• Published 8th Jun 2013
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The Trancer - Ajaxis



A zebra leaves her home to make a reputation for herself, discovering allies and enemies among her kin and the droves of ponies slowly claiming her planet for their own.

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4. One Unknown River

“Maybe we should have stayed in our cells!” Druva shouted at Zuri as they began to run, without looking back. “At least when they were aiming for our heads, our deaths would have been faster!” Sure enough, loud gunpowder reports rung through the air. Silvery slivers zoomed around Zuri, making her run all the more quickly. Already, she could see some bullets had not missed their mark—one Zebra was already lagging behind, limping, because of a wound in her leg. Another Zebra came along, helping the wounded one along.

A sharp graze against Zuri’s left hind leg made her pace falter for a moment, but as she kept running, she was able to distract herself from the stinging pain with her fear of a more direct shot. Parents held their children on their backs, galloping as desperately as they could away from the town. The armed Ponies came after them, almost matching their speed, as they fired and fired again. The river was so close now. Already, Uzul was leading their group to the right, towards a black shape by the riverside.

Bullets whizzed by their faces, now, as they changed direction, aiming for the boats. The Ponies seemed to realize what they were running towards, and steamed forward. At least when the Ponies ran faster, they shot less accurately. Zuri dared a look behind her. She saw Coalfield, near the front, alongside Matchlock. Cherry Jubilee was riding in a cart, which flew over the surface of the ground. The hovercraft was quickly gaining on them. What terrified Zuri further was the fact that the craft had a mounted gun, which another Pony was operating. Now as the flying cart got within range, the gun fired.

A much louder bang made Zuri jump, and a single round shot through the crowd of running Zebras, landing in front of them and causing a plume of dust and dirt to rise up before them. Another round flew by and knocked a Zebra clear off its feet. The next time Zuri looked back, she saw that that last Zebra to have been hit wasn’t moving. The shells kept firing, and hit the earth with enough force to shake the ground.

“Aim for the blue one! Aim for the blue one!” Cherry Jubilee raged. Zuri, hearing this, only ran all the faster. She could not slow down, or she would die. If she sped up, she might end up in the middle of the crowd of Ponies, and then they might all die from the shell’s impact. Thankfully, she didn’t need to worry too much, as the gunner’s aim wasn’t so precise as to hit more than earth and send Zebras tumbling away. So close… so close.

They were at the river house now, but their numbers had declined. What had been twenty Zebras was now fifteen, and not one of them was without some injury. The children were panting, already exhausted, and even those that were on a mother’s or father’s back were tired from hanging on, tightly, to their rides’ cloaks. They had momentary cover, as they went inside the house.

The attacking group of Ponies stopped. Some of the armed Ponies took positions around the front entrance to the house. Cherry Jubilee’s hovercraft pointed at the door and the adjacent window, the gunner’s cannon aiming straight ahead, ready for another barrage.

“You Zebras thought you could get away, huh?” Cherry shouted at them, obviously furious. “Thought you could get away with beatin’ up my husband and some innocent travelers, in my territory? You’ve got another thing comin’!” All of the armed Ponies cocked their weapons. “Just come out, and surrender, and maybe we’ll still hold some of ya, for a wad of cash. Die with honor! Instead of in a collapsin’ house! I’mma count to three…”

“We’ve got to get to the boats!” Druva urged Uzul in a hushed voice, who was peeking out the backdoor, which lead to the boats. “We don’t have time to check if anyone saw this exit… we have to go!”

“We can’t take the risk. This will be for nothing if we rush when we should wait,” Uzul hissed back at her.

“One…”

Uzul, seeing no-one outside, began ushering the Zebras into the moored, wooden boats. Each of them could take six adults, plus several fillies and colts. The first one filled up quickly. It took some encouragement for the more unsure-of-water Zebras to move out of the house and onto the second boat, since the house seemed safer for the moment.

“Two…”

Two boats were filled, and Uzul, Druva, and Zuri climbed into the last. With no one watching, Uzul instructed Zuri to cut the mooring ropes.

