The Misfits

by Cyber System

Chapter 13: Love and war

Twilight, Lyra, and Cyber stood in Cyber's lab, looking at Cyber's current blueprints, specifically the wings and Clockwork.

Twilight looked at Clockwork's designs. "So all you're missing is a personality?"

Cyber nodded. "Clockwork will be one of my greatest creations once he's complete, but there's still some complications, regarding emotions. I want Clockwork to have his own individual personality, with fully functioning emotions that he will react to, namely happiness, sadness, and anger."

"What about the other ones?" asked Lyra. "What about confusion, excitement, jealousy... love?"

Cyber stopped. "Love? Of course, I guess. Clockwork needs to show attachment towards his family and friends."

Lyra shook her head. "No, I mean romantic love, as in relationships?"

Cyber hesitated. "What? Well I-I-I don't know, it-it's a very awkward topic but-"

Twilight interrupted Cyber's rambling. "I think Cyber's trying to say we'll work on complex emotions last," Cyber nodded quickly.

Lyra shrugged. "Maybe he would need to have a way to relate emotions to tone or memories."

"Plausible, but he could only have so much memory before being too full," Cyber replied.

"Only he would need to know what memories to overwrite," added Twilight.

"Hey, I gotta use the little filly's room, where is the-" spoke up Lyra.

"The bathroom's right next to the kitchen," Cyber guided.

"Thanks," Lyra said before zooming off. Once she was out of earshot, Twilight faced Cyber.

"Admit it..." she said, Cyber looked confused at her.

"Admit what?"

"You have a crush on her, don't you?" that made Cyber back off.

"What? Are you insane? I'm not in love with Lyra, she's just a really good friend, that's all. Even if I was, how would I even know it? I know about love and romance as much as I have magic, little to nothing."

"I guess, but you two are really getting close, aren't you?"

"Yeah, I suppose we are, but not in the level of romance. Besides, I don't think I'm ready to have a romantic relationship."

Twilight shrugged. "If you say so, now what are we going to do about Clockwork recognizing faces?"

---

Rainbow Dash flew across the sky, trying to get the guilt out of her head, but the thought about how she treated Dusty kept coming back into her mind.

'Gah, this is so confusing!' she thought. 'If only I was nicer to Dusty, none of this would've happened... but Dusty would stay a blank flank and never meet Cyber! Augh! On one hoof if I was nice to him he would forgive me for what I did to him, but he wouldn't see his destiny and be friendless forever. And on the other hoof if I was a jerk to him he would see his destiny, meet Cyber and his other friends, but he would hate me his entire life. What am I going to do!?'

She continued second guessing herself until as she scanned the ground she noticed Dusty, laying on a dust cloud and sleeping, with Fang and Fluttershy nearby, having a picnic. 'It's now or never,' she thought as she flew towards Dusty, gently landing on the ground. 'Heh, he kinda reminds me of... me when I'm sleeping on a cloud, but with more dust.'

She took a deep breath, then trotted to Dusty until her head was right over his, causing him to wake up, but frown as his eyes met Rainbow Dash, who tried to look as best as she could to keep him from leaving.

"Hey, Dusty..." Rainbow said, Dusty only grunted in response. "So, had a nice nap?"

"I was until you showed up, what do you want?" Dusty said, almost demanding.

"Well, can I just say that I'm sorry and we put this whole thing behind us?"

"Yeah, you can say that, and you did, now go," Dusty said, getting off his cloud.

"But-"

"You know what? Nevermind, you won't leave anyway."

"But Dusty, wait!" Rainbow shouted as Dusty already started to dig into the ground. "No please wait!" Dusty didn't listen, he was already halfway in.

Before Rainbow Dash could get any closer, Fang stepped in by grabbing Dusty by the tail and forcefully dragging him out, despite his cries of pain.

"Ow! Why'd you do that, Fang?!"

"Dusty, I think you need to hear what Rainbow Dash has to say," said Fluttershy.

