Of Mice and Stallions
Of Mice and Stallions
April... the month of back stabbing debauchery and indecisiveness.
If it wasn't that damnable holiday on the first of the month, it was the fact that April was the time of year that didn't know if it wanted to officially end winter or not. One day it was nice and warm enough to forgive one for thinking summer was on the way, next day, six inches of snow and below freezing.
Sin had hoped that Equestria and the Federation were different enough that this month wouldn't behave the way he'd become accustom to, alas, the universe decided to give him another harty "fuck you". It was his fault for holding hope, though. Atmosphere wise, Equestria, like the Federation, was almost the same in terms of latitude merely separated by five hundred miles of ocean to the west.
To make matters even worse, Dodge City was about two hundred miles due south, which meant that he and his companions would have to back track through the Everfree forest. That wasn't the problem, though, the problem came from the fact that Ponyville was between them and the city they needed to go to. It would add on a few days of travel time, but Sin decided to take the longer rout around the Everfree.
He'd briefly considered biting the bullet and taking a train, but Scootaloo's disappearance had made that more than a little complicated. While he informed the guards about the small shack outside of Trottingham, the Federalist went to the train station to buy tickets to Dodge. Though, a bulletin board beside the ticket booth had a poster for missing foals, and the newest addition to that poster was the very orange filly he now had the company of.
And so, here the three of them were, walking along the forest's edge, with the cold sting of winter's end plaguing the both of them. Sin didn't so much mind the cold, his time in the snowy inclines of the mountains had more than toughened his body against it, but Scootaloo was another matter. He could hear her teeth chatting as they walked. The fog of their breath becoming more and more dense the farther east they went, indicating that they were walking into the cold front.
"M-m-m-mister I-i-islander?" Sin stopped. "C-c-c-c-can we s-s-s-stop for the day?"
Sin looked up to the overcast mid-afternoon sky and sighed but nodded his head.
His biggest concern was water, and with the new three gallon camel pack he'd purchased from Trottingham strapped to his back, he estimated the two could go three days without needing to resupply. The first supply hit would be in one of the small villages a full day's trot from here.
Scootaloo collapsed under the weight of her bag, Sin knew that both her legs and back must be killing her, but never once did she complain about it, and to that, he had to give respect.
He noticed her shivering increase, as the heat generated by her constant movements began to cool as she rested.
Reluctantly, he reached back and undid his scarf.
"Head up." He called gently. The filly looked up with wide tired eyes and did as she was bid, allowing Sin to tie the long material around her neck. The scarf was almost comically long on her, completely covering her snoot and part of her eyes, the length spanning her body and spilling over her like a cloak.
'Hmmm... I like it, but what is it with you and giving ponies cloaks?'
Because it's cold?
'Not what I mean, but fair enough.'
Scootaloo made some adjustments to her new garb and her shivering subsided a little, but not enough to end any concern. They needed a fire. With the abundance of trees near by, Sin had one up in running in fifteen minutes flat, using the leverage of a pair of trees to break down a few larger, but brittle, branches into logs while Scootaloo rested.
He'd halt movement every so often as the sounds of howling came from the forest, but they were too far in for him to be overly concerned. Though, he did retrieve some para cord from his pack and set up a few alarm traps just to be certain. While his training in the wilderness spanned two years, plus a few more from his time with Triple M.'s wilderness survival classes -one he pretty much taught due to the instructor's vast incompetence and oversimplification- he was still out of practice.
What had once taken him a mere hour to do had taken him three now, but the important thing was to conserve energy and not sweat out water, an imperative he took special care not to break.
By the time sun began it's noticeable decent, camp was fully set up. Complete with spare logs, an anchored reverberation tarp to trap heat, and, of course, a well meaning fire. Scootaloo was doing better now, with heat and rest, hopefully she'd spoken up about her exertion before she became too fatigued to move tomorrow.
"How are you feeling, kiddo?" He asked, sitting down beside her, enjoying the heat of the fire.
"I'm doing okay." She said calmly, stroking Angle's head. "How about you?"
"Tired, as always." Sin replied, stretching out his aching forlegs. As expected, she specifically meant his limp. The stallion chuckled and shook his head, "I've done a lot more with a lot worse than this, kiddo."
Scootaloo tilted her head and asked what he meant, which prompted the stallion to recount his time in the Federal wilderness under his grandfather, the time before his real training under Tyken.
