you two…?” I cut him off
“Fuck no, we’re just friends” I said.
“Denial” he sang, I climbed down faster to catch up to him before stamping on his head.
“I have combat training, I could floor you in about 10 seconds” I said.
“Ow” he hissed through clenched teeth, rubbing the top of his head “so you finally grew a spine”
“I ‘grew a spine’ after I got attacked by a pack of timberwolves 30 minutes after arriving in Equestria” I said, rolling my eyes, he winced
“Ouch, well, you’ve learnt to stand up for yourself at least” he added, jumping the last few rungs and landing on the floor
“It helps when you have a massive sword, a suit of armour, a special ops guard as your friend and a pet timberwolf” I said, jumping of the ladder and landed crouching.
“I heard you call them timberwolves several times, what are they?” he asked.
“You’ll see in a moment” I said, I heard flapping and we both saw Autumn land on the ground, we walked back to where Vinyl was waiting, she started when she saw my brother.
“Who is he” She asked.
“Vinyl Scratch, this is my brother, Minion” I said “oh, Minion, the pegasus you’ve already met is Autumn Skies, try not to piss her off from now on, OK”
“Just keep out of my way” Autumn replied coldly, before walking off down the road.
“Autumn!” I called after her, but she ignored me “just wait here” I said to them both, before running off after Autumn.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“Nothing” she huffed.
“You’re a bad liar” I said.
“No bucking shit” she muttered, before rearing up and rounding on me “he could have killed me” she said, prodding my chest with a hoof “and you want him to come with us, how do you think that makes me feel?”
“He’s all I have left of my old home, I’d rather keep an eye on him, put yourself in my position” I said, she sat down, I could see tears start to form in her eyes, I crouched down and hugged her “hey, it’s OK”
“I was so scared” she said, resting her head on my shoulder “I thought he was going to kill me”
“Trust me, he’s not the type of person to kill someone”
“A year is a long time, he could have changed since you last saw him”
“Look, just trust me on this, have I ever made a bad call with this sort of thing?” I asked, she shook her head “my brother is one of the most loyal people I’ve ever met, besides Rainbow Dash, and if anyone double-crosses our group, he’ll be the first one to go after them”
“OK” she said, pulling away from me and standing up, I stood up and walked back over to my brother and Vinyl, they were already talking like good friends, I walked up to minion.
“Right, she just needs time” I said “so stay away from her for now, and if she tells you to do something, just do it, don’t argue with her”
“Sure” he said, Autumn walked up to us.
“Alright, were moving out” she said “pack up your shit and get moving” we all nodded and started to walk down the road.
After a few hours it started to get dark and we set up camp for the night, Minion was really jumpy, he was sat opposite us, next to Vinyl, he would reach for his weapons every now and then, as if they would disappear, and he would look behind him every now and again.
“What’s got you so paranoid?” I asked him, we were all sat around a camp fire
“There’s a reason I acted the way I did when I first saw you” he said “there are things in this forest, things that only come out at night, they are the reason people once feared the dark, that is why I was up in the trees, they only hunt on the ground”
“And you didn’t think to tell us this before we set up camp?” Autumn asked incredulously, we heard a chittering sound from behind us, causing us all to fall silent, I noticed Minion reach for his gun very, very slowly and Vinyl looked absolutely petrified, Scar started to growl.
“Don’t move” he said, quietly “they hunt like bats” he very carefully aimed his gun between me and Autumn, before firing, it sent out a blue ball of energy hitting whatever was behind us, me and Autumn both stood up and drew our weapons, I summoned our helmets and slowly walked towards the creature, it was… horrifying, it was like some weird cross between a bat, a spider, a xenomorph and a predator, and it was still alive, it was thrashing about and making a hell of a racket.
“Shut that thing up” Minion said, I nodded before firing several shots from my pistol into its head, silencing it, permanently, I then cut its head off, horrifying Autumn and Vinyl.
“Better safe than sorry” I shrugged, Minion nodded, smirking “I don’t think tonight is going to be a peaceful one, we stay at the camp, but two of us keep watch at all times, me and Autumn will take first watch”
“Why didn’t they make their presence known before hoof?” Vinyl asked.
“They generally follow their prey for a couple of days, waiting” Minion said “they are incredibly smart, like Velociraptor smart, they hunt in packs, that was just a scout, more will make themselves known, a couple days after I woke up in this forest I ended up in a tree with about twenty of them surrounding it” I grabbed a hold of the carcass and dragged it closer to the fire.
“What are you doing?” Autumn asked.
“Seeing what we are up against” I said, picking up the head and placing it near the body “if you don’t like it then go and stand watch” Autumn just huffed before walking to the other side of the fire and looking into the forest, Minion knelt down beside me and passed me his utility knife.
“Here” he said, I nodded before turning the creature onto its side and cutting into its belly “I’ve found that they hate overwhelming noises”
“Well we’re in luck, because Vinyl is a Dubstep D.J.” I said, sifting through the chest cavity
“You’re shitting me” he exclaimed
“Nope, she even brought a stereo system in her bags” I said, we both looked at each-other before grinning, the same idea in our heads, I stood up and wiped my gloves on the creatures body before standing up and lifting it into the fire, it created quite a stench as it burnt.
“Alright guys, gather around” I said, Autumn, Vinyl and Scar walked over, Vinyl smelt the burning creature and gagged.
“Holy shit, that thing reeks” she said, retching and backing up backing up a couple of steps.
“That’s the point, Vinyl, we need you stereo system” I said.
“Why?” she said, before quickly covering her mouth with her hoof, running over to the base of a tree to empty her stomach, I gave her a sympathetic look before answering.
“Because we plan to kill all of those things, tonight”