Shards of Nightmare

by Stonedpony

Just another Day Just another Disaster

Just another Day
Just another Disaster

The sun had just begun to rise over Equestria like Princess Celestia made it every morning while Princess Luna lowered the moon and the stars. The apple family were already up and preparing for their chores while most of Ponyvile was still asleep. In the town library that was mostly true. Twilight Sparkle and her number one dragon assistant Spike would still be sleeping for a couple more hours before they would even consider getting up for the day. That is if there wasn’t someone else in the library. The lavender mare shot up after hearing an unfamiliar stallion's voice exclaim. “Ah ha! I got you!”
The unicorn looked around and asked “Is someone one there?”, she was still too sleepy to be afraid.
The only response was the sound of parchment being torn apart and the same voice sighing, “Damn. I was wrong. There goes that idea.” coming through her open bedroom door.
Twilight shook the sleep from her eyes and walked to the doorway of her second story bedroom. She slipped out the door and look down into the center of the main floor. The mare gasped seeing books and parchment tossed all over the floor seemingly without a care. A blue unicorn sat in the middle of the room with many notes and books floating around him. His long brown mane and tail looked like he had just got out of bed. A pair of reading glasses sat on his snout as he skimmed through a book that floated in front of him and a quill scribbled on a parchment scroll next to him. He sighed, and tossed the closed book onto a pile behind him.
Twilight groaned and thought to her self. “What is this guy doing? I just re-shelved everything.” She sighed as she walked down the stairs too tired to notice that even though the piles of books were unorganized, not a book was opened or a page out of place. However she did noticed the stallion’s cutie mark as she cleared her throat, a book with a quill sticking out of its pages and a sword on its cover.
It took Twilight several loud throat clears to get the stallions attention. He turned and looked at her as if nothing was wrong. “Oh sorry, did I wake you?” He tossed his head to make his reading glasses land on his forehead just under his horn. “must have something very interesting to research.” He smiled warmly, “Fell asleep burning the midnight oil?” The visitor chuckled a little and turned back to the latest book. After comparing it to his notes he nodded. “I’ve done that too many times to count. I made some tea if you want some. Go ahead, I’m sure the librarian won't mind.” He pointed over to the kitchen.
Twilight blinked confused by the new comers fast talking, almost as if she was talking to Pinkie Pie. She looked the way his hoof pointed and cringed at the mess of the speedily made tea. She sighed, while she levitated the tea pot and poured herself a cup, some tea may help clear her head. As she brought the cup closer she remember why she was down here. This guy was in her house with out her permission and making a rather large mess. “Wait a second. Who-”
“That's it. Perfect. It can go like that, then the troll can come from the trees while they're fighting with the chimera.” The blue stallion jumped to his hooves. “I knew the library would bring me the inspiration I would need.” He then suddenly ran out the front door with several books and countless notes floating around him, leaving a very confused Twilight behind.
“What was that all about?” Spike called down from upstairs.
The lavender unicorn shook her head and closed the front door, “I have no idea.” she said as she brought her tea cup to her lips. Before she took a sip of the thick brown liquid she noticed a single slip of paper on the front desk, one of the few papers that wasn’t on the floor. Why she cared she wasn’t sure. She levitated the slip over to herself and read it. On it was a hastily written request for a library card made out to a Winchester and something she couldn’t read. “Well, at least he didn’t steal those books.....hopefully.” Twilight said to herself as she sipped the tea. Every hair on her body stuck straight out and she gagged, the tea Winchester made had so much sugar in it, it was enough to make a pony sick. “Better not let Pinkie have any of this. She would explode.” The now very tired Twilight walked into her kitchen and poured out the tea, as Spike joined her and leaned with his cheek on the cabinet next to her.
“We don’t have to clean all this up now do we?” The baby dragon asked with a hint of tiredness and concern.
Twilight shook her head, saying “Not right now, it can wait.” as the two returned to the bedroom. Twilight looked around as she spoke, “I don’t remember having that much parchment yesterday.” noting that the whole first floor was covered with torn paper. “And where is Owlicious?” She shrugged as she climbed into her bed and pulled the covers up to her cheek and tried to go back to sleep.

