//------------------------------// // Miscalculations and Unintentional Meetings // Story: Dawn of the Vanguard // by Mystic Song //------------------------------// Alec looked up at the bright blue sky. One week, three days and fifteen hours since they had sent the griffin back home. One week, two days and five hours since their improvised unit had grouped up with Dissimulare's. One week, one day, and one hour since the highest commanders gave them the orders not to engage any pony forces that they may come across. They had been in Dissimulare for exactly two weeks now. Alec sighed deeply before taking out one of his dual pistols and cleaning it. A gift from Dissimulare's division when they found out that their weapons had been lost. Apparently their suppliers mysteriously disappeared on their way to Dissimulare. The fact that the all of the shippers were of higher noble class was not spoken about. The only thing good about the situation was that his new pistols used runes that was directly connected to his own magic. No more bullets, no more needless re-loading. The only bad thing about the gun was that Dissimulare invented it years ago. Yet he still had to use the older model because Aria's higher console didn't believe that they needed to upgrade their weapons. Aria specialized in long range tactics and magic, they thought, why should they spend money on medium and close ranged weapons? Kim was right, Aria's higher console sucked the demon king's dick with joy. Or something much more vulgar that he really didn't want to remember word for word. Kim's speech couldn't be cleaned with the strongest of bleaches. Speaking, or rather thinking of Kim, she and Zachary were currently practicing with their new weapons. Kim's new axe, a staple of Strength Class soldiers, was lined with Tungsten with a Tantalum base and had runes engraved into it with silver. Needless to say her axe was incredibly heavy, and one of the best made weapons he had ever seen. But then of course it was destined to be. Made in Mallueus with Dissimulare's plans, and Illusaq metal. His guns, knives and Zachary's retractable blades went through the same treatment, of course with much lighter metals. He and Zachary couldn’t even pick up Tantalum based weapons let alone wield them. Alec grimaced remembering the incident that had happened yesterday. Apparently, even though Mich is a Strength Class soldier he couldn't wield the weapons either. Which led to more headaches. At least Kim was able the stop the a fight from breaking out. Although, knocking Mich out with the blunt of her weapon was quite unorthodox, even more so since Captain Timmins let it slide. At least Zachary had calmed down a few days ago, after the first shipment of letters had came in. ...And there was the objects of his musing right now. "Yo Alec, did anything happen while we were gone?" Kim said striding up to him with Zachary in tow. "Nothing, I'm beginning to wonder how accurate the griffin's advice was." He replied. "Well," Zachary started playing with his blades, "It does make you wonder since they won't even tell us the name of the Griffin who tipped us off. It would make you think this was just another drill, if it wasn't for the pictures of that Griffin circling around." Zachary finished with a smirk. Kim grinned at Zachary, "Think about it like this, if nothing else happens we can go back to Aria, find those 'missing' higher ups and kick their asses from Aria to the Eastern sea. Wouldn't that be great?" "Kim,' Alec said voice bored, 'you shouldn't entice the spirits or whatever." She frowned at him, "Do you always have have to kill my mood?" Zachary smiled widely at him, "Kim's right Alec. We've been here for so long and nothing else crawled out of the Western sea." Zachary fell into a set playfully jabbing and slashing with his fully retracted blades, "At first, I won't lie, I was a little worried. But now even Captain Timmins thinks that this 'close call' wasn't really that close after all." Zachary ended his mock set in a low crouch and grinned up at him and Kim, "They're planning to send us home tomorrow, and with this whole thing coming to an end, what's the worst that could happen?" When Alec looked back to this day many months later he would realize that Zachary heard the runner before anyone else at the camp did. The way Zachary's eyebrows furrowed in confusion, then how his eyes widened in shock before Alec had heard the yells were a testament to that. "Captain Blake! Captain Timmins!" The camp went silent as a runner wearing the browns and greens of Dissimulare landed on the branch where they had set up camp. The runner's eyes were wide in absolute panic, his wings flapped in distress as he screamed, "Where are the Captains?" Captain Blake and Timmins slammed through the crowd. Taking control Blake grabbed the runner by his shoulders and shook him hard. The runner's wings still tensed but his eyes were no longer wild. "Son," Blake said his voice calm but held a under current of roughness that came from worry, "tell me what's wrong." "Captain! Three kilometers past the frosted cliffs, the Dividing Woods has been breached!" The runner exhaled hard. Alec could feel as the camp stiffened, and suddenly he was preparing his guns and mentality counting his knives. He didn't even know when he started, he just knew that he had about seventy eight knives of various sizes on him. He was so focused with his task that he almost missed Captain Blake's next words, or should that be word? "Who?" Blake said his voice barely above a whisper, yet Alec would be surprised if someone didn't hear him. 