It started out simple, hiking a mile or so through the wilderness for a little while, then returning back to his grandfather's cottage for some rest and hot food. Simple enough, but as time passed, Mandylion continued to add small things to the endevor. Steeper inclines, longer trails, more dangerous routs, crossing water and learning how to quickly dry off. Finding small snacks along the way to both keep moral and strength.
Eventually it got to the point where the hike would take a week or two before returning back to the cottage again, the challenge being for the two to stay alive long enough to circle the entire mountain range once and return home in one piece. Sin knew he wouldn't die, but his grandfather had warned him about the possibility of frost bite claiming part of his nose or worse.
The mountain had everything short of a barren desert. Trees, grassy areas, roving hills, a ton of rivers, caves, plants and herbs, both edible/beneficial and poisonous, dangerous animals, benign animals, cliffs to scale, chasms to cross, valleys to explore. Sin could swear to this day, there wasn't a single crack of the north facing cliff he hadn't personally inspected with his own two eyes while looking for drinkable water, or some kind of plant to help with water additives like tea or medicine.
Scootaloo was in awe of his story, asking small questions here and there. By the time he'd finished, she looked alot more at ease with the situation.
"Ahoy!"
Sin immediately jammed his hoof into his crossbow and turned, ready to draw.
One stallion acknowledged his apprehension and stopped, the other continued onwards until the first placed out his foreleg to stop him. "Woah, woah, easy there friend. We mean ya no harm."
With the way his life had been for the last few days, Sin was more than a little hesitant to believe such a claim. The two began approaching again, a little more slowly this time. It was too dark out to make out their features until they came into the light of the fire.
"Sorry for the scare." The first stallion said, offering the pony a cheap, apologetic smile. "Me n' my brother here were just on our way to Apploosa n' saw your fire. Hoped we might be able to share camp with ya for the night. What with the Everfree being so dangerous and all."
Frowning, Sin took the two ponies in. The talking stallion was a shorter, brown earth pony with a somewhat messy dark green mane and well defined face. The way he spoke and carried himself put Sin on edge a little, he sounded a little con-man-ish, but maybe that was just the accent.
The other pony was a fucking giant of a unicorn stallion. Easily taller than big Macintosh by far, with big dopey eyes, sloping shoulders, and legs that were as big as Sin's neck and then some. Off white in color and wearing coveralls for some reason. His stare immediately went to Scootaloo and lingered on her for a time too long for Sin to be comfortable with.
"Who are you?" Sin asked, keeping his leg tense just in case.
The shorter pony gave a well rehearsed bow. "The name's Vast Gorge, but friends call me Gorge. This here is my friend, Porter Lemmingway, but I just call him Lemmy."
Lemmy began to shift anxiously, his gaze shifting between the ground, Scootaloo and Gorge. Sin waited, wanting to see what was about to happen. "You're friend looks uncomfortable."
Seeing himself mentioned, Lemmy grinned sheepishly. "Gorge, Gorge ask him about the rabbit, Gorge, ask him about the rabbit."
The smaller pony gave his associate a glare, reminding the larger pony that he wasn't supposed to talk, but Lemmy didn't seem to interested in what Gorge had to say at the moment, his eyes falling once again, not on Scootaloo, but on Angel.
"Lemmy, no. Remember what happened to the last bunny you touched? You broke the things neck because you petted it to hard." Gorge stated harshly. Lemmy slumped a little, but his eyes still trailed to the rabbit, looking at him with a fierce longing.
Sin wasn't sure what to make of the pair. It was obvious that the larger pony had some mental issues, what with the way he spoke and accidental killing of a rabbit, which didn't inspire much confidence. Gorge, though, he just rubbed Sin the wrong way. Not by the way he was, but by his accent, it just seemed so con-man-ish.
"No offense, but I'd rather not." Sin stated.
"Aww, C'mon friend. We're only asking to share camp for the night." Gorge urged. "We'da set up camp ourselves, but Lemmy here got us chased by some a pack of irate cyote's, he did."
Great, now there were coyotes potentially lead to his camp by these two... There goes him getting any sleep for the night.
"We w-" Lemmy began, only to be halted by Gorge slamming a knee into his side. "Oh, umm, yep. Cyotes, chased, mean little suckers." He said with a big, dumb smile.
Sin was about to tell them to move on, but Scootaloo beat him to the punch.