“Two and a half…”

How hungry for money is this mare? Zuri thought, as she focused on the ropes with her eyes, then closed them. The warmth rose, up her chest, to her head, back down, circulating through her body. At the last second, it suddenly turned bitter cold. The ropes went rigid, and then each of them snapped near the knot. Zuri gasped a little. This much Trancing in one day was getting to her. She hadn’t practiced this long, without sleep, for a while. She worried about when she wouldn’t be able to do any more. Would they be safe already, or only moments away from death, desperately needing her abilities? The boats began to drift downstream, to the east.

“Three!” A cacophony of blasts rang out, as every Pony discharged their weapons into the house. It was quickly perforated, with the hovercraft cannon making huge holes. The glass shattered, the door fell off in pieces, as the house was gradually shot up to the point where it couldn’t hold itself together, and fell apart.

Zuri watched all this from her boat, as she tested her grip on the boat with her hooves. It wasn’t slippery, but Zuri disliked how the little vessel wobbled each time she moved. “We should be alright now,” Uzul said, quietly. “It’s dark. The Ponies can’t see anything.”

“No bodies, ma’am!” they heard one Pony shout. Or maybe they can… “They must have gone!”

“Well where in the hell do a bunch of Stripeys go when trapped in some rinky-dink river house!?” Cherry Jubilee shouted back. “They can’t just disappear into thin–… Wait, river…” All the Zebras laid down as much as they could in the boats, to hide their bodies from view. “Which way does this river flow?”

“East, Ma’am. Towards Paradise City.”

“Dear Celestia! Go downstream! Dammit, go downstream!”

Zuri cursed under her breath. A light shone behind them, presumably the hovercraft’s headlights.

“I see ‘em, Mayor Jubilee!”

“Well fire, y’idiot! FIRE!”

Bullets began whizzing again, but none of the Zebras could do a thing about it. The cannon fired, and punched a hole straight through one of the boats. The boat exploded violently, throwing Zebras out of it and into the water or onto the shore. Most of them were already dead from the impact by the time they landed. The second raft was pelted with the most rounds from the other Ponies, and began to sink. Zuri doubted it would matter if the Zebras aboard tried to get out of the compromised vessel, since she could already see spatters of blood.

The boat containing only Zuri, Uzul, and Druva, however, was lighter than the other two rafts, and moved faster. As the river began to narrow, it started to move even faster still.

“After the damn thing, you slowpokes!” Cherry Jubilee screeched, gunning the craft forward, over the water. “No survivors! No survivors!”

This mare is a psychopath, Zuri thought, in the midst of her fright. Just as she thought this, gears began turning in her head. But a madmare can’t be taken seriously. Perhaps, no one would believe her if her vehicle just…?

With this idea, Zuri swallowed her fear of firearms, and sat up straight, looking determined. Cherry Jubilee laughed triumphantly. “There’s the nag!” she howled. “There’s the nag who beat my husband!” Zuri stared at the cannon, the warmth from her heart billowing outward. With the work she had done so far, this was a strain, and Zuri felt the fatigue from all her Trancer magic begin to catch up to her. “Shoot ‘er! Shoot ‘er!” Cherry bellowed.

The gunner fired. The large bullet launched out of the cannon barrel, straight for Zuri’s face. Uzul and Druva began to shout, but then stopped. Cherry’s look of vicious pleasure turned to one of great alarm. The shell had halted, directly in front of Zuri. It was still spinning, still sizzling and red. Zuri was concentrating, with all her might, on the shell. Her eyes were shut tight, her face scrunched up with effort. Beads of sweat travelled down her face, she was beginning to tremble with the strain. Return, she willed it. Return! The projectile stopped spinning, and cooled quickly as it hovered before her face.

Return!

The shell turned around, and, to the sound of Cherry’s horrified scream, it shot straight back through the nose of the craft, tearing a hole as it pushed through and exploded out the other side. The craft’s engine, now broken in half, immediately stopped, and so did the hovercraft, as it plummeted into the water. Cherry Jubilee scrambled out of the hovercraft, as smoke began to billow from it. The gunner was nowhere to be seen. The other Ponies stopped, and gathered around Cherry Jubilee to be sure of her safety as the craft sank beneath the surface.

