Bronze Hoof

by cowboybird

The Road

The Road

First Arc: Present Revelations

“I can’t believe I came with you guys. I mean, I know my mom said it’s good for me, but I can’t remember the last time I was out of New Findings.” Gear complained as we made our way through some thick brush that covered the road.

“It’s only been three hours Gear, we still got a long way to go. I’ll be damned if I’m gonna listen to you complain for two weeks.” I said. Although Gear was one of my friends, I couldn’t help but imagine tyin a rope around his muzzle.

“I’m sorry Bronze, but I don’t think we can make it all the way to Canterlot in two weeks. I mean, that would be insane. The usual trip is two months.”

“I know, I’m talkin bout getting out of this jungle. If you complain when we’re on an open road in Equestria, I’m gonna kill you.”

Gear stopped complainin for a few minutes after that.

“Gear’s got a point Bronze. Two months is a long way off, I don’t think the town has enough supplies for that long.” Quick said, slicin some vines out of our way.

“They have four months of food left since the peaches are doin what they can to feed the refugees. The guard will probably take three months with a caravan, so we need to make it there as soon as we can. The town’s countin on us boys, we can’t stop, or slow down.” I swung my axe into a fallen tree that was blockin our path, splinterin it to firewood.

“I know, which is why I came on this journey. I can’t let my mom die from starvation! Let alone the whole town.” Gear said, pickin his way through the wood pieces on the dirt road.

“Well, there ya go mate. Your mom needs ya, as does the town. Now, please, stop with the complaining.” Quick said, I wasn’t the only one who was tired of Gear’s shit.

“Fine.” Gear huffed, and stayed silent for a couple minutes before he asked, “Quick why don’t you just fly over the trees? I’m sure you would get there with time to spare. Why stay on the ground?”

“I need to watch over you guys.” He chuckled, “but seriously, flyin that far and fast would be like you runnin the distance. I’m not that strong. Even in small bursts it would be hard. Besides, I don’t like them prissy ponies up in the big city. I met some when I was little, and wanted to tear their horns off.”

Gear gulped, and rubbed his horn like it was sore.

“You like me right?”

“Of course I like you mate.” Quick slapped him on the back, “you’re not some entitled lil shit.”

We made our way for another couple hours before we stopped for lunch, which consisted of a squirrel for Quick, and leave for me and Gear.

I watched Gear’s reaction as Quick chomped down on the lil fury creature. His face lost its color, and he turned away from the display. I knew the lil guy wasn’t as squeamish as some of the other herbivores in New Findings, but he still turned away from blood.

I chuckled at his discomfort, and enjoyed my grass and leaf sandwich I had just made.

As we packed up, and started to head our, a scream emanated from behind us. The ground slowly began to shake, risin pebbles from the path.

We all turned, and gripped our weapons, ready for whatever was comin.

From a turn in the path a mile or so back came a pony bein chased by what I can only describe as a pack of beetles.
They were about the size of Gear, only black, and protected by an outer shell. They had horns on their noses, like miniature rhinos. Their numbers swarmed over each other as they chased the pony, tramplein each other into the dirt to gain on the poor creature.

As they neared, I got a better look at the pony, and found her white coat and yellow Pinkie Pie style mane familiar.

“Toni?” I asked to myself.

She noticed us, and waved while runnin.

“HI GUYS!” she yelled over the sound of the stampede behind her.

I looked at Gear and Quick, “Do you think we can take em?”

Quick looked at me, and shook his head.

“Too many, We’ll get crushed.” He began to take off his armor and handed it to me. “I’ll go get her, go up into the trees, they should just carry on without noticing our absence.”

He took to the air, shootin towards the crazy poni. I looked at Gear and smiled.

“You ready?” I asked.

“Ready for whaaaAAAAA” I picked him up and through him like a football into the top of the nearest tree. He landed on a branch with a thump, and clung to it for dear life.

