Bright beams of sunlight penetrated the thick, dark canopy of the forest, causing splotches of light to shine down and spool in small areas on the forest floor. A tall figure cloaked in a bushy, straw-like mantle stepped out of the darkness and into the light of a sun beam, he brought a hand up to the brush hood and pushed it off his head, reviling shimmering green eyes and uncut, messy hair that showed a lack of maintenance. His face held a stoic emotion of watchful vigilance as his eyes scanned the forest ahead, looking for any dangers or threats. He adjusted his hand into a more comfortable position on the grip of his gun, he sighed as he stood there. It had been about an hour since he left Zacora's hut, and he had been thinking weather it was a wise decision to leave the Zebra's care.
Considering he was injured, hadn't changed the gauze on his head and body or clean the wounds. However, he had felt significantly better than he did last night, he though his current condition might be due to the strange potion that the zebra gave to him, which probably made the wounds heal faster and subside the pain. But nonetheless, he still felt achy and had trouble moving his head without receiving a stabbing head ache from the Manticore wound. Thankfully, the medicine had dulled the pain enough for him to get up and trek out and into the forest.
He lifted his back pack's strap farther up his shoulder and huffed a wisp of air, he began to walk forward and continued his long walk back to his camp. However,
The Sniper absolutely had no clue where he was.
He had never been this far into the woods before and hadn't seen any familiar land marks that he associated with the normal area he usually traversed around.
"Zecora must have really brought me far out here." he thought to himself as he climbed over some boulders.
As he reached the other side of the rocks, he observed a large hill about 100 meters out. Setting his course, he began to head for the hill in hopes of getting a vantage point, one in which he can get his bearings.
Once atop the hill, The Sniper was able to see in almost every direction out to the horizon. The hill looked larger than it did at a distance, but this fact benefited the man, if the hill would have been shorter, the view would not have been as extensive as it was. His eyes scanned the treetops, looking for a familiar little town. At last, he spotted Ponyville's town hall tower, the large structure was but a faint speck that just slightly jutted out from the horizon. The man lifted right his arm and pointed it to the sun, which was about half past noon, and was beginning its journey across the sky to meet with the horizon. Knowing the sun was on his right side, he began to move down the hill toward Ponyville, and ultimately, his camp.
He trudged his way through the brush and foliage, even through all the dead leaves and snapping twigs, he tried to stay as silent as possible, hoping to avoid another confrontation with another wild beast.
Unfortunately, mother nature has different plans for the Sniper.
A low, throaty, growl erupted from behind the man as he quickly turned around to see a large, rooster-snake creature emerge from the vegetation,
"SKWWWAAARK!!"
The creature flared its wings and flapped threateningly, the man backed up slightly, the moment tense as the creature glared at him with piercing luminescent eyes.
He felt a strange, overpowering urge to stare back at the rooster snake.
The creature started to inch closer to its prey, the Sniper continued to stare blankly at the beast, but only when he felt a tingling sensation in his legs he looked away, and at his feet. His boots where being to turn to solid stone as the creature got closer, he saw the rock creep up his boots and over his ankle. He panicked and withdrew his sidearm, he looked back at the creature and tried to aim down his sights, but as soon as he did, he fell back into its trance. The man gritted his teeth as he felt the stone creep up his thigh, inching closer to his waist. It took all of his will power to move his hand to his magazine pouch, open it, and take out a mag.
The creeping stone was now inches away from his waist.
He released the empty mag out of his Glock and it clattered to the ground with a thud. The sound of the mag distracted the beast for a short moment, this narrow window of time gave the man his focus back and allowed him to shove the new magazine into the gun. He pointed it at the creature, it looked back at him with anger as it saw its prey out of its trance, its eyes began to light up.
BANG!
However, this action was quickly ended due to a single 45. round zipping through the creatures head and erupting from the back of its skull in a gory, visceral mess. The moment the creature hit the ground dead, the Sniper could feel the stone slowly turn back to flesh from the inside out. Soon enough, he could feel his legs and feet again and he flexed his leg, pieces of stone crumbled and fell of his uniform as he moved his body. He walked over to the dead beast, drew his leg back and kicked the creature with steaming anger as its body flew into the air and back into the brush. He turned back and once again continued his journey to the camp.
"Fuck this stupid forest and these fucking creatures." he harshly whispered under his breath.
Once back at camp, he set down his gear and leaned against the tree that overlooked the small incline. He sighed and pulled out his packet of cigarettes and lit up. He briefly reminisced back to when he first sneaked in the pack of cigs from a local market in Afghanistan, he knew that it was dangerous to smoke on the battlefield, but he kept it a secret, and frankly, he had a bad habit anyway.
