Tales in Stone

by TDR


Welcome to the Jungle [ By TDR ]

Stories in Stone
Tales in Stone
By TDR

Welcome to the Jungle

[Three years before the events of MLP FIM episode 1 ]

Greetings Princess Cadence.

Of all the ponies I ever expected to get a letter from I would honestly say you were not very high on that list. Just above Fluer de Lis to be honest. Still after reading your letter I can understand why you wanted my side of things. Those old Guard reports can get tedious and technical and trying to get anything out of Moskau is like pulling teeth on a live cragodile that just ate some one who disagreed with him.

Please forgive the lack of any formal address or the some what rambling nature of this letter. I retired six years ago, I’m old, and after forty years of bowing to it, protocol can bite my metal plated flank.

Still onto the subject at hoof. You want to know about Lt Lyra Heartstrings or what ever rank she has now? I assume you read the official report of her encounter in the Everfree and you would like to know more? Well really there isn't that much more to tell. Still my foals are in school and my wife went out shopping so I’ve nothing better to do this morning than write out what happened. But since this isn't an official report, it might be colored a little by what I saw and what I’ve had time to ponder since I retired.

I'm not sure your interest in the mare, but given your station and the official document from Princess Celestia that asked me to cooperate with your questioning I suppose I don't need to know and personally I probably wouldn't want to any way.

I suppose I should begin at the beginning, or at least the first time I met her.

PFC Heartstrings [ That's Private First class if you are unaware, it means she's just a step above Cadet, but still as green as a fresh picked sprig of broccoli, ] was not well liked when she first was placed in the Six Sixty Sixth division. Moskau hated green recruits, the only ponies who ever made it into the Monster Hunters had been in the Guard for a while already and had shown that they could handle themselves. The only time we got cadets out of basic was when our numbers were too low.

We were at that point. Princess Celestia had stepped up patrols in the Everfree forest particularly around the old ruins there. Clearing that place out alone had cost us a number of Hunters due to injuries and fatalities. That's the way of it, no one stays in the Six Sixty Sixth long. Very few, like myself and my wife make it to retirement. Most get a heartfelt apology delivered to their families along with a folded flag.

Still the job is necessary.

As such we got in about twenty rookies, Heartstrings among them. Right away we started weeding out the weak and the useless. It may sound cruel to you, but out in the field, hunting down things that like eating ponies for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, weak and useless are liabilities and can get more than just the ponies that display those attributes killed.

Heartstrings was thankfully stubborn. She was one of the eight that remained after our hazing and extra training. Still, with no field experience she was still disliked and often treated like a servant by the others. Again think of it how you will, but that's just how things were done, if the cadets could survive what we did to them, then they could survive what happened in field. After they made it through one mission we slacked off and actually started to accept them. But that first hunt was always the most unnerving for the older members of a Squad, because no one knew which way the rookie would go.

The surviving Cadets were split up among the Squads with Heartstrings being placed in my squad, 'Tartarus's Angels', don't ask what it meant , it sounded cool and that's why I chose it. The squad consisted of six members plus Heartstrings.

There was myself, at the time I was known as First Sergeant Ashen Fury. Before you ask yes I am related to Guard Captain Nicker Fury, that old goats my father, he's one of the reasons I joined the six sixty sixth, to get out from under his hoof. I specialized in tracking and demolitions. If you needed something to be found and then blown into a million little bits, I was your Earth pony.

My second in command was Sergeant Sandy Reed. She was our teams magic expert, being the only unicorn in the squad. To be honest I’m not sure how she put up with me as long as she did. Though since we retired that mare has been doing her damnedest to make me pay for all the times she followed my orders. I try to tell her to do something now and she's just as likely to beat me with a rolling pin as to look at me. Still she put up with me long enough to bare three foals with me. I must be doing something right.

