Peace Hunters

by NA_SolarEclipse

Chapter 3: Innovation is the Key to our own Demise

-If at first you don’t succeed give up, you’re probably not supposed to do that-

Nero opened his eyes to find that he was not dead. He again found himself sitting on grey mud and looking at a horizon of grey that stretched out forever. This was the lifeless plain he had been on in his dream; that could only mean one thing. “Orian!” Nero called out into the grey. “Stop hiding and show yourself!”

To Nero’s surprise, Orian did show himself. He stepped out from behind the dead tree and smiled. “Hello again Nero. Good to see you.” He said in a calm voice that Nero found quite unsettling. Orian stared into Nero’s eyes with those red eyes that he could swear burned his soul.

“Why am I here? Am I dead? More importantly, why are you here?” Nero asked

“Well no you’re not dead, and you tell me why I am here. This is your subconscious mind. As for why you are here, you are unconscious and I guess you go here when you are not.” Orian had a way of explaining things in a way that infuriated Nero. Orian continued anyway. “This most certainly is a predicament you have gotten yourself into isn’t it? Let me tell you, most ponies don’t usually survive sinking in quicksand.”

“Wait, how do you know about that?” Nero stammered.

“It’s not like I can’t see what you do and hear what you hear. I am you after all remember? I just don’t really exist, but to you I do.” Orian explained in his calm voice that somehow made things all that much worse.

“Well ok then. What do you think about this predicament?” Nero wanted to try and catch Orian off guard this time.

Orian however was not impressed. “I think that your ‘friend’ Arkay is just trying to get you killed. He drags you out to the desert to convince some self-appointed law pony to join this republic that Luna has in mind. Ever think that he is just bringing you along so that he can betray you? He never really has your best intentions in mind does he? More importantly, why do you allow him to control you?” Orian seemed to know just how to twist his opinions to seem as though they were the truth.

Nero pondered this for a moment. On one hoof, Orian was completely right in all he had said. Nero never really thought about why he just went along with Arkay’s plan. Perhaps it was just that he had never had a reason to doubt Arkay’s actions, maybe it was about time he did. On the other hoof Arkay had never steered him wrong. In fact, Arkay always did make sure that he took Nero’s opinion into consideration and made sure that the two of them were alright. All in all, there was a lot to consider.

Orian just knew that Nero was thinking intensely. “What’s the matter Nero? Having to reconsider your lifestyle? Don’t do that now. It’s just one non-existent pony’s opinion. You have been ignoring me and shutting me out for years, why pay attention now hmm?” Orian taunted sarcastically.

“I hate that you are both right and wrong on so many things Orian, and honestly I missed that. You are absolutely right; I shouldn’t suddenly listen to you again now that you are back. You are also wrong though. Arkay isn’t going to betray me. He never has, and he never will. Actually tell you what, the day that he does betray me you can laugh in my face and say ‘I told you so.’ Now how about you be useful and tell me what has happened since I have been out? Or does your knowing of outside my mind have its limits?” Nero wanted to stay on the offense of this discussion but with Orian, there was no winning.

Orian just nodded and thought for a moment. “Fine, we can play your way. Yes, even though you’re not conscious, I can still see and hear things that go on ‘outside’. From what I can gather you got very lucky Nero. You and your silly little friends sunk your way right into the underground civilization that the deer have created under the sand. These deer are real clever they have everything they need down there. To top it all off, they even have working farms. Maybe when you come too you can marvel at it all yourself. Anyway none of you are dead... yet. As for how I feel about the whole buffalo predicament, I think that you should get your way out of this underground utopia and ask that Marshal fellow about Thunder. Obviously the two of them have a bit of history. Perhaps you could get them to talk it out, or fight it out. Whichever works to the favor of your oh so important ‘mission’. I still can’t understand your motive for going along with this royal business, mind sharing? Well, actually I know exactly what your motives are; I just want to know what you like to tell yourself.” Orian seemed to enjoy hearing himself give speeches to Nero.

Nero was not at all comfortable with knowing that Orian could know what he was thinking, but he complied anyway. “I am doing this royal business with Arkay because having one of the princesses in your debt could be very handy. Remember, we are actually working for Celestia. If she owes us, we could be set anywhere we go. We would never have to work or treasure hunt again in our lives. How could you not want that?”

“But do you really want that? Do you really want to give up adventure?” Orian asked quickly. Nero had to think about that for a while. Did he really want to be well off? For all of his life, Nero had been on uncertain terms. Could he even deal with the lack of challenge? “That’s what I thought” Orian took Nero’s silence as a yes. “Don’t lie to yourself; that is the worst thing that you could do.”

Nero didn’t know what to think about that. Here was Orian analyzing his actions and thoughts, and giving both legitimate and terrible advice about what to do. Nero honestly didn’t know whether or not to heed this advice. There were still several questions that he had for Orian, but didn’t necessarily want the answers from him. However he still did want to know one thing in particular. “Why did you suddenly come back Orian? Why are you here?”

Orian just smiled and answered again in that unsettling calm voice. “Well when your benevolent ruler’s sister put you to sleep, she went rooting around in your memories and thoughts. See that door over there?” Orian gestured to a door that suddenly appeared behind Nero. “That lovely little thing has been containing all of your repressed memories and thoughts within its confines, and along with it me. When she took a peek inside, I was released again upon your thoughts. Which explains the dream you had that night. So, I am here because Luna let me out on accident. Answer your question?”

Nero was unsure how exactly to take that. He had no idea that he had repressed memories along with Orian. Perhaps he should take a look inside his thoughts more often. Nero took a few steps toward the door, and peeked around the door frame. On the other side was nothing. It was just a free standing door. “Don’t get too curious now Nero. You don’t remember what is behind there for a reason. Perhaps the forgotten should stay that way?” Orian strangely sounded genuine in his concern in that remark. Maybe Orian did have his best interests at heart sometimes. Nero then felt very silly to think such a thing.

“Well sleepyhead, time to wake up now. Your cute pink friend is going to get you back to reality pretty soon.” It was strange that Orian knew these things before they even happened.

“Wait!” Nero started, but never got a chance to finish.

Orian continued as if Nero had said nothing. “A bit of advice before you wake up; ask about the deer’s source of sunlight. It is important to know your history. See you around Nero.” Nero wanted to ask what Orian had meant by that but the grey plains, the dead tree, Orian himself, and the memory door faded away before he could.

Splash! Nero woke up to the cold and very wet feeling of a bucket of water being poured over him. “See?” Nero in his confusion and sleepiness could make out the voice of Cherri and the chuckles of Arkay. “Told you that water was all we needed to wake him up.”

“I would have gotten up eventually!” Nero defended. “Not many ponies are forced to wake up after dying in quicksand.” Nero looked about his surroundings to find a small room with three figures in it. One pink was obviously Cherri, the green had to be Arkay, but the third light brown one was a mystery to him.

“Greetings from the land of the living.” An unfamiliar and light voice said. Now that his eyes were more in focus, Nero could see that the brown figure was a small pony-like creature with a distinct feather on a small headband. It had very thin legs, and stood just a little bit shorter than Arkay and Cherri next to it.

“Uh, hey. It’s good to be in the land of the living again. Who are you?” Nero asked, still a little bit asleep.

The small thing chuckled. “Well I would ask the same thing had your friends not filled me in on whom you are. To answer your question, I am Falling Leaves, the leader of the deer. Welcome to Oasis.”

“Oasa-what now?” Nero asked in confusion. Had Orian actually told him the truth?

“Oasis Nero. This is an underground civilization of deer. According to Falling Leaves, we sunk so far into the sand that we ended up in an underground river that led to here. None of us were conscious for any of that but hey, we are alive.” Arkay explained. That seemed a little far-fetched to Nero, but he didn’t really feel like exploring the situation very much.

Nero got up off the bed he had been laying on and surveyed the room a bit closer. All of the walls, the ceiling, and the floor were made of a light brown stony material. In the room were three other beds and a few tables, which were all made of the same material. A wooden door graced the entrance and restricted Nero’s view beyond it. “Well, Falling Leaves, mind if we take a stroll around? I would like to get a better grasp on what exactly this place is.” Nero decided to heed Orian’s advice about knowing more about history or whatever.