'So many questions asked with such a small word,' Alec mused as he notice from the corner of his eye as Zachary and Kim prepared their weapons alongside him. There was no way that Alec could have missed the runner's next words. "The ponies," the runner choked out, his voice distorted as helpless tears began to run down his face, "Sir, there's an Alicorn with them..." The camp exploded into shouts as everyone started yelling at the Captains, at the runner, and at the Three themselves. Alec holstered his pistols and immediately wished he had more fire power on him. Quickly he banished those thoughts. Going into a fight with weapons that he hadn't trained in was a stupid idea. "STAND DOWN!" Alec carefully picked at his ears noting that Zachary and Kim were doing the same. Good old Captain Timmins always bringing order when it's needed most. "You, runner! Which scouting team are you from?" Timmins barked. "Team Three, Sir!" The runner added at seeing Timmins' glare. "Blake leave your best Lieutenant here and bring your best two after that with you, we need to control this situation now." Timmins gaze then ripped through the crowd and landed on him, "Alec! Your team is ready to go." It wasn't a question. "Sir!" Alec shouted along with Zachary and Kim. "Then what the hell are you waiting for?" Timmins barked before turning on one of Aria's veteran teams, "Strike team one get your thumbs out of your asses and stand at attention!" Alec and his team hurried to lined up in front of Timmins along with Strike team one. "Good, now," the good Captain whirled on Blake voice still rough with authority, "lead us to where Scout team three is." Soon they were flying through the trees eyes forward and bodies tense. They didn't so much as met up with the scout team as bump into them. A few panic shouts from the team's leader told them that they were trying to get in front on the ponies group. And soon they were off again. Their unit stopped on a large branch overlooking a rather large clearing. That's when they heard it. A mixture of loud huffing and heavy footsteps that no human could make. Humans just didn't have that many legs. Alec was laying flat on his stomach before Blake's orders could fully reach him. Seconds later five ponies lead by a purple alicorn wearing a golden crown walked into the clearing. And for the first time in his life, Alec swore with a vileness that Kim couldn't match. Rainbow Dash didn't like this island in the slightest. Everything just felt wrong. And the directions that Ashen gave them were just terrifying. "Everything on these islands have adapted to kill anything not from here." The black and grey griffin had said after he anchored the small merchant ship, "If it looks 'pretty' it will kill you. If it looks 'fun' it will kill you. If it looks 'safe' it will kill you. Stay on the green grass. Not blue, not purple and especially not pink. Green. Eat only the food you brought with you and if you run out, starve. If you do that I may just see you again." They didn't really believe Ashen, no place could really be that bad. ...Then they saw a squirrel get eaten by a large blue flower shrieking and thrashing as it was consumed, before going still enclosed within the lovely blue petals. They had stayed on the green grass after that. And now a part of her wondered if they really should be there. What if Ashen was right? What if there are no humans here? And if there were, did she really want to start something? She wasn't sure anymore. "Rainbow Dash, stop!" Twilight shrieked at her. Rainbow Dash froze. "Don't move!" Twilight said her horn lighting up. Rainbow Dash was levitated up and gently placed beside Fluttershy. She looked at where she was just about to step and froze again. It looked so innocent, just a strange little patch of pink grass in a stranger forest. She gulped. What horrors did you unleash little patch of pink grass? "We have to be more careful," Twilight said wary, "Everypony line up behind me, it would be less dangerous if we go through here one at a time." And once again they were walking forward into the horrible unknown. Did Daring Doo ever felt this way about a new adventure? Did her knees shake with each step knowing that it could be her last? Did her gut twisted into itself when she looked at her friends and saw their fear? Did she clamp her ears down every night to block the sounds of their nightmares? She wanted to leave, but she couldn't. What kind of friend would she be if she left her friends hanging? She was the element of loyalty for a reason. "Girls!" Twilight shouted, "I think I see a clearing ahead." Rainbow Dash never thought she could feel so good. The clearing looked as safe as the islands got. Green grass. No 'pretty' flowers, trees or anything. The the edges of the clearing was line with absolutely malicious looking thorn bushes. Which made her fell the exact opposite of safe. "So what do you think sugar cube?" She heard Applejack ask Twilight, "Is it a good place tah stop?" "I think so, but if you see anything that's not green do not touch it." Twilight said putting