* * *

The sun continued to rise over the town of Ponyville. Right on time the sun shown through Twilight Sparkle's window gently waking the sleeping unicorn. She sat up with a yawn thinking the encounter with the rude stallion had been a dream. From the sounds down stairs however, it must have not been. The unicorn climbed out of bed and gave her mane and tail a quick brushing. She giggled as she heard Spike yelling about paper somehow being in the cabinets, although Twilight did frown on the language he started to use as his anger grew. She would have to have a talk with him about that.
With her mane and tail in a manageable but not quite a presentable state the young unicorn made her way down stairs for breakfast. After they ate, she and Spike started to clean up the mess. Twilight put the books on their proper shelves while her number one assistant gathered up the scarps of paper, the dragon had the harder of the two jobs.
Owlicious sat on his perch next to Twilight's writing desk fast asleep. Twilight hummed to herself as she placed a few of the books on the shelves nearby, she accidentally bumped the birds perch with her flank. The brass stand wobbled a little, but it would take much more then a little bump to topple it. The unicorn looked up at her owl and said. “Oh so there you are.” She paused and looked a little closer at him, that bump should have woken up the owl but he barely ruffled his feathers. “Must be tired.” She remarked as she looked from her owl pet to the desk and she noticed that her parchment bin was full. “Huh?” Twilight said, surprised to see that it wasn't empty after all that had happened.
The lavender pony looked at the parchment she had seen it some where before, it took a few seconds before it dawned on her. This was the same brand that Celestia used, high quality paper with gold leaf borders, there was only one store she knew of that sold it and that was in Canterlot. Twilight found the store receipt on the desk and chuckled softly seeing the price 8 bits a scroll, and there was at least 20 scrolls of parchment. “Must be his way of apologizing.” The mare shrugged and went back to cleaning her "Home”. She found more receipts used as book marks or just in between books, all of them were from the Ponyville all night convenience store.
Twilight and Spike finished cleaning up around lunch time. Their progress was hindered by the library actually having customers, two in fact. First Cheerilee came by needing a book for that day's lesson. The book in question was of course at the bottom of one of the unruly stacks of books. The second was the mayor, she needed to review some old town records. Luckily her request was much easier to accommodate, the town records was the only section that hadn’t been touched as of recently.
Finally with the library clean, Twilight had Spike ready a bath for her. He completed her request in no time and hoped on the couch for a nap. As the lavender pony prepared to slide into the bath, the town alarm siren started to blare out side. “Oh no...What could that be?” Twilight immediately hurried herself outside of the library, and looked up expecting to see a dragon or some other type of monster flying over Ponyville. However, the blue sky was filled with nothing but a few clouds.
“Huh?” the unicorn questioned looking around, aware that the sirens were still going so there must be something going on. She heard the screaming and panicking of ponies of all types running away from Mane Street, so that must have been where the danger was. A cart then flew by over head, and crashed to the ground a dozen feet away proving that theory.
Twilight ran as fast as she could to see if she could assist, a fairly hard feat with all the ponies running for their lives the opposite detection of her destination. The unicorn finally saw what it was all about, a massive monster made of rocks was walking down the street smashing carts and buildings alike. The multitude of boulders that made up its body shifted like muscles with its movements. It stopped to try and swat at a few pegasi away with its long arms. Rainbow Dash was among them shouting insults at it to keep its attention on her while the other pegasi kicked it. The ponies' kicks hurt themselves more than the towering monster.
“It's a rock golem!” Twilight yelled to them. “You have to destroy the core!”
“And just what is the core?!” Rainbow yelled back desperation growing in her voice, in a mulch-colored blur the pegasus joined her friend.
“It's what holds the...OH BUCK!” Twilight's explanation was cut off seeing an annoying familiar blue stallion walking across the street with his nose stuck in a book and a note pad floating behind him. “RAINBOW!”
“On it!” The blue pegasus said as she took off toward the stallion.
He may have not noticed that rock golem, but it saw him and raised its arm to smash the pony. The pegasi panicked and tried to get its attention back on them, but to no avail. The unicorn stallion's ear twitched as if counting. Within mere moments before the golem had crushed the unicorn, a rainbow colored streak sped by as the golem's fist slammed into the ground with earth shaking might. The stallion was gone, leaving only the book he had been reading as well as his notes smothered in a shallow crater.
