Chapter 1: Where the Buck are we? (Revised)

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It was a dark and stormy night, which was surprising since it was the middle of summer and way past storm season up here in Arnold, California. I just got back from work at McDonalds and after a quick shower I started to play some video games. While playing some Skyrim on my Xbox 360 I was on steam with my laptop talking to my best friends Pedro, Ben and Manuel.

After high school, we always tried to find time to hangout and visit each other, but with being so far away, job and school schedules we found it rather difficult to really get together and hang out. One day Ben suggested we just leave Steam chat open and just talk every Saturday or Sunday. We’ve been doing this for the past six months.

“So an airplane is about to crash, and a female passenger jumps up frantically and announces, ‘If I'm going to die, I want to die feeling like a woman.’ She removes all her clothing and asks, ‘Is there someone on this plane who is man enough to make me feel like a woman?’” Pedro said holding back his laughter as I sat on the edge of my seat waiting for the punch line. “So then a man stands up, removes his shirt and says, ‘Here, iron this!’” All I could hear through the speakers were my friends laughing their asses off while I was laughing with them.

After a couple minutes of laughing I asked “Jesus Christ Pedro have I ever told you how awesome your brother is?”
“What can I say my brother just one awesome guy” he said as a matter of fact “Oh and I believe were at the big one fifty one now”.

“So what’s been going on ‘Mountain man’ anything new up there?” Manny asked. You see after I moved up here to the mountains my friends assumed I became some sort of badass mountain person who kills bears and wolves with his bare hands. I personally don’t mind and I find it humors to just roll with it.

I just rolled my eyes and said “Nah just work and video games and what about you guys?”

“Same here” Pedro and Manny said at the same time.

“Well I’ve been working on some pony models, but nothing else really” Ben said with what I imagine was a shrug.

“Ugh really Ben ponies, I thought we agreed not to talk about that dumb show anymore while we were on chat” Pedro said angrily. You see Ben and I are fan of the show My Little Pony while Manny is neutral on the topic Pedro is complete against the idea of watching the show let alone having his friends talk about it.

“Yes Pedro like you said me and BJ have agreed not to talk about the show during our chats, but technically we're not talking about the show we’re talking about hacking mods into games that just so happen to be ponies” Ben said smugly.

“Ow yo doc we need some ice for that burn” Manny said laughing a bit.

I chuckled a bit and said “Come on Pedro were just talking it’s been forever since we last actually got sort of together like this. Just sit back…” A loud thunderous boom could be heard followed by a flash of lighting. “Damn the weather looks shity here” I said as I closed the blinds to my window.

“Yeah the weather is pretty bad here in Oakdale as well” Ben said.

“Same here in Sunnyvale” Pedro said while Manny agreed.

“Well hopefully the weather will clear up” I said while I continued to play some more Skyrim. “So what are you guys playing?”

“Playing some TF2” Manny said followed up by what sounded like him ragging because he got owned by rocket spam.

“Playing some Fallout New Vegas I just got Lonesome Road DLC and its fucking awesome” Pedro said with joy.

“Yeah I know and what about you Ben?” I asked.

“Just… playing some… Minecraft and a bit of…” Ben said but it started to static out.

“What’s that Ben I couldn’t hear you?” I asked before steam notified me I was kicked out of the party chat.

“Looks like steam crapped out on us” I typed, this just got me a bunch of messages of ‘Yeah same here’ and we planned to continued our chat tomorrow. Closing my laptop I turned to look at my clock to see It was only nine o’clock at night, which was pretty early so I decided to stay up for a couple more hours and play some more before I had to go to bed for work. Couple hours later and it was midnight, so I decided to go to bed now so I could wake up for work tomorrow. ‘I hate morning shifts’ I thought while I got up and stretched a bit. As I walked over to my T.V. stand I reached down and hit the power button on the Xbox, hearing a ding I reached for the power button on the T.V. when I notice the game was still running.

“What the…” I said and push the power button again, it gave the same ding noise, but the light was still on. “Ok you asked for it” I said while I reached for the cord and unplugged the Xbox completely. “Ha how do you like me…now?” I said before I notice it was still on. ‘What the fuck’ I thought before a bright blinding light came from my T.V. screen and then everything went dark.

Since I’m now unconscious how about a quick self intro. My name is Ron Anderson, but my friends call me BJ. I’m Caucasian about six feet tall with brown eyes and short wavy dark brown hair, think skater hair style, but short. After a year of going to college my family had to move to Arnold because we couldn’t afford the house down in Oakdale anymore. I’m nineteen years old and barely still a freshman in college.

Hours later

“BJ…BJ…come on man wake up” I heard a voice while I felt like I was being pushed back and forth.

“Five more minutes” I said trying to reach for my blanket until I realized I felt the cold wet earth instead of my nice warm bed. As I slowly got up I noticed it was night, but the moon was giving off enough light to help me see. I was outside surrounded by colorful trees with what look like scary faces on them though they would have been scarier if it wasn’t for the fact that the colors were too bright and cheery. “What the hell?” I asked.

“Yeah that’s an understatement” a familiar voice said to the left of me.

As I looked in his direction I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, for standing right in front of me was my friend Manny. Manny was a white Hispanic about six feet tall, only literally a few hair shorter than me with dark brown hair and brown eyes. He styled his hair short with his bangs gelled up to look like a ramp. Manny moved to Sunnyvale after a couple of semesters to go live with and transfer to a different college with our friend Pedro. But instead of his normal looking clothes he was completely dressed from head to toe like the Blue spy. “Manny is that you?” I asked with disbelief.

“Uh yeah why wouldn’t it be?” He asked like it was a matter of fact.

“Dude you do know you’re wearing a full body suit of the Blue spy right?”

“Yeah I noticed” he said dryly “then again do you know what you’re wearing?”

As I stood up and got a good look at myself I couldn’t believe it either. I was wearing my dragon armor from Skyrim, it even had an eerie glow every now and again signifying my enchantments were attached. It was strange because armor should be heavy, especially dragon bone armor, but it didn’t’ weigh anything, in fact it felt light. I even had my dragon shield on my back and ebony sword on my left side in a sheath “Dude this is pretty freaky.”

“Yeah tell me about it I almost didn’t even recognize you guys” Ben said as he exited out of a bush wearing a grey t shirt with dark blue jeans and a pair of regular black sneakers. Ben was Caucasian about five foot six with brown hair and eyes. His hair style matched mine only his was a bit longer and not so wavy. He was the only one at of us four to stay in our hometown of Oakdale while still going to college.

“Wow Ben you look…normal” Manny said surprised who now had a lit cigarette in his mouth.

“Gee thanks” Ben said sourly.

“Uh Manny when did you start smoking?” I asked.

“What are you talking about I don’t smoke” he said has he took a puff from his cigarette.

“Uh dude you’re smoking right now look at your hand” Ben said pointing to Manny’s hand.

“What the…” he said as he threw the cigarette to the ground and then stomping on it to put it out. “That was weird I didn’t even notice I was smoking at all…BJ, Ben what the hell is going on?” he asked if we could see his face it would probably be a look of fear and confusion.

“That’s the million dollar question their Manny” said a familiar voice walking out from another bush wearing an elite riot gear armor from Lonesome Roads though his voice was gruff with the helmet on. On his left side I noticed he had a familiar looking knife also from the game I believe it was called ‘Blood Nap’.

“Pedro” we all asked looking at him with joy and uncertainty. Pedro was a Mexican about five foot three with black hair and brown eyes. His hairstyle was like that of the Beatles mop top. He was the shortest and youngest in our group by months since we were all born in the same year. Right after High school Pedro moved to Sunnyvale to go to the Art Institute living with his parents recently until him and Manny got their own apartment.

“Know anyone else this good looking” he said trying to do a sexy pose.

“What has been seen cannot be unseen” Ben said jokingly now in a fetal position

“Only you would make a crappy joke at a time like this” I said with a smile.

“Pedro stop that before I have to kick your ass” Manny said giving him a quick punch to the shoulder.

“Ow! Don’t hurt me I’m delicate” he said while we just rolled our eyes and continue looking over ourselves and each other trying to understand what was going on.

“So…” I broke the silence “anyone got an idea of what the hell is going on?”

“No” Manny said.

“Nada” Pedro said.

“Nope” Ben said trying to do a Big Mac impression.

“Ok then either this is one really elaborate prank, we all magical teleported to a random forest with these outfits or we’re all on drugs and we’re hallucinating while Steam chat is on.”

“Well I can safely assume were not on drugs” Ben said.

“So either it’s an elaborate prank or we teleported to a random forest” Pedro said with a shrug.

“I don’t think this is a random forest it looks…familiar I just can’t put my finger on it, but I know I’ve seen this forest before” I said rubbing my chin.

“Yeah I have that same feeling as well” Ben said with a nod.

“So what we do then ‘Mountain man’ and ‘Eagle scout’? Since you know all kinds of things about forest and surviving in the jungle” Pedro asked sarcastically.

“Well the best thing to do would be setting up a camp and try to find our way out of the forest during the day” Ben said rubbing his chin and continued “It would also be a good idea to find a source of water so that we could follow it to a larger body of water since most cities or small villages would be built near them or at least have some sort of pipeline system we could follow.”

“And if it is someplace Ben and I do recognize and if we can find some sort of landmark we might be able to find our way out of here. Alright then that’s what we’re going to do unless anyone else has a better idea?” Manny and Pedro just shrugged and nodded their heads in agreement. “Let’s get going” I said as I started to walk deeper into the forest.

Location: Canterlot Castle

*Knock knock knock*

“Who is it?” Celestia asked her voice was muffled underneath the pillow on top of her head.

“It’s me sister, I know you had a long day with the politicians, but may we speak with you?” Luna asked the sound of the door slowly being opened.

“Don’t you mean ‘I’ dear sister and is it about the surge of magical energy” Celestia said her head still underneath her pillow.

“Yes Tia, I’ve never felt such a strange surge of magic since…” Luna said before she trailed off sounding a bit ashamed.

“Since the Nightmare” Celestia finished for her.

“Yes” Luna said.

“Yes I’ve haven’t felt such power either since Nightmare Moon, but I would rather if we both went together than to let you go by yourself” Celestia said.

“I believe I’m more than capable sister” Luna said a bit annoyed now.

“That’s not what I meant Lulu and you know it. I’m just rather tired this evening and too have you go off to meet this possible threat by yourself would trouble me to no end” Celestia said slowly starting to fade back to sleep.

“No we…I mean you’re right sister I was just concern for our little ponies…” Luna said and stopped as she heard the sounds of her sister light breathing. With a slight smile she walked toward the door leading to the halls and said “Pleasant dreams sister.”

Chapter 2: Welcome to the Jungle (Revised)

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“Let’s go check out the cave he says, it will be fun he says” Manny yelled out in rage.

“How the fuck was I supposed to know that fucking coyotes were in there and how the fuck is this all my fault?” Pedro spat back.

Let’s recap what happened so far: My friends and I were teleported to a random forest and we were trying to find a stream or river to set up a campsite next to. Twenty minutes into our little adventure we found a cave and Pedro wanted to check it out saying it would be cool and how there might be something valuable in there. Seeing no harm in it at the time we entered the cave only to almost run into a pack of sleeping creatures that looked like coyotes, but since we were in a cave it was too hard to tell. As we started to back out of the cave slowly, Pedro accidentally kicked a rock hard enough that it hit one right in the head. Wasting no time to get the fuck out of there we made a beeline towards the exit, but as soon as we exited Pedro screamed ‘Leroy Jenkins’, waking all the coyotes up and they have been chasing us for a couple of hours now.

“You’re the one who yelled ‘Leroy Jenkins’ when we exited the cave you dumbass” Manny yelled back.

“Oh come on you know it was funny” Pedro said accepting the fact this was his fault.

“Is this really the time for this!?” I yelled as Manny started to stray away from us, a couple of coyotes would snip and bite at him forcing him back towards the center.

“Hey guys doesn’t it seem like they’re leading us somewhere?” Ben asked glancing side to side.

“Yeah now that you mention it, it kind of does seem like it” Manny said.

“Yeah right” Pedro said with disbelief “There just probably trying to tire us out to make it easier to finish us off.”

‘Now that I think about it, it does seem like they are leading us somewhere…but where exactly’ I thought as a hill started to come into view I noticed that the number of yellow glowing eyes were increasing the closer we went.

“Either way it looks like we’re going to find out” I said darkly.

Half-hour later

“Well we’re boned” Pedro said as he peered down a cliff.

“Wonder why they’re not attacking us?” Manny asked as he looked at the forest with the sea of glowing eyes.

As I peered down the cliff it was probably 30 feet high give or take “Probably to give us a breather or there waiting for something” I said as I stared into the forest.

“What do you mean?” Manny asked confused.

“If these creatures are smart enough to set a trap like this they either want to make a sport out of this or…” Ben was about to say until a group of coyotes started to come out of the forest.

The coyote like creatures that came out were about the size of a medium size dog, their coat were completely dark green and their eyes were all shaded yellow with no pupils. They were not as big as the ones that were chasing us so my assumption was correct “Or to train their young with easy prey” I said darkly.

“So what the hell do we do now?” Manny asked his voice cracking in panic.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Pedro asked as he unsheathed his knife positioning himself in an army style like fashion. “We’re going to fight them” Pedro said calmly.

“You can’t be serious!?!?” Manny asked with disbelief. “You can’t seriously expect us to fight and kill them all. Besides only you two are serious well equipped enough to fight them, I have a freaking butterfly knife” he said while pulling out the signature butterfly knife the spy uses “while Ben only has his fist” Manny said pointing at Ben. “How do you expect us to win?” Manny asked.

“I don’t” I said calmly as I unsheathed my sword and shield. “But I would rather go out trying then giving up” I said making eye contact and giving him a reassuring smile. It seemed to work because he calmed down and just returned the gesture while Ben gave me a ‘let’s do this’ gesture. “Besides” I said as I turned back towards the group of coyotes slowly stalking towards us “Who said anything about killing them all”.

“Wait what?” they all asked at the same time confused.

“Who said we had to kill them all to get out of here” I said with a shrug “All we have to do is carve a path right thru them and then run like hell” I said as I started to glance left to right looking for a possible escape route.

“Let’s do this then” Manny said as he did the spy animation of opening the knife.

“Ready when you are” Ben said as he cracked his knuckles and Pedro just gave a simple nod.

The coyotes were about ten feet away ‘Which way’ I thought.

Nine feet ‘Not that way’ to the left was a steep mountain.

Seven feet ‘Not that way either’ in the middle the way we came from which housed most of them.

Four feet ‘Of course it’s always the last way’ to the right was another part of the forest, but it seemed to be more cheery than the previous forest, since it lacked the scary looking faces.

“Here’s the plan Pedro and I take the lead while Ben and Manny stick together understood? Remember we're trying to escape don’t go for the kill unless you can’t help it” I said keeping eye contact with our way out.

“Got it” they yelled in unison.

“Charge!” I yelled as I ran towards our destination, my friend’s right behind me. The coyotes were taken back by our sudden charge, but soon charged us as well. Time seemed to slow to down to a crawl when we got closer and I felt a strange feeling take over me. It felt like my body was possessed, but I was still in control of my actions at the same time. The two coyotes charged me one head on while the other from the right. I shield bash the one charging to the left of me stunning it, while I sliced the one to the right through its neck. Following the attack thru I spun the blade and stabbed the other thru its skull as well, blood squirting and covering my sword and chest. As I took my blade out I glanced behind me to see how my friends were doing.

Pedro side stepped and drove his blade into the skull of a coyote that leapt towards him, while following his momentum did a round house kick to another that tried to sneak up on him hard, followed by a stratifying crack as it fell to the ground. Ben tackled one to the ground and held it with both hands around its neck while Manny came up and stab it in the skull, blood squirting and covering both of them.

This went on for ten minutes as we hacked, slashed and pushed our way thru. As we got closer and closer to our destination they seemed to become more reckless and dangerous, but before we could get over runned by them I yelled, “Ok guys let’s get the fuck out of here” and sprinted while holding my sword and shield shoving a couple out of the way. I could hear my friend’s footsteps behind me, mixed with the sounds of the coyotes right on our tails. But there was another sound not like a noise sound, but it felt as if a little voice in my head was telling me something over and over again. I shoved the voice away from my thoughts and chose to ignore it. Faster and faster we ran pushing ourselves to the max, we would occasionally duck, jump and slide under tree branches and bushes. As I ran out of another bush I almost ran face first into a mountainside. As I stopped, trying to remember which way we came from, I looked behind me to see my friends exhausted and concerned.

“What’s up why are we stopping?” Ben asked glancing back towards where we came.

“I don’t remember which direction we came from” I said glancing towards the two paths that seemed to look exactly alike except one went left while the other went right.

“What do you mean you don’t remember?” Manny yelled.

“Go left” Pedro said calmly we all stared at him wondering how he could possibly remember our sense of direction since the trees all look alike.

“And you know this how?” I asked skeptically.

He held up his left arm while pointing with his right hand towards his pip-boy “Because I somehow turned on my pip-boy’s auto map feature” he said with what I assume a smug smile.

“If we weren’t running for our lives right now I would hug you man” Manny said.

“Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight, less talking more running” I said as we ran towards the left side of the mountain the coyotes now coming out from the forest.

“Persistent bastards aren’t they” Pedro said as if there wasn’t a care in the world.

“Yeah no kidding” I replied back continuing our pace, tree branches and bushes passing by to the right of me.

“I don’t know guys something seems off” Ben said before he started to scream in pain.

“What the…” I said as I stopped and noticed the massive creature holding my friend by his left leg. It looked like the adult form of the coyotes, but it was the size of a boulder and much stronger looking. Ben tried to hit the creature anywhere that looked sensitive, but it didn’t even seem to phase it. The coyote threw him to a nearby tree hard, knocking the wind out of him. Before we could reach him to help him back up a bunch of the young ones jumped him from the bushes and started to bite and rip into him. Blood spraying everywhere, mixed with the sound of agonizing pain.

Panicking I started to run towards him until the adult coyote tried to tackle me to the ground. I quickly stepped back and got into a stance. “Manny, Pedro go help Ben NOW!!” I screamed at my friends as I charged the adult coyote, while they ran towards Ben.

The adult was much faster and smarter than the younger ones as it would run around and try to bite or gnaw at me from different angles. The only thing saving me was my shield, armor and instinct. I would get a couple of slashes here or there when I dodge, but it wasn’t enough to kill it or slow it down. Now positioned differently I was able to see Manny and Pedro. Manny was carrying Ben who was badly wounded using one arm to support him and another to cover up a wound on his neck, while Pedro fought off a couple more of the younger ones. The adult seemed to notice my distraction and made a leap to the air to tackle me to the ground. However I was prepared this time, as it reached a couple feet away from me I slid to the ground sword up and felt the blade slice right thru the neck of the coyote all the way down towards his midsection before I brought the blade out. Turning around I was satisfied with a now dead coyote cover in its own blood and guts.

That’s when I had the strange feeling of being watched. When I turned around I noticed about twenty more adults coyotes coming out of the forest followed by a couple of the younger ones. “Well fuck me” I said as I made my way towards my friends, the coyotes following us and slowly starting to box us in.

As I continued my walk, mostly watching the coyotes in case they tried to get the jump on me, I noticed my friends being forced into a small cave. Once inside the cave I was barely able to see my friends and to my horror the end of the cave.
“How is he?” I asked Pedro. Pedro didn’t respond he only tightened his grip on his knife and gestured with his other hand to go take a look. I did just that continuing my pace towards where Manny and Ben were. Ben’s body and clothes had a bunch of bite marks and claw marks, but the worst wound he had was the giant tear he had on his neck. Manny was just kneeling next to him and just staring at him hoping he would get up or something…and I could see why. Ben’s eyes showed no sign of life in them, they were just hollow. I just stared at my friend’s lifeless body for what felt like hours not moving wondering how this could be happening hoping it was all just a dream and I would wake up to see him alive and kicking. Sadly it didn’t seem like that was going to happen.

