The Equestrian Venture

by TheCrimsonDM

Chapter Twenty Nine: Rat Problem

Twilight Sparkle and Applejack stood on the edge of the balcony overlooking the town, their attention drawn toward the powerful form of a giant white alicorn flying towards them. The alicorn landed proudly on the balcony and the two smaller ponies couldn’t help but stare at the human girl who was riding on her back.

Rita grinned madly, and with a waving motion she said, “I have taken over Equestria, and now with my faithful steed, Celestia, I shall take over the world! And I’ll eat all of your cake, you must please me with cake… immediately.”

The two smaller ponies jaws hit the floor and before they were even given time to react Celestia bowed her head and said in a somber tone, “It is true, Twilight. I simply could not defeat her cuteness, it overpowered me. Please bring us cake before she decides to punish us.”

Twilight stared in complete silence along with Applejack for nearly a minute, the whole time Celestia and Rita fought a difficult battle within themselves, to not burst out into hideous laughter. After the minute finally passed they could no longer do battle with the giggling forces inside and so they began laughing. As Rita was doubled over on top of Celestia’s back with her face partially buried into the tri colored mane she watched as Twilight finally figured out what was going on.

With a sudden explosion of anger Twilight shouted, “THAT’S NOT FUNNY!”

Applejack joined in the laughter as well for a short bit only adding to Twilight’s frustration. Twilight blew steam out of her nostrils, and her mane stood on end. She took a few steps toward the taller princess and asked in as calm of a voice as she could, “Did you actually need something, Princess Celestia? Or are you simply trying to play pranks on me?”

Celestia stiffened up and raised her head, Rita and Applejack began laughing slower, and slower, before stopping altogether. Rita saw the serious expression on Twilight’s face, and the one on Celestia’s. Something was very wrong here. Applejack instantly butted in saying, “Now that was a funny little joke, princess. Ah’m glad that ya’ll came over to say hi, aren’t you, Twi?”

Twilight stood as tall as she could before saying, “You ate all of my food. All of it! Princess Celestia, I do not have the money to go and restock that much food. The reason I called Applejack over right now was so that I could work out a deal with her and maybe have enough to eat for the rest of the week, to make matters worse she has a problem with some animal’s sneaking in and eating her stores right now.”

Celestia frowned and looked away. “I am sorry, Twilight. I had originally believed that to be you’re servant’s food store. Surely, I thought, you had more food that I couldn’t find right away. Fluttershy did the kindness of explaining that you did not have servants… nor did you have a lot of funding. I swear to personally see to this matter and repair the damage that I have caused.”

Twilight’s eyes brightened up and she smiled. “You mean it?”

“Yes, on one condition,” Celestia added slyly.

Twilight suddenly looked worried as she remembered her station and took a nervous step backwards. “What is it that you want, Princess Celestia?”

“I’m going to stay here, in my own private room,” Celestia stated.

“Oh… for how long?”

Celestia touched a wing to her chin, and Rita felt her heart skip a beat as the wing suddenly swung over her. “I could probably get away with a few months, maybe a little longer. My sister has been looking for more responsibility as of late, so I think this vacation would be good for her.”

Twilight’s face suddenly turned into pure panic and she began stepping back and asking, “What? Why would you do that? For how many months? You aren’t trying to pry into my private life are you? I swear I’m not keeping any secrets from you.”

Celestia smiled warmly and thought out loud, “But this would leave my sister completely alone for a few months… she would get lonely.”

Twilight’s eyes became sharp, intelligent, and cunning. “So what you’re saying, is that Luna will be completely alone for a few months while you are here… doing whatever it is that you wanted to?”

“Yes, that sounds about right.”

Twilight grinned and looked almost evil for a moment before trotting away and saying, “You have my permission to stay as long as you need to. I have business to tend to.”

“But what about mah farm?” Applejack asked.

Just as Twilight stopped Celestia spoke up saying, “Oh I’m sure that Rita could handle that. Now couldn’t you?”

Rita leaned back and said, “Yeah, yeah, I’ll do it. Twilight, go get yourself a break. You look ready to snap already.”

“Yes! Starswirl’s library is ours,” Twilight said excitedly,” I mean… er… I’ll be investing some time doing research in Canterlot.”

Celestia looked directly at Twilight and asked, “Aren’t you going to visit my sister?”

