Tora awoke to the sound of banging all throughout the house. This was accompanied by screams of horror, pain, and terror, and followed by familiar groaning and more. An eerie, bloody red glow fell through the window above her bed, almost as if foretelling of the mortal ichor that was to be spilled.

She immediately grabbed Gabe and all of her other gear, throwing everything on as fast as possible before checking on her two hosts, “VINYL! OCTAVIA! WHERE TH’ FUCK ARE Y’ SHEILAS?!”

Her response was the not-so-distant sound of glass breaking upstairs, followed by screams; Vinyl’s and Octavia’s.

The Abyssinian rushed upstairs and kicked in the door to the mares’ shared bedroom, Gabe already aimed forward. What she saw was a monster in the truest sense of the word, a writhing mass of floating, bloody flesh and eyeballs, hovering over Vinyl and Octavia’s huddled and shivering forms.

A bolt found itself lodged in one of the monstrosity’s eyes, followed by a bullet that passed through its center-mass, “GET TH’ FUCK AWAY FROM TH’ SHEILAS, Y’ DICKHEAD!”

The vermin lit up in poisonous green flames, letting out a warbling, almost choking cry before falling to the floor, weeping more blood than it should have held onto the floorboards.

Another bolt was fired into its body as Tora pounced on it and stabbed it with the Tungsten Shortsword Durin had given her, “Just fuckin’ cark it, y’ ugly fuck!”

Another, final cry was all it gave, before falling silent as it’s body dissolved into naught but blood, leaving behind a bloody Sharktooth Necklace.

Glaring warily at it, she ultimately grabbed it and stuffed it in one of her pouches as she looked over at her two friends, “Are y’ two doing apples?” The two slowly nodded, however neither let go of one another.

“J-Just...what the buck was that thing?” Octavia asked shakily.

“No clue, but y’ might wanna barricade th’ damn windows an’ doors, mates. Where there’s one beastie, there’s bound t’ be more of ‘em,” Tora replied as she looked out of the shattered window.

What she saw made her eyes widen. The sky was bathed a blood red by the light of a blood red moon, and hundreds upon hundreds of zombies and monsters of many kinds, all roaming about freely in the night. She saw some monsters that she’d not seen before as well, such as zombies that looked to be covered head to toe in bloody, tattered flesh, pale, skinny creatures that moved very quick on all fours, zombie-like creatures that were covered in pus and rot and bloats and blisters, creatures similar to Grave Hags, only with comically pointed and sharp noses and much more fat, and finally, very strange, bat like, bipedal creatures with low hanging white beards, pale red flesh, and overall fitting the description of a bat that was mixed with...whatever Durin truly was.

“...Holy dooley,” Tora whispered in stunned horror. “There’s hundreds o’ th’ damned beasties…more than I can have a burl with alone…”

It was then she turned her gaze towards town, and noticed the scattered Guards trying and failing to secure Ponyville. A number of magical explosions boomed here and there in the distance, likely from unicorns.

“Tavi, Vin, if’n anyone not a beastie comes here in search o’ shelter, let ‘em in like good sheilas until th’ coast is clear,” Tora said as she topped off Gabe’s internal magazine and started making her way down to the entrance of the house.

“W-Wait, Tora, you can’t-!” Vinyl called, but a glare from Tora as the tigress cleared the doorway convinced her not to protest.

“Don’t fuckin’ argue with me now, Vin. There are people out there who need help, an’ th’ Guards ain’t doin’ fuck-all t’ make a dent in th’ beasties’ numbers. ‘Sides, this is m’ profession, so I might as well,” Tora told the unicorn firmly, holding the mare’s gaze for another few seconds before breaking eye contact and resuming her trek down to the entrance.

Thankfully, she didn’t receive any further argument as she closed the door and walked downstairs and outside. When she did, almost immediately a dozen monsters looked to her and started to come for her. Some of them were zombie ponies she’d fought ever since she’d come to Equestria, shambling slowly, but the pale ones were different, moving quickly and almost desperately toward her.

A different beast altogether was the first to reach her, the pus, blister and bloat ridden thing making to swipe at her head.

A swift duck followed by an uppercut with unsheathed claws to the throat and chin was Tora’s eloquent retort to the beast’s rude greeting, with a bolt shot into its chin for good measure before she leapt backwards to gain some distance.

