Trials 8 + 9

Read this story and all of its chapters in paragraph format with better editing, here:

http://www.fimfiction.net/story/129684/the-trials

 

This version of the story is heavily unedited.

 

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"If we do become elite guards, what do you think would be in store for us?" Echo asked the group.

>Side by side, she walked with the other two ponies as they trekked through the dark tunnel.

>"Well, there's initiation," Night Watch said, smirking,

<"That's a myth, and that's false," Mosina retorted from the middle of the three.

>"I heard one mare couldn't walk for days," Night said, disturbingly dreamily.

"What about the incursions? The Princesses have been running all around the kingdom taking care of those," Echo said.

>"Of course. And that would mean we would have to be by their side," Mosina added.

>"Feh, you guys are no fun." They all chuckled.

>As they walked, the walls continued to fan outwards slightly.

>Eventually, the girls found themselves able to outstretch their wings, easily.

>"How long have we been at it, now?" Night Watch asked.

"I'd say a little over an hour and a half, now," Echo guessed.

>"I wish we had some sort of watch," Mosina said, quietly.

>They continued to walk in silence, and out of the darkness, strange, stringy-like substances began to hang from the ceiling.

>The bat ponies kept their gazes upwards as the concentration of the strands of white thickened.

>Eventually, it became so thick that they stuck together and hugged the walls.

"Webs..." Echo said, uneasily.

>She cast a quick glance to the other two, noticing their uneasy looks.

>"Sh-should we turn back? Maybe we aren't ready for this," Mosina suggested.

>"I say we continue. Didn't come this far for nothing," Night Watch said.

 

---

 

"Night Watch is right. Let's just continue, and if there's something we can't handle, we'll head back," Echo said.

>That seemed to ease the tension, a bit.

>Mosina gave a slight gasp, having stepped on a web.

>The ceiling, walls and floor were now covered in webs.

>"This isn't really to capture prey," Mosina said, shakily. "It's to help the spiders move around quicker."

>Night Watch gave a sigh.

>"I suppose that means we're up for a chall--"

>The hallway finally spanned out into a large room, the light from Night Watch and Echo bathing its entirety.

>Every surface was covered with webs.

>"Should we turn ba--"

>Mosina was cut off as two large stones, hanging from the ceiling, unfurled their legs and landed on the ground.

>Immediately, all three of the bat ponies drew their weapons.

>Mosina and Night Watch pointed their spears forwards, the silvery blade of Night Watch's reaching out further than Mosina's.

>Echo couldn't help but pass a glance to the gleaming weapon and its thin and long blade.

>She snapped to attention after hearing another two thuds.

>Two more rock spiders joined their comrades, each of them giving out ugly hisses.

>"It's only four of them," Night Watch muttered. "We can take them."

>"Right," Mosina said, mustering a stance for a fight.

>Echo cracked her neck and gave a swing of her sword.

 

---

 

>The four spiders kept their distance, wary of Mosina and Night's sears, who were flanking Echo.

"Their skin is made of rock!" Echo told the others. "The only soft spot is its mouth, between the fangs!"

>Night Watch lunged forward, aiming a spear thrust towards one of the spiders, but it dodged to the side.

>She sliced her spear towards another, which jumped over the blade and towards her.

>It collided with her face, but she quickly threw it off of her and across the room, running to chase after it.

>Another spider lunged towards Mosina, who batted it away with her spear.

>The two of them circled each other, looking for an opening.

>The final two spiders quickly skittered towards Echo, who helplessly swung her sword to dissuade her attackers.

>One leaped at her, but it smashed into the plate armour of her ride side.

>It bounced off, but allowed the other one to come up from her front.

>She sliced at it, swinging her blade through air before the spider met her face.

>It wrestled her with its front legs, gripping onto her neck and attempted to pull its fangs towards her.

>Echo sliced diagonally, hacking off one of its legs.

>At the other side of the room, Night Watch sliced fiercly at her spider, only for it to hop out of the way.

>It tried to leap at her, but met the butt end of her spear, sending it sprawling across the floor.

>Night Watch leaped herself, giving a loud grunt as she smashed her spear downwards at it.

>The spider tried to dodge, but couldn't get out of the way fast enough.

>In a brilliant display of deep, blue sparks, the long blade of Night Watch's spear sliced through all four of its right legs.

>She paused, caught off guard from the bright effect, and at how easily her blade minced through the rocky spider.

>It squirmed, helpless without half of its legs.

>"Grraah!" Night Watch screamed, thrusting her spear through the entire body of the decapitated spider.

>In another display of blue sparks, the silver blade of the spear pierced the rocky hide with ease.

 

---

 

>Echo continued to wrestle with the spider latching onto her front.

>She tried to swing her blade, but the tight grip of the spider's front legs prevented her from moving her neck.

>Placing her front hooves on the spider's body, she tried to pry it off of her, but couldn't.

>It tried to thrust its fangs forward, but her hooves forced it back.

