One of a Kind

by JaHarre

The Hunt

"I'm *sniff* ssso *hic* sorry."

"I di... di... *sob* didn't mea..... *sniff*" the grey mare said for probably the hundredth time

"Shhhhhhhhhh, its going to be alright. None of this was your fault." Haiba whispered softly as she held a very distraught grey unicorn mare.

The zebra took in her surroundings for the hundredth time since she had regained consciousness. They were in a small but very well built cage on wheels with a tarp thrown over it to hide the contents from any prying eyes.

When she had first woken up, she had tried to demand that they release her and no harm would befall them because of it. All she got for an answer was a hard hit on the side of the head from one of the guards.

It wasn't to much longer after that that she heard raised voices and a very loud scream. Then all of a sudden, the tarp was thrown back and a guard unlocked the gate while another pointed a spear at her. It was then when the young mare was thrown into Haiba's cage all beat up and the gate was slammed shut and locked.

Claptrap came up to the edge and said," You knew what I was all along and you still chose to believe that I could change."

"In my defense, I did try. Your mother thought that every thing could change, and she left us when she realized that life isn't all sunshine and roses. You were abandoned by her and yet you still side with her ideals. Sometimes, I don't know who is more pathetic you or her."

Even if Haiba never knew equestrian (which she did speak very well), she could never have misunderstood the situation or her role in it. Right then a young mare needed some healing both physically and emotionally and she was the right zebra for the job.

Soon after Claptrap left, they had started moving and had been on the move for several hours now. It was getting dark, but how late it really was, Haiba couldn't tell with the thick tarp over the cage. All she could do was hold the young mare and try to comfort her. She didn't know how or when, but Haiba was sure that help would come.

____________________________________________________________________________

Several hours earlier

Soon after Fleetwing had taken off, Claptrap released the sack he was carrying and gave it to the big stallion with the punching bag cutie mark.

"Wow! she sure is heavy for a mare."

"Now Jab, Is that any way to talk about a lady? Just remember if this deal goes over well, not only will it save our hides but we'll be filthy rich as well." Claptrap stated.

" Now," he said turning back to the others.

"We'll split off into groups of two and I want you to go different directions. I want you to twist and turn and back track so much I want you to almost get lost yourselves. Remember I said almost. I want you to make it difficult for anypony who might be tracking us. Meet back at camp as soon as you can. GO!"

With that said, they divided up into groups of two and then scattered. Claptrap and Jab had paired off and were carrying the sack with Haiba in it.

"So, boss *pant* why are we doing this and what does *pant* She want with a potions maker?" Jab asked as they ran through the tall grass.

"Do you want to me to spell it out for you?! *pant* Look I have no idea why she wants a potions maker. All I know is that we do this last job we can retire, one way or the other.*pant* Me? Personally, I prefer the way that has lots of money and doesn't involve jail time."

Jab gave a small chuckle "Me too boss. Me too!"

___________________________________________________________________________

"Ughhh...Where are they?" Compass Rose mumbled to herself.

"All he was supposed to do was get some potions. How hard could that be? He better not have done anything else.
Please let him not have done anything other than that. He promised." she pleaded with herself.

For the last two and a half hours, ever since that new pegasus came back saying they had to pack it up, she had been hoping that Claptrap hadn't reverted to old habits. Just the thought made her get mad. So she tried to vent it on the rest of the crew.

"You there! What did you say your name was?" she shouted at the pegasus who had brought the news.

"Fleetwing ma'am."

"Well Fleetwing, according to your estimate, they should've been back half an hour ago. Fly up and see if you can see them! Get your flank moving before I move it for you. "

"Yes ma'am!" and with that the young stallion turn tail and flew off.

Rose continued her pacing hoping that the sinking pit in her stomach was just because of indigestion.

She continued to pace for what felt like an eternity before Fleetwing returned.

"They're coming in now but I don't understand it. They are approaching from several different directions." the pegasus reported.

That did nothing to reassure her doubt. Five minutes later she saw Claptrap enter the camp with Jab with a large sack on his back.

"Hello, my crew! Did you all have a fine vacation with out your kind and soft hearted boss here to tell you to quit slacking off?

Well vacation is over! get back to work! I wanted this caravan moving two hours ago!"

"Hey," Jab nudged Claptrap. "Looks like your 'Number One' wants to talk to you and she doesn't look happy."

Claptrap just sighs, " she probably wants to know if every thing is all right and I'll just have to lie to her again."

Rose stomped up to Claptrap and asked him one question.