"Islander, Coyotes eat rabbits." She declared, cradling Angel in her forelegs a little tighter.
"I am aware, Scootaloo, thank you."
The filly argued that Gorge was right, and that there was safety in numbers, but Sin fought her on the matter, stating that he didn't think it was a good idea to allow ponies they didn't know to be so close. Though, Scootaloo held to form, citing Angel's safety as the reason for her worry, as well as the filly's own.
Sin, seeing that he had no real reason to deny the two, and the fact he'd been overusing Nightmare's power lately, reluctantly agreed to their stay.
"Thank ya, friend." Gorge chirped, taking a place opposite the two, with Lenny sitting beside him.
An awkward few moments of silence passed, well, for Sin anyway. Lemmy and Gorge looked right at home, chatting with each other about farm life and 'living off the fatta the lan'." Leading Sin to the conclusion that this wasn't their first time crashing a campsite.
"So, where are you n' ya girl headed, mistah?" Gorge asked. "Me n' Lemmy here are headin' to Appleoosa to start our own farm. Ain't that right, Lemmy?"
The larger stallion nodded his head. "Yep, gonna get us a whole bunch o' rabbits, n' Gorge is gonna let me tend to 'em."
Sin stole a quick look at Angel and Scootaloo, neither of whom liked to the idea, but he wasn't about to say anything. Animals were property, and he had as much right to dictate griffin slaughter houses as he did rabbit farms.
The two continued on, recounting their own tale of how they'd come to be here all the way from Manehatten. Time passed, and Lemmy laid down to doze off. Sin felt a pressure against his side. Scootaloo had fallen asleep, resting her head against him and breathing quietly as she slumbered.
Sin was tempted to lift his cloak and tuck her away against his side, away from the cold the best he could, but something inside of his chest demanded him not to, like it wasn't his place to do so. She just looked so innocent and peaceful in that moment, it almost hurt for him to know that she'd soon be cringing and whimpering from nightmares. The Timberwolves may not have gotten to her body, but they had infected her mind, and he had no doubt that the trauma of that pedophile would leave his mark as well.
"You want I should take first watch for the night, Mr. Islander? Let ya sleep with yer girl, there?"
Sin shook his head, he didn't plan to sleep. Lemmy may have been a well meaning oaf of a pony, but Gorge wasn't. Sin still wasn't sure if he could be trusted or not. So, the two of them stayed up, each watching over their respective charges.
"I grow weary of bread and water." Sombra bemoaned, dropping the last few bites of his loaf into the roaring fire before him. The stallion remembered a time when he'd have eaten his own hoof, battling the terrors and horrors that plagued Equestria. Fighting against the griffins in the Forgotten War a thousand years ago, wrangling with demons and driving them back to Tartarus, and even the mighty dragons themselves. Though, since he'd become the King of the Crystal Empire, the blackened unicorn had become accustom to the finer things in life. Even after his return, he'd made the mistake of indulging Celestia's royal hospitality and unwittingly set an unreachable standard of edibles.
"Will you stop complaining already? You're giving me a headache."
The old king's irritation was just limited to his food either, his companion, Soarin, was a stick in the mud. A constant sour puss who never smiled and was tartarus bent on not enjoying anything.
Sombra wanted to visit Trottingham proper and indulge the thoroughfare for all it was worth. Aye, he wanted to travel the countryside, but he also wanted to see all the architecture and changes the country had undergone as well. He wanted to explore the cities, dine on exquisite foods, and lay with the most beautiful of mares. He wanted to feel the heat of a warm body against his own after a good night of dunken sex and debauchery. To Soarin, though, he might as well be asking for the heavens to come crashing down and the earth to be split down the middle.
Sombra scoffed. "Do you take so much pleasure in being miserable, Soarin? Doth you not reminice of the warm body of a mare to keep you well during cold nights such as this?"
Soarin didn't reply, instead, he kept his sharp and intense gaze on the fire.
Seeing his question garnering no reply, Sombra sighed and shook his head. "You are too young to behave so somber and subdued, my friend."
"We're not friends." The white pegasus stated, breaking his eyes free from the flame to glare at his associate. "We've got a job to do, and we're doing it together. That's it."
Sombra rolled his eyes. "Yes, you have yet to let a day pass without reminding me of your ill begotten grudge."
Sorian returned to his fire.