I snapped out of it and made my way towards the entrance of the cave where the coyotes were coming in from. I believe Manny was following me accompanied by Pedro, but I didn’t care I was only focusing on the coyotes. My slow walk turned into a sprint as I screamed out in rage.

I don’t know how long we were fighting these animals, but it felt like hours as we hacked and slashed dozens of them. At first I thought we had the advantage since we were in a small cave making their speed/maneuverability worth shit, but they had the advantage of numbers, if we killed one five more would come in its place. The only thing holding me up was my sword as I had it plunged into the ground resting on one knee trying to catch my breath. Looking to my left I could see Ben’s body staring at me lifelessly and to the right Pedro and Manny in the same shape as me completely exhausted.

‘Things can’t end like this I let one friend down I won’t let my other friends down’ I thought as I tried to get up pain shot throughout my body making me fall back down. ‘Move damit Move!’ I yelled at my body trying to will it to move, but nothing happened, the coyotes slowly stalking towards their prey. Looking at my friends I was heartbroken to see that they had given up hope and accepted their defeat. I tried to cheer them up tried to put on a brave face, but even I could feel the pointlessness of my actions and decided to give up as well. That’s when the voice came back, but only louder. I tried to ignore it, but the sheer volume felt like my whole skull was going to crack open. I felt my lips form words, words that were familiar, but not at the same time. ‘Why the hell not’ I thought as I took in a breath, the coyotes only a few inches from me.
What was supposed to be a whisper turned into a full blown shout “FUS…RO DAH” I screamed the Thu'um sending out a familiar blue force which caught me, my friends and the coyotes by surprise. Now let me tell you the game mechanics were way off when you used a shout in a cave, since sound vibrates and makes them louder inside caves or chasm, not only did the shout throw all the coyotes in the cave a few miles into the forest it was also strong enough to send the ones outside tumbling a few feet away scaring some of the small woodland creatures.

My mouth was hanging out at what I just did. When I turned to see my friends they had the similar gesture as well. Pedro was the first to say something “Did you just use a dragon shout?” he asked with shock and disbelief.

“Uh huh” I nodded my brain still trying to process what just happened. But it was short lived, when a couple of whines came out from the entrance. The coyotes were back, but now just staring at us it was as if they were deciding something. Before I could voice my thoughts out they turned and fled for their lives catching us by surprise even more.

“Did they just flee?” Manny asked with hope and disbelief.

“I think so” Pedro said shocked as well.

“What the fuck is going on and where the fuck are we?” I asked trying to stay calm. ‘None of this makes since. Our clothing, dragon shouts, strange creatures… just what the fuck.’ I thought trying to figure out what was going on.

I was brought out of my thoughts when Manny shouted “WHERE’S BEN?!?!” As I looked over where Ben’s body was suppose to be, it was gone even the pool of blood that surrounded him was gone as if it was never even there to begin with.

“It was here a moment ago” Pedro yelled back looking around the cave trying to find our friends body.

“You don’t think they grabbed him when we weren’t looking do you?” I asked and was barely able stopped Manny as he tried to run after them.

He thrashed about trying to get free from my grip, Pedro coming up from behind and helping me restrain him. He yelled screaming and kicking “Let me go! We have to go after him, we have to save him.”

“Manny calm down were in no condition to chase after them and even if we were there’s no point he’s dead Manny we…we have to move on” Pedro said trying to not choke up on the last part.

“How could you say that” Manny yelled at Pedro starting at him with anger.

“It’s the truth Manny” he replied back sadly he slightly chuckled and said “bringing you the truth, no matter how bad it hurts.”

Manny completely lost it and got loose from our grip and tackled Pedro to the ground smacking his armor with his hand making a dull thud sound. This went on for minutes until his hands barely smacked against Pedro’s armor until he finally stopped and just stared at Pedro with emptiness. “Finally done” Pedro said as he gently pushed Manny off of him and brushed himself off.

I walked over to Manny and gave him a quick hug followed by a pat on the back and said “I know it sucks and truth be told I want to go after them too, but Pedro’s right for once we can’t just blindly go after them.”

“Only once?” Pedro said annoyed.

“Not now Pedro” I snapped at him causing him to back off. ‘This is all my fault I should have stopped us from going into the cave I should have been the one taking up the rear in our formation…but I can’t be depressed now my friends need me to be strong’ I thought. “Look we need to get away from here it’s…it’s what he would have wanted us to do” I said sadly. Manny didn’t seem to be paying attention to me for some reason his eyes were huge almost bulging out. I waved my hands in front of him trying to snap him out of it. “Hey Pedro give me a hand I think Manny’s shell shocked” I said but Pedro seemed to be ignoring me as well. ‘What the hell are they looking at’ as I turned around to the front of the cave I couldn’t believe it either. If my jaw could drop any lower it would go straight to the center of the world for standing right in front of the cave entrance was Ben alive and kicking.

Chapter 3: Not out of the Woods yet (Revised)

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Ben’s Point of View:

We were now running again after deciding which way to go. Pedro and BJ were talking without a care in the world, but something didn’t feel right the coyotes weren’t chasing us with a lot of effort. I just don’t know something felt off “I don’t know guys something seems off” I said before I felt myself lifted up by my left leg pain going throughout my whole body. A giant version of the coyote was holding me effortlessly by my leg. I tried to punch anywhere that looked like it might hurt, but my sense of direction and nothing holding me in place made my punches pretty much useless. Before I could say anything the coyote threw me hard against a tree knocking the wind out of me. As I tried to catch my breath I could feel pain shooting thru me again as a bunch of younger coyotes scratched and bit into my flesh. As I tried to push, hit, shove and kick my way out of the pack I felt one grab me by the neck and rip a good chunk of my neck.

My vision started to blur and my breathing became quicker, my friends seem to be trying to say something, but I couldn’t hear them they were coming out as muffles. I could feel myself being carried away. I wanted to tell them to leave me behind and save themselves, but I couldn’t find the strength to tell them. I was fading in and out of conciseness I could see Manny carrying me while trying to stop the bleeding with his hand. I felt myself slip away when I was put down on the ground in a cave.

“THAT FUCKING HURT!” I screamed rubbing my neck until I stopped and realized my wound was gone. “What the…” I said looking myself over. I had no scratch marks or bite marks anywhere on my body and my cloths somehow manage to fix themselves as well. My attention was brought back to where I was when I heard the sound of my friends scream in rage. They were charging head first towards the coyotes with blood lust in their eyes. I tried to get in there way, tried to tell them to stop, but they ran right through me as if I wasn’t even there.

“What the hell…” I said before I noticed a figure lying on the ground completely motionless. It was me, but that’s not possible I’m right here…aren’t I? My brain trying to process what was happening: How could I be alive, yet not at the same time? How can I still be in this plane of existence yet not be seen or heard by others? Where and what the hell is going on? I was locked within my mind for what felt like hours trying to figure out how this could be possible, until I notice a coyote walk right thru my body slowly going towards my friends.

My friends looked completely exhausted BJ was leaning on his sword while Manny and Pedro were supporting one another on one knee to prevent them from falling, but the worst part of it was that they had no hope at all. I wanted to say something to them, but I knew I would be wasting my time since they couldn’t hear or see me. ‘Fuck it’ I thought as I made my way towards the entrance of the cave walking right thru the coyotes ‘Man this is weird yet cool. Wait losing my train of thought’ as I reached the outside I looked at the night sky ‘If I’m going to be stuck here in limbo I…no if we’re going to be stuck here in limbo I want to know where we are at least or I hope they’ll join me who know how dying works’ I thought with a dishearten laugh not really caring for my own joke.

Until my train of thought was interrupted by the sound of BJ screaming “FUS RO DAH” turning around quickly I noticed a group of coyotes being sent to the sky follow by a blue aura sending the rest surrounding the outside flying towards the forest. “What. The. Fuck.” I said completely shocked staring at my friends.

Pedro was the first to say something “Did you just use a dragon shout?” he asked with shock and disbelief.

BJ just nodded his head saying “Uh huh”. But it was short lived, when a couple of whines came out from the entrance. The coyotes were back, but now just staring at them it was as if they were deciding something. That’s when they just up and fled for their lives. We were all surprised at what just happened.

“Did they just flee?” Manny asked with hope and disbelief.

“I think so” Pedro said shocked as well.

“What the fuck is going on and where the fuck are we?” BJ said trying to stay calm.

‘Why would they flee? They had the advantage, sheer numbers and my friends are completely exhausted. One little dragon shout wouldn’t scare them away unless…they’re afraid of something else’ I thought trying to figure out the strange behavior.
I was brought out of my train of thoughts when Manny shouted “WHERE’S BEN?!?!” looking over I could see that my body was gone, not only that I started to feel a bit more… solid?

“It was here a moment ago” Pedro yelled back looking around the cave trying to find my body.

“You don’t think they grabbed him when we weren’t looking do you?” BJ asked and was barely able stopped Manny as he tried to run after them.

He thrashed about trying to get free from their grip he yelled screaming and kicking “Let me go we have to go after him we have to save him.”

“Manny calm down were in no condition to chase after them and even if we were there’s no point he’s dead Manny we…we have to move on” Pedro said trying to not choke up on the last part.

“How could you say that” Manny yelled at Pedro starting at him with anger.

“It’s the truth Manny” he replied back sadly he slightly chuckled and said “bringing you the truth, no matter how bad it hurts.”

“Idiot” I said as I saw Manny completely lose it and got loose from their grip. Tackling Pedro to the ground he smacked his armor with his hands making a dull thud sound. This went on for minutes until his hands started barely smacking against Pedro’s armor until he finally stopped and just stared at Pedro with emptiness.

“Finally done” Pedro said as he gently pushed Manny off of him and brushed himself off.

BJ walked over to Manny and gave him a quick hug followed by a pat on the back and said “I know it sucks and truth be told I want to go after them too, but Pedro’s right for once we can’t just blindly go after them.”

“Only once?” Pedro said annoyed.

“Not now Pedro” BJ snapped at him causing him to back off. That’s when BJ looked like to be brooding over something ‘Looked like BJ is blaming himself again’ I thought with a sigh and shook my head. That’s when I noticed Manny was looking right at me. Confused I started to move around the entrance a bit his eyes following my every move.

“Look we need to get away from here it’s…it’s what he would have wanted us to do” BJ said sadly. BJ then started to wave his hands in front of Manny trying to snap him out of it “Hey Pedro give me a hand I think Manny’s shell shocked” He said but Pedro was just staring at me now as well or I think he was, I couldn’t really tell with the helmet on and everything. That’s when BJ finally turned around and went slacked jaw at the sight of me.

I wasn’t too sure what to do in this kind of situation, so I did the only thing that came to mind “Uh hey” I said as I sheepishly waved at them.

My point of view:

“But you were just there and now you’re over there and and….” I said just spouting out nonsense and walking towards him.

“Holy shit Ben you’re alive” Manny said shocked and dumbfounded following my lead.

“No shit Sherlock” Pedro said as he walked over towards us surprised as well.

“Look Ben guys I’m…” I tried to say before Ben tried to punch me in the face, but instead hit the side of my helmet. Although it didn’t hurt I was still too tired to properly stand and fell on my ass. Staring up I could see a Ben scowling at me.

“Let’s get one thing straight BJ” he said calmly eyeing me down like how a parent would disciplining a child. “This is not your fault. You had no way of knowing what we were getting ourselves into” he said.

“But…” I tried to say before he continued.

“NO buts! it’s all our faults, we agreed to go into the cave, which thinking about it now was rather stupid on our part, but nonetheless we are all to blame…especially Pedro” he finished pointing at Pedro.

“Hey~” Pedro said while we all chuckled at his expense.

Ben offered his hand to help me up and said in a low voice so only I could hear “We choose you to lead us, even if we didn’t vote on it or say anything about it, we need you to take the crappy job of keeping us not only in line, but to make sure we keep our sanity since we know we can rely on you” he said with an awkward smile. “So how long are you going to sit on your ass?” he said waving his hand back in forth.

I didn’t know what to do or say I just sat there thinking about what Ben said…and he was right. Of all my friends I was always the rational/calm one and my friends needed that right now. With Ben dying and...not dying, Pedro’s pip boy actually working and my dragon shouts we need someone to keep it together for everyone else’s sake. As I grabbed Ben’s hand and got up I gave a reassuring smile and said “Thanks Ben…I needed that”.

“No prob” returning the gesture “But on a side note we need to leave like now” he said as he started to walk out of the cave.

“Why? Can’t you see we’re tired and besides we found shelter we should rest for the night here” Manny said.

“Well this would have been a good place, but didn’t you forget a couple of things”

“Such as?” Pedro said.

“Well for starters we’re still near the hunting ground of those coyote things and more importantly this area is about to become rather dangerous”

“Why is that?” Manny asked.

“It’s simple why would they run off when they had you guys surrounded and outnumbered”

‘That’s a good point why would they run. The only time an animal would run off of an easy kill or prey if it feels….threatened by another’ “Oh shit” I said quietly as I realized what he was talking about. “An animal would only flee if it felt threatened by another animal that’s higher in the food chain” I said joining them outside and slowly jogging away from where we came from.

“Precisely” Ben said beside me.

“But how do we know that what’s happening right now” Manny asked.

“Think about it Manny, it makes sense” Ben said.

“Ok let’s say your random theory is correct. How, what and why is it happening now” Pedro asked.

“The dragon shout” I said.

“Dragon shout?” Manny and Pedro asked at the same time.

“Ugh ok here’s the short version shouting plus cave equal loud echo/ noise now what usually happens when you get woken up like that?”

“Usually I rage and get pissed off…oh” Pedro said.

“Exactly just like how you don’t wake up a bear when it’s hibernating” Ben said.

“So basically we just woke up something more dangerous than those coyotes…fan fucking tastic” Manny said.

“That’s why we need to get some distance from this area. Pedro when a stream or river shows up on your map let us know we’ll then follow its path for a bit and rest there.

“Got it.” He said.

Later

“Ok this is good as any other place to set down” I said. We’ve been running for what felt like hours going (Ta fuck it’s still nighttime!) west apparently and we eventually found a clearing near a small river. We were all beyond tired and exhausted, but we had to do some things before any of us could get any sleep.

“Guys I know we’re all tired, but we have to set up camp so Manny, Pedro go get some kindling. Ben help me get a fire going”

“Fine” they all said. Couple of minutes later we had a small campfire going and we were all sitting around it trying to keep warm. As I looked at their faces, except Pedro, I could tell it was finally past time to get some well earned rest.

“Ok guys this is how it’s going to work” I said getting their attention. “I’ll take the first watch then Ben then Manny then Pedro last Understood?” they just simply nodded their heads and quickly went to sleep.

‘Well just me, the creepy forest and the stars to keep me company…super’ I thought sarcastically as I leaned against a tree. With nothing to do I decided to star gaze. I could see surprising a lot of the constellations quite easily like Taurus, Orion, Cancer, Leo, Ursa Major, Virgo and many others. ‘Wait aren’t stars harder to see during certain months than other and the Moon why is it so much bigger than normal’ I thought trying to figure it out, but eventually found it too difficult to stay focus/awake while thinking. ‘Meh I’ll just try thinking about it later’ and continued to spot out different constellations that were familiar, this went on for about a couple of hours and I decided to finally get some sleep. Couple of shakes later Ben finally decided to wake up, but was rather upset ‘Must have been a good dream’ I thought with a slight chuckle. Staying up a bit longer to make sure he was actually awake he told me he was fine and to get some sleep. Moving closer towards the fire and lying down I quickly fell asleep.

Pedro’s point of view

Manny woke me up around early in the morning the sun barely peeking over the horizon shedding its light all throughout the forest. I had nothing else to really do so I decided to mess with my pip boy and see if I couldn’t get the many different functions working. About four hours later I learned only how to turn on two things the light and the eyes forward spotter (That’s what I’m going to call the compass). Now I would have rage, but given the fact that I now have EFS four hours spent seems worth it to me. I also learned how to take my helmet off, but apparently I have to be making some sort of physical contact with it or it would just magical puff back onto my head. Ben and Manny were awake by the time I figured out the light button and we were now just waiting for BJ to get up. Manny figured out how the spy’s watch worked and would cloak and uncloak every once in awhile and Ben sat there deep in thought.

Out of curiosity and not just boredom/frustration I asked “Penny for your thought?”

“Mhm oh no it’s just that I might know where we are but…”

“Wait you know where we are?” Manny asked while uncloaking.

“Well it’s more along the lines of a guess really and I would rather wait for BJ to get up to…confirm my little guess” he said trying to avoid answering.

“Come on Ben just tell us it can’t be that bad” Manny said now just messing with his knife by opening and closing it.

“Well…”

“Do it, do it, do it” Me and Manny said chanting like little kids.

“Alright alright keep it down” he said shushing us as we sat around him to listen.

My point of view

I was having a nice dream can’t remember what it was but it revolved around some chicks, ponies and a pineapple why the pineapple was there in my dreams I’ll never know, any who I was having a great dream till my friends yelling woke me up.

“You can’t be serious” Pedro yelled.

“Like I said it’s just a guess, but given all the stuff I’ve seen I believe that’s where we are” Ben said trying to calm Pedro down. As I turned my body and half opened my eyes I could see Manny sitting in front of me no longer interested in their conversation and was messing with his knife while Pedro and Ben were a bit away arguing about something. ‘Too damn early for this shit’ if you couldn’t tell I loathe the mornings I mean nine in the morning is too early in my book and to have people yelling and arguing a foot away really did not make me happy.

What I wanted to say was ‘For real guys it’s too early for this bullshit’ but what I mumbled accidently “Fus Ro” but I caught myself before I finished. A familiar shock wave came out and headed towards my friends. Manny fell over losing his grip on his butterfly knife as it soared towards Ben and Pedro. Pedro was closer so he stumbled a bit away nearly getting hit by the knife. As for Ben he wasn’t very lucky as the knife hit and stood now in place in his skull. Ben’s body then limped over and fell with a thud. Manny and Pedro just stared at me while I stared back with a poker face.

Manny was the first to react “YOU KILLED BEN” and proceed to rush over to his body.

“You bastard” Pedro said holding back a laugh.

I finally got up and said “I didn’t mean to it was honestly an accident”.

That’s when Ben’s body puffed into a purple like smoke the blood that formed around him following suit. Couple of seconds later Ben respawned in the same place and just stood there like nothing happened.

“That really hurt ya know” he said while rubbing his head where the knife struck.

“Like I said it was an accident besides now we know you can’t die so lesson learned” I said with a shrug. “So what was all the yelling about?”

“Ben thinks he knows where we are” Manny said putting away his knife.

“Oh really” I said surprised.

“Well like I was telling Pedro and Manny here” he gestured with his hands “and given all that has happened/what we have seen I believe we’re in Equestria” he said.

“And I think he’s gone crazy” Pedro said shaking his head back in forth with disbelief.

“Just think about it, BJ the forest we’re in...Looks familiar now right and the sky at night looks similar during the show and the strange creatures it all leads to one conclusion” he said with a serious look.

“Bullshit” Pedro said “We could just be in another dimension or another world is all”

“This coming from the guys who doesn’t believe in sci fi stuff” Manny said

‘Ben has a point I’ll give him that’ I thought trying to process what he said.

“You can’t be seriously considering what he said” Pedro said “We are not in the magical land of girly ponies, we’re just in a random forest in another world, our world or another dimension” he yelled. That’s when Pedro and Ben went at it again yelling back and forth while Manny just sat there trying to calm them down.

“Enough” I yelled shutting everyone up. “Ok Pedro let’s say Ben’s guess is right, that’s a good thing. If we can find Canterlot or Ponyville we can get help and return home. And Ben even though every ounce of me wants to agree with you, you have to understand how far fetched it sounds” I said. “Besides this might be a blessing in disguise if we truly are in Equestria” I said holding back my enthusiasm.

“Oh and why’s that” Pedro asked clearly still upset.

“Well if all my reading of fan fiction is correct and if we are in the Everfree Forest then I know which way Ponyville is” I said.

“Wait we’re going to rely on what a bunch of fan fic's say about which direction to go? You’re kidding right?” Pedro asked unamused.

“Got a better plan” I asked with a shrug. Everyone just remained silent and eventually just shrug. “Ok then southwest here we go” I said pointing in a random direction.