Unpredictably, it was a good move, as the beast started to bloat up with rot and pus, before exploding with that very pus, as well as blood and entrails and organs.

Her sensitive nose crinkled in disgust at the acrid stench that its death left behind, and she had to bite back the bile that threatened to come back up her throat.

She had little time to think anymore on that, however, as three regular zombies made it to her, all three making to grab her so as to bite and eat her.

Using her natural gifts, she jumped into the air and somersaulted behind them, then used her shortsword to make a trio of quick jabs at the back of their skulls.

With low moans of pain, they all fell forward, dead as they looked. Sadly, Tora still had little reprieve, as one of the pale creatures jumped on her, knocking her to the ground.

With an angry yowl, she clawed at the creature’s face and throat while she tensed her muscles to throw it off. It screeched in an unholy manner, lurching back in pain and clutching it’s throat with one hand and it’s face with another.

Taking advantage of its lapse in focus, she stabbed her carving knife into its neck and twisted, then yanked the blade out and kicked it off of her as she scrambled to her feet.

Once again, she was tackled, this time by another ghoulish pale creature, who seemed to want to avenge it’s fallen brother as it snapped it’s jaws in her face, the tigress barely keeping it at bay with her paws.

In response, she grabbed its jaws and started prying them apart past their normal range of movement, flesh tearing and ichor weeping from its mouth as her adrenaline-fueled muscles ripped its jaws apart.

It screeched and screamed and yelped as she did this, but in time, it’s jaws were ripped apart, and it fell limply onto her, dead from the shock of the pain.

Snarling, she grabbed its corpse by the throat and chucked it at the nearest monster with all her strength.

Surprisingly, the creature she tossed the body to jumped out of the way nimbly. It was then she noted this one was different; it was bigger, and had splotches of black in it’s skin, along with more muscles, sharper and longer claws and teeth, and bits of fur and spines. It’s black eyes gleamed with a fiendish intelligence. This was not a beast that would be felled easily, she quickly reasoned.

“Well, c’mon then, y’ drongo! Come at me and have a burl! I’m right here, fuck-face!” Tora taunted the monster as she brought Gabe to bear with her teeth bared in a snarl, standing up straight.

The ghoulish cretin eyed her up, then let out an absolutely piercing scream, making Tora’s ears ring from the action.

“MIND PIPING DOWN Y’ ASSHAT?! AIN’T SPORTIN’ OF YA T’ CHEAT!” Tora yelled past the possible onset of tinnitus in her ears.

Before she could fully recover, it pounced towards her, claws outstretched to rip her to shreds and teeth bared to bite into her flesh.

One sidestepping jump and she was out of the immediate path of its pounce, and she took the opportunity to fire both a poisoned-incendiary bolt and round into the back of its head.

Thankfully, this ended the fight, it’s head exploding into bloody giblets as its body fell limp to the ground. It evidently did not expect such a powerful retort from her weapon.

“Not so smart now, are ya, y’ cactus fuck!” Tora snorted and turned away from the corpse to run off in pursuit of more monsters to kill and, potentially, idiotic ponies to save.

As she made it into the town, she saw many pony corpses already littering the streets. Most she realized had been the corpses of some she knew from her time in the town. Some were just others she’d not talked to. More were Guards. All of them were being eaten by most of the monsters.

Shaking her head, she climbed onto the nearest roof and began to set the whole swarm - living, (un)dead and dead townsfolk alike - ablaze from afar with bolt after bolt and bullet after bullet.

After what seemed like the fiftieth headshot, she heard a bat-like screech, and suddenly something lashed it’s claws along her back, easily drawing deep wounds into it.

She whirled around and smacked it with the butt of Gabe’s stock, gritting her teeth at the pain and prospect of bleeding out or the wounds getting infected. This, thankfully, stunned it long enough for Tora to stagger back and get a look at her assailant. Predictably, it was one of the bat-like creatures, and it was rubbing its snout. Shaking its head and snarling at her, it brandished its claws and screeched at her again.

She lashed out and grabbed its jaws, then jerked them in opposite directions. This, sadly, did not work, and it grabbed her wrists and squeezed tightly, screeching in her face.

“FUCK!” Tora cursed - not at the pain of having her wrists clamped down on or the screeching right in her ears, but more because the fucker’s breath reeked.

However, from out of nowhere, a large figure suddenly crashed into the creature, shouting “HUG!” and creating a good-sized hole in the side of the building.

