Raid on the Town
The badlands sun beat heavily down upon Rock as he trudged through the desert with his pack. The heat was relentless and tormented him with every second of being in its grasp. But the goal he and his band walked towards ahead was well worth the difficult and arduous walk. A raid on the town of Ponyville was his mission. Food was needed for the pack back at Dragon's Mountain, so Alpha dispatched him to retrieve food and supplies. But also, the ponies needed to be reminded who was boss in this land. He loved giving the worthless ponies a good kick in their flanks.
Bone came up behind him with his crossbow in his hands and walked beside him.
"The dogs are getting tired and our supply wagons are running low on food. How long till we reach the town?" Bone asked worriedly.
"We should be there by the late afternoon. Tell those dogs to stop their whining or I'll come back there and set their priorities straight!" Rock yelled back to Bone.
Bone shuffled past the dog-drawn wooden cart before taking up his position again with the other 50 diamond dogs. Rock turned his head back towards the dune that they were scaling and thought back to the mission.
"Yes, those ponies will get theirs. And we will drown in the spoils of their weakness and futile trust in love and friendship," he thought to himself.
Rock quietly cackled to himself at the thought and pushed on to the town of Ponyville.
The sound of jovial laughter thundered through the afternoon heat.
"No, No, No more!" cried Coal, trying to contain his laughter and compose himself.
"But the very best part, Coal, is that while I was doing it, I tied his boot laces together, so when I booked it, he got up, fell right down, and wobbled all across town trying to get me!" Richard shouted back, barely keeping himself together before bellowing out into the sky in joyous laughter.
The two companions enjoyed the moment in happiness before finally calming down and settling back in happy silence.
"It sounds like you had a good relationship with your friend," Coal said as they walked across the path.
"Yes, he was as good a friend as any teenage boy could have asked for," Rich adjusted his hat upwards and scratched his chin.
The two walked in silence, enjoying the stillness of the early evening air. Richard broke the silence once more.
"You know, how did this whole talking thing come about? Do you know anything about it?" Richard inquired of his friend.
"I've always been able to speak. I spoke to you all the time. We just spoke in different tongues," replied Coal.
"Huh," Richard paused for a couple seconds and pondered the thought, "who woulda thought? What kind of things would you say?" Rich looked down at his friend with a hint of suspicion in his eye.
"Oh, nothing of importance," Coal's barely contained smile brimmed with amusement.
Richard raised his eye in suspicion and a sly smile spread across his face. "Oh, really? That smile certainly doesn't tell me that it was nothing of importance."
"Really, it was mostly serious in those serious situations, but playful banter other times. It wasn't anything insulting,"
"I figured. It's alright," Rich patted Coal's mane and gave his neck a rub.
The town came into view and Rich raised his head to stare into the town.
"Looks like we found what we were looking for," Rich said.
"What? No, that's Schnitzelwerfertown, home of the Duke of York. It's definitely not this Ponyville we are looking for."
"Ha, Ha, very funny. Come on, let's go," Rich gave a slight whip of the reins and they were off.
Twilight stepped out of her house, with Fluttershy closely following.
"Thanks for telling about your little incident, Fluttershy," Twilight turned back and closed the door to her house behind her.
"I'm just glad that I have friends to confide in. When those wolves attacked, I thought I would never see you and the girls again," Fluttershy shook her head and shuddered at the thought of the wolves.
"Well, I better get back to my animals. It's been almost 6 hours that I've been gone and they're likely hungry," Fluttershy turned towards her house. "Have a nice evening, Twilight."
A roaring cry pierced through the dry air, coming from Mareaton Hill. Twilight, confused, turned her head toward the bizarre sound. Streaming down the hill were Diamond Dogs, carrying crossbows, spears, and swords in their paws. Her ears flattened and eyes widened in fear. She looked to Fluttershy, who was already flying off to warn the town. Twilight began to gallop away back towards her home to seek some safety. The diamond dogs were closing in behind her, so she cast a shield spell behind her to try to hinder the diamond dogs. It worked only temporarily as the diamond dogs just went around it.