"Why? I thought you were my friends, why are you supporting her?" Dusty said.

"We are your friends," said Fang. "But we are also sick about your grudge against Rainbow Dash, we're here to make friends, not enemies, that's why you joined The Misfits, right?"

Dusty groaned then faced Rainbow. "Fine, what is it, Rainbow Crash?"

"Look, before I do this, I don't want this to just go through your head, so could you please pay attention?" Dusty rolled his eyes but nodded. "Alright, so I wanted to say that I'm sorry, I really am, I didn't want to cause you to be afraid of heights, but I also don't want you to be picked on. To be honest, I thought you were able to fly and I didn't want you to be teased like Fluttershy was, in fact I wanted you two to be my friend, that's why I pushed you to work hard in being able to fly, but I guess I pushed you too hard and in the wrong way."

"Yeah, and now my wings are paralyzed from disuse." Dusty gestured to one of his unkempt wings with his hoof for emphasis.

"But if you think about it, I did you a favor, you love being underground more than anything, and that continued going uphill all the way to when you met Cyber, and Fang. So really I helped discover your destiny."

The anger in Dusty's face seemed to lax a little from it. "But why did you do it? Why did you even consider it a good idea? I was terrified while falling and I'm still terrified now."

"Well, in all honesty Dusty, it's because back when we were foals... I liked you."

Dusty's eyes widened from surprise and blushed. "Like, like-like me?" Rainbow smiled and nodded.

"Look, I understand if you still hate me, I messed up and you paid for it. But I don't want to hate you, so if things are going to go smoothly between us, can we at least be friends?"

Dusty thought for a moment. "No," he said. Rainbow's smile disappeared. "I mean, how could I? I was stuck down there for days and I didn't see or hear you. When I finally got out of there, you weren't there to look for me. Only my family cared enough to look. And now here you are thinking that it will make it all better just because you had a crush on me? No!"

"I know. You're right, I shouldn't be asking for your forgiveness. It doesn't matter that what happened made you who you are, what I did was wrong and what I did after that was wrong. All I want to do now is end this cycle of hate before it gets out of control like last time. You have every right to hate me, but if this keeps going you won't be able to look at a rainbow without flying into a rage."

"You... definitely have a point there." Dusty sighed as he thought about the number of times he soured the mood just because one of The Misfits reminded him of Rainbow. "But, because I'm a misfit now... I guess I'm willing to put a few things behind us..."

Dusty extended his hoof, "Waddaya say, Rainbow Dash, frenemies?"

Rainbow looked at his outstretched hoof, with a look in his eyes that though wasn't a look of malice or forgiveness, was just enough to make Rainbow respond by wrapping her hoof around his, knowing both of them resisted the urge to turn it into an arm wrestling competition.

With a witty glare and a smile, Dusty went back to the hole he was digging before turning back. "Don't you dare think this is over, Rainbow Crash."

Rainbow responded with an equally competitive look. "Wouldn't dream of it, Blusty."

"You're going to have to work on that," and with that, Dusty hit Rainbow, but not in a vengeance way, more of a friendly kind, then he dug back into the ground.

"Are you really in love with Dusty?" asked Fang.

"Well, when we were foals, yes. But not anymore, he's not really my type, I prefer stallions who fly."

"I'm just glad that this fight is all worked out," said Fluttershy.

"Well, sort of," Fang said. "Dusty might still act rude to Rainbow, but at least he'll stay by her without complaining this time."

"But wouldn't you prefer him acting nicely?" Fluttershy asked.

"Actually, Fluttershy," Rainbow said. "I think I like this better."

---

Diomedes waited patiently by the riverside, perfectly still. Only the best eyes in Equestria would only be able to barely make out the dark gray predator as he lay against the rocks. Even his rope snare cutie mark was hidden by the predator's camouflage. Then it happened, a rabbit aimlessly bounced in front of Diomedes, who used his ability to sense life to know where his prey was. The rabbit acted natural, completely unaware at it imminent demise.