Zuri fell backward, her energy expended with the last of her magic. As she drifted off to unconsciousness, she noted the clouds overhead had become grey, and heavy with moisture. Just before she closed her eyes, she smiled, hearing Cherry Jubilee’s fading, fretful voice, bordering on a mental breakdown.

“I’m telling ya, you musclebound dolts! The shot came back! She made it come back, and it sunk my craft!”

———

Zuri awoke, yawning, to the gentle bobbing of the boat as it carried them downstream. The sky was still full of clouds, but the sun was beginning to peak over the mountains in the northwest. It was quiet, there was a little breeze, and the air around them was a perfect, cool temperature, thanks to the water. The little wooden boat had been caulked well, since Zuri did not feel wet. She rose slowly. Someone had wrapped her cloak around her body. Druva was partially over the side of the boat, cooling her fore-hooves in the water, while Uzul was looking ahead. With a not-so-inconspicuous yawn, she got the Arbiter’s attention. He turned, and smiled at her.

“You’re awake. Good.” Uzul said, lying down on his stomach before her. “We’re alive, the three of us are, thanks to you.”

“And we’re free,” Druva added, happily. “I haven’t felt water on my hooves for months… I haven’t seen this much water for months! Oh, stars, I probably smell awful right now.”

“More impressive is your Trancer magic,” Uzul continued. “I’ve seen Trancers exert themselves before, but never stop a projectile, moving that fast!”

“It was big,” Zuri said, humbly. “I could see it down the barrel of the cannon. That is how I was able to stop it. I can’t stop the projectiles fired by the weapons on Ponies’ backs. They’re too small, and…” She lowered her head a bit, embarrassed. “They terrify me!”

“Yes, but still!” Uzul persisted in gushing. “I’ve watched Trancers double, no, triple your age get their heads or appendages blasted off by weapons like that, and you just caught it! You have ability well worthy of admiration, Fair Lady Trancer.”

“It was still moving,” Zuri spoke up again, beginning to blush, as she tried to tone down Uzul’s lauding. “It felt like I had been struck by a boulder, and I could see it inching towards my face. And besides…” Another thought struck her, and it felt similar to how the shell had when she ‘caught’ it. “The other Zebras are dead.”

Uzul fell silent, losing his smile. Druva sat back down in the boat at this, looking very unhappy. “That’s not our fault. That’s the Ponies’ fault.” She stamped her right fore-hoof to emphasize. “They had the guns, and they fired. I’m glad you did what you did to Ramrod. He deserved thrice as much a beating for the murders his mad wife committed.”

“We can prepare a proper mourning for them, when we have the resources to do so,” Uzul said. “But for the moment, we have another question, probably more important to our own survival. What now?”

“We go to Paradise City. I thought that was obvious,” Zuri replied.

“No, as in, how do we get there? We can’t just go in by this boat. It goes in the direction of Paradise City, that is what the father said.”

“Oh,” Zuri said, made anxious by this fact. “I’m… not sure. Do we know how far away it is?”

“Farther than the desert.” Druva said. “I came from the desert myself, when I first went there, through the Gau-Aer. They told me it was seventy miles from Drajja, where they picked me up, to Paradise City.”

“Drajja…” Zuri repeated. “That’s… Ten miles from Tedus, twelve from Nussu, and sixteen from Otoul. I was thirty five miles from Otoul back in that blasted town, so…” She groaned. “We have a long way to go, but… we can’t go backways. Even if we did avoid the town, the desert is too harsh an environment for that long a trip. We need food and water.”

“Both of which can be found, the closer we get to Paradise City.” Druva said. “Ponies have started something… they call it… ter-ra-for-ming? They make the world suitable for plants where they normally couldn’t grow, beyond the far marshes. I have a map, I think, in my Vuiol…” She brought the sack out, tracing a rune, and then, with her teeth, she withdrew a rolled up map. “The Gau-Aer provided it for me. It was made by scouts, written in the Ponies’ language, using the Ponies’ geographic symbols, so if it was confiscated, the Ponies wouldn’t think it was a plan for attack. Not one they had to decipher, anyway.”

