//------------------------------// // Settling In // Story: Finding Home // by Auto-Buscus //------------------------------// Thunder Clap tapped his hoof impatiently, with a gruff to his groan as he awaited the arrival of his sidekicks returning from the streets of Las Pegasus to their meet up point in a small rural village outside of the metropolis town. After about a week and a half of searching, the trio of Pegasai had finally given up any hope of finding him in "Sin City". They'd tried to track Serenity down, but she'd left town on her next tour destination, and they didn't really have much time for chasing her down all over Equestria trying to get answers. Searching for Singer was just a personal vendetta of Clap's and it was irrelevant to Thunder Clap's real mission from his superiors that he worked for. Mocha, Taffy and himself were supposed to be hunting down magical artifacts left behind by ancient magic wielding unicorns, but Thunder Clap had decided to pay his old adversary a visit, only to find that he had vacated his living quarters. If he had known that he'd just missed him by mere minutes, it would have made him all the more angry. It was best that he didn't know. His black fur complemented the shading of that his had and trench coat provided, while hiding his white mane with yellow streaks going through it. He stood there breathing in the rich country side air, followed by coughs after possibly picking up some allergens that had been floating through the air. Certain types of pollen did things to certain ponies' nasal cavities, and Thunder's wasn't any different from any other hay fever prone ponies' was. The sooner he got out of there, the slightly less irritated and better he'd feel. Fortunately his waiting was near done as his compatriots finally returned. "Let me guess" he sneered. "Nothing...." replied Taffy who, in fear, pressed her mane over her face in hopes of not seeing Clap's rage. "That's fine..." he huffed. "I'm ready to get the hay out of here anyway..." He expanded his wings and prepared to fly off, but was stopped when Mocha spoke up. "I managed to get a small tidbit of information for you, though." said Mocha, who also began to flinch when he noted his boss's halt in his take off. "And what would that be?" he said turning his head to the right. He couldn't tell what expression adorned on Clap's face because his still expanded wing was still blocking it. Something that he was, in part, grateful for. "Some pony noticed a heavily packed stallion of Singer's description leaving town and heading in the direction of Canterlot, Ponyville, Manehattan, and a few other towns..." the husky pegasus continued, and trailed off when he saw a smirk forming on the mouth of Thunder Clap. "Excellent work, Mocha!" he said. "...I've decided to make a small change in our game plan. You two continue on searching for him. I'll go check in with the boss with what we've collected." He said with a gulp while pacing, thinking about the times he'd returned to his boss with rudimentary and useless objects and had been punished for failing. He hoped that he wouldn't be so unfortunate this time, and what he had would be enough to at least get a chewing out. If there was one pony he feared, it was his master, and his master only. "I figure that I've kept him waiting long enough, and that it'd be best to face him now than to wait and anger him any further. I'll meet back up with you baffoons in Cloudsdale and we'll work from there." "S-sounds like a plan, boss" said Mocha. "When you find him, report back to me understand?" he reminded before preparing his wings for flight. "You got it..." said Taffy, as she and Mocha watched Thunder Clap zoom off into the morning sky, disappearing behind a cloud. The two of them breathed a sigh of relief. "He usually conks us on the head, no matter what." said Mocha. "Unless the big boss is involved." retorted Taffy in her Bitalian accent. "Things were so much more fun for the three of us, and stealing things was much more riveting before we got involved with the likes of him! I wish Clap never even found that stupid fortress..." She deadpanned. "Not much we can do about it right now. We best be off. If he gets to the meet up point before we do again, he'll hurt us for sure!" responded Mocha, taking off. It had been one of the few times Taffy had seen Mocha use any sense of logic, as he tended to be more of a stallion who rushed foolishly into things. She was glad to see that she wasn't alone in her suspicions, and lack of faith in this boss of theirs. "Oh, yeah... right." she said following suit, snapping out of her thoughts and proceeding onto the next town. "Let's go