As mind mind boggeling as the stallion's angst and lack of manners was, the blackened unicorn could only be so angry with him. He'd heard about the crimes Soarin had commited, and briefly considered passing his own judgement upon the pegasus, though it was how seriously he'd taken his burden that made the unicorn halt his wrath.
What he'd done was wrong, but Sombra was not blind to the hypocrisy of his ire. For as heinous as Soarin's acts were, they simply couldn't measure up to what the fell king had done. Mind control love was a horrible thing, but at least the pegasus had stopped prior to doing something that couldn't be undone.
Still didn't mean the two couldn't pretend to like each other though.
Luna had said that the target was somewhere in the Trottingham area, she did not know specifically where but deduced that the city was the best place to start their search. Soarin deduced that, since Sin was on the run from the law, he wouldn't actually stay inside the city any long than needed to resupply. The two had swept the outskirts a few times, even venturing into the Everfree forest to see if the stallion could be found. Alas, he could not.
At the end of each night, one would sleep and give their report to Luna in the dream scape, while the other stood watch for the night until it was their turn. His mistress wasn't upset with their lack of progress, but the confident face she put forth was a well trained disguise that Sombra could see through even if he'd lost his vision. She was worried, something foul plagued the lunar princess's mind, and as angry as the fell king was with her, his loyalty and love was as strong today as it was all those years ago.
A soft thumping soon acompaniedthe crackling of fire, and Sombra and Soarin exchanged glances. Somepony was approaching from behind.
In a flash, both ponies were one their hooves, with Sombra's horn flicking with a stun spell and Soarin ready to rush forward and beat the intruder senseless.
"Good eavening." Said a golden eyed bat pony said as he appeared in the light of the fire. "Sombra and Soarin, I presume?"
"You presume much, batpony." Sombra spat, the red glow of his horn intensifying.
A white hoof blocked Sombra's spell, and Soarin stepped forwards.
"I know you, you were that bat pony from Ponyville. The one who was holding off Spike during his second rampage."
The lunar pegasus nodded his head once, his eyes flickering with knowing amusement. "That would be me, yes." He said calmly, "ohh, fire."
Sombra watched as the bat pony strode between the two of them to the fire and welcomed himself to the heat like the'd made it. As nonplussed as the unicorn was, he did have to give the pony some begrudged respect for the kind of balls it took to do such a thing.
Soarin, now more skeptical than defensive, asked what business the night stallion had with them.
The pony sighed contently from the heat. "I hear you're looking for somepony." He declaired non-challantly. "A certain oaken pegasus stallion thought to have been dead."
Sombra's eyes widened in shock. How? How was it that this noctulecent knave knew of their cause? Had he been spying? Was he one of Luna's dream walkers? It had to be, there was just no way in the bloody moon's devine light that the universe would drop the answers into their laps like this.
"Is that so?" Soarin asked with mild intreague. The bat pony nodded his head, keeping his back turned as he enjoyed the warmth of the flame.
After having his fill, the bat stallion turned his gaze to the two. "Yes, and I've come to tell you where you can find him."
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Gorge and Lemmy, huh? The title of this chapter makes so much more sense now.
6967706 Eh, I thought I'd try to be clever and stuff.
I'm surprised Scootaloo is as trusting as she is, after what happened to her... I guess I should be happy the traumatic experience didn't dampen her attitude?
Mmm Shade. You bein a jerk to a friend of yours? Tsk tsk.
6969405 I wanna say "eh, she seemed to be on good terms with Twilight after her little break down", but yea, I think I kinda over did her relief of it all. But she's pretty much the "heart" (TV Tropes) of this little band of theirs. So, yea, can't really having her too skittish from trauma yet.
There two things I associate that month with: Pranks and Taxes.
Damn that is far.
Lovely. I always hated backtracking in video games.
That makes me worry if any of the Troskis spotted Big Mac alive on their way to the Dodge City. I hope not.
That's Scootaloo for you.
Better than nothing.
That is very true.
Oh crap, who the hell can this be?
I don't like this.
Probably.
What's so bad about Coyotes, are they really that dangerous?
I would have sided with Sin on this. Sapient beings are unpredictable whereas animals, you know what's coming.
I'm in 100 % agreement with that.
I have a feeling that this is only the beginning of the hell she will go through.
I can never seriously understand what is up with Shades. He is the most unpredictable character in this story. He's almost like Captain Jack Sparrow, you never know for sure whose side he is on. *sigh*