I ignored him hollerin absentees at me as I clamored up the tree’s limbs to him.

I looked down just in time to see the first of the beetle herd pass by, followed by dozens of his kind.

“Where’s Quick and Toni?” Gear asked.

“Up here.” Came a voice from above us. Quick was holdin onto Toni as she waved at me and Gear. Her smile was brilliant, despite just bein chased by giant bugs.

We sat in the tree until they were just a cloud of dust in the distance.

I looked up at Toni, “What are you doin here? You could have gotten hurt.”

She smiled and jumped from the tree, doin a summersault in the air, and landin gracefully.

“I was following you guys. I want to go on an adventure, and my brother said it was alright, so I followed you out here.” She flapped her wings excitedly. Wait, wings…

“Why didn’t you just fly up here instead of havin Quick come get you?” I said as the rest of us climbed down the tree. I was irritated at her, we could have gotten hurt.

“What’s the fun in that? They couldn’t catch me, so I wanted to lead them to you guys so you could save me like a damsel in distress.” She swooned, “besides, it was fun right?”

We looked at her incredulously.

“No, that wasn’t fun, and that doesn’t even make sense!” Quick said, a lil vile in his voice.

Toni looked down, “Oh, well I’m sorry Quick. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

She looked at the griffin with the largest pouty, watery eyes imaginable. I watched as his mental fortitude crumbled under her onslaught of cuteness.

“Fine.” Quick sighed, “just don’t try to get in trouble with us.”

Toni let out a squeal of approval and gave Quick a bear hug, humorously squeezin the air out of him.
When she let go he took in a deep breath.

“Now then, we don’t have time to sit here. We need to make it to Canterlot in a month, which is half the time it usually takes.” Quick said, lettin Toni in on the plan.

“That shouldn’t be too hard, as long as we don’t get chased by giant beetles again.” Toni said as we started off down the road again.

The trees were startin to reach in to us, narrowin the path. Darkness crept around us even though the sun was at its apex. The sound of birds was replaced by an eerie silence as we walked deeper into the forest. Gear started to act a lil ancy, constantly lookin over his shoulder for a threat only seen to him. I decided to strike up a conversation, maybe help the mood relax a little.

“So Toni, how did you end up bein chased by a herd of bugs?”

“Well, when I set off after you guys, I was far behind. I knew the way you went, but didn’t know how far away from you I was. When I thought that maybe I was lost, I stopped and asked the beetles for directions.” She said, as though it were perfectly normal.

“You asked bugs for directions?” Gear asked, comin into the conversation, yet still paranoid.

“Yup! I saw a couple of them start to cross the path, and thought that maybe they saw you guys pass by earlier. I trotted up to them, but they didn’t seem to speak the universal language. I tried Draconic, Buffalo, and even Chiton, but they just seemed to get angrier as I spoke.” She stopped her usual bouncing, and continued in a walk next to me.

“What’s Chiton?” I asked.

Gear spoke up for the first time since the bug parade went through, “It’s what Changelings speak, it’s spoken by clicking your tongue, and making a buzzing sound. I didn’t know anypony could speak it without the use of a block of wood.”

“Well, I was homeschooled by my parents, and they taught me how to speak a bunch of different languages. It’s not that hard, but I think I may have mispronounced a word or two when speaking to the beetles.” Toni said.

The jungle began to close in more, forcin us to walk single file as not to scratch ourselves on the bramble bushes flankin the road.

“So you probably called their mother a whore, and they chased you.” Quick said, as he stepped over a vine that crossed the trail.

“Maybe. If I had a block of wood I wouldn’t have messed up, but now they’re long gone.” Toni bounced over a branch that had fallen on the path.

“Well, hopefully we won’t see them again. I don’t think we could handle such a large group of them.” I said, duckin under a low tree.

We continued in silence for a couple of hours, duckin and dodgin trees, bushes, and vines that crossed our way.

After a few hours the sun began to set, castin shades over the darkness that already surrounded us. By the time the sun had set, we couldn’t see a damned thing. When Gear fell over a root, which none of us saw, I decided to call it a night.

“We’ll set camp up here. We can’t go much farther without bein able to see. Gear, use your magic as a torch and find us some dry fire wood. Don’t bring back any wet branches please, that’ll make this a lot harder. Quick, take Toni and start settin up a tree house. I don’t want to sleep on the ground, no idea what’ll sneak up on us durin the night. I’m gonna start getting some rocks and makin a burn pit, maybe find some flowers and what not to eat.” I said, clappin like a quarterback would before a play. Although the group didn’t get the reference, they did what I asked them to.

Findin somethin to eat was difficult in the dark, but with my dragon vision, I was able to find a little bit for everyone. Although we did have provisions, we wanted to save them for emergencies.

I set up the burn pit just in time for Gear to come up with a couple bundles of wood. We got the fire started and cozied up while watchin Quick and Toni set up our sleepin quarters.

By the time they were done, the fire had caught pretty well, and was heatin up the area around us. Light spilled through the trees, creatin a ring of sight that ended in the shadows of the night.

We ate our dinners, and prepared for our rest. We snuffed out the fire, and packed our supplies up. I set up a time schedule for how we would keep watch over the night, Mr. Peach would be so proud. First it was me, then Gear, Toni, and finally Quick.

The winged members of our group flew me and Gear into the tree house, which consisted of a base of thick, jungle logs held together by vines weaved in and out of the logs. The roof was in a lean to fashion made of large, thick leaves interwoven to create a lean-to style overhang. It was all restin on a tree with branches that helped create a stable base. All in all, nobody complained, and we started our first night on the road.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Morning came with a rough start as Quick began pokin us into consciousness. When I finally awoke, I rubbed the sleep from my eyes, and started scannin the surroundin jungle. It stretched on fore miles, and the tree that we slept in was the highest in the surroundin areas, givin me a pretty good view of what layed ahead.

A stream would cut the trees in the canopy every now and then, creatin what looked like a giant clawed away at the forest. There was a canyon far to the East, too wide to jump, and probably too deep to climb. I prayed that the bridge was still intact, the closest end to the gorge looked to be miles away.

We climbed out of the tree, and started again on our journey. Somebody would strike up a conversation, keep it for a few hours, and then let it die. Toni was usually the one talkin, while the rest of us either listened, or zoned her out.

She was in the middle of tellin us how one time she dropped kicked a chimera, when we stopped for a drink at one of the streams that ran across our path. It was shallow, only comin up to my knees, but was still plenty deep enough for me to have to have carried Gear across.

After we refilled our water sacks from the river, we continued on.

When the sun was nearin the horizon to rest, we heard a low rumblin sound.

“Why does that sound so familiar?” I asked to no one in particular.

“I don’t know, I’ll go scout ahead, see what it is.” Quick said, takin to the air, and disappearin from sight.

After a few minutes, he landed back next to us.

“We got a problem mate. Follow me.”

I was about to ask what he was talkin about, but he tore off into the foliage ahead. I scrambled to keep up, breakin through vines and branches alike. When I finally caught up to him, I saw the trouble.

Before us was the canyon, with a stone bridge stretchin across. It looked to be about 40 feet long, and 10 wide. On the bridge was a caravan that consisted of a few carts bein hauled by ponies. They appeared to have a couple royal guards with them, but they weren’t the problem.

Surroundin the bridge on either side was the heard of beetles from yesterday. They swarmed around the caravan, held back by swords the guard wielded.

The tree line was cut off on either side of the bridge, givin a twenty foot span between the nearest tree, and the gorge. We stood just inside the tree line, watchin as dozens of bugs milled around at our base of the bridge. Seven or so ran up the sides, racin to devour whatever they could of the caravan, only to be hacked at by the ponies in gold armor.