"Why?"

Claptrap was caught a little off guard with this question and the hurt and anger he saw in his daughter's eyes. He wasn't expecting her to ask that. Apparently his little filly wasn't as naive as he thought she was.

After composing himself he asked "Jab, would you take our guest and make sure she is comfortable?"

Jab picked up the sack once more and with a nervous look between his boss and the obviously irate mare, he turned and headed off towards one of the covered wagons.

Claptrap turned back to his daughter and received a slap to the face that nearly knocked him over.

"Why?" she nearly screamed at him. Then with a sob she spoke quieter.

"We were so close. Just one more year, our contract would have been up and all this could have been behind us, and here you go foal-napping an innocent zebra from their home. How could you?"

Claptrap stood up rubbing his cheek. His anger rising but he kept it in check.

"Why? I'll tell you why. If we do this then we wont have to wait for next year. If we do this now then, we can retire and go someplace and actually be a family just like you always wanted."

"Huh... how am I supposed to trust you? That's what you told mom too before she left!" Rose's anger started to rise again.

"Your nothing but a no good..."

"Easy...."

" LYING..."

"Whoa NOW!..."

"THIEVING! "

"STOP!"

"EVIL...!"

"I SAID 'THAT'S ENOUGH'!!!"

" AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" Rose screamed as she flew off her hoofs.

Claptrap looked at his own hoof in shock. 'What did I just do?' He never got a chance to answer this as he looked around and noticed the rest of the crew staring at him. 'No I need to set an example for the crew that insubordination will not be tolerated. So with that thought, he walked over to his daughter and said.

"You have questioned and assaulted me. You think your so high and mighty little miss holier than thou. If you think that life is so clear cut then I think being second in command is the wrong position for you."

"Put her with our 'guest'." he sneered.

Two members of the crew went and picked her up none too gently and carried her to the cage.

After she had been tossed into the cage he came up to the edge and said, "You knew what I was all along and you still chose to believe that I could change."

"In my defense, I did try. Your mother thought that every thing could change, and she left us when she realized that life isn't all sunshine and roses. You were abandoned by her and yet you still side with her ideals. Sometimes, I don't know who is more pathetic, you or her."

And with that said, he turned around and left. Rose had never felt so alone or so lost. How could her daddy, the stallion that she always looked up to to protect her and love her, do something like this? She supposed that she deserved some sort of reprimand because of those names she called him but this was still the first time he had ever hit her out of anger like that, And why did he have to say those things about mom? What is really going on? Why Daddy why? She was a little filly again and all she wanted was her daddy to chased away the monsters again.

Too confused and tired to think, she just broke down and cried. She felt a hoof rest softly on her shoulder. She looked up into the kind eyes of the zebra mare. Rose cleared her throat, wiped her eyes, sat up and tried to explain.

"I'm *sniff* ssso *hic* sorry."

"I di... di... *sob* didn't mea....."

That's about as far as she got before she dissolved into tears again. The kind zebra just held Rose in her hooves as the young mare sobbed for the both of them. For both had lost their family that day.

___________________________________________________________________________

"Huh oh... now what do we do?" Zimba asked.

We had just come across a very troubling site. The wagons that the traders were pulling had all been dumped and there wasn't a clear cut path anymore. It almost looked like there were at least three different paths leading in three different directions.

""Hmmm... very clever." the zebra elder said "Our opponents have played this game before and are quite good at it."

"What?!" Zimba and I ask at the same time.

"They have lightened their load and are now able to travel faster. So they take that time to create false trails to confuse us. One of these trails will take us pretty much straight to their camp while the other two will twist and turn and get us lost."

"Well that's just great! How are we supposed to track 'em now?" I asked

"Well, how about your sense of smell? Your always going on about how they smelled bad to you." Zimba asked, a bit panicked about the thought of losing the trail.

"Do I look like a blood hound? I have been trying to smell something the entire way here but all I smell now is you, gramps and dirt. That's it."

"Look, will you two stop flapping your gums and get over here? They went that way." He said pointing down one of the paths.

"How can you tell?" Zimba asked.

"Easy!" he said, "Catch!"

And with that, he jumped up and landed on Zimba. "OOF!"

"What the...? Grampa, I thought mom told you to cut out the honey soaked mushrooms!?" Zimba groaned as his grandfather sat on his back.

" Yes, well, I love them so and what your mother doesn't know wont hurt her. Don't deny and old stallion his pleasures, now walk."

