//------------------------------//
// Capter 7: Day Two 
// Story: The First Equestrian Games. 
// by S. K. RyDer 
//------------------------------//

	The small armada trotted through the trees.
“Fawkes? I’m thirsty.”
“Hang on.” FoxTrot knelt low, “I think I can hear a stream.”
Faintly, he heard bubbling through the dirt. “But there’s somepony ahead.” He straightened out, “Whooves, with me.”
The two trotted forward, weapons leveled. 
“Ferget abou’ dit!” A gruff voice. Metal and flesh.
Thud
Thump
“Lave her.” Whooves was struggling to keep FoxTrot out of site. “There’s nothing to do.”
“But kill.” The Prince growled, grabbed the beige stallion around the neck and threw him.
“You’re DEAD!” Fortescue turned to quickly. FoxTrot found an arrow lodged in his knee.
The Prince screamed and dropped the knife. Dimly he was aware of the whizzing of another arrow to hit him in the shoulder. 
“NO!” FoxTrot screamed, clambering forward.
Another arrow. 
FoxTrot pulled the one from his knee, now close enough  to Fortescue to see the individual veins in his grey eyes.
“You are DEAD!” FoxTrot jammed the arrow into the pale white orb by his face.
Thud.

“What do they do with the bodies?”
FoxTrot tied the bandage on his knee, “What do you mean?”
Fluttershy gestured towards the area he just came, bleeding and bloodied not a minute before. “They take the bodies away. What do they do with them? Why do they take them?”
“To make sure no harm comes to them.”
“How can any harm come to them?” Luna rubbed her head, “They’re dead.” 
“I read a case about some ponies on such a brink of madness; they killed their friend and ate him.”
“The Apple Party.” Luna recalled, “Trying to get through the Bear mountains…”
“Wrong time, wrong season.” FoxTrot looked at Doctor Whooves, “Anyways, Doctor, we’ve work to do.”
“Oh? What’s that?”
FoxTrot pointed, “Over there there’s an armoury. If we can get there, we can turn the tides to our favor.”
The stallion looked at him, “How do you know it’s there.”
“She came gave me the message.” He blurted out, and then buried his face in his hooves.
“Who’s ‘she’?”
FoxTrot chuckled, “Shelob.” He unzipped his jumpsuit to his stomach. There was a gaping hole in his flesh, revealing a black pit with grey tendrils. 
“Um…” Fluttershy felt a wave of nausea, “What… is…”
“Being a Shadow User, I have abilities to enter what is called The Swarm. Simply put is that one falls apart into a whole mess of insects (in my case, over-sized black widows) and travel unnoticed. I used it against Twilight one day.” He zipped his jumpsuit back up, “Two parts of it are a mess of small ones, or a few big ones. I sent one out earlier and it’s told me where the cache is.” The Prince stood back up, motioning for Whooves, “We’ll be back. Keep hidden, and we’ll return with ample weapons.”

Luna put a comforting wing around Fluttershy, “It doesn’t kill him, you know.”
“But still.” She shuddered, “It… it…”
“What you saw wasn’t the inside of his body. It merely is his Element.”
“It was still a gaping hole!” Fluttershy shrieked, “Do you have ANY idea HOW DISGUSTING THAT IS?”
Luna placed a hoof on Fluttershy’s mouth. “There are ponies out there that are waiting for ANY inclination to kill.”
Fluttershy took another deep breath. “Sorry Luna. I’m just…”
“We understand.” The Princess of the Night placed a hoof around the shaking Pegasus. “We understand.”
“I just want to go home.” Fluttershy whimpered, “I want to see Miles.”
Luna embraced the sobbing Pegasus, stroking her mane consolingly. “It’s going to be okay, Fair Fluttershy. We promise.”