“Yeah she’s helping me explore, um studying up on Starswirl…”

Rita looked up at the clear blue sky and sighed. “Well at least I’ll be having some fun.”

Rita walked silently alongside Applejack for almost an hour before reaching the farm, and when they arrived they darted left and made their way towards a small three story house. The house was orange and seemed to be halfway constructed with giant barrels. A metal carrot stood on top of the house, spinning slowly in the breeze. Rita had to admit that it was probably one of the most unique looking homes around Ponyville.

“Well it took long enough to get here,” Applejack said smartly.

Rita folded her arms and growled. “It’s not my fault that humans don’t walk as fast you ponies. My legs are tiny, look at them.”

“Ah don’t care about that, what I care about are the giant rats that are eating our food stores,” Applejack explained.

Rita suddenly picked up her walking speed and asked, “Did you just say giant rats?”

“Ayep, those filthy vermin have a habit of taking haven inside our cellars every now and then. Usually we get Fluttershy to help us try and remove ‘em peaceful like. But these vermin are needin’ a good buckin’ Ah reckon. Just so ya know, we are aiming to wipe out these hostiles, so don’t be holding anything back on ‘em,” Applejack explained.

“That’s a bit harsher than I expected from you ponies, at least when Fluttershy is at hand, er hoof,” Rita stated.

“Yeah, well this is what happens when ya’ll attack one of our own and get them sick an all. We aren’t playin’ nice this time round, so kill as many as you can,” Applejack said.

As the two arrived at the carrot house they heard a strong and loud voice calling out and demanding, “DON”T MOVE!”

The two saw a blue stallion with an messy silver mane standing on his hind legs. He held a bow in between one of his fetlocks and an arrow in the other. The arrow was drawn back, and he was aiming right at the two. Rita felt her heart plunge as the arrow was loosed and with such speeds that she couldn’t keep eye contact, the arrow flew.

The arrow sailed right past Rita’s ear and stuck something. She saw the arrow’s shaft floating in mid air out of the corner of her eye. Suddenly she became aware of the shadows at her feet, her shadow, Applejack’s shadow, and one other shadow in between the two of them. Rita jumped forward and turned around only to see the monster that had snuck up on them.

A giant rat stood on its hind legs staring cross eyed at the arrow stuck between its eyes. It reached up with a scaly arm and grabbed at the arrow for a moment before hissing, “Thisss isss…” its eyes rolled back into its skull and it fell over, dead.

Rita stared at the rat for a moment before suddenly turning around and with extra caution, she advanced towards the stallion. Applejack gave a whistle at the sight of the fallen monster and followed Rita.

The stallion settled back down on all fours before giving a nod to Applejack and Rita. “Morning, AJ, ma’am. You’re here to help us with the monsters?”

“Ayep, this here is Rita. She’s a human, but she’s apparently a good fighter. Rita, this is Heart Drizzle, he’s one of my cousins, he was in the military,” Applejack introduced them.

Heart Drizzle stood a few inches taller than Rita and looked her up and down before saying, “If you can’t spot them sneaking up on you, you should just stay inside with the foals. These rats are aiming to kill this time around.”

“Darn it, the last invasion they just were stealing food stuffs. Why are they fighting back now?” Applejack asked before stomping a hoof into the hard ground.

Heart Drizzle looked around and said, “They are probably being chased out of their natural habitat south of here, with no other direction they decided to go north. It’s sad that we have to put them down like this, but they tried to kill our young. There is no forgiveness for that.”

Rita suddenly had a heart wrenching image of Applebloom and couldn’t stop herself from asking, “Is Applebloom okay?”

Applejack gave Rita a curious look for a moment before answering, “Yeah she’s fine, she wasn’t the one who was hurt. It was Carrot Top’s filly who was hurt.”

Rita let out a sigh of relief and said, “Alright, let’s go kick some monster butt.”

Rita walked alongside Heart Drizzle in silence for a few minutes as they made their way towards the southernmost end of the farm. Applejack had run off to assist in another location leaving these two to take care of matters on this side. While they walked Rita took the time to appreciate her new companion’s weapons.

On Heart Drizzle’s left side hung a short sword with a golden hilt, she could see a faded image of the sun on its sheath. Heart Drizzle’s bow however was something more curious. The bow itself was an almost standard long bow save for the little hole that allowed it to hang from a hook that was worn on Heart Drizzles right side. He also had a nearly full quiver of arrows to spare, this stallion was prepared for a good fight, and Rita approved.