I looked at Quick, and he nodded. We both knew the guards couldn’t hold out for much longer. Most had scrapes, and were bleedin. Others didn’t have a weapon, and were tryin to buck the beetles away.

I hefted Spirit Inferno, enjoyin the familiar weight. Quick did the same with his sword, and with a battle cry, we both charged the beetles.

We crashed into their outer members, decimating their numbers. I hacked apart nine bugs in my first swing alone. After the first of their group perished, the rest on our side took notice of us, and left the caravan alone. Only payin me and Quick attention now.

They swarmed over each other, dozens of them bitin and scramblin to kill us.

I grabbed a bug by its pincer, and chucked it into the canyon, only to have it be replaced by two more. Just before they swarmed over me, I saw several black specks zoom in and out of their bodies, killin seven or so in a blink of an eye.

I looked back to see Gear with his shards formin a miniature tornado around his body. Whenever a beetle got close, they were torn to pieces by his dragon scale. His horn glowed so strongly that its bronze aura looked to be encasin his whole body.

He casually strolled through the hords of beetles, renderin them to pieces. I smiled and laughed, chargin back into the Frey.

After a few minutes I realized there were no more bugs to kill on this side. The rest on the far side of the bridge saw how we destroyed their brothers, and ran away. The rumblin of their footsteps faded into distance.

I looked at the caravan, and the royal guard surroundin it. It looked like the guard knew the bugs were comin, and made a makeshift wall usin the carts. It reminded me of old cowboys and Indians movies where the settlers, when ambushed, drove the carriages in a circle, formin a wall. The royal guard must have been the protection in the wild, and by the looks of it, had done a pretty decent job considerin there were only eight on them. One walked up to me, his gold armor scratched and caved in. He had multiple cuts, and bruises on his body, but still carried himself with the pride of a man in uniform. He was obviously the head officer by the way his plumed helm was a different color than the rest of his men’s.

“Thank you stranger, I’m not sure how much longer we could have held against those damned bugs without your help. My name is Sergeant Fartsparkle, and I am in your debt good sir.” He bowed his head to me, but all I could think about was his name.

Fartsparkle? Are you serious?

I put on a manly-man deep voice and said, “You are quite welcome Sergeant. It wouldn’t have been decent of us to just let you and your men die on this Celestia forsaken bridge.” I suppressed a laugh, tryin not to let the Sergeant see the tears in my eyes.

“Is there anything we can do for you minotaur? Any supplies we can offer?” Fartsparkle said, motionin towards the carts parked on the bridge. I took a better look at them, noticin the women and children inside the protective barrier the carts provided. They all looked terrified, not just at the bugs, but at me. The mothers, pulled their children further into the barrier so as to not look at me. Was I, the person that saved them, a monster in their eyes?

“No.” I said, retrainin my eyes on the Sergeant, all modification gone from my voice. “We have all the supplies we need, but there’s a town, New Findings, that needs supplies awfully bad. You see, me and my friends here recently saved a bunch of slaves from a diamond dog den. There are a whole lot of mouths to feed, and not much food to go around. Any and all supplies would be received gratefully. That’s where we’re headin now, to get Celestia to send them supplies, and an escort out of the jungle, and back home.”

The sergeant looked at me with face of both surprise, and gratitude.

“On behave of the royal guard, thank you stranger for saving those ponies.” He gave me another bow. “What is your name stranger?”

I looked at the ponies cowerin on the bridge, then at the bruised and beaten guards. Finally I looked at my friends, talkin amongst themselves, not noticin me or the sergeant. I caught Quick’s eye, and he nodded.

“My names Bronze Hoof.” I said, just as Quick swooped me into the air, and carried me over the bridge. I looked down to see mothers screamin, and children cryin. We landed on the far side, Toni and Gear quick behind. I stomped into the forest, not lookin back, pretendin not to care what those ponies thought of me.