>"Echo!" Mosina called from nearby.

>Off to the side, she watched Echo through the corner of her eye while keeping her own spider at bay.

>She tried to make a sprint to help Echo, but the spider blocked her path.

>It lunged, but she jabbed back, forcing it to keep its distance.

>They circled each other, locked in a stalemate.

"Gaah!" Echo cried, the second spider jumping onto her back.

>She tried to buck with her hind hooves, but it held tightly.

"Help!" she helplessly called out, hammering the spider in front of her with her front hooves to no avail.

>That was until she felt a pair of sharp, wet fangs dig into the back of her neck.

"Aaaugh!" Echo screamed, her front hooves relenting a bit.

>Venomous liquid injected into the back of her neck, and she could feel it burn her flesh immediately.

>Her streangth weakened, the spider in front of her took the opportunity to overpower her.

>However, it exploded in a flash of blue sparks.

>The blade of Night Watch's spear decapitated its head, nearly missing Echo's own.

>The spider fell limp to the ground.

>Twirling her spear above her, Night Watch brought it down for another deadly slice towards the spider on Echo's back.

>It sliced it in half in another explosion of blue sparks, sending it flying across the room in pieces.

>Mosina looked up from the spider underneath her hooves, her own spear impaling it through the mouth.

>She pulled her weapon out and rushed over to Echo quickly.

 

---

 

>The venom quickly overtook her body, and Echo slumped to the floor in a twitching mess.

"G...gah..." she muttered, her lungs out of breath.

>Her eyes were clenched tight while she dealt with the pain.

>Two large holes were embedded into the back of her neck.

>Her coat was slick with sweat.

>"Echo!" Mosina screamed, landing beside her on the floor.

>"Quick, her saddlebags!" Night Watch said.

>Mosina quickly undid Echo's left saddlebag, pulling out one of the glass flasks.

>She unscrewed the cap and forced it into Echo's mouth, who just continued to twitch.

>"Tilt her head back, she's in shock!" Night Watch said.

>Mosina promptly did so, forcing the red liquid down Echo's throat.

>Echo gagged, but accepted the healing potion.

>Her eyes shot open, and her twitching lessened.

>Eventually, she accepted the flask into her own hooves and drank it greedily.

>Her breathing steadied and the twitching slowed to a stop, until she finished the potion entirely.

>Mosina and Night Watch stared, their eyes full of concern.

>"Echo, are you alright? Can you talk?" Mosina asked, placing a hoof on her shoulder.

"Y... yeah... guh..." Echo breathed, wiping her sweaty brow with a hoof.

"I think I need to rest a bit..."

>Mosina nodded.

"I think the pain is almost completely gone. Those potions work fast," Echo said.

>"We can rest. We've had a long walk, anyways," Mosina added.

"I'm exhausted."

 

---

 

>Night Watch dropped her spear and sat, pulling her weapon close.

>"You gave us a scare," she said, simply.

"Yeah, well, it was really painful. I couldn't do anything--not even breath, or open my eyes," Echo responded.

>"It's alright, now. Just rest," Mosina said. "I think that was the half-empty flask."

>She confirmed by searching through Echo's bags and finding the full flask.

"I guess that means a half potion can heal most wounds," Echo said.

>"I guess so. Though, I don't like that you had to be the guinea pig, sort of," Mosina said, sort of.

>Echo laughed.

>Night Watch examined her spear, showing a particular fascination to the blade.

>"This isn't ordinary steel," she said, earning a glance from the other two.

>"What do you mean?" Mosina asked.

>Night Watch stood up on her hind legs, taking the spear in her front hooves.

>"It sliced through those spiders like butter when it shouldn't have," she said, casting a glance to one of the corpses.

>"And when it came in contact with them, I could feel it almost drive itself through."

>"Magic?" Mosina breathed.

>"Probably. I guess this spear has some sort of special power," Night Watch responded.

>She demonstrated by slicing at the nearby spider corpse.

>Mosina and Echo watched in awe as blue sparks erupted from the blade on contact with the corpse.

>After the sparks died out, the corpse was in half with Night Watch's spear in the middle.

>"Very interesting. And the blade isn't wearing?" Mosina suggested.

>Night Watch brought the blade in close to examine it.

>"No, nothing. Though, this was only our first fight with it," she said.

>"Well, with rocks for targets, you'd expect some damage," Mosina said.

>She stood up and walked towards Night Watch, the two of them examining every inch of the weapon.

 

---

 

>Echo felt weak and unable to move.

>The powerful venom probably cancelled out the energy boost that the healing potion gave.

>Giving a deep sigh, she scanned the room, only to see nothing but white spider webs covering every surface.

>Curiously, there were some protrusions in the webs that could be hidden objects or rocks, underneath.

"Hey, guys. Maybe there is loot in the room?" she asked.

>Mosina and Night Watch looked up at Echo.

"Maybe a chest was buried under the webs, somewhere."

>The other two then curiously scanned the room.