Falling Leaves smiled “Of course young one, we will show you everything there is to see here.” Falling Leaves then turned to the door and started out. Nero glanced at Arkay and Cherri; they had not yet started following the deer.

“Arkay, Cherri! Can you believe it? We are alive! We survived that buffalo’s quicksand!” Nero couldn’t contain how excited he was to be alive from the two of them.

Arkay smiled. “Yeah. I can’t believe it either, but here we are. I have to apologize to you guys about getting you into this situation. If it weren’t for extremely lucky circumstances, my trust in strangers would have gotten us all killed. I am going to continue with my mission for Luna but if the two of you don’t want to come along, I would completely understand.” Arkay hung his head low in shame. Apparently he was rather embarrassed about almost getting his friends and he killed.

Nero just burst out laughing. “Bwa-ha-ha-ha! Really? Arkay, how many times have we almost gotten killed on our incursions? Honesty adding one more isn’t going to hurt. Of course I am going to finish this mission with you. I wouldn’t bail on my partner because of a little sand.” Arkay looked up and smiled to Nero.

“Well, I for one am surprised at your actions Arkay.” Arkay’s hopes couldn’t have dropped more terribly at Cherri’s words. “Going off and getting you and me almost killed like that. Not exactly what you told me this political stuff was going to be.”

‘Well, it was fun while it lasted’ Arkay thought to himself,

“However.” Cherri continued “The two of you have proven that whatever adventures you go on are indeed more exciting than any old boring job that I could get in Canterlot. Also, I haven’t quite figured either of you out and you are both intriguing to me. So, taking all things into consideration, I will stay with you on this so called ‘mission’. Just don’t get me killed please? I rather do enjoy living.” ‘Why does she always have to put me through an emotional roller coaster?’ Arkay thought.

“Thank you, both of you. I promise I’ll try to get the both of you out of this alive and well. Thank you” Arkay was so very relieved that they decided to stay with him. He didn’t think that he could get this mission done without them. With that, the three of them followed after Falling Leaves to survey the civilization of Oasis.

Oasis was everything that Nero, Arkay, and Cherri could hope for and more. Outside of the small room they had been in was another huge room that seemed to sing to them. Rivers cascaded throughout the entire place, carried by stone riverbeds and aqueducts. There were tall stone structures that reached all the way to the ceiling that seemed to overlook the entire room. At the top of one stone spire in particular was a huge ball of light. The three of them mistook it for the sun, resembling it so closely. Falling Leaves somehow just knew the sense of awe that crept over the three of them. “This is our entire livelihood.” She said simply. “This is the gift of Celestia’s sun, given to us by the Princess herself. It absorbs sunlight through a small skylight and provides real sunlight down here in our underground city. Without this, we would be forced from our safety and thrown into the hash world we have hidden from for all these years.”

Cherri scoffed at that. “Really now? So if what you say is true, your race has lived underground for years. Why is it that no pony has ever heard of you? More importantly, what are you?” Arkay shared Cherri’s suspicion. Perhaps there were those that had known, but living underground for years seemed a little farfetched to him. Then again, being in an enclosed space was uncomfortable to any Pegasus.

Falling Leaves simply chuckled. “Well young ones, let me tell you that there is nothing but truth in my statement. The princess of the sun, Celestia, gave us this gift so that we could live underground until the land is ready for peace to flourish. Out of respect, we patiently wait until the day that we will return to the surface so that we may return this gift. We do not necessarily look forward to the day but when the princess calls upon us to return her gift, we shall. As for what we are, it is quite simple. We are deer. Being smaller than your race, and especially the buffalo, we have evolved to be farmers of sorts rather than gatherers. We revel in the calm and serene working of the land rather than the search for food. This has however, led to our race being forgotten or repressed. Some from the younger generation believe that we cannot shut the world out forever, and that we need to let it in just a little. The elders however believe that we must stay in the safety of the underground until we are called to return. So we have argued amongst ourselves for years, always concluding that it is safer to stick to tradition and remain underground than risk braving the surface.” Falling Leaves couldn't hide that she was concerned for the safety of her family. However she also seemed to believe in the ideas of the ‘younger generation’ as well.

Nero was unmoved by this predicament. “Yeah that’s nice. Now how about you tell us where the exit is so that my friends and I here can get out of here. We have some unfinished business with a certain buffalo and a town of rebels we need to attend to. It was great to meet you and everything.” Nero already had the bit of history that Orian had mentioned he gets it wasn’t very interesting. So he wanted to get out of the ground and exact some revenge on Thunder and his band of jolly followers.

Arkay however was not interested in jumping so quickly into the hooves of a crazed buffalo chief. “Hold on a minuet Nero, we can’t just jump right back out of this. I for one am exhausted, passing out while sinking in the sand cannot be healthy. Perhaps we should stay here for a while and get to know the deer and their lifestyle better. Maybe we could all learn something from this, like ‘let’s not rush into something without knowing what is in store for us.’ Plus,” Arkay pulled Nero close and whispered into his ear, “Maybe this sunlight gift is the gemstone that Luna was telling us about. She did say ‘we would know it when we saw it’.” Arkay trotted away from Nero a short distance. “Furthermore I would like some more information from the deer; perhaps they could tell me something about the buffalo that could help us.”

Nero thought this over for a moment. He really didn’t want to stay underground for that long, but then again maybe Arkay was right. The deer have been living underground for years, and apparently knew more about the buffalo than him or Arkay knew. “Hmm, perhaps you’re right Arkay. Fine we can stay down here for a while, but we are leaving in the morning... whenever that is. Alright Arkay?”

Arkay let out a breath of relief. Now he could have the time he wanted to ask for any other information about the deer in the past and how they got that source of sunlight underground. Furthermore, he wanted to know if Nikola’s theory was right about the buffalo. There could be a chance of diplomacy if Nikola was right about the buffalo following this bad leader. If there was one, it had to be Thunder. “However.” Nero just couldn’t let Arkay have a sigh of relief without making him panic shortly after. “I will not be joining you in this information hunt. I have better things to do.”

Well that didn’t really put a stop to any of Arkay’s plans, so it was alright anyway. “Whatever Nero just don’t do anything stupid like get lost, or offend anyone. We will meet up tomorrow morning and go back to Outpost alright?” Arkay purposed calmly, he didn’t want any more emotional roller coaster rides today. Nero simply gave a short nod and trotted off. Arkay continued. “Well, now how...” Arkay was about to ask Falling Leaves about the sunlight, but she was gone. “Huh, I guess deer don’t know how exactly to warn others before they just leave.”

“Actually, we do. You just weren’t looking hard enough.” Arkay was not prepared for the sudden speaking from behind him. He jumped several feet into the air and hovered in fright for a moment. He then looked down to see that Falling Leaves was just standing next to Cherri with no discernible facial expression. Arkay hovered back down, a little bit embarrassed. It’s not every day that he dealt with disappearing ninja deer.

Cherri was giving Arkay a sly look as he touched down and started speaking again. “Anyway I do have a lot of questions about this place and the buffalo, is there any place we could go for a while to speak? And please don’t do that again. I’m not exactly the most receptive pony for surprises.”

Falling Leaves again gave him and Cherri her simple chuckle and answered. “Well, we could go to my den. I almost never have guests over, but that could work. As long as it just the two of you, the grey one seems a bit too energetic and unfocused. I can only hope that you did not release a disaster upon us. Shall we?” Falling Leaves then walked away, expecting Arkay and Cherri to follow. Cherri just gave Arkay a sheepish look. She was not quite as excited as he was to learn about the deer.

Oasis was a sleepy and calm place. The few deer that were walking the dirt trails of the underground city gave Nero almost no mind as they trotted by. The few that did simply gave a respectful nod or friendly greeting. Nero was not used to such reactions to him being a Pegasus. Most of the time, those that passed by would either stare at him with contempt or grumble at his presence. Here in Oasis, the deer did no such thing. He was surprised that they say something about him being the only one around that was not a deer, but there were only nods and gracious smiles.

‘These deer are just too friendly’ Nero thought to himself. ‘There is no reason to be so happy about living underground.’ He continued his trot around the city when he came to a realization. “There’s no market around here.” Nero said to himself out loud.

