And that choice was poor. He is weak.
And yet, so strong.
Dash should've followed Twilight. She knew that Twilight likely knew about what was going on. But she couldn't help but stare at the collapsed building that the strange pony was knocked into. None of the other ponies were even attempting to go near the mess, as most of them were panicking, with the few sane ones trying to control the chaos.
"Tch." Dash grunted as she took off towards the house. When reaching the destroyed house, she desperately started to clear the debris, hoping the stallion was still alive. The few deaths she had witnessed were of old age, or due to an unfortunate accident, as weather pegasi work was seldom dangerous. But this wasn't an accident.
"C'mon...please..." Dash's voice trembled. She had to admit she was scared, even if the stallion seemed like a jerk, nopony should ever deserve to die. And then a piece of rubble flew into her face.
"Seriously?! The magic mist thing is combustible?! Stupid cigarette. Then again, I guess that's why fireballs are a thing..." Scout kicked away another piece of ceiling and climbed out of the mess he was in. When he slid down the pile of crap, he saw Dash with part of a wall on her face. "Hey, there's a little sumthin' on your face. Or is it your face?" Scout said, walking past her.
I was worried about this guy! Dash felt a vein pop and pushed herself up, letting the wall slide off of her side. "I was trying to help ya know, you could-" Dash stopped and stared at the massive bloody gash on Scout's side, and sizable cuts across his left wing. She was forced to push don something she felt coming up her throat, leaving a bad feeling across her mouth.
Scout turned, curious as to why the dumb thing had stopped speaking, but didn't stop walking. "Yeh, sure, whatever. Wimp. It's just a few broken ribs, get over it."
"Hey, hey, wait. You need a hospital!" Dash quickly flew over to stop his path. "You shouldn't be moving at all!"
Scout pushed her aside with his hoof, "Yeah~, no. I hate doctors. I've had worse anyways." He started heading toward the plaza, planning to simply grab his weapons.
"You need medical attention. What, are you planning to fight that thing again with your injuries?!" Dash yelled at him.
Scout turned so that she would see him roll his eyes. "Fuck no, I don't care about that shit anymore. Why bother? Obviously, I hold a grudge but I've got more important stuff to do. Not to mention I won, dumbass ran away even if I took one flesh wound."
"That's not just a flesh wound! You're going to pass out if you keep going with those injuries!"
"So what? Not like you should even care." Scout waved his hoof behind his head. "Don't you have some damn panicking to do, or possibly go and cry in a corner, scared of the big bad black pony! Shoo!"
Another vein popped in Dash's anger. She would retort, but it's not like he would care. And if he doesn't care, she wouldn't either. Anyways, she also had something to attend to. Dash started flying upwards to catch a sight of the purple mare from earlier, leaving the bastard of a stallion down below.
Scout picked up the last of the weapons that were dropped in the plaza, surprised that even with the mass panic that none of his stolen inventory was damaged. Even the delicate stuff that hardhat made for him was perfectly fine. However, if some of the other inventions that stayed in his backpack had been damaged in anyway, he probably wouldn't be able to use those anymore. At least, not without fear of being exploded.
Scout pushed aside a few ponies to get towards the emptying streets, probably rubbing a small amount of blood on a few of them. "Alright, alright...now what? Planet Gaia? Equestria? How the hell do I get back home?! Wait...why do I wanna go home again?"
Scout ran a mental checklist, much to the chagrin of his anti-egghead personality. Positives are there's no more fighting or needing to die, wings, and the chance to be away from the dumbasses on his team or the old hag of an announcer. Negatives were being a pony, no substantial money source if money was a thing here, and being a frikin' pony.
Scout stopped his train of thought when he spotted a carelessly abandoned apple and hay cart. Okay, are apples that important in this place? Seriously, do they warrant this kind of attention? That attention should be on me! Wait, I shouldn't be comparing my holiness to apples...