“Southwest is that way” Pedro said and started to walk the direction he pointed at.

About an hour later of walking southwest, talking about what we learned so far we eventually remembered that we didn’t eat anything for breakfast and since none of us knew how to fish, without a pole or net, and the small critters were too fast to catch we decided to scavenge the land for fruits or berries.

“Hey guys I found something” Pedro hollered and we all gather around him to see a strange looking fruit tree. The fruit was about the size of a pear, but had a light red color and little bumps all over the fruit.

I know for a fact that no one in our group has ever seen this kind of fruit before and I was always taught up in the mountains that you can’t just eat any type of berry or fruit without knowing if it had poison in it or not.

“Ok Ben you’re up” I said and gave him the fruit Pedro was holding.

“And why exactly am I eating it?” he asked annoyed.

“Case it’s poisonous or not” I said Ben seemed reluctant at first, but after a couple minutes of begging he eventually took a bite of the fruit. Ten minutes past and he seemed fine, but I wasn’t convinced for some reason.

“Oh come on BJ nothing’s happening the fruit is obviously fine” Manny said as he grabbed a piece of fruit from the tree.

“Ben are you sure you’re fine” I asked Manny a couple of second from taking a bite from the fruit.

“Yeah I feel fine BJ don’t worry…” Ben said when suddenly his head exploded. We were covered head to toe in Ben’s blood and watched how his body fell with a thud to the ground. Manny quickly took the fruit away from his mouth and chucked it as far as he could throw.

“Oh my god that fruit killed Ben” I said.

“You bastards” Pedro said as we snickered at our joke.

Ben’s body and blood puffed in a purple cloud and respawned in the same spot. Feeling his head he said “Well that was different”.

“So what did we learn” I said to Manny.

“Wait before eating” he said. With a nod of approval we went out to finding something to eat again. This time we found a berry that looked like a blueberry in shape and size, but it was colored a sandpaper brown. Wasting no time Ben ate some and again we waited. Ten minutes later he seemed fine like nothing was wrong, but that’s when his stomach started to growl.

“Oh god” Ben said slouching a little.

“What?” We all asked.

“I need you guys to do me a favor” he asked with all seriousness.

“What is it?” Pedro asked.

“I need you guys to kill me” he said keeping the same attitude.

“No way man I’m not going to kill you” Manny said backing away.

“Well technically you helped me kill him earlier remember” I said.

“I’m still not going to do it and why do we need to anyway you said you were fine” Manny said followed by another growl.

“Just trust me please hurry” Ben said he looked like he was bobbing up and down.

‘Wait a minute people only do that when…oh shi…I mean cra…I mean fuck it’ I thought and unsheathed my sword. “Ok Ben I trust your judgment, if it that bad I’ll do it. Well here I go” I said while charging him and plunge my sword straight through his heart. This was probably the worst idea we had ever had. The second his body hit the ground an unimaginable stench smell filled the air. No words or description could ever be used to describe how terrible it was.

“OH GOD WHY” Pedro said as he quickly put his helmet back on hoping the mask would ventilate the smell, but much to his dismay it didn’t.

“The stench, oh the humanity” Manny said as he looked like he was going to gag. I decided to stop breathing all together and hold my breath for as long as I could. Seconds later Ben respawned also taking the smell away. As we all now took in a deep breath of beautiful clean smelling air Ben was laughing his ass off at what we went thru.

“You totally trolled us didn’t you” I asked furrowing my brows.

“That’s what you get for making me your food taster and besides now I know if I ever get poisoned killing me cures it” He said getting over his laughing fit and brushing himself off.

“Dude imagine if we made that into a stink bomb it would be the greatest/deadliest prank know to mankind” Pedro said what I imagine a mad look in his eye.

“Oh hell no” Manny said and whacked Pedro upside his head.

“Ok guys let’s go look for food…again” I said with a sigh and we headed out again to scavenge for food. We were finally able to find some food that didn’t kill or give us massive diarrhea. It looked like an orange, but was blue, it didn’t have the hard skin of an orange more soft like a peach and even though it was really sweet, I’m talking like how you eat a whole bunch of sour type candy/food and your face scrunches up, it was nonetheless still edible. We were now hopefully on our way towards Ponyville and it was completely silent.

My friends didn’t seem like talking and seemed down and I could imagine why. We have been going around, what felt like, in circles. Pedro kept on silently cursing under his breath and would change our direction…a lot. Manny didn’t show it, but was becoming more paranoid while Ben showed no emotion whatsoever. ‘This damn forest is making everyone tense, but what can I do? Think dammit…’, so I decided to do what I normally do when I’m walking somewhere and bored or I just needed a little pick me up I hummed a tune. As I started to hum 'With a Little help from my Friends' by the Beatles.

Pedro was the first to start singing:

“What would you think if I sang out of tune, Would you stand up and walk out on me.”

Then I took over: Time 18 seconds

Then Manny and Ben joined in and we all sang while skipping: Time 46 seconds

Pedro suddenly changed our directions making us do a complete U turn: Time 1:13

"Ooh, I get high with a little help from my friends, Yes I get by with a little help from my friends, with a little help from my friends” we finished up and then burst out into laughter. After getting over our laughing fit we continued our journey while singing another tune.

Chapter 4: Meeting the Locals (Revised)

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After couple hours of singing different songs like ‘All Together Now’, ‘Hungry like the Wolf’ and ‘Bicycle Race’ while having an amazing time, we finally decided to take a breather and rest. It was rather nice out. We were in a small pasture, the wind gently blowing in our direction giving us a nice little breeze. I slightly laugh to myself ‘Even the Everfree forest can be peacefully what a shocker’.

“Pretty nice huh” I said to everyone as we all decided to lie down on the grass.

“Sure is” Ben said.

“Can’t argue over here” Manny said.

“Well the grass is going to make us itchy, but it’s cool all the same” Pedro said getting a couple of chuckles from us.

“So who’s up for a nap” I said while staring at the clear blue sky followed by a yawn.

“I’ll take the first watch” Ben said. As I closed my eyes waiting for sleep to take me, the universe seemed to have other plans for us as a loud ear piercing scream could be heard…and it was close.

As we all jumped to our feet we tried to identify which way the sound came from. “Hey guys I’m getting a couple of blue ticks on my EFS…and a red one” Pedro said pointing towards where the ticks were coming from.

“What do we do?” Manny asked.

“Isn’t it obvious Manny we’re going to go help them” I said.

“And why should we I mean don’t get me wrong, but what if it’s something we can’t handle” Manny said.

“Because genius they could be familiar or at least locals, they will probably know how to get out of here” Ben said. “And besides we’ll know once and for all if we are really in Equestria or some other world” he said. With quick nods of agreements Pedro lead the way, the screams becoming louder the closer we got. When suddenly Pedro motioned for us to get down and remain quiet. Following his directions we peaked out of the bushes to see, what was a strange creature for Manny and Pedro, but to me and Ben something we could never forget…it was a manticore. The manticore seemed to have trapped a bunch of kids about maybe ten or twelve years old, but it was too hard to see from our position.

Motioning for the guys to get close I whispered to them “Ok here how’s this is going to go down. I’m going to charge the manticore while Pedro makes a path for the kids towards Ben so he can take them to someplace safe then Manny I want you to sneak up on it from behind and backstab it, hopefully killing it with one blow, while Pedro and I distract it”.

“And how do you know that a backstab will actually work?” Manny asked skeptically.

“Dude I can use a freaking dragon shout while Ben’s immortal and you actually believe you can’t backstab people…creatures without instantly killing them?” I replied back.

“……Well played” he said.

“Wouldn’t it be better if I joined you? You know maybe put them somewhere safe and come back?” Ben asked.

“No and for two reason: One we need you to give us a signal if more show up and two we don’t want them to run off they’re our best chance of getting out of here” I said. Silent nods of agreements were passed around and we got ourselves into position.

As I ran towards the Manticore from the side I yelled “FUS RO DAH” sending the familiar blue aura towards it, sending the manticore flying a few feet away. Wasting no time I drew out my sword and shield and yelled “Go towards the guy with normal cloths he’ll keep you safe”. I didn’t hear any response, but I did hear the sound of them running away.

“Ok they’re gone” Pedro said to the left of me his knife in his hand.

The manticore got up quickly eyeing us with anger. He then gave out a mighty roar and charged towards us. Pedro rolled to the left even further while I jumped towards the right while slashing in an upward arc, but the manticore was quick and easily dodged it. It then tried to swipe me with his claw, wasting no time I raised my shield and bashed his attack away. Pedro came from the side and nicked the manticore on his side, but he quickly retaliated and started to swipe at my friend. Pedro would duck, jump and roll all over the place barely dodging the barrage of swipes. While the manticore was distracted I charged and swung my blade towards his side, however he saw this coming and took to the skies. Gliding back down a bit away from us he then slowly started to circle towards us while we did the same thing and started to circle one another.

‘Come on Manny where are you?’ I thought when I saw an invisible blob make its way towards the manticore. Manny now uncloaked his knife in a backstab position ‘Just a bit more’ I thought smiling triumphantly when suddenly the manticore swung his tail hitting Manny right in the chest and sending him flying back towards the forest.

“MANNY” Pedro yelled and started to run towards our friend.

“Pedro wait” I said, but it was too late. The manticore shot forward and swiped Pedro with both claws, sending him flying towards the area where the girls were trapped. Pedro hit the wall hard and fell to the ground with a flop followed by the collapse of the wall covering Pedro with dirt and rocks up to his legs, but thankfully wearing his armor reduced the damage. He tried to get up, but was having trouble lifting the rocks and was still a bit disoriented. The manticore started to charged towards Pedro, but I intercepted him before he could get close and started to swipe at him causing him to back off. He quickly retaliated by throwing his own swipes back at me. After a couple more failed attempts at swiping me, he decided to use his scorpion tail and let me tell you that sucker is fast. I was having trouble dodging it let alone counter attacking, slowly being pushed back to where Pedro was.

“Pedro get up I could use some help” I said looking over my shoulder, Pedro still having trouble getting up. That’s when the manticore took another swipe and sent my blade flying a few feet away. Now with only my shield I could only defend or I could try to bash it to death, but something told me that wasn’t going to work.

As the manticore continued his assaulted I yelled while blocking his attacks “Pedro throw me your knife”. Pedro then grabbed his knife and chucked it close to me ‘Alright it’s better than nothing’ I thought while I grabbed it ‘Let’s do this’ and tried to lift it up….it didn’t even budge. ‘What the…’ I thought putting all my energy into lifting it, but to no avail. The manticore wasting no time in my distress sent his stinger right for me, letting go of the knife I dodged the hit, put both hands on my shield and spun. Using the momentum I slammed my shield to the ground completely serving his stinger. With a roar of pain he backed off while a mixture of blood and poison spilled out from his wound. Pulling out my shield from the ground I ran towards the Manticore and took a deep breath. “FUS RO DAH” I yelled, but nothing happened. I tried again and again, but the same result happened. That’s when I noticed a little blue bar in my upper vision…slowly recharging.

“Son of a bit…” I tried to say when suddenly what felt like a train rammed into me sending me to the grounds. As I tried to get up a massive weight kept me down to the ground…it was the manticore a few seconds away from biting my head off. As I tried to wiggle my way out it, with no result, the creature just unexpectedly let me go and was now trying to swipe something off its back. As I laid there watching the scene unfold the manticore gave out a loud roar of pain and started to fall towards me. Wasting no time I rolled out of the way, with a loud flop, the body just laid there unmoving. Remembering about Pedro’s problem I ran over to him and proceeded to dig him out. Seconds later he was out, a bit bruised up, but fine. As we made our way towards the manticore we notice a familiar blue suit friend smoking while walking away from the body a bloody dagger in his hand.

Manny’s point of view

‘This is crazy…no insane’ I thought as I snuck my way around the edge of the forest to get behind the so called manticore. ‘This won’t work we should have just made a run for it’. The creature and my friends were slowly walking around in circles like one of those cowboy movies. ‘Ok here goes nothing’ I thought and clocked making my way towards it slowly. My heartbeat was racing like mad as I made my way closer and closer. ‘Almost’ I thought as I got up behind it my hand instinctively going into a backstab position. ‘Now’ I thought and uncloaked only to get smacked by its tail and sent flying towards the forest, luckily a bush softened the blow.

“Ow” I said and brushed myself off, but then remembered what was going on. I peeked out from behind some bushes to see BJ cutting off the manticore stinger with his shield making the creature roar out in pain. ‘Guess that’s one way of going about it’.

BJ then grabbed his shield and charged towards it and yelled “FUS RO DAH” but nothing happened, he tried a few more time getting the same results. The manticore took this opportunity to tackle BJ and pinned him to the ground. ‘Oh shit! What do I do?! What do I do?!’ I yelled in my head and ran as fast as I could, time seemed to slow down as the creature got ever so closer to biting my friends head off. Without thinking I jumped onto the creature’s back and held on with all my strength. The creature then started to try and shake me off occasionally swiping at me. I then plunged my knife into its back followed by a pain filled roar from the creature. With one final shake it threw me off before it fell, but I was able to stick the landing. Without thinking I grabbed a cigarette and lit it, slowly making my way towards the down creature. With a kick to make sure it was dead I grabbed my knife from its back and made my way towards Pedro and BJ.

“It appears we made…quite a mess” I said with awkward smile.

“Did you really just say that…and also you’re smoking again” BJ said with a sigh.

Realizing I am in fact smoking for the fifth time now today I just shrugged and said “I really don’t care anymore.”

“Hey guys is cool to come out now? I need to show BJ something” Ben said with enthusiasm.

“Uh yeah the manticore’s dead you guys can come out now” BJ said as he sheathed his sword and shield. As Ben started to come out he motioned for the kids we saved to come out as well. “So what was it you wanted…to show me” BJ said as he looked at the three girls in surprise.

Ben’s point of view

“Ok girls come over here” I said as I signaled the three girls next to me behind a bush.

As we watched the scene unfold one of the girls asked with concern “Are ya’ll friends going to be alright?” she said with a strong southern accent.

“Yeah they’ll be fine they’re much stronger than they look” I said now getting a better look at them, they seemed…strangely familiar. The girl closest to me wore blue overalls with a light olive t shirt. She had orangish eyes with bright red hair on her head was a light pink bow. The girl in the middle had a white dress on. She had sap green eyes and her hair was a mix of pink and purple. The most surprising feature on her was her little white horn sticking out of her forehead. The one farthest away had a pair of blue jeans on with an orange t shirt. Her eyes were a grayish purple and her hair was fuchsia and compared to the other girls her hairstyle was rather tomboyish. She also had a pair of little orange wings sticking out from her back. The girls were about the same height two foot three or two foot four, except the tomboy one she was a couple hairs higher.

Looking back at the fight they were now just circling one another “So how did you girls get him so riled up?” I asked.

“Well Scootaloo was the one who wanted to try being Cutie Mark Crusader jungle explorers and…” the girl in the middle said her voice was rather high pitched. That’s when they started to play the blame game, but I Ignored what they were saying after she said Cutie Mark Crusader. ‘But how’s…by the way they act they are indeed the same CMC from the show, but they’re human…So we’re in Equestria, but maybe a different universe or maybe we’re in a different universe all together like Pedro said and this is all a coincidence’.

“Hey girls” I said stopping their argument “I know this is going to sound strange, but where are we exactly?”

“You’re in the Everfree forest” Scootaloo said confused.

“I mean what country are we in?”

“Why yer in Equestria” Apple Bloom I presumed said with a bright smile that changed quickly when Manny went flying back toward the forest. “Are ya sure yer friends are goin’ ta be alright?”

“Yeah he’ll be fine” I said with a dismissive wave. ‘So then we are in Equestria…only in this Equestria the ponies are humans?’ I thought now deep in thought trying to figure out what’s what.

Only to come out from my sense when I believe Sweetie Belle started to shake me to get my attention “It doesn’t look like they’re fine” she said pointing toward Pedro who was now buried underneath some rocks and BJ only had a shield ‘What the fuck did I miss in those past couple seconds…or minutes. You know I really need to stop thinking too much especially when we’re in a situation like…’ I thought before I was interrupted again.

“What are ya’ll doin yer friends are in trouble” Apple Bloom screamed and pointed to where BJ was now pinned down by the manticore.

“Oh shit” I said and shot up only to stop when I noticed Manny hanging onto its back for dear life. That’s when Manny backstabbed it and the manticore let out a mighty roar of pain followed by it flopping dead to the ground. Looking back at the girls I said trying to be nonchalant “Told you my friends could handle it”

“Wow” they all said amazed with big bright eyes.

“Hey guys is cool to come out now? I need to show BJ something” I said with enthusiasm.

“Uh yeah the manticore’s dead you guys can come out now” BJ said as he sheathed his sword and shield. As I started to come out of the bushes I motioned for the girls to come out as well. “So what was it you wanted…to show me” BJ said as he looked at the three girls in surprise.

“Just something you might find interesting…Oh before I forget introductions I’m Ben and these are my friends BJ, Pedro and Manny” I said while gesturing with my hands “And what are your names?” I asked trying not to act like I know them.

“I’m Apple Bloom and its nice to meet ya’ll”

“I’m Sweetie Belle and thank you for saving us”

“I’m Scootaloo and that was pretty cool how you took down the manticore…I mean Rainbow Dash would have been 20% cooler, but you guys were still pretty cool.”

“Uh yeah no prob…hey girls can you give us a minute we’ll be right back” BJ said and motioned us over to a spot where we huddled up.

My point of view

We kind of stood there for a couple minutes, my friends waiting for me to collect my thoughts. Taking a deep breath I said “Ben are those really…”

“Yeah they are. I even asked them where we are and they responded with what you’d expect…we’re in Equestria”

“Wait if we’re in Equestria why aren’t they girly ponies?” Pedro asked confused, but more annoyed that he was wrong.

“Well Mr. fan fic expert care to shed some light” Manny said sarcastically.

“Well I’ll admit that there were some stories where people get sent to Equestria and meet humanoid pony version, but that was really rare to find since it’s mostly humans go to Equestria and find just ponies” I said.

“Well just like how there are different worlds/universes in Doctor Who there could be different worlds/universes for MLP” Ben said with a shrug.

“So what’s the plan?” Manny asked.

“Well given all the fanfics I’ve read we should ask the girls if they know how to get out of here, make our way to Ponyville, explain what’s going on, ask Twilight if she knows a spell to get us out of here and if she doesn’t we ask her to ask Princess Celestia if she knows any kind of spell like that” I said.

“Princess Celestia?” Pedro and Manny asked.

“Uh yeah there leader is a Princess kind of rude to not call her that” I said with a shrug.

“Oh and before I forget make sure to use pony words until we can explain our situation to Twilight” I said this resulted in blank stares from Manny and Pedro.

“Pony words…you’re kidding right?” Pedro asked Manny nodding his head in agreement.

“Yeah pony words like hell is hay, fuck is buck, people is ponies, person is pony and so on and so forth” Ben said.

“Don’t worry about it just make sure to watch what you say and let Me and Ben do most of the talking” I said as we broke out of our huddle and stretched.

“Hey I wonder if we got our cutie mark for hiding” Scootaloo said.

My brain instantly stopped ‘Cutie mark…cutie mark….oh fuck’ I thought and sprinted towards the girls. Ben must have came to the same conclusion since he was right behind me. “Awwww I didn’t get a cutie mark for hiding” they said at the same time while looking…at the back of their hands. That’s when Ben and I just tripped and fell face first to the floor, our legs twitching every so often.

“Are y'all alright” Apple Bloom said looking at us with concern.

“Uh yeah we're fine” I said while I got up, brushed myself off and gave her a little pat on the head, she seemed to really brighten up for some reason when I patted her. “So girls me and my friends here are…lost and we could use some help getting out of here. Do you know which way to go to get out of here?” I asked with a friendly smile my friends now joining us.

“Uh well about that” Scootaloo said kicking the ground a bit sheepishly.

“You’re kidding me you guys are lost I thought you would know your way around this forest don’t they live close by and…” Manny said before Pedro thankfully shut him up by covering his mouth.