Druva unrolled the map, and Uzul helped hold it open as the three of them looked at it. It was a rough sketching of the locations of all the Zebra towns, nearby Paradise City, and some of the surrounding cities. “We’re right… here.” Druva said, pointing to a place between New Dodge Junction and what appeared to Zuri to be a cluster of triangles with sticks on their bottoms.

Blast these Ponies’ written language… “What does it say?” Zuri asked, rather bluntly. Both Uzul and Druva looked at her curiously. “I learned to speak their tongue. I didn’t think I would have to bother writing it, too.”

“We’re on this river.” Druva indicated the two lines, drawn close together. Zuri nodded in slow understanding. “We’re going towards this forest. The triangles mean it’s a forest.”

“Oh.” Zuri said simply. Having spent her entire life in the desert, Zuri had only heard of what a forest was. She knew what trees were, since every Zebra had to learn of the Far Marshes, but to her knowledge, trees didn’t look like triangles. “Ponies make stupid maps.”

“This is a Zebra imitation of their style,” Druva reminded her. “But I’ve seen real ones. It’s very accurate, right down to the shape of the letters.”

“The shape of the letters is strange. It’s hard to read,” Uzul commented. “I’m more used to straight, official-looking characters. Ponies have stupid hoofwriting rules.”

“Ponies have stupid customs, in general,” Zuri concluded.

“Can I please remind you two that we’re supposed to be figuring out what to do next?” Druva tried to return to the previous conversation. “The forest will be where this river tapers off and goes underground. We’ll have to get off there, and leave the boats behind. I’m sure we can find food and shelter in a forest. It’s a forest.”

“What makes you so sure?” Zuri asked, sincerely curious.

“It’s a forest,” Druva emphasized. Zuri was still confused, as evidenced by the expression on her face. “Ponies consider forests to have… no, I won’t bother. You’re an Oun-Drii Trancer trained by Dunnur! Not to mention you had the idea to stop a hovercraft’s shell by looking at it instead of the gun. You’ll figure it out when we get there.”

The drifting of the boat was slow. Zuri now hung her head over the side of it, looking at her distorted reflection in the wake of the little raft. So many new things, so many new faces, most of them hostile, and the rest of them either dead or sitting in the boat with her. An old thought came from the back of her mind. What if the Ponies did take Cherry Jubilee’s story seriously? Would they know about her abilities? Had she compromised the secrecy that Trancers swore to keep? What would Dunnur say? What would mother and father say? What would her Premier say? No one was to witness the gift in use, and, technically, no one in their right mind had. Save for that gunner, but he presumably went down with the hovercraft, and therefore wasn’t a problem.

“But what if she spreads the story,” she mumbled, lightly touching the cool river waters with one fore-hoof. It was then that she looked up, and jumped back in shock. The edge of the river had turned a dark brown, and atop the damp soil, was green. Millions of blades of green, shooting out of the ground.

Zuri looked around. As they drifted along, everything gradually turned more green. Flowers stuck out, of every color. Plants that Zuri didn’t recognize from Otoul’s gardens, despite the many signs of life below the desert’s surface, had sprung up, all of vibrant colors, primarily green.

“I think something’s wrong with the ground,” she muttered off-hoofedly. “It’s too fertile.”

“We’re nearing the forest,” the arbiter explained. “Everything would normally be this fertile.”

And indeed, when Zuri looked ahead she saw great, tall, pillars of wood. Green spouted from every angle, leaves, new branches… Flowers grew on the shorter ones, and on the taller ones were little structures, habitats, that squirrels and birds had built. Zuri had only heard of such things, been told stories, and shown pictures. The real thing put her in awe.

“Welcome to Frontier Forest!” Proclaimed a wooden sign, to the left bank of the river. Zuri couldn’t read it, but Druva translated for her.

“NO ZEBRAS ALLOWED.” Said another one, on the opposite side. The message was repeated in Zebric runes. Zuri was disheartened, and concerned. Ponies did know their language. They could write it, and the well-formed letters led her to believe that they could write it well. A little wooden plank was nailed onto the bottom, that said, “Buffalo permitted, in small numbers!” in both languages.