By then, she had reached her home, and found that nopony was occupying the streets anymore. Most had gone into their homes and locked the doors. She quickly followed suit and barricaded her door with a table. However, the diamond dogs poured into the city and burst down doors of each of the homes. Shouting, screaming, and yelling was heard before Twilight heard her own door being hit.
"Twilight! What's going on?" Spike exclaimed as he ran down the stairs.
"Diamond Dogs! They're attacking the town!" Twilight yelled back at him.
Two dogs burst into the foyer of the library and held up their crossbows.
"Get into the square, now! DO IT! DO IT NOW!" the taller of the dogs barked.
The two dogs herded Twilight and Spike into the square of the town. Other dogs were similarly herding the other ponies into the square as well. Children looked around confused and worried, trying to find their parents. Mothers yelled out for their fillies and stallions got in front of the mares and fillies, trying to protect them. The dogs surrounded them, the ones with crossbows trained them on the ponies.
The pandemonium was silenced by an extensive roar in the sky.
"Silence!" Rock bellowed to the ponies. "Good! Now that I have your attention, let me just say, Hi," Rock took a bow in front of the ponies, "Always should have manners when you're raiding," he said with a toothy smile.
The ponies all glanced at him, eyes wide with fear for their lives and children.
"You may be wondering why I've gathered you all here on this fine evening. Well, I'll tell you why. I want food and supplies. And you ponies always seem to have plenty of them! I'm sure some sharing wouldn't be that bad, now would it?" Rock jumped down from the wooden cart and landed hard on the ground and looked up at the ponies.
One stallion spoke up. "We have no extra food to give. We only have enough to sustain us till the Fall harvest!"
Rock sighed and shook his head at the ground. "Guess we'll just have to do this the hard way, not that I mind."
Rock reached out and wrestled Applebloom out of Applejack's grasp. She bit and fought against Rock, but he, being the larger, easily deflected anything she threw at him. He held her by her back and pointed her crossbow at her head.
"Let me go, you big ol' jerk!" Applebloom tried to bite his paw, but failed.
"How bout this, ponies? I put a bolt in this little filly's head, murder all of you, and take the food anyways, boring option, orrrrrr, you can just give me what I want, and we all go home happy," Rock smiled and tilted his head.
"Why you yello-bellied chicken...," Applejack's face darkened with barely concealed rage.
"Winning's winning," shot back Rock.
"Give them what they want," Mayor Mare ordered.
The ponies went to their homes and each gathered some of their food, all while under diamond dog guard. Some others went to the grain silos and took out some grain for the dogs as well. Rock stood quietly in the square, with his crossbow still trained on Applebloom's head. The ponies gathered their tribute together and deposited it into the wooden cart the raiders had brought along.
"Tie up the food tightly," Rock ordered Applejack.
Applejack stomped towards Rock, closing in for a buck.
"Uh uh uh," Rock pushed the crossbow into Applebloom's head, "We wouldn't want the little tyke to get hurt, now would we?"
"You're the most repulsive and pathetic thing ah've ever laid my eyes upon, coward," Applejack stepped back once more and went back to tying up the food and supplies.
Everything was neatly packed into place. The dogs herded the ponies back into the square. Rock still grasped Applebloom firmly in his paw.
"We're leaving now. Do not follow us or the kid gets it. When we cross over the hill, we'll release her, and you can go back to worthless lives," Rock spat at the ponies.
The band gathered themselves and headed to the hill, with Rock in the back of the column holding Applebloom out. As the last of the raiding party scaled over the hill, Rock turned back and stared at the ponies. He dropped Applebloom abruptly and spat at the ground.
He turned to the filly. "Run along now, child." He joined his party and walked, until he disappeared over the horizon of the expansive fields of grass.