The sheer audacity of the situation did not settle in, even after the new creature tried and failed to nuzzle what was left of the bat-like creature in its arms. It only settled in when the roof of the building partially collapsed a tad more.

“Th’ fuck?!” Tora finally exclaimed at both the new arrival’s sudden entrance and its sheer size. The larger figure looked at it's stained self in confusion, wondering where the one it was trying to hug went.

It was, by all accounts, a massive figure. Made of solid rock and sediment and soil, with errant roots about and throughout it’s form and grass on it’s back, it could only be described as some form of giant - by Tora’s guess, anyways. It had piercing, solid glowing gold eyes that seemed to be genuinely confused at what had happened.

Tora decided that it would be prudent to get away and out of sight before the giant lug decided to ‘hug’ her like it did the meat slurry that had been holding her wrists a few seconds earlier. Keeping her eyes locked on the massive creature, she slowly stepped away from the giant on her tip-toes.

Unfortunately, the movement drew its attention. "Hug!" It exclaims, starting towards her.

“YOU’LL KILL ME!” Tora shouted as she brought her arms up in a futile attempt to protect herself from her impending crushing doom.

It actually stopped at that, thankfully. "What kill?" It asked, the giant tilting its small, hunched head like a confused child, arms still outstretched.

Tora paused, lowering her arms and looking to the creature slowly. “...Kill mean not living. I living, you living, that...was living. Once killed, never living again,” Tora said, speaking slowly and simply so that it would (hopefully) understand. “You too big and strong. Your hug too strong, an’ it kill small things like me or that. Kill me means y’ never get t’ hug me again.”

The giant gasped as if this was the most horrible thing in the world to it. "No hugs is bad!" It said. It seemed to think for a moment before, more slowly and gently, attempting to hug the tigress again.

“Hug good, yes, but not when hug is so strong it kill! Gentle hug is good, ‘too excited’ hug with big jump like hug y’ gave that can easily kill. Just...hug soft, big guy. Soooft, like...like warm breeze on a warm, sunny day,” Tora hastily explained further. “I show how hug soft for small ‘friends’ like me. Okay?”

"Okay!" The giant happily agreed. The giant copied what she hesitantly showed him, and went for a gentle hug.

“S-see? Gentle hug nice, yeah? See how gentle hug not hurt me?” Tora asked nervously, hoping that he wouldn’t forget to moderate his strength and snap her spine as she cautiously hugged back.

Sadly, the touching moment was cut short when one of the flying blood and eye sacs spat a wad of blood into the giant’s eye.

The giant roared in pain and reflexively dropped the tigress - who let out a startled yowl in response to being dropped so abruptly, as well as the big guy’s deafening roar ringing in her ears. Turning to the blood sac as he clutched his eye, the giant took a couple lumbering steps forward and swatted at it.

Naturally, with the difference in size and strength, the blood sac became a blood splat, and Tora could only stare at how easily the giant had done so.

‘Holy dooley, am I fuckin’ glad I’m on his damn side,’ Tora thought to herself with a nervous gulp and glance at the giant. “So, uh...what’s your name, y’ big bloke?”

The troll tilted its head, looking to her. It seemed confused, not understanding what a ‘name’ even was. It even scratched its head in its confusion. Oddly flexible, for a pile of rocks.

“...What d’ y’ call y’self, mate? I call m’self ‘Tora’, an’ that’s m’ name,” Tora explained to the living stone giant with a muted sigh.

"Do not call self, self is right here," The giant said simply, tilting its head further.

Tora sighed again, “A’ight, a ‘name’ is somethin’ that people use t’ identify themselves - ‘identify’ means ‘see who or what someone is.’ I identify as/call/name m’self ‘Tora’. Wot ‘bout you?”

The troll held its head and groaned, the sound not unlike the tumbling of rocks down a mountain. It seemed the long explanation only served to give it a headache.

“Ugh,” Tora placed a paw on her head, before looking back up at the giant. “Name is word for self, one unique to self. Others use name to call to someone, easier that way. ‘Tora’ is my name, so others call me ‘Tora.’ Do you have name?” The giant shook its head no. “Hmm...Abe, then. Uh, is shortened name of ‘Abiyoyo,’ a mon- giant from my people’s stories.”

"Okay! Self is Abe!" The giant happily stated. So now he gets it- wait, was he messing with her?