find that little rat!" ..................... It wasn't a glorious house, but it was more than big enough for a single stallion of his type, and it gave Singer the peace and quiet he wanted to have. Not to mention the solitude. After living in cities his entire life, this would be a great change of pace and scenery for the stallion who just wanted to relax. The shack was a two bedroom house, with an upstairs loft, living room, and a bathroom located caddy corner to the kitchen. The place was about as big as Twilight's library, minus the space for all of the bookshelves there. All of his things would go into the larger room, the smaller room he would keep empty for now. Singer stared at his small shack located on the outskirts of Ponyville, just a few miles away from the entrance of Sweet Apple Acres that he had purchased with some of the money he had saved back from his Las Pegasus days. And no he hadn't earned it by gambling, he'd told his new friend, Dusk Noir, who hadn't really inquired about how he got it in the first place. Singer had just been kidding around with him while he, Spike, and Applejack helped Singer move his newly acquired furniture into his new home. His injuries had healed up quite a bit since his injury the following week. Only his wings remained in casts and would remain that way for a few more days, meaning he was still Earthbound. And though his leg still hurt a bit and he felt some headaches every now and then, he felt much much better than he did while lying in that hospital bed, feeling bitter towards everything. He now had friends to help him out, and to hang out with. One of his more prominent friends was Rainbow Dash, who took it upon herself to help him train to get back into shape, and stepped up his routine as he got better. He felt relieved that she understood that the injuries he had at the time wouldn't give results that he'd like to see. She helped him work his way back up to where he was before any injuries took place, and for that he'd been grateful because it seemed to help his recovery along. Plus it was a good way to continue to catch up with a former pal from school. He'd loved going through all of his clothes with Rarity, who helped him decide which stuff to keep and to throw away. Fortunately for him, it wasn't a lot as she found his taste in clothing intriguing. Though he was a bit saddened that he had to get rid of his yellow suit, minus his custom yellow trilby that he managed to sneak into the keep pile without her noticing. He wasn't going to part with that. Over all, he got along with her just fine. He'd began taking banjo lessons from Applejack, and while he displayed very little improvement. But it didn't bother Applejack because she'd enjoyed some of his stories about some of the Country artists he'd either performed with, opened for, or went to see perform when they'd give up on the lessons for each day. He'd also tried applebucking with AJ, Big MacIntosh, Ray and Applebloom but it took him quite a while to actually get apples to fall, due to the after shock on his legs causing him to stagger. He'd even tried to have a contest with Ray to see who could buck the most apples once he did get the hang of it. He got smoked badly, needless to say, because Ray's methods of Applebucking worked far better than Singer's did, especially since Ray was a unicorn who could teleport rapidly from tree to tree when he wanted to. That is, if he wasn't busy slacking off on the job. Singer enjoyed the family atmosphere that he felt when he visited the farm, as well as the fresh air that blew on his face out there. He and Spike had enjoyed the time they'd spent hanging out, even though it didn't typically last long. They enjoyed the mutual taste in junk food like ice cream or cookies. Singer had even baked some of his 'Case Family Cookies' for Spike, Dusk and Twilight for a reading meeting they'd had a few days back, and they'd loved them, much to Singer's joy. He and Spike also shared some of the same humor in jokes, and Singer would usually laugh at jokes that would normally be deadpan producing jokes with Dusk and Twilight. Speaking of everypony's favorite couple, he did enjoy his frequent visits to the library to read any random book for any random topic he'd felt like reading about, and he'd enjoy talking with them about some of his favorite books and books that they'd like to read too. Most of the time though, he'd choose adventure themed books like 'Daring Do', 'War on Cybertron', and other fantastic adventure books, in addition to books about the mysterious, mythical, or otherwise real-to-those-who-believed-in-them, creatures that had sparked debate among ponies from