down her bags. "Roger that Twilight!" Pinkie Pie bubbled putting down her bags and taking out a tent, "Fluttershy, Rarity help me set up the tents. Oh! We can have a mini tent pitching party!" With that said Rainbow Dash found herself alone with Twilight and Applejack. "What da ya think they're up to?" Applejack said one eyebrow raised in the direction the they had left in. "I don't know," Twilight said shaking her head, "but that isn't important right now. We have to find a way to draw the humans out. We can't track them through here so we will have to bring them to us." "And how are supposed to do that?" Rainbow Dash asked pushing her uneasiness aside. Twilight grinned widely at both of them as she took a large container out of her bag, "With bait." When Rainbow Dash saw how the thick cuts of 'bait' sloshed around in their own dark red juices, she wondered if even loyalty had a capping point. Zachary laid flat on his stomach and observed the group of ponies through a pair of binoculars. Two weeks, eight days since he came back to Dissimulare. Eight days since the first pony breach in six thousand years. Eight days since Captain Timmins permanently stationed their team on pony watch. Eight days of him and Alec laying still on their stomachs and observing ponies, while Kim sat cross legged behind them and wrote down their observations. Once the terror had dulled the only thing that Zachary felt was boredom. At least the ponies proved to be entertaining. On the first day the Alicorn had taken out what seemed to be cuts of meat. The yellow pegasus, pink earth pony and white unicorn had made motions of disgust, and anger. Then followed a good hour of verbal fighting. Subject Alicorn had relented and stationed what had to be bait at the far side of the clearing. And with that Zachary knew that they were trying to trap humans. Like anyone would be stupid enough to eat strange meat off the ground. Alec deduced this meant that they thought humans were stupid enough to fall for something like that, already giving them something over the ponies. An insulted part of Zachary wanted to see the ponies faces when they faced Mini-guns. ...Which was bad, because if that happened it meant that he failed his mission. Observe and record the enemy, do not engage no matter what. Simple, elegant, something that Mayumi would have appreciated if she wasn't stuck in Paragon. The notes that she sent him about her grandparents were...rude, to put it lightly. At least they got a laugh out of Kim. This was good since they all have been tense since Mitch's group had been assigned with them three days ago. Especially since Mitch's group's only job was to record the sounds that the ponies made. Mitch had complained venomously about recording useless noises. Then he became pissed later that night when he found out that his squad messed up and only recorded static. Now the idiot was actively trying to get their squad to make mistakes. Zachary had wisely decided to keep his mouth shut when Mitch's squad started to get work done after Mitch left his post. Thankfully Captain Timmins was supposed to come check on them today, then he can finally formally ask to get a different team stationed with them. 'And', Zachary mentally noted with a smirk as he watched the ponies start to pack up camp, 'I have some good news to give him to sweeten the deal.' "Were do you think they're going Alec?" He asked binoculars to his face. "They probably believe that they would have better luck in a different location." Alec drolled. "Should we follow them?" Kim asked pausing her writing. "Not yet," Alec said zooming in, "It would take time to move the outpost and get word to the Captains, also I don't think they're in a hurry to move. Kim resport 1:10pm Alicorn and pink earth pony get into argument." Alec deadpanned while checking his watch before continuing, "Captain Timmins will be here shortly, we can tell him about the move then. After that we can pack up camp and follow the enemy." Zachary rolled his shoulders making them give a satisfying crack. Grinning widely to nothing in particular he said, "Great! And after this we will no longer have Mitch fucking up our mission." "What the fuck is that suppose to mean?" He was dragged off his stomach and into the air by a huge hand. Roughly the hand moved from his back and to his collar. Zachary's eyes widened as he found himself inches from Mitch's raging face. Zachary started feel worried that he could see the veins in Mitch's face pulsing erratically under his skin, and that he saw way too much of the whites of his eyes. "I asked you a question you worthless breed!" Mitch shouted, his chest heaving with every shaky enraged breath. "Mitch stand down!" Kim shouted her hand inching toward her axe, and Zachary wished that he had forgone comfort and equipped his wrists blades that day. He heard a click behind him. Alec's voice came from behind him, low and frighteningly dangerous, "Specialist Mitch release him at once or I will be force to restrain you." One breath... Kim un-holstered her axe. Two... Alec shifted behind him, and Zachary knew that he had a pistol at Mitch's face. Three... Mitch grunted and roughly drop him back on the branch and stalked away. Zachary wouldn't know what caused him to speak out. Maybe he thought that Mitch wouldn't be able to hear him, or that he was being