FoxTrot kicked the door open, “Smashing! Look at all these!”
Whooves trotted in half a step behind the Prince, “How did you know of all these?”
“Oh, Hello.” The Prince merely cackled as he pulled a bow from the wall, “My son designed the arena, so, in the event his name was drawn, he had a way to protect himself.”
“Then what was that about your spider?”
“I just said that because we were being watched. No surveillance here.
“Isn’t that cheating?”
FoxTrot looked Whooves in the face, “When there are only three eligible contestants, and someone THAT close to you is one…”
“So he did it to protect you?”
“Him and me, assuming Shining Armour wasn’t chosen.”
FoxTrot slung a quiver on his shoulder. “Choose what you want.”
“I don’t use guns.”
FoxTrot snarled, “Doc, there are ponies set to--”
“Set to kill, I know.” Whooves cut the prince off, eyes glowing red, “That is still no excuse to take a life!”
“Doctor.” FoxTrot’s horn started to glow, “It’s kill or be killed here. I am NOT going to protect you.”
“But you’ll protect Luna and Fluttershy.”
“No. Luna’s getting this.” FoxTrot waved a revolver under Whooves’ nose. “High-power revolver.”
“And Fluttershy?”
“Long range, high accuracy pistol.” The Prince tossed a wooden item at Whooves, “Here, if you’re not using a gun, at least use this.”
“This is a baseball bat.”
“Use it anyway. I did in a Zombie Apocalypse.”
“You do get around.” The Doctor followed the retreating form of FoxTrot, slinging the bat on his back.
“Damn straight. I’ve been more places that a tapeworm in Africa.”

“I heard something.” Three ponies crashed into the clearing. 
“Those are the Wonderbolts.” Fluttershy whispered.
“And Army.” Luna couldn’t mistake that blue mane, “Why’s he with the Wonderbolts?”
Two more voices made their way into the clearing. 
“There.” Shining Armour pointed at FoxTrot and Doctor Whooves, laden with weapons.
Fluttershy and Luna jumped from the tree, keeping to the safe seclusion of the bushes below.
“Hold.” FoxTrot trotted forward, levitating his rifle vertically, “Peace?”
Shining Armour trotted forward, knife downwards, “Peace.”
The two stallions sheathed their weapons. “Good to see you Fawkes.”
“You two Armour.” FoxTrot embraced the stallion, “Who are they?”
“The Wonderbolts, duh.”
“Haven’t seen them out of Uniform too much. Don’t judge me.”
“Luna’s card never came up.”
“Nor Fluttershy’s. They’re in that bush over there.”
FoxTrot pointed right towards the bush Luna and Fluttershy were hiding in. “Come on, they’re safe.”
The two mares pulled themselves from the bushes.
“Fantastic.” Both Shining Armour and Luna dove into each other’s embrace.
Suddenly, Luna gasped, eyes widening.
Fluttershy screamed, “He’s trying to kill her!”
FoxTrot notched an arrow, “Peace Treaty failed!”
Thud.
The two Wonderbolts darted forward, weapons drawn.
“Flutters!” FoxTrot tossed the revolver to the yellow Pegasus, “Defense!”
Fluttershy squealed, “But--”
“Butts are for latrines!” FoxTrot shoved his bow against the stallion’s face, “DEFENSE!”
Fluttershy whimpered, aimed, and then closed her eyes, “I’m sorry.”
Thud.
Fluttershy squealed again. FoxTrot turned.
“Easy you’re Highness.” Spitfire bared her teeth in a creepy grin, “Don’t do anything to rash now.”
FoxTrot notched an arrow, “Let her go.”
Spitfire giggled, “Do you not see what I have?”
“You have her pistol, but you don’t know how to use it.” FoxTrot grinned as Spitfire rolled her eyes.
“I know how to use it.”
“Prove it.” FoxTrot gave her his usual single-eye glare, “Kill her.”
Fluttershy’s eyes widened as she heard a hammer click.
“With pleasure.”
Bang.
Thud.
“Well done.” FoxTrot grinned, “You okay?”
Fluttershy pulled herself from her flinch, “Fawkes?”
“She was holding the gun backwards. I swear I meant you no harm.” The prince knelt at Luna’s side, “Grab the pistol. I think I can bandage Luna up.”
FoxTrot opened his saddlebags, pulling the first aid kit from within. “You still with me Lularuse?”
“Yes.” The Princess whispered faintly, “Took your time.”
“Spitfire has Flutters at gunpoint.”
“We figured.” Luna winced as FoxTrot poured some medicine on her wound, “Ow. That stings.”
“He took a good chunk out, but thankfully he didn’t know the correct procedure of an embrace-stab.”
“Thankfully?”
“Yeah, he was nowhere near your spine. That’s the lethality of backstabs is the spine.”
The Prince tied the bandage in place, “You’ll be fine as long as no infection sets in.”
Luna wobbled to her feet, “We are hoping.”
“Come on you two.” FoxTrot called to the others, “Let’s go.”