>"Huh. Perhaps," Night Watch said, suddenly interested.

>Mosina and her picked up their spears and began to walk around the room, looking for large protrusions in the webs.

>Night Watch stopped before an oval shape as large as her and sliced through its webs, only to find a large rock.

>Mosina did the same to another, only to come to another rock.

>Echo watched the two intently, too tired to get up, herself.

>For several minutes, they continued to cut through webs until Mosina's spear hit something that sounded metal.

>"Here! I think I found something!" she called out.

>She pulled away the webs while Night Watch rushed over, revealing a dull, metal surface.

>With Night Watch's help, they hacked away at the remaining webs until a large, metal chest revealed.

>It seemed to be nearly as large as the two of them, combined.

"What is it?" Echo called out.

>Mosina walked in front of the chest, putting her hooves beneath the heavy lid.

>After a little struggle, Night Watch came in and helped her shove it off of the chest.

>It slid to the floor with a loud clang of metal on stone, but the two bat ponies stared wide eyed at the chest's contents.

 

---

 

>Resting flat on top of what seemed to be a black leather cuirass was a long, silver straight sword.

>Its hilt was decorated with ornate embroidery, which extended with a wavy, silver vine down the blade.

>Underneath Night Light's light crystal, it shone brilliantly into their awe-struck faces.

>"Wow... that's beautiful..." Mosina said quietly.

>"I think it's similar to my spear," Night Watch said, holding up her weapon to compare.

>The two blades seemed to be made out of the same silvery metal, and had the same style of embroidery.

>"Echo, I think we've found you a new weapon," Night Watch said, smiling.

 

---CHAPTER 9---

 

>"Alright, now..." Mosina muttered, biting down on a leather strap on Echo's side.

>She gave it a quick tug, tightening it against Echo's new garments.

>"There we go! I salvaged the important parts of your plate armour and fit it over your new stuff."

>Echo twisted, trying to get a good look at what she was wearing.

>A black leather suit, similar to Mosina's, covered most of her form.

>Fastened over it were the metal plates from her old armour.

"At least my neck is protected, now," she said, smiling.

>"Hopefully you'll stop getting injured, then." Night Watch laughed.

>Echo stretched and walked in small circles, testing out the fit.

"It's a little tight on the haunches," she blushed, instinctively avoiding Night Watch's smirk.

>"Not much we can do about that," Mosina said. "As long as it's not too bothersome."

"No, it's fine."

>Echo stopped, taking a deep breath before swaing a bit.

>"Think you can walk, now?" Mosina asked.

"Give me a few more minutes," Echo breathed, sitting down. "Sorry, guys."

>"It's no problem," Mosina responded.

>"I could use a little longer for a breather, myself," Night Watch agreed.

>The two of them sat and joined Echo, her light crystal and Night Watch's continuing to bathe the room in light.

>On the opposite side of the room from where they came was another tunnel leading into the darkness.

 

---

 

"What else do you think we'll encounter?" Echo asked.

>Mosina's nose scrunched up before she opened her mouth to answer.

>"Well, I'm willing to bet that those spiders were just the first. There's probably more to come."

>Echo shuddered.

>"Don't worry, you have your shiny new weapon, now," Night Watch said.

>With that, Echo slowly pulled out the silver sword from the scabbard on her shoulder.

>It gleamed against the white light from the light crystals.

>She placed it on the ground in between the trio, each of them fixing their gaze onto it.

"So, weapons apparently have special powers down here," Echo said.

>"Yeah. I'm going to guess that the metal on these blades have special penetrating powers," Night said while smirking.

>Mosina rolled her eyes.

>"Or, they could be specifically enchanted to be effective against the rock spiders. Or rock creatures in general," she countered.

>"Meh."

"Spirit guardians, enchanted weapons... I wonder what other sort of perks we'll come by," Echo thought out loud.

>"Don't get my hopes up for super powers," Night Watch joked.

>"Actually," Mosina said, edging herself closer to the other two. "I haven't gotten hungry or thirsty since we've gotten here, to the Trials."

>A moment of silence washed over them as they came to the same realization.

>"...I remember overhearing some veterans talking about their Trials, and how they could block or parry impossibly tough blows," Night Watch added.

>Echo stared at her.

"So, we do get super powers?" she asked. Night Watch giggled.

>"I hope we get complimentary tight--"

>"We'll just have to see," Mosina cut in.

 

---

 

>"Well, I call the pseudo name, 'Bat Mare'," Night Watch stated.

>Echo and Mosina visibly gagged.

>"Echo, yours can be 'Sex--'"

"I think I'm ready to walk, now," Echo interrupted, loudly.

>She picked up her sword and sheathed it, prompting Mosina to stand up after her.

>"You guys are no fun," Night Watch whined before standing up herself.

>"Seriously. We're three hot mares, alone in--"

>"I wish there were a mute functionality in the Trials," Mosina said, falling behind Echo who took the lead.

"Me, too," she agreed.