clever, or that he was trying to explain away a traumatic experience. He knew it was a stupid thing to do, but he didn't stop himself. Under his breath Zachary said something that no one was supposed to hear just a little too loudly. "Now that's a Strength Class soldier with a little too much Berserker breed in him." Zachary whispered low. Mitch with all the power that a Strength Class soldier had to offer, pivoted on his heel crushing bark under his feet and charged at Zachary. Kim and Alec couldn't do anything but watch as Mitch caught Zachary in the chest with a broad shoulder and launched them both over the branch. However while Mitch was able use his momentum to push himself back to the branch and latch onto safety with rough golden claws... Zachary, could not. Zachary felt as bile left his mouth from the impact of Mitch's charge, while his body body folded into itself from the force. His world greyed in and out with a white hot intensity as he fell. Somewhere, somewhere unnaturally far away, he heard someone scream his name trying to get to him through the white noise drowning his ears. Then, he felt his medallion crack. The spell ended and he was extremely aware of the world around him. He had to be, the magic in his medallion bleed back into his body chasing away the incoming grey and giving him enough sense to twist. Zachary landed on his stomach and looked up into the shock faces of the enemy. For the first time in his life, Zachary was paralyzed with terror. The rational part of his mind screamed at him to run, to get up, to do something. But all he could do was stare. All he could do was stare as the orange earth pony pointed and shouted at him. All he could do was stare as the Alicorn slowly removed dark, sinister chains from her bags as the yellow pegasus, white unicorn and pink earth pony loudly protested. All he could do was stare as they slowly made their way to him. Move, his mind screamed. Move! Move! Move! MOVE! But his body didn't listen. All his body heard was white noise... 'BY THE THREE, MOVE YOU DAMNED FOOL!' ...That wasn't his mind. The last time someone shouted in his mind like that he had pissed off a Empathic class soldier. 'Zachary, if you make me go down in history as the first captain that got a soldier under his command enslaved by ponies. I will find you and haunt you in the afterlife!' Shocked out of paralysis, Zachary jumped to his feet, and with his freedom in life and death on the line he sprinted into the forest. "After it!" Twilight said before running after the human at a full sprint. Fluttershy's protests were drowned out as Twilight galloped after the retreating creature. They had waited so long, did so much research, suffered so much. She couldn't let it escape. "Get back here!" Twilight screamed at it's retreating form only causing it to go faster. She huffed as sweat began to pour down her face, how could it be so fast? Every time she thought she was getting close it would pull some maneuver and gain more ground. 'It knows the forest!' She suddenly realized, 'I need to draw it out in the open!' "Rainbow Dash! Applejack! We have to push it in to the open!" She heard their confirmations as they began herd the human into an open area. The creature was forced to jumped between a gap in the trees and Twilight saw it fully. Long inky black hair trailed behind it. It's arms were out in front of it as it tried to quickly make the gap. Pale skin almost pure white reflected the sun's rays, and was mostly covered by sky blue cloth. With a mental heave, Twilight threw dark purple shackles at it. The shackles clanked open and she held her breath as they caught up to it. It feinted to the right, and in one fluid movement tucked and rolled through the air then landed on the balls of it's feet. And once again the creature was sprinting through the trees. Twilight galloped after the creature again leaving the shackles which had tangled themselves in the trees behind her. "Twilight what happened?" Rainbow Dash shouted. "I missed! We have to draw it into a bigger clearing! Rainbow Dash fly up and see if you find out where it's going!" Twilight shouted. Rainbow Dash rocketed into the air and a few moments later came back down. "It's going deeper into the forest, we're going to lose it!" Rainbow Dash yelled. "Not if I can help it. Rainbow Dash did you see any clearings?" "Yeah, there's a huge one coming up to the left of us." "Then that's were we chase it. Applejack you're better runner then me, try to get ahead of the human. Rainbow Dash, guide it from the air. I will make sure that it doesn't double back!" Twilight ordered. With Rainbow Dash dive bombing the creature's right side, Twilight blasting at it and Applejack being a wall in the others gaps they forced the creature into the clearing. Twilight burst into the clearing and once again galloped hard after the human. And with no trees in her way she had a clear shot at it. She release a bombardment of condensed magic shots at the human. The human however, ducked and weaved around the blasts hardly slowing down. Rainbow Dash tried to drop kick the sprinting human, but found herself being flung away as the creature caught her by the foot, twisted and threw her like a shot put. Applejack roared and vaulted through the air in an attempt to tackle the human, but it skid under her assault