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Prologue1,485 words
In which Ryoga thinks he's found Xiǎomǎnīchuan.1,645 words
In which Ryoga punches royalty.2,832 words
In which Ryoga meets a Kasumi horse.2,008 words
In which Ryoga meets Royalty, with a bit less punching.3,116 words
Part 5, In which there is a bug.1,419 words

In which Ryoga meets a Kasumi horse.

Not All Who Wander
By TDR

Part 4,
In which Ryoga meets a Kasumi horse.

Princess Celestia frowned, as she looked at the odd umbrella and campsite that was all that could be found of this mysterious 'Fang' pony as Pinkie Pie had called him.

There was a a lot here that did not make sense. Twilight had seen the pony go hoof to hoof with Nightmare Moon and actually hold his own until she bucked him through the wall. A blow he survived going by the girls recollection of the scream and series of curses.

Princess Celestia had no idea what was going on with this stallions belongings.

Physically even she had issue lifting the umbrella he had left behind, and it was still heavy to her magically, though moving the sun for so long made that a great deal easier.

Examining his camp offered no information either. There were makers marks on a few of the items he had, but none of the places mentioned were known to her. China? Hong Kong? Japan?

She knew of similar names, but not those directly, and if these were some sort of knock off product they were quite well made. The clothing inside the bag was odd as well as it seemed made more for a minotaur like body than that of a pony.

Then there was the photo.

Still the similarity of the names as well as Rarity's insistence that he seemed to be Neighonese led her to assume that was the case. She had little real contact with that distant Equestrian settlement as they were self sufficient and practically their own nation at this point, despite their connection to Equestria.

Currently she had guards scouring the area around the possible location of of where he may have landed when he was kicked from the castle, but their report seemed he had fallen into the river and was swept away. The Guards were patrolling along it, seeing if they could find the point he crawled out, but thus far they had only found animal tracks.

Princess Celestia sighed. It was quite important that this stallion be found, not only to question him on how he managed to do anything Twilight and the others said he did, but also to thank him for his assistance in defeating Nightmare Moon.

Most importantly however it was to alleviate the concern of her sister, who thought she had killed some pony.

With everything else Luna was going through for the last few days now that she was freed, Celestia didn't want her sister to have some pony's death on her conscience as well.

Angel Bunny was not a happy rabbit

Fluttershy had gone off without him into danger and nearly gotten hurt or killed.

He was quite mad that she hadn't brought him along to protect her.

After all if something happened to Fluttershy, who would feed him?

As such he was sulking as he made his rounds through the forest, almost daring something to come and mess with him. Beating the fool out of that coyote was fun, but one good kick to the nose and the wuss had run off. Angel was actually hoping to find a timber wolf or the like, those things were perfect to let his aggression out on, particularly as they kept regenerating to be beaten down again.

The forest seemed to be rather empty today however, as by now a 'innocent' little white bunny should have several predators or monsters after him.

Hopping into a clearing his ears perked up as he looked around curiously, hearing something moving through the underbrush towards him.

Angel bunny grinned turning to the sound.

After watching the shrubs at the far side of the clearing he noticed one moving and a moment later a tumble weed walked out.

Angel blinked at the clattering mass of sticks as it tromped across the clearing. There was the scent of blood in the air that drew Angel's attention and it seemed to be coming from the shambling mound.

Looking closer as it approached Angel took note of little black hooves moving under the creature's wooden mass. Studying it as it walked past him, ignoring the white bunny was even there, Angel saw what looked like a pig snout in the front.

Was this literal Pork-u-Pine, with all that wood?

Shaking his head at that thought Angel watched the wooden pig make it almost to the end of the clearing before it seemed to collapse, the sticks rattling as it fell.

Approaching curiously Angel took note that a few of the sticks had fallen off, and their ends were soaked in blood.

Angel's eyes widened, this thing had been impaled by sticks? Was that what was going on here?

Still it was a wounded animal of some kind. And Angel Bunny did have standing orders. With a sigh he took off back to Fluttershy's house, hopefully this creature would still be alive and here when they got back.

“Ya'll sure this is alright Twilight?” Applejack stated as the pair walked down the road towards Sweet Apple Acres. The farm mare had a large bag and a red umbrella across her back, thus far she had been the only one able to lift the items, and even then Twilight's magical aura was wrapped around the gear helping Applejack carry it.

“Princess Celestia said we should make sure it was secure somewhere in case he showed up again.“ Twilight explained. “ I figure since your farm is closest to the old castle, he's most likely to come through here if he makes his way towards town.”

“Well ah suppose yah got a point, ain't like this stuff ken be moved easy. How strong was that stallion that he was jumping around with this stuff.” Applejack huffed. ”Ah've moved entire trees that were lighter than this umbrella of his.”