Scout picked up some hay, and proceeded to stare intensely at it. Is this edible? Scout sat there and pondered one of the greatest questions presented to the man-turned-pony community, population: one thousand atoms of awesomeness. Ah, Scout, you old dog, are you ever going to get sick of praising yourself? Hell no.
Before he could contemplate further on whether or not to take a bite, a rainbow blur tackled him to the ground and caused him to drop the hay. Groaning in frustration, Scout looked straight into the face of the annoying rainbow-colored haired pony from earlier.
"You're stealing again? You ever try, I don't know, paying for these things?" Dash growled.
Noticing how the pony had him pinned down on both hooves, Scout coyly said, "You just met me! I mean, I like going fast and all, but I gotta admit I've never had a fangirl be this aggressive before."
Dash's face flushed red, and scrambled backwards. "Ew! Gross! No, just no!"
At this moment, five other ponies caught up to Dash. "Dash, what the hay are ya rushin' ahead for? Twilight's trying to explain stuff on the way, and wait it's you! Ya darned apple thief!"
Twilight, unlike Applejack, actually realized what Scout's presence meant. "You're alive?!" Noticing the gash on his side and before she could contemplate on whether or not to comment about their earlier actions involving the misrepresentation of the force of gravity, Twilight continued, "And you need a hospital!"
Other than Rainbow, who already saw the wound previously, underwent the same process she had previously when looking upon the wound. Fluttershy had even managed to find a nearby bush where she could quietly vomit without being seen.
Pinkie, being the first to recover, argued, "Wait! We were supposed to scene cut to the entrance of the forest and all gasp, 'The Everfree Forest!' as if it continued our previous statement!"
The ponies took a moment from their reactions to Scout's wound, and stared at her blankly. Even Fluttershy was peeking from her hiding bush in confusion.
Scout, familiar with story elements(See last chapter), said, "But since there isn't anyway I'm not the main character, and I hadn't heard this previous conversation, so naturally the story re-centers itself on me."
The blank stares now went to Scout, with Pinkie replying, "Oh, I suppose that makes sense!" She inhale loudly, "Does this mean you're joining the journey since you're the main character?!"
During this conversation, Chucklenuts the squirrel had randomly wander into the bush where Fluttershy was, assuming he found a safe place to eat his nuts, and paid no attention to his owner which was towards his left. Scout thought about it, "On second thought, I don't want to be the main character for once, it sounds like too much of a pain."
Pinkie asked, "Even if I win at rock paper scissors?!"
Scout then sounded excited, "Alrighty then! Let's do-" Scout stared at his hooves again, and glared at Pinkie. "You suck."
During Pinkie's responding giggle, it cloaked the noise of the growling of an annoyed squirrel that just stepped in vomit. Which for some reason had some weird-looking black lace in it. The growling also directed at Fluttershy, forced the mare to begrudgingly walk back towards the group.
Applejack, quicker than the others, blinked in rapid succession in order to rid herself of her confusion. Her next statement, luckily enough, had absolutely nothing to do with anything aforementioned. Sighing, Applejack turned to Dash and said, "Hey, Rainbow Dash, since y'all are the fastest, why don't ya take him to the hospital while we go ahead to the Everfree? Ya were gettin' mighty bored just walking with us."
Before Dash could protest, Scout was registering the first few of her words in his head. She said that the wall-on-her-face pony was Dash... the annoying Engineer er, orange Engineer not smart Engineer, oh screw it, said her name was Dash... Scout spoke up, unfortunately yelling in the general direction of Fluttershy, "Wait a damn minute!"
After his successful prompt for Fluttershy re-establish the owner of the bush, Rainbow Dash said, "Yeh! I don't want to take him to the hospital!" However, this assumed that Scout was paying attention to the conversation of the ponies, which was severely mistaken, and she could only spout, "Yeh! I-" before being cut off.
"Shut up." Scout, from his assumed to be normal standing position of ponies, stared at his hooves.
Rainbow Dash glared at him, as Applejack, frustrated with his outright denial to Dash's statement, "Now wait a gosh-"
"Shut up." Scout stared at Dash's hooves.