causing her to topple onto the ground. Twilight panicked, it was about to escape into the forest again. She had to stop it, she had to. For the safety of Equestria! Her eyes glowed white. The ground shook roughly causing the human to lose balance. The human skidded to halt to avoid the wall of pure stone that exploded out of the ground in front of him. Before he could change his course the stone wall expanded straight across the clearing and curved over his head blocking out the sun. The human turned away from the wall and faced them. Twilight grinned. Gotcha. "Shit." Really there was nothing else for him to say. What do you say to being cornered by an enemy that you whole race have been hiding from for thousands of years. What do say to the fact no one from your unit can help you due to orders directly from command? What can you say to being fully disarmed? So, shit it was. Zachary stared down the Alicorn, earth pony and pegasus. He could fight a earth pony, he could fight a pegasus. ...But a an Alicorn? Officially they didn't exist. However, officially so didn't he. A private becoming a specialist with only a handful of referrals? Impossible! He crouched low causing the ponies in front of him to tense. To escape he needed to take out the Alicorn, then the rest, and then fly like hell. It was a flimsy plan that didn't have a leg to stand on but, if time was a issue, a shaky plan violently acted out now was better then a perfected plan acted out later. Zachary tensed when the ponies began to slowly inch toward him. Time was a issue. Green magic exploded out of him covering him with its sickly light, his eyes glowed a haunting blue and bore into the ponies before him. With a shout he rocketed towards them green insect wings making an ungodly noise as they kicked up dust. He became a fast moving black and green blur, and with a flip he changed his flight position and unleashed a heavy snap kick to the chin on the Alicorn. CRACK Zachary gave himself a second to watch the Alicorn bounce hard against the ground multiple times before stopping in the ditch her body made, before giving his attention to the screaming earth pony. The earth pony flung herself at him and Zachary quicky found himself retreating backwards to avoid her onslaught. The orange pony yelled at him as she continued to throw punches and kicks his way, but she was unbalanced. Zachary noticed how every time he got too far away she would run on all fours before standing up and trying to hit his face. When she stood up again he sweeped a leg under hers. She gave a noise of shock that was quickly cut off when he launched the first punch to her face, his green wings propelling him forward. Zachary executed a flurry of punches into the face of the earth pony and stopped when she crumpled to the ground. Zachary stiffened then jumped in the air twisting out of the way of the pegasus's buck. The pegasus screamed and joined him in the sky. Zachary dodged her wild punches with a grace that only made the pegasus angrier. He flipped over the pegasus and landed in the air behind her. He grabbed her tail and spun causing them both to become blurs in the sky. With the momentum he gained, Zachary launched the pegasus up. His green wings buzzed loudly giving him a burst of speed as Zachary flew past the still flying pegasus. Before she could reach the pinnacle of her ascent he delivered a wicked haymaker to her back, sending her crashing hard against the ground. From his position in the air Zachary's gaze scanned the clearing. Both the earth pony and pegasus were down, and the furrow that the Alicorn made was empty. Before that information could fully process Zachary was gripped by legs by purple magic and dragged. Zachary was violently jostle through the sky before being slammed into the ground multiple times. His uniform tore and he felt blood began to run down his face as the Alicorn continued whip him against the ground. All his eyes could see was a relentless pattern. Sky. Blue, so blue with soft white clouds floating by peacefully, uncaring. Ground. Green, a wonderful jade colour. The colour of spring, of life, of the inevitable. Pain. Black, such a endless darkness. The feeling of running blood, stuttering bones and bruised skin. And repeat. And repeat. And repeat. Finally, Zachary was left on the ground, surrounded by black. He knew he needed to move. ...but movement meant pain and he just wanted to sleep. '..............?..........!' Something was in his head again, couldn't it see that he just wanted to left in peace? '..chary..et..p!' He relaxed into the ground, and...was it really ground? It hummed lightly and was smooth to the touch. Well it didn't matter, whatever the voice wanted it could wait until after he had some sleep. . .. ... .... 