With a sudden uneasiness Rita noticed that Heart Drizzle was staring back at her. She looked up into those eyes and saw an intelligent, hardened being looking back at her. Somehow she felt instantly scolded and looked away shamefully.

The silence was broken as Heart Drizzle suddenly spoke, “You’ve seen real hardship. Those eyes of yours betray you’re past as a warrior, though I’d dare say that you have been out of touch with that side of yourself for quite some time. Did you retire?”

“There was one last battle near the end of the war, it was brutal and I couldn’t find myself enjoying combat like I had used to. I still hold some rank, but it’s in a safe position, Estella believes that I’m too dangerous to let out into the field again. Ever since I came here though, things have been much easier for me… I really like it here in Equestria,” Rita explained. An air of trust was forming between the two soldiers.

Heart Drizzle looked forward and suddenly stopped walking. Rita felt something was off and she halted as well. Together they looked around and out of the earth two giant rats popped out on either side of them.

Heart Drizzle grabbed his sword in his mouth, pulled it free, and leapt on top of the one to his left, his sword plunging down into the monsters back. Rita jumped high into the air with a spin, soared over the head of the rat to her right and as she came down behind it she pulled her daggers free and with a flash of her blades she landed. A second later the rat took a step forward, turned around to look Rita in the eyes and fell over dead. The rat that Heart Drizzle was on was felled as well.

With her heart pumping hot blood and her body filled with energy she couldn’t help but grinning as she stared back at Heart Drizzle who was doing the same. They just stared at each other in silence for a moment, both of them seeing and approving of the other’s skills.

Heart Drizzle hopped off the body and said, “I’m sorry that I doubted you earlier.”

Rita waved a hand saying, “I had already forgotten about it.”

Heart Drizzle looked ahead of them and Rita followed his gaze, a corn field stood proudly and in the distance a small house. Three shapes were struggling on top of the house. With sudden speed Heart Drizzle took off in a gallop, and Rita hurried along although she was quickly left behind. Rita didn’t argue though, because the closer she got to the house the more she realized the danger ahead of them.

A brown mare with bright red pigtails stood on top of the small two story house. Two of the rats were climbing the roof and slowly advancing towards her. Heart Drizzle quickly stood on his hind legs and without delay he fired an arrow. Before the arrow even hit its mark he loosed a second arrow. The two arrows hit their marks and the rats rolled off the building and fell to the ground limp.

The mare waved back at Heart Drizzle just as Rita caught up. Heart Drizzle looked dangerously around and said, “I’m glad that Acorn is safe, but where is her father?”

Rita looked around and unable to see anything she suggested, “Maybe he’s inside?”

Heart Drizzle nodded and the two of them crept on stealthily through the field towards the house. After reaching the house they began hearing some voices from just around the corner. Rita peaked around the corner of the building and saw a flattened area with a small dirt road leading out. Five different rats stood in a circle on the road speaking to one another, it was hard for Rita to distinguish the voices from one another.

“This pony was easy enough to kill.”

“Why do we have to take pony land? This is not a home.”

“The two legs and the ponies already took our home, with their magic sticks and fire. We cannot return, and so we will take the ponies’ home. Remember to kill any pony who stands in our way.”

Rita looked harder at the ground inside the circle and saw the body of an old looking stallion, his brown fur was stained red. A dark brown cowpony hat sat atop his gray mane. Rita pulled her head back and let out a shaky breath.

“He wasn’t inside the house was he?” Heart Drizzle asked, although from his tone he already knew what Rita had just seen.

“No… he’s out there surrounded by five of the monsters,” Rita said quietly.

Heart Drizzle looked at the open door to the house and he said quietly, “Let’s go inside. The two of us can’t just-“

Rita summoned a fireball to her right hand and began looking for a good trajectory to toss it at. Suddenly she heard Heart Drizzle hiss, “Put that out! Are you trying to set the corn field on fire?”

Rita released the spell and looked at him flatly for a moment, she hadn’t thought about an accidental fire starting. That basically left her with one attack spell and her daggers, thus turning this into a dangerous proposition.

“How do we kill them all then?” Rita asked.

Heart Drizzle let out a sigh before explaining, “I was going to say that we will have to take them on from cover. If we get inside we can get the advantage and tear them down before they can even reach us. Please tell me that you won’t try to set anything on fire again.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t think about starting a fire…” Rita apologized while feeling rather stupid for not thinking ahead.