“Well of course there isn’t a market Nero, they don’t need one.” Nero whipped around to see who was speaking to him to find a grey Pegasus with red eyes, but no scars. “They have it all figured out down here you know.” Orian said almost arrogantly.

Nero couldn’t help but back pedal at Orian’s sudden appearance, right into a wall. “What? How? You’re only supposed to be in my mind!” Nero tried to disprove Orian’s existence outside of his mind, but couldn’t.

“Well, usually yes I do only exist within your subconscious mind. I thought I might as well come out and enjoy the nice underground air of the outside world for once. And before you ask, no I am not really here.” Orian said, still in a tone of voice that made him feel superior to Nero.

Nero contemplated that for a while. How could Orian be there, standing right in front of him, and not actually be there? He wasn’t really real of course, but he was real to Nero. “So am I just talking to myself?” Nero asked.

Orian face-hooved and sighed. “No, you are talking to me; I am a figment of your imagination. Still following me? Good. To answer your question, yes and no. You are talking to me but to those around you, you are just talking to yourself. Others can’t see me.” Orian tried his best to explain this to Nero, but there was no way to explain speaking to your imaginary friend without confusing some pony.

Nero just shook his head. “Anyway whatever, why are you out of my subconscious or wherever that place is?”

Orian chuckled at that. “Well, you know that annoying green friend of yours? I absolutely cannot stand him. Being all nice, and intelligent, and- and goddess damn it! He is just too accepting! I cannot stand him because he has no lack of empathy for anything! He just makes me want to vomit!” Orian sighed and composed himself. “Your friend Arkay is just too damn nice for his own good and yours. He will end up getting the two of you killed if you aren’t careful you know.” Orian obviously didn’t like Arkay. However, most of his reasons sounded like excuses to Nero.

“Well, whatever.” Nero wanted to get back on track. “Now that I know a bit about the deer’s history, what am I supposed to do with that?”

Orian seemed to want to get back on track as well. “Well, that one deer didn’t exactly tell us what we wanted to hear; perhaps we should go around and ask what the others think?” Orian said calm again.

Nero nodded. “Alright, what exactly do we want to hear from the deer?” He said cautiously.

“We want to hear more about that fabricated sunlight that they have down here. Or did you forget about the gemstone Luna wanted you to get already?” Orian hinted arrogant again.

At the word ‘gemstone’ Nero perked up immediately. Never before had he actually forgotten about treasure hunting. “Of course! Are you telling me that the sun thing down here is that gemstone that Luna wanted us to get?” Nero again had that crazy look in his eye as he questioned his imaginary friend. Orian on the other hoof simply stayed calm and shrugged. At that Nero galloped down the dirt road, on a mission to find out more about the underground sun. He didn’t care if Orian followed or not. Then again, it’s rather difficult to out run some pony that’s not real.

“And that, my guests, is how our race has become what we are.” Falling Leaves finished her explanation ,which had taken a few hours, and smiled easy. “Any questions?” She asked, as if the history of her race was a simple thing to understand.

Arkay and Cherri, who were sitting on their haunches throughout the explanation, sat there with their mouths agape in awe. “So let me get this straight Falling Leaves. The deer used to run the plains in the days of old, but that all changed when the Princess gave you the one of the Elements of Harmony as a gift. You then found that it could absorb and expel sunlight, so you crafted your entire civilization around it to avoid the violence and disharmony of the surface. That’s great and all, but did you really need to give us the history of every chief and leader before this happened?” Arkay asked with caution. He didn’t want to offend his host, but did want to make a point that all of their history before becoming an underground civilization was quite unnecessary.

Falling Leaves smiled graciously. “Of course my dear, you did ask for the history of our race. I just wanted to comply with your question. Perhaps that will teach you a lesson in being specific yes?” Arkay gave a tired frown at that.

Cherri on the other hoof was completely entranced by the deer’s story. “Arkay, how could you not absolutely love that story? Such a history! And the teachers of Canterlot denied the deer’s existence. There is so much that we as a race could learn from the deer. I just wish that we knew about them earlier.” Cherri seemed to absolutely love the deer for whatever reason. All Arkay knew was that he was secretly jealous that she didn’t look at him with such admiration.

Falling Leaves chuckled again. For whatever reason, she found every reaction from Arkay and Cherri to be funny. “Well, thank you dear, that flatters an old deer very much. Now it is getting quite late, and I must tend the fields tomorrow morning. The two of you can just find a comfortable pile of leaves to lie upon. We do not waste what we have down here, so we use the fallen leaves to stuff our bedding. Sleep well ponies. It was pleasant to have you over. If you leave earlier than I do, I look forward to our next meeting.” And with that Falling Leaves exited the main room of her house-den. She was rather gracious to them seeing as they were strangers in her city.

As soon as Falling Leaves left the room, Cherri’s smile fell to a bored expression. “Finally, I don’t think that I could have kept up that act for very much longer. A lady can only pretend for so long.” Cherri said with exasperation. Arkay was baffled by this sudden change in her attitude. Cherri put on a pouty face. “What? Certainly you didn’t believe my ruse?”

Arkay couldn’t find the words he wanted, and managed only some stuttering. “Well-I. Uhm, yea-no. Maybe?” Cherri just giggled at this mish-mash of words. Arkay managed to pull himself together for once to speak to Cherri. “Well, I haven’t really had a chance to get to know you very well, and I don’t know what you do and do not find interesting. Forgive me if I took your ‘acting’ seriously.” Arkay wanted to salvage any respect that Cherri might still have for him at the very least.

Cherri simply smiled at that. “Seems that we are on the same playing field then Mr.treasurehunter. I don’t really know much about you either, other than the fact that you seem to take the non-violent approach and that you are a terrible liar.” Cherri said calmly. Arkay could detect a hint of sarcasm in her words, but she did seem sincere otherwise. She continued. “Perhaps you could tell me more about the life of Arkay, so that I may get a better understanding of who you are.”

Arkay’s mind just stopped for a moment. Certainly he had some interesting things to talk about, but couldn’t think of them on the spot. He had to buy some time to think, but he was also curious about Cherri’s life as well. He thought of one way that could get him out of this situation, and learn more about the pink unicorn. “Ladies first.” He said with respect.

Cherri gave another pouty face. “Well, alright then sir.” Arkay let out a mental sigh of relief while Cherri continued. “I wasn’t born in Canterlot like most unicorns, I was born in Ponyville. My parents were two earth ponies who ran a small cherry orchard, so it was baffling to them as to why they had a Unicorn daughter. My mother wanted me to help around the orchard in a more efficient way than the other earth ponies that lived there could. My father on the other hoof saw potential in my being a unicorn. My father wanted me to go out into the city of Canterlot to make a better life for myself than I could have in Ponyville. I had to take some time to consider these options, I mean; this was the rest of my life that I was deciding on. While I tossed these options around in my head, I decided to help my mother with some cooking one day. We were baking some cherry pie for the neighbors that day, and my mother decided that I should try my hoof at making one all by myself. Being a young filly, I absolutely jumped at the idea of doing something on my own. So, I did just as my mother instructed me, and made a cherry pie. It really was a lot easier than my mother made it sound; when I finished filling the pie with the cherries however, I found these cherries as my cutie mark. My mother kind of freaked out and concluded that I was destined to work on the cherry orchard for the rest of my life. I didn’t want anything to do with that honestly, so I ran.” Cherri choked up at that last statement. Arkay wanted to find the acting in that statement, but he couldn’t

“You just ran?” Arkay asked surprised.

