“Yes.” I shot him a confused look. “I don’t get what’s so funny.”
“Nothing is funny.” a snicker escaped him. “T-That is very nice.”
I paused. “No, seriously. What’s so funny, Sir Oliver?”
The man simply waved me off. “You won’t get it, Point Star, hehe.”
I rolled my eyes. This… human, was so odd. Kept laughing at things that don’t make sense. What’s so funny about my job? It’s the most prestigious and most proud job a pony like myself can ever achieve. To defend the princesses, to fight against evil, to keep ponies safe? Who wouldn’t want that?
But now, I’m stuck in a strange world with equally strange creatures. One second, I was posted on the tower, keeping an eye out for any trouble, and the next? Pow! I found myself face first in the snow all alone in the middle of nowhere.
Thankfully, I didn’t have to be alone for that long. Maybe an hour or two. Sir Oliver, calls himself a “guardsman” of the national guard, found me. He seemed familiar with my species, saying, and I quote, “Wow, didn’t think I’d find a lost pony myself. You’re the… I think the fourth one.”
A dozen minutes later, I’m walking alongside Sir Oliver, going through a rather large tunnel with rocks on all sides.
“This is Abley Tunnel. Uhm, it leads to the harbor and a friendly outpost. The three other ponies we found will be there.”
Perfect.
It was significantly warmer in here which brought relief to my cold-ridden body. Having been walking in the snow for hours, it was needed. I wish I could stay in here a bit longer, but I knew getting to that outpost would be much better. Besides, I needed to see for myself if there are any other ponies as well. I’m a guardsmare for goodness sakes! Not only do I defend the princesses, but I also defend her ponies as well.
However, before we were even halfway through Abley Tunnel…
BWOOOOOOOOOMP-CRACK.
“Shit… power went out.” the man tapped something on his chest and a red light shone on me.
“Power went out?”
“Yeah. A lot of our important infrastructure is connected to one source: Alpha Power Station. This tunnel and EBS is one of them.”
I raised a brow. “EBS?”
“Oh, yeah, EBS.” the man pulled out his ‘radio,’ as he calls it. “Eleskan Broadcasting Station. It keeps our radios up and running, but without APS up, this shit is as useless as a brick.”
“So… what now?”
The man sighed. “We wait. Engineers from the nearest outpost will get it up and running in no time. Outages like this happen once every… few days? Maybe a week or two at most.” he shrugged. “Wasn’t always like that, but with everything going on? A lot of our stuff keeps breaking and our engi’s have to fix it.”
“Sounds like the engineers are pretty important.”
“They sure are.”
So waiting? I can do that. Standing around looking imposing was apart of my job, but this time around, I don’t get paid for it. Bummer. This world already sucks.
“Say, miss Point Star?”
“Hm?” I looked at the man.
“I-”
STOMP.
We both froze as we heard something in the distance. It sounded heavy.
STOMP.
Sir Oliver’s eyes squinted as he looked ahead, pulling out a red stick before tugging on the top of it. A red fire shone brightly, casting away the darkness around us.
STOMP.
“Sir Oliver?”
STOMP.
“Shhh…”
STOMP.
…
The man leaned forward. “What is that-”
UUURAAAGH!
STOMP, STOMP, STOMP, STOMP!
Something surged forward and grabbed Sir Oliver by his chest. With a single swipe, it grabbed Sir Oliver and lifted him up in the air. Sir Oliver dropped his glowing stick and his big metal tube crashed onto the floor below. The being, it smelled rotten, but that was not the worst of it. I was face-to-face with something I have never seen before, an offense to life itself. It bore the shape of Sir Oliver, but it was… wrong. Some sort of growth was on it, green and spreading. It looked at Sir Oliver with a killer grin… before looking at me.
I could hear something in my mind. It’s asking what I was, who I am. I could hear so many voices inside my head as it questioned me. I tried to ignore it as I drew my spear to my side, the runes on it lighting up as it recognized the serious threat in front of me. The voices grew louder, more insistent. It wanted to know what I was.
Sir Oliver pulled out something from one of his many pouches and aimed it at the monster.