The girls really started to tear up and I did the only thing I could think of at the time, I brought them into a hug. Being careful not to squeeze them too tight into my armor, they didn’t protest and soon returned the gesture. Let’s make something clear I’m not a pedo bear, I just like children platonically. With their youthful optimism how can you not help, but laugh and smile remembering the good simple days before reality made you it’s bitch. We sat there for a few minutes before they broke it off wiping tears away. ‘Best.Day.Ever’ I thought. “Don’t worry girls there’s no shame in being lost I’m mean look at us” gesturing towards my friends “We’re full grown adults and we were asking a bunch of fillies for help” I said with a half hearted laugh.

“*giggle* yeah that is pretty funny” Sweetie Belle said.

“So how are we going to get out of here now?” Scootaloo asked.

“Well…do you girls remember which direction it is from Ponyville to the Everfree forest?” Ben asked.

“Ah believe its northeast to the Everfree forest from Ponyville” Apple Bloom said.

“So if we were to say go southwest we would most likely find Ponyville” I said with a smug smile towards Pedro.

“Uh yeah I guess” Scootaloo said confused.

“What are ya’ll waiting for let’s go” Apple Bloom said and started to walk off in a direction her friends following closely behind.

“Uh girls southwest is that way” Pedro said pointing in the opposite direction.

They smile sheepishly at us “We knew that” and then we started to make our way southwest.

Later…and still bright out?

Pedro was taking the lead while the girls were in the middle between me and Manny while Ben took up the rear.

As we kept silent and continued our pace Apple Bloom decided to ask “So where are y'all from?”

My friends started to shuffle nervously so I answered “We’re from the Griffon kingdom.”

“Oh I’ve never been there before what is it like” Sweetie Belle asked curiously.

“Wait aren’t you a bit young to be traveling by yourself?” Manny asked.

“I wasn’t by myself. My parents are business ponies that invest into different companies and stuff. They are constantly on the move. I eventually got tired of traveling and decided to stay with my big sister” she said.

“Well the Griffon kingdom is no place for…kind ponies like yourselves. It’s a rather dangerous place” I said.

“Why were y’all there then?” Apple Bloom asked.

“Well you see girls were mercenaries” I said but they gave me blank looks.

“What the hay is a ‘mercenaries’?” Scootaloo asked.

“Well girls mercenaries or singular form mercenary is a per…pony or ponies that for a better lack of term are hired soldiers that work for mon…bits” Ben said like he was reading it out of a dictionary. They just ‘ohd’ in understanding and everyone….everypony…screw it were in Equestria, everypony went silent for a bit. Until the girls stomachs growled loudly causing the girls to blush in embarrassment while we chuckled.

“Hey Ben do we still have some of that fruit we found?” I asked.

“Yup saved some just encase we got hungry again later and we couldn’t find anything edible” he said as he reached into his pocket and pulled out small slices of the blue fruit. “Just a heads up it’s really sweet” he said now handing a couple of pieces to them.

The second they bit into it there faces scrunched up from the sweetness and we laughed at their expense again. Couple of minutes later we found a small stream and decided to follow it towards our destination and came upon a small clearing where we found one of the most prettiest girl I have ever seen in my entire life, humming the most peaceful and loveliest of tunes.

“Hey isn’t that Fluttershy” Sweetie Belle said. Fluttershy looked about five foot one wearing a yellow sun dress. She had yellow wings sticking out of her back, her long pink hair covered her face and she was wearing a tanish sunhat. She was kneeling down in the grass picking up some flowers and putting them into a wicker basket, they were probably medicinal flowers.

“Do you know her?” Manny asked.

“Yeah my sister and her are really good friends they go to the spa like every other week” Sweetie Belle said.

“Yeah my sister friends with her as well, but y'all should stay put and let us talk ta her because Fluttershy really sh…” Apple Bloom tried to say before Pedro said something.

“Hey Fluttershy can you show us the way out” he yelled out loud. Now for those of you who don’t know Fluttershy plus loud noise equals a run away and hide scared Fluttershy. She ‘Epeed’ and jumped, now normally she would have ran off towards a bush and hid or something…this was not the case. You see she jumped so high she hit her head on a tree branch, hard knocking her out cold as she fell to the ground and kind of just laid there not moving. The girls instantly ran over to her to see if she was alright while Manny, Ben and I just glared daggers at Pedro, while Pedro just gave a bad poker face like smile followed by a “Whoops.”

“Her name was Fluttershy. FlutterSHY.” Ben said putting extra emphasis on ‘shy’.

“Good job Pedro because of you, now it’ll take even longer to get out of here” Manny said angrily.

“Look I’m sorry OK” Pedro said.

“Enough guys this is getting us nowhere. Let’s just go see if she’s fine or not” I said as I made my way towards Fluttershy and the CMC, my friends right behind me. As I got closer I notice on her right hand she had three butterflies ‘So I guess that’s where the cutie mark shows up…huh guess it’s better than showing up on your butt…flank…whatever’. The girls were softly shaking her to see if she would wake up, but it didn’t seem like it was going to happen anytime soon.

“So what do we do now?” Manny asked.

“We can’t just leave her here!” Sweetie Belle said.

“And we’re not going to just… give me a sec to think” I said while everypony just watch me pace back and forth. ‘Ok let’s see here we have a knocked out Fluttershy and the girls seem pretty tired as well and the sun is starting to go down’ “Hey Pedro can you tell me what time it is?” I asked.

“It’s four thirty five” he replied. ‘Yeah we don’t have time to wait we need to get out of here pronto. I don’t know about my friends but I’m tired of this stupid forest.’

“Ok let’s see here” I said as I looked at everypony now “Ben I want you to carry Fluttershy”

“Right” he said getting closer to Fluttershy.

“Manny carry her wicker basket”

“Uh ok…I guess” he said while grabbing the basket.

“ Pedro put your helmet back on to increase your perception and make sure to let us know if any red ticks show up.”

“But it make my head itch” he jokingly whined.

“Want to trade” Manny asked sourly.

“Nah i'm good” Pedro said while putting on his helmet.

“Girls come here” I said waving them over. When they got close enough I leaned down enough for them to climb on.

“But we’ll be too heavy if you carry all three of us” Sweetie Belle said.

“Yeah and besides we can walk we wouldn’t want to burden you” Scootaloo said.

“Trust me girls this will make getting out of here once and for all go by much quicker and besides I’m stronger than I look” I said gesturing them to climb on up. They were reluctant about it at first, but eventually climb on up. Scootaloo was in the middle her legs going around my head while Sweetie Belle was on my left shoulder and Apple Bloom was on my right. I then put both my hands on their legs to make sure they wouldn’t fall. Now truth be told I wasn’t sure if I could actually carry them, but was half surprised to feel fine if anything a little weighed down, nonetheless I was able to walk.

“Wow ya might just be as strong as my big brother” Apple Bloom said. ‘Yeah gonna chalk this up to be because of magical lands of Equestria’.

“Wow BJ been working out much?” Manny said surprised as well.

“Please Manny I’ve fought mudcrabs stronger than this” I said with a laugh.

“No for real?” he asked.

“Manny remember dragon shout, your watch, Pedro’s pip boy and Ben’s…power” I said trying to not revealing anything to the girls, but they weren’t really paying attention. Probably not use to being up so high I assumed as I could feel them moving, pointing and talking about stuff.

“Well shall we go” Ben said carrying Fluttershy on his back.

“You good Ben?” I asked.

“Yeah she’s surprisingly not heavy at all” he said proving it by jumping up and down a couple of times.

“If we’re done messing around shall we get going” Pedro said walking off towards the forest, with us right behind him.

Chapter 5: The Mane Six (Revised)

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“Are ya sure yer not tired or nothin’” Apple Bloom asked…again for the seventh time now. We’ve been walking for about two hours straight now, making great time and distance in my opinion. The girls kept on asking us questions about our past, how we knew one another and what our occupations were.

So Pedro, bless his ability to lie on the spot and make wonderful stories up, told them that we grew up in a small village outside the capital. Since we were ponies, our so we told them, we would constantly got picked on so we had to develop ways to protect ourselves and that was also how we got into our respected line of work. Ben was a scholar who worked in one of the main branches of their so called library. I was a trained soldier for the griffon army, but retired after a couple years of service. Manny was an informant who sided with the highest bidder. Pedro was in the army as well, but in the special ops division and eventually asked to leave right after I did. The girls bought it completely, which surprised me because I thought Apple Bloom would have at least caught Pedro’s lie, but she didn’t or at least didn’t say anything. They then told us about themselves which mostly revolved around them trying to get their cutie marks, school and family.

“Yes Apple Bloom I’m fine” I said as I bent down a bit so a branch wouldn’t hit them. “You should be more concerned for Ben.”

“Like I told you earlier BJ, Fluttershy is really light” he said from the left of me. “You don’t have to prove anything ya know. If you’re tired just set them down and let them walk for a bit” he said with a shrug.

“Who said I’m trying to proving anything, I just want to get out of here asap before it gets dark” I replied back.

“Uh huh riiiiiiight” Pedro said walking in angle to converse with us.

“And what’s that suppose to mean?” I asked raising one of my brows.

“If I recall correctly two of them have ‘pretty’ older sisters” he said with a sly grin.

“I see trying to get the girls on your good side, which in case their older sisters will see you in a good light” Manny said nudging me from the right.

“That’s so not why I’m doing this guys. Stop giving them those kind of thoughts” I said blushing.

“Ya know ah would hav’ put in a good word for ya if ya’ll asked me to” Apple Bloom said.

“No offense Apple Bloom, but I think him and Rainbow Dash would make a better couple” Scootaloo said causing me to blush more.

“Well I think either way would be a good choice it would probably depend on what kind of mare he’s looking for” Sweetie Belle said now making me the center of attention. My friends were just smirking chanting me to answer the question. I mouth out the words ‘Fuck you’, but this made them chant even more causing the girls to join in as well.

Glancing around nervously I noticed a clearing coming up in our direction and made a mad dash to get out of there. “Sorry what’s that can’t hear you” I said my friends running after me still trying to get me to answer.

‘Finally’. We were finally out of the Everfree forest a huge plain field adorned with some colorful flowers here and there that stretched out for miles. In the distance I could see a cottage (probably Fluttershy’s home), Ponyville (fanboy scream) and way in the distance I could make out the outlines of Canterlot castle (meh). I then got into a kneeling position to let the girls down.

“Oh thank god we're finally out of there” Manny said still carrying the wicker basket.

“Yeah…oh look there’s Fluttershy’s cottage we should go there and probably put her to bed” Ben said.

“Wait how do y'all know that’s Fluttershy’s place?” Apple Bloom asked as she jumped off my shoulder her friends following suit.

“Yeah I don’t remember us saying anything about that” Scootaloo said eyeing us suspiciously.

“Uh well you see girls” Ben said trying to come up with something.

“It’s because a friend of our met Fluttershy and challenge her to the quiet game, but our friends lost. And they talked for a while sharing stories” I said covering for Ben’s blunder.

“Oooh that makes sense she did try to get us to play that game that one time when she watched us” Sweetie Belle said. ‘Mental wiping of the forehead’

“So are we going to drop her off or what?” Manny asked.

“It would probably be best to bring her along and then let one of her friends take care of her” I said.

“Yeah it would be bad to just leave her by herself now that I think about it” Ben said with a nod.

“We could always watch her while ya’ll go git some help we could be…” Apple Bloom said while she and her friends took in a deep breath. Ben and I instantly covered our ears while Manny and Pedro looked at us like we were crazy…they should have followed our lead.

As they screamed “Cutie Mark Crusader Caretakers YEAH” followed by a little group jump. Manny and Pedro recoiled from the shout trying to get there hearing back anyway they could think of. Ben and I just smirked at them with a ‘you should have followed our lead’ look.

“Sorry girls that wouldn’t be a…good plan” I said.

They just started at me like a child who didn’t get what they want for Christmas ‘The Daaawwww levels are over 9000’. “Not that we don’t trust you or you don’t have the ability to it’s just that it would be strange if a bunch of new ponies came into town trying to explain what happened. It would be better if you told the tale while we filled in the missing bits and pieces” Ben said.

“That makes sense and besides our sister are probably worried about us” Sweetie Belle said.

“WHAT THE HAY DID YOU DO TO FLUTTERSHY?!?” screamed a female voice. As we tried to identify where the voice was coming from I noticed the girls looking up towards the skies. Looking up into the sky I noticed a girl hovering there in place. She was about a Ben’s height easily and had blue jeans on with a cyan blue shirt. Her wings were cyan blue as well that stretch out about to her arms length, she had magenta eyes with a rainbow color streaks going through her hair. On the back of her hand she had a cutie mark of a rainbow lightning bolt coming out of a cloud…it was Dash and she looked pissed. “Well?” she said tapping her foot in…the air?, waiting for our response.

Before we could say anything another voice shouted out to her “Dash would ya’ll just calm down” she had a strong southern accent like Apple Bloom. The girl was about Dash’s height and had a pair of blue jean on as well, but they had rips and tears below her knees. She was wearing an orange and red checkered button shirt and had sap green eyes with some freckles below her eyes. Her hair was a yellow that went down to her mid back tied into a ponytail and was also wearing a worn out brown Stetson hat. On the back of her hand she had three little red apples for a cutie mark.

“Yes darling you really mustn’t yell it’s rather unladylike” said another female voice, but she sounded more refined. As she walked gracefully into view, she was about five foot three and was wearing an elegant white dress with diamonds going around it in a pattern. She had deep blue eyes with dark purple hair, a white horn sticking out of her forehead and had three diamonds on the back of her hand.

“Yeah Dashie if you would have read chapter four you would know what actually happened” said another girl bouncing her way over with a big toothy grin. Everypony just stared at her with confused expression ‘Oh god (mental facepalm) its…’ “OOH oh let me describe myself let’s see hear…I’m about five foot four with a blue jeans and a light pink t shirt on. On the back of my hand I have two light blue balloons and a yellow balloon in the middle. I have light blue eyes and dark pink hair in the shape of cotton candy yum” Pinkie pie said talking to…nopony in particular. “Oh before I forget I have a pair of double c’s cups” she said keeping that same toothy grin. My friends and I just looked away blushing while AJ and Dash were just eyeing one another in disapproval about how Dash acted towards us and Rarity just stood there shocked.

“Pinkie Pie darling you can’t just tell a bunch of colts your breast size” Rarity explained to Pinkie Pie with a scowl.

[Pinkie what the hay do you think you’re doing!!]

“Oh hi Mr. Author” she said looking at the sky and talking to nopony.

[Don’t you ‘hi Mr. Author’ me why did you tell everyone your breast size after I decided not to include that information.]

“Where’s the fun in that silly and besides you didn’t say I could tell them our breast size.”

[That’s the same difference it’s like saying the glass is half empty or the glass is half full!]

“Come on its perfectly natural for a young colt to be interested in breast.”

[Look Pinkie don’t, I’m just going to go back and delete…what the? why can’t I delete it…what did you do to my computer?]

“Oh just changed some things here and there messed with some programming and what not.”

[Why Pinkie why?]

“Because I’m kind….but no really it’ll be fine.”

[I swear if readers complain about it I’m taking you out of the story.]

“No you want silly you like my random fourth wall breaking shenanigans.”

[….Buck.]

“Now let’s continue the story everypony’s staring at us” she said finishing up her conversation with…Mr. Author?... I don’t even want to know.

“Oh AJ has B’s, Dashie has A’s while Rarity and Fluttershy both have C’s” she said causing us guys to blush even more, Rainbow Dash and AJ got out of their staring contest and blushed slightly while Rarity just sat there opened mouth her face completely red with embarrassment.

“P-p-pinke Pie w-why would you…” Rarity tried to ask before Rainbow Dash interrupted.

“Look that’s not important right now these ponies obviously hurt Fluttershy” She said accusing us.

“That’s not what happened at all” Manny said.

“Yeah yeah whatever you say” she replied back.

“It’s the truth Dash” Scootaloo said while Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle agreed.

“And what in tarnation are you three doin’ over here to begin with?” Applejack asked with a scowl. That’s when the girls began to apologize and explain everything that had happen including meeting us, while they were over there talking I motioned for the guys to come a bit closer.

“Pedro what the hell are you doing?” I whispered to him pissed.

“What she started it, it’s bad enough where in the land of sunshine and magic, but don’t expect me to take a bunch of crap from them” he hissed back.

“Not the point Pedro they’re our best chance of going home and if you keep on acting like this they won’t help us. Now do you want to go home or not?” Ben asked.

“Fine, fine already I’LL try to keep my mouth shut, but I swear if she continues downing on us I will say something” he replied back bitterly.

“So who are they exactly?” Manny asked. Ben and I then explained who they were, there personalities and what they did, according to the show. We also glossed over how they were heroes for defeating Nightmare Moon and Discord

“So in other words the ‘Mane six’ are pretty important peo…ponies” Manny said.

“In a nutshell yes, so that’s why you should be nice and friendly” Ben said glaring at Pedro.

“Excuse me gentlecolts are you almost finished” Rarity asked nicely.

As we broke out of our conversation I noticed the CMC were gone. “What happened to the girls?” I asked.

“We told them to go back home and not to leave their rooms till we returned” Rarity said with a frown ‘Probably still upset with the girls’.

“I know it’s none of my business, but you should go easy on them. I mean they’re just curious little fillies and I think they been through enough for today”.

“Yah might have a point, but ah’ll think about it later after we deal with y'all” she said staring at us suspiciously, but yet with a kind look on her face.

“So the Griffon kingdom huh, you know I had a friend who was a griffon and I would go visit her place every once in awhile so tell me where did you guys live again?” Dash asked eyeing us suspiciously.

“It was just a small village near the capital, a couple years later after we left they change the name of the town” Pedro said with a sad shrug.

“Please good sir I’ve seen the capital of the Griffon kingdom and there was no village close by” Rarity said.

“Reckon’ cause tah kingdom is in tah sky and is always driftin’ around” AJ said with a shrug.

“Care to explain” Rarity asked raising one eyebrow. Manny started to crack under the pressure and was clearly showing signs. “So then tell me where are you colts from again?”

My friends just looked at me for an answer, no pressure or anything, and everypony waited for me to respond. I just sighed and asked “Did Apple Bloom know we were lying?”

“She sure did” AJ said with a proud smile on her face. “Knew right from tah beginning that ya’ll were lying, but she reckoned since ya’ll weren’t so bad she decided to say nothin’ about it”.

“It’s not that we don’t want to tell you it’s just…complicated, but believe us we have no means of hurting anypony” Ben said reassuringly.

“We just need to go speak with Twilight or Princess Celestia and then we’ll be out of your mane” I said, but then realized I said Twilight’s name.

“Oh and you even know our friends name huh, how much do you actually know you spies” Dash said eyeing us up and down.

“There not spies Dashie…well technically Manny is a spy, but that’s because of the game he was playing” Pinkie said as we just stared at her with confused looks.

“How does she know about TF2?”Manny asked.

“Dude trust me when I say this…it’s a Pinkie Pie thing just let it go” I said with shake of my head.

“Look Dash, ya'll just jumpin’ to conclusions we should hear them out first” AJ said.

“Yeah skittles just calm down or get back to the kitchen” Pedro said ‘…Celestia damit Pedro’

“What was that shorty?” Dash asked angrily.

“Oh you called me short that hurt my feelings” Pedro said sarcastically. “It’s not like I’ve ever heard that one before, oh the pain, oh the humanity” he continued acting like a drama queen.

“Whatever drama queen” Dash said rolling her eyes.

“Now Dash let’s not be too hasty” Rarity said.

“Pedro stop before you cause trouble…again” Manny said.

“Or what a bunch of girly girls going to do something about” Pedro said mockingly.

“Hey this ‘girly girl’ will kick your flank in ten seconds flat” Dash replied back.

“Oh why don’t you go make a sandwich in ten seconds flat for me then?” he asked with a grin on his face.

“Pedro would you just shut up” Ben said as he set Fluttershy down in a patch of grass next to Pinkie Pie.

“Dash darling stop this at once even though he does deserve a good smack” Rarity said.

“I admit he should get a punch or two, but can you blame him I mean she did start this” Manny said.

“No your ruffian of a friend started this little bout”

“No your tomboy friend started this fight you prissy little princess”

“Why I never” Rarity said staring daggers at Manny.

“Well everypony just calm down” AJ said.

“What he/she started it again” Pedro and Dash said at the same time pointing at one another.

“No you did Pedro, and Applejack and I are ending it…again” I said glaring at him.

“Oh this is going to get good” Pinkie Pie said bringing out a foldable chair out of nowhere and set it up next to Fluttershy.

“Fine fine don’t think you win this round lesbo” Pedro said with a dismissive wave.

“What’s a lesbo?” she asked confused looking at her friends who replied back with a shrug.

“Oh wait let me use a word you're familiar with” he said in a thinking like posture.

“Pedro don’t you even…” I tried to say.

“Ah yes now I remember I believe the term was ‘fillyfooler’” he said smugly.

“Ah horseapples” AJ said.

“What did you call me?” Dash asked rather calmly.

“Pedro don’t…”

“Fillyfool…” he tried to say before a blue blur smacked right into him sending him flying, landing with a couple of flops a few feet away from us.

“Oh this calls for some battle music” Pinkie said bring out a boom box from out of nowhere and started to play this.

“Where the hell did she get that?” Manny asked.

“I think the better question is why does it sound so familiar?” Ben asked.

“No pony calls me a fillyfooler and gets away with it” she yelled and soared towards Pedro leaving a rainbow trail behind, Pedro barely had time to roll out of the way before he got hit. This pattern continued for a couple of minutes, she would charge him while he would roll and dodge her attacks. “AJ, Rarity, Pinkie get his friends I’ll handle him” she said still continuing her assault on Pedro.

Surprisingly Rarity got into a martial art like stance ready to attack Manny. Manny just raised an eyebrow “Really, look I don’t want to fight you so let’s just…” he said before Rarity kicked him hard right between the legs. ‘Ohhhh that’s gonna leave a mark’ I thought while I cringe back a bit.

Manny stumbled to the ground caressing his balls for a few minutes before he finally stood up, “What the hell’s your problem lady” he shouted only to duck when Rarity started to throw miscellaneous items at Manny like yarn, cloth, gems, threading needles, a couch… what the hell? Manny just kept dodging her attacks and looked at me with a ‘what the hell do I do’ look. I just shrugged at him and barely dodge a brown boot to the chest.

“So I’m guessing diplomacy is over?” I asked looking at her with a hopeful smile.

“Sorry ah really am, but ya’ll might just be a tad bit too dangerous. Ah promise ah’ll make this quick” she said and ran towards me to kick me…or is it buck me, and not that kind of buck me, but…you know what I mean!

I brought out my shield hoping to deter her attack, but she still came at me and prepared a roundhouse kick. Raising my shield instinctively I blocked her kick, but it sent me skidding back away from her a few inches. “Wow my sis was right yah might be as strong as big Mac” AJ said with surprise.

“Thanks…I think anyways are you sure we can’t talk about this” I asked again and felt another kick that sent me sliding back a few inches more. ‘Guess not’.

Ben’s point of view

‘Damn Pedro and his big mouth’ I thought as my friends were now fighting. Well technically Pedro was the only one truly fighting. BJ was merely blocking AJ kicks with his shield getting sent back a few inches, while Manny kept on dodging Rarity blizzard like attack of random items. Pinkie was just sitting on her chair eating…cupcakes? ‘Where the….oh never mind’.

She seemed to notice me looking at her and asked “Want one?” offering me a tray of different colored cupcakes.

“Uh no thank you I’m not that hungry right now” I said with an awkward smile followed by an awkward silence, as we continued to watch our friends fight it out.

My point of view:

“Hey Pedro how many times have I said I hate you?” I asked while dodging another kick.

“I’m kind of busy here do you mind” he replied back as he tried to take a swing at Dash, but failed miserably because she was too agile.

“Geez is this the best you got” Dash said taunting while flying around lazily.

“Why don’t you come down here and say that to my face” Pedro yelled at her clenching his first towards her.
She then got in his face and said “The.Best.You.Got” and quickly flew off before Pedro could grab her making him stomp the ground in frustration.

‘This is getting us nowhere’ I thought while I dodge another kick. ‘I’m so going to hate myself for doing this, but we really need to get this fight over with’ I thought now thinking up a plan to restrain them without hurting them. After a couple of minutes of thinking/dodging I came up with a decent plan and prayed I could tell them without letting the girls know.

“Hey Pedro remember that time in six grade when we got into that fight with those kids?” I yelled.

“Yeah why?” he asked as he took another swing at Dash, but missed.

“And Manny remember that time in high school English when we pranked those kids” I yelled while dodging another kick.

“Hold still so I can buck yah” AJ yelled. ‘Wow that sounded so wrong’ she must of noticed what she said and started to stutter “N-n-not that kind o-of b-b-buck, but…” her face turning a deep shade of red while in the distance I could hear Dash laughing her ass off.

“Yeah why?” Manny replied back.

“Pedro wait for my signal and Manny wait for the second signal” I yelled positioning myself towards Pedro.

“How will I know what it is?” Manny asked.

“It’ll be obvious” I replied back, now simply waiting for the perfect opportunity.

So a quick story about what happened, basically in six grade Pedro was getting picked on. Why? Because he was always shorter than everyone else, it also didn’t help that he had a very squeaky voice. Anywho he was getting picked on and like any good friend I stood up for him. Eventually the bullies tried to get into a fight with us, but outnumbered we decided to run. There were four of them and two of us so when we split up two were chasing each of us. We eventually ran out of area to run and were running towards one another. I told Pedro to keep coming towards me and before we collided we made a sharp right turn and kept on running. Apparently the kids chasing us weren’t as quick because they just collided with one another, hard enough to knock them out.

Now with Manny and I in high school, we were doing an oral presentation about a book we were suppose to read and it was my turn. Before class Manny came up with a funny prank and seeing no harm with it I decided to help him. So when I got up to go do my presentation I acted like I was ill, swaying back and forth, and eventually lying down on the ground. While everyone was distracted and surrounding me in a circle Manny went around the whole class switching everyone’s backpacks with random people. When he was done he came over to let me know to stop acting. Telling them now that I felt better and tried to stand up, the teacher decided to send me to the nurse’s office, but I told her it was fine and I just need some water. When I came back everyone in the class was complaining about how their backpacks were gone and we never got caught.

Ben’s point of view

“Well this is going nowhere anytime soon” I said sitting next to Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy, who was still unconscious.

“Come on Dashie kick his flank” Pinkie cheered completely ignoring my comment. ‘And she completely ignored me’. That’s when I noticed BJ in deep thought while miraculously still dodging Applejacks kicks. “Well it looks like this will end soon” I said with a small smile.

“Why do you say that, if you don’t mind me asking?” Fluttershy asked causing me to jump a couple feet in the air and making her ‘Eep’ in fright now hiding behind Pinkie.

“Wow Fluttershy you scared the bejesus out of Ben” Pinkie said in between laughs.

“She didn’t scare me just…caught me off guard is all” I said defensively.

“Oh is that so” Pinkie whispered behind me somehow causing me to jump again.

“Ok so maybe I’m not that good with surprises…and scary stuff” I mumbled.

“I’m sorry I didn’t mean to” Fluttershy said apologetically.

“No, no it’s fine don’t worry about it Fluttershy” I said with a dismissive wave.

“So why do you think it’s going to be over? I mean Dashie kicking Pedro’s flank, AJ has BJ on the ropes and Manny just doing nothing” Pinkie said.

“It may seem like that, but there just some things you just don’t know about us” I said with a smile, reminiscing a bit.

“And that is?” she asked doing a hand motion for me to continue.

I just smiled smugly at her and said “BJ was always a quick thinker under pressure”.

My point of view

As AJ came in for another kick I simply side step and yelled “Now” making a run towards Pedro, while he ran towards me.

“Oh no you don’t” Dash said flying after Pedro.

“Git back here an’ fight me like a colt” AJ yelled chasing after me.

“Sorry Applejack, but I would rather take my chances with running” I yelled as Pedro and I were starting to close the gap between us.

“So same as last time?” Pedro asked only five feet away.

“Yup” I yelled four feet away.

“Wait your right or my right?” he asked three feet away

“Mine” I replied back one foot away before we both made a sharp turn and continued to run, waiting for them to crash into one another.

“So I don’t hear the crashing…Oh shit it didn’t work” Pedro said frantically.

“Yeah I knew it wouldn’t work” I replied back looking over my shoulder I could see AJ and Dash slowly catching up to us only a few feet away. “Get ready Pedro” I said to my friend as AJ and Dash started to close the gap. I turned and yelled “FUS RO” sending the blue aura towards them. They tried to stop and get out of the way, but they were not quick enough. AJ was sent stumbling back a bit while Dash was sent off course from flight.

“Pedro restrain AJ I’ll handle Dash” I said making a run towards Dash, while Pedro tackled AJ to the ground and began to hold her down.

“Git off of me you know good…” AJ said while Pedro held her down.

“Don’t worry AJ I’m a coming” Dash said and started to head towards Pedro.

“No you don’t” I yelled catching her off guard as I jumped and grabbed her by collar of her shirt and forced her down. *ripping sound* I then flopped to the ground Dash a few inches away from me now disoriented. ‘Ta hell happened…’ I thought, but then I felt something in my hand. Taking a closer look at what was in my hand I saw a cyan blue and dark gray fabric in my hand. ‘What the hell?’ I thought, but then noticed the pieces of fabric were separate one looked like a piece of a shirt while the other looked like…’Oh shit’ and immediately dropped both pieces of fabrics in embarrassment.

“Ow” Dash said slowly getting up, unaware that her chest was pretty much exposed.

Wasting no time I ran over towards and said frantically “I’m sorry” over and over again. I then, without looking, turned her around and brought her into a bear hug. She struggled for what felt like minutes as I kept apologizing to her.

“What they hay let me go” she said trying to wiggle her way out. She would try to kick and head butt me, but since I was taller than her, her legs just wiggled in air while her head butts felt more like she was nuzzling me…which was an amazing feeling(...don’t judge me) “And why does it feel colder…” she said trailing off as she tilted her head down to look at her chest. She immediately stopped trying to fight my grip and yelped in surprise followed by a deep red blush going across her face. “Thanks” she mumbled.

“Yeah no problem” I replied back with a blush as well.

“Let me go you ruffian” Rarity yelled as Manny dragged her over towards us.

“I can’t believe that worked” Manny said triumphantly. “Uh what give BJ why are you hugging her?” he asked.

“Well Manny it’s uh easier to restrain her like this” I said as I clumsily walked over towards him now making our way toward Pedro and AJ.

“Oh yeah forgot about the wings” he said.

“Hey BJ did you hear a ripping noise?” Pedro asked restraining AJ to the ground.

“NO, I mean no I didn’t hear any kind of ripping noise” I replied back.

“Awww is the fight over” Pinkie said shutting off the boom box and joining us.

“Yeah looks like the party’s over…told you so” Ben said right behind her with a smug smile.

“Pinkie what are you doing you can go get some help” Dash said.

“You’re right Dashie it’s not a party unless Twilight’s here” she exclaimed and ran off toward Ponyville at a speed that would make Dash envious.

“So wait is she going to go get help or just to go get Twilight?” Manny asked confused.

“Well technically it’s both” Ben said with a shrug.

“As much as ah love to lay down would ya mind lettin’ up a bit” AJ asked, but her voice was muffled since her head was face first in the ground. Pedro responded by letting up a bit allowing her to actually get a look around now and speak clearly.

“And would you kindly hold me prisoner like a gentlecolt?” Rarity asked followed by a huff.

“How would a…you know what no and stop whining” Manny said.

“I’m not whining, I’m complaining. Do you want to see whining?” she asked.

“NO” everypony yelled except Pedro and Manny giving everypony confused looks.

“Manny for the love of all that is holy and good ease up on restraining her” I said.

“Ok” he said unsure and loosened up on his grip.

“So what now just going to walk into town with us restrained?” AJ asked bitterly.

“Well no…” I tried to say when a loud audible scream could be heard, getting louder by the second.

“What the fu…” Pedro said when a pink blur appeared in front of us.

“Don’t worry everypony now we can get this party started” Pinkie said throwing streams into the air.

“Pinkie Pie I was in the middle of an important letter to the princess I don’t have time for a party…” the girl said before she noticed the situation. “What’s going on?” she asked.

The girl was the same height as Rarity; she was wearing a lavender long sleeve shirt with light blue jeans. She had dark purple hair that went down to her mid back with a pink streak going thru the middle and a lavender horn sticking out of her forehead. In her hands she had a red leather bound book and on the back of her hand was a pink six side star surrounded by a couple of small white stars. “She also has a pair of B cups” Pinkie said.

“Pinkie” Twilight said blushing and using her book to cover her chest. But quickly got over it “And what is going on?” she asked more sternly.

“Uh well…you see” I said stumbling not too sure what to say and her watching my every move wasn’t helping. ‘Ok think, how do I explain this as one big misunderstanding’.

That’s when Rainbow Dash started to tell her side of the story, but halfway through it Pedro would counter her statement and well everypony just joined in telling Twilight what happened. It was a huge blob of that’s not what happened or he said she said and I think I heard something about oatmeal?

This went on for five minutes straight before I snapped. Now I don’t always get mad in fact I’m probably the most calm person you’ll ever meet, but when people or ponies keep on arguing for as long as they do while I’m trying to think or do something productive I just can’t help myself. “WELL EVERYONE SHUT THE FUCK UP AND LET ME THINK FOR A FUCKING MINUTES I N PEACE AND QUIET” I yelled everypony immediately shut up and looked at me. The girls just stared at me mouth a gap while Fluttershy fainted…wait when did she wake…screw it I’ll ask later, probably because of the language I just used, but I was all out of fucks to give right now. My friend’s just waited patiently because they knew what happens if they try to confront me when I’m this pissed off, let’s just say it ends with them on the ground knocked out.

“Ben go restrain Rarity and Manny come over here and take care of Dash for me” I said angrily.

“What about…” Dash tried to whisper.

“Use your wings to cover yourself” I hissed at her making her recoil a bit away.

Ben went over and took Rarity from Manny and Manny took Dash from me, allowing me to go off a bit of ways to pace back in forth to not only help me calm down, but to also help me collect my thoughts.

Twilight’s point of view:

I had just finished alphabetizing the books in the library and was about to send my friendship report when suddenly Pinkie Pie just started to drag me out towards the Everfree Forest, something about a party and new ponies, but I was too busy holding on to my friendship book, that I would put all my letters that my friends and I sent to Princess Celestia, for dear life. When I arrived my friends were being held hostage by some strange looking ponies that I’ve never seen before and when I tried to find out what was going on everypony started to talk at once making it hard to find out what happened. That’s when the leader of these ponies, or I assume, told everypony to…shut up and started to pace back and forth for the past six minutes now. I was near Fluttershy making sure she was alright, Pinkie was near Ben I believe who was holding Rarity by the arm, Manny was holding Rainbow Dash a few feet away and AJ was pinned to the ground by Pedro.

Everypony was just silently waiting for BJ to finish up, until Pinkie decided to say something “So is he always a mister grumpy pants?” she asked quietly.

“Not always he only gets like that when people annoy him or cause too much trouble” Ben said with a sad smile.

“So you think he’s going to forgive me about starting this whole mess” Pedro said bluntly.

“What happened? Had a change of heart” Dash said annoyed.

“Look you don’t know how…dangerous he can be when he gets this mad and I would rather apologize then take him on” Pedro said while his friends gave quick nods of agreements.

“So how long do you reckon he’s goin’ to take?” AJ asked.

“Couple more minutes most likely, but who knows” Ben said with a shrug.

“Yeah Pedro really fucked this up” Manny said.

“Why do you ruff…colts use such strong language like it’s no big deal?” Rarity asked.

“Where we’re from language like that is like second nature” Pedro said.

“(Rage sound) WHY CAN’T THIS BE EASY” BJ said yelling towards the sky and throwing his helmet as well. However instead of going towards the ground it instead came back towards him like a boomerang and landed neatly on his head. “OH COME ON THAT DOESN’T EVEN MAKE ANY SENSE” he yelled and flopped to the ground with an audible groan.

“How did he do that?” I asked.

“I believe it’s because there armor is…enchanted with a magic properties that make it so they are the only ones who can wear their armor and weapons as well” Ben said.

“Wait how do you not know?” Dash asked.

“Like we’ve been saying it’s really complicated” Ben said.

“That’s an understatement” BJ said he looked more…calm now, but still seemed like he was in a foul mood.

My point of view:

“Glad that everypony’s talking so casual now” I said as I continued to walk past everypony and towards Fluttershy. Until Twilight got in front of my path staring me down, daring me to make another move towards her. I backed off a bit and said “Easy just wanted to see if she was fine”.

Twilight seemed to let up a bit and said “Yes she’s fine just unconscious is all. Just give her a couple minutes and she’ll probably wake up”.

“Or we could try this” I said walking past Twilight and kneeled down to Fluttershy. I then whispered something in her ear causing her to instantly wake up, grab on to me and give me The Stare.

“WHO HURT ANGEL?!” she yelled staring me down. Now in all honesty if it wasn’t for my mood earlier I would have not only shit myself, but beg for mercy for even telling her such a lie. However given what has happened The Stare didn’t really even faze me, even though I felt like she was staring at my very soul.

“Angel is fine Fluttershy I made that up to wake you up” I said as I gently made her release me. She then shied away behind Twilight and said sorry a couple time, but I just dismissed it with a wave of my hand.

“So?” Manny asked.

“We give up let them go” I said earning me stares of disbelief, followed by everypony shouting ‘What’ except Fluttershy since she’s been knocked out...three times I think or is it two…meh. “Yeah we surrender. Do with us what you will and what not” I said as I flopped to the ground and sat there.

My friends eventually got out of there shock state and let everypony go and they eventually joined me on the ground waiting for the girls to decide what to do with us. They then walked out of earshot so we wouldn’t be able to hear their conversation.

“So what’s the real plan BJ lead them into a false sense of security and catch them off guard or…” Manny was asking before I decided to interrupt him.

“No Manny we our just giving up and letting them decided what to do with us, no tricks, no secret plan, just nothing”

“So since there no better time to say this now I want to apologize BJ, this was all my fault I should have just kept my mouth shut.” Pedro said apologetically.

“Yeah it is and you should have”

“But since I admitted this was my fault we’re cool right?” he asked hopefully.

“…for now Pedro and let’s just leave it at that” I said as we waited for the girls to finish their conversation while watching the sun begin to set.

Chapter 6: Bygones be Bygones (Revised)

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Third Person PoV:

Twilight and her friends walked a bit away so that they could discuss in private and decide what to do with these strange colts. The girl’s first explained to Twilight and Fluttershy what had happened so far, which included the CMC being saved from a manticore, who they were, knocking Fluttershy out, and how the fight started.

Twilight brooded over what she was told about these strange colts for a few minutes before she decided to say something “So basically these strange colts save the CMC from a manticore, accidently knocked out Fluttershy and then one of them started a fight.”

“Yeah basically” Dash said with a huff still covering her chest with her wings. “I mean you should have heard what shorty said to me” she said with a scowl.

“But Dash didn’t you come off as hostile towards them?”

“Well maybe a little bit” she replied back while rubbing the back of her head

“But the way he spoke towards us was rather rude and most uncalled for” Rarity said with a scowl.

“Look ah think we’re missin’ the point. Dash ya’ll pushed him into a fight, but he could have just held back but chose not to, so he’s just as much as wrong as you are” AJ said. “and besides even Apple Bloom and tah girls said Pedro seemed rather upset about something yet yah still continued to pester him anyways” she continued.

“AJ’s right, it is also done and over with so now we have to decide what to do with them…any suggestions” Twilight asked.

“Well um if you don’t mind me saying we could always help them” Fluttershy said in a low whisper.

“Yeah I mean I still have to throw them a welcome to Ponyville/Equestria party” Pinkie said jumping up and down in excitement. “There’s going to be balloons and streamers and cake and cupcakes and music and…” she continued to rant on until AJ covered her mouth with her hand, but Pinkie still continued even though she spoke in a muffled voice.

