HoovesHandsClaws: Chapter 6

HHC
Chapter 6

Golden Morning's Flashback:
Ponyville Mage Guild hallway

A pink and yellow unicorn pony sat on a dark brown mahogany bench. She looked up and down the dark wood paneled hallway and noticed it was pretty bare. The room she was sitting next to was the important thing.

This was it, the Advanced Level test. Goldie wanted to pass it and show up some of the snooty Equestrian unicorn mages. “Earth Pony with a horn?”, not this pony, she thought. Goldie had spent a lot of time studying for this moment. She tried to listen through the door but she could not hear anything.

A few minutes later, the door opened and two unicorns carried out a stretcher with a male green unicorn on it. He had several bloody gashes on his sides.

Goldie was surprised and scared but she had to ask,”Did he...”

The yellow unicorn said,”He passed!” while they carried the stretcher past Goldie.

Brightstar walked into the doorway and said,”We are ready to begin your test, Golden Morning.”

Even from where she was sitting, Goldie could smell pony and demon blood. She thought about taking the test later but decided to get off the bench and get the test over with. Goldie walked up to the door and followed Brightstar inside.

She saw wooden bookshelves filled with books, tables covered with magical items and more books along the walls. The shades were down on the windows. This room looked like the places she had practiced magic before on the other floors. The bloodstains and the summoning circle on the floor were different.

Goldie recognized Firestorm the pegasus mage but she did not remember the other unicorn.

Brightstar pointed at the circle with his right forehoof. ”Please step into the circle so we can begin your test. There is an artifact in the realm we are sending you to. Grab the item, clear the area of enemies and you will return. Remember your lore and training and you will succeed.”

Goldie wanted to ask some questions when she stepped into the circle but then things went black.

Demon Realm

One second she was standing in a nice library and the next she was in the demon realm.

It was hot here, sweat burst out of Goldie's coat. The ground seem to yield a bit under her hooves. She did not know what was worse, the soft ground or the fetid stink of burning flesh or the screams and shouts. Goldie wished that Brightstar gave her a multiple choice test instead. Four imps walked around the corner and she could smell the sour spit in their hungry mouths. They charged at her.

Goldie hit one with an blast of magic and the imp went flying. His buddies did not stop their advance. She blasted them with a wide area telekinetic crushing spell. Crunch, they were done. Goldie made sure to step on one and grind its face into the filthy black dirt or whatever the ground was made of. The dark rocky passageway she was walking in started to slope downward and the stifling heat increased.

To her left, bubbling red orange lava cast its glow on everything. Several imps and a fire imp shaman saw her and ran up the slope to attack. As much as Goldie wanted to just grab the enemies and toss them in the lava, she had to be careful with her magic. It would not be good to use it up and have to face worse things later with no power.

She cast three demon trap spells and ran up the slope to thin the numbers out. The spells went off almost at the same time spraying demon parts over the area. More demons rushed up the slope at Goldie. Her horn glowed blue green and a wave of force flew away from Goldie. The imps got caught and burst into flame screaming. While those demons were busy, she fired a burst of blue anti demon energy at the shaman. It fell over dead. Goldie did not take any time to celebrate. It was hot and she was sweating a lot. Passing out from heat stroke or dehydration was possible here.

What a test! Goldie wondered how she got here. Deep down, she even thought that she could fail. No, I will not fail, she resolved. Time was running out and now Goldie was feeling a little thirsty. It would get worse later. She crept past the dead imp shaman and continued down the slope.

It felt like she was walking on some poor creature's bare black skin, the ground seemed to suck at her hooves greedily. The passage turned away from the lava and the orange light faded to almost complete darkness. Goldie stopped for a few moments to think. She wanted to get to her objective without alerting more demons but tromping in the dark would definitely lead to her stumbling blindly into enemies or worse. On the other hoof, having a light would make it easy for enemies to find her. She thought about night vision goggles but here any light was still light. Demons would see it and attack. With a sigh, Goldie summoned a white light and had it float in front of her.

Something made a sound when Goldie summoned the light. She moved back into the passageway and waited a few minutes. Nothing attacked. Goldie carefully crept into the large cavern. Her light could not illuminate the ceiling. She cantered further down.

In the distance, Goldie could hear roaring sounds. She thought it was a creature but the intervals were too regular. Goldie slowly crept into the next cavern. Wings flapped above her and cruel laughter alerted her to more enemies.

“Ooh, a tasty pony,” One cold voice cooed.

Hungrily, another succubus said, “I can smell her delicious sweet blood.”

Goldie looked up and saw the succubi floating in the air above her. They looked like human women with bat wings but the narrow faces and cold yellow eyes showed these were not nice creatures. The fanged mouths were also good clues too. The female flying demons started to throw spells at Goldie.