'I will haunt you in the afterlife.' Zachary's eyes snap open, and he blinked. Everything he saw was tinted purple. He unfurled himself and found that he was being suspended in a floating purple bubble. He looked down and saw the wide eyes of the Alicorn glaring up at him. Zachary jumped back and instantly grimaced when his back harshly collided with the bubble. The alicorn continued to glare at him she then pointed to him and started to shout eyes blazing white. She then pointed to the pegasus and earth pony as they limped over to them. With one last shout she slammed her hoof against the ground causing it to shake. The earth pony put an arm over the shoulder of the Alicorn and said something to her before glaring at him. The earth pony went up the bubble and before the Alicorn could stop her she bucked it hard. Zachary eyes widened when the bubble didn't move. He knew how strong those kicks were, if the bubble didn't crack or even shake... Black coloured magic weaved around his hands and forearms, Zachary unleashed a relentless attack on the inside of the bubble. His claws scraped against the bubble, against his prison. He continued the attack until his arms ache, until his face dripped with sweat, until his spell dissolved and he was only scraping at the cage with his nails. He stopped, his eyes wide and wild. Zachary's mind went blank as his heart started to pound loudly in his ears. Tap. Zachary jumped backwards panic radiating from his entire begin. The Alicorn smiled smugly at him, contrasting his devastated expression, her hoof still against the bubble. The Alicorn's smile grew darker, before she turned away from him and dragged the bubble back the way they had came from. Back to where she had left the shackles. Captain Timmins looked at the situation in front of him and growled. "Sir," Kim said, her shaking hands tightly clutching her axe, "we can't leave him to die." "We have our orders," He snapped, "Do not engage," Timmins' vision blinked red as the orange pony started to tease Zachary by kicking the magic cage again, "no matter what." Timmins had thought Zachary was going to escape, but the specialist had spent to much working with a squad. Timmins saw this when Zachary tried to observed the battlefield instead of instantly retreating. He was sure that Zachary was dead after the Alicorn had gotten serious. And he should have been, any Stealth Class Soldier that went through a beating like that would have died. They were simply not made to take hits like that. ...but Zachary was from the Wild Magic Class primarily and Stealth Class secondarily. The density of his magic was probably the only thing holding him together. Timmins had thought that this magic would have been enough, he was wrong. And now, with the yellow pegasus, white unicorn, and pink earth pony reconnecting with the Alicorn it looked like Zachery would not escape. All the ponies needed to do was make a barrier and drag him off... Timmins eyebrows furrowed, "Why is the yellow pegasus screaming at the Alicorn?" "They have been in disagreement for days now." Alec said nonchalantly. Timmins watched as the pink earth pony and white unicorn joined the argument, "Why?" "It sounds strange, but I don't think that they want to capture a human." Alec said, as the argument got louder. Timmins look was pure disbelief, "Why?" "I don't know, but they protested when the Alicorn tried to use bait. At first I thought they were against the use of meat as bait, will I think some of their anger came from the bait, but then they stared protesting over other things. The use of traps, of drugs or what we believe are drugs and just recently of shackles. The Alicorn, blue pegasus and orange earth pony want to capture a human, the other three? Not so much." Alec deadpanned. "So what does that mean?" Timmins asked closely watching as the argument unfold. "Nothing, other then we don't have to make a diversion. We still have to kill all of them if we want to get Zachary to safety. This just makes things easier." "We have orders." Timmins said, his glare darkening. "I know," Alec drolled before pointing to Kim and her axe, "we could do nothing while an earthquake shook the ground violently, causing the Alicorn to lose concentration and drop her spell freeing Zachary." Alec then took out a pistol pointing at the clearing and the torns that spotted parts of it, "We could only watch in horror as some torns got uprooted and fell on the ponies. They died quickly after the torns stabbed large holes into their bodies." Alec turned to Timmins, a pointed look on his face, "A very tragic but a very possible story, people die in the Dividing Woods all the time." "Alec!" "Of course Captain Timmins and Lieutenant Klein couldn't do anything. They took the long way around the clearing to better follow Zachary's escape," Alec shrugged, "By the time they made it to the other side Zachary was free and the ponies were dead." Captain Timmins glared at Alec's apathetic face, and looked around to see that he wasn't alone in his feelings. "Lieutenant?" Timmins asked. Klein was unable to meet his eyes, "Sir, it would be better if this problem, sorted itself out. Alec is right, The Dividing Woods can be very dangerous." Timmins closed his eyes, face set into a deep scowl before looking up, "Whatever you decide to do here will not happen in front of me. Understand?" "Yes sir." Zachary had curled into himself in the cage, the beating that the Alicorn had given him left him with a massive headache. The screaming from the ponies in front of him were not helping things. At least they had stopped moving when the other ponies had barreled out of the woods like bats out of hell. Zachary massaged his head ignoring the blood he was spreading around. He knew he looked like shit. The yellow pegasus had took one look at his bruised and bloody form before screaming bloody murder. Her screaming was joined by others and got worse when he had