Northern Canterlot
A man was running through an open field, zig-zagging, trying to avoid something, but he didn't know what.
"FORE!" A man yelled.
Suddenly he heard a shot off in the distance. He took a breather. He wasn't found. Then he heard the zip of a bullet, just before his entire head came flying off.
"HEYOOOOO!" Steve 2 said.
"Nice shot, Steve." Eight Ball said.
"Heyooo!" Steve 2 said back.
"I know, he shoudn't of stayed still." Jack Adolph returned. "I think it was almost TOO easy."
"Heyooo!" Steve 2 returned, pointing at Jack.
"Hey, hey. Calm down. I'll give it to ya. No need to get upset."
"Okay," Eight Ball began, "That's ten heads for Jack, twelve for me, nine for Eight Toes, whenever he comes back from the shitter, and... hold on, let me count. Twenty-six for Steve."
"HEYOOO!" Steve 2 said, dancing in a circle.
"Hey! That's unsportsman-like conduct! Do somethin'!" Eight Toes said, returning from a tree down the hill.
"No rules sayin' I have to."
"Whatever. Let's just get another game going. I got a feelin' that I'll beat Steve yet."
"Heyooo!" Steve 2 said again. Jack pressed a red button on his communicator and began loading his rifle.
"You know. It's times like this that I love. Outside this court I want to scoop your eyes out with a spoon. But inside, I fell like I want to scoop your eyes out with a spoon, in your sleep." Jack Adolph said.
"That's the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me!" Eight Toes began to say as he held back tears. Jack patted him on his back.
Eight Ball saw one runner through his binoculars. "Alright boys! I see 'em!" The four men jumped into their buggys and started to head in the direction of the frightened man.
The man was running through an open field, zig-zagging, trying to avoid something, but he didn't know what.
"FORE!" Jack yelled just before a shot from a gun went off.
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A Meadow East of Whitetail Forest
The meadow was peaceful. It was one of the last few untouched landscapes in the Atlas sector. Flowers had just began to bloom, the animals were finally coming out of their dens to wake from hibernation, a double fusion reactor transport vessel was barreling towards the ground in a steep nose dive. Upon all else, it was fairly calm.
"This is why we shoulda gone with Dahl, not Tediore!" A masked man in the ship yelled.
"Yeah! Keep complaining! That's exactly what's gonna get down on the ground safely!" The pilot of the ship yelled back at the first man. He was furiously pressing random buttons to see if they did anything. Suddenly in the passenger hold a bright blue spark flashed.
"Did Lilth just bail!?" The first man yelled to the passenger hold.
"Yup." A deep, nonchalant voice returned.
"Well, shit. We're screwed."
"Just let me land the damn thing in peace, god damn it." The rusting ship finally recovered from the nose-dive. "ALRIGHT! Now were cookin' with-OH SHIT!" The ship then collided with a large cluster of pine trees on the edge of a cliff. It crashed through a large portion of the trees, stopping just before the other end of the cliff. "Ya'llright?" The pilot yelled to the air.
"Bloodwing!" The masked man whistled.
"Oh, thank you for caring more about a damn BIRD then another human being Mort." The pilot pushed some rubble out of the way to get up.
"Three things." The masked man began. "First, don't call me that. Second," The 'bird' landed on his arm as he began to show it off, "this 'bird' is a fully trained, grade A, alpha male, bloodwinged hawk, it's worth more than everything you got in the bank, tripled, and then some. Third, I like this thing, that's more than I can say for you."
"My hearts broken. Just get the damn door open." The masked man just stared at the pilot. "PLEASE!" He said in a mocking tone. All of a sudden the door flew off it's hinges as a extremly burly man with bolts on his fists had entered the cockpit. He just looked at the others. They knew that that look meant 'Get off your asses, tea time's over'. They crawled out of the ship one by one. "I'm not payin' back Scotter for this one."
"Well, I ain't doin' it. It's Lilth's turn."
"Whatever, let's just get to town. Okay?" They headed off for the nearest settlement.
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Outer Limits of Ponyville
Twilight carefully adjusted her sights to custom-made triple-shot Jakobs' elephant gun. It was expencive as hell but it could take down an Uras Major if she ever had to do so. Her job was simple: Kill any wandering skaggs, have Spike collect their pelts, and sell 'em to any trader lookin' for "high-class furs". It wasn't the most honest of all careers out there, but it payed the bills, and it got her ever so closer to living inside "The Walls". The Walls were what was left of Canterlot after the Great Escape. They had the best opennings for anything, the best protection, and so much more. Bascially everything you could want on this planet. Only problem was that only the greatest could enter. And once you leave The Walls once, you can't EVER go back in.