The next two were the twins, even to this day I’m not sure I could tell them apart. Both of them pegasi both of them exactly down to the last red strand of their mane. They were also a bit spooky at times as they liked to finish each others sentences. Probably to screw with us, both of them were jokers. Corporals Fredrick, and Jeorhge Weasel. They were our heavy hitters and ranged support, barely a serious bone in their bodies but they fought better than any one else I've seen. They should have been Wonderbolts, but they preferred actual duty. Fredrick was our medic too, though he only had just above basic first aid. Still he knew enough to keep us alive until a real docs got there.

The next one was our odd mare out, particularly since she wasn't a mare. There's few Cows in Equestria, and fewer still Minotaurs. And I can count on one hoof how many of either of those I’ve seen in the Guard. Corporal Babe Ring, also nicknamed the Laughing Cow due to her inability to understand a joke, but to laugh any way, was our pig mare.

Okay hold on, I figure you might not get that. A Pig Mare or a Pig Stallion are what we call the heavy weapons member of the squad. In her case she had a portable balista that she carried around with her, a massive ax that likely weighed as much as both the twins, and more bolts for that beast than any of us could carry normal bolts.

Evidently she was a oddity for her kind as well, she was massive, I'm talking large enough that she could look down at the Princess. She had this odd blue coloration to her fur as well that she often dyed just so she wouldn't stand out on a mission. Claimed she used to be a lumber jack, pretty sure she went back to doing that when she left the Guard.

The final member of the squad was Corporal Belkin Fi. He was a small earth pony that was our scout, communications, and information specialist. He was also the youngest and the smallest of the group before Heartstrings came along , then he was just the smallest.

Heartstrings didn't fit in much at all. Not only did she have little idea of what we did, she also was still quoting the rule book on things that no one gave a rats flank about.

Stuff like that will eat away at an experienced Guard. By the book if fine in theory, but no plan, theory, or book learning will help you when the shit hits the fan.

Heartstrings had one more advantage to her aside from being stubborn. She was as chipper and upbeat as they come. Yelling at her for something felt like you were screaming at a puppy and not even the most demented of us could do that too often. Still all of us were expecting that nature of hers to be the first casualty of her first hunt. Monster hunting has a tendency to beat down a pony until all that's left is a lot of scars and a dark sense of humor. The only ones that remain all smiles tend to be the ones that went nuts and need to be wearing jackets that allow them to hug themselves.

We're a real hoot at parties.......

Wasn't long before we were sent out again. There were reports of a large reptile attacking various settlements along the border of the Everfree. There had already been a few deaths near Ponyville and few more missing along the road to Las Pegasus. One of our guard posts along the road was also destroyed and a few snake scales were left behind. It was mostly damage and we couldn't confirm that the missing ponies were killed by that particular monster.

Still something in the Everfree kills a couple of ponies on their own land and we get sent in to make sure it didn't get a second course.

Our first stop was the farm, a place called Sweet Apple Acres. Spoke with a mare there by the name of Granny Smith. Tough mare, the victims were her son and daughter in law. Their son was barely into his early teens at best, the next youngest was maybe seven. The third was a infant maybe only a few months old at best

The snake had evidently been going after the youngest two when the parents interfered. They managed to drive it off with farm implements, but the mother had her neck broken by the snakes attack and the father received several bites and succumbed to blood loss and the poison.

The daughters were both fine, though the elder one a one, Applejack I think, likely will need some therapy seeing her parents killed like that. Heartstrings was only a few years older than the colt and this hit her pretty hard. It was pretty easy to tell she wasn't expecting something like this. She seemed nervous and skittish since she heard what we were up against. The rest of us simply offered our condolences and told Granny Smith that we would take care of the monster before it could hurt any one else.

The creatures trail was surprisingly difficult to follow. For something of that size to move through the Everfree like it did was worrying and had the lot of us on guard the entire trip jumping at any hint of movement. Nothing came at us of course, which again was odd, just a short trip into the forest would likely have us encounter a maticore or a bug bear. Buck we never even heard a Timber wolf howl. It was like the rest of the forests predators were staying far away from the snakes trail as they could.