Cherri sniffled, regained her composure, and continued. “Yes, I ran. I ran from my parents’ orchard and took a chariot to Canterlot, back then there was no steam engine for convenience. I ran and never looked back. I didn’t want to be stuck as a cherry farmer for the rest of my life, so I did what my father wanted me to do. Going to Canterlot seemed to be the best idea at the time. Once there, I was taken in by a nice older mare that agreed to let me work with her in her flower store. It was nice for a few years, but one morning she never woke up. I was older, and could take care of myself, but losing her still hurt quite a bit. She was more understanding than my mother was. Anyway, her death put the flower store in my name. One problem though, there were a lot of laws for ownership in place that I was not aware of. I ended up losing the flower store, and was forced to sell it at a rather unfair rate. From there, I was forced to search for another job. From my pink coat and bright blue and white stripped mane, a lot of the Unicorns in the ‘entertainment’ business were interested in me to be their ‘show mare’. I didn’t want to be a show mare at some back end club, so I never did take such a job. Eventually, while I was working at a newspaper press, I found a headline from Ponyville. ‘Cherry Orchard Burned to the Ground, No Survivors.’ I couldn’t believe it, my old home was nothing but ashes. I even took the trip down to Ponyville to make sure; there really was nothing but ashes. That was the saddest day of my life; finding that there was nothing left of my parents’ orchard. I couldn’t believe it, but there the ashes were.” Cherri took a moment and cried in deep sorrow. Arkay ventured out with a hug to make her feel better, and to his surprise she returned the hug and continued. “After I paid my respects to what was left of the orchard, I returned to Canterlot to move on with my life. I took to studying magic proper for a few years. However, without the crucial beginning years of magic training, it took a lot more time than I wanted it to. Eventually I got the hang of even rather difficult magic, only to find that there was no real need for such advanced spells in the practical world. A few months after the end of my magic training, I got a job at the oh-so illustrious ‘Crystal Jewel’ that you found me at. And now I’m running around with the two of you on some ‘political mission’. That’s pretty much my life up to this point.” Cherri concluded, now a lot calmer than before.

Arkay nodded. “So when did you learn to act?” He asked.

Cherri giggled at that. “I had to be able to act well to seem like a helpless little mare in the big city of Canterlot so that I could get a job Arkay. I mean, wouldn’t you hire on a despite mare over another stallion?” Cherri questioned in a voice that sounded indeed helpless. “Anyway,” she continued, “how about you? What was your life like?”

Arkay took another mental sigh. He really didn’t want to bore Cherri with his life story, but she had told him her story, so it was only polite. “Well, let’s see. Being a Pegasus, I was obviously born in the clouds. My parents were both Pegasus, my mother was a teacher, and my father was a member of the military. Growing up, I always had my mother there to make sure I didn’t do anything wrong, and my father around to punish me if I did. My mother believed that enrolling me in violin lessons could improve my intelligence level, so music became my life for the years leading up to being put into school. Since my mother was a teacher, she always made sure I did my homework, and that I was practicing my violin. All the while, my father would always spout about how great the Pegasus race was by comparison of the mischievous Unicorns and the lowly earth ponies. I never really did buy into his preaching though. My early schooling days were not the brightest. If the others weren’t making fun of me for my violin, they were teasing me about being the teacher’s son. My father told me that ‘this was the sort of thing that builds character in a good proud Pegasus’. I absolutely hated him for justifying the bullies like that. With no actual friends to speak of, I took to practicing constantly. Maybe if I could play over the teasing and the jokes, I could be happy all by myself. Since I put all that time into practicing the violin, I never really got the hang of flying. One particular day changed my life though. It was like any other day; I was practicing my violin in the school gym before school. On this day however, a certain grey Pegasus was trotting by and complemented me on my playing. There were unfortunately, others that decided to taunt me about my playing and my inability to fly. One thing led to another, and they pushed my off the clouds toward the ground. They saw it as ‘trying to help’ with my flying, but no matter how much I tried, I couldn’t get the wind under my wings to fly. So I plummeted toward the ground, sure that I was going to die, but I never hit the ground. That grey Pegasus saved my life, for no reason. He flew the two of us back to the school cloud and explained to the principle what had happened. The three bullies that had pushed me off the cloud were to be expelled for life, but I didn’t want any pony to suffer, even those rotten bullies. So I convinced the principle to not expel the bullies. After that situation was dealt with, I found out that the grey Pegasus’ name was Nero and that the both of us had gotten our cutie marks that day. Mine was a sign of peace, and his were three flames in a strange orientation. From that day forward, we were best friends.” Arkay finished on a high note, hoping that could cheer up Cherri from her memories of her lost parents.

Cherri did seem to be in a happier mood than before. “Well I never really thought that you could be a violinist. Perhaps you could play me a song sometime hmm? Other than that, how did you become a treasure hunter?” Cherri asked.

Arkay forgot to include that in his story. “Oh yes, well Nero was always fascinated with collecting valuable objects. So one day I decided to help him, and another, and another. Pretty soon, that was all that we did. We had our own business partner, and we were good at what we did. Yes, it really is as simple as that.” There really weren’t any details that he could add to make the decision sound more interesting.

Cherri shrugged. “Well, alright then. I suppose that is enough to go off of, for now. I really do want to know more about what happened with you parents and about how Nero got his prosthetic hoof in the first place, but it is getting rather late, and I need my beauty rest. Now, would you mind letting go of me?” Arkay didn’t even realize that he was still hugging her. He quickly released her and trotted over to another leaf-filled cushion, trying to hide his blushing from her as much as possible. “Thanks, sleep tight Arkay, perhaps we will have more luck with this buffalo situation tomorrow.” Cherri said before getting comfortable.

‘I hope you are right Cherri, for all of our sakes.’ Arkay thought as he too drifted off to sleep.

“Okay Thanks.” Nero said as he left the deer he was talking to for the past few minutes. He didn’t really feel that thankful, but at least tried to seem like it. Nero had been up for most of what the deer described as the ‘time for rest’. He couldn’t actually tell if it was late or not however, as the sun stone in the center of the underground settlement kept everything quite well lit, even if there was no light coming in through the ‘solar pocket’ that was basically just a hole in the ceiling. Nero had spent this time to ask around about the sun stone and could only confirm what Falling Leaves had told him about it. Orian had been present during this information search, but had almost no comments on the situation at all. He simply followed whenever Nero moved on to another deer to question.

“Well that was a waste of time.” Nero concluded after contemplating all the information he had received. Most of it wasn’t even about the sun stone; it was just about the deer’s history and boring things like that. Orian just chuckled at Nero’s words. “Oh shut up. It’s not like this information search was your idea to begin with Orian.” Nero said rather annoyed.

Orian apparently found this hilarious and busted out laughing. Confused, Nero just waited for him to finish. “Okay, hold on a second. The information search was my idea?” Orian asked, to which Nero nodded. “And, you think it was a waste of time?” Again Nero nodded. These questions were easy. “Hmm, but remember that I am just a figment of your imagination. So if I came up with an idea, wasn’t it really yours to start out with?” Orian had that arrogant tone in his voice again, the same tone that Nero hated.

“Again, shut up. I don’t have time to think about stupid things like that. I have to think about how to get that gemstone up there.” Nero said confidently.

Orian shrugged. “Well, alright whatever. Listen, it’s been real fun running around questioning deer with you, but I have to go.” He said with almost no feeling in his words at all.

Nero didn’t know what to think about that. “What? Why? I thought you could be around outside my subconscious.”

Orian started trotting away, but no matter how far he got, his voice was still right in Nero’s mind. “Yeah this is true, but I don’t feel like being around that annoying do-gooder that you call a friend. Don’t worry, I’ll still be listening. See you around Nero.” And with that, he vanished.

“Wait!” Nero called out, but to no avail, Orian was already gone.

Arkay and Cherri approached tentatively. “Uhh, Nero. You okay in there?” Arkay asked after a short moment of silence. It was not normal for Nero to just yell at nothing. It may have happened a few times, but it still wasn’t normal.

Nero turned around and started to gesture toward where Orian had gone, but then remembered that the other two couldn’t see Orian at all. “Uh, yeah I am fine. Did either of you find out anything interesting about this boring place?” Nero asked calmly, no need to seem crazier to his friends.

Arkay shrugged. “Unless you count the history of the deer’s chiefs and elders to be interesting, no. Really wasn’t much that Falling Leaves told us about that giant gemstone that she hadn’t already said earlier. However it really did seem to be a gift from princess Celestia to them. Anyway, it is much too big for us to carry around with us, so perhaps we should come back for it when we are all done with Thunder and the buffalo?” Arkay didn’t forget about the way that Thunder had tricked them, and wanted to set things straight for the citizens of Outpost.

Nero really didn’t want to leave such a huge treasure here, but revenge did sound like a nice idea as well. “Yeah, I guess we can always come back for it when we are done. Now how about we get out of this glorified tombstone; this place gives me the creeps.”