My metal hoof pounded into the soft dirt of the path, recently tilled from the swarm that escaped earlier. I heard my friends behind me callin for me to slow down, but I paid them no mind. I just quick timed it into the jungle.

I reached up and felt the nub where my horn used to be, noticin for the first time in a long time how my head was off balance.

I gave limb and horn to save those pony’s kin, and they repay me by screamin at me, by hidin their children?

I realized I had stopped and was leanin against a tree for support, anger bubbled inside me, red overtook my vision.

I heard the voices of my friends die out as they were replaced by a dark chucklin reverberatin through my mind.

Ha Ha Ha Ha, good. Good. Now you know Daniel. Now you know what a plague these ponies are to this world. They are good for nothing except as fodder for my armies.

I heard that voice before. Back at the barn. In my dreams as I watched thousands die at the hand of dark armies.

You’re that old man from before. What are you doin in my head, you son of a bitch!

Showing you the error of your ways Daniel, or is it Bronze Hoof now? Fitting given how one of your hoofs is now metal. You gave your leg to save those ponies, and griffins, and minotaurs from slavery. The ponies have repaid you by fearing you.

The griffins fly around you, never to be trusted, ready to stab you in the back at any moment. Even your own kind shun you for your abnormality. They fear your strength, and your height. You are different from them Bronze Hoof. You are above them in every facet.

You are smarter, stronger, better! I can give you everything Bronze Hoof. Power, fortune, anything your heart desires. All you need to do, is become my knight. But not now. You need to train. Now you need to train and hone your skills. I’ll let you think about it.

But whenever a pony cries in fear at you, or a griffin flies away, or a minotaur gives you side glances, like you are a freak…think about my offer.

I couldn’t think straight, I couldn’t see or hear anything other than the laughter as the voice faded from my head.

I must have fallen, because when my vision cleared, I was lookin at the canopy of the jungle, and the faces of my friends.

“Oh look who’s alive! Thought you caught some kind of jungle fever or something mate. You were talkin about a voice, and babblin on about war.” Quick said, helpin me sit up.

I shook my head, clearin the last of the red from my vision. I still felt like someone had taken an eggbeater to my brain, but was feelin much better.

I went to stand, only to find Gear’s hoof on my chest.

“Are you sure you’re alright Bronze? There could be a lot of reasons for your little episode.” His look of concern made me sick. The way he hid his fear behind sympathy made me want to break his neck. It wouldn’t be that hard, just a little……

I caught myself mid thought, noticin my hand begin to creep towards Gear’s neck.

No I thought. I’m not gonna hurt Gear, or Toni, or Quick. They’re my friends. The murky feelin in my head began to clear as I brought my hand back down to my side.

“Yeah, I’m good hoss. We should get goin, it’s gonna get dark soon and we need a bigger tree to sleep in.” I shakily got to my feet with the help of Quick and Toni, and headed down the road.

Author's Note:

So the start of a new arc, exciting!

The crew finally left New Findings, what a relief, I was starting to get bored with the same setting. Hope you guys enjoy what's to come, and as always, let me know what you though of this chapter.

Also if there are any spelling or grammar mistakes leave me a comment condemning me to hell for my transgressions.

Comments

[Trent Roogna]

3447936
I love how you've established and developed your character OUTSIDE of Ponyville. We already know who he is and how he's had to develop his character as resident of the Equestrian Universe; therefore his importance as a character is not dependent on the mane six liking him and including him in everything (in my opinion that is the fatal flaw in a lot of otherwise good stories). I'm sure he'll meet them eventually and go all fanboy, but he has friends already to support him if something like happens.

[notarehs]

i can not find a singular reason why i enjoy this story, i just do. and those are always the best ones, ones where you can't pick and choose what you like, because you like it all

[FlyingCat]

It stretched on fore miles, and the tree that we slept in was the highest in the surroundin areas, givin me a pretty good view of what layed ahead.
It should be 'for' not 'fore'.