She did notice the crashing ship over the horizon, but something was always crash landing here. And by the looks of it, whoever was onboard wasn't packin' dough. So she just let the Bandits have it. Whenever she could avoid them was better. Last time she went toe-to-hoof with them they followed her home. She got a lot of trouble for that. It wasn't worth it again.
Finally a skragg came into sight. "Gotcha!" She said as she lined up her sights. She used her horn's magic to pull the trigger as the skragg nearly exploded when it came into contact with the round. "Damn!" She said. "That one might not be usable. Oh well, it was pretty scrawny anyways."
Spike ran up to Twilight's postion. "You need me to get that one?" He asked.
"No. No, it was pretty small."
"Oh, okay." He went back to drawing pictures in the dirt. The sun began to set.
"Pack up Spike! Sun's setting!" The dragon had begun to pack up when two averaged sized pony jumped out of the bush. Spike screamed as the ponies had started to slice at Spike with knives in their mouths. Twilight pointed the rifle in their direction. The ponies looked at her and let Spike go. Her ran behind Twilight as she loaded and extra bullet into the chamber.
"We don't want no trouble." One of the ponies said in a raspy voice. "We just needed some supplies, that's all. A kind and caring pony like yourself would underst-" The pony's head burst into a fine redish-pink mist. The other pony turned to run but another round shot through his leg, tearing it completely off. He screamed in agony. Twilight walked over to the pony as Spike had brethed fire on it to cauterise the wound.
"That symbol," She said poked it on his chest with her rifle. "That's not 8-toes sign. Who are you runnin' under?"
"It was just me and him! We were tryin' to start our own gang, I swear!"
"And you had enough money to make your own jackets?" She loaded another bullet into the chamber, "I don't like repeating myself. WHO ARE YOU RUNNING WITH?!"
"Me." A scawny, yellow skinned pony said. "Let him go." He was unarmed, but Twilight knew that he had at least five other followers in the surounding bushes. A few were human.
"I know you got more around here. What do you want?"
The pony chuckled, "Really? You don't know what we want? I thought you were pretty smart. Anyways, COME ON OUT BOYS!" Three ponies and two humans walked out of the bushes. Twilight lowered her gun.
"I know when I'm defeated. You can have my load of supplies."
"Oh, you know we want more than just some food and pelts." His eyes had a sadistic look to them. The ponies and men began to walk slowly closer to her. Twilight's heart started beating very fast. She had an idea of where this was going to go. She started to look for a way out but was completely surounded.
"You can do this the easy way, or the fun way. Your choice." Twilight took a defencive stance. If she was going down, she was at least going to take THAT bastard with her. "ALRIGHTY BOYS, WE GOT A FIGHTER!"
Suddenly, Twilight saw a blue ghost-looking apperation approach the scrawny pony from behind. The leader started screaming in pain as his head began to glow the same color of blue until it finally a chunck of his face blew off in front of everyone. The men and ponies ran at the sight of the ghost-like apparation. It stopped glowing and began to open fire at the bandits, taking down three of them before it stopped. The human turned to Twilight and gave her it's hand.
"Thanks." Twilight said. "If it weren't for you I would have been a goner, or worse."
"Don't metion it." The female human said. "I know what it's like to fight alone. It ain't nice."
"Well, thank you again." She looked around for Spike, he had a syringe in his neck. She pulled it out, it said 'Skragg Tranquiliser'. "Dang, he's gonna be hurting when he gets back up." She then looked back at the human. "You're not like most humans are you?"
"Well, I just don't like seeing one person, er pony, getting out-numbered like that. It's Just not fair."
"No I mean like what you did back there. With the glowing and the exploding of that guy's head. I don't know too much about humans but I know most don't do that."
"Well, let's just say I'm not human."
"What are you?"
"I don't like to talk about that to complete stangers."
"Oh... Okay. I'm heading back to town, wanna tag along?"
"Sure. I'm Lilth, by the way."
"I'm Twilight, nice to meet you Lilth."
"Twilight huh? That's a nice name."
"Thanks." They got to the outer reach of town just as night had completely settled in. The howl of ware-skraggs echoed through the town to signify shut-in time. The girls made their way to Carousel Boutique Inn. They were going to see if Rarity had a room open for Lilth to stay the night.
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Northern Tip of Everfree Forest
Roland, a average-sized, black man with rusted armor from a time back when he was part of an army in his mid-twenties, took off his pilot helmet to get some fresh air. He took a deep inhalation, the rumors were true. This WAS the best smelling air in the galaxy. He felt as though he needed to smile, it was very odd. Mordecai, the skinny, pale masked man sent out his hawk to catch some food for itself.
"The closest town is North." He said to the group.
"How do you know?" Roland asked.
"I looked at the map."
"What map? I thought E was uncharted." Mordecai pulled out a yellowed paper map with some blood stained into it.
"Seems we hit a very unlucky chump on the way down. Luckly for us, this was unscathed."