choked up blood. This of course caused his headache to get worse. Even though their screaming was getting on his nerves, he was glad for it. It gave him time. Zachary curled tighter in on himself. First and foremost he was Wild Magic Class and people in the Wild Magic Class came in three unpredictable types. He breathed out and small sparks of black magic left his lips. Discharge, which was basically lightening and smaller electric shocks. Example his mom. Implosion, things collapse inwards then outward on them mostly on accident. Example his sister. Explosion, massive destructive force that could never be used fully, or else everything around them would go up in fine smoke. Small sparks left his mouth as he pooled his the magic within him. He had never deliberately made an explosion before and knew that he was probably putting too much magic into this one. He could only hope there were no squads close to him. His eyes glowed black and his body shook with power. "Fluttershy you cannot give the human medical treatment until after we put the shackles on it!" Twilight screamed. Fluttershy glared angrily at Twilight her eyes red and her face soaked with angry tears, "Twilight can't you see how hurt he is? Let me help him before he bleeds out!" "Fluttershy stop trying tah help that, that damned demon!" Applejack yelled as she wobbled on her hooves, "Don't yah see what it did tah us? It's dangerous we 'ave to restrain it!" "You were the ones that chased after it!" Rarity screeched, "If you left it alone none of this would have happened!" "Rarity you didn't see how it fought," Rainbow Dash said stomping a hoof to the ground, "its like nothing I ever seen before! Do you see that ditch? It used Twilight to make that with one kick. A fighter like that would have came looking for a fight." "He ran away! He wasn't looking for a fight. You are just being meany jerks by forcing him to fight!" Pinkie Pie shouted jumping up and down. "Girls stop!", Twilight shouted over them, "Fluttershy, Rarity and Pinkie Pie I have no idea what got into you but this ends now. We are going to bring the human back to camp and use the shackles to hold it down. After that you can tend to its wounds." Fluttershy glared darken and her wings spread in anger, she whispered dangerously, "Don't treat me like a foal." "What." Twilight asked straining to hear Fluttershy's venom. "I said don't treat me like a foal! Through this whole 'adventure' I have been trying to tell you how wrong this was," Fluttershy jabbed a hoof in the shaking human's direction, "Just look at him, did you even stop to see the damage you did? What kind of Princess ignores the suffering of others?" "Fluttershy he wasn't suffering..." "He was terrified!" Fluttershy shouted causing Twilight to step back. "You don't know that.." Twilight weakly started. "Yes I do! If you listened to me you would have known that!" Fluttershy snapped, "And what did you do? You chased him down and cornered him! Everypony knows that you shouldn't corner a scared creature, sentient or not! Then you got angry when he tried to protect himself and did this to him!" Fluttershy breathed heavily hooves digging into the ground, "You know what I hope that the humans do attack Equestria, then everypony would know what terrible a princess you are!" Silence stretched like an untimely death, horrible and complete through the clearing. "Fluttershy, you don't mean that...do you?" Twilight said her voice trembling. "At this moment, I think I do." Fluttershy replied tears cascading down her face. "Alec I'm in position. Waiting for your signal." Kim said one hand on her axe and other on the medallion on her neck. "Swell." Alec didn't want to kill anyone. However, as an orphan that never got adopted, he wanted to make sure that what family that he did have didn't get enslaved by a dangerous and violent race. That wasn't too much to ask for, was it? Alec continued to watch the situation through his binoculars. The ponies had stopped fighting or at least had a lull their fighting. The perfect time to attack. The ponies were distracted and black sparks were coming from Zachary's mouth. ...Wait. Alec zoomed on Zachary's form how he curled into himself and how he had steadily growing sparks leaking from his mouth. Like a fuse to a bomb. "Captain are you still here?" Alec asked still watching Zachary. "We're about to leave." Timmins replied. "Don't,' Alec then called out, 'Kim were leaving." "What! Why?" Kim said turning around. "Zachary is about to destroy everything here, we need to leave." Alec said putting his pistols away. "How could he? Didn't you saw what happened to him?" Timmins asked skeptically. "Zachary is an explosion type." Alec deadpanned. Timmins stared in confusion, then glared in recognition, and then shouted in anger, "Lieutenant Klein we're going now! I do not want to be here when he goes nuclear!" They had left the clearing far behind when they felt the explosion. Using magic hardened claws they brace against a tree as the sky went dark and a deafening explosion shook the world. Smoking charred ground, and rolling clouds of murky ash came into focus as Zachary stood in the mist of the destruction he created. "Ow." Zachary held onto his left arm which was now definitely dislocated, and with the way his right knee was aching he had popped that too. Thankfully he had