Cherri nodded quite pointedly. “Indeed I believe that we should leave this place, being underground isn’t exactly the most reassuring of aspects. Now do either of you know the way out?” Cherri asked with as much dignity as possible.

Arkay didn’t. Nero on the other hoof did. “Follow me, I have been trying to find information from these deer, and found the exit myself. Come on I’ll show you where it is.” Nero dashed off down the dirt trail. Arkay and Cherri exchanged a look, and then dashed off after him.

The exit and otherwise entrance to Oasis was quite obvious if you knew what to look for. If one knew that the rather large hill had the cave entrance to a secret underground civilization of deer, it would be worth investigating. There was literally nothing else in view on the flat plains that surrounded Outpost, and a hill this tall would be easy to find again.

On the other hoof, Outpost was easy to spot from the cave entrance, being the only interesting land mark in the seemingly endless expanse of flat. So deciding on a direction to go was easy. Even more surprising was the fact that Outpost was just two miles or so from the underground city of Oasis. If only those ponies knew that the access to several underground rivers was so close, water would never be a problem for them. Then again, maybe it was better that they didn’t know. Who knew what the rather rowdy citizens of Outpost would do with the extremely peaceful deer of Oasis if they knew about the water and the sun gem. To that end, Nero, Arkay, and Cherri promised they wouldn’t bring up Oasis unless it was absolutely necessary. No need for unneeded conflict. The three of them started on their way to the town of Outpost, unfortunately on hoof. It was a short distance, but it felt much longer due to the sun beating down on them relentlessly.

Cherri in found the sun to be particularly offensive. “Why is it that the heat is so much worse out here in the desert than in the city of Canterlot? Is the sun just that much meaner to these poor ponies that live out here in this heat?” She asked to no pony in particular. The contrast from cool underground to blazing sands was not to her liking at all apparently.

Arkay, being a Pegasus actually knew the answer. “Well you see,” he started, “The clouds and the colder air from the north actually keep the area around Canterlot and Ponyville rather cool, the heat is so unbearable out here because there are no clouds to cool it down or any cold wind from the north to keep it from getting this way. If the Pegasus put a little effort into it, we could keep it cooler out here, and maybe even make this dirt wasteland a good place to grow food. They never will though. The Pegasus would never approve of a weather team coming out here and making things better for earth ponies.” Arkay said with a cold honesty. The Pegasus believed that there was no better race than them, and refused to help those that were lesser.

Cherri looked to Nero in hopes that he had an argument to Arkay’s statement about the Pegasus, but Nero just remained silent. The three of them continued trotting in the unrelenting expanse of dirt and heat in silence for the remainder of the trip.

Outpost was quiet when Nero, Arkay, and Cherri arrived. The journey from Oasis had only been half an hour at the most, but trotting in the heat that the sun so graciously provided was definitely not a walk in the park. “Alright, we need to tell Nikola about what happened with the supposed pow-wow. He needs to know that he was right about his theory of there being a bad chief the buffalo were following. Perhaps he has a solution to how we can proceed.” Arkay said carefully.

Nero however was not going to have that. “No, we need to go and talk with Marshal. Obviously, that Thunder buffalo and Marshal have a history, so we need to learn how we can take care of this situation by asking him about what to do.” Nero countered. He actually wanted to follow Orian’s advice on this. If they could learn from the past, they could be better prepared with knowledge to confront the situation. Or at least that’s how Nero saw it.

Arkay shook his head in surprise. “Whoa there Nero, we need to get Nikola’s input on this first. Marshal isn’t exactly the most level-headed pony from what I can gather. Maybe it would be better to get a more educated opinion on the situation so that we can make the smart decision.” Arkay argued his point quite well.

Cherri then cut into their arguing. “How about we go ask them both?” She asked, gesturing to both Marshal and Nikola entering the corner bar. Arkay and Nero exchanged a look and grumbled in agreement. There was no sense in making this any more difficult than it needed to be. The three of them then started off toward the bar as well. Sufficiently proud of herself, Cherri added, “Maybe we could even get some water while we are there? I for one am quite parched.” Arkay and Nero could only nod in agreement, turns out that they were quite thirsty as well.

The bar seemed to be even more rowdy than what Nero, Arkay, and Cherri remembered. There were ponies sitting at all of the tables, the main bar table, around the piano where the well-dressed earth pony played an upbeat and catchy tune, and even around the entrance and the back door where a unicorn stallion played a similarly upbeat fiddle tune on a violin. Apparently any pony who was of the age and mindset spent their time at this bar in particular. The three of them could only imagine how empty the other two or three bars were since this one seemed to drum up the most business. “We need to find Marshal and Nikola.” Arkay said to Nero.

Nero however didn’t hear him. “What?” Was all he could ask.

“We Need To Find Marshal And Nikola!” Arkay said a bit louder

“Be loud!” Nero almost yelled back to Arkay.

“Hey.” Arkay tried.

“Ugh, I’m not going to hear you if you speak like that. Louder.” Nero retorted

“Hey.”

“Louder!”

“Hey!”

“LOUDER!” Nero screamed back.

Arkay drew in a long breath, taking in as much air as possible and…..”Heeyy.” He let out a rather pathetic sound. Arkay never was good at being loud. Plus, he wanted to be considerate to those around him, even if they didn’t return the favor.

Nero and Arkay yelled back and forth, not exactly hearing each other. Cherri on the other hoof had a plan. She focused her magic on the violin that the other unicorn was playing across the room, and then slowly and carefully floated it and the bow over to her. “Hey Arkay, play this.” She said simply. Arkay however didn’t hear her. Flustered, she cantered over to him and jabbed him with her horn hard enough to not be ignored. Arkay let out a surprised yelp and turned to her. Now that she had his attention, she tried speaking again. “You know Arkay, these ponies are all more or less drunk, perhaps you could get them to calm down with some sad or slow music, and then it would be a lot easier to find Marshal and Nikola.”

Arkay thought about that for a moment. Perhaps she was right, drunken ponies might be easier to influence with sad music. On the other hoof, it had been a while since he had last played the violin. “Is this just your way of having me play the violin like you wanted me to?” Arkay asked, figuring that he already knew the answer. Cherri just gave a sheepish smile, and then nodded. Arkay sighed. “Alright, fine. I’ll try it.”

Cherri absolutely bounced in place at that, Arkay just sighed again. Arkay took the violin from Cherri’s magic and sized it up. Remembering his practice and teachings, he stood up on his hind legs, splayed out his wings for balance as his teacher Moreheart taught him, and checked the tuning of the violin. The rather rugged thing hadn’t been tuned in weeks at least, but took very little effort on Arkay’s part to get it accurately in tune. A few of the ponies around him stopped their conversations to hear him simply tune the instrument.

Arkay took a deep breath and dragged the bow across the strings slowly, letting out a pale, straight A into the loud room. Then D, G, and finally a high E. Sufficiently pleased with the feel of the violin, Arkay looked into his mind for something sad to play. He didn't remember anything he had learned that was slow and sad from all his years of musical learning, so he remembered what Moreheart told him.

‘You have to feel what you are playing, as it is better to play music from the heart than the mind. If we as ponies looked to our logic to live out our everyday lives, we wouldn’t really be living, we would only be existing.’

“Play from the heart.” Arkay said to himself quietly, the loud banter of the rest of the bar kept any pony else from hearing him though. Arkay remembered the quicksand. He remembered the feeling of hopelessness in himself, and the even stronger feeling of sorrow that came from the thought of losing Nero and Cherri. This brought a slight tear to Arkay’s eye as he dragged the bow across the strings of the violin. In response, the violin cried out into the loud bar. The heavy, slow notes at first were completely drowned out by the rest of the crowd. However, as more of the rowdy ponies stopped what they were doing and listened to the melancholy, sad music, the room noise fell to a whisper, then to silence.
Every pony was staring and listening to the green Pegasus play the violin as he cried softly. Nero sat on his haunches surprised that Cherri’s plan had worked. Cherri smiled, tears falling from her eyes as Arkay finished his performance, putting the violin and bow on one of the closer tables. Arkay let himself down on all fours again, and looked out upon the crowd of now silent ponies, some of them crying.

