//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5 
// Story: In Sheep's Clothing 
// by RattPitt 
//------------------------------//

	I breathe in through my nose and out through my mouth. I'm not ready for this fight. It's going to happen anyway. My vision is still slightly fuzzy. She has the advantage. I can still kill her.

"I'll take that as a yes." The mare says. Her smile is still stuck on her face. "I won't go easy on you, bug." Her expression melts into a frown and her face darkens. I take half a step back. She takes a full step forwards. "You're scared of me, bug." She says simply. She's right. I shouldn't be. She's just a pony. I can kill her easily.

I let out a breath of air and take a few steps forward. After convincing myself that I can kill her, I charge for her.

She easily doges and kicks me in the knee. My leg pops back and I fall to the floor. My face bounces off the hard ground once. The impact was probably hard enough to break my cheekbone. While I'm down, she kicks me in the stomach. If my biology allowed it, I'm sure it would have made me throw up. She stomps on my wing. The sound it makes tells me it's broken.

"Done already, bug?" She asks with a grin. In a different situation, I'd think it would be cute. She walks up close to my head. I try to crawl away from her. She sets her hoof on my neck. "Not yet, bug. I'm not done with you." I spit at her. She responds by kicking me in the mouth. I spit again. A few blood coated teeth come out. She hovers her hoof over my horn. She winks at me. She stomps down on my horn. My vision rapidly fades to black. 



My eyes slowly open. I feel like I was just struck in the head by a freight train. Being hit with a sledgehammer would hurt less. I rest on the cold stone for what must be hours.

I crawl to my hooves and look around. I'm in the same room. It's darker than it was before. It must be night. The lack of ponies adds to that. I stretch out my wings. A pain in my left forces me to fold them back up. Shit. With my wing like this, I won't be able to fly to Canterlot. I've never been able to teleport by myself, either. If I walk all the way there... Tranquus. I'd be days behind her.

The headache digs deeper into my head. I rub my temple and look down. There's a key at my hooves. I pick it up in my teeth. I don't know where it's to, but I have a feeling that Tranquus' subordinates would leave a key to the prison. They think highly of themselves, and this key is saying 'you can't do anything to beat us.' They're going to regret that message. It's going to come back and bite them in the flanks.

If Azorian, Desert Storm, and Rolling Thunder are still alive, they'd be in the prison. The only situation I can see where they wouldn't be there would be if Tranquus brought them with her to Canterlot. That's something she'd do. She would also leave enemies in a place where they have no access to food or water.

I retrace my steps to the prison cells. The walk is short and doesn't require too many turns. I follow the linear path until I reach the cells. "Is anypony still here?" I ask loudly.

"Over here." A mare's voice from one of the cells says. I follow the source. There are two ponies in the cell. A pegasus mare and an earth pony stallion.

"You're not a guard?" The earth pony asks.

I shake my head. "No. They put me in your position not too long ago." I tell them. "Who are you two?" They introduce themselves. The pegasus is Rolling Thunder and the earth pony is Desert Storm. "Where's Azorian?" I ask.

"Dead. Tranquus killed him." Rolling Thunder replies. Her bitterness is almost hidden by her anger. 

I can feel anger in myself rising. I might have witnessed Azorian's death. Why didn't I do anything to prevent it? "What about your subordinates?"

"Also dead." Desert Storm replies. "Now get us out of here so we can avenge all of them."

We know you're with us. I don't know who has the keys, but find them."

"I've got one." I say, showing off the key.

I put the key in the lock and turn it. The door opens. So my thought a while ago was right. 

"Thank you. I owe you a drink." Desert Storm says.

"After all the shit I've seen, I gladly accept." I tell him. He smiles at me.

"Listen, mare, we're going after her." Rolling Thunder says.

"My name's Blue Skies." I say. I've never liked being identified by just my form's gender.

"That's a cute name. It fits you." Desert Storm says. Rolling Thunder looks incredibly bored. He turns to his partner. "Thunder, can you carry one of us?"

Rolling Thunder nods with a cocky grin. "Damn right I can. Blue, can you teleport?"

I shake my head. "No. You two go on without me. I'll just hold you back."

Rolling Thunder clears her throat. "Maybe I should go with you." She says to the stallion that's definitely trying to get me in bed. "I can't fly or teleport either."

"Desert. You heard the mare." Rolling Thunder says. "I'll be able to carry you. I'm a soldier for a reason."

Desert shrugs. "Alright, Thunder." He turns to me. "See you later, Blue." He winks at me. I give him one of my own.

The three of us walk out of the building. Desert climbs onto Thunder and they fly off towards Canterlot. The way isn't clear for me. I'll have to travel there by hoof. Shit. It'll take weeks. If I was in the form of a pegasus, I'd be able to fly there. At least I would, if my wings weren't damaged. A direct path to Canterlot would only be possible if I had wings.

I begin to walk south. After I get a good distance from Vanhoover, I drop my form. I look at my injured wing. It's not broken, thank Luna, but it's bent. It'll be impossible to fly with it like that. 

An idea pops into my head. I change my form to a pegasus. Immediately after, a piecing pain enters my wing. I drop the form a split second later. The pain still lingers even in my real appearance. No flying for me any time soon, I guess.



The walk to Canterlot is painfully long and boring. The only real appeal to it is the beautiful view of the ocean and beach to the west. The light from the sun shimmers on the water. I used to not give a damn about the ocean. When the fate of Equestria isn't in the hooves of a homicidal, and likely genocidal, maniac, I'll need to visit the ocean again.

I enter a forest. The trees are massive. They're easily the largest I've ever seen in my life. I can feel my body shaking on its own. I sigh internally. I'm scared by a bunch of tall trees. I look up at the branches. The leaves are like nothing I've ever seen before. The leaves aren't green. They're... orange?

I gasp. Shit. The trees are on fire. How did I not realize that earlier? I can't do anything about it. I'm in the middle of a forest fire.

I look at the trees and sigh to myself with a rub to my muzzle. The trees aren't on fire. Why did I think that? If they were, I'd hear it. I don't have any idea why the leaves are a different color. Maybe the trees are a different species. Somepony around here would know. They'd also know just where this place is.

I look around for a pony. After a few short minutes, I find a mare. She has her hoof set up on the tree. Is she going to buck it or something? I don't think it's apple season. I don't think these are apple trees, either. "Excuse me?" I say to her. She turns to look at me. "Where are we?"

"White Tail Woods." She replies. She pulls her hoof away from the tree

"What's with the leaves? Why are they orange?"

She looks at me like I'm an idiot. "It's autumn."

I blink. "What?"

"Autumn." She repeats. It doesn't help. "Have you lived under a rock your entire life?"

"Is that a local thing?"

"You've got to be messing with me." She rubs her muzzle. "Some trees do this during this time of year."

"Are they magic or something? Is there any reason for this?"

The mare glares at me. Her expression by itself screams 'you're an idiot.' Her emotions are the same, but slightly more vulgar. "You're either a drunk, an idiot, or a drunk idiot."

"Hey, I'm new here. Give me a break."

"Autumn's a thing all over Equestria."

"Then why have I never heard of it before now?" I shoot back. She can't possibly do anything to counter against that.

"Because you're a drunk idiot." She deadpans. "Now let me get back to work." She bucks the tree. Several leaves colored red and orange fall out. I scoff and continue my walk to the south. I hate ponies when they're not polite.