After the first day we found the remains of a dragon. It wasn't a big dragon mind you, as in it was only a little bigger than Babe, but even at that size a dragon is still a threat to anything any where. Now all that was left of it was some snake vomit. Snakes tend to barf up what they cant digest, bones, horns scales and the like, And that's all that was left of this dragon. It was still warm and gooey when we found it, so the snake must have just coughed it up. We were at least on the right trail.

That was something to consider too if it had just eaten a dragon, why had it attacked a farm?It couldn't have still be hungry. The fact it was willing to go after ponies even when not hungry made it all the more urgent that we found it. A monster like that was just killing because it could, not cause it was hungry. Belkin called the information in and we were told to keep tracking it, but they were sending another squad as back up the information we had gathered.

Another few hours into the forest and that's when things hit the fan hard.

Seems the creature had realized it was being tracked and doubled back. Our marching order put me and Babe in front, with Sandy in the rear. The twins were flanked out on either side with Heart Strings and Belkin in the middle with the most gear.

The snake hit Belkin first.

One second he was there still relaying our location on the com, the next there was a rustle of leaves and a massive head hitting the ground, then both the head and he were gone in an eye blink. Those of us in front hadn't even seen it happen, the twins missed it too. Sandy and Heartstrings had been the only ones to witness the last moments of Belkin's existence.

Babe had whipped around at the first cry of panic from Heartstrings, the cow had evidently glimpsed the thing yanking back up into the trees above us because she suddenly let loose with her balista loading it and firing again faster than most ponies can say 'reload' Sandy started flinging spells and the twins started tossing out those little blades of theirs while a few of my smaller bombs lit up the forest.

After about a minute of a display of fire power that even a artillery commander would call excessive, we finally stopped firing having cleared a swath of forest that would have given a logging company executive a hard on.

My apologies for that analogy Princess, forgot who I was writing too.

Heartstrings was freaking out and to be honest I felt like doing the same thing. We were standing in a clearing, our com pony gone and we didn't seem to have hit anything at all with that scorched earth attempt. The whole forest was shredded around and above us, there was no snake, no Belkin , and not even a drop of blood to say we had hit the damn thing.

I was on the verge of scrubbing the mission right there. Pulling back and waiting for reinforcement, this thing had ambushed us and vanished without a trace after nabbing Belkin. Let me tell you something Princess before that point in time I could track a albatross across the open sea four days later with a hurricane crossing between. And I couldn't even find a depression in the dirt that we didn't make ourselves.

No one would have liked the order, that thing just grabbed one of our own and every one was mad. Common sense should have told me how bad that was. Anger may a great fuel to keep one focused, but it also makes one reckless.

The decision was taken from me by Heartstrings. Some how the mare managed to calm herself down from what ever fearful panic had gripped her. She suggested that she and Sandy try and focus a location spell on the com box. Even if the device was destroyed, the fragments of the crystal would still be broadcasting on a track-able frequency for a few hours. Now I’m just an old earth pony, never paid much attention to magic unless the wife's using it, but even now I’ve never heard of any one being able to do that and when I asked her about it later she said it was just something she heard from a friend of hers.

Turns out if you know the frequency, you can indeed track a com box with magic.

Since Sandy knew the com frequency she tried it out and sure enough she found it. Given we had a time limit now and every one was still ready to waste this thing we continued after it following Sandy's lead this time.

It didn't take us long to find it again. We had just reached a rocky river bank when Sandy called out a halt. Her scan showed it was no longer moving and was very close to us. Given we were all on a pebble strewn beach with no trees above us for it to drop out of our focus turned mostly to the river itself. Sandy couldn't pin down it's exact location so the six of us kept our eyes peeled.

Damn thing still got the jump on us.