Applebloom eyed the horizon to see if the dogs would come back, before turning back to Ponyville and galloping down to join her sister.
"A bunch of ponies? Richard disbelievingly stared into the town and observed pastel ponies wandering through the streets. "No, no, a bunch of TALKING ponies?"
"Wanna take back that little statement from the ridge now, Rich?" Coal turned back towards Rich, "I mean, there are talking horses right there, as we speak."
Richard asked his eyes if they were seeing correctly. He rubbed them with his hands and closed them. He opened them again. Yup, they were.
Geez, it looks like a rainbow barfed all over them," Richard thought to himself.
"Sooooooo, are we going to go in, or what?" Coal threw back his mane with a flip of his neck to the side.
"Yeah, yeah, sure. Come on, let's go in."
A massive roar reverberated through the air. Rich looked up to the sounds epicenter to the west. As he looked up, massive dogs streamed down the hill like the hordes of Indians he fought in the Indian Wars.
"We need to move! We need to find somewhere safe and hide!" Rich yelled to Coal and whipped the reins.
Coal maneuvered his way through a small line of trees before coming up behind a thatch-roofed house and stopping. Rich dismounted Coal and snuck into an alleyway, remaining in the shadows. He looked out into the square and observed the ponies being assembled into the square by the hostile dogs. Rich couldn't believe he was seeing these dogs. They were standing on their two hind legs, which made them easily exceed five feet tall. Not only that, they had somehow gathered the intelligence to be able to handle weapons, with some of them training crossbows on the ponies and others wielding swords and daggers. Rich observed a bigger dog climb up onto a wooden cart, pulled by one of the dogs, and began to speak in perfect English.
Richard listened to him negotiate his demands with the ponies. It's a raiding party. I see now.
"We have no extra food to give. We only have enough to sustain us till the Fall harvest!" Rich heard one stallion speak up at the dog.
He heard the dog mutter to himself before snatching a small pony from another. The tiny pony spoke with a high-pitched and squeaky voice and he immediately knew that the dog had grabbed a child. The dog shoved its crossbow towards the child's head and talked once more.
"How bout this, ponies? I put a bolt in this little filly's head, murder all of you, and take the food anyways, boring option, orrrrrr, you can just give me what I want, and we all go home happy," the dog tilted its head and showed an evil, toothy smile.
Rich could not believe what he was seeing. He had seen many terrible things. Murder, thievery, war, suffering, rape, all of it. But, at least, even his old enemies had the decency and honor in themselves to not threaten a child! That was it. This dog, this thing, was going to taste the brass of his rifle and feel the iron of his saber upon its back. He watched the ponies meet the dog's demands and bring out food and tools to the cart. Once they had tied up the goods, the dogs set out once more towards the hill they had come down from. Once they reached the top, the leader released the child and disappeared over the top of the hill. Richard quietly crept back to Coal.
"Come on. We're going after those dogs," Rich mounted himself into the saddle.
"What? Are you kidding? I don't know if you noticed Rich, but those dogs had weapons! When was the last time you saw a dog carry a crossbow?" Coal exclaimed to Rich.
"You went with me on all those jobs. You've seen me get dirty during those jobs. What's the problem with combat?" The two had by then been riding around the side of the town and headed towards the hill.
"Combat is a bit different, you know. Instead of you shooting one guy and being done with it like we normally have done, we have to shoot almost 60!" Coal looked back to Rich and shot him a glare.
"I promise, Coal, I will keep you safe, and when we're done, I'll buy you a big bag of carrots,"
"It better be a massive bag."
The two reached the plains and galloped off towards the horizon.
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The tension is killing me! Darn you cliffhangers!
Coal is hilarious.
8048946
Good to hear
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I've already started the next chapter. Should be out soon!
This story is actually quite phenomenal, I never understood why so many people don't write fics about calvarymen/cowboys and their horses on this site.
Daam indians