both sides of the argument. Creatures such as trolls, humans, or Cybertronians. He had to be careful when Twilight brought out super complicated educational books, however. Especially math books. Math was a weakness of his. But one thing above all he'd enjoyed about them was their wisdom beyond their years, something that he admired about the two of them, and something he often found himself lacking. Both Dusk and Twilight had been able to help him with almost anything he'd needed advice with or with anything he'd needed to know about. These two weren't his first friends in Ponyville for nothing, they proved to be pretty special friends to Singer and he felt lucky to have them around. He didn't really hang around Fluttershy all that often, but when he did, he'd enjoyed talking about animals with her. He loved going and seeing all of the baby animals she'd had; namely bunnies, hamsters, puppies and kittens since he had a soft spot for baby animals. Whether or not he'd seen her at school when she too went to school at Cloudsdale, he coudn't remember, but he seemed to understand how to approach Fluttershy and talk to her because of his past friendship with Violet, and because of how timid Violet had started out to be. Though Violet contrasted greatly to Fluttershy in most cases, there were a few similarities there as well. But above all, Singer was happy to have a friend who he could just sit back with, on occasion, and have a glass of tea with and just enjoy nature. But the pony who he'd probably enjoyed hanging out with the most was Pinkie Pie, who's taste in junk food surpassed that of his, in addition to her baking skills in the kitchen of Sugar Cube Corner greatly surpassed Singer's skills, despite Singer learning everything he knew by watching his mom bake as a child. That and her constant need for fun and parties was something that Singer could really relate to. Though he'd been kinda torn away from that due to having to focus on his career and having a nagging marefriend, now ex, on his case all the time, it often sucked the fun out of everything. But he was glad to have been revived in that matter because he'd had a lot of catching up to do. Oh he just couldn't wait to be able to use his wings again. As Dusk had neatly leviatated Singer's new chair into his living room, Singer thanked his friends for their help with some of his freshly baked cookies along with a glass of milk for each of them. Within minutes the plate was wiped clean. Everypony sat down for a glass of milk to go with the cookies as they took a small break. "It's not a problem, there buck-a-roo." Applejack said with a friendly smile. "It's always a pleasure ta help a friend or a neighbor. And it's especially nice to help a friend when they been hurt." "Aw AJ, I'm mostly fine now. But thank you for your concern." said Singer with a pleasant smile. "Nice to see that you're actually accepting help from your friends now." said Dusk as he dipped his cookie into his milk. "Yeah, I was kind of a jerk to you guys at first, but you guys helped me remember what friendship was like, and for that I thank you. I thought that after I lost my best friend in the whole wide world, and then my marefriend turned out to be a total jerk, that maybe I was just meant to be a loner as I'd screwed up with everypony who was important to me. I appreciate you all for helping me regain the true feel good feeling of having friends again." "Have you tried to contact your friend yet, or are you still having reservations about attempting that?" asked Dusk, concerned. He could tell that mentioning the memory of losing his friend was hard on him, just at the straining of his voice and the expression on his face when he thought about it. "The latter..." Singer admitted sadly. "I really miss her. She was a very special friend that one only comes across once in a lifetime. I really wish I knew what I did to chase her away." "Maybe it wasn't somethin that ya did, Sugarcube." Applejack said, as she placed a hoof on his shoulder. "Maybe it was somethin that she was a strugglin with, and didn't want ta burden ya with. Er maybe it was somethin else that she couldn't bring herself ta tell ya. Ya never know." "Yeah this doesn't make much sense to me, either" said Dusk. "I mean from what you've told me, you two were practically inseparable." "It definitely had to have been something my ex said to her, but what it could have been, I have no idea. I've always been kind of afraid to find out." he admitted. "I think it would be worth the exploration to find out where you two stand in your friendship" said Dusk. "You two owe it to each other as friends, especially if you two were that