“The material isn't anything odd as far as I can tell, canvas and bamboo, it's a simple construction, but there's some sort of magic in lay in it that neither I nor the Princess recognize.” Twilight smirked.” This whole thing is quite fascinating.”

“Well in either case, got a spot in the barn tah put his stuff. Little bit of room there as well if he needs a place tah stay fer a bit.” Applejack offered.”Dun trust him completely, but he did help us out there so ah'm willing tah give him tha benefit of tha doubt, just not enough to let him intah tha house.”

“Understandable, but we need to find him first. The guards have only found his shirt further down the river, that's a good sign for him still being alive as the cloth was intact , but.....” Twilight sighed.” It's been nearly a week and this Ryoga pony hasn't come back for any of his things.”

“Heh, who knows Twi, he might just be lost. That stallion went hoof tah hoof with a goddess trying tah kill him and he was fine, ah don't think anything in tha Everfree's gonna be much trouble for him.” Applejack offered as the pair walked into the barn.

Applejack shifted letting the heavy pack and even heavier umbrella slide off her back with a groan as she and Twi propped it up in the corner, laying the umbrella flat on the ground behind the pack to keep it from possibly falling and hurting some pony.

“ I do hope he shows up again. The Princess and I have a great deal of questions.”Twilight considered thinking about the crumpled picture she and the Princess had found at the bottom of the bag, showing a group of bipedal creatures.

“Questions?”Applejack asked looking at the bag and umbrella.” Yeah, ah ken think of a few as well.”

“I mostly want to know how he was able to do what he did, where he came from, what his story might be, how he came to be at the castle....

“Is he single?” Applejack teased.

“Is he si... APPLEJACK!”Twilight snapped turning red.

Applejack laughed as Twilight huffed in annoyance.

Another stick clattered to the ground as a yellow pegasus carefully pulled it out of the little pig. Fluttershy frowned as Angel Bunny hopped up and wiped her brow with a rag as she looked down at the pile of sticks, wooden teeth, and claws that she had pulled out of the little black pig.

There was also a massive pile of orange tiger striped bandannas that Fluttershy gave up trying to remove after a few score of them pulled off left the little pig with one around his neck still.

When Angel Bunny had led her to the little critter she had though it was already dead. Though after checking it out the little pig only seemed to be unconscious despite all the wood impaling him.

Fluttershy had seen this sort of thing before, but never to this degree. Timber wolves tended to be apex predators but occasionally they encountered things they couldn't deal with and could shed their own lumber like a porcupine shed quills into an attacker.

How this little pig had gotten so impaled was beyond her.

It had taken her a few hours to get this far with carefully removing the wood. There was a good bit of blood, but nothing that seemed life threatening. Most of the sticks only seemed to just pierce the skin enough to stick into the little pig not pushing past the muscle.

Fluttershy had immediately brought him home and changed into the nurses outfit she had for just this sort of thing. Rarity had made it for her a while back and while it was a bit too racy for her taste usually, she did like feeling the part when she helped out any little critter.

She had started to remove the rest of the sticks as soon as she was prepared. In the end the table was a mess of blood and mud from the little pig, but thus far the little critter seemed to be fine.

Still she needed to get him cleaned up before she could start treating all the little wounds he had before they got infected, the poor thing must be so lost and hurt.

Fluttershy let out a sigh gently picking up the little pig in her wings, carrying him over to the shallow pan of hot water she had prepared. The water was a bit warmer than she liked, but with the injuries and this much mud and blood, cold water might be too much of a shock for the poor thing.

She blinked in surprise as the little pig started squirming as carried him away from the messy table to the pan.

“Bwee?” the pig questioned.

“It's okay little one, you're safe here.” Fluttershy smiled at the question lowering the black piglet into the water to start trying to clean him up.

Several things happened in that moment, that Fluttershy would later turn bright red about when she recalled it.

The first was that the piglet suddenly panicked about the water just before she put him in the shallow tub, accidentally dunking the struggling creature.

The next was that she then had her wings wrapped around a rather muscular orange earth pony stallion, who was dripping wet.

Then the table the pan was on collapsed sending the stallion and the water crashing to the floor soaking Fluttershy and her white nurses uniform.

The sudden change and the dousing stunned her, and her eyes widened as she and the stallion looked at each other.

Fluttershy saw naked wet maned stallion in a tiger striped bandanna sitting on her floor staring up at her.

Ryoga saw a yellow pony in a nurses outfit soaked enough that the material had gone transparent enough to show the yellow fur under it.

Fluttershy panicked and fainted.

Ryoga's mind informed him he was seeing something naughty, despite it being a pony before him and he promptly got a nose bleed and fainted as well.

Angel Bunny double face pawed as the two collapsed.

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