Winchester, the pony that had been rescued looked up at the rainbow maned mare, as she carried him to a safe place on the other side of town. “You fool! Do you know what you've done?” he said seemingly oblivious to the danger he had been in mere seconds before.
“Yeah!” Rainbow Dash shot back, “I saved you life and don’t-” she dropped the unkempt stallion on his flanks. “-give me that 'You ruined my work crap'!” The blue pegasus turned around grumbling about stupid eggheads and was gone in flash leaving the angry stallion behind.
Twilight sighed in relief, she didn’t want to see anypony hurt. Her relief soon turned to horror as the golem turned to the building next it and with a single swipe of its long arm the upper structure of the house burst into a dusty shower of debris, revealing a few ponies huddled in the rubble. The golem turned and brought up its other fist ready to destroy the ponies like it had their hiding place.
Twilight's horn glowed as she reached out with her magic to grab the rock golem's arms. Purple energy slowly encased the beast as its fist shot forward Twilight shut her eyes encase she wasn’t fast enough. The mare heard a thud, a masculine grunt, and panicked voices, but no sickening crunch. Twilight opened her eyes to see she had almost been to late. The largest stallion in the group had tossed the others aside just in time, but had taken the brunt of the golem's fist full in the side just as Twilight had forced the beast to stop moving, the stallion would make a full recovery with some magical therapy.
The golem struggled in its magical bonds. “Twilight toss it up here!” the straining unicorn heard Rainbow Dash call from above. Twilight clinched her teeth and growled as she pulled more power from her vast ocean of magic. She had to be careful, her body could only take so much power flowing through it at one time. The rock golem lifted up in the air slowly gaining speed as it rose above the buildings. Sparks jumped from her horn as she forced the rocks higher. The unicorns coat shimmered as her magic flowed through her. Twilight felt as if she were about to be torn apart by her own power.
“Now!” Rainbow Dash yelled to a few pegasi around her, they followed her as she flew around the golem in a fast tight circle. Many ponies watched worried as they hid while half a dozen winged ponies formed a tornado around the golem. Twilight released her hold on the golem and let the pegasi do their part while the she prepared for the next step, the lavender pony's horned started to glow again. A good thing about having as much magic within her as Twilight did was that she never really run out, even if it was always trying to tear her mind and body to pieces.
The golem was now a ball of boulders spinning in the air above Ponyville. Rainbow Dash pulled away from the ball of spinning boulders and called for the others to do the same. The tornado slowly dissipated as gravity took over again pulling the rock golem toward the earth. Before the rocks fell more then ten feet a blast of magic sent them hurtling to the farthest outskirts of town. Twilight panted, controlling that much magic was overwhelmingly tiring. She barely heard the cheers and praise as sweat dripped off her face, while her coat shimmered with residual magic.
Soon recovery began as the wounded were carried off to the hospital, luckily no lives were lost but there were some serious injures and a considerable amount of damage to the town. Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash and the others that had fought the golem were glad to hear about lack of a death toll. The lavender unicorn slipped away as questions started to come in from reporters, she needed to rest so she left Rainbow to take the praise. Something the light blue pegasus was all to happy to do, however she did make it a point that she couldn’t have done it with out the help of everyone in the group.
Finally back at the library Twilight's heavy eyelids drooped as she entered the main room. Spike was still asleep on the couch. She smiled as she said “Spike could sleep through anything.”, and the unicorn then returned to her now cold bath. Fortunately a simple heat water spell corrected that problem. she slipped into the warm water and relaxed with a relieved sigh. Sadly for Twilight Sparkle relaxing wasn’t on fates agenda for her today. Almost as soon as the lavender pony got comfortable in the tub she heard the tell tale sound of a letter from the princess being delivered through one of Spike's fiery burps.
“Twilight, letter!” Spike called to her.
“I'm in the tub.” the unicorn replied praying to her mentor it was just an invention to the gala or some other special event that was at least more then a day away.
Spike poked his head in the bathroom and said, “Your still in there. Don’t you think you've been in long enough?” as he held out the letter.
“Not as long as you think.” She replied while levitating the scroll over to her. She unrolled it and started to read.

Dear Twilight Sparkle, my most faithful student.

I am sure that you remember when you freed my my sister Luna from the grips of the dark persona, Nightmare Moon. That day was a great day indeed, however we, or I should say I made a mistake and left the remains of her armor in the ruins. The armor was so full of hate and jealousy that I thought that no pony would dare to even touch it. I was regrettably mistaken.
Yet, I was able deal with the problem without needing to call on you and your friends. Alas due to a failure of those I sent the armor to, it was lost and broken into many pieces. You need not worry about finding most of them as my Knights are on constant vigil to find them. Sadly as loyal and useful as they are, they are still small in number so I must ask you as my student and bearer of magic along with the other element bearers to retrieve a shard that is located in your area. The scouts that located the shard should be arriving at the mayors office soon with the information you will need.
I have the utmost faith that with the their help, you and your friends will be able to complete this task with little difficulty.

Your princess,
Celestia.

Twilight was confused about why the princess would have kept this a secret from her. However, the lavender pony knew she must have her reasons, Twilight wasn’t her only means to accomplishing a task. The unicorn took a moment to think then decided she should just finish her bath as quickly as she could. About twenty minutes later she was on her way to the mayors office with Spike on her back and wet hair, but at least she was clean and presentable.
The town hall wasn’t that far from the library. The other element bearers were there waiting in the mayors office along with two Pegasus stallions, they were military types with short manes and tails with gruff grim faces. Upon her arrival, the mayor looked towards her and said with a bit of relief. “Oh there she is. Twilight, I didn’t expect you to keep us waiting.”
“Sorry.” The lavender unicorn said blushing, she really did hate to make ponies wait. However since a certain incident that she and her friends don’t really talk about she had made a big effort to not get so worked up over dead lines. Her friends greeted her and they got down to business.
The older of the two pegasus scouts cleared his throat and began. “I believe we all know why we are here.”
Rarity raised a hoof to ask a question. “Excuse me sir, I must ask why are these pieces of armor are so dangerous?”
“Yeah. How's something that's just full of hate and stuff a problem?” Rainbow Dash asked as she leaned on the wall.
“They grant anypony that possess them the same power although at best a small fraction of Nightmare Moon's power.”
“Ah hay that ain’t good.” Applejack stated, but she was confident that she and the others could handle whatever was going to be sent their way. They dealt with the real thing after all.
“So, let me get this straight.” Pinkie pie said from her seat on the floor in front of the scouts, “So if some meanie gets their hooves of one of these thingies they become a really big angry meanie pants with all kinds of powers?” The scouts nodded.
“Oh my...” Fluttershy said hiding behind her long pink mane afraid just thinking about the idea. The scouts looked and each other and shook their heads disapprovingly, the mares had no idea what they were thinking.
“Oh, so this is the mayors office.” a voice came from the doorway. Twilight and the others looked to see a blue unicorn stallion looking into the room with wide eyed approval, it was Winchester again.
The mayor cleared her throat and inquired, “Can we help you?”
“Oh yes.” He said as he stepped into the mayors office. His wavy brown mane and tail looked like it had at least had a brush run through it unlike earlier that day. Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy noticed how the scouts had gone rigid as if an officer had walked into the room. “I couldn’t help but overhear what the two soldiers over there were telling you about.” the stallion said walking over to the mayors desk, he looked at the map that was spread out over it with an old abandoned castle marked upon it. “...and I couldn’t help but think somepony like me would be more suited for such a task.”
“What the hay is this guy going on about?...” Rainbow whispered to Applejack. The country mare merely shrugged and watched wanting to see how this newcomer explained himself.
“Well, I don’t know.” The mayor said eying the stallion.
“Oh, if you don’t believe me you should just ask those two.” He said nodding to the scouts.
The mayor looked at the scouts who replied without her word “Yes, well suited.” one said while the other added “Not a better pony for the job.” The newcomer hid his smile.
“Anyway.” the blue stallion continued, “Lets get this started. Your report.” he ordered.
The first scout snapped to attention and spoke. “Three shards are in the possession of a the dooms day cult know as the Herd of the Night.”
“Stupid name.” Winchester commented, Applejack and Rainbow Dash agreed while Twilight just listened, they were all sure that the mayor would send them on this mission. Fluttershy secretly hoped she wouldn’t have to go.
“They are holed up in the old ruins marked on the map.” The scout continued.
“I see.” Winchester said looking at the two stallions “Breeds?”
“Mostly unicorns, but there are a few pegasi and earth ponies.”
“Armament?”
“Normal militia affair. Hoof bows, swords and spears.” The younger of the scouts answered.
Winchester nodded as he thought about it till he asked. “Who is in possession of the shards?”
“The leader of the cult holds two of the shards while his second in command has the third.” The older of the scouts replied.
“Very well. I will have this task completed by tomorrow night.” The unicorn said before turning to the scouts, “You two may report to your captain.” The scouts saluted and hurried out the door. The mayor and the younger mares blinked confused. What gave this new stallion the authority to order the scouts around like that?
Winchester started to pick the map up with his magic only to have the mayor hold it down with her hooves and saying, “Hey now, you may think your the best pony, but I think it would be better if you simply escorted the element bearers to the castle and help them get those shards back from this cult. They were asked by the princess herself after all.” Rainbow Dash and Applejack began to protest the idea of taking the stallion along, but Twilight and Rarity shushed the pair. Twilight had a plan. Pinkie started to bob back and forth having sat still for too long.
“Of course, my intent was to spare these fare mares from having to partake the hardships of the road.” Winchester smiled and bowed, “However my duly elected lordship your orders for me are the same our great princesses.” the mayor was flattered that he bowed to her.
“Very well.” Winchester addressed the none too happy element bearers. “We shall meet on the south road out of town in two hours.” he trotted out the room without waiting for a reply. Nopony saw how disappointed he was.
Twilight sighed and looked at the map. “We may need to take a cart, it's a fairly long way and I’m not sure we can carry enough supplies for everypony.”
“S'pecially the way Rarity packs.” Applejack said, the mares chuckled except for the white unicorn who merely turned her head she would not even bothering to dignify the joke with a response. “Well, if we're taking a cart we don’t want it to get stuck.” The country mare said looking to Twilight for the plans on this adventure.
The lavender pony nodded, “Yes. what do you have in mind?”
“My brother.”
“Yes...” Fluttershy said under her breath.
“Bless you.” Pinkie Pie said thinking that Fluttershy had sneezed.
“Oh, um...Thank you Pinkie.” Fluttershy replied, as she tried to ignore the butterflies in her belly.