CHOMP!

The rabbit died instantly from a combination of blood loss and shock as Diomedes' jaws clenched on the brittle body. Then he opened his eyes and trotted toward his home, where he was greeted by his wife, Artemis, a dull brown predator mare with a mousetrap cutie mark.

"Hello, Artemis!" Diomedes said through his teeth.

"Hi, darling," she responded. "Another catch? That's the third one today."

"Is it bothering you?"

"Of course not, I just want there to be food for when the others arrive."

"Don't worry about a thing, rabbits and animals are here like wildfire, the others will have plenty to eat once they get here on the mainland."

Artemis giggled. "I guess so, but when will they get here?"

"I still don't know, Fang hasn't sent anything yet letting us know."

"Well maybe he has, but it's just in the pile of letters we got, and you just don't know how to read."

Diomedes chuckled. "You can't read either."

"But at least I know how to prepare food instead of just eating it directly and almost getting sick from some kind of disease."

"And that's why I love you," Diomedes said, kissing his wife. "Besides, that hardly happens."

"Fang has been bedridden from illness more times than I can count. I swear he takes after you."

"But he's got your compassion, remember when he volunteered to be sent here?"

"I don't think it's possible to."

Back on the island, Chief Xanthos called an important grouping of all the predators, each of them looked at their light grey predator leader with a dual crossing spear cutie mark.

"Attention all predators," Xanthos began. "As most of you have noticed, dark days are ahead of us, food is dwindling, and we are already relying on food brought to us by the hippocampi," this caused murmuring amongst the predators, but it was quickly silenced by Xanthos putting his hoof up. "Fortunately, some hippocampi scouts have seen a giant land that is filled with food, however it is also inhabited, by some ponies that eat plants."

The son of Xanthos stepped up, Podargos, a predator stallion with a coat of lighter shade than his father and a crosshairs cutie mark. "We believe that because these ponies eat plants, they shouldn't mind lending us some fauna if it means the sake of a species, but we can't be too sure, they could mistake us for cannibals or hunters trying to kill them. Because of this it may be difficult to do this, but if you choose to do this, you may take your time to settle down, learn some things if you may, but the moment opportunity strikes, you must do it for the tribe, understood?" The predators nodded. "Good, so my father has used the last of the wood to built a boat to sail to this mainland to ask these ponies if they could be kind enough to allow us the food we need to get out of the upcoming famine, there is enough for one family, and it may not be easy to get back here. All we ask is for a volunteer."

Once again, murmuring spread across the predators, none of them wishing to go, out of fear, nervousness, or sea-sickness. However around the center of the crowd, one hoof shot up. "Yes, you, step forward," Xanthos said, shortly the pony in question stepped toward Xanthos, a young grey colt with a bear trap cutie mark. "What is your name?" Xanthos asked.

The colt answered with a stern face and no hesitation. "My name is Fang."

"Fang, do you realize what you will be sacrificing by doing this?" asked Podargos

"As long as this tribe stays on Equestria, I don't care if I die while doing this."

The wife of Xanthos smiled, Deinos, a predator mare with a deep brown color and pithole trap cutie mark. "He's just like his mother."

Xanthos nodded. "Speaking of her, will she and her husband step up?" Artemis and Diomedes were a little more hesitant than their son, but they proceeded anyway. "And you are Artemis and Diomedes, am I correct?" the couple nodded. "Do you wish to do this with your son?" the two exchanged looks thoughtfully, then once they saw their son's hopeful eyes, they sternly looked ahead and nodded. "Very well then, you will set sail in the morning, say your goodbyes because once you set sail, you'll be on your own. Predators, dismissed."

...

"Fang are you sure you want to do this?" asked Artemis.

Her son nodded. "I know what I must do, if nopony will take action then I will, there will be a famine and I don't want to die this way, I want to die with my foals looking up to me, and their foals looking up to them, I want to go down knowing I did something important for Equestria and this tribe, it is what I must do."

"But you heard what Xanthos said, they could mistake you for a cannibal or something," warned Diomedes.

"We will become cannibals if this isn't solved. Also it's funny, Dad."

"What's funny?"

"You're the one who taught me how to hunt, how to stand up for myself in times of trouble, and how to not be afraid of anything, but yet you are scared of other ponies that probably don't even have hunter instincts. And Mom, you helped me up when I fell down, you showed me what to do when I was sick. And still you won't stand up for the tribe even in the time of need, that is why it is funny."

Diomedes and Artemis exchanged looks with their son before all three started to laugh at how mature Fang was compared to his own parents. Once the laughing died down, Diomedes placed a hoof on his son's shoulder.

"Fang, words can't describe how proud of you I am for you. Now let's get some rest, we have a big day ahead of us."

...

The three were already on the boat with three days passed, and who knows how far away from home, which wasn't able to be seen anymore, neither were there any hippocami or any kind of life, they checked.

"Twenty two buckets of meat on the wall, twenty two buckets of meat..." Diomedes sang, while his wife and son tried to find something to do on the very small and mildy unstable boat to pass the time. "...you open the latch, and down the hatch, twenty one buckets of meat on the wall. Twenty one buckets of meat on the wall..."

"Dad, Dad, wait!" Fang said, interrupting his father's continuous song.

"Twenty buckets of- huh?" Diomedes said, paying attention to his son while Artemis was silently thankful that he stopped.

"Dad, look," Fang pointed ahead, where dark storm clouds rolled in, not before long they were hit by waves of violent water and lightning.

"Brace yourselves!" Artemis shouted.

"I don't think this boat can brace itself any longer!" Diomedes shouted in reply, before seeing the boat already starting to fall apart. "Uh oh, hold on and don't let go!"

CREEEEAAAK, SNAP!

The three predators were sent flying every which way, not knowing what's going on or where they're going. All they could hear is the rain, the waves, and each other screaming before everything turned black.

"Sir..." a voice called out in the darkness. "Sir, are you okay? Sir? Mister?" finally, Diomedes opened his eyes to find himself face to face with a mare, obviously from the mainland because of her light green coat and dark green mane, much different from any predator mare, which all had different shades of brown to blend in with the earth. The mare sighed in relief when Diomedes opened his eyes. "Oh, thank goodness you're alright, are you okay? What happened?"

"My family got shipwrecked, speaking of them, where are they?" Diomedes answered.

"Is that them?" the mare pointed to the familiar and calming sight of Fang and Artemis, broken pieces of wood lay around them.

"Yeah, that's them. Ow, my head."

"Oh, hold on, let me get you something for that."

"No, no, it's alright," Diomedes yawned, clearly showing his rows of sharp teeth, which made the mare gasp.

"What... what is wrong with your teeth?"

"Nothing's wrong with them, I'm a predator, it's normal," this made the mare back away.

"Wh-what are you?"

"I am a predator, I eat meat and hunt, which reminds me, I am very hungry right now," his stomach growled and it caused the mare to back away even more. Then Diomedes licked his lips out of hunger, but it seems the mare got the wrong message after she ran away screaming.

Diomedes called to her. "Wait, I'm not going to..." it was too late, she was already gone and probably spreading false rumors about the predators. "...Eat you," Diomedes finished, sighing, then trotted over to his son and wife, nudging them awake.

"Huh? What's going on?" Fang asked, the young colt yawned as he stood up.

"Diomedes? What's going on? Where are we?" asked Artemis, also getting up.

"I think we're on the mainland," answered Diomedes, with a mixture of pride and dismay, but clearly Fang felt pure joy.

"Alright!" Fang exclaimed, jumping around. "Come on, we've got to find a way to save the tribe!"

"I don't think it'll be that easy, son," Diomedes said.

Fang stopped his celebration in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"I just gave our first impression, and it didn't go so well."

"I was worried of this," said Artemis.

"Oh well, there's no way back right now, might as well make ourselves comfortable."

