//------------------------------// // Let The Games Begins // Story: The Appearance of The New // by Castok the Shadow //------------------------------// Applejack POV: It's been nothing but work. Not that I'm complaining. Everyone did their part in fixing the town and helping those who lost their homes. It's just that we've been giving apples all day and none has noticed that our farm is not so far from the Everfree. Few guards patrols our farm. I'm worried that this Dynol fella will come and pay a visit to us without anything to defend us. It stinks, but we have to make do. I was kicking some apple trees with Fluttershy. She came and see if we needed any help. Honestly, we need all the help we can get. And with a extra pair of hooves on the job. It felt like a blessing. We had enough apples for those who lost their homes and looked at my apple trees. I hope that the repairs are almost done. Even though this farm is large, it does not hold all the apples in the world. We were almost half done with all of the apples tree's apples being kicked. We'll ran out of apples if this continues on. "Can I ask you a question, Applejack?" Fluttershy asked as she helped put the last basket of apples on Big Mac's wagon, ready to take to Ponyville centre. "Of course, Fluttershy" I replied with a smile "What's on your mind?" "Oh, this must sound silly" Fluttershy muttered "But do you think what we did to Dynol was wrong? I mean five years ago, we charged him away but he didn't hurt anyone and now his back with powers that almost destroyed Ponyville" I stared at Fluttershy unclear on what she had just said to me. Twilight told me about what Fluttershy said yesterday, she still thinks that what we did was wrong. "Well, sugarcube" I calmly answered to her "I don't believe that what we did was bad, but I don't believe what we did was good either" I walked up to her and placed a hoof on her shoulder. "I don't know if it was good or bad. But right now, Dynol is planning something and when we caught him, maybe we'll find out if what we did was the right thing" After reinsuring her. Fluttershy looked down to the ground as if she was gathering her thoughts. "But what about the other leaders?" Fluttershy said in a concern tone of voice. "What do they think about all of this?" "Well princess Cadence is already here along with the minotaur chief" I said. "But only the Griffin empress and one of the elder dragons hasn't arrived yet, so they are gonna have a long and serious conversion when they arrive." *** Celestia POV: "No, we will not go into the forest, High Chief Rock-Axes!" I explained to Rock Axes. He was a tall minotaur with two sliver horns that carved to the top of his head and down like a ram with two golden rings on the horns. He had two steel axes behind on his back and wore leather armour that may or not of been a manticore. He along with princess Cadence, who was standing next to Luna and Twilight. Arrived first before the griffins or the dragons. Cadence brought with her a platoon of crystal guards under the command of captain Shining Armour and Flash Sentry. While Rock-Axes, being the 'great chief' brought a huge number of minotaur warriors that could hold a fort. But I expected something like that because minotaur chiefs always want to show their strength to the outside world. We've been arguing about what to do. I wanted was to wait for the others to arrive first. But Rock-Axes wanted to go now and face Dynol this instant. "I faced more worse things then an air bender, fire throwing ape" Rock-Axes said with his arms cross. "We can overpower him with minotaur strength alone" "Power will not win this crisis" I told him in a firm voice. "Brute strength does not win over careful planning, Dynol controls all of the forest and it's creatures so a open attack will lead many injured or worse killed" "To a pony maybe" Rock-Axes grunted "But we minotaurs have lived through hundreds of fights, this 'crisis' you call it is nothing more then a pest that needed to be crush." Rock-Axes then started to walk out of the tent and heading towards his warriors. "Minotaurs, lets move out." Rock-Axes commanded his warriors "We got a ape to kill" After giving his orders, the whole minotaur warriors marched towards the Everfree forest, leaving Celestia shocked from how Rock-Axes talked to her and just didn't listen to her reasons about going to face Dynol alone. Luna looked to her sister "What shall we do?" Luna asked. "Shall we try and stop him?" "There's no reasoning with minotaur chiefs, Luna" Celestia explained to her as she lowered her head in defeat. "Lets hope that he will spare some in mercy" As the minotaur warriors entered the forest borders. Two ravens watched them entering. One raven flew into the deeper part of the forest while the other one flew into the town and landed on top of the royal tent. *** Dynol POV: I was in my newly built war room. It was in a reasonably size hall that held a round table in the made with six chairs surrounding it. It held a map of all of Equestria and her nearby kingdoms. All of the different kingdoms had a flag that tells us what is what. Like the ponies were their flag of their royal, the griffin a eagle claw, the minotaur two horns and the dragon a scaly wing. There was also the 'Changeling' flag that had a fang with insect wings and finally us with Varlock's symbol as the Horde of the Forest, which as all of the forest as our territories. There was some flaming poles that kept the room lit. It almost like we were a shadowy and evil forces... But we know we're not. Inside the war room was me, Varlock, his son who's name is Llofrudd and WoodFang. "Shall we recap on what we know to be safe?" I asked my council of the Horde. "Agree" Varlock sided with me. He leaned down on the table and placed his hands on it as did and Llofrudd, though WoodFang just rested his head. "Equestria is perhaps the most powerful kingdom because of their rulers that controls the celestial bodies. Their allies are the Crystal Empire in the northern part of Equestria. The Griffin Empire is their most loyal ally thanks to some chaos lord. The Griffin are also allies to the minotaurs of the plain lands." "Who does the Crystal Empire and Griffin Empire rules over?" Llofrudd questioned his father. "The Crystal Empire is just a name, son. Although the Griffins rules over the Zebras of the desert-lands" Varlock answered his son's question. "Who are their enemies?" I popped the next question to Varlock. "That will be the Changelings of the Badlands" He responded as he pointed to where the Changeling hive is, far south to where the Griffin Empire and Equestria is. "Although they have been separated into three groups, one of them is the loyalists to their queen while the other: Crimson Wings and Blitzschlag have been fighting each other for some reason. The location of their where about is unknown." "Anything else we should know?" "There is one" Varlock answered "The dragon holds" He then pointed to the northern part of Equestria, where this Crystal Empire is. "They have a trade agreement with Equestria, but they are not so much as friendly has the other" "Why?" "Some crisis that happened years ago that made them lose some of their mountain holds and Equestria... Sort of abandon them to their fate. So they were once allies, now they are just unfriendly neutral to each other" "Damn, these Equestrians can really be a dick sometimes" I growled to myself from the info that I just heard. Soon a raven flew from a window and landed on my shoulder. Then it gave me a heads up. "Gentlemen" I raised my voice to get everyone's attention. "We have some minotaur guests that were not invited to join us" I turned to face Varlock "This is where you can show me your people's fighting style" Varlock nodded with a grin. "Goodness" Llofrudd spoked up in surprise. "You sure caused those ponies pain, didn't you Dynol?" I looked at Llofrudd in anger, not to him but to the ponies as my molten mask started to cover my face slowly. I don't know why, but for some reason I got extremely mad. I spoked "I'm causing these ponies pain?.... I WILL SHOW THEM THE TRUE PAIN FROM ALL THESE YEARS I'VE BEEN THROUGH!" I slammed my fist on the table as the Horde's flag and the minotaur's flag moved together in combat. Let the games begins.