* * *

Almost two hours had passed since the girls had gotten their orders from the mayor. Their original plan was to grab Big Macintosh load up the cart and get out on the road without Winchester. Rarity had seen to the near failure of that plan taking nearly an hour to pack her own bags, then spent another half to argue why she needed to take each and everything with her; Only to loose that argument and leave her luggage in the apple family barn.
Luckily they had still achieved their goal and were galloping out of town with out being seen by the bothersome blue unicorn stallion. As they galloped out of town, through the rolling green hills on the outskirts of the south side of town they saw scattered white boulders that had not been there before. The scattered boulders many of which were on the road, slowed them all to a trot or a hop in Pinkie's case. Rainbow Dash and Twilight found the boulders familiar.
“This must be were the rock golem landed...” the lavender unicorn said examining one of the boulders as she trotted by. She thought that traveling at the speed they had been the boulders would have dug much farther into the ground then they did. She couldn’t help but wonder why they were all just laying on the ground like they had rolled there and why there were wholes in the ground on the hill next to the one they were on.
Pinkie pie lead the way through the boulders hopping along with hyperactive glee. She hopped around one boulder and paused to say “Hi!” to a large pony wearing a dark red traveling cloak. The stallion was taking notes on a note pad that floated above his head as he examined two halves of a red hoof sized rock on the ground before him.
Applejack was the next to round the boulder she stomped the ground saying “Ah hay, how'd you get here?”
Winchester looked up with his reading glasses on his nose “Greetings, your right on time.” he said as the rest of the annoyed group rounded the boulder. “Oh good, you brought someone to carry the load.” Seeing Big Macintosh and giving him a nod. Twilight stared at the blue unicorn after she checked the watch in her mane, it was almost exactly two hours after he had left the mayors office. The lavender unicorn didn’t know how to react to what had happened.
Winchester levitated a very large bag with something almost twice as long as him at the bottom onto the cart. Applejack raised an eyebrow “What the hay is all that?”
“oh just books, paper and all the writing utilizes I need if inspiration strikes me.” the blue unicorn said, “Don’t worry. It's not as heavy as you may think.” Big mac tested the cart and nodded it indeed was easy to roll the cart back and forth. “A good writer must always have a means to write, lost inspiration leads to poor stories.”
“You're a writer?” Rainbow Dash asked as the group started again. Winchester joined Big Mac in the back of the group. Fluttershy seemed to be a little sad as she flew slowly beside the bouncing Pinkie Pie.
“Yes I am.” Winchester said nodding politely “And one of some renowned if I do say so myself.”
“Write anything good?” Rainbow Dash asked flying back words to look at him as they talked.
Winchester flinched as if punched by the mare with her words before he said “The Adventures of Artex.”
“Never heard of it.” Rainbow Dash said turning around and flew higher to look around.
“Don’t worry about her. She doesn’t read anything but Darning Do.” Twilight said with a smirk, glad to know why the pony had barged into her library.
“Oh.” Winchester said nodding “I met Daring-I mean, A.K. Yearling the mare who wrights Daring Doo.” the stallion grinned hiding what he knew about the mare.
“REALLY?!” Rainbow Dash questioned suddenly flying in front of him again, her snout no more then an inch from his. Winchester was startled by her sudden appearance and merely nodded. “Did you get her autograph?” Her voice getting higher as she spoke.
Winchester stared at the pegasus confused and said “She's a college of mine. Why would I want her autograph?”
“Duh! She writes Darning Doo only like the best book ever.” the sky blue pony said, with a single hard flap of her wings Rainbow Dash flew up into the air and glided down to join her friends in front of the two stallions.
Winchester sighed wearily, and turned to the imposing pony next to him. “Hey, uh...”
“Big Macintosh.” the red stallion answered without looking at him.
“Big Macintosh.” the blue stallion repeated, “You got anything to drink in the cart.”
“Water.”
“No no I mean...” Winchester let Big Macintosh form his own conclusion.
“Eeyup.” Mac replied. “But it ain’t....” the work horse warning was cut off by the unicorn jumping half-way into the cart, his hind legs walking sideways as he searched through the supplies. “It's the small barrel next to the water jugs.” Macintosh explained hoping to end the awkward situation quickly. Half of the cart's contents floated above it when the writer finally found what he was looking for. The blue unicorn hopped out of the cart and everything he had removed returned to its place, save for a small hoof sized barrel and two glasses. Winchester quickly filled both glasses and levitated one over to Big Macintosh's face before placing the barrel back into the cart. Not one to be rude, Big Mac took the glass from his magical grasp.
“To a more bearable road.” the unicorn said as he downed the glass of apple based spirits. Big mac did the same with grimace, the unicorn didn’t fare as well as the earth pony. “Oh, uh woo...That stuffs got some kick.” he looked at his glass.
“Tried to warn ya.” the county colt said as the glasses floated into the cart.
“Yeah.” Winchester said trying to blink away his case of double vision. The mares giggled hearing that their irksome companion was brought down a peg.
Celestia's sun made its way across the sky and a cooling breeze followed the group as they trotted along the road to the mountain range that was their destination. They was only a few miles away from the forest that ringed the mountain range when they stopped for a late midday meal. Rarity smiled as she looked around and sipped her tea. “Oh isn’t this just so peaceful?” Normally she would have been complaining about having to lay on the ground or being tired from walking for so long, however the beauty of the area was just too much for her to spoil the mood.
“Yeah.” Applejack said “Equestria really is the most peaceful country in the whole world.” the others agreed except for Winchester who stifled a laugh as he sketched the land scape. “What ya find so funny?” Applejack ask.
“Yeah Applejack's right. Equestria has been the most peaceful country in world history.” Twilight added, she grew even more annoyed as the blue stallion tried not to laugh. “for like the past thousedyears.”
That was the final straw. The blue stallion laughed the short laugh of someone who knows more about what's going on then everypony else. Winchester quickly regained his composure and looked at the seven somewhat angry and confused faces that looked back at him. “What you say is true,” He said only confusing them all more, “but that is not why I'm laughing.”
“Then what is it?” Rainbow Dash said laying on a cloud she had brought down close to the ground.
“Oh just that none of you know how our great country maintains it's peace.” Winchester explained. “How much blood is split, how many heads roll, and how many are sent to the darkness of stone dungeons...All at the behest of the princesses of the sun and moon in the name of peace and safety for those they rule.” The blue unicorn seemed to speak favorably toward the horrid things he accused the princesses of.
“Princess Celestia is a fair ruler she would never do such things like have ponies killed.” Twilight's confidence faded as she spoke remembering how many times she and her friends feared banishment for something they had done.
“I never said she did it unfairly.” Winchester replied, “I merely said it happens.” He paused thinking of a better way to explain it. “When you were fillies did your parents spank you or ground you when you did something bad?”
They all nodded thinking far back in their memories “Some more then others.” Applejack said looking up at Rainbow Dash who merely snorted in reply.
“Did you ever think that they hated you when they did it?” the stallion said in a very serious tone, “They loved you just as Celestia does everypony under her rule. And just like a mother she must punish them when they're bad.” The writer sighed before continued. “Sadly, when a pony does something that Celestia must be their judge a paddling wont do, so a noose or the gallows must be used instead to teach the other ponies that what was done was wrong.”
The blue stallion seem to make sense but at the same time the mares and even Big Macintosh were offended as their image of their loving and fair ruler was stained with thoughts of blood. “The same is true for the affairs with other countries such as the Gryphon Empire or the Antelope League. When they do something that can be seen as a threat to our peace we must show them that we will not stand for it and punish them as well. But that is a discussion for an other time.”
The stallion looked at each of them his eyes boring into each of them. “Now I must ask you what will happen when we bring this cult to justice? Do you have the stomach to bring these foolish foals to punishment at the hooves of our Princess of the sun.”
Fluttershy eeped afraid of having to take part in something scary, while Pinkie Pie was just plan confused by the whole thing. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were looking at the ground asking themselves that same question Big Macintosh knew his answer already. Rarity was disgusted at the notion that a lady such as herself would be asked to do something so horrible.
Only Twilight could answer “We.” Her resolve faltered for a moment “We'll just use the elements of harmony on them and everything will be okay.” She stood and looked at her friends. “Come on. Let's get going.” The mares all nodded thinking it would be better to move on rather then dwell on something so dark.
Winchester sighed as he rejoined the red workhorse in the back of the group, mumbling something about power given to those who didn’t know how to use it. The mares didn’t talk as much as they did earlier till Pinkie did what she does best and lightened the mood. Winchester's words were soon all but forgotten.

* * *

The group arrived at the edge of the forest a few hours before sun down. The mares expected to just continue along the road till night then make camp. However of course their new traveling companion was there to ruin this idea by arguing that they should follow a path that none of them could see.
“That’s a bunch of bushes.” Rainbow Dash said crossing her front legs over her chest looking at the bushes that Winchester was pointing at.
“Um.” Fluttershy said meekly before being cut off by Twilight.
“And besides this is the only road that leads to the mountain.” the well-read pony said.
“Exactly.” Winchester said as if she just made his point.
“Uh there-” Fluttershy again started to say but this time was cut off by Applejack.
“Didn’t ya just hear Twilight there’s no other path.”
“Besides, the road here will be easier on Big Macintosh and the cart, not to mention us.” Rarity said not wanting to have to push her way through trees and underbrush that would most likely ruin her fabulous mane and coat.
“It's also easier to watch.” Winchester said, obviously agitated, “Which the Herd of the Night ponies will most certainly be doing. Besides.” Winchester said bending a bush back revealing a beaten down path “This game trail is big enough for the cart.”
“Yes, but wolves hunt on game trails.” Fluttershy said hiding behind her large pink mane, she didn’t expect to be heard.
“Silly, wolves don’t eat ponies!” Pinkie interjected cheerfully while looking at her shy friend.
Both Twilight and Winchester opened their mouths to disagree but decided to just let the younger pony believe what she wanted. “Anyway...” Winchester said almost condescendingly, “Despite this path being a little slower it heads delicately to the mountain, instead of heading a half of a days walk in the wrong detection. The scouts marked it on the map in light green by the way.”
Twilight and her friends glared at the blue stallion as she check the map. Twilight was astonished that he was right. “Well, um, okay.” The lavender unicorn really wasn’t sure what to say as Winchester held the bush to the side allowing the mares to pass with ease. He did however stop Big Macintosh and started to scrounge around in the cart again.
“What the hay are you doing?” the red workhorse said when he was pulled to a stop.
Winchester found what he was looking for and let him pass saying “If I’m going to get these fillies to go home and leave this to me. I have to get a little more..... belligerent.” The hoof sized barrel of apple sprites floated in front of him as he tried to pry off the top.
“Why?” Big Macintosh asked as he picked his way through the rough path.
With a loud creaking pop the top of the barrel came off “Because.” was all Winchester said and started to drink the burning liquor in large gulps. Big Mac stared wide eyed at the act in front of him, he had only seen one pony do that and that was his uncle Cinder.
Once the writer had finished the barrel he tossed it aside and cooled his tongue with a string of colorful curses. Fluttershy blushed badly, while Rainbow Dash chuckled. “He sounds like you when you get into that stuff.” The light blue pegasus said as she playfully nudged Applejack.
“I don’t sound nothin' like that city slicker.” The country mare replied offended at being compared to Winchester. “I’m a hard drinkin' an' hard workin' apple farmer.” The other mares giggled as they continued along their new path.
The alcohol quickly got to Winchester, he started to laugh and slur his words as he tried to tell stories about adventurers he or some pony named Artex had, it wasn’t hard tell that the writer was confusing himself with a character in his book. No pony seemed to care other then Pinkie Pie. He would normally get halfway through a half remembered story before starting another one or getting distracted by something in the trees and leave the trail.
As luna's moon replaced Celestia's sun in the sky the air grew colder. The group found a large clearing that would make a nice campsite. However the Winchester hadn’t returned yet from his last venture off the trail. “Maybe we should go look for him.” Twilight said as she looked around only mildly concerned the stallion was gone.
“Nope.” Rainbow dash said as she watched the drunk stallion jump into the clearing with a goofy smile on his face.
“That works.” Twilight said glad they didn’t have to go wandering around the forest in the dark. She set the map down on the ground and waited for Applejack to finish making a fire before she really tried to examine it. The mares gathered around the map to discuss where they were and what their next move would be, while Big Macintosh started to unload their dinner. Winchester stood watching the mares not too far behind Twilight, his quill writing in his note pad.
Applejack noticed the stallion out of the corner of her eye, it wasn’t hard to follow his eye's to where he was looking. “Uh, Twi.” The country mare said. The unicorn looked up at her friend and then to what her earth pony friend nodded to.
Twilight Sparkle eeped and turned around yelling. “Just what the hay do you think your doing?!”
Winchester blinked and looked at her as if she should already know. “I’m making notes of that fine rear of yours.” The alcohol had long since destroyed his ability to make excuses so he didn’t even try to hide it like stallions tend to do.
Twilight shook as she said “And just what makes you think that’s okay?”
The drunken writer sighed, letting his note pad and quill float back to their places under his cloak. “You know what I’ve never understood.” He said somehow without slurring. “You mares spend so much time primping and preening to look good, then get mad when you see us looking.”
Applejack held Rainbow Dash back from trying to beat up the drunk up “Come on! No one will know.” Rainbow Dash growled, Applejack agreed with her rainbow maned friend and couldn’t really justify why she was stopping her.
“Besides, you caught a drunk drunkenly looking so you really can’t blame me.” He leaned in closer to Twilight who back away both from the smell and not wanting to be close to the pervert. “The one you should get mad at is your big red friend there.” He nodded to Big Macintosh who wasn't even paying attention.
“What?” Twilight replied.
“Why? Mah brother ain’t done nothin'.” Applejack said letting go of Rainbow Dash's tail sending her flying into the tree tops. Big Macintosh froze somehow feeling that something bad was going to happen.
“Well, why do you think he stayed in the back of the group?” Winchester chuckled as the mares slowly turned to look at the work horse then back at the writer. “Generosity sure is generous with the view.” He playfully teased in a sing-song voice, soon laughing again as Rarity blushed bright red. “Now. If you may excuse me I’ll be over there asking that bush for forgiveness.”

Author's Note:

big thanks to Legacy0117 for becomeing my editor your awsome dude