Nero came up next to him and called out into the crowd. “Hey! We are looking for Marshal and Nikola, any pony know where they are in here?” As Nero finished his question, both Marshal and Nikola got up from their table and stepped forward. Nikola had a sorrowful look in his eyes, while Marshal, if anything, looked concerned. Nero guessed that there was just no moving this earth pony’s heart.

Arkay, no longer teary eyed, was the first to speak. “We have some things we need to discuss, would it be possible to speak in Nikola’s workshop?” He wanted to get right to the point after the whole quicksand incident.

Marshal was about to speak, but Nikola cut him off. “Yes, of course we could. Let us not waste time.” And with that, he pushed the swinging doors open and started toward his house.

Marshal looked to Nero. “What is it exactly that we have to discuss? Haven’t we already got an arrangement planned?” He said a tad bit of disposition in his voice.

Nero slowly nodded. “Yeah, we do. The name Thunder ring any bells Marshal?”

Marshal froze at the name ‘Thunder’ and nodded as well. “I see, so then, shall we?” Marshal then followed Nikola out the doors and to his house. Nero followed as well, close behind the gruff earth pony.

Cherri watched them leave and turned to Arkay, sitting on his haunches with his bandana off of his head and in his hooves, staring at it. Cherri nudged him lightly. “Hey, Arkay. You in there?”

Arkay kept staring at his bandana for a moment longer, then shook his head. “Yeah, I’m fine.” Arkay said as he got up and put the peace and love bandana back on his head. “Sorry about that, I get really sentimental when I play music like that. Let’s go, shall we?” Arkay started out the door and to Nikola’s house as well. Cherri stood there in the bar for a moment, a bit concerned, but shrugged and followed him out.

Nikola’s house was much the same as it was before. It felt small for the rather large group inside of it, all of them sitting on the rather unkempt carpet in Nikola’s living room. As soon as all of them were comfortable, the discussion began. “So tell me how exactly you know the name Thunder, would you please feathers?” Marshal asked, still sounding a tad irritated.

Nero bristled at that last comment. He really didn’t like the unnecessary name ‘feathers’, but answered anyway. “We went to that pow-wow that Nikola organized, but it was a trap. Thunder led us into a quicksand trap and we almost died. He told me to tell you ‘hi’ in the afterlife, but I don’t really feel like waiting until then to tell you. You obviously knew this buffalo, so would you mind telling us how?” Nero asked, taking the same aggravated tone of voice that Marshal had used.

Marshal, in his usual fashion, took a moment to think. He then answered. “Well, if you gotta know; me, Thunder, a snappy mule, and another earth pony named Williamson used to run these here dirt lands under Thunder’s leadership. We were unstoppable out here. No pony would keep us from robbing trains, harassing the locals, or even stealing, because there was no law. It was great for a good long time; we had a sort of corrupt kindness about us. We would steal from the rich and give to the poor, the poor being ourselves and those that were with us. It all came to an end though, Thunder lost it; went crazy about some ideal of ruling the entire train system east of Canterlot. I didn’t too much like that, so I let him know that I didn’t support the idea. But when Williamson and the mule Ja’varro wanted to support him, I did what any uneducated pony would do. I started shooting. The others hardly had the time to react, and were dead before they even hit the ground. Thunder however, was ready for my stupidity. Shot me right in the heart and ran off into the desert. I would have probably died had there not been for the fact that he missed my heart altogether, and a little filly named Lou Stella watching the whole thing from behind a rock; she felt sorry for me and dragged me all the way back to Outpost, the town I used to terrorize. She got me to Nikola over there and he fixed me up over the course of a few days. When I was well enough again, every pony wanted to put me out in the desert to die, an act of justice on all of my crimes and transgressions against the town. Every one of them but Nikola agreed on that too, until the little filly Lou Stella spoke up. She said ‘Stop it. This is exactly the sort of thing that separates us from the rest of the world. Instead of throwing him out into the desert to die, we should give him another chance. A chance at redemption.’ After that, none of them wanted to throw me out anymore. Instead, they wanted to teach me a sort of lesson in humility. They appointed the criminal they had grown to hate as the law of the town. I guess they figured it took the life of a bandit to know how to enforce the law properly. I have stayed here ever since, been waiting for old Thunder to show up again actually. I figure it’s about time I show him some redemption myself.”

Nero, Arkay, and Cherri had no idea that the gruff earth pony had such a past. Marshal had a reason for his behavior, and now they knew it. He had lived the life of a criminal and wanted to get those that he could on the right path again; for those that he couldn’t, Nero suspected that he ended their lives before they could continue their crime spree further. “What happened to the filly?” Nero asked Marshal tentatively.

Marshal, the gruff, almost emotionless law pony of the town of Outpost, shed a tear at that question. The action surprised Nero so much that he was almost concerned that he broke the law pony. Marshal however, answered anyway. “There was a train robbery going on near the southern border of Mexicolt, so I went out to stop it, she wanted to come with me, so I let her. I was in the process of putting the thieves out of their misery, when the last one grabbed her and, with a knife, slit her throat clean, and without hesitation. I turned around only to see that son of a bitch killing her. I drew out my mouth-held revolver and shot him, a lot. He was dead after the first bullet, right between his eyes, but I kept shooting. When my revolver was out of bullets, I threw the damned thing at him and checked on Lou Stella. There was no saving her though. She tried to keep the wound closed, but she knew she was dead. On her last dying breath she told me: ‘Marshal, don’t worry about me, I’m nothing special. Be the good pony I know you can be. Always strive for that redemption, even if it is the redemption of others. Whatever you do, don’t lose sight of why you became what you are. Goodbye.’ Those words still haunt me, and drive me to do what I can for those that I am supposed to. I owe the ponies of this town a lot for giving me a second chance, but I owed Lou Stella more for giving me a chance at redemption.”

Nero’s heart rang out for Marshal. “I know that feeling Marshal. That feeling that all you ever knew was just wiped away, lost forever. I’ve been there.” Nero said, solemnly. Marshal just nodded his understanding.

While the two of them shared a nice little moment, Arkay tried to focus the group back on the reason that they were all there. “Anyway, Nikola you were absolutely right. This buffalo, Thunder, seems to be that bad chief that you had a theory about. The other buffalo, Thunder, seems to be that bad chief that you had a theory about. The other buffalo seemed to be more or less passive of our presence. If we can get rid of him, perhaps the buffalo would leave the town alone more. Best case scenario, we can get them to be friendly to Outpost.” Arkay said confidently.

Nikola, who was not really all that invested in the discussion between Marshal and Nero, responded quite quickly. “Ah, yes good. Good to know that I was right once again. Since this Thunder is leading these buffalo, we could just get rid of him and we would have no trouble with the buffalo anymore. Or at least in theory.” Nikola said in an upbeat tone. Arkay smiled at that, perhaps they could finally catch a break with this mission. However those hopes were smashed when Nikola continued. “This all does not matter in the slightest however. Earlier today, we received a letter from a chief, who left his name out, which claimed he was going to make us leave his lands. We can only guess that this chief is Thunder. Also, by letter, we mean there was a beaten and battered pony with the letter speared into his hooves. At any rate, this message read as follows.” Nikola pulled out a letter from his shirt and read it aloud. “Ahem, ‘we have dealt with your kind being on our land for long enough. This is a final warning; tomorrow we will level your precious town of Outpost and run every worthless pony that stays within. Whether you stay or go, we are happy to tell you farewell ponies.’ We can only guess that this could be from Mr. Marshal’s old friend Thunder. So even if this Thunder is the only thing that is making the buffalo act violently, he still has enough of them convinced that destroying Outpost is the best course of action.”

All the while Nikola was explaining this, Marshal seemed to be getting angrier and angrier. “Well if they want to come here and destroy us, let them try.” Arkay and Cherri looked at Marshal as if he was crazy, but Nero just smiled. “I ain’t gonna just let this town go to hell, if you government boys want to leave I’d understand, but I’m stayin’ here and defending it. I’d be betraying Lou Stella if I left.” Marshal said with determination.

Arkay was about to argue a more logical point, but Nero interrupted him. “Well, don’t worry Marshal; we plan on helping you out here. After all, your town can’t very well join our republic if it’s gone can it?” Arkay then understood the point to Nero was making. Marshal gave a surprised, but somewhat proud look to Nero.