“Buffalo have more rights than we do,” Zuri commented. “They’re fat, smelly, loud, and easy to rile up. Why do the Ponies like them more than us?”

“Probably because the Buffalo are dumber. Easier to control,” Uzul said.

“It’s because we make them jealous. We’re more attractive than them!” muttered Druva, smirking. When both Zuri and Uzul looked at her, she rolled her eyes. “I lived in Paradise City for about a year. I heard a lot of catcalls from males, who treated mares of their own species very differently, much less… whistling and hooting, I suppose. Zebras must be more attractive to them than their own kind.”

Zuri wasn’t so sure about this logic. She could think of multiple reasons why stallions would treat Pony mares one way, and Zebra mares another, but she said nothing. Druva apparently had more experience with Pony culture than she did, so why should she question her?

The trio’s little vessel passed underneath the canopy of the tall tree’s foliage, and Zuri looked about her. This was very much like how the Far Marshes had been described to her by her Elders, only less muddy. Grass and weeds took up the forest floor, with flowers, ferns and shrubs gathering in small bunches, sometimes on their own, sometimes around the trees. Vines sometimes coiled up around the trunks, and onto branches. Hardly anything looked touched by Ponies, Zebras, or Buffalo, who, Zuri was told, usually left a big, noticeable mess.

There were some hints that the forest was occupied by those animals which could be considered individuals. Scratches in tree bark, little spots or patches where grass did not grow, or where greenery was trampled upon, but not in many cases. Given the shade from the canopy above them, it was cooler here, and Zuri pulled up her hood to keep herself warm. She preferred her environment to be warmer, and already missed the desert’s sunny, no-cover-except-for-underground conditions. Eventually, as Druva had predicted, the raft stopped at a collection of large stones at the base of the river. There was no reason to try and take the raft further. Larger rocks beyond blocked the passage of anything but water.

They disembarked. Druva took out her map again, and examined it. “There’s another Pony town, North of here,” she said, “but further along the river is closer to Paradise City. The Gau-Aer make no stops in between, so we have to go the whole distance.”

“We need equipment.” Uzul pointed out. “I’m not expecting there’s going to be a comfy bed of leaves for the whole road ahead, so the Pony town might be our only option for that kind of thing. Who knows? Maybe they’ll be more friendly.”

“I can’t say,” Druva replied. “I only passed through this one. ‘New Appleloosa’ is its name. I had to pay a hefty sum to hide out in a caravan wagon there, but… they did take my money.”

“Which we have none of,” Zuri replied. “At least, I didn’t bring any that was our own currency.”

“Well, my Vuiol had a rune for the Ponies’ coins; bits.” She unwrapped the sack from around her middle again, and traced the appropriate rune for it. She began shaking the sack, hoping for something to come out. “Maybe they… yes!” she said, triumphantly, as several sparkling bits fell onto the forest floor. “This will hardly buy us bedrolls, but it’s a start…”

“And now it’s your loss!” shouted an unfamiliar voice, in the Zebra’s tongue, above them. Each of the Zebra’s heads went up, to see a Pony, perching on a branch. It was male, with black fur, and a white mane that reminded Zuri of the bolts of energy the Dunnur was able to summon from the knives he carried with him. Without further warning, the stallion leaped, and his ebony wings spread outwards. He glided with alarming speed straight for Druva. Druva shouted, and jumped back. The Pegasus wooshed by, catching the Vuiol in his mouth. When Zuri looked where Druva had been standing, the gold coins and the map were also gone. Now, so was the stallion, as he flapped his wings and gradually vanished amongst the trunks of trees. He was laughing as he departed, and shouted. “Next time, read the sign, Zebras!”

Druva looked horror-stricken. “That little… he took my Vuiol! Snake! Rat with wings! Hollow-boned dirt-eater!” Druva screamed after him, raging. “Inconsiderate, thieving, feathery… ODILIA!” At that point, Uzul blushed.

“That’s hardly the kind language to shout in the middle of a hostile-to-zebras forest, especially one that understands our tongue!” he chastised her. The Alchemist whirled, and went on at him.