Lying down against the tree, the Sniper put out his cigarette and dozed off to the sound of crickets and the forest noises.
The Sniper was jolted awake by the sound of laughing men, and the loud screeching of a animal. He quickly got up and grabbed his gun. Sitting on one knee, he swiveled his head around as he tried to pin point the direction of noises, he leaned over the side of the small incline and looked down the path. He could see the small frame of a monkey running down the path toward him, as it got closer, he could see cuts and gashes on the monkeys hide, as well as an arrow sticking out of its left shoulder. He could tell someone was hunting this poor creature as he heard the rambunctious yelling of a group of stallions chasing the small ape.
"THWAK!"
An arrow whizzed by and lodged its self into the monkeys tail, effectually pining it to the ground. It wailed a terrible screech as it tried to scurry away, but its tail not allow it to do so. The man saw the group of 4 stallions gather around the helpless creature, it lashed out at them when one of the ponies got to close. they continued to laugh and make vulgar insults toward the monkey.
"Ha HA! Bucking dumb ape, hey nice shot Slice." one stallion in a red tang-top said.
The pony in the red tang-top wore a three tooth necklace and had half of his mane shaved off, on the shaved side, was a tribal tattoo of one black circle with spike arrows jutting out from the circle.
He had a series of scars running across his face and shoulders, most of the stallions had scars on at least one place on their body. Another pony began to talk,
"Yeah well, what can I say, I'm a professional!" The group began to erupt into a crazy, unsettling laughing fit.
This stallion was a unicorn and had multiple earnings on his right ear, as well as an old, worn khaki vest and a quiver of arrows, he held a crossbow in his magic, He also wore a tattered Boonie atop his head. On his Right shoulder, was the same tattoo as the other stallion. In fact all of the other stallions had the same tattoo, each on a different part of their body.
The other two ponies where wearing black and red shemaghs with aviator glasses. They wore the same vest that the archer had, but in black. The tang-top pony taunted the injured monkey,
"He he, watcha' gonna do? hun? HA!" he got right up to the small prime-ape's face.
It hissed at him and flung out its palm, clawing the stallion in the right eye. The pony screamed and reeled back,
"AAHHH! YOU LITTLE SHIT!" He continued to yell.
"Kill that bucking thing!" He said angrily.
In a flash, the archer loaded an arrow, cocked it back, and fired at the monkey, hitting it square in the heart. It struggled for a few seconds before falling limp, dead. The tang-top stallion began to gleefully stomp and crush the dead monkey under his hooves, seemingly forgetting his injured eye. He smiled while chanting,
"Praise Khaos!"
Over and over again. Soon enough, the rest of the group began to mimic him and dance around the dead animal.
"What kind of crazy, sick fucks are they?" The Sniper reeled back in disgust as he thought to him self.
They stopped with their little ritual and calmed down.
"Ok, ok, funs over, lets get back to base and grab some grub." He said nonchalantly
The group began to walk away from the dead monkey and continued on the path, but they then took a sharp left and walked straight into the woods. Curious, the Sniper shifted in his spot and turned his body to face the direction of "crazies". They were walking deeper and deeper into the forest, eventually, the man could no longer hear their voices and hoof steps. Taking a mental note of where they went off to, he put down his weapon and stretched his achy muscles. Then, out from his stomach, arose a deep gargled growl of hunger. Sighing, he opened his backpack and re-check his supplies, only 2 MREs and a few pieces of deer jerky rested inside of a small compartment where he kept his food.
He scowled at his rations, knowing he would run out of food quicker than he thought. His face then brightened up as he though of the nearby apple orchard which the Orange pony owned. Getting up, he slung his rifle around his back and walked to the edge of the hill's incline, he slid down the side and landed firmly on the dirt path below. He then froze, carefully checking his surrounds for any dangerous animals, or insane stallions. Once he felt everything was safe, he turned right and jogged down the trail, out of the woods and towards Ponyville.
The large, apple tree filled valley of Sweet Apple Acres came into The Snipers view as he jogged down the road. Continuing further, he spotted a large red barn just a few meters away, he crouched and scanned the area looking for any wondering ponies that could spot him. His eyes flickered down the dirt road as the faint noise of an old, wooden cart being driven reached his ears. Thinking quickly, he ran to the side of the road and jumped a wooden fence into the bushes. He looked down the dirt path, waiting for the cart. Soon enough, a red stallion with a large yolk around his neck came trotting into view of the man. The red stallion (as The Sniper expected) was pulling a cart full of apples, he got closer to the man's position in the bushes as he pulled the cart. Then, the stallion snorted and stopped short, he tipped his head upwards and flared his nostrils, sniffing the air. He turned his head and look around suspiciously, then his gaze shifted directly to The Sniper.
