//------------------------------// // Chapter 11 // Story: My little pony: Soul of gold // by Zanaffer //------------------------------// A few days after returning to the castle of friendship, things started to fall onto something of a routine, Pinkie Pie would routinely invite both saints to a "Welcometoponyvillethankyouforsavingusihopeyoufindallyourfriens" party, witch they politely turned down, Rarity would routinely use them as models for her new creations, Twilight and Stardust would routinely try to one up each other in a magical playground rivalry witch Stardust reveled in while Twilight inched ever closer to a mental breakdon judging by the intensity of her eye twitch, this would in turn result in Stardust being strapped to a chair wearing a now very familiar metal hat, now a lifetime in the sanctuary had prepared him for many things, a demigoddess acting full mad scientist was not one of them, so when Applejack had come forth with her intention to go to some place called Appleoosa to compete in some sort of rodeo Lightning Bolt promptly volounteered to escort her there at least untill things mellowed down in the "friendship" castle. "Arent' ya gladd y'all came with me to see Applejack compete in the Appleoosa rodeo" Applebloom exclaimed to her friends Sweetie Bell and Scootaloo, the three fillies were nearly extatic to be out doing something, their little escapade earlier on had landed each one a hefty punishment witch had been lifted just on time to include themselves on Applejack's trip to fill in for cousin Breaeburn at the rodeo, needles to say the three fillies were just about to burst like firecrackers with all that uspent energy. "Don't run off girls, stay where i can see you." Lightning Bolt cautioned the girls as they got off the train before they could run into town. "Aww c'mon Bolty, it's Appleoosa." Aplebloom complained. "Yeah, it's like the safest most boring place in all of Equestria." Scootaloo chimed inn "Yeah!! Except for the desert, and the desert critters, and bandits, and then there's the tense relations with the buffalo..." Sweetie Bell helpfully added before being swiftly silenced by her two friends, the deadpan look on Lightning Bolt's perfectly represented how not convinced he was. "Simmer down Lightning." Applejack who was last off the train said. "This 'ere town is perfectttly safe, thers no harm in letting the girls run around and have fun." and just as Applejack said Apleoosa was the very pictuure of an idilic peacefull frontier town, there were pony drawn carriaged, drawn pony drawn carriages, wild west dancing, mild west dancing, and of course the main event of the season the rodeo, where ever you looked you couldn't help but see ponies practicing for some rodeo event or another and Apllejack was obvously pumped up and ready to showdown. "We can't let our guard down, who knows when the enemy could attack, and we have to be vigilant in case any of the other saints are near." Lightning Bolt argued. "Ohh shush you, the map hasn't shown anything so none of them varmints are causing any trouble anywhere near. She said dismissively. "And besides, what are the chancess of us just comming across one of your friends way out here." she said tempting fate yey again, and yet againg fate didn't dissapoint. "GRREEEEAAAAAAAATTT HOOOORRRRNNN!!!" A loud rumble acompanied by a loud bellow shoock the whole town just as the words left Applejack's lips, the deadpan look on Lightning Bolt's face spoke volumes, he allowed himself to mantain it just long enough to savor the victory before galloping towards the source of the commotion. Applejack and Lightning Bolt made their way to a crowded corral where a large gathering of ponies blocked their view of what was going on, uppon further inspection Applejack caught sight of her cousin Braeburn who had his foreleg bandaged and in a sling after hurting himself training for the rodeo. "Braeburn!!" Applejack called catching her cousins attention. "Applejack! Welcone to Aaaaaaappplllleeeee......!!!" Applejack put a hoof on Braeburn's muzzle just as he was doing some flamboyant western greeting. "Now's not the time fer that braeburn, what in tarnation is going on over there? Is everypony okay? Are being attacked?" Applejack asked in quick succesion at her flabbergasted cousin, Braeburn in turn shook of his confusion and took to explainig to Applejack. "Oh no, nutthin like that, thet there's just our new resident doing some practice rounds for the upcomming rodeo, he just tends to be overenthisiastic about it sometimes." confusion coloring her face now Applejack turned once more to the source of the commotion and this time noticed over the heads of the crowding ponies a towering pile of haystacks taller than any building around, just then another loud crash signaled a new haystack flying trough the air and landing hard but true on the top og the growing tower of hay. "You'll be going up against him in the haystacking competition, i actually hurt myself trying get anywhere close to that, but imm confident that if anypony can beat him it's gotta be you cuz'. Having listened to the conversation Lightning Bolt made his way to the front of the crowd certain to what he would find on the other side, after shouldering his wey trough he checked his bearings snd true enough there in the middle of the corral stood the largest pony he had yet to see including Applejack's brother Mackintosh by a couple inched and a few pound of muscle, the earth pony was an imposing sight with a chocolate brown coat a short black mane and tail and a confident smirk framed by a couple of thick black eyebrows, there was no mistacking that look anywhwere, the cutie mark of a set of bull horns whith the right side broken was only the ribbon on the package. "Wow! Hes really big!" Avoice from below Lightning Bolt's legs broke his focus and he looked down to see thet the three fillies had made their way trough and were standing below and around his legs. "Pshhh! Applejack c'n take 'em no problem" Aplebloom announced defending her sister's