“...Were you joking with me?” Tora asked, internally preparing to be very much not amused if he answers ‘yes’. He just stared at her innocently. It was hard to judge a literal rock-head’s expressions. “If y’ were, then I’m gonna just walk away.”

"What joke?" It finally asked, looking like it had just gotten done processing what she said.

Tora, blinked, then sighed and shook her head. “Nevermind, yer jus’, uh...slow, I guess. A-a-anyways! C’mon, y’ big bloke! Big bad meanies are hurtin’ nice people!” Tora said, having just realized how good a stone giant would be for crowd control. The giant seemed to get mad at the mention of meanies, now waiting for her to lead it.

“Follow me, mate!” Tora beckoned him with a hand, then turned with Gabe held at the ready and ran off in the direction of the screams in the distance. The giants thundering steps behind her told her it was following, seeming to shake the ground with its steps.

Hopefully the big lug would help make a difference in destroying these fuckin’ asshole monsters.

They were not making a difference. Explosions tore apart Swift Pummeling's regiment. Creatures phased in and out of vision and with enough speed it was almost like teleportation...and with each rush through them, limbs flew, like armor made no difference.

Another collection of ear rupturing screeches. Swift was simply thankful she'd gotten makeshift earplugs beforehand. Her remaining troops weren't so lucky. Blood spattered out of their ears and even eyes as they fell limp to the cold cobblestones of Ponyville, now drenched with blood.

The worst part? The six bipedal, nude females were coordinating. How she didn't know. But it wasn't good for them.

"Fall back! To the Town Square!" She ordered, firing off another barrage of magical hooves, trying to at least keep the beasts back.

"But sir! What about the citizens!?" one of her troops shot back, barely keeping a young foal out of sight.

"Bring them over! I'm teleportin-!" Swift never finished that sentence. Not with words, at least. All that came was a scream of pain as fangs sunk into her neck. She felt them drain her blood, gulp by greedy gulp...then viciously rip out a whole chunk of her throat.

"CAPTAIN!"

They were not making a difference.

NOTE! This chapter may be subject to additions/changes at some point.

Well, here's a chapter that's actually on time, unlike last week. Sorry about that, folks. Thankfully my new job had me off today, so that I could post this. Also, say hello to my brother from another mother, Rezas! He's the one who will be writing Abe from here on out, so I hope you enjoy his work!

Now, to explain a little about the monsters shown, in case you all don't know which monsters are from what franchise.

The pale ones on all fours are called Ghouls, and the one with spines and the like is an Alghoul. Both are from the Witcher series. Both of them crave flesh - typically human in the games of the Witcher, but that has been altered slightly for this story - but Alghouls are considered the leaders or pack leaders of them, both for ferocity and intelligence.

Abe is what is known in Fable as a Troll. Trolls are fairly uncommon the further along in the series you get, but they are a very diverse race, typically made up of whatever minerals are found in the earth, including even being made entirely of metal ore. As such, Gabe is just a little unique, having been born/formed in the magic rich environment of Equestria. Why, exactly, is he unique? Well, for one, he can talk when all other Trolls in the games have never been shown to. As for the other reasons, well, you'll just have to wait and see, now won't you?

The bat-like creatures are known as Ekimmaras, and are another creature from the Witcher. They are considered one of the lowest Vampires, as they are feral and ferocious, like animals more than the typical Vampire you see nowadays. Furthermore, Ekimmara are not really harmed all too much by garlic, holy water, or religious symbols. So don't expect someone to whip out a cross and drive one off. Furthremore, Ekimmaras do not drink blood delicately. At all. They literally tear victims to shreds - with claws that have repeatedly been able to cleave the best armor - and slurp the splattered blood off the ground.

The other monsters are simply those found in Terraria on a Blood Moon. The zombies you have all seen before, though I'm sure to some of you the 'blood sacs' are new. Those, are known as Dripplers. Not very special, honestly. Just think of them as flying monsters who either tackle you to death or spit blood at high velocities. The red, fleshy zombies are simply Blood Zombies.

Now, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Lord knows it was quite fun writing with two of my bros, and even more so with the subject matter and fact that they are both readily available to write. The combat and monster descriptions were especially fun for me. Go ahead and tell me what you liked, I'd love to hear it.

Anyways, thank you all so much for the support, and for your continued reading! It really means a lot to me, as well as Nova and Rezas!

Have a good one!

-Timeless Celestial