These spells were slow moving and easy to dodge but the succubi were filling the area with them. Blue spiked spells would cause Goldie to leak magical power. The red ones would make her leak life, she would be bleeding all over the place. Goldie had to be careful and not get hit but that was starting to get more difficult to do.

She dodged one blue spiked ball and set two succubi on fire. They turned into flaming shrieking torches before hitting the ground. Something hit Goldie, her whole body tensed up with pain. Goldie started to sniffle but the taste in her mouth was blood, not snot. Blood was probably leaking from her nose and other places. She hoped this would not last long.

Seeing that the hated yellow unicorn was occupied with trying not to bleed to death, the remaining succubi swooped in for the kill. They were premature as Goldie blasted both of them with chain lightning. The blue energy arced from one enemy to another making them twitch and finally fall to the ground with electrical sparks flying from their dead eyes.

That was close, she felt somewhat weaker but the bleeding had stopped. Time to carry on. Goldie was angry but scared too. Further down the passage, she could see what was causing the roaring.

Abu Shak'kiin:
Afghanistan, 2013
Alpha Two, Rooftop

Goldie peered over the rooftop and thought about jumping down.

Marcia said coldly,“Really? Go for it! I will happy to shoot you when you break your legs,”

“My legs are like yours, except they are a whole lot thinner. They will heal,” Goldie fired back.

“How about we use our parachutes as a rope ladder? Unless, you have some magic that would get us down?” Marcia snidely suggested.

After a half hour of tying, the improvised rope ladder was done. Goldie tied the ladder to one of the spikes sticking out of the roof. She then slid down to the ground quietly. Marcia grunted her way down. After Marcia was down, Goldie used her telekinesis to untie the ladder. Then she sent it back up to the roof. Now the demons would not know where they had landed. Marcia led the way down the black street with the safety off her rifle.

At first, the stuff they were walking on was kinda like asphalt. It was black and grainy but asphalt does not have bits of bone, metal and flesh in it. Also it does not have a feel of dark magic on it. Goldie was glad she was wearing hoof boots.

The empty windows gaped at them as the walked down the quiet street. Goldie was just too tired to cast a spell to scan the dark demon buildings for threats. Any moment, imps could rush out of the buildings and overwhelm them. Again, she looked up at the windows, half expecting to see a face there. There was also Marcia to worry about, the big blonde woman had not hidden her hatred of Goldie. Maybe if they found Leroy alive she would be less hateful.

A few minutes later, Marcia made the “Hold back” hand signal. Goldie slowly peeked around Marcia. A small group of imps were guarding the still smoking wreck of the crashed helicopter. She moved back and scanned for any human life signs. Goldie found a human life signature a few roofs away. The wrecked helo was leaning against the buildings. It was leaning the right way so they could use it to get up on the roof and find Leroy. The imps would have to be taken out. She checked her rifle again.

“Well? What are we going to do?” Marcia asked with a snide tone to her voice.

“We will kill those imps and climb the helo to the roof and get Leroy. Unless you have something else to do,” Goldie replied with some attitude.

“I would be better off keeping imps off your back here. You get Leroy,” Marcia sighed and said.

Marcia did not seem so angry now. Goldie hefted her rifle and they moved up to the imps. A few short bursts of gunfire took out the imps. Marcia crouched behind the downed helicopter while Goldie climbed on it to get to the roof.

The spell that Goldie used was only good for telling if Leroy was alive, it could not say what his status was. She hoped he was in decent shape while she ran across the rooftops. Finally, she found Leroy and it did not look promising. He was lying down wrapped up in his parachute. Goldie put her assault rifle down. She began to saw away at the folds of parachute with her knife.

Leroy was unconscious for the whole procedure. Goldie wondered how she was going to wake him. Once she cut all of the fabric away from Leroy, she picked him up and started back. Goldie was two roofs away when she heard gunfire. Marcia was in trouble. Goldie carefully put Leroy on the roof and went to help.

Two imps were slowly sneaking up on Marcia while she was trading shots with five in front of her. The five in front would eventually be taken out by Marcia, she was using the helo for cover and the imps had none. The other imps would catch her by surprise.

Goldie carefully leaned over the edge of the roof and put two rounds in the imps behind Marcia. When they hit the ground, Goldie went back to get Leroy. He was awake and groaning when she reached him.

“My legs, they hurt so bad. I think they are broken,” Leroy said between groans. “Can you touch them with your horn to heal them?” He said while looking up with a face full of pain.

Goldie felt a quick flash of anger. What does he think I am, one of those unicorns in the stories, she thought. Goldie wished she could heal but she did not have the ability. She just shrugged. Goldie picked up Leroy and they headed toward the crashed helo.

Marcia was finished with the gun wielding imps. Goldie slowly climbed down the helo with Leroy holding on to her neck. She had to tell him to relax his grip because he was choking her. After a few tense moments, he was down on the ground. They looked at each other while deciding what to do next while deep in enemy territory.