Nikola seemed to perk up at this. “This is perfect Marshal! This gives you a perfect opportunity to test out my latest weapon. Follow me, quickly.” And with that he dashed into his workshop. The rest of them followed shortly after.

Nikola was sorting through several things when Nero, Arkay, Cherri, and Marshal entered the workshop. When he found what it was he was looking for, he put it on the table in front of them. The thing was a rectangular box. Nikola opened said box and reveled the thing to the rest of the group. It was something like the thunder stick that Marshal had, except it was slimmer, and had a round lever mechanism around the trigger of it. Nikola picked it up out of the case and handed to Marshal. “This is my latest improvement on the rifle design. Instead of having to reload after every shot fired, you can simply work the lever action to eject the spent bullet and push the next one into the chamber for firing. The trigger is against the stock, so you can fire it, work the lever action, and be ready to fire again. As you can see, the sights are quite clear; also they are effective out to 300 yards. The bullet is a quite a bit smaller than the bullets of your older rifle, but I am sure that if you place your shot right, you can still put down a buffalo. You can load the bullets into the side of the rifle on the side there on the right side; however you would do good to end it quickly. If you get caught without any bullets, you might as well be holding a metal stick until you can reload all of the bullets necessary.” Nikola brought out a bag, and dumped the contents onto the table as well. Unsurprisingly, it was several of the bullets that he mentioned. “These are the bullets; lead with brass casing and 44 units of black powder. Don’t ask me what a unit of black powder is, because I don’t really know. I made it up. They should rip through your target with enough velocity to deal some unpleasant damage to either discourage further offenses or stop them altogether. I am certain that this will help us in our defense of Outpost.”
Nero gave Nikola a concerned look. “Our? Really? You are going to help?” Nero asked in an unbelieving tone.

Nikola returned Nero’s concerned look. “Yes of course winged one, this is my home. I plan on defending it with my life, if necessary. I have several other weapons that I could use after all.” Nikola said with almost as much dignity Cherri.

Arkay nodded. “We will indeed help you in this defense. I wouldn’t feel right leaving ponies to their fates. What is the plan Marshal?” Arkay said with vigor. He wasn’t really all that into fighting others, but sometimes necessary steps needed to be taken.

Cherri had to get in on the conversation as well. “As barbaric as the idea of fighting is, I guess it is the only way we work out this conflict. I am sure that some of my lessons in magic school can help out, but I refuse to ‘help’ more than necessary. So I agree with Arkay’s question. What is the plan Marshal?” Cherri asked him.
Marshal smiled at that. “Even got the fancy Unicorn in on it huh? Well I’ll be damned. Alright then. These buffalo tell us that they plan to run into our town tomorrow, I know Thunder will stay true to his word, so we have a few hours to prepare. So let’s get started as soon as possible.” Marshal said again determined.

“Prepare what?” Arkay asked.

Marshal smiled. “Every pony, even you three.”

Dawn.

Dawn in Outpost did not shimmer. Dawn in Outpost did not shine. It may have been the upcoming battle between the buffalo and the ponies defending their town and their lives, or it may have been the perpetual cover of dust and sand that blew over the place. Either way, a line of buffalo stood a ways away from the town with Thunder at the front of the pack. They simply stood there, waiting. Within the town were the defending earth ponies and their visitors, Nero, Arkay, and Cherri, led by Marshal. Both groups had been standing since the sun rose, but neither moved. Marshal slowly nodded to Arkay, which of whom trotted toward the buffalo slowly. In a like manner, a buffalo next to Thunder lumbered toward the approaching pony to meet him. The two of them did not quicken pace in the slightest, making for a very tense few moments before they met at the midpoint of their lines of respective offense and defense. As they met however, they remained silent for another moment.

Arkay was the first to break the silence. “This doesn’t have to happen.” He said tentatively.

The buffalo gave a slow nod, and responded with a low, rumbling voice. “Indeed silly chicken pony, if you and your earth-bound companions leave, we will give you one last chance to leave our lands in peace. We suggest that you take it.”

Arkay was afraid this was going to happen, but proceeded with the signal and splayed out his wings. Marshal agreed that the wings would be the signal that there was no way to avoid conflict. Arkay tried to continue talking while the others got ready for the charge. “There’s no reason for this kind of conflict, maybe we can come to some sort of understanding. There doesn’t have to be any bloodshed over this.” The ponies started a trot toward the buffalo, and in turn the buffalo lumbered toward the ponies. Arkay started getting rather nervous with the two groups got closer to each other. “Well, I guess this is how it is huh?” He asked the buffalo quietly

The buffalo brought out a rather large spear from the holster on his back, and with his low rumbling voice responded again. “Seems to look that way chicken pony.” The two groups got dangerously close to each other. “I have question for you.” The ponies stopped, except Marshal and Cherri, they continued their trot toward the buffalo. “What do you plan on achieving here today?”

The buffalo were not expecting this and stopped. Thunder however, being at the front of the group, did not see and kept on moving. The rest of the buffalo started murmuring nervously to each other. Arkay thought for a moment. “I plan on getting out of the line of fire.” With that, Arkay crouched down, ready to take off.

The buffalo however, was expecting that. With a practiced accuracy, the buffalo threw the spear at Arkay and speared right through his left wing. Arkay cried out in pain, not expecting there to be any stopping him. Not focused on the buffalo, Arkay didn’t notice it rushing up to him. The buffalo grabbed the spear in his mouth and twisted it forward. Arkay’s wing let out a series of several sickening crunches as he screamed in absolute terror and pain.

Cherri leapt into action and focused her magic on the buffalo and pulled him away from Arkay. “Duck Arkay! Now!” She yelled at him. Arkay simply dropped to the ground. The buffalo tried to get back at Arkay, but Cherri kept him down; keeping the line of sight clear for Marshal.

Marshal took aim, standing on his hind legs, lining up the sights on Thunder, and fired. The rifle cracked out into the morning light, echoing for a few moments. Thunder stopped. He looked down at the ground, and saw the drops of blood forming a red puddle on the ground. Thunder, blood pouring from the wound in his neck, looked back up at the group of ponies to see Marshal in front of him. He could slowly feel his life slipping away. “Huh, glad you’ve got better aim than I do Marshal.” Thunder fell to his haunches. “Is this what you wanted Marshal?” Marshal nodded slowly to Thunder. “Then, I won’t….stop you….I’m glad it was you Marshal. Otherwise…I wouldn’t…feel right.” Thunder laid his head down and closed his eyes one last time.

The group of buffalo ran. They didn’t know what to do without their fearless leader. Marshal turned around and started trotting to the buffalo held down by Cherri’s magic. He held the rifle to the buffalo’s head. “Run, if you know what’s good for ya.” Cherri let up on the magic and the buffalo got up and ran away toward the others. Marshal holstered the rifle and knelt down to Arkay and pulled the spear out of his wing. Arkay again screamed in pain. “Ya did good today. I think that we can all agree that any republic with a crazy pony like you in its leadership is worth joinin’.” Arkay looked up and smiled, tears streaming down his face. “Now let’s get you some medical attention there, not sure wings are supposed to bend like that.” Marshal said with a grimace.

Cherri and Nero galloped to Arkay and helped him back on his hooves. As soon as Nero saw Arkay’s wing he winced. “Whoa Arkay, that looks freakin’ terrible. Let’s get you to the clinic quick, we don’t have any time to lose.” Nero said legitimately concerned. The three of them helped Arkay back into the town of Outpost, which was already filled with the cheering of every citizen within.

“Well that should just about wrap things up, no pun intended.” The nurse that worked at the Outpost clinic was very gracious indeed, but had a terrible sense of humor. “It’s not every day that little old me gets to work on both a Pegasus and a war hero.”

Arkay kept a pained expression as she finished dressing his wounded wing in bandages. “I am no hero, there was no war, and I won’t be much of a Pegasus for quite a while, but thanks anyway. It’s good that you could get the bone set right with Nero’s help, otherwise I might as well of had the thing amputated. Also, thanks for dropping the charge; I am sure that medical treatment is rather important out here.” Arkay said with gratitude. He really didn’t do much; Marshal was the hero if any pony was. Arkay got off the operating table and looked at his wounded wing. It actually didn’t look too bad for a wing that, a few hours ago, was speared by, well, a spear. The nurse’s bandages were a bit loose, so as to not constrict him, but tight enough to stay in place while moving at a quick pace.