close." Singer hated to admit it, but Dusk was right. As scared as he was to do it. "And try to have faith, if you two are such good friends, it'll all work out in the end and you'll become better friends because of it." "You know what I think?" said Spike as he grinned. "I think you liiiike her..." He got stern looks from Applejack and Dusk. "What? Why else would he be afraid to go talk to her?" "What?!?" said Singer, his cheeks turned bright red at the thought. "N-No... we're like childhood best friends, and I... no that can't be it." Singer wasn't liking the way this conversation was going. How could he like Violet like that? As far as he knew, she'd never displayed such feelings for him, right? "Spike, don't taunt him like that!" Dusk said sharply. "His situation's already hard enough without such childish teasing making it any worse." "Sorry Sing..." Spike said apologetically. "It's cool, guys." Singer said, still a bit frazzled at the contemplation of he and Violet actually dating. "You guys did bring up some good points, but maybe it's best that we focus on finishing this for now. I'll continue to think on this later." he said grabbing a small table and dragging it inside. Dusk continued to levitate what little was left to take inside, while Applejack and Spike took things off of the wagon they'd used to help him pick up his stuff. After about half an hour more of moving things into the house, putting Singer's bed together, and other small details, they were finished, and were treated to more snacks that Singer made for them. "Thank you guys again for your help. I'd still be dragging a lot of big stuff in by myself if you guys hadn't stepped in to help." he said gratefully. "Not a problem, my friend. I was happy to help. I'll have to leave you to it now, though. I believe Twilight is expecting me back at Golden Oaks soon." "Me too" added Spike. "That's alright guys. I appreciated the help, and I'll be sure to have you guys over for dinner some time." "That would be great. Have a great day, Singer" said Dusk, politely tipping his hat as he started on back to Ponyville with Spike following suit. "You too, safe travels!" he called back before turning to his stetson wearing friend. "That offer also certainly extends to you, miss Applejack." said Singer to his apple farming friend, who was saddling her now empty wagon to take back home. "Mighty kind of ya, Sugar Cube! Ah'd be happy to come ta dinner sometime!" She said with a wink. "Now if ya find yerself need'n anythin atall, don't hesitate ta come find us." She hugged Singer before she took off toward the direction of home. "I'll remember that. Thank you, Applejack!" said Singer as he waved goodbye to his departing friend. With that, Singer decided to also head into the direction of town. While peace and quiet was something he looked forward to in his new solitary home, that wasn't in his plans for the day. He'd needed to shop for more supplies and food, as well as looking for a job. He couldn't keep living off of the money he'd made from his career forever, especially not after he bought that land. Another thing, he'd be able to think more about whether or not to go try and find things out and try to fix things with Violet on his walk to town. He breathed in the fresh country air, and exhaled nice and slow as if the air soothed and relaxed him. It was definitely more pleasant being in the open spaces of the country than being in the crowded and dangerous city of Las Pegasus. ........... After hours upon hours of flying and searching, Mocha and Taffy had reached Ponyville. Best to get the smaller, quicker stops out of the way first. They stopped at the "Welcome to Ponyville" sign, in an effort to rest their already tired and pulsating wings after all of that activity. "Finally! We made it!" Taffy said exasperatedly. "I didn't think we were ever gonna get here..." she moaned as she took each step. "I'm starving..." Mocha complained, trudging behind her. "You're always starving!" she quipped. "If you'd lose some weight, you'd be better off." she sniggered. "Yeah, don't try telling me that you're not tired too!" he snapped back. "Much less so than you... fatty!" she smirked. "Who you calling fatty, beanpole?" he said, giving a snappy comeback. "Actually, I can't even see your eyes through all of that mane covering them. You're more like a walking equine mop!" He laughed loudly. "You wanna say that again?!?" she replied death glaring him straight in the face. "What? What's the Pony Mop gonna do? Poke me to death? Mop me til I drown in dirty water?" He fell to his back, laughing until his already tired sides couldn't take it any more. Though what happened