“You can’t seriously want to help them” Dash said.

“And why not they don’t seem that bad” Twilight asked skeptically.

“Look what they did to us” Dash exclaimed.

“Uh Dash everypony looks fine to me” she replied back confused.

“Ah’ll admit I might have a bruise or two, but other than that ah’m as fine as rain” AJ said.

“Even though that ruff…I mean colt held me in a most uncomfortable way I’m fine as well” Rarity said.

“See Dash everypony is fine” Twilight said.

“How do we know this isn’t some sort of trap?” Dash asked.

“BJ wasn’t lying when he said he was surrenderin’ to us Dash” AJ said.

“Ok fine maybe only shorty’s the one I have a problem with” Dash said reluctantly.

“Mmmphhphpmhp” Pinkie said still muffled up because of AJ’s hand.

“Whoops sorry there Pinkie” AJ said while removing her hand from Pinkie’s mouth.

“I said, we should give them a chance it was only because of Dashie’s concern for Fluttershy that this happened”

“Ok we get it I was partially responsible for the mess we’re in OK does everypony know that now? Good” Dash said annoyed.

Twilight seem to be in deep thought while she glanced at what the guys were doing. They seem to be watching the sun go down almost making it close to night time, the sun giving off a red and orange glow. “So what do you girls think about them then?” she asked.

The girl’s brood over the question for a little bit and Rarity said “It’s really hard to say darling, I mean we did start off on the wrong hoof, but they seem rather…fine in my opinion.”

“Ah I agree with Rarity” AJ said with a nod.

“Well I don’t know about all of them, but BJ was pretty cool for covering me when he ripped my shirt and bra” Dash said getting a group gasp of surprise.

“You mean that colt ripped your shirt exposing your…oh why that no good” Rarity said about to go whap BJ upside the head before Dash stopped her.

“Like I said he was pretty cool about it, used his own body to cover my chest even if it was weird to be held hostage like that” Dash said with a shrug. “Also do you have any extra clothes on you?”

“Here you go” Pinkie said grabbing a light blue shirt and pink bra from nowhere.

“Where the ha…”AJ tried to ask before Pinkie beat her to it.

“I have clothes stored all over the place encase of an emergency” Pinkie said keeping that same toothy smile.

“Thanks Pinkie” Dash said while awkwardly trying to put her clothes on while not exposing herself to the boys.

“He was probably getting some sort of sick pleasure out of it” Rarity exclaimed.

“Through his armor?” AJ asked with disbelief.

“You never know” Rarity said defensively.

“I really doubt that Rarity” Dash said flatly as she stretched her wings and gave them a few flaps with her new clothes on.

“Well he did like it when you tried to head butt him, he said it felt like you were nuzzling him” Pinkie said causing Dash to blush.

“I-I w-w-wasn’t n-n-n-nuzzling him at all” Dash said stuttering causing her friend to snicker.

“Oh looks like somepony has a crush” AJ said with a smug smile.

“Ok miss I’m going to ‘buck’ him” Dash replied back causing AJ to blush in embarrassment.

“Ya’ll know that wasn’t what ah meant when ah said that” AJ said.

“Girls we’re going off topic let’s try to focus” Twilight said in between laughs.

“It doesn’t matter to me what you decided to do with them darling” Rarity said.

“Ah would like to help them, they seem to be for tah most part a bunch of good colts” AJ said.

“I guess I’ll try to be nice to shorty over there if you want to help them” Dash said.

“Um I think we should help them, if you don’t mind” Fluttershy said.

Twilight seemed to be in deep thought about what to do for what felt like hours, but eventually started to head towards the guys her friends following behind.

My point of view:

‘Well looks like they're finally done’ I thought as I noticed Twilight leading her friends back towards us. I then motioned my friends to stand up so that we would be eye level with them instead of at an angle.

“So after talking about what do with you colts, we’ve decided to at least hear you guys out” Twilight said earning a couple of silent relief from my friends.

“Awesome let’s go then” I stated starting to make my way towards Ponyville.

“Go where?” Twilight asked confused looking at everypony for an answer getting shrugs from them.

“Well I don’t know about you, but I’m tired and want to rest on a couch or a chair then on the cold ground because it’s going to be a long ass explanation” I replied back.

“I guess will go to the library since it’s the closest and spaciest” Twilight said gesturing us to follow her to town. We then started to walk together towards town in a triangle like fashion, Twilight and I were in the front of the group and she would mostly glance my way as if she wanted to ask me something, but would surprisingly shy away. Manny, Pinkie and Dash were to the right of me talking about what it is like to fly and how Pinkie is capable of doing what she does best…being Pinkie Pie. Fluttershy, Rarity and Pedro were behind me talking about the landscape and the different kind of animals that were here causing Fluttershy to be less nervous around Pedro. Ben and Applejack were to the left of me talking about something until that led them to playfully ruff housing. AJ got him into a hold around his head for a couple of minutes while he playfully yelled out getting a couple of laughs from us, but while AJ was distracted he slipped out of her hold and put her in his own hold. She started to playfully yell out and started to squirm around a bit, but that caused Ben to trip and fall taking AJ with him.

“Are you two alright?” Fluttershy asked concerned.

“Yeah I’m good” Ben replied back and offered AJ a hand to get up.

“Thank ya kindly” AJ said and reached for Ben’s hand.

“WHAT DO YAH THINK YER DOIN’ TO MY SIS” a male voice screamed out with a southern accent like AJ and Apple Bloom. Ben was then shoulder tackled by this giant of a man and was sent flying, landing a quite a bit away with a heavy thud. Fluttershy was the first to react and ran over towards Ben, Manny and Pedro following close behind. The man was about six foot four, wearing blue overalls and a crimson red long sleeve shirt with the sleeves folded up about mid way. Now my friends and I are relatively well built, but this man made us look fat. His upper body was bulging with muscles, but they were not the kind that showed veins yet could easily knock a guy out with one punch. He had short orange hair with sap green eyes and a couple of freckles like AJ, but his eyes were filled with rage. “You alright sis” he asked looking concerned.

“What the hell’s was that for you fucking hillbilly asshole” Pedro yelled at the man. The man then turned towards Pedro and made a run towards him, anger still plastered on his face.

“Big Mac wait” AJ yelled trying to stop her brother ‘Why can’t anything go smoothly’ I thought.

“Twilight teleport me to my friends now” I yelled at Twilight in a matter of seconds my body was surrounded in a light purple glow. Now teleporting is a weird feeling, it feels like you’re talking every single cell of your body, separating it, traveling at supersonic speed and then putting the pieces back together in seconds…it also makes you fucking sick as hell and disoriented. ‘Oh god I think I’m going to be sick’ I thought, but quickly shook it off and tried to get my focus back. Big Mac was only a couple of feet away ‘So let’s hope I’m as strong as everypony been saying I am’ I thought and ran towards him.

“What the is he crazy” Dash yelled in disbelief.

“Twi quick get a magic hold on my brother” AJ said.

“I’m trying but I can’t get a lock on him” Twilight said. We were merely second away from crashing into one another our pace never changing, it felt like I was running straight first towards a train.

At the last second I stopped and planted myself to the ground, waiting for Big Mac to charge into me. ‘Oh god…Celestia…whatever superpower being in this world please let this work’ I thought then I felt Big Mac shoulder dig deep into my chest. I planted my feet in the ground hard trying to stop Big Mac from getting to my friends. I was slowly being pushed back, my feet sliding against the ground. ‘Well then looks like I can at least slow him down…let’s see if I can do more’ I thought as I then firmly planted my feet to the ground completely stopping Big Mac progress towards my friends, we then locked our arms in place trying to see if one of us could overpower the other. After a couple minutes I started to overpower him and slowly step by step made him slide back towards the girls.

“Big Mac stop this right now” AJ yelled at her brother distracting him long enough for me to get the edge on him.

As I let go of him while shoving him away he stumbled back and tried to get his bearing, but I didn’t let him as I took in a deep breath and shouted “FUS RO DAH” sending the blue aura towards him, hitting him dead on and sending him flying. He landed a few feet away from the girls hard on the ground, disoriented he tried to clumsily get back up, but I ran over towards him and planted my foot on his neck pushing down hard to prevent him from getting up yet light enough so I wouldn’t choke him.

The girls had mixed emotions of surprise, shocked and concerned, while Big Mac just started at me with rage. I slowly bent down low enough so we were making eye contact “Calm down before we both do something we’re going to regret” I said with malice while releasing my footing on his neck and ran over towards my friends and Fluttershy. “How is he?” I asked Fluttershy who was examining Ben’s body, lightly tapping all over his body with her fingers.

“He has multiple broken bones and bruises all over nothing life threatening, but he needs a doctor right away” she said.

“Hey Fluttershy can you give us a minute” Pedro said she simply nodded and walked over towards her friends who were mostly watching AJ yell at Big Mac for what he did.

“So who’s turn is it now?” Ben asked coughing up a bit of blood with a light laugh.

“Not me” Manny said backing off a bit.

“I’ve killed him three times technically so you do it Pedro” I said. Pedro just shrugged and brought as his knife ready to stab Ben through the skull until I noticed something and motioned Pedro to stop.

“Hey Ben out of curiosity were you playing on peaceful mode?” I asked.

“Uh yeah I was why would that matter… oh shit I’m an idiot” he said.

“Wait what?” Manny asked confused looking at Pedro for an answer, but Pedro looked confused as well.

“You know peaceful mode in Minecraft” I said to them hoping they would get it.

“Oh yeah in peaceful mode don’t you like heal over time or something like that” Pedro said.

“Exactly” Ben said as we now watched his bruises and bones slowly heal up. After a minute or so Ben was pretty much all healed up and was now brushing himself off.

“Hey Ben remind next time when we’re on chat to play Minecraft” Manny said.

“So wait not only is Ben immortal, but can regenerate in a couple of minutes?” Pedro asked.

“Looks like it” I answered.

“This place makes no sense at all” he said shaking his head while he groaned.

“Hey just think in a couple of hours we’ll all be out of here” Ben said with a pat on Pedro’s back.

“Ben what do ya’ll think yer doin’ you shouldn’t be movin’ around” AJ hollered running over here with her friends closely behind.

“Don’t worry AJ I got better” Ben replied back nonchalantly and proved he was fine by lifting up his shirt.

“But you had broken bones we heard them snap and the bruises and BJ literally stopped Big Mac, BIG MAC that doesn’t….wait don’t tell me it’s complicated” Dash said annoyed.

“Pretty much” I said with a shrug earning me a groan of annoyance from Dash.

That’s when Big Mac came up in front of us with a guilty look on his face “Ah’m really sorry what ah did tah yah Ben. Ah heard only bits and pieces from Apple Bloom and assumed the worst, but ah reckon’ that’s no excuse”.

“It’s alright really, I probably would have done the same thing in your situation so don’t worry about” Ben said offering Big Mac a handshake.

Big Mac then grabbed Ben’s hand and gave him the apple family signature handshake making Ben go into the air cartoonish like for a couple of seconds before he stopped and said “If yah ever need me for anything let me know alright” he said to Ben with a smile. “And I wanna thank ya too BJ for stoppin’ me an all” he said extending his hand out towards me.

“Don’t sweat it” I said shaking his hand and receiving the same kind of handshake Ben got.

“Ah’m gonna head back to the farm now, feel free tah visit some time” he said with a wave and headed towards Sweet Apple Acres.

“Well then shall we continue” I said. The girls were hesitant at first, still probably shocked about the recent events that just unfolded, but eventually we made our way towards town.

We had just arrived near the outskirts of town and even though no pony was in the mood to talk I felt like everything was going to be ok, no more problems whatsoever…until Pedro suddenly leveled up? And we were now waiting for him, to not only figure out how to level up, but to choose which points to spend. And yes we tried to carry him or push him, but he didn’t even budge and Twilight’s magic had no effect on him. And to make things worse Ben snuck off somewhere and we couldn’t find him ‘Can things get any worse’ I thought as I flopped to the ground.

Ben’s point of view

‘It’s can’t be possible’ I thought when I noticed a familiar looking face turn a corner. Everypony was standing there trying to get Pedro to move, but he wasn’t budging even slightly. Shuffling in place anxiously I couldn’t decide whether or not to go after the pony. ‘This could be my only chance to speak to him let alone get to know if it’s true or not’ I thought as I snuck off and ran towards the direction I saw the pony walk off towards. ’Where is he?’ I thought as I ran pretty much everywhere around town ‘I mean how hard is it to fine one pony especially this late’ I exclaimed since there was only a few stray stragglers either going home or out to party. After many hours of running around in circles I reluctantly gave up, now just sitting on a bench grieving ‘My one chance to find out the truth and I bucked it up…life is so unfair’ I thought while I leaned back letting my head hang behind the bench with a audible groan.

“Bit for your thought or is it penny, hard to tell with dimensional travel” said a cheery yet familiar voice. As I looked up my mouth was a gaped in surprised, standing in front of me was a man about five foot seven with short spiky dark brown hair and dark brown eyes. He was wearing a light brown trench coat with a dark brown suit. Underneath his suit was a light bluish shirt, a red bow tie around his neck and had a pair of black reading glass. He stood in front of me with a friendly smile and said “It’s good to see you again or wait technically we’re meeting for the first time (pats me on the back) time travel am I right” he said with a British accent and joined me on the bench.

I sat there dumbfounded trying to collect my thoughts I tried to ask “So you are…”

“Yes I am the Doctor, the tenth to be precise, that you and your friends know. You know its quite fascinating how your universe seems to be quite accurate about other universes through TV shows” he said.

“So then in the show…”

“Yes ‘Doctor Whooves’ is a pony version of me and let me tell you it takes awhile to get use to eating hay and using hooves to pick things up.”

“So then why are…”

“Well technically I’m not, you know with time being wibbly wobbly and stuff, I am here, but I am also in the pony version of Equestria, I’m in the version of Earth where insect evolved into the dominant race and etcetera etcetera.”

“You know answering my question before I finish is getting…”

“Annoying yes well given the fact that we had this conversation before I felt like speeding things up or making sure we keep on track depends how people want to look at it” he said with a shrug.

‘I can’t believe it. Doctor Who thee Doctor Who is right here next to me chatting with me like we’ve been friends for years. Or maybe we have been friends for years traveling together later in the future and it hasn’t happened yet’ I thought a huge grin plastered on my face.

“While I love to sit here and chat with you, but I really got to go, promised the wife and kids we would go out to eat tonight” he said while getting up and stretching.

“Wait you’re married and have…”

“Yes I’m married and have a lovely wife and wonderful children, but I tell you about that later I need you to focus” he said with a serious face. “Know this I cannot in any way help you get back to your world. You and your friends are stuck here for a reason which will be revealed in the future.”

“…” I couldn’t say anything let alone respond to what he just said to me. My friends and I are stuck here and we can’t go back home. I’ll be the first to admit if not second to be ok with this, but Manny and Pedro I…don’t even want to think how they’ll handle the news.

“I am truly sorry that I can’t help, but don’t worry your friends will be ok. It’ll just take them a bit to get use to this world. Now I must be off and I’ll see you sometime later” he said walking towards his home. “Oh before I forget you did ask me to do this” he said clearing his voice. “ALLONS~SY” he yelled while running away.

I just sat there on the bench for minutes trying to process what just happened. I don’t even remember Dash finding me and leading me back to where everypony was, still waiting on Pedro, all I know is I had a big smile on my face and when anypony asked I just responded with “Best.Day.Ever.”

My point of view

After Ben came back and Pedro finally finished leveling up we had made it to Twilight’s place and since it was close to dinner time we got a quick bite to eat. After we ate my friends and I started to explain who we really were, where we came from, explaining our world to them and how we didn’t use magic like there world, but instead used technology, and how we came to be in there world with our new founded powers, which was odd since my friends were brought here just like me at the exact same time as well.

“…and that’s pretty much what we know so far” I said as I sat comfortably on Twilight’s couch, thinking real quick to make sure if me or my friends left out any important details.

“So then if you can’t use magic how did you get here to begin with?” Dash asked.

“Like we said skittles, bright light then boom we were in a forest” Pedro said.

“Don’t call me skittles shorty” she replied back threateningly.

“Uh oh watch at everyone we have a badass over here” Pedro said holding his hands back like he was backing off.

“Oh no not again” Ben said with a sigh.

“Dash ya’ll just calm down alright” AJ said trying to calm her friend down.

“Pedro” I growled at him getting his attention. “I’m going to throw down an ultimatum if you continue getting into fights like these I swear when we get back home I’m going to show your mom that video of you when you went streaking” I said.

The girls just looked at me confused, Manny and Ben understood what I was talking about while Pedro’s eyes shrunk down to the size of peas and said “Bulllshit you guys deleted it, I watched”

What’s that another story time, ok then: Back when we just graduate from high school I went down to celebrate with my relatives before my friends and I would go have some fun. On my way out my cousins asked what we were going to do, but didn’t like the response so they gave me couple of six packs and some tequila to take with me and wouldn’t take no for an answer. So let me tell you my family drinks…a lot and thanks to that I’ve been exposed to alcohol in my early years so I know how much I can handle, but my friends were another story. After a couple of shots they were completely hammered and for the life of me I don’t know why, but Manny dared Pedro to go streaking and like a drunk idiot he did while Ben for shits and giggles recorded it on his camera. Well the next day, after getting over there hangover with some greasy food, which by the way does help with hangover a bit, I basically told them what happened/showed the video to them. Pedro immediately told us to delete it because he didn’t want his folks to find out. Why? Because his family lives about ten minutes away from his apartment and they like to pop in every once in awhile unannounced. So imagine if his family heard about that…yeah not so fun is it. But I felt like I could use this against him one day and saved it for later.

“Yeah on Ben’s computer, but did you know I had a flash drive on me and that I happened to make a backup on it” I said with a sly smile.

“…you’re an asshole you know that” he replied defeated.

“Only when it comes to you my friend” I said with a smile.

“But that still doesn’t explain how you got here with your ‘strange’ powers and equipment, and how you already know us?” Twilight asked holding a notebook while scribbling some notes onto it.

“Well we can’t really explain our power, but we can at the same time, it just won’t make any sense to anypony and it’s more along the lines of a theory to be honest” Ben said.

“And that’s how you guys are able to do the things you can because of video games” Twilight asked with disbelief.

“Yeah I know its far fetch but granted we are from a different dimension so it can’t be that unbelievable” I replied back.

“Speaking of which is there a spell for dimension traveling or something” Manny asked hopefully.

“I’m afraid I don’t recall any spells for dimensional traveling, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t. I would have to go through some books to make sure, but for now I’m not sure” Twilight said.

“Aren’t you colts forgetting something?” Rarity asked.

“Such as?” Ben asked.

“Like how you know our names and stuff” Dash said.

“Well it’s because you guys are from a girl…” Pedro was about to say before I interrupted him.

“Pedro another word and not only will I tell your parents about the streaking I’m going to shove a cactus so far up your ass you’re going to wish that you were born one” I said staring at him with ever attempt to follow up on my word.

“And where do you expect to get one?” he asked smugly.

“I’m pretty sure Twilight could magic one up if I really need it” I returned the smug smile back to him.

Pedro frowned “…well shit” he said defeated…again.

“Well we're waiting” Dash asked.

Ben looked at me wondering if he should answer, but I mouthed out that I would handle it and began “So remember when we were talking about technology and we explained TV to you girls?” they shook their head yes and I continued “So there was this show called My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and it was basically about your lives/adventures you went on, but don’t worry we never saw any private moments in your life or anything like that” I said to them.

We sat there for the longest time while the girls tried to understand what I just told them, it’s like some random person came up to you and said your whole life is a lie, yeah mind blowing and totally unbelievable, but I would have had to tell them sooner or later. Dash was the first to respond “Yeah right, there no way that’s possible.”

“He ain’t lyin’ Dash” AJ said still trying to process what I told them.

“So a bunch of ponies have been watching our lives every day?” Twilight asked glancing around for something.

“I-I-I don’t think I the idea of ponies watching my every move” Fluttershy said hiding behind Rarity.