The nurse cantered up to Arkay slowly. “You know hero, my shift ends pretty soon, wanna stick around?”
Arkay backed away from the earth pony nurse and was about to make an excuse, but Cherri interrupted him. “Sorry, he won’t be able to stick around. We have some important… things to… go to. Now we are leaving good day madam.” Cherri said defensively. Arkay nodded a silent ‘thank you’ to her as the two of them left.

Nero stayed for a moment and waved at the nurse. “It was nice to meet you miss. Have a good day.” He said in a generic friendly tone. He then trotted out the door with his friends.

Nero trotted out of the clinic, which happened to be right across from the favorite bar and found Arkay and Cherri talking to one another.

“Thanks for getting rid of her; I really didn’t want to find out what she had in mind.”
“It really was no trouble at all really. I am just sorry that I didn’t react fast enough to stop that buffalo from spearing your wing.”

“Don’t worry about it, without that kind of distraction, I don’t think Marshal could have had that clear shot at Thunder.”

Nero sighed. “You two are painful to listen to ya’ know? Now, where is Marshal? I kinda want to get out of this town as soon as possible. I’ve had enough of the sand in my mane in the past few days to last me my whole life.” He said honestly. Nero wanted to get back to thinking of ideas to get that solar gem from the deer as soon as possible, now that the buffalo problem was (hopefully) fixed for a while.

Arkay thought for a moment. “Oh yes, Marshal said he wanted to meet us in his favorite bar after I got done being patched up.”

Nero perked up. “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go!” Nero said as he dashed toward the bar and entered the door. Arkay shook his head and cantered over to the door with Cherri by his side.

The bar was louder than ever when Arkay and Cherri entered. Their arrival was met with an uproar of applause and cheering. A somewhat drunk Marshal trotted up to them as they approached his table. “We were going to wait for the two of ya’s, but when your friend came in, we cheered and did all the surprise party stuff. We didn’t really have time to prepare and get every pony calmed down though. So, here’s to you Arkay and you Cherri. Without you and your friend Nero, we wouldn’t be celebratin’ like we are now. Thanks from all of us to you guys. Apple whiskey?” Marshal offered.

Arkay shook his head. “No, I am fine. I’ll have water and then leave, I am supposed refrain from over activity for a few days. I am pretty sure partying and the like is pretty active.” Arkay said calmly, but loud enough to be heard.
Cherri interjected. “Perhaps I will have one or two for the road. I have to keep an eye on this one while he recovers, but what harm could it do? I haven’t had apple whiskey before, and I would like to try it.”

Marshal smiled, a bit tipsy. “Now this girl knows how to party. Here ya’ go missy.” Marshal hooved over an entire bottle of the stuff. Cherri, a little cautiously, took the bottle and nodded, and was about to say her thanks, but apparently Marshal wasn’t finished. “Ya’ know, it might just be the whiskey talking, but I think that the two of you would make a good couple.”
Arkay blushed that terrible shade of red again, but got it under control and responded. “Thanks, uh, we are just gonna go now yeah? I really am quite tired and would like to get some rest. I will see you tomorrow so that we can discuss things when you are a little less drunk. Sound good? Good, now bye.” With that, Arkay quickly left the bar. Cherri looked between the two for a moment, but just smiled at Marshal and followed Arkay out the door.

Marshal shrugged and took a swig of the bottle of apple whiskey in his hooves. There was not a drop in the bottle, because he had given the bottle to Cherri. Marshal just shrugged yet again and trotted up to the long bar table. “I’ll have another bottle of apple whiskey Ricky.” He said to the bar tender.

The bar tender turned around, rolled his eyes, and brought out another bottle. “The name isn’t Ricky, it’s Rusty.” Rusty said with dignity, but to no avail. Marshal had already left the table.

Marshal started over toward the back stairs where Nero was, but never made it. He passed out a few feet from the bottom, leaving the bottle of apple whiskey unopened. Nero looked at this bottle and thought for a moment. ‘Should I really drink this?’ He thought to himself.

“It’s all your decision Nero.” Nero’s smile faded upon hearing Orian’s voice. He looked over to see Orian sitting at the top of the stairs looking down at the crowd of drunken ponies partying below. Orian slowly made his way down as he continued. “Usually ponies drink to forget, other times they drink to have more fun than they already are. The good times are not without consequence however, but then again, a lot of ponies would have never been born had it not been the influence of alcohol.” Orian now stood next to Nero at the bottom step. “Would you mix yourself into this crowd of ponies having a great time? Or would you remain in control of your mind and your faculties?”

“You really know just what to say to make all of my options sound like both good and bad ideas you know that?” Nero said a bit rudely. “Why are you even here? Do you just show up anytime Arkay isn’t around?” He asked unpleasantly.
Orian simply chuckled in his normal fashion. “Well, what can I say? It is rather nice not having his green face around. As for you first question, yes. I always used to when you were younger. Back then of course, you were a little more appreciative of my statements. When did you become such a downer?” Orian said almost hurt.

Nero sighed. “When I started making my own decisions. Now why are you still here?” He asked a little irritated.
“Just here to make sure that you make all the right choices. I’ll be around.” Orian said quietly.

Nero was going to retort, but when he turned to Orian again, he was gone. “Well whatever. I can make my own decisions Orian. Let’s see what this tastes like.” Nero thought aloud, and then downed a swig of apple whiskey. Nero backed away from the bottle after the first drink, as it burned his throat on the way down. “I’m sure it gets better.” Nero assured himself as he took another drink. And another, and another….

Within the shadows of the night, one voice could be heard arguing with a nonexistent one.

“Are you sure Nero?”

“Positive.”

“You know that this sounds ridiculous to even me. Right?”

“Don’t care.” Nero and Orian were arguing all the while he decided to gallop off into the desert.

“There is no way that you can find anything out here in your state Nero. Honestly, you would be better off if you just stayed at the bar and drowned yourself in your own choices.” Orian always had a sarcastic comment for whatever Nero said.

“Shadup.” He said in response. “If I don’t find it soon, it will be gone.”

Orian face-hooved. “Nero, there is no treasure in the desert.”

Nero scoffed. “Not with that attitude. Now let’s go…”Nero said no more, as he just simply passed out on the rather soft and cool sand.

Orian looked over Nero with a bored expression. “Tsk, tsk, tsk. I guess you certainly did make your own decision Nero.” Orian stopped and looked back, and smiled. “So I guess that’s how he is going to meet her again, fascinating.”

Pain, headaches, groggy vision, and more pain. It had been a while since Nero woke up to such unpleasant feelings. “Ugh, sweet Celestia never again. I am never listening to Orian again.” Nero looked about his surroundings, and frowned. “When did I get here?” Instead of waking up to the bar, the last thing he remembered, he woke up to unfamiliar walls, a dusty floor, sunlight peeking through holes in the walls, and a rather uncomfortable lumpy mattress. There was a soft yawn from behind Nero. His eyes shot open in surprise. He slowly looked behind himself to see that he was not alone.

“Whaahh!” Nero cried out as he quickly got up, the other Pegasus woke up as well. “Oh, uh, hi.” Nero stumbled over his words as badly as Arkay when he talked to Cherri, but managed to gather his thoughts. “Uh, who are you, what is this place? And how did I get here?” He asked quickly. Then added, “And I am so sorry for whatever happened last night, it was the apple whiskey.”

The light blue Pegasus yawed and sat up to look at Nero with a rather hurt expression. “Well, this is my temporary living arrangement. I found you in the desert wondering around, so when you passed out, I collected you and brought you here. Oh, and nothing happened last night”

Nero nodded, and assured himself to never again drink apple whisky. “Wait a minute!” Nero said out loud, and thought for a minute. ‘Light blue coat, black and white stripped mane and tail, and those blue eyes.’ Nero gasped. “I remember who you are!”

Author's Note:

Well, we certainly had a lot of fun writing this chapter, as always.
Also as always, give us your feedback on how we can improve, any suggestions you may have, or if you just feel like writing a comment.

"Have nice day"