The man's heart stopped as he met the stallion's gaze, hoping that he wasn't spotted. They both stared at each other for a moment, one of them completely unaware of the others' existence. The red stallion knitted his eyebrows and then shrugged, he looked away and continued his journey down the road. Breathing a sigh of relief, the man stood up once he was sure the pony had left. He decided to walk deep into the orchard in order to avoid anymore unwanted encounters.
The apples
Oh the amazing apples,
The godlike deliciousness the apples withheld behind their crimson coat baffled the man. The Sniper sat inside a small wooden house he had found whilst walking through the orchards. After picking a fair share of apples, he had stumbled upon this little house nestle in a crook of a tree. The front door was open, which was strange, but he really didn't care, he was hungry as hell and need some sort of shelter while he feasted on his red bounty. The man had already eaten 3 of his 15 apples and was working on his fourth when a distant giggling sounded out from the orchard. Putting down his half eaten apple, he quickly got up and made his way to a nearby window. As he slowly peered out the aperture, he could see a trio of fillies coming his way, straight for the tree house.
"That was AWESOME!" The orange and magenta filly yelled in a tomboyish voice.
"Okay, I guess it was, but I told you not to touch Twilight's blue potion thingy. She already said that it would explode if you shook it, do you ever listen Scootaloo?" The small white unicorn scolded.
"Hey, ah thought it was kinda' cool." Said the yellow filly.
"SEE! Even Applebloom it was awesome! I told you chemistry would get us our cutie mark."
The white filly pointed to Scootaloo's flank,
"You didn't get a chemistry cutie mark, or even one at all for that matter."
"Neither did you Sweetie Belle, nor Applebloom." Scootaloo pouted.
"Hey, ah still think tha' exploshin' was epic, Anywho! Do y'all wanna hang out some more at tha' club house?" Applebloom suggested.
"Sorry Applebloom, I gotta get back to the Boutique to help Rarity with some coat hems."
"I've got flying lesson with Rainbow today." Stated Scootaloo with excitement.
"All right'y then, see y'all guys later!" Applebloom waved to her friends as they walked away and to their respective activities. The yellow filly turned to the club house and began to make her way up the steps of the tree house.
"Shit!" The Sniper thought as he heard the filly's hoofsteps getting closer to the door.
Frantically, he searched for a way out of the club house, finally he found one way to exit the premises without the filly spotting him. The same window he had been observing the girls was his only escape. With the extremely close sound of hoofsteps closing in on him,
he acted on instinct and dove out the window,
And directly onto a rose bush.
"Fuuuuccck..." he groaned internally as the thorns on the plant jabbed at him while he sank further into the shrub. Thankfully, the window didn't have a glass pane on it. it that where the case, he would have had a lotmore problems than just a few thorns in his side.
The filly was in the building just as fast as The Sniper had jumped out and landed in the bush. The moment she walked in, Applebloom saw a brief, blur of movement by the window. Curious, she walked to the windowsill and looked out, trying to see if she could catch what ever caused the movement with her gaze. She stood there, searching for the phantom for a second longer, she then shrugged and walked back inside. She made her way to a small table within the club house and picked up a note pad rest on it. The note pad was for her to record every attempt she and her friends had done at getting cutie marks, this was to ensure they didn't do the same activity twice. While writing down the days events, her eyes shifted to a half eating apple on the floor. She didn't an apple in the club house recently, nor any of her friends. Looking at the apple, she could see that there was odd looking teeth marks within the apple. No pony could have made those indents, the filly then remembered the strange moment blur in the club house when she entered. The theorized that there must have been an animal of some-sort in the tree house eating and apple, and she probably scared it away when she walked in.
Applebloom sighed and face hoofed.
"I should start closing the front door, and get that window some glass..." She trailed off.
She then returned to jotting down on her note pad, seemingly unaware of The Sniper getting out of his thorny tomb and walking away from the club house and into the woods. However she was hopelessly oblivious to the routy and insane group of stallions closing in on the club house.
The man had climbed out of his "Prickly Situation" and brushed him self off. Seeing the sun was close to setting, he checked him self over before heading out for the trail and back to camp.
However, before he was even more than 25 meters away he heard the screams of a certain yellow filly