"So what's the name of the town that's North of here?"
"Ponyville."
"God damnit! A pony settlement. I hate those things."
"Why? Their rather versitile creatures. It's amazing how they can survive and prosper with only hooves. Truthfully I find that their probably better than most humans seeing as their basically 'cursed' at birth."
"Oh, don't be goin' all 'BRONY' on me Mort. I don't want to have to drag you away from any 'lovers' any time soon." A large knife was then thrown at Roland's shoulder, piercing his armor and puncturing the skin. "GOD DAMNIT!"
"Remember what I said about the 'Mort' thing!? And if you mention another thing about 'bronies' I'll rip your damn throat out!"
"GOD DAMNIT!"
"Oh, walk it off, and take a medkit too."
Brick, the giant, burly fellow with the bolts in his hands spoke up, "We got company." He grumbled.
"What, can ya smell 'em or somethin'?" Roland asked.
"Yup." The brute said. An over-sized greyish dog-like creature then pounced onto Roland from a tree. It began to feriously tear into Rolands armor. Brick punched it in the back of the neck and crushed it's spine in a single blow.
"Is that a skragg or somethin'?" Roland asked after injecting another medkit into his arm.
"Nope. If I remember correctly, it's what the inhabitents call a diamond dog, they ALWAYS travel in packs."
"Well, BRING IT ON!" Roland yelled at the trees, pulling out his assault rifle. "I got an incendiary round for all yall BITCHES!"
"Calm down, Roland. I think there gone, otherwise they would have shut you up already." He then bent down over the diamond dog and began to chop it's head off.
"What are you doing?" Roland asked.
"Colllecting a trophy. I haven't gotten one of THESE babies on my mantle, yet."
"Whatever, just make it quick. I'm gettin' tired of this nature hike."
"Okay. Aaaand, done. Let's go."
"Okay, next stop: Ponyville." Roland said in an almost giddy tone. He looked at the others. Brick cocked an eyebrow. "I Just can't wait to get out of this damn forest!"
"Yeah, right." Mordecai said.
"Hey! I hate ponies! Okay?"
"Never said that you liked 'em." He said with a sheepish grin on his face. They continued to walk down to the settlement. Mordecai didn't care to mention that he saw what looked like a pony-shaped key chain on his gun. Then again, it could be nothing.
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Manehatten Wastelands
The bar had a stale scent to it. A sort of mix between elegant perfume, cheap alchol, blood from previous brawls, and the sweat of earlier nights. Smooth jazz was playing over the roaring crowd in the background. Trixie was sipping a smooth Northern Equadone Amantilado, a rare drink, made years before the First Encounter. There was nothing like, the taste made her slip into a state of pure innocence and, to a degree, happiness. She began to think. She thought about the crowds, how they loved the show. How they loved HER. It was a perfect relationship. She would give the audience everything they needed, and they would scream for her, and shower her with gifts, and love her. She wouldn't have it any other way.
Unfortunately her mind began to wander into the darker sides of her relationship. Don't think about them, Trixie. Don't do this to yourself. They love you, and would do anything for you. Don't let those thoughts slip in. Don't think about them. But it was too late. She had imagened the first 'show'. The crowd didn't know what to expect. They just cheered. Then one of her old-time fans came up. He was a contestant, hardly over the age of twenty. He came in thinking that he would get the fame and the glory. The crowds and the women. He didn't know. She knew, but couldn't tell him. They had to only guess, it was part of the fun.
He didn't last five minutes. He looked so promising, so full of potential. But then he threw it away.It's not your fault! He knew what was going to happen! It was all HIS fault! It wasn't your fault at all! Don't blame yourself, god damnit! This was how you fell the first time. You kept thinking. Just stop. You can do it. Finish your drink. The crowd is calling you Trixie. You wouldn't want to disappoint your lover would you?
She threw back one final swig of the wine and put on her make-up. She was to look like a godess if she were ever to please them. Don't think about IT. Just think about THEM. Think about their LOVE. She took a deep breath, and walked onto the platform. She pressed a button and it began to rise. She was greeted by the flash of lights, the sound of dubstep blaring from hundreds of spearkers, and the screams of THOUSANDS. YES! THIS IS EVERYTHING WE NEED! Now you must pay up. Give them what they want.
She lifted a megaphone to her mouth with her magic and took a deep breath. "ARE YOU READY!" The crowd screamed again. Chants of her name erupted through the crowd. "ARE YOU READY! FOR THE RIOT!" The crowd screamed even more so. Flares and rockets blasted in all directions. "GET READY! FOR ROUND ONE!" Just as she said that, an enormous barrage of bullets, screams, and explosions erupted below her. The 'riot' had begun. She held her stance. No flinching, no sign of anything but joy. You love this, and they love you. Just enjoy the show.