//------------------------------// // Biting The Hoof That Fed Them // Story: Vanguard Of Harmony // by Enfield //------------------------------// No more than a second had passed when an ear splitting shriek rang through the building. Lauren and Twilight jumped up as Scott and Applejack ran to the stairs. "What the bloody hell was that?" "Ah don't know but whoever it was they sounded scared or something." "Let's go and help them then," Lauren said. Twilight and Scott started at her like she was mad. "What? But Creator," Twilight started to say but Lauren cut her off. "I was brought here to help fix Equestria, I'm not letting Scott here take all of the glory." "I have to agree there, no point in bringing you here if you're not doing anything." The scream rang out again and Scott ran down the stairs. "Come on! We need to find out who that is." Twilight, Lauren, Pinkie and Applejack bolted down the stairs as well and followed Scott as he ran into the shop but he backed up against the wall just as quickly and made the others stop. "What is it?" Twilight asked Scott glanced around the corner and shuffled closer to Twilight. "Bears," he whispered, "And a lot of them." Pinkie leaned around the corner and saw six full-grown brown bears in the store. She frowned and skulked back towards Scott. "They're eating my cakes," she hissed. "What are they doing here anyway?" Lauren asked. "Ah've never seen bears do this before," Applejack said as she peered around the corner and saw the bears eating the cakes, "Hey, ah see something in that cupboard." Scott leaned around the corner and looked toward a small cupboard in the corner of the shop, he squinted and was just able to see a small pink tinge sticking out of the bottom of the door. "Fluttershy?" he said to himself. The bears stopped eating and rummaging and started sniffing the air which made the cupboard shake violently. Scott watched as one of them pointed out the pink sticking out of the door and they advanced on it, growling and baring their teeth. Faint whimpering drifted from the wooden box and the bears surrounded it, they started pushing it back and two between themselves before the one behind it slammed it to the floor. Screams of terror followed by crying filled the room, it was Fluttershy. "We need to do something," Twilight said. "We need to scare them off," Applejack suggested. The sound of wood being broken and torn apart started up and they looked again to see the bears ripping the cupboard open. "No! Please don't hurt me!" Fluttershy's panicked voice rang out of the box. Lauren's blood started to boil, she wasn't going to stand by and let the most friendly and timid pony get hurt by animals that she once cared for. She stepped out from behind the wall and faced the bears. "Hey! You leave her alone!" The bears stopped attacking the cupboard and looked at Lauren, Twilight, Applejack and Pinkie had jumped behind her as well. They too weren't going to let Fluttershy get hurt but they didn't want to fight the bears. The bears dropped to all fours and stalked over to the four, a few licking around their mouths, the others growling. "It's okay, there's five of us and six of them," Pinkie said, she then looked behind her, "Hey, where's Scott gone?" Twilight looked around and saw nothing, only a strange black mucus like substance where he was standing. She backed up as the bears advanced on them, suddenly a black slime started to bubble up from the floor next to the bears, they stopped and stared at it as the slime made a foul smelling puddle and from it a black and slime covered hoof emerged. The bears backed up as a pony slowly rose up from the puddle, it stood before them coated in the slime and staring with white and red eyes. It walked forward and each step had a distorted rumble to it, the bears started to back away more quickly but the slime stallion kept pace, it managed to reach one bear and it grabbed it and pulled it into the floor instantly. The remaining bears gave cries of terror and ran out of the bakery. Twilight ran over to the cupboard and pulled out a very shaken Fluttershy who grabbed Twilight and started shaking. "Thank goodness you were here to stop them," she said, "I don't know why they tried to attack me." "It's okay, you're safe now." Suddenly the slime started to form on a part of the ceiling and it dripped onto the floor next to Fluttershy. The slime gained in diameter and something started to fall out of it, Twilight and Fluttershy moved in time because the slime coated carcass of the bear fell out of the slime and crashed to the floor. Pinkie, Lauren and Applejack walked over to them, each covering their noses and leaning over the dead bear. "What was that thing?" Applejack asked. "I think I've seen something like that before," Lauren said as she pulled her shirt over her face. "Great, now I've got