next was far from funny. Taffy's nostrils flared as her anger intensified and she tackled Mocha and began hitting him in the face with her hooves. "Shut... UP!" she yelled, gritting her teeth as she punched him. Mocha, threw her off of him, and began to run off of the trail, and into the tall weeds near the Ever Free Forest. Taffy jumped on his back, causing him to lose balance, and the two of them rolling into the Ever Free. "Uncle! Uncle!" cried Mocha as Taffy was pulling his back leg over his back. "That hurts, man! Stop it!" "Am I a mop? Tell me what I want to hear!" she said. The stallion kept struggling... "AM I A MOP?!?" she yelled again. "NO! NO YOU'RE NOT A MOP!" he cried in agony. "Now please let go before I get a cramp- OH TOO LATE!" His normally deep voice turned high pitched as he began to scream in his pain. On account of this, she released his leg and hopped off of the stallion's back. "And don't you forget it!" she sniggered in her victory. That is until she looked around. "Crap... where are we?" "I've heard about this place... I think it's called Forever Free Forest or something like that." noted a now limping Mocha. "Whatever it is, it's giving me the creeps." "What? Are you scared of a few trees?" retorted Taffy, still sniggering at her defeat of Mocha. "It's not the trees, but what may be lurking behind them..." he said, shaking. And not just in pain of his cramped led, but in fear as he heard a twig snap close by. "Oh grow up!" she said, observing her surroundings, seeing nothing threatening. "Whatever you heard about this place, you probably heard from some old senile old coot who doesn't even know what day it is... ha!" "Yeah and you know what happens to the young kids who don't listen to the elder in most horror stories, right?" "They... don't get eaten by the crazy elder pony?" "No, they get eaten by something else!" said Mocha, who was now starting to see yellow eyes coming at them from their North. "What could possibly be big enough in these woods to eat us?" inquired Taffy, failing to note the approaching danger incoming from behind her. "Them?" said Mocha in a wheezed voice. Taffy turned around and noticed at least half a dozen timber wolves were closing in on them. It was then, they both realized that it was move it or lose it. "RUN!" she shouted, as she darted off, rapidly. Mocha's leg was still too cramped to run, so he re-utilized his exhausted wings with all the strength he could, and he narrowly escaped getting bitten by one of them as he was taking off with his wings, narrowly missing the jumping timber wolf's jaw's by a few mere inches. Taffy had made her way out of the forest and back on to the road leading to Ponyville, when she got an unpleasant surprise. She felt a shadow, that she played off was an over passing cloud, come over her as she slowly walked along the trail, sort of hoping that Mocha would follow her back. To her displeasure, Mocha was the cause of the shadow and was on a crash collision course. Destination: right on top of her. As his large mass made impact with her small slender body, she began to curse under the weight of her exhausted compatriot, as she tried to push him off of her. "You big lump! Get off of me now!" she screamed, trying to push him off. ........ Roaming through the market, Singer picked up some fresh apples from yet another run in with Applejack, who had Applebloom helping her with selling them. Among other things, he got an order of cheese fries from his stop at the cafe, because his day would not be perfect without those cheesy spuds to munch on. He also got some eggs, peanut butter, honey, sugar, the things he'd need to make sweet tea, and various vegetables for when he made his mom's soup, something that he held on to to keep his mom close, even while she was far away. Though he argued that she made it way better than he did. At least it was edible, though. As he continued on through town, he noticed that another cafe, the building larger than the one he'd just eaten at, had a help wanted sign on the large window. He walked inside, filled out the application, and gave it to the manager. The manger looked over it, and said he'd schedule an interview with him in the next few days. Singer, content with the chance, thanked the manager and exited the facility. It'd be the perfect first job, for at least the time being. It was something he was experienced in doing, though he'd hated his jobs prior to this one, he figured since the town was so nice, maybe this one would be different. Maybe... but it was a job, and he'd take what he could get up to this point. Another place of business caught his eye. Not as a place of potential interest