Thud.
“And another one down” The Doctor called, “Fawkes?”
“I’m not deaf.” FoxTrot called back, “In fact, I’ve augmented hearing.”
“I know that.” Whooves huffed, “I was only meaning--”
“Shut up.” FoxTrot sighed, “Each one of those thuds means another pony is dead. I was sworn to protect them.”
“But weren’t these games your idea?” Luna couldn’t catch herself.
“What.” The beige stallion stopped, “What did she say?”
“She’s delirious.” FoxTrot tried to cover, “Remember what I said about infection? She’s lost a lot of blood.”
“Fawkes, tell me you didn’t organize this.”
“Okay, you didn’t organize this.”
“You positive?”
“Absolutely.” The Prince shook his head, “Why would I do something like this?”
“But in the event--”
“LANDMINE!” The Prince leapt back, shoving Whooves to the ground.
FoxTrot snickered, “But these are standard-issue low-radius mines.”
“Tell that to Colgate.”
“Those were revamped.” FoxTrot said, “All we need to do is dig this baby up, and we’ve got a bit more protection at night.”
He knelt, pulling his bow out. Carefully, he dug the silver-grey orb from the shallow surface of the arena.
“And we have this.” The Prince wrapped it up in the sleeping bag, and then tied it to The Doctor’s back.
“Why?”
“You’re doing nothing else.” FoxTrot sighed, “May as well make yourself useful. We’ll bed here.”
“FoxTrot?” Whooves grabbed a silver capsule, “What’s this?”
“What? Oh, it’s a Sponsor capsule.” The Prince levitated it, “Simply crack the seal, pull the rope, and Voila.”
Two packages fell out, as well as a silver-black wristband.
“Nice going Miles.” FoxTrot said, pulling the device on. “Good ol’ kid he his.”
”What is it?”
“Hidden blade. Belonged to my Ex-wife.”
“Which one?”
“Shut up Moony.”

Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
“Three down.”
“I know Doc, I’m not deaf!”
“That was Fluttershy”
“Sorry Flutters.”
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
“We are missing something here.”
“Hang on.” FoxTrot climbed to the top of the tree, “I can see the names!” He called each name back to the small group, “Silver Star, Mordrid, Octavia, Scarlet, Bon Bon, and Lightning.”
“That means,” Luna ticked the names off her hooves, “Besides us, there’s Fyre-Flye, Thunder, Midnight, Germaine, Fire Flinger, Chestnut, Gruel, Nimbus and Forrest.”
“Germaine’s made it this far?” FoxTrot smiled, “Good girl.”
Thud.
“Nevermind.” FoxTrot sighed.
“And that means there’s going to be another bloodbath soon.” Whooves rolled his eyes, “And I don’t see how we can get out of it.”
“We’ll worry about that when the time comes.” Luna rested her head against FoxTrot, “Let us sleep for now.”


Author's Note:
Happy New year!