The ground exploded underneath Babe flinging her sky ward as the snake burst out from the beach underneath us with barely a tremor felt by any one.

Did some studying later to find out what this thing was. Seem the beast had come out of the mountains along our border with the Diamond Dogs and was a relative of the Tazel worm called a Tunnel Snake. The things are primarily ambush predators and are smart enough to set up multiple ambush points along a given area. They also dig faster than a Diamond dog on a sugar high. They don't normally get as big as this one , but it's not unheard of. They also don't have any natural predators, so in their mountain homes, Tunnel snakes rule.

Now back to the forest. I'm not sure if you have ever tried to lift a full grown Cow that's built like a brick shit house, but I’ve seen babe get on a three masted sailing ship and sink the thing by at least three apples. This snake tossed her in the air like a feather, and when she came down she hit the ground HARD. If you've never heard the wet splat of flesh and bone hitting rock Princess, I envy you.

Still we were all on the thing before it had finished it's first attack. The twins daggers bounced off it's scales and Sandy's bolts didn't seem to be doing anything either. Heartstrings had frozen again, her eyes wide, her spear gripped in her mouth.

I shouted at her to move as I readied a bomb, only for the things tail to smash into before I got the fuse lit, me flinging me into the river. The impact broke four of my ribs and being skipped across the water like a stone not only ruined nearly all my bombs but hitting the beach on the other side peeled off a good portion of fur and skin on my left side, and that was before by back leg got splintered when I came to a sudden stop against a bolder on the far side of the river.

The rest of it was a bit of a haze for me. I know one of the twins got bit in half and the other lost a wing and nearly collapsed from the poison. Sandy lasted a bit longer though she took a nasty bite on her foreleg that she still claims she can feel today.

I was up enough to see Sandy get bit, the snake whipped her about like a dog with a toy before it let go and she went flying to crash into the wood line.

I thought that was the end of us.

Then I heard Heartstrings scream, I wrote her off then. Clever as she was, this thing had taken out a full squad with out any sign of even a scratch on it. My squad too, we had the highest kill counts on Hydra in the Six Sixty Sixth.

I wanted to yell out at her to run, I tried to, at least some one should get out of here, but I couldn't even manage that with my ribs stabbing into my lungs.

Here's where it got weird. The screaming didn't stop. It just got louder and angrier sounding. I managed to roll myself up a little to lift my head and look across the river. Heartstrings was standing there, raised up on her back hooves with her weapon balanced on her fore hooves. Weirdest freaking pose I’ve ever seen, looked like something a show mare would do. It wasn't as if her rearing up was to make her look more intimidating to the snake, because that was clearly not working with how it was attacking her.

The snake was striking at her repeatedly, it seemed to blur with each strike.

And the crazy mare was BLOCKING EVERY SHOT!

This thing threw Babe into the air high as the Manterhorn and this unicorn mare was denying it with a strange ass stance with a Guard issued spear. Nothing against the Guard blacksmiths..... okay I take that back, the fools suck, most Hunters go out and buy their own equipment from smiths they trust the first time they are able.

The snake wasn't letting up either, it kept lashing out and she kept deflecting it, her horn was glowing though her weapon barely left her hooves so I have no clue what she was doing. I was told later she had put a shield around her weapon increasing the damage and durability of the weapon. Something else I had never heard of. She never did explain the crazy ass stance.

The last thing I recall before I blacked out a moment was the snake trying to pull back and Lyra rushing after it.

Dunno how long I was out , but I woke to Sandy working on patching me up. She had a bandage around her leg and looked like shit, but she was still the prettiest thing I thought I had ever seen at that moment. Likely how I wound up marrying her. Best, worst decision of my life there.

Any way some how I was back on the other side of the river and had a number of bandages wrapped around my torso. Fredrick, I think, was wrapped up too, though he was hobbling he had his brothers remains wrapped up and he was carrying them. I spotted Heartstrings next, soaked in blood and wrapping Babe up like a mummy.