“Oh, don’t you go on about language. You’re the one who said Edrecht before you even told Zuri, an Oun-Drii Lady, to cover her ears to preserve her pure hearing! That cursed Pony took my Vuiol!

“I hear worse from my own family,” Zuri put in. “I’ve said worse. And I think I’ve already made it clear I don’t much care for my title, out here.”

“Still, is Odilia the kind of thing we should say that loud?” Uzul persisted. “For all we know he was armed. Or maybe he has partners to back him up.”

“If he’s so brave as to return to an alchemist whom he stole from,” Druva hissed, pounding the ground in fury. “I’ll brew something that’ll sizzle his wings off!”

“You never took your cauldron out of your Vuiol, remember?” Uzul said, condescending. That seemed to be sufficient to shut Druva up for the moment.

“That’s what a Pegasus looks like,” Zuri murmured. “Those wings are an advantage. I’ve only seen them severed off, being examined by my Elders.”

“They’re all egomaniacs,” Druva spat. “All the ones in Paradise City that I met were always brazen and mocking, happily throwing insults from clouds. They can sit on clouds!” She groaned loudly. “I’d like to see Zuri pull the clouds out from under them. Can you do that?” she asked Zuri, hopefully.

“Before yesterday, I had never seen clouds before,” Zuri replied, shrugging. “But that Pegasus has our map, Druva’s equipment, and what little money we have, or… had. We have to go after him.”

“It’s a Pegasus. It leaves no trail, just its laughter. How are you going to go after that?” Uzul said, and the lack of confidence in his voice stung a bit.

“Because I can hear him, still,” Zuri replied. Uzul had completely forgotten about Zuri’s super-sharpened senses.

“Oh, right. Would it still be safe to go after him? You fainted yesterday because you used too much Trancing…”

“I wore myself out. I didn’t give myself rest, and I didn’t go to sleep until I was exhausted,” Zuri explained. “I’m refreshed now, so I can do it, and you can stay here, since neither of you can, um…” She didn’t want to say it.

“Trance?” Druva suggested.

“Well, yes,” Zuri finished, trying to make the situation a positive one. “I know how to move quickly, and I can Trance my legs, and the ground. It will be good practice, if I ever go to the Far Marshes, for dodging trees and other such obstacles at high speeds.”

“Then, well, what are you waiting for?” Uzul urged her. “Just… be careful. We can’t afford to lose the map, the Vuiol, and especially not the Trancer. Go!”

With this said, Zuri nodded, turned around, tucking her hood underneath her cloak. She began running, the warmth in her heart pulsating quickly to her legs. She did not really consider her Tranced gallop a breaking of code. She guessed most Ponies would assume she had very, very fast hooves. The greenery around her began to blur, her heart racing as the energy coursed through her legs, and caused the ground to sort of carry her along, the soil going convex beneath her hooves at just the right moment in every step to give her an extra push.

With every moment, she ran faster and faster, the wind whistling in her ears. Her cloak, held tightly around her body, only provided a slight wind resistance. She slowed down for a moment, listening keenly. Her hooves made little noise as they paced. She had been trained to carefully avoid small objects that made noises, and this helped with her ability to listen for the Pegasus. There was a rhythmic whoosh-whoosh, faint, but persistent. Zuri sped up again, running in the direction of what she had to assume was the flapping of wings. Her hair billowed out behind her, getting messy with gust caused by her acceleration.

I can hear you, she thought, boastfully. Even a flyer leaves a trail… But I leave one that can be seen. And I can be seen, too. As if on cue, she saw a glint of something before her. Spider web? No, too thick. Duck! She dove under the thin cord, instead striking it with her tail as she passed further along. There was a loud clack, and a large, stone weight swooped downward in a swinging motion. Had she hit the tripwire with her body instead, she would have had her face smashed in. Instead, it left a large graze in the dirt, like an ovular dimple.