in finding employment, however. It was an art shop with paintings displayed outside and inside the store. He saw many paintings of landscapes, portraits of other ponies, paintings of buildings, as well as sketches, and many other media of art displayed in the store. Quite impressive, he thought to himself. "Do you like what you see?" Singer turned around in response to the voice that he'd just heard. The voice belonged to a young unicorn mare, a with purple wavy mane, one side of it covering her right eye with a pink highlight going through it as well as her tail. Her cutie mark was a paint brush with pink paint dripping off of it, and she just so happened to be wearing a beret at the time. This was no doubt, her place. "Very much so... it looks awesome in here!" said Singer. "Is all of this your work?" "You bet!" she said walking over to his side and stair up at the art pieces he was gawking at. "My name's Gentle Dream, what's yours?" "Singer Case" he replied, extending his hoof to shake hers. "I've got to say, this is really good!" "Thank you!" she beamed proudly. "I take great pride in my work." "The building doesn't look half bad, either." "It's had some work done recently... in light of a certain tyrannical villain resurfacing around here." "Wait, what?" Singer inquired. "What do you mean?" "Oh, are you new to this town?" Singer nodded. "Oh, that explains a few things then. Like why I haven't seen you around before and stuff. Where are you from?" "Well, I originally lived in Cloudsdale where I spent my childhood from when I was six to when I turned seventeen and moved out. I've spent the last four years in Las Pegasus. Was born in Canterlot though." "Wow, you've been all over the place, haven't you?" she giggled. "Yeah..." Singer said awkwardly. "I used to live in Canterlot too, until I moved here. This is where I was reunited with my childhood best friend, Star Chaser. He and I began dating shortly after that." She squeed, relishing the memories. "Your story hits pretty close to home, for me..." Singer said with a saddened sigh. "Only, I haven't seen my friend in a while.... but let's not get into that, I'm sure you don't want to hear about that." "It's okay, if you wanna talk about it. It sounds like it's weighing pretty heavily on your mind, and it's always good to have a friend to talk to about these things. Plus it's been kind of a slow day. It's not like I have anything better to do." "You already consider me a friend? But we've barely even met." "Well, we've exchanged names and we already seem to get along pretty well, I don't see why not." she smiled warmly at him. "I guess I can't argue with that. I guess it's official, then." he smiled back. "Thanks." "Not a problem." she replied. "Now, on to the matter." After half an hour or so, Singer explained to her how he had gotten to this point. And what had happened between he and Violet that fateful night when his world was turned upside down, as well as when he'd began taking the step in the right direction by breaking it off with Serenity, and how he had came to stay in Ponyville. Her conclusion was about the same as what Dusk had said earlier. "That's what Dusk said." he responded. "So you've met Dusk! That's great! He's a good friend to have!" "I agree. He's a class act, and a well mannered pony. I should take a cue from some of his good qualities." "Just be you, Sing. If you don't mind me calling you that." "It's cool." he replied. "Duly noted." she said, as she continued. "Just be you. That's the kind of pony everypony wants to know you as." "Agreed, though I don't think learning a little decorum ever killed any pony either." "I suppose that's true." she agreed. Suddenly Gentle felt somepony nuzzling on the back of her head. She turned to see that it was her coltfriend Star Chaser, who had just gotten back from doing his job as a part of weather control in Ponyville. The pony was just a bit smaller in stature than Singer was. He had indigo colored fur, a blue mane and short blue tail. Singer had been wondering where he recognized his name before, and it suddenly hit him. "Star Chaser!" he said tapping his hoof on the ground. "I thought your name sounded familiar! Seeing your face brings clarity to it. It's me, Singer. We went to school together!" "I remember." he said smiling, extending his hoof to shake Singer's, in which the latter returned. "It's good to see you again." "Likewise!" said Singer. "I see you haven't changed much." "Neither have you." he replied politely. "I see you've met my marefriend." "I have, and she's pretty cool." said Singer. "Just the latest addition to my growing number of friends, which had a total of zero when I