Journey to the sanctuary 1

The sky blazed with a thousand colours as Buttons craned her head back to observe the oily beauty above. The war was hypnotising and her mind was absent of all thought as she looked at the swirling tempest. A furious battle was being fought up there; the unicorns and the pegasi engaged each other bitterly and with little mercy. She watched as a small cohort of unicorns slid through the clouds, speeding towards the much larger pegasi vanguard. There was a thunder like crash as the two foes collided, the unicorns soon broke the close knit ranks of the pagasi as their horns emitted the deadly rainbows which flayed flesh from bone exposing the diamond skeletons within the pegasi. There was chaos and Buttons thought she could hear the distressed whines of the falling pegasi. each time one crashed to earth there was a tremendous crash and soon they were falling in droves. The unicorns scattered the clouds as their searing rainbow beams devastated the pegasi ranks. Instead of fleeing form the white hot death that was befalling them the pegasi surrounded the unicorns and although countless fell they managed to form a spherical enclosure around the smaller beasts. Soon they began to glow silver and buttons had to shined her eyes as stars poured inwards towards the centre of the sphere. The unicorns used the merciless potential of colour as a weapon but the pegasi were intertwined with the cosmos itself and when enough beat their wings together they were capable of launching entire celestial bodies towards their foes. Buttons had never seen so many together before, these unicorns must be special for some reason. The light was now incredible. Silver poured out from the huge sphere as countless stars were launched into its heart. Unicorns were almost impossible to kill but it can be done, it seemed that the pegasi were attempting to create a singularity at the heart of the sphere Soon the earth began to shake and buttons gripped the branch she was holding, maybe climbing a tree wasn’t a good idea. There was wind flowing towards the sky and she could see the pegasi beating their wings against the gale as they tried to avoid oblivion. There was a crash and the pegasi scattered, Buttons caught a glimpse of a fiery disk collapse in upon itself and disappear forever as the unicorns were consumed. Unicorns were hugely magnetic which was how the black hole didn't destroy the solar system. Buttons knew this because magnets posses an enigmatic power that makes them the answer to all unanswered questions.


She hopped down from her tree and looked across the scorched landscape. There were skeletal trees sparsely populating an earthen tundra. The war of the sky had taken its toll down here on earth. Buttons hopped upon her penny farthing and began to cycle towards the area directly below the battle. She pulled her cowl close to her against the acrid wind that swept through this land. Over the horizon she could see more penny farthings; their distinctive wheels making them stand out against the setting sun. She pumped her legs as hard as she could, she needed to gather the remains of the unicorns. Her lungs began to burn as she peddled as fast as she could. She made it to the killing field a good ten minutes before the other scavengers. No one would be taking any of her sweets today, unicorns being comprised entirely of gummy sweets made them an important source of gum which could be used to bind books or could be fermented to make gumead; a delicious combination of honey and unicorn gore. She jumped from her bike and began to fill her sack with the still pulsing remains of the destroyed unicorns. Strawberry hearts and gummy crowns were the majority of todays booty. She licked her lips as she bit into one of them, smiling at the satisfying "eek" of panic it made as she devoured it. The gummies were sentient, no one knew how but theories surrounded the highly magnetic qualities of the unicorns that they made up.


Once her sack was full and writhing she got back on her bike and peddled for The Pub. The scarred landscape passed her by as she moved towards salvation until, a group of figures appeared on the horizon. There was a lot of them, maybe hundreds, maybe thousands, maybe seven. Who could tell, all she knew is that these bandits wanted the squirming sack that was now safely secured beneath her crotch; under her seat. She cycled up to the group of grizzly looking men and predictably they blocked her path. As she dismounted she grabbed a handful of buttons from the bag hanging off her handlebars. One of the men grizzled as he came towards her. He was huge, at least the size of one and a half average men. All of them gripped improvised weapons, the big one carried a rusty pair of decapitators, she didn't think he would be using the huge scissor like contraption to dead-head dandelions anytime soon. He approached and suddenly lunged forward, Buttons span into his arm and smashed him in the face with a palm full of buttons and thread. As she pulled away the man tried to scream and spasmodically grabbed at his face with his hands, dropping the decapitators to the ground. He turned to his accomplices and they all gasped in shock. His mouth was stitched along both the lips and held closed by five multi-coloured buttons. He fell to his knees desperately trying to unpick the stitching, good luck she thought; it was a feather stitch.


The other men were soon upon her, one slammed his fist into her abdomen. He gagged and slumped to the ground soon after, presumably shattering his femur on her obsidian abs. Two came at her at once, one sweeping a machete towards her head from the side as the other tried to beat her backwards with a kick. She grabbed the wrist of the man with the blade and in a second the others calf muscle contained the weapon, it spewed blood but he couldn't pull it out as it was held inside by thirty buttons that fastened the skin firmly together. He wailed as blood poured between his fingers while he was clasping his mortal wound. The other man turned to run as his compatriots had already done. He made it a few meters before he keeled over and expired. She had filled his cranium with haberdashery; no one would steal her gummies.