After a few steps, the elder said "See? The hoof prints are deeper than a normal ponies meaning that the pony was carrying something heavy. Or else it was a big, fat pony with little hoofs for its size, but since I don't remember seeing one at the village then that means that those..." he pointed at a set of prints "are the ones we must follow."

"That's great! You can get off me now!" Zimba yelled.

"All right then, lets go!" I said.

____________________________________________________________________________

Zimba led the way down the path. We had been running at a good clip for about an hour and a half before we stopped at the wagons and it had almost been two hours since then and we were still keeping up a nearly breakneck pace. I was beginning to wonder if he had some sort of potion he was drinking just to keep up his energy or was there something else going on. I could tell by the tired glances that the elder kept glancing at him that he was wondering the same thing.

"Hey Zimba would you slow down a bit!?... Your grampa is getting tired!" I yelled up at him.

The elder looked at me with a raised eyebrow and said "Don't use me as an excuse *pant* just because your getting tired *pant*."

"Maybe you wouldn't be so tired if you ran on all fours!" Zimba yelled back at me. I had been running like a human the entire time. Habit.

"Hey, are you deaf!? I said that your grampa is getting tired! What about him?" I answered.

"If he can't keep up then he shouldn't have come!"

I looked at the elder and he nodded in the direction of the young zebra. In slow understanding, I nodded in return. Lowering my self on all fours, I sprinted after Zimba until I was able to catch him in a flying tackle.

"OOF!"

After I had him pinned down, he started yelling at me.

" What the hay are you doing!? We can't lose the trail! we're so close! Why are you doing this? Your with them aren't you! This was all a trick to get us to trust you! You Stole MY MOTHER!"

He was working 'mself into a major frenzy. So, I did the only thing I could think to do. I took a deep breath, got right up in his face and roared as as loud as I could.

"ALL RIGHT NOW THAT'S ENOUGH!"

There was a look of shock and fright on his face.'Uh oh, I might have taken that a little too far.' I got up off him and the elder dashed in and helped Zimba to his hoofs.

"Are you alright?"

"Yea grampa, I'm fine just a little shook up."

I had started to unpack a little bit of food from the backpack. I handed some to them as well as some water.

"Here you go. You need to rest a little bit before we start after them again." I told Zimba

"um... Thanks." he said a little nervously as he took the food. The elder was also eying me with a nervous but steely gaze. I figured I had better apologize before anything else happened.

"Sorry I had to get after ya like that. You weren't going to listen to me and If I didn't do something to distract you, you would have gotten hurt or worse killed."

"And scaring him and me accomplished that how?" the elder asked.

"hmm... He wasn't thinking clearly, so the way I figured it, if the sound didn't wake him up then the smell sure would've. I haven't been able to brush my teeth really since I got here and that's just gross."

I looked at both of them and smiled. Zimba was the first to break into a nervous grin and then started chuckling. Gramps soon followed when he realized that no harm was intended. I joined in on the laughter and after that things when back to the way they were. Minus of course one hysterical zebra.

As it turned out where we had stopped to eat had been where the main camp had been parked.

"They will be traveling a lot slower now they have the full caravan. If the blessings of the sun goddess favor us, we will catch up to them by night fall." The Zebra elder said as he set a slower but steadier pace.

__________________________________________________________________________

Fleet wing has never been more troubled or confused in his entire life then he was right then. After the big reveal of the captured zebra, the sudden anger and aggression the Boss showed to a mare (his own daughter no less), he had been too stunned to say anything about it.

As he looked back now he realized just how dumb he had been, ' How could I have been so stupid? It was bad enough trying to cheat the zebras but now foalnaping them? This is getting way out of hoof. I need to cut ties with them as soon as I can.' He thought back to the two prisoners 'but I can't just leave them caged like that. That would make me as guilty as Claptrap. I'll try to get them out tonight when its my turn on guard. With that last thought, he prepared himself for what he had to do.

__________________________________________________________________________

"Look there it is!" Zimba exclaimed.

"Shhhh!"

"Shhhh!"

"Sorry" he whispered back. "so, how are we going to do this?"

" First, we are going to scout out where they are keeping her. Then, we are going to wait until most of them are asleep. Then, we will create a large enough diversion to daze and confuse them while I sneak in and free them" The Elder said.

"Ummm..." I raised my paw. "How big of a diversion are we talking here? I only have a couple of things I made up and I can't guarantee just how big or loud they'll be."

"You still have those potions I gave you right?"

"Yea.. so...?"