Then Sandy pointed behind me. I will never ever forget that sight.

As I turned the only thing I saw was red. The trees, the grass, the rocks, the beach as far as I could see was blood red, even the river flowed a bright crimson.

What was left of the massive snake lay over the top of a dead tree, impaled in the branches. It's head lay at the foot of the tree, it's eyes missing and one of it's fangs broken. The creature had been gutted and what looked like skinned in a wide swath.

The bundle of skin lay nearby, wrapping something up inside it, Sandy said it was what was left of Belkin. Another large patch of snake skin was resting on the twins back, holding the remains of his brother.

Heartstrings spoke up , said we had to leave as the smell of the dead snake would attract more monsters. The mare didn't even look injured, barely seemed phased, but her eyes were dulled a little. I knew the look, all the recruits had it after and during their first battle. There wouldn't be a damn pony who thought her a rookie after this.

Given the fact that maybe two members of the group could even walk I told her to run out and meet up with the reinforcements. She ignored me outright. Her horn glowed brightly and damned if she didn't lift the lot of us up and start marching along the river. The damn unicorn even picked up Belkin's body and the twins despite protests from Fredrick that he could walk on his own.

She marched the lot of us out of the forest on her own with out pause to rest or even letting any of us drop even a bit from where she floated us. I've never seen a unicorn who could hold as much weight as that. Babe alone would have given Princess Celestia a hernia.

She wasn't going fast, barely a normal walking pace and I fully expected every monster in the Everfree to come after us. Four wounded, two dead, and one soaked in blood? Every damn creature withing leagues should have been chasing us.

We didn't even see a carrion bird circling overhead.

She stepped out of the forest just as the sun was setting, nearly walking right into our reinforcements. She didn't even notice them at first and through the group and was gonna keep going until Moskau got in front of her. I couldn't hear what the Guard Captain said, but Heartstrings simply stopped, set us all down gentle as you please, saluted Moskau ,reported the mission a success, and collapsed where she stood.

Aside from the one twin and Belkin we all survived. Granted with Babe and Fredrick's, I think it was Fredrick he never said, injuries they were forced to retire early. I switched to a desk job for a while before Sandy and I retired, with my injuries I needed a metal plate and some other inner armor on my back leg so my fighting days were over.

Heartstrings went on to do a number of more missions before I left, racking up a impressive number of notches on her spear.

I never really talked to her again, save once or twice when she came to see me and once when we threw her a party for her promotion to Squad leader. Honestly she didn't seem much changed from the oddly chipper recruit that had come out with us.

We gave her a gift as well. There was enough of the snake skin we brought back so the group of us chipped in and had it made into custom Guard armor. She seemed happy with it, but that was the last time I’ve really seen any of the old unit aside from Sandy. I've no clue what she's doing now , though I get letters from Babe every so often. Fredrick didn't take too well to the loss of his brother, last I heard he had moved back home and opened a shop or something.

So that's the report Princess. I'm not sure what you want with Heartstrings, but I’m pretty damn sure the mare can do anything you tell her too and better than any one else.

Now if you'll excuse me all of these old memories have got me a bit depressed, I’m gonna go spoil the foals a bit.

From the desk of
First Sergeant [Retired] Ashen Fury

===============================================================

Princess Cadence set down letter, looking across her desk at the lime green unicorn sitting there, and couldn't help but offer a small smile. Lyra Heartstrings record was exemplary, there were a few notes here and there for some minor infractions, but none of them were worth note, as they were simply things that the Guard liked to complain about, so they would have something to complain about.

“Miss Heartstrings, do you know why I asked you here today?” Cadence questioned.

“No princess.” Lyra stated, sitting stiffly in the couch her forelegs in her lap. An odd position if Cadence had eve seen one, but she seemed comfortable, if nervous. Despite Cadence's suggestion to relax.

“I've received word that you are looking to transfer out of the six sixty sixth. Would you care to tell me why?”

Lyra swallowed a little before she exhaled. “ The post keeps me moving around and I’m trying to stay put, in or near Canterlot. A lot of my friends from school are here and I lost touch with a number of them, plus.....”

Cadence raised a brow though she could feel the brief wave of love the mare put out. Still she didn't buy it entirely. Still the dopey look she took was a dead give away as well that there was some one Lyra liked. Cadence could easily tell that, she she expected there was more.

“Is that all?” Cadence raised an eyebrow.

Lyra's expression fell as she looked away from Cadence.

“I've seen enough of this. Every season there's something new coming out of the woods and I see ponies suffer for it first hoof. I can't deal with that any more.”

“Really, but it seems you've helped a lot of ponies....” Cadence stated.

“And seen three times that number maimed and injured. I'm head of a squad now, have been for two years I’ve had a completely new group four times now. Yeah I might be helping ponies in the long run, but some of the things we get sent after don't even care about ponies and don't bother them, yet their deemed a threat and once confronted they become one. There's been no reason I can see to clear all those monsters out from around the old castle of the two sisters but we've been doing that for months now.” Lyra sighed.” I'm sorry but I’m tired of it. I enjoy being a Guard, but.... I’ve had enough of this....”

Cadence nodded, she had Lyra's latest mental evaluation and the doctor had noted high levels of combat fatigue from the mare. Given that anytime there was something to be dealt with they sent Lyra's squad out after it, the poor mare had been in the field nearly the entire three years she had been in the Guard. A victim of being too good at what she did it seemed.

“I see. Would you care to continue as a Guard, but not with the monster hunters?” Cadence asked.

“I've tried a transfer, but it's been shot down every time.” Lyra grumbled. “ They probably won't let me out until I lose a leg or something.

“If I asked they wouldn't stop it.”

“Really?!” Lyra perked up rather suddenly, surprising Cadence though her ears flattened as she narrowed her eyes at the Princess.”Wait, what's the catch?”

Cadence smiled. “You would be transferred to the Royal Guard and under go a few weeks of training here in Canterlot. Auntie Celestia has given me a new task since my old one of keeping an eye on her student is no longer necessary. The catch is that I’m going to be sent as an ambassador to speak with a number of other nations and I’m going to need my own small Guard detail. I've already chosen a few members of the team including Captain Shining Armor, Sergeant Minuette, Lieutenant Spitfire, and Staff Sergeant Twinkle Shine, the detail is only to be composed of five ponies and I want you to be the fifth.”

“The youngest unicorn ever to make Captain, a magical prodigy, a flier who made the Wonderbolts before she was old enough to be considered an adult, a known investigator for the crown, and then me? One of these things is not like the other Princess.” Lyra mutters.

“I've read your file Lyra. I've spoken with many of your old squad members and I received a letter from Ashen Fury himself. You've done things many thought and still think are impossible. While I admit that the team seems rather fantastical, we are not exactly on the best terms with a number of nations that I will be traveling to. It will be my job to fix that issue, and while I am not expecting trouble, Auntie Celestia practically ordered me to find the best Guards I could. She's been rather distracted the last few years. This was dropped on me rather suddenly as well. Still the mission is only supposed to last two years and it will be at least a year or a little more before we are ready to get underway. That should give you plenty of time to see your friends before we ship out.”

“I hope she'll understand.” Muttered Lyra.

“Who will?” Cadence questioned.

“No one just... don't worry about it.....” Lyra sighed. Bon Bon vanished for her job a lot too but trying to be Equss's best confectionery she had to go study in lots of places. Lyra hadn't told her she was a Guard, let alone she was a Hunter, she didn't want her to worry.

“Alright Lyra, but the question still remains, will you accept my offer?”

“Alright Princess. I guess I’m on board.” Lyra sighed.

“Thank you Lyra .. and please Call me Cadence.” Cadence smiled.