//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: In a Pinch // by Akailo //------------------------------// Chapter 3 After a few days on this road I was starting to wonder if Canterlot and Ponyville are the only settlements in the whole of Equestira. If I had not been following a road I would have thought I was going in circles a long time ago. My luck had not totally dissipated though, it seemed easy enough to find more fruit to make sure Ruby didn't starve at least. Rocks could be found everywhere so I didn’t have to worry about food either. That was the least of my worries however, keeping a small filly entertained over a long trip, now that’s hard. “I spy with my little eye, something green,” Ruby was finding it hard to not giggle at her own antics. “Tree,” I responded dryly, “Wow, Mr Thud how did you guess so quickly.” I face-palmed at this which hurt like hell, the burns on my hands still had not quite healed yet. After shaking my hand like a fool and getting thunderous laughter out of Ruby I rolled my eyes. “Tree only thing here,” I snapped at her. Before she could respond to me however I heard a scream from the bushes. Without thinking I readied my club and rushed into the bushes to meet head on any foe that dared to cross me. Instead of danger and horrific beasts I found two young unicorns fillies playing by a lake, one splashing water on the other using magic. The attacker a pale blue unicorn with a white mane, the victim a dark green unicorn with black and green mane. In the background sitting on the other side of the lake was a small village sitting at the foot of the mountains. It was an idyllic sight, like something you would see right out of a corny summer family film. It looked like the town may have been used as a mining town once. Close by were old mine shafts and what looked like the remnants of an old set of mine tracks. It was so pleasant I almost felt like just sitting down and enjoying the rest of the day under the shade of a tree, the universe always finds a way to ruin the fun. The two ponies noticed me, their eyes went the size of dinner plates and their mouths hit the floor. “What matter? Never seen troll?” what can I say I couldn’t resist trying to troll them a little bit, they screamed and ran towards the village. “MONSTER! HELP ITS GOING TO EAT US!” They shouted as they tripped over them selves to get to the safety of their village. Oh this was not going to end well. I started to run after them to try and stop what was happening before it got out of control, in hindsight not my best idea. Ponies began to shuffle out of their houses to try and get an idea of what was going on. Only to see a 7 foot large grey beast chasing after two small unicorns. Anyone could guess what happened next, lots of screaming and running and the calling of the local guard. Today was not my day, I tried my best to tell them that I wasn't going to hurt them but all I could do was roar like some deranged beast, panicked speech with a broken voice did not work. Ruby throughout all of this was still sitting on my shoulder laughing her little flank off, sure she thought it was funny but I sure as hell didn’t at the time. Then things went from bad to just down right horrid, so far away from any main city I should of guessed that the town would have had a guard of some kind and here they were out in force. Ponies of all kinds stood before me encased in armour, spears pointed directly at me and a mean glower on their faces. Probably didn’t want a monster eating their foals or something like that, not that I was planing to do that. “Stop, no harm,” I desperately tried to get across to the armoured ponies. Ruby was starting to get a bit worried now, a prank was always funny until some one got hurt and she couldn’t stand the idea of seeing ponies getting hurt. An earth pony began to push his way past the guards in the back, his armour was gold where the others were all basic iron and his helmet looked like a a flock of peacocks had died in its creation. “Halt beast, give up the captive and leave peacefully or we will take extreme measures.” He barked at me, It seemed this guy was the captain of the guard in this town but what was he talking about a captive for, I wasn't kidnapping anyone. “I wont tell you again beast, give us the filly and begone.” What Filly, was he talking about Ruby? “Me no mean harm.” I tried in vain to get them to stop putting my hands up as a sign of peace. “Why should I believe you monster, now back off and leave the filly before I lose my patience.” Now this guy was starting to bug me, a lot. What would it take to convince these damn ponies I wasn’t trying to eat them and kidnap foals. “Not leave Ruby but no hurt you,” I was starting to get mad but I really could not deal with this many ponies if they attacked me and I really didn't think making the town hate me would be a good idea either. “I wont warn you again beast, drop the filly and back off.” Well I really had no choice here it was either attack them or do as they told me. I took my club off from my back and began to lower it to the ground. “He's attacking, subdue him!” the captain shouted, damn he must of thought I was getting my weapon to fight. The four first guards rushed me, knocking one away I tried to get a handle on the situation, it was far to late, I was far to slow to stop the other three, their spears sunk deep into my flesh. Again and again more spears came turning me into a grey pincushion. Time started to slow down, I could hear my own heart throbbing in my chest, I managed to look down long enough to see the green blood ooze from my body. Ruby was screaming as she fell off my shoulder towards the ground. How dare they, how dare they, how dare they. They hurt me, they hurt Ruby, I cant leave her, she needs me. My vision started to go black and I felt like I passed out. Blackness, that’s all I could see. The darkness was oppressive and I