Traps. There can’t be just one of them. And not just one Pony, either, to lay them, Zuri thought. How do they stop other Ponies from tripping them? Maybe they don’t…

“Now!” came a cry, from in front of her. She looked up, triumphant at first, that she had spotted the Pegasus. He was perching on another branch, and apparently had just shouted a command. She boosted toward him, but suddenly stopped, as she saw two other forms leap from trees on opposite sides of her. Backpedaling just in time, she saw two more Pegasi, a mare and stallion, leap out of their hiding places, yelling at the top of their lungs. With her stopped prematurely, they collided with each other, and fell to the ground.

The one who had stolen Druva’s sack grew exasperated, rolling his eyes. “If you’re gonna do something right, you gotta do it yourself…” He leaped down, facing her down. With his wings outstretched, Zuri saw the appendages had sharp-edged blades mounted on them, which looking well-maintained. If she weren’t trying to keep her promise, she would melt them off his wings. As she imagined the look on this Pegasus’ face when that happened, she smiled absentmindedly, and giggled.

“What’s so funny, Zebra?” he snapped, slowly advancing on her. “I can cut you up so nobody can tell your stripes apart. You think that’s funny?”

Zuri stopped laughing, but her smiled remained. “I think you’d look funny if I yanked out those feathers.” The Pegasus actually took a step back, before realizing he had just given ground, and he took up a more menacing stance. Zuri matched it, all business now.

Why is he hesitating? He thinks he can win, though he’s easily shaken… is he waiting for something? If so, I better move first… Zuri did move first, advancing to the right. He took the bait, lunging right for her. Zuri ducked, and he went straight over her. She shoved upwards, headbutting his underside. He grunted in pain, and stumbled back onto his hooves.

“Ow…” He growled, holding a wing to his belly for a moment. “Sheesh. You got a hard head, freak. Anything else in there ‘cept skull?”

“I’m not the one stupid enough to cross a Sand-Trancer.” Zuri hissed back at him.

This definitely caught him off guard. He knew their language, but he didn’t recognize her status adornments. He tried to recover. “You were dumb enough to ignore the sign. There’s more where I came from.”

Zuri replied with another lunge, this time he tried to mimic her, dodging to the left to avoid her tackle. He was fast, but he was not fast enough to avoid her teeth closing around the tip of his wing. She wrenched her neck to the right, and he yelped. Several dark grey feathers came away in her mouth, which she spat out in one place on the ground. Maybe Druva can make something interesting, using those. “There’s more where those came from too,” she leered.

“Striped nag!” he yelled, coming at her with wings outstretched once more. “No one bites off my feathers!”

Zuri avoided his move again, although she felt his wing brush against one leg. “No one’s thrown an insult at me as uncreative as that one, Odilia.” That made him turn flush; he definitely knew what that word meant. He came in for another tackle. This time, she took it head on, but her hooves wrapped around his head, and pushed down. She drove him, headfirst, into the soil. Zuri thought, with malicious humor, how applicable Druva’s shouting of dirt-eater was right then. He struggled, and she pushed down harder for a moment, then rolled him over and pinned him down. “Where is the sack?”

“What sack?” he spat back at her, sneering. “My sack? Because I can’t give you that one. Gross.”

She struck him in the face, twice. “The sack you took in your mouth. That’s not yours.”

“Heheh… Hell, girl, if you wanted to pin me down in a bed of grass, I guess I didn’t need to grab the bag after all,” he sneered, and she struck him again, causing blood to drip from his nose. “Gah! Nag!” His wings were flailing. She stood on them with her hind hooves, and pinned his forehooves with hers. She was happy they were supposedly alone, save for those two unconscious idiots. The position she was in was a little more than compromising.

“Answer my question, pony, or I’ll tear your wings out!” Zuri shouted at him, losing patience.

“Do that, and my buddies’ll blow your friends’ brains out,” he laughed back, despite his obvious pain.

“That’s a terrible lie,” Zuri said, beginning to spread her hooves further apart, making his wings begin to strain. It was a loud cocking of a gun that made her stop.

Zuri shoved his face into the ground again with one hoof, and looked behind her. There stood Druva and Uzul, staring back with rigid expressions. On either side of them were the Pegasi who had tried to double-time her, now with guns mounted on their backs, the barrels prodding against the two Zebras’ temples.

“...Melose.” Zuri swore, immediately stepping off the stallion.