first moved to Ponyville, so she's a welcome addition for sure." "Glad you've made yourself at home here!" said Star. "Count me in on that as well, if you wish." "Sure thing!" Singer said. "Didn't really get to know you all that well when we were younger, but perhaps we can start again." "Indeed." he smiled back, and pulled Gentle closer to him. "Anytime you want to hang out, I'm down." "Heck yeah, and when my wings get better we can actually fly. Maybe even help me finally be able to cloud bust and be able to move clouds." "You don't already know how to do that?" Star Chaser looked surprised at this. "Never learned..." he replied with a hint of embarrassment. "Never fear, you've always got me or another pony named Rainbow Dash around who can help out with that. Even if it isn't a job you don't end up doing long term, it always helps to have some extra wings around to help out in the event of an emergency." "Right!" he nodded, noting his groceries. "Crap! Totally forgot I had groceries! I'll have to make my exit now, but I'll totally catch you two later." "Definitely!" said Star Chaser. "See ya Singer, have a good day!" she beamed, waving good bye to him as he flew out of her store. "Thank you, and you too!" he shouted back as he zoomed on home in an effort to salvage the food he'd just bought, flying over the town getting a nice view of above the buildings and the ponies who walked below. He noticed Dusk and Twilight standing outside talking, and he waved to them as he flew on by the library. They waved back, as he flew off. ....... Mocha and Taffy, covered in dirt and bruises trudged on through town square, diverting their eyes from the eyes of the other ponies who stared at them. They were in route to the Ponyville hotel. They'd stay there and rest and continue their search tomorrow. However, a stroke of luck happened upon them, as Taffy looked up, noticing a familiar pony fly by above them... The pony they'd come so far to find had just flown over their heads with a load of groceries. Her eyes gleamed with excitement as she nudged Mocha, who looked a bit like a zombie, by how slow he was walking. "Look up in the sky!" she exclaimed. Mocha looked up as fast as he could and just barely caught the glimpse. Good fortune had finally stricken them. He and Taffy smirked sinisterly at each other, as realization dawned upon them. They'd accomplished their goal, and now it was time for some well deserved rest. Won't Thunder Clap be pleased? ........... Thunder Clap's body was beaten and bruised yet again. His latest findings were not enough to appease his master, and he'd gotten an extra round due to him being late, garnering a warning issued by his master for being late. He walked through the halls of the heavily guarded and well hidden fortress located deep into the Ever Free Forest, a place that was so scary that Clap had never brought Mocha and Taffy to in fear that they'd decide to bail on him and he'd end up having to do everything on his own. He kept his eyes pointed toward the ground, not looking at the other ponies, most of whom were wearing armor. Some sniggered and pointed at him in his humiliation. He was stopped by one of his commanding officers, a tall silver colored pegasus stallion, with spikey silver hair and a tail, medium in length. This stallion was one that Thunder Clap despised more than any of the other fellow henchmen of their masters, due to the fact that he'd always targeted him in humiliating him. This stallion's cutie mark was that of an eagle, and like many of the stallions and few mares in the fortress, he was a reject of Celestia's Royal guard, who'd failed meet the requirements in training. But his past didn't stop the stallion from being a smug, conceited jerk to every pony under him. One other reason in particular he hated this stallion was the fact that he was his master's head lackey, Wingo, and was often the one who informed their leader of his failures. "So, did he give you another warning again?" he asked irritatingly. "I would expect so, since you're still breathing..." Clap continued on, trying not to let him get the best of him. Maintaining his angry facial expression as he tried to avoid making eye contact while he walked past him. "I don't think I'd expect him to tolerate any further failures, Thunder Clap. You'd might want to keep your head screwed on right from now on, and start bringing in results or our master may not decide to be as merciful next time." "Shut...the buck...up...." he muttered, gritting his teeth as he stomped out of the hall, turning to go down another, still muttering under his breath. "Singer... when I find you, you're going to REALLY get it, now!"