all this to clean as well," Pinkie said irritably. "Don't fret, I'll help you," a voice from above them said. The four looked up and saw Scott, halfway out of the slime puddle on the ceiling. He was also coated in slime and he was pulling himself out of the ceiling, he managed to pull himself out and he landed on top of the bear's body. He rolled onto the floor and shook off the slime. "What did you do?" Twilight asked. "I got the idea from a game I played a long time ago," Scott said, "Did you like my slime monster appearance?" "I know I've seen that thing you did somewhere before," Lauren said. "When you came through the floor and took the bear, what did you do with it?" Applejack asked. "I dragged it into a pocket dimension that I created during my banishment," Scott said. "You made a pocket dimension?" Twilight asked. "Three hundred and eighty three days alone with the powers of a god does make you do some pretty neat things. Any of you have any dreams about a large, black metallic bird that sounded like thunder?" "Is the bear okay?" Fluttershy asked nervously. Pinkie lightly kicked the bears head and it flopped to the left, Fluttershy covered her mouth with her hoof and Lauren stared at the body in shock. Scott shrugged and pulled the corpse into the slime puddle and the goop swallowed the body and dissolved it. "What did you do to it?" Pinkie asked. "I finished something that Fluttershy started," Scott said. "You broke it's neck," Pinkie said. "I know." Lauren watched as the two slime puddles get sucked back into the ceiling. "So who do we find next?" "I say Rarity," Twilight said, "I need to see if she's doing okay." "We'll do that once the animals have been expelled from Fluttershy's residence," Scott said as he helped the shaking pegasus up. Fluttershy looked at Scott, thinking that he was a ghost. "Is it really you, Scott?" she asked. "Aye, it is me." Fluttershy hugged him gently around his neck and let go, her cheeks going pink. "Sorry, I didn't mean to-" "It's okay Fluttershy, I've been gone for a while and you just wanted to show that you missed me." Fluttershy smiled and hugged Scott again but she saw Lauren behind him and she let go. Fluttershy backed away and sank down to the floor. "Hello," Lauren said softly. "Um...hi," Fluttershy said with a fearful squeak. "So are you Fluttershy?" Fluttershy nodded as Lauren sat on the floor in front of her. "Why are you scared of me?" she asked, "I'm not going to hurt you." "You won't, but the last one did," Fluttershy said. "You mean the last human who was here? What about Scott? He's a human and you don't seem afraid." "I know, but Scott is...different, in a good way." "Aw thanks, I'm blushing," Scott said. "You're welcome," Fluttershy said. Scott pulled her closer and whispered in her ear. "Shall we solve your animal problem now?" Fluttershy jumped up and started to hyperventilate. "Oh no, Angel!" "You mean your pet rabbit?" Lauren asked. Fluttershy nodded and pressed herself against the nearest window. "He's being held captive by the evil animals, they want to take over my cottage." "Well then," Scott said as he stood up, "Looks like we've got a rescue mission. Who's in?" "I am," Lauren said. "Same here," Twilight said. "Ah'll join ya'll," Applejack quipped. "Sure! Let's kick some booty!" Pinkie said. "Not so fast Pinkie," Scott said, "We're not going to hurt Fluttershy's animals, we're just going to rescue Angel. Nothing more." "Okay," Pinkie said reluctantly, "But I was hoping to help save Angel with you." "You can but leave the hostile animals to me, I'll take care of them." "Will you hurt them?" Fluttershy asked. "I'll give them a fright, nothing more." "So are we going to save Angel?" Fluttershy asked. The group looked at each other and nods. "Let's go," Lauren said. Scott eyed her suspiciously. "That's a little bit unlike you, I wasn't expecting such an adventurous spirit." "I created this world, Scott. I might as well roll with whatever's going on." "Okay then, let's go and help Angel," Twilight said with a hint of uneasiness. Fluttershy led the group to her cottage, as they passed more staring ponies Scott materialized the Chimera, he held it with a telekinetic field and checked the cylinder. Twilight got closer and studied the revolver. "What is it?" she asked. "Something I made a while ago when I was bored," Scott replied as he span the cylinder a few times, "I call it the Chimera revolver. It's basically a .357 magnum that has a few special functions." "Like what?" "Each chamber holds a elemental bullet, making six in all. There's fire, explosive, lightning, acid, poison, and my personal favorite; the repercussion pulse round." "What does the last one do?" "It creates a small pulse field that it capable of disabling electronics, frying circuitry, jamming transmissions and disrupting electrical patterns in the brain." "So will that round damage anypony's brain if they are in the field?" "It depends all on how much of the field has surrounded them. At best they'll be a little confused but if they're in too deep then they will die from the destruction of brain cells." "It'll kill them?" Twilight asked with surprise. "Well it is a weapon I created to bridge the gap between Earth and Equestrian weapons," Scott said as he lined the chamber marked "Acid" with the barrel, "It's a mix of magic and gunpowder, best of all is that once I use all the elemental shots it'll fire conventional rounds indefinitely until I reload the elemental rounds." "So how many of the elemental rounds do you have?" "Enough to take on the Chinese and Indian armies." Pinkie bounced in front of Twilight and Scott and walked backwards. "I meant to ask Scott," she said, "Back in the bakery when you said something about a 'Big, black metal bird that sounded like thunder', I meant to ask you if you knew what it was." "Sure I do," Scott said happily, "I thought that you might like it." "What was it?" Lauren asked. "Just let me say this first," Scott said as he ran to the front of the group and walked backwards like Pinkie. He cleared his throat and kept up his jog. "When I was on the moon I was told in a letter from Princess Celestia that I was allowed to use the Element Of Chaos to keep myself sane and happy. So that's what I did, I made some neat armor, built a few weapons and created the pocket dimension. Soon however I started to get bored with the Element and I managed to pull a few things from my home world, soon after I learned that I was able to walk freely among the ashes of my destroyed home planet and loot as much as I like. During one trip, I came across a library and I went inside. I found a ton of books that interested me and I brought them back to my room in my crater and I created a little library for my entertainment." "You did a lot of stuff while you were banished," Applejack said. "Thank you, but I will ask if you wait until I'm done. Now where was I? Oh yes, when I was skimming thought the books I nabbed I came across one about military aircraft. I looked through it and found a couple of interesting jets that operated during the same decade. Now one of which Miss Faust knows about." "You mean that MiG?" she asked. "Exactly," Scott said smugly, "But that's not the plane which I've started to like the most. What I can tell you is that the plane in question is both massive and very impractical here, and I also couldn't find one." "So what was it?" Pinkie asked. "A B-52 Stratofortress." "You mean one of those huge bombers used in the Vietnam war?" Lauren asked. Scott nodded. "The very plane. Sadly I don't have the life energy to create one for use here and I don't really think it'll be useful." "You didn't have the life energy?" Twilight asked with disbelief, "How come you were able to create a pocket dimension then?" "Because the pocket dimension counts as a dream," Scott said with irritation, "Making a pocket dimension takes the same life energy as making a Dreamscape. If I wanted to fabricate and fully functional long range bomber it would probably kill me." "So you make it in dreams so that you don't die from the loss of energy?" Lauren asked. "Precisely. I'm amazed you got it Miss Faust." "What is life energy anyway?" Twilight asked. Scott sighed, a little tired of explaining everything about what he had done but he had to tell them soon. "Life energy is basically what I use to create anything with the Element Of Chaos. Think of it as a rechargeable battery that keeps me alive and allows me to use the Element, it's sort of hard to explain but I can tell you that since my life energy acts like a battery there is the possibility of it draining if I use the Element too often or if I try and create something massive it could kill me. Last time this happened was when I managed to use the Chaos blast for the first time to kill the Manticore." "How did it almost kill you?" Lauren asked. "It just drained my life energy to dangerously low levels, nothing more." Lauren saw Scott rub his burnt foreleg, she wondered if he was able to heal it but she decided to keep quiet. After all, they were nearing the cottage. "Here's my cottage," Fluttershy said as they arrived at the foot of the walkway that led to the front door. Out of all the ruined or decaying buildings in Ponyville, Fluttershy's cottage was the worst looking. The front door looked like it was just hastily repaired by someone who was in a hurry, the windows were all smashed and the outside of the house had been soiled upon several times. Scott stared in amazement. "How did you cope with all this?" Lauren asked. "It was really hard to," Fluttershy mumbled. "So where's Angel?" Scott asked. "He's upstairs somewhere," Fluttershy said as she backed away, "I-I can't go in there. Not with all those mean animals." "How many are in there?" Twilight asked. "About fifteen, but that's all I can see," Scott said as he peeked through a broken window, "Looks like there might be more upstairs." "Why would they be holding Angel hostage?" Applejack asked Fluttershy. "I don't know." "So does anyone have a plan?" Lauren asked. "I do," Scott said as he sneaked over to the door, "I'll go inside and clear the front room out, then you guys go in and wait for me as I go upstairs and rescue Angel. Once I have him I'll get downstairs and we make a run for it to Twilight's library." "Why my place?" Twilight asked. "Because it's the last place they'll look," Scott said. He peered through a crack in the door and backed up. The five watched as Scott held his burnt hoof out and a swirling cloud of black dust formed around it, their expressions changed from curious to dumbfounded as a large black box with a long silver blade appeared in Scott's outstretched hoof. "Any of you seen 'The Shining'?" he asked. "I've heard of it," Lauren said, "But why do you have a chainsaw?" "There's a very famous scene in it that makes me laugh every time I think of it, I've waited over four years to do my own version." "What did you call that thing that Scott has?" Twilight said to Lauren as Scott started pulling on the ripcord to make it start. "A chainsaw, it's used for cutting down trees." "So why does Scott have one? I don't see any trees that need to be cut down." Lauren was about to reply when the roar of the chainsaw's motor started up and Scott revved it a couple of times. He then slammed the saw into the door and sliced upwards, leaving a gaping hole in the top of the ruined door. Scott held the saw behind him and stuck his head through the opening. "Hereeeeee's Scotty!" A series of frightened squeaks and roars came from the inside of the cottage as Scott started hacking away the door, he managed to get inside but just as Twilight and Lauren were about to follow a wall rose from the floor and blocked them from entering. "Why did he do that?" Lauren asked. "He's blocked the windows off as well," Pinkie said. "So what do we do now?" Applejack asked. "I guess we wait here," Twilight said as she sat down opposite the door. Lauren leaned against the fence and stared off into the distance. "How did this place become so bad?" "Didn't you hear about the evil human who helped the Changelings?" Pinkie asked. "I'm sure that you'll be able to fill me in, Pinkie." Pinkie stood next to Lauren and told her all about the human named Douglas, Pinkie didn't miss a single detail. From how she met Douglas' parents to the time she and him blew up the CMC clubhouse with the party cannon. She then moved onto the day when Fluttershy told them that Douglas had been kidnapped by the Changelings and how he ended up helping them take over Ponyville, Pinkie's mood shifted when she told Lauren about the celebration and how Douglas stole and drank Applejack's secret cider stash. Lauren laughed when Pinkie told her on how drunk Douglas had gotten on the cider, but stopped when she heard that Douglas managed to get rid of the Changelings then escape after hitting Shining Armor in the face. "So where is he?" Lauren asked. "We don't know, last we heard of something that looked like him was over in the gem quarry but that was seven months ago," Twilight said. "I hope Scott's doing okay," Fluttershy said. "He's been on the moon for a year," Applejack said as she placed a hoof on Fluttershy's shoulder, "Ah think he'll be able to handle a few varmints." A gunshot suddenly rang out and the five jumped up. They looked around and Pinkie then pointed out something forming on the side of Fluttershy's cottage. It looked like a bunch of green bubbles, they looked closer and heard hissing coming from the bubbles and watched as the wall slowly started to open up. Once the opening was wide enough they saw Scott standing on the other side, chainsaw around his neck dripping in blood. "Right-o, I did a little more than I meant to," he said as he stepped through the hole, "I recommend that you don't touch the wall, it's still got a little bit of sulfuric acid on it." "Acid?" Twilight asked. "Yeah, sorry about your wall, Fluttershy." "Did you get Angel?" Fluttershy asked. Scott turned sideways and a small white rabbit was clung to his back but he jumped off and ran over to Fluttershy once he saw her. Fluttershy stooped down and hugged the rabbit. She looked up at Scott with tears in her eyes. "Thank you, Scott." "No problem, you take him back to Twilight's library and hide there. We're going to try and see if we can find Rarity and Rainbow Dash." "I say we find Rarity first," Twilight said, "If we all go to see Rainbow Dash then she might not be as hostile as she usually is." "Lead the way then," Scott said.