Meanwhile, after being abruptly pushed out of the bush by a fleeing Fluttershy, Chucklenuts reentered the bush, ready to face bushmaster Fluttershy.
"But y'all-"
"Shut up." Scout stared back at his own hooves.
Once again, cutting to the squirrel, Chucklenuts knew that brute force was no match for the cowering pink-haired goliath, however, Chucklenuts, in the brief time he was there, gained the heart of the bush! And he played his trap card!
"Would-"
"Shut up." Scout stared at Dash's hooves. The concerned mare noticed his attention and started to pull back her hooves in discomfort.
Chucklenut's trap card happened to be just grabbing the tip of Fluttershy's mane and smearing it with some of the vomit. Much to the chagrin of the mane's owner, Fluttershy, for a brief second, experienced assertiveness, saying, "Now that was very mean! Wat do you have to say for yourself?!" However, the bout of courage had been brief, as she went back to a passive state. "I mean...because it...was mean."
"Bu-"
"Shut yer darned country-speak! And how could you confuse my hooves with hers?! Mine are clearly more muscular and toned!" Scout accusingly point his hoof towards Applejack.
Contemplating his response, Chucklenuts the squirrel was about to apologize until he realized something. He was hungry, Scout is annoying, he didn't care, and Scout is annoying. So what he did instead was push Fluttershy slowly out of the bush while she meeped.
"Well-" Applejack had apparently inherited a knack for being the character to be cut off in conversations.
"Enough! " Pinkie raised her hooves in the air. "We have important things to do! And the author is clearly having trouble writing so many characters! Rarity hasn't said anything! And Twilight's was supposed to be the center of attention during this scene but the author forgot his original intentions!" Stopping her outburst, Pinkie dragged a cart that spawned from seemingly nowhere, "There's a story here! Curse the author for not knowing how to stop this scene!"
Pinkie Pie ran up to Scout and leaned forward in a cartoon-like manner. Scout was thinking about other things at the moment, mainly "I'd rather be in a action movie with a harem...not a book...books are stupid." and "There are five, wait six, females here...should I try and make it a harem? But I don't like any of them. Oh, right, and they're ponies. I don't want to be in that kind of romance. That romance is stupid." and "The hooves actually do look alike...does that mean my arms always looked like a girl's? I don't like that thought. That thought is stupid." and "There's too much repetition in my thoughts. My thoughts are either meant to be on the level of God's or used in M-rated thoughts. So repetition is stupid."
Pinkie's forehead colliding with Scout's as he didn't respond by leaning backwards coerced him into leaving his thoughts however. "Pinkie Promise you'll go to the hospital!"
Scout, annoyed, replied, "If you stop breaking the fourth wall so damn much, than cross my frikin' golden heart, and hope to fly...embarrass everyone else at flying."
Pinkie's eye extended towards his, "Close enough! Now say 'Stick a cupcake in my eye!'
Resisting...failing to resist the urge to poke the protruding cone-like eye, Scout said simultaneously, "Stick a cupcake in my eye." Scout was less pleased with Pinkie's lack of reaction.
"Ok!" Pinkie went back to a goofy smile. In one fell swoop, she dragged the other five ponies into the cart and pushed towards the entrance to the Everfree Forest. "To fight Nightmare Mooooooooooooooooooon!
Scout lazily waved. "Good luck with that." Staring towards the castle on the side of the mountain, Scout said, "Who cares about a promise?" Scout starting walking in a straight line towards it, even with an imposing looking forest unbeknownst to him to be on the way.
The dark mist seemingly watching the conversation followed the six ponies, ready to spring its traps as soon as the forest is entered.
Catching up to the speeding cart, the dark mist overheard the white one speak, "Fluttershy, darling, what happened to your hair?!"
Fluttershy merely meeped in response. Rainbow Dash, reflecting on the previous conversation and events, said, "Well, I agree with Pinkie on one thing. That took forever!"