"So... those potions have been on a shelf for years. I can't remember what was in them exactly, but they are almost ridiculously unstable. That I do remember. They'll make a big boom when placed in a fire."

"WHAT!"

"SHHHHHHH!"

"You mean ta tell me that ah've been caryin 'round, on my back, a failed science 'xpearament that could ah've gone off if it had've got'en too hot in the sun!?" I whispered back.

"Yes, and you did a fantastic job of it too!"

"Um.. why are you taking like that? You sound like something just snapped a string that had been pulled tight." Zimba asked

"ay uh...mmmm *cough* *Clears throat* I uh... get like that when I'm scared or really angry. Its how I grew up speaking and I sometimes revert back to it." I squeaked out.

"Cute, but we have a task at hoof here that needs to be accomplished. We'll talk about home when we are done. Now here is how this will go down." and the elder gave out assignments.

______________________________________________________________________________

A/N sorry it took so long. my life has been in a major flux. school and work have to take priority over this.

I did a lot of experimenting with some of the character development as well as the writing style. I am by no means done with the editing out of the grammar mistakes so please be patient with me. let me know if the story is progressing too fast or too slow or anything else that I may need to improve upon. sorry if this chapter seems to have a lot of filler in it.

Comments

[JaHarre]

Yea, the little gremlin monster kept having me rewrite this chapter over and over and over again.
for some reason it still doesn't sit quite right with me. maybe y'all can find the trouble spots.

[skeith the terror of death]

Regardless I still really enjoyed it, keep up the good work

[.Tzeentch.]

huh i think you may need to add more description for things in the world
but good nontheless

[Captain_Savage]

Holy hell... I thought you were dead...

[Drawdex]

lh6.googleusercontent.com/-88YnPd7Cpd0/TYzKv9oWxKI/AAAAAAAACUM/wwq09W47KyE/aleluya+canciones+mas+lindas+del+mundo.jpg

[JaHarre]

1655506

busy.... and slow, but not dead.

[Blacklaw]

Keep going, this amuses me

[shellfish2233]

Grenado!!

[shirotora]

I can't wait for the next chapter. It kind of reminds me of my own story in that the main charicter is a tiger.

[Jack-Pony]

A Tiger in Equestria? Has somebody been reading Chaotic Harmony?

[SteampunkBrony]

1883184

lol, whatever

[JaHarre]

2347022
Jimmy stays dead unfortunately. I already killed him off and the story has progressed too much to bring him back, but your idea has merit. I might throw in another character to team up with my guy. Who knows? I'll have to ponder that. hmmmmm.......

[Pabulos]

Hmmm so yeah when will the be a new chapter to this story ?????

[white_raven]

when will you release another chapter i have been waiting forever.This story is to good to die.

[Omega Infinita]

I do not approve of the deaths of stories. It would be wise not to anger me.

[Kerberos]

So would it be too much to ask how dead this story is?

[Sky Hooves]

4152247 I fear its totally dead. Without any chance of resurrection...

[JohnIsOffline]

And...story dead

[Drexlroosh13]

Please keep this alive!

[Laurai]

Someone should at least adopt this story.

[Sky Hooves]

I just read the whole story again. And I still love it!

I'm an optimist. The author is still coming online which means he/she is still alive and that means there is a chance for a new chapter.

[borgvicugna]

Please don't be a stranger!
Be an update ranger!!

It's really a good story. ^_^

[mrkillwolf666]

MORE...plz

[rikithemonk]

This was a surprisingly good story. Its a shame that the last update to it was five years ago. I would like to encourage the Author to continue it as many people are still interested in it.

The Monk

[TheStoveHater]

Why must good stories be abandoned so?

[Brende Moure]

I like this, now i can only sit and wait to see if it is continued. if not i thank you for the story none the less. -Brende

[Kevin Lee]

Good start to this and was really getting interesting.

Personally, I prefer stories that stay in the same writing style. Either stay with the 1.5-Person (worst choice of any writing style, IMHO) or go full 3rd Person Omniscient with varying points of view (best choice for all fics--like really the best choice to narrate any story), but NEVER mix them!

But should you ever get back to working on this again, I'd like to see the continuation. Looks like a really great tale in the works.

[rockfire8]

Is this story being worked on?(one of your comments said it was slow, being hopeful still)

[Spc jacko]

I really like this, any chance this will come back?

[A Man Undercover]

Is it okay if I have my own go of a Human turned Tiger in Equestria story?

[Resadur164]

I feel this is dead

[WxGODZILLAxW]

Não pode estar morto, NAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooo...