//------------------------------//
// Serious Apple Acres 
// Story: Friendship is Serious 
// by The card holder 
//------------------------------//

As the group walked over a hill, their destination became visible not too far away. All of the trees that made up the orchard were bare, and the barn had certainly seen better days. Applejack was shocked.

"Now just what in the hay did they need mah farm for?" she asked as they walked forward.

"I'm not sure," Twilight replied. "Because it just looks like they destroyed it..."

They continued on in silence for a few minutes, Sam keeping his shotgun ready for any threats. However, nothing arrived to stop them.

"It's been like five minutes, and nothing's trying to kill me," he said. "I don't like this."

"Are you saying you prefer it when those things are attacking you?" Rarity asked.

"Well, at least that way I know where they are."

Before any counter argument could be stated, Sam held up a single hand, telling the others to stop. He crouched down, and pulled a small patch of webs off the ground.

"Webs... I think I know what they were using the farm for."

Fluttershy shivered at the back of the group. "S- Spiders?"

"Something like that," Sam answered. They were now at the barn, and he got into position in front of the closed doors. With a single kick, the doors swung inward, revealing a whole mess of spiderwebs and what looked like pods of some sort.

"What is all this?" Twilight asked. 

"I'm sure you'll see, after-" Sam was cut off by the sound of lots of dirt being displaced behind them. Whirling around, he saw a group of about seven alien spider things approaching, each one a bit bigger than a pony. Twilight wasted no time in putting a shield up around her and her friends, just as the spider things began to spit acid at Sam and the ponies. Meanwhile, inside the barn, numerous pods could be heard breaking open. 

Sam smirked as he dodged acid shots, and put his shotgun away and replaced it with his sledgehammer. He charged at the larger spiders first, smashing their bodies in one by one. As the last one fell, he pulled out his revolvers and turned to the barn, where much smaller spider things were flowing out in droves. He fired off bullet after bullet at them, many of them dying on the spot. Even more pushed on, however, and Sam was forced to backpedal while shooting.

As he was doing this, the ponies were soon left alone. Most of the bugs swarmed past them, but a few tried to get past Twilight's shield. It held, luckily. 

Soon, the flow of spiders slowed and stopped, though the sounds of gunfire kept going for quite some time. Eventually, even that stopped, and Sam came jogging back towards the ponies, his shoes and some of his pants covered in the spiders' green blood.

"I thought you were runnin' away for a second," Dash said, smirking.

"Well, you don't become the baddest one man army alive by standing still," Sam shot back. They started moving again, but Sam stopped and looked inside the barn.

"Somethin' wrong, Sam?" Applejack asked.

"My secret sense is tingling." The human entered the barn, the others following, save for Rarity and Fluttershy (the former not wanting to dirty her hooves more than they already were, and the latter not wanting anywhere near any more of those things). Sam looked around for a bit, but just when he was about to stop looking and move on, he saw a glint of metal out of the corner of his eye. Investigating, he found a double barreled shotgun partially stuck in a pile of web and some mystery goo.

He let out a chuckle as he pulled it free. "Looks like the gun has seriously been doubled!"

Before numerous readers could no doubt groan at the one-liner, a few more large spiders made themselves known by digging out of the ground. Sam made quick work of them, however.

Back outside, Sam looked around. "Alright, which way now?"

"The old castle is somewhere to the north, I think," Twilight said.

"Looking at a map of the area, it does seem to be north."

"Thanks, Netty." They circled around the barn to head in that direction, Sam in the lead, when the sound of galloping could be heard. The ponies gasped.

"Somepony's here!" Twilight said.

"Wait a second..." Sam listened closely to the quickly approaching sound, but he couldn't find the source of it. At least, not until a skeleton that looked like a large pony, save for the bladed forelegs and horns, rounded the barn ahead of them and let out a noise somewhere between a growl and a shriek. The kleer lunged at Sam, only to be blown apart by his new shotgun. The bone fragments kept moving forward, some of which hit Sam and the ponies behind him.

The skull rolled to a stop in front of Fluttershy, who promptly fainted. Twilight, meanwhile, was inspecting the bones.

And then more galloping could be heard approaching, from all directions. More kleer charged at Sam, and he sidestepped all of them before blowing them apart, one by one. A few that were still some distance away threw balls and chains at him, for some reason, which were also dodged. After numerous dodges and shotgun blasts, bones and spent shells littered the ground around Sam and the shielded ponies.

"What were those things?" Rarity asked, poking one of the skulls with her hoof.

"Kleer, skeletons magically reanimated by Mental. I'm pretty sure they have no relation to ponies. Probably."

With Applejack carrying an unconscious Fluttershy and Twilight still inspecting one of the skulls, the group moved onward, entering the dense forest known as the Everfree.