“Don’t worry Fluttershy the brony community really nice and sweet once you get to know some of them” Pinkie said causing everypony to just stare at her.

“But how that make no…fjaoiehgeoighrfdslkfg” Manny said as he raged trying to figure out how Pinkie does what she does best.

“Well it’s not every day Twilight and like BJ said it never goes into anything on a personal level it’s mostly just to teach people life lessons and the power of friendship” Ben said returning us to our discussion.

“Also I’m pretty sure Fluttershy that ponies aren’t watching this universe in particular, since by our standards, you girls would be considered humans and not ponies. And the show revolves around your pony versions, so I can safely assume that you girls aren’t being watched.” I said reassuringly.

They stared at us blankly not truly understanding what we told them, except for Pinkie of course who was just sitting there with a big toothy grin, so Ben explained every episode from season one to season two stopping at the episode ‘It’s About Time’. “And that was the last episode we watched” Ben said the girls had different facial expressions ranging from shock, curiosity, fear and confusion.

“That’s unbelievable” Twilight said amazed the girls nodding their heads in agreement.

“I’m just glad you girl don’t think we're crazy” I replied back with a smile.

“Or a bunch of stalkers” Pedro said with a smug smile.

“Crazy no, stalker…possibility” Twilight mused half heartedly.

“They’re not stalkers there bronies well BJ and Ben anyway oh I almost forgot hi every brony” Pinkie said waving in a random direction causing everypony to look at her confused.

“Ok seriously what is she talking about or too who for that matter?” Manny asked looking for an answer from anypony.

“Trust me sugarcube don’t question it, it will only hurt more to think about it” AJ said followed by a yawn and you know what happens when one pony yawns.

As we all yawned one after another I glanced at a clock on the wall, yeah they have clocks old fashion ones but who’s complaining. Anyway it was around ten twenty five and I think it was time to call it a night. “I don’t know about everypony else, but I’m ready to hit the hay” I said.

“Ah reckon ah agree need tah get back home so ah can help around the farm tomorrow” AJ said.

“So where are we going to sleep then?” Manny asked.

“We could always go back into the forest, oh how I do so miss it already” Pedro said jokingly.

“Yeahhhhhh not gonna happen or at least I’m not going back there anytime soon” I replied back.

“Well I have a spare bedroom here in the library” Twilight said.

“Ah have a spare room on the farm as well” AJ said.

“Oh oh oh the Sugar Cube Corner has a spare room not being used” Pinke said jumping up and down while wiggling her left arm like crazy in the air like a student raising their hand.

“My boutique has a spare room as well” Rarity said.

“So now we decided who goes where?” Ben said.

We sat there for a minute before a thought accord ‘Revenge’ making me smile evilly in the inside. I then got up and walked over towards Rarity and whispered something to her. She immediately shot up and jumped towards Pedro screaming “MINE”. She then grabbed him and proceeded to drag him towards the door, causing him to scream like a girl the whole time might I add, before anypony could stop her. Pedro was putting up a pretty good fight, but he tripped and fell. Now being dragged out the door in a last ditch effort he grabbed the door hinges and held on for dear life.

I walked over towards him and got close enough so he could hear me as I grabbed his hand “Now we’re good” I said with a devilish smile and forced him to let go. I then closed the door with a huge grin on my face while everypony just stared at me with confused looks.

“What the hay just happened?” Dash asked.

“Oh I just told Rarity something about Pedro is all” I answered casually.

“What did you say if you don’t mind me asking?” Fluttershy asked.

“Oh nothing much, I only told her he like fashion and designing clothing is all” I said.

“Oh Celestia” Twilight said followed by a facepalm while Pinkie, Dash and AJ burst out into laughter.

“Uh am I missing something?” Manny asked Ben.

“Rarity really loves fashion and designing clothing it’s her passion” Ben said with a grin.

“But wait Pedro doesn’t like fashion I mean the most fashionable thing he wears is a black shirt with blue pants”

“I might have left that part out” I said with a grin and continued “Plus he had it coming”.

“So that solves one problem I guess” Twilight said with a sigh.

“Yeah so I was thinking Manny goes with Pinkie, Ben goes with AJ and I stay here” I mused.

“Wait why do I have to go with Pink…” Manny tried to say before a pink blur ran by him and sped off with him out the front door.

Everypony just shrugged it off and I turned to Ben and asked “You good with going with AJ?”

“Yeah it’s good besides I’ve always wanted to know how big Sweet Apple Acres is” he said. Everypony that was still here left with a goodbye while Ben proceeded to follow AJ back to her home leaving me and Twilight alone. Twilight then made her way towards her desk and started to levitate books from dozen of bookshelves while she skimmed through some of them. Curios I walked over toward her and stood behind her trying to read the books as well. Let me tell you this girl can speed read like no tomorrow, in a couple of seconds she would finish one book that had like six hundred pages. Now I like to consider myself a speed reader, it’s one of the reasons why I have to usually read something over twice, but she made me look like I had a reading disability [Author note: just to clarify I am in no shape or form downing people with disabilities in fact I have a few of them of my own, but just to make sure people won’t get upset or anything I’m just adding this little comment].

“Need a han…hoof” I asked.

“Hmm oh sorry I didn’t hear you. I usually get so well engorged in book and…oh wait you already knew that” she said with sheepish smile ‘guess who’s being adorkable’.

“I asked if you need a hoof” I asked with a smile.

“Oh sure I guess. Let’s see why don’t you start over here (floats a dark blue book over towards me) and look for anything that says dimensional travel in it” she said and started to skim through books again.

“Ok then” I said sitting down and leaning my back against her desk to be more comfortable. Without looking at the title I opened the book to the last page to see how long it was…it was seven hundred ages with two thousand words in small print a page. ‘This is going to a long night’ I thought with a sigh and slowly began to read the book.

Chapter 7: A Sort of Good Night's Rest (Revised)

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Pedro’s PoV:

“That no good backstabbing mother fucking asshole” I mumbled still being drag to god knows where. Rariy or is it Rarity…I don’t know, anyways the chick with purple hair was still dragging me while I was face first to the ground with her telekinesis thingy, surrounding me in a light blue aura and every once in awhile a rock would smack me in the face. She was going on and on about something, but I wasn’t paying attention because I was still feeling betrayed. ‘I mean what did I ever do to him…except the whole fight thing with the ponies…and that time I broke his step dad's lamp…and that time I broke his DS…and that one time I used his toothbrush to clean my shoe….Man how the hell are we still friends’ I thought till Rarity, I’m just going to go with that name for now, stopped dragging me and sat me down on a couch. ‘Huh how about that, didn’t even noticed we got here already’ I thought while I glanced around the room I was set in. It was a pretty spacious living room, but it gave off a store like feeling to it. The room had a shit load of different colored fabrics in shelves and drawers, a couple of female mannequins with half finish outfits that still looked like to be in the process of being made and a desk with some sewing equipment on it.

“If you would just wait here a moment while I go check on Sweetie Belle we can then get down to business” Rarity said as she walked away.

‘Uh business? What kind of business? The only kind of business that I know of when you put ‘get down to’ is usually in porn… OH MY GOD SHE WANT TO SLEEP WITH ME’ I thought and started to panic. Why? WHY?! I’ll tell you why it’s because…well you know, because of that…ummmmmm…wait why am I panicking and then proceeded to calm myself down. ‘Ok think this through Pedro why would she want to have sex with you, I mean besides the obvious of being funny, smart and damn good looking why would she want to…BJ that best friend anyone could have must of said something that made her see me in a new light’ I thought silently praying a word of thanks to my friend.

Getting over my little panic attack I decided to snoop around, yeah I’m nosey like that get over it scrub. Anyway there was nothing of real interest until I noticed a little red box with dull gold edges, it had a lock on it and when I tried to open the box, it was unsurprisingly locked. I mean who’s ever heard of a locked box totally unbelievable right. I then heard footstep signaling Rarity was coming back down stairs, I panicked and put the box back where I found it and plopped on the couch acting like nothing happened.

“So shall we get started” she said a glimmer in her eye and motioned me over towards her work space ‘kinky’. Wasting no time I got up and headed over towards the desk while she went over and turned on an old record player playing some relaxing music ‘Oh sweet baby Jesus this is going to happen’. She then walked towards me, eyeing me with a look of excitement. Now even though this is wrong on so many levels, what? She’s suppose to be a girly pony cartoon made for girls, but right now she was probably the hottest chick I’ve ever seen and little me couldn’t argue. She then placed her hands on my shoulders while I looked at her with a goofy smile ‘BJ I swear I promise never to mess with you ever again so long as I live’ I thought as I lost myself to the music and the girl in front of me.

Two hours later

‘BJ I swear to god I’m going to kick your ass’ I thought while I sat down next to Rarity still pretending I was listening to her talk about fashion and clothing. Apparently BJ told her I loved designing clothes like her and she wanted me to come over so we could talk and discuss about possible ideas, however I don’t give two fucks about fashion I mean the most fashionable thing I’ve ever worn is a black shirt with blue pants. So two hours, two long hours of listening to her nonstop talking about clothing after clothing after clothing, I mean I could only handle so much of one girl talking about something before I lost my mind.

“So what do you think about this one darling” she asked and then went off on a tangent about the pros and cons of the dress.

“Uh huh” I said staring off into space.

I guess she noticed finally that I wasn’t paying attention to her and asked “Are you even paying attention?”

“No, no I’m not”.

“Well if you didn’t want to talk about fashion right now darling you should have tol…”

“That’s the thing Rarity I don’t like fashion. BJ only told you that to get even with me because he knew that you would annoy me with your nonstop talking about fashion” I stated bluntly.

“I…I see sorry to annoy you” she said her eyes starting to water up while she packed away her designs.

‘Aww fuck’ I thought feeling, which rarely happens, bad. “Wait” I said stopping on a particular design she was going to put away. “This outfit looks alright, but the design could use some improvements (grabbed a pencil) here, here and here” I said adding a little additions to her design.

She looked at me shocked and said “This…This is…Amazing simply amazing, but I thought you didn’t like fashion”.

“Well I still don’t I mean a shirt and pants is all I need” I said dryly and continued “However I want to be a graphic artist so I’m pretty keen on the whole logo/designing aspect of art and fashion”.

“Oh then what do you think about this one” she said bringing out another drawing. We then spent the next hour talking about her work and where she could use some improvement, but in reality she was not that bad at making up designs. I mean back home I was pretty savvy when it came to drawing, but some of my work was pretty much a rip off of someone else’s work, but she did her own work through inspiration alone and I was honestly impressed. She then went into the kitchen ‘Ha’ to go make some tea for us while I went back to looking at that mysterious box trying to figure out a way to open it.

“Would you like to see what’s in it?” Rarity asked making me jump and scream like a gir…I mean a manly scream. “Oh I’m sorry darling I didn’t mean to scare you” she said handing me a cup of tea.

“No, its fine” I said with a half smile and continued “And yes I would like to see what’s inside it”.

She then brought out a small silver key from nowhere ‘So wait can all ponies to that or what’ and unlocked the chest and inside was the biggest looking gem I’ve ever seen. It was a red colored gem about the size of my fist in the shape of a heart with a gold casing going around it. “Spike gave it to me on his birthday it’s a fire ruby which is very rare to come by” she stated looking at it with a smile.

“Spike?” I asked taking a sip of tea ‘Like a sir’.

“Oh that’s right you never did meet him. He’s Twilight’s number one assistant and one of the cutest, cuddliest and hardest worker you’ll ever see” she said sounding like she was talking to a baby or something.

“So he just gave you a very rare gem for no reason?” I asked.

“Not exactly” she said trying to avoid answering the question. ‘Let’s see here even if she’s technically a girly pony she’s still pretty hot and…oh I see not cool’.

I frowned at her “He has a crush on you and you used him”.

“I wouldn’t state it so bluntly” she said defensively.

“Oh and what would you call it?” I asked.

She seemed to be in thought for a moment until she lowered her head “Using him” she said with guilt.

“You know this is just my opinion, but you should either tell the kid to take a hike or tell him you like him” I said.

“It’s just not that simple darling”

“Oh and why is that?”

“….”

“Whatever if you don’t want to talk about it that’s fine and truth be told I really don’t care, but at least talk to someone else about it, now I’m feeling tired and want to go to sleep” I said finishing up my tea.

“R-right please follow me” she said and lead me upstairs to a room.

Manny PoV:

“Wait why do I have to go with Pink…” I tried to say before a pink blur clouded my vision and started to drag me outside. “Oh my god help! Help! I need an adult! I need an adult!” I screamed trying to get loose from this pink monstrosity.

“I am an adult silly” Pinkie whispered into my ear making me freak out even more. We then all of a sudden stop, my vision starting to come back to me and what I saw in front of me made me recoil in surprise. ‘What the fuck is that’ I thought staring at a building. The building looked well for a lack of a better word like a giant gingerbread house, just staring at it made me feel like I was gaining weight.

“Well come on silly let’s go inside” she said bouncing her way inside with each step…wait she’s doing what? ‘Why the hell is she not walking like a normal person pony…thing’.

“Because silly it’s more fun this way” she replied back.

“Yeah but it’s still…WAIT WHAT” I said staring at her with fear and disbelief. ‘No way. She can’t read my thoughts it was just a coincidence’ I thought trying to calm myself down.

“Don’t worry Manny I’m not a mind reader, but I can read text” she said with a toothy smile.

“…” I just stood there mouth a gap.

“Well come on in silly” she said and dragged me inside a little bell ringing as we entered. The inside was unsurprisingly a bakery; it had a counter for selling baked goods and some tables here and there.

“I’m sorry but Sugarcube Corner is clos… Oh it’s just you Pinkie” said a female voice.

“Hi Mrs. Cake, where’s Mr. Cake?”

“Right here Pinkie, I was just putting Pound and Pumpkin to sleep” said a man walking downstairs. “Say who’s your friend?”

“This is Manny, Manny this is Mr. and Mrs. Cake and I was hoping he could stay here for the night”. Mrs. Cake was about the same height as Pinkie Pie and looked pretty young maybe late twenties to mid thirties, but still had that mother feel to her. She was wearing a light blue shirt, maybe cerulean, with tan pants and a yellow apron with pink looking feather coming out at the top. She had rose colored eyes with a light crimson hair mixed with grayish crimson going in a spiral; her hairstyle reminds me of an ice cream cone top. Mr. Cake was about my height and about in his thirties. He wore an amber shirt with light brown pants and a white apron. He had pistachio eyes with freckles above his nose and has orange hair.

“I don’t know Pinkie by the sounds of it he’s new in town and, no offense, can we really trust him?” Mrs. Cake asked.
She then explained what happened earlier today including the whole fight between us, which I thought was stupid to add, but surprisingly they decided to trust Pinkie and went off to bed leaving me and Pinkie alone.

“So your parents seem nice” I said awkwardly.

“Mr. and Mrs. Cake aren’t my parents silly, but they do act like my parents. Sometimes they scold me telling me don’t do this or don’t eat that or that one time, don’t walk around the store naked” she said with a straight face.

“Wait wait you walked around the store naked? Why would you do that?”

“What who said that?” she asked me with a great poker face.

“You…you just did” I said looking at her with disbelief.

“Hmmmmmmmm nope doesn’t ring a bell” she said with a smile.

“But you just and I just....ughhh” I said rubbing my head in frustration ‘This chick is going to drive me to insanity. How does everyone handle this chick?’.

“In small doses of course”

“WOULD YOU STOP READING MY MIND…”

“Text”

“Whatever just please promise to stop reading my mind text thing”

“Okie dokie lokie cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye” she said ending with poking her eye ‘What the hell…you know what I don’t even want to know anymore’. “So, what now?” I asked trying to forget what just happened only a few minutes ago.

“Well I need to prepare for tomorrow so you can help if you want. Oh we can be baking buddies” She said jumping up and down with excitement.

“Sure I guess” I said since I wasn’t feeling tired and didn’t want to sit around doing nothing.

“Or” she said her entire attitude changing in an instant from friendly kiddy girl to seductive woman. “we could always cook some cupcakes or maybe” she said sitting down on the counter spreading her legs apart and staring at me seductively “we could always make a nice, gooey, delicious cream pie” she said running her tongue over her teeth.

I literally stared at her for the longest time, my emotions and facial expression ranged from shock to surprise to panic. My thoughts were running amuck between should I or shouldn’t I go through with this, my face turning a whole new color of red in embarrassment. I panicked for five minutes trying to think about what I should do until I head Pinkie giggling a little bit. As I looked at her she was trying to hold back her laughter covering her mouth with her hands. “Did…did you just troll me?” I asked, her response was falling on the ground and laughing hysterically snorting every once in awhile. “You know I don’t know what’s worst: the fact that you just trolled me or the fact you know what trolling is” I said as I walked past her into the kitchen.

Outskirts of Ponyville…Midnight:

A cloaked figure could be seen walking around the far edges of Ponyville, moving with haste and purpose. The figure was wearing a dirty torn up brown coat with a dark dull red color going along its side was a dull gold crossing back and forth along the sleeves. The figure had reached the highest pasture that belong to Ponyville and was now looking over the town with disgust.

“Is this where they are located master” the man called out to the darkness.

A faint whisper could be heard speaking to him in an unknown language.

“Yes my master I will dispose of them quickly, so that they may not get in your way” he said with a slight bow. Glancing around in the distance he could see the many sites of Ponyville, but one stood out in particular, one that made him smile. “But first I must summon up some…friends” he said and started to make his way towards the cemetery.

Canterlot Castle…a little past midnight:

“Sister did you…” Luna said as she walked towards her sister.

“Yes Luna I did feel it, it is…most troubling.” Celestia said staring out a window in the distance the small town of Ponyville could be seen.

“Shall we send out the knights or perhaps we should go meet our mysterious guest for ourselves.”

“No we cannot act without a reason, but yes tell some of the knights to increase more patrols around Ponyville”

“Sister if I may? Wouldn’t it be easier to just go and deal with the situation now why must we…”

“*sigh* because dear sister we do not know anything about this strange guest that has come into our lands and…I would never forgive myself if I put you in harm’s way.”

“Alright sister I understand, I shall inform the knights right away.”

Ben’s PoV: the next day

“Guess it’s six in the morning” I mumbled as I slowly woke up, the sun barely shining through the curtains. We arrived back to AJ’s home pretty late last night and with nothing to do or really talk about decided to go to bed right away. The room I was in was a normal guest room, it had a wooden dresser, a table stand with a lamp and a mid size bed. As I got up I headed towards the window to see that the sun was still barely coming over the horizon radiating the farm in a beautiful yellow glow. ‘It’s still hard to believe that I’m in Equestria with my friends. Heh if only I had a camera or something on me then when we get back home I could…’ I thought before I recalled the conversation with the Doctor a feeling of dread washing over me ‘That’s right we’re stuck here for the rest of our lives. Granted I’m ok with this, but what about my family...our families. What will they think happened? That we just ran away, that we just had enough and committed mass suicide and hid our bodies so people wouldn’t find us’ I thought my thoughts going deeper and deeper to the darker region of my mind. “NO” I exclaimed followed by me slapping my face with both hands “Got to stay positive and make the most out of our situation” I said quickly forgetting my previous thoughts. *growl* “Right after I get something to eat” I said making my way towards the kitchen.

As I was about to enter the dining room I could hear the apple family talking about me “and that’s why Ben’s goin’ to stay with us for awhile” AJ said finishing up her summary of what happened last night I mused.

“That’s sounds fine AJ besides ah reckon it’s the least ah could do considerin’ what ah did to him yesterday” Big Mac said.

“Ahhhh why didn’t yah bring BJ over? Y’all would have been a perfect couple” Apple Bloom whined.

“Now Apple Bloom for starters we don’t need yah to be playin’ matchmaker again like ya’ll did with Big Mac” she said gesturing towards Big Mac who just nodded in agreement. “And second that’s no way to talk about a guest.”

“Ah know sis, but you two are so similar that y'all would have been perfect for one another while Ben seems more like Twilight’s type a uh egghead” she said as she finished off her plate of food ‘Oh so I’m an egghead huh…well I can’t deny that, but I do feel the need to troll now’.