landed on his feet. There was no way in the demon King's Rule that he would have been able to get up if he had fallen. Well he was done here. Nothing to do but fly further into the woods and wait for rescue. He raised green wings and froze. Why did they felt so light? He ignored the popping in his neck and attempted to look at his back. "Fuck." Shreds of translucent green wings hung weakly on his back. Nothing too bad in the long run, insect wings grew back. However that meant he would have to walk back. Feathered wings used all the wrong muscles, muscles that he didn't want to further injure. Zachary swore one last time before turning around and stopped short. Was that a cough? He spun around and instantly regretted it as his body screamed in protest. However the pain dulled when a grey, yellow spotted lump rose and fell with life. Zachary could only stared as five more pony shapes became clear to him as the dark grey dust settled. Nothing should have been able to survive that blast. That was way wild magic was so dangerous, if it was left unchecked it would kill every living thing around it. Heavy grey ash hovered in the air. The air was dead. The once fertile ground was hard and blacked, dry web-like cracks promised years of arid land. The ground was dead. Once strong trees cracked and fell unto themselves as if they were thin dry twigs in the hands of a careless child. The plant life and by extension animal life was dead. So why weren't the ponies dead? Zachary continued to stare at the still breathing pegasus and saw it. A weak haze of purple magic covered the pegasus. The same haze that covered the rest of the ponies and glowed in time with the motionless alicorn's horn.   "Well, shit." Zachary looked over the situation. On one hand he had enough magic left to make one claw and slit the throats of the ponies, ending the problem. On the other hand on the end of a dislocated shoulder, he was swaying in the wind, bleeding heavy, and could hardly stand up straight. Zachary nodded to himself and pushed pass the intensity of his headache. He was done here. Zachary hobbled away from the downed ponies only to be stopped by a shout. He turned back to see the Alicorn weakly stand up, her horn's glow intensifying as she glared at him preparing herself to fight. The rational part of Zachary's mind fazed out as something in him snapped. "What the fuck does it take to fucking stop you?!" Zachary didn't care that he knew that she couldn't understand him, his anger at the situation wouldn't let him. "Do you really want to fight that badly? Well fine, I'm going to kill you until you're dead." Zachary growled loudly in animosity one hand a slick black claw as he went into a fighting stance. "Well what are you waiting for?! Let's go!" Zachary screamed, torn wings fluttering uselessly in frustration. The alicorn took a step forward then stopped when one of the lumps started to choke on the dead air. "Oh what's that," Zachary snarled, a bloody, wicked grin, "you can't fight and concentrate on saving your friends? How sad, what ever shall you do?" Zachary stalked forward, one leg dragging roughly behind him, "Well you have little bit of a tough choice now don't you? Either fight and let them die or die with them. It almost brings a tear to your eye doesn't it?" He said voice leaking hostility. He was now only a couple of strides away from the Alicorn. "Well princess here we are," Zachary spat raising his clawed hand, "do us both a favour and die this time." The alicorn stood her ground and glared up at him, and didn't waver as he went to cleave out her throat. Zachary was ready to end it. He was ready to feel blood stain his hands. He was ready to feel the life drain from the Alicorn's body. He felt!... ...something tug on his good leg. Zachary looked down and saw the grimy yellow pegasus looking up at him, a weak purple haze covering her. Her sorrowful teal eyes stared into his enraged blue ones. "Let go." He snarled. She shook her head, 'No.' "I'll kill you." 'No, you won't.' Her eyes began to brim with tears and somehow he got her message, 'This isn't you.' "How do you know that?" He snarled ignoring the impossibility of the situation. 'You tried to leave twice now,' Strong teal eyes bore into him, 'any creature that tries to leave without bloodshed wouldn't attack a defenseless one.' "That bitch isn't defenseless." Zachary replied, eyes hard. 'She is.' The yellow pegasus insisted, 'She would never fight back if it meant that we would die. And you wouldn't kill her if it meant that we would die, your not like this.' They stared at each other, the pegasus still gripping his leg and he his claw still at the Alicorn's throat. "You're wrong," Zachary said softly, causing the pegasus's eyes to overflow, "I tried to leave three times now." Zachary let the magic on his hands dissipate and with one last look of hate, he walked away from the prone alicorn back into the forest. He saw the yellow pegasus try to follow him and whirled on her, eyes elliptical and glowing in annoyance. She didn't flinch and held his gaze, 'Let me help you.' "No." 'You need help.' "I don't trust you." The pegasus deflated, dirty grey mane falling into her face, he caught a last glimpse of her eye, 'I know.' Zachary once again headed for the tree line, leaving the weakened alicorn and quietly crying pegasus alone.