honor. "I don't know Applebloom, that haypile's really big, and hes only practicing." Sweetie Bell said timidly, Lightning Bolt tore his attention from the now arguing fillies below him and back to the stallion before him, he was sure who he was so there was only the matter of making sure so he dislodged himself from the crowd and aproached the large pony. "Aldebaran!" he called, to his great relief the large pony reacted to his call and turned to him. "Hmm? Hwo are you? How do you know that name?" Aldebaran of Taurus stepped in front of the little pony towering over him like an ursa. All around them ponies held heir breath and swallowed nervosly as the two ponies stared each other down, the large pony scrutinized the pony before him with a severe glare hard enough to crack stone but Lightning Bolt just held his gaze without a care in the world. The first to brake the standstill was the large earth pony, a glint of recognition entered his eyes before he ler out a loud bellow and rearing back on his hindlegs to the height of a minotaur before descending onto Lightning Bolt with all his being. Panic erupted in the crowd, ponies started running around in a panic, some mares fainted and the rodeo clowns tripped and tumbled all around the place, Applejack took out her trusty lasso ready to help her friend when. "AIORIA!!! IMM SO GLAD TO SEE YOU!!!" Everypony was suddenly stunlocked in place and the whole town seemed to shake as Aldebaran gave a very accurate demonstration of the Royal Canterlot Voice. Shaking the shock off Applejack took a second look at the situation and with a chuckle determined that her friend was in no real danger, except, judging by the flailing limbs of a back injury from the bonecrushng hug he was reciving, something an Apple could appreciate. "All right! all right! Whats going on here!" the situation slowly unwound as ther sheriff and his deputies made their way to the corral. "Ah sheriff, sorry about the commotion, one of my friends came to town so i got a little excited." Lightning Bolt would have made a snyde comment about his definition of "a bit", that is of course if his spine wasn't currently bent over backwards. "So, you finally found one of yer friends eh? now that there's good news." the sheriff said cheerfully, by thet time the crowd had dispersed and everything was buisness as usual allowing Applejack and Braeburn to get closer without a fuss, Lightning Bilt was just again recovering feeling in his limbs and was just able to stand on all fours. "Lemme introduce you, this here's ..." "Lightning Bolt! Is this here one of the saint fellers like youi?" Applejack interrupted just as Aldebarans was about to pronounce his name and as if adding injury to insult hoofed him right in the middle of the back unleashing a new symphony of pain on the poor pony, ah he recovered he caught Aldebaran doing a terrible job of containig his amused laughter. "Howdy there miss Applejack, this 'ere pony with you?" the sheriff asked. "Thats right sheriff, this here's mah personal bodyguard." Applejack said dismissively. "Bodyguard!!" Braeburn said alarmed, "Since when do you need a bodyguard?" "Oh calm dowm Braeburn, it's just some extra precaution from the princesses." "Bodyguard ehh," the sheriff mused, "Well that makes sense, we first met Great Horn here lost in the dessert, no idea where he was or how he got there, said something about talcking animals, must have been the heat, anyways he came at the rescue of a caravan being attacked by bandits, fended 'em off too, so the caravan brought him here and he's been with us ever since." As the sheriff ended his tale Aioria looked over at Aldebaran and mouthed "Great Horn?", Aldebaran just shot him a winning smile." "Hey mister, so you're friends with Lightning Bolt?" "Are you a superhero too?" "Can you shoot lightning, or can you fly or can you breathe fire or, or, or..." Great Horn loocked around confused searching unsuccessfully for the source of the quickfire barrage of questions aimed at him. "Down here." When he looked down he was confronted by three adorable fillies with starws in their eyes. "Well hello there little ladies, whats this i hear about a superhero?" Great Horn asked flashing a smile to the fillies. "Yeah, like Lightning over there, you know with the glow and doung magic even tough you're an earth pony, oh, oh, and the armor, it's totally awesome." "Armor!?" Great Horn said intrigued. "You have your armor with you?" He asked his comarade. "The armor answers our call when we are in need, surely you can also... LOOK OUT!!!" just as he was once again joining the conversation, Lightning Bolt noticed that the giant hay bale tower just behind them tilted dramatically and began to fall apart right over their heads, not missing a breath Lightning Bolt quickly turned and took hold of Applejack and Braeburn before leaping out of the way of the crumbling tower of hay as random hay bales rained from the sky all over them. "Applebloom!!!" Applejack callend in panic fron over Lightning Bolt's shoulder as soon as he reachd relative safety concerned for her sister. "Over here!" Came the squeaky and shaken voice of Applebloom, turning hopefully she saw Great Horn emerge from behind a large pile of hay with three little fillies clingigng to his back. "Don't worry Applejack, "Great Horn"... may be the biggest of us all but hes not the slowest, not by a longshot." Lightning Bolt told Applejack reassuringly. "What happened? that stack was too steady to collapse like that, i should know, i stacked it." Great Horn said still carrying the fillies on his back who were now enjoyin the ride on top of the massive stallion mush to the chagrin of Applejack who wanted nothing more than to hold her sister close after such a scare. "This was no accident." The shreiff anounced inspecting the wreackage. "You think it's that outlaw again sheriff?" Breaburn asked visibly shaken. "Yes." The sheriff answered as he removed a hay shack from the ground revealing a hoofprint with a distinct horseshoe imprint on it. "It's Trouble Shoes!"