...

They have already built a house, settled down and had a feast to eat, something a predator could only dream of, but the worry that brought to them by thinking about their tribe made enjoying this near impossible. They tried several times to get other ponies attention, but the only thing they could get was that they needed help from this 'Princess Celestia', but they had no idea who she was or how to get to her, no matter how many times they tried to ask other ponies to help, they would just run away in fear.

They were about to give up hope when they heard two voices.

"Dusty, I told you to go before we left," the first one said.

"I didn't have to go then, besides I thought I could hold it," replied the second.

"Ugh, look, there's a house, you can stop there and then we could-" he was cut off by rapid knocking at the door, which Diomedes answered after putting on a scarf to hide his teeth. On the other side was a ocean blue unicorn with weird limbs attached to his back and a beige pegasus that looked extremely jittery.

"Hi there," the unicorn said. "We were just wandering by and-" the unicorn started to say.

"Can I use your bathroom?!" the pegasus quickly interrupted.

"It's uh... right over-" Diomedes pointed the way and immediately the pegasus zipped past him and into the room.

"Sorry about him, I told him to go before we left Fillydelphia."

"Fillydel-?" Diomedes caught himself. "I mean, it's alright, we understand."

"You know, you are the first ones not to be awestruck by my arms."

"Uh, we've had our experiences with the unusual."

The unicorn sniffed the air before plugging his nose. "Ugh, what is that stench? Hold on, for your hospitality. I'll be glad to make you an air freshener," he started heading to the kitchen.

"No, don't!" Diomedes shouted, but it was already too late, the unicorn saw the meat on the table, and Fang's face was in his food, tearing his way through it.

"What is going on here?" the unicorn asked. Diomedes tried to think of a plan, but seeing how the secret's blown, he removed the scarf and showed his teeth.

"We are predators, we eat meat," Diomedes answered, sullenly.

"Is that a pony?" the unicorn asked, pointing to the meat pile on the table.

"No, we would never do that," answered Artemis.

The unicorn opened his mouth, they were expecting a scream, but they were mildy surprised at what did come out.

"Are there more of you?"

"Uh, yeah, but they're far away, on an island, and in a famine," answered Fang.

"Wait, a famine? Haven't you told somepony?"

"We tried, but nopony would listen, they just run away in fear."

"So you have a hard time fitting in to society?"

"You could say that, why?" finally, the pegasus came back before the unicorn could answer.

"Sorry it took a while, whatever I ate did not agree with me. What's going on?" the pegasus' jaw dropped after seeing the meat. "Cyber, what's going on?" he repeated.

"Dusty, I think we found a new member."

"New member?" asked Fang.

"Oh, right, I'm Cyber System, this is Dusty," Cyber introduced.

"I'm Fang, these are my parents Diomedes and Artemis."

"Nice to meet you," Cyber said. "Anyway, I lead a group called 'The Misfits', we are a group of ponies who just want to fit in and were teased by other ponies."

"Do you know where and who Princess Celestia is?" asked Fang.

Cyber nodded. "Of course, she is the one who can help us show Equestria what we really are."

"I want to join you, if it's alright with you," Fang looked at his parents.

"Do you want to do this?" asked Artemis.

"Yes, Mom, remember what Xanthos said, we need to take any opportunity we can get."

Diomedes smiled. "You know Fang, out of all of this, I have never been so proud of you, go with these misfits, and save the tribe, we are counting on you, and we love you."

"I love you too," Fang hugged his parents, then faced Cyber.

"Ready to go?" Cyber asked, Fang nodded.

"Let's go," Fang replied.

"Welcome to The Misfits," said Dusty.

"I wonder how our Fang is doing," said Diomedes as he finished his flashback.

Author's Note:

And so that concludes the flashbacks of The Misfits (well except for Moonlight but I doubt she'll reviel her past anytime soon.)

Anyway big thanks to DPJacksAniBrony for the cover art.

Don't forget to comment and let me know if there is anything wrong.