The two of them took precaution to be extra quiet when walking into the house next.

Inside, the house was a wreck. Furniture had been torn open and food was scattered everywhere. It looked as though these rats had taken their time to destroy the little home as much as they could. The two of them quickly searched the first floor and after seeing no signs of any monsters there they made their way up the staircase to the second floor. Once on the second floor they were treated to a balcony that overlooked the front entrance and a hallway that lead to several rooms and a ladder that lead up into the attic.

Heart Drizzle walked forward quietly checking every room along the way. Rita stood at his back and made sure that nothing snuck up on them. Heart Drizzle stopped after reaching one room in particular and Rita took a quick look inside. The walls were covered in sketches of ponies and the bed had two pillows on it. There was also a suit of golden armor, covered in scratches, sitting against the wall.

“I’m so glad that he’s in Canterlot right now,” Heart Drizzle whispered to himself.

“Who is?” Rita asked.

Heart Drizzle closed the door and explained, “8-bit, he’s a… friend of mine. That’s my room right there, and whenever he’s around town he spends a lot of time with me there. I’m just glad that he’s somewhere safe right now.”

“That’s great, but we still have Acorn to take care of. So let’s hurry,” Rita said, not wanting to spend any more time inside this house with those rats outside.

Heart Drizzle nodded and suddenly he stood on his hind legs again. Rita ducked to the side as Heart Drizzle grabbed his bow and an arrow. That’s when Rita saw the rat that had crawled out of the room at the end of the hall. A single arrow flew past Rita’s face and glided down the hallway before embedding itself into the rat’s skull. The rat fell backwards and out of the window that was just behind it, causing a loud ruckus on its way out.

“Crap!” Heart Drizzle shouted as he got back on all fours and quickly grabbed his bow with his teeth and went to the head of the staircase. Rita followed.

Just as they arrived five angry looking rats poured into the front door. Heart Drizzle stood, loosed another arrow, and dropped one. Rita pointed her right gauntlet at another one and shot a beam of white energy at it. The rat fell on the staircase, but the other three rats quickly climbed over their fallen companion.

Heart Drizzle dropped to all fours and ran to the ladder with Rita hot on his trail. The two quickly climbed up to the attic and turned just in time as one of the rats stuck its body halfway through the attic entrance. Rita unleashed another beam into the rats face. It fell back and down the ladder. Not even a second passed before another rat stuck its head up and Heart Drizzle fired an arrow into it. That rat fell down as well.

The two waited for the final rat to come up for a moment, but nothing came. Heart Drizzle pulled his sword and charged forward before jumping down the ladder. Rita followed him and watched as the last rat tried to flee only to be cut down from behind by Heart Drizzle’s blade.

After that things turned quiet and Heart Drizzle made his way up to the attic, out the window and onto the roof where he helped Acorn get down. The three of them retreated to the living room and Heart Drizzle took one of the thick red curtains and walked outside. Rita’s heart sunk as she was reminded of the body outside.

Acorn sat nervously and looked up at Rita, the mare was a few inches shorter than average and looked a little younger as well. She was still shaking a little as she asked, “Do you know where mah pa is? He was supposed to be home by now.”

Rita forced herself to not glance towards the road as she changed the topic, “Why don’t you tell me what happened first?”

Still shaking Acorn began to explain, “Ah was just listening to some music in mah room, when suddenly Ah heard the front door getting kicked in. Ah looked outside mah door and when Ah saw the rats Ah snuck up into the attic. They didn’t find me for a while, but when they did Ah had to run to the roof… it was scary.”

Rita’s neck hairs stood on edge, and she knew that something was wrong. All she had time to do was see the shadow of the giant rat just behind her before she could react. Rita shoved Acorn as far away from her as she could while shouting, “HEART DRIZZLE!”

A searing hot pain tore into her back and she fell forward. Rita rolled over and screamed in agony as she turned herself to see the giant rat that had managed to sneak behind her. Rita tried to move but her back sent a torrent of pain across her entire body and her vision blackened. The last things she saw was both Applejack, and Heart Drizzle staring at her from the doorway, Heart Drizzle had his bow and arrow ready. The arrow was loosed and that’s when the world went plunging into the deep end and Rita’s blacked out.