couldn’t feel anything, was I dead? I had no idea. “Get up fool!” the voice echoed through the void. “You’re a disgrace to us all, we were great once and finally we have a chance to be great again.” “Who is that?” I yelled as hard as I could into the darkness, still unable to see anything. Suddenly a giant grey stone figure appeared in front of me. “Know your place young-ling, you are not even close to being able to talk to me yet. That damned god promised me a reborn that could bring us back to greatness. Instead he sends me this runt.” The statues eyes began to glow red, and I felt a surge of power drive into my body, “So it seems you can be useful, the diamond dogs never stood a chance. Go young-ling embrace your birth right, we shall meet again.” My eyes snapped open, I couldn’t only see red. The anger was filling me up, I had to do something. They hurt me, how dare they hurt me. Getting back on my feet I ripped the spears from my body in a splash of gore. My wounds started to knit together until they sealed completely. The ponies had no idea what was going on, after all that punishment the beast should have been dead by now, the captain called another charge but this time before they even had a chance to attack me I swung my club taking out four at once. This anger needed to be fuelled and it would be with the blood of ponies. Another board swing took out yet another four of the guards, they began to run but they were not going to get off so easy. Not after hurting me. Roaring loudly I smashed in the roof of one of the local houses, the more ponies in there the better. There would be nothing left when I got through with them. “MR THUD!, stop please stop it!.” Ruby ran in front of my club in an attempt to stop me getting clipped by the side of the makeshift weapon. My blood turned cold, the red mist was striped from my mind as what I had done hit me like a ton of bricks. I rushed to Ruby's side to check any injuries, my mind was on panic mode. I had hurt the pony I was trying to help in the first place. After giving her the once over I sighed in relief, I had not done enough damage to her to be threatening, she would be bruised otherwise fine. “Mr Thud, you should not be so mean to other ponies alright,” she whispered to me as she came too. Although I was relieved, looking around the town the mess that I had caused was spectacular. Buildings were crushed and the bodies of guards lay lifeless on the ground. I had no idea if I had killed them or not but I had to get out of there. As I ran towards the forest the guard captain stood in my path his sword in his mouth. “Oh no you don’t beast, you're not getting away after this.” I readied my self to push my way past him, I didn’t want to do any more damage right now. “Please Mr Guard, don’t hurt Mr thud any more, he didn’t mean to be so naughty.” I couldn’t believe it Ruby was standing up for me even though I hurt her. “Didn’t mean it? He trashed at least three buildings and causes who knows how many casualties to my guard.” “But Mr Guard, you attacked him first.” Ruby did have a point there and it looked like it hit the guard as well. “Alright child, if your adamant that he didn’t do anything wrong then he will help rebuild the damage he did. And you were hurt so I want you to also see a doctor before you leave.” he gave me a glare before walking off back towards to the town. It took a good week before all the damages were fixed, and I got the feeling that even after all this time the ponies here still didn’t like me, I couldn't blame them. The guard captain, who I learned was named Stone Shield, never took his eyes off me. They had me on hard labour the whole time as well, which was not doing wonders for my mood but really there was little I could do. I did break their houses and hurt a lot of their guards. To my shame I had even hit one hard enough to shatter his skull, there was no saving him. They had given me odd jobs around the town as well that needed a lot of body power, surprising how much a troll can lift. Ruby had been checked out by the local doctor who, thank goodness, didn’t find anything wrong with her. Now I may be hated in this small town of Granite Falls, but Ruby really hit it off with the other ponies here, I was half tempted to just leave her here. I shook that thought out of my head, I had to find her mother and it wasn’t fair on her to leave her in a strange place. Truth be told it wasn’t fair to drag her around into danger either but she was my only goal in the world right now. While on my way towards the back of town after another night of fixing up the damaged buildings I managed to stumble over two drunk ponies. I hid quickly so I didn’t spook them but I overheard them talking. I recognised the two. the first was one of the guards a unicorn, white coat with a jade mane his cuite mark was that of two crossed swords. the other a dark brown earth pony with a dirt brown mane, his cutie mark was that of a pick axe, one of the miners. “Did you hear the rumours, apparently the diamond dogs to the north took a bunch of ponies as slaves not long ago. Equestria just ain't safe any-more” “I don’t believe you, diamond dogs ain’t that smart now come on lets go get another drink, you're buyin.” I couldn’t believe my ears, that must have been the slave train that Ruby was a part of. That means her mother is close. Without wasting any time I headed back to the area that myself and Ruby were given to sleep in, they didn’t want Ruby to stay any where near me but she insisted. Scooping as much food as I could for Ruby into the pack I has fashioned together from some left over rope and a old burlap sack I had found, I grabbed Ruby from the makeshift bed. Stone Shield was not going to be happy about me skipping out of the rest of the work but I had a clue and dammit I was going to take it. Looking back once more at the small village I steeled my self and plunged into the dark forest.