“Apple Bloom…” AJ tried to say before but I beat her to it.

“Oh is that what you think about me?” I said surprising everypony.

“No I didn’t…”Apple Bloom tried to say.

“No, no I can see that I’m not wanted here, maybe I’ll just go out into the wilderness and survive off the land…alone” I said acting like I was rejected.

“But…”

“No your words are like daggers to my heart in fact I think I’m dying because of your words. Oh cruel fate to be done in by a child’s word” I said acting like I was dying, by holding my hands around my neck and making a gagging sound. I then fell to the floor with a loud thud and proceeded to act like I was dead. Apple Bloom, like planed, started to freak out thinking this was all her fault as she rushed over towards me and started to shake me to wake me up while blubbering out apology after apology while crying. ‘Oh I’m so messed up, but this is still hilarious’.

After a couple more minutes of her crying I decided enough was enough and to put the final phase of trolling into play. “Why didn’t you clean your dishes” I said in a creepy voice while grabbing her. She ‘epeed’ and ran off towards her sister for protection. I just laughed while AJ and Big Mac snickered at their sister’s expense while Apple Bloom's face became a shade of red which changed to a little pout.

“That wasn’t very nice” she pouted.

“And it’s not very nice to talk about somepony behind their back” I replied back getting over my laughing fit.

“Sorry Ben ah didn’t mean anythin’ by it” she said apologetically.

“Hey its cool no harm no foul” I replied with a dismissive wave and joined everypony at the table sitting across from the Big Mac and AJ.

“Ah’m surprised that you’re up and about, thought yah would’ve been still asleep” AJ said handing me a plate of pancakes.

“Oh why is that?” I asked in-between bites and let me say these were the best apple pancake I’ve ever eaten, granted they were the first one I’ve ever eaten, but nonetheless the best.

“Uh well…” she said trying to find the right word.

I just gave her a blank stare and said “Because I’m an egghead, honestly do I look like that big of an egghead?” their response was to stare back at me with a sheepish smile. “Ok yes I’m an egghead, but that doesn’t mean all eggheads stay up late and sleep in till noon or one” I said defensively.

“Right~” they said in unison.

As I took another bite of my delicious pancakes I noticed one pony was missing “Where’s Granny Smith?” I asked.

“Granny Smith went down ta Appleloosa ta help our cousin Braeburn with the crops seems they’re having some problems over there” AJ said.

“Problems? Like buffalo problems or soil problems?”

“Soil, tah land there ain’t very good for growing crops ta begin with, but that don’t mean they’ll just pack up and leave. We’re Apples and Apples see things through” she said with pride. We then sat there for a couple minutes mostly them talking about the chores they had to get done today. Big Mac and AJ were the first to leave while I helped Apple Bloom clean up breakfast.

She still seemed to be pretty upset with my joke “So you still mad about what I did?” I asked her handing a dish to her.

“It wasn’t very nice or funny” she said with a pout.

“But you did have it coming and besides would you rather have been embarrassed or chewed out by your sister?” I replied back handing her another dish.

“Well…” she said thinking for a couple of seconds and continued “no, but ah really thought that ah did k-k-k…” she tried to say, but started to tear up a bit.

“Hey now” I said comfortingly and brought her into a hug. “Look I’m sorry I did that to you ok” I said she started to cry into my shirt for a little bit, sniffling every so often.

She calmed down after a minute and escaped my hug and said “Thanks”.

“No prob and oh Apple Bloom” I said patting her head “Trust me when I say this, but nothing can truly kill me” I said with a smile.

“What’s that suppose ta mean?” she asked looking at me confused and started to put dishes away.

“It’s complicated” I replied back and started to help her put the dishes away. “So what’s on the big agenda?” I asked as we but the final dish away.

“Gotta feed the animals and help move some baskets till ah go ta school” she said with a sigh.

“What’s up?”

“Ah have ta come back home right away cause of being still grounded.”

“Which means you girls won’t be crusading for a while.”

“Yeah” she said disappointed.

That’s when it hit me “Couldn’t you still hang out early in the morning?”

“Well they should be up by now ah guess, but with my chores an’ all ah can’t see them any earlier than goin’ ta school.”

“But if I were to help you do some of your chores…”

“No way are ya helping with my chores Applejack and Big Mac will scold me if they see ya helping me with my chores.”

“But I feel like a freeloader if I don’t at least do something and besides you want to see your friends and I want to help around the farm a bit. It’s a win-win situation.”

“Ah don’t know”

“Trust me Apple Bloom I’ll talk them into if it becomes a problem” I said confidently.

Three hours later

“Ah told ya so” Apple Bloom said for the twentieth time now.

“Yeah yeah I’m sorry ok” I replied back. “But in my defense I didn’t think it would have been that big of a deal.” So basically I helped Apple Bloom for a bit and we were more than three fourth of the way done when Applejack spotted me helping her with her chores and scolded both of us. “Also we made pretty good timing so now you’ll be able to go crusading for a bit until school starts” I said as we reached the outskirts of Ponyville I could see ponies going about.

“Ah guess” she said warily.

“So before you go off crusading with your friends can you show me where the library is?”

Pedro’s PoV

“Well, well, well. We meet again and here I thought I could escape you” I said as I turned over and stared right at the clock that read seven o five. “Why the hell am I awake so damn early” I mumbled staring down the clock, hoping it would change to sometime later like nine or ten. *sewing machine noise* “And who the hell is up so damn early making that noise”. ‘*sigh* might as well get up’ I thought and stumbled out of bed. I was in a pretty suave guest room, even though it was a normal guest room everything looked like it was worth a fortune and I would’ve gone more into detail, but I’m too tired for that kind of shit. I then shuffled my way down stairs, almost tripping, to the same living room area to see Rarity sewing some sort of dress. She was wearing a plain white t shirt with some gems on it with normal pants to my surprise since I figured she was one of those girls to wear fru fru stuff all the time, but I wasn’t in the mood to question anything right now.

As I continued to shuffle my way towards a couch she took notice of me and said “Oh I’m sorry darling did I wake you up?” I just mumbled a bunch of swears as I reached the couch. “I’m sorry I didn’t quite catch that” she said as she approached me.

“Yes you’re partly responsible for me waking up six in the f-ing morning” I said with hostility and flopped down on the couch.

She must have taken note that I wasn’t in a very good mood and asked nicely “Would like something to eat or drink?”

“Coffee, black, if you got it” I said my voice muffled by the pillow I was laying on. I could hear her footsteps leaving and in a couple of minutes she returned with a nice cup of coffee and set it on a table next to me. Wasting no time I got up, grabbed that sucker and chucked it down, now feeling more awake I gave her a nod of thanks which she returned with an understanding smile.

“I’m sorry for waking you up again darling, is there anything I could do for you?” she asked as dirty images rang throughout my mind. ‘Oh there’s plenty of things you could do….wait are those what I think they are?!’ I thought when I took notice a large chest of jewels. Making my way over there I could see a huge assortment of jewels ranging from diamonds to sapphires to rubies to emeralds and many more. ‘Holly crap this chick is loaded’ I thought as I ran my hands through the chest, believing this to be my mind fucking with me, but it wasn’t.

“You can have some if you want, there’s plenty more where those came from” she said dismissively.

I just stared at her with shock and disbelief “You’re just going to give me them, just like that?”

“Think of it as an apology for waking you up this morning”

“You…you do know how much these are worth right?”

“Yes darling and like I said its fine there’s plenty more where those came from” she replied back concerned and asked “Uh do you know how much these are worth?”

“This” I said and grabbed a diamond about the size of a jumbo bouncy ball “is probably worth a couple million” I said like it was common sense.

“Oh dear how do I explain this” she said and proceed to explain about how all gems are common and are, for a lack of caring about what she told me, pretty much worthless here.

“Well if that’s the case then you won’t mind if I take a couple of diamonds then right?”

“No help yourself” She said and went back to work on her dress.

“Oh I’m going to be so rich” I whispered to myself and grabbed as many diamonds as I could fit in my coat pocket. Making sure my gems were secured I decided to go for a walk since there’s nothing else to really do here. “Hey Rarity I’m going out for a walk” I said to her as I headed towards the door.

“Will you be alright, Ponyville might not be big, but one could still get lost here quite easily” she replied back.

“Naw I’m good, I’ve got a map of Ponyville right here” I said pointing to my pip-boy “But can you tell me where Pinkie lives again I want to check up on Manny” I asked her.

“She lives at Sugar Cube Corner just follow the path to the market and follow it for a bit you can’t miss it” she said losing herself in her work. With a shrug I headed out following her directions, in a matter of an hour or so, what I got lost and had to *sniff my manly pride* ask directions, I found the building I was looking for. “Wow how did I miss this?” I said looking at the giant gingerbread like store in front of me. With a shrug I headed for the door only for it to swing open and have someone run right into me, sending us both to the ground.

Manny’s PoV:

I was dreaming about my life back home with my parents and little sister. It was a typical day really I woke up saw my family eating breakfast. My sister was talking to my parents, probably telling them about what happened at school, my father and mother laughing as she finished her story. I just leaned against the wall with a small grin on my face, watching this happy scene until my family noticed me and beckoned me to join them. As I tried to walk towards them the table seemed to be going farther and farther away with every step I took. I started to panic and ran towards them calling out to them to wait or to come back, but to no avail as they slowly got farther away, my family and surrounding being swallowed up by the darkness.

Then I fell screaming for this nightmare to be over.

I woke up standing in a blank white void it’s only inhabitants a simple wooden door. Out of curiosity, and nowhere else to go, I reached for the door only to be pulled in as the door slammed behind me, trapping me in this strange new area. Getting a look around I was in a dark hallway with a simple table with a lamb on it, a dark green rug ran down the middle of the hall with purple on its edges and a dull gold color criss crossing from one side to the other. The walls had a few window spaced out and the colors of the walls had a dark violet schema with a strange shapes that looked like a figure 8 pattern going down it’s wall with an even darker purple than the carpets ‘Ok seriously brain purple I don’t even like purple that much’ I thought as I got up taking note that I was wearing a purple ‘oh come on!’ t shirt with a pair of blue jeans.

“Where the hell am I?” I asked out loud walking over to one of the window to see only dark clouds in the sky and below a very thick looking fog. “This is one fucked up dream I’m having” I said out loud. That’s when I heard the sound of footsteps heading towards my direction, happy to hear someone else here I called out “Hello”.

There was no response as the footsteps started to increase in sound.

I called out again with uncertainty in my voice “Hello anyone out there?”

Again no response, but the figure was close enough to make out her silhouette or I think it’s a female it was too dark to tell.

“Hello…” I was about to say when the figure came forwards from the shadows “Oh it’s just you Pinkie” I sighed with relief happy to see a familiar face. Pinkie didn’t respond and stood there it was…creepy really. “Uh something wrong Pinkie you’re not acting like yourself?” I asked stepping a bit closer to her. She just stood there with a strange yet disturbing smirk on her face. I stopped and got a better look at her, she was wearing the same clothes from last night, but her hair wasn’t all puffed up like cotton candy it was deflated going down in a long streak covering a small part of her face.

Instinctively I took a step back while Pinkie took a step forwards matching my pace. I don’t know what came over me, but without thinking I turned and ran as fast as I could away from her. I ran and ran for like five minutes till I decided to slow down since I couldn’t hear her perusing me. As my jog started to turn into a slow walk I heard the sound of footsteps mixed with the sound of Pinkie Pie humming a familiar tune, but the way she was humming it made the hairs on my back stand up. Not even thinking about turning around to see if she was behind me I began to run again, but no matter how fast or how far I ran the sounds of her footsteps and humming seemed to get louder and louder by the second. Then all of a sudden the sound of her footsteps and humming just stopped like she vanished. Daring to take a glance behind me I was filled with relief to see she was no longer pursuing me and released a breath I didn’t even know I was holding, when out of nowhere I ran into a wall or something and fell backwards towards the ground.

“Oww” I said and tried to get up only to be shoved back down now pinned to the ground. As I opened my eyes I could see Pinkie holding me down and she started to hum that same song again. I tried to struggle from her grip, but she was surprisingly strong and pretty damn heavy for someone so small.

“What do you want?!” I screamed at her while she just held me in place.

Her smirk turned into a small creepy smile and she bent down low enough to whisper into my ear. “Do you really want to know?” she asked her voice on levels of creepiness that should never even exist.

“What the fuck do you want?!” I screamed again trying to get loose from her grip again to no avail.

She came face to face with me, her blue eyes staring into my brown eyes and began to sing, her voice drastically changing back to her normal one “I know a song that get’s on everypony nerves, everypony nerves, everypony nerves, I know a song that get’s on everypony nerves and this is how it goes.”

She sat there on top of me singing for five minutes until I screamed “NOOOOOOOOOO” then everything went black.

I awoke with fright and started to breathe heavily scanning my surrounding to only be satisfied to see I was in the room that I was staying in temporarily, along with my normal or I guess not so normal clothes still on. The room was packed with boxes of different labels, shape and size, Pinkie explained to me that this room was being used for a storage area till the attic got cleaned. It was quite cramped in here, but I was still able to reach the bed and the only other option of sleep was to share a bed with Pinkie, which I declined pretty damn quickly and slept here. Calming myself down and taking slow breaths I laid back down staring at the ceiling for a minute to collect my thoughts. ‘That was the most bizarre and fucked up dream I’ve ever had’ I thought, turning over towards the left to take a look at what time it was only to meet a pair of pale violet lizard eyes.

“What the!?” I said scooting back a bit from the creature to see a little cartoonish green alligator with no teeth. It just stood there on the nightstand where the clock was and was just staring at me with a blank expression every once in awhile it would blink one eye then the other ‘Creepy’. I just stared at the little guy for a few minutes and with a tired sigh I said “Just stay over there” and proceeded to turn the other direction only to bump into a pair of light blue eyes.

“Morning sleepy head” Pinkie said with a cheery smile making me recoil back in surprise. “Oh I see you’ve meet Gummy” she said reaching…REACHING!?!?, for him and bring him towards on the bed holding him up too my face. “Gummy this is

Manny, Manny this is Gummy” she said keeping that same tone in her voice.

“Uh…Hi” I said warily, Gummy just blinked and walked off ‘The hell just happened?’

“Oooh I think he likes you” she said ‘…..the logic’.

“So is there a particular reason why you’re laying uh next to me?”

She took one huge breath and started to talk so fast that I could only get bits and pieces of what she was saying, something about Pinkie sense, bad dream, wanted to play a joke, oatmeal? “…and that was how Equestria was made” she finished her long winded speech.

I just laid there while she watched my every move with a strange glee in her eyes “Ok then” I said slowly getting off the bed and backing away from the crazy lady.

“So are you, oh wait of course you’re hungry let’s go get some food” she said jumping off my bed and hopping her way downstairs.

“Who’s say I’m even *growl*….” I just sighed and made my way downstairs. Half way down the stairs I could see Mr. Cake getting their shop stocked up with different kinds of food like muffins, cupcakes, bagels and etc. “Morning Mr. Cake” I said.

“Ah good morning Manuel, Sorry about the room, but the contractors that were suppose to clean the attic reschedule on us at the last minute. Did you get a good night's sleep?”

“Yeah it was no problem, but how do you know my actual name I don’t think I’ve introduced myself to anyon...pony except for the CMC?, I think that’s what Ben and BJ called them.”

“I still see you’re getting used to our way of talking and Pinkie told us” he said with a shrug.

“Of course” I said with a sigh “I’m actually more surprised that you and your wife are so calm by this, I would think most peop…ponies would freak out to know that we’re from another universe” I said taking a seat on a stool near the counter watching him work.

“Well when you’ve been around Pinkie Pie for so long strange things seem pretty normal” he said with a hearty laugh.

“Somepony call me” Pinkie said from behind me causing me to jump out of my seat in fright. “Opps sorry Manny oh and before I forget here you go” she said pulling a bowl of what looked like cheerios out of nowhere.

“Uh thanks” I said staring at her with disbelief ‘Where the hell did she get this from and how come they look like cheerios?’ I thought. With a shrug I dove right into my cereal and wasn’t surprised to find out that it was in fact cheerios. Finishing my meal I noticed Pinkie was just sitting next to me and looked like she wanted to ask me something. “Uh something wrong Pinkie?” I asked as I chucked the milk that resided in the bowl.

“Wellll my Pinkie sense went off last night saying that one of my friends was going to have a bad dream, buttttt when I went into your dream and saw you and your family having a good time I almost left until they started to…”

“Wait you were in my dream” I cut her off.

“Of course silly. I always want my friends happy so when they start to have a bad dream I hope on in and turn their frowns upside down” she stated like it was the most obvious thing to do.

“So let me get this straight” I said earning the attention of Pinkie and Mr. Cake who was leaning on the counter next to Pinkie. “You just happened to know that I was going to have a nightmare because of some strange feeling…

“No silly tingly back and chattering teeth tell me that ponies going to have a bad dream.”

“Whatever, you're also telling me that you’re the one who sent me into that creepy hallway, chased me down, pin me to the floor and start singing that annoying song just to cheer me up?” I asked her not sure to be annoyed, scared, confused or just pist off.

“Yup” she said with a big toothy smile.

“Arggghhhhhhhhhh” I said while rubbing my head furiously and proceeded to smack my head against the counter.

“Trust me when I say this son, Pinkie is just being Pinkie” Mr. Cake said patting me on the shoulder and walked back to the kitchen.

“Although I’m confused why such a wonderful dream like that would be considered a nightmare. I mean your family looks so friendly and peaceful…”

“Because that wasn’t my family” I mumbled.

“Not your family? Of course that was your family sil…”

“That wasn’t my family” I said angrily shutting her up. “My father left my mother when I was eight years old, my sister died when she was only three and my mother, ha I rarely see her now a day’s probably drinking herself to death. So don’t you dare tell me otherwise” I yelled at her.

“I’m sorry” she said tearing up a bit.

“*sigh* no Pinkie I’m sorry, you didn’t know and I shouldn’t have snapped at you like that just please don’t bring it up alright.”

“Okie dokie lokie” she said sadly.

“But I have to say you do know your way around scaring people…ponies” I said trying to cheer her up.

“Heh heh well me and Dashie always like to prank other ponies, but are you going to be okay?” she asked.

“Yeah I’ll be fine it’s just a sore subject is all” I said bluntly letting her know I didn’t want to talk about it and quickly changed the subject “But still that was a pretty creepy prank you did on me”.

“Oh oh I could teach you a way so you wouldn’t be so jumpy all the time”

“Hey I’m not jumpy I’m just…overly cautious”

“Uh huh”

“Ok miss I’m not afraid of anything what’s this secret technique then?” I asked and she started to take in a deep breath like she was going to sin… oh hell no. “You’re not going to sing are yo…”

“When I was a little filly and the sun was going down~” she sang.

“OH GOOD GOD NO” I yelled, jumped out of my seat and ran out the door until I ran into Pedro.

“Ow” I said positioned over Pedro’s body.

“You know Manny people usually have to take me out to a nice seafood dinner before I lie down on my back and take it” he said with a grin.

I would have replied back to his lame ass joke if I didn’t remember the singing pink menace that was coming after me. I quickly got up and hefted Pedro up and said “No time run!” and sprinted away.

“Wait why?” I heard him shout.

“Pinkie’s going to sing a musical” I shouted back.

“OH GOD NO” Pedro yelled and started to catch up with me.

“The darkness and the shadows, they would always make me frown~” she continued to sing while hopping after us, surprisingly she was catching up.

“Oh shit she’s getting closer Pedro what do we do?!”

“How the hell should I know?!”

“ I’d hide under my pillow, from what I thought I saw, but Granny Pie said that wasn’t the way, to deal with fears at all~” she sang springing up in front of us causing us to recoil back and change our direction.

But no matter which way we went or how fast we ran she would always come out of nowhere or just spring out of random places like barrels, windows…rocks? “She said: Pinkie, you gotta stand up tall, learn to face your fears, you’ll see that they can’t hurt you, just laugh to make them disappear~ Ha! Ha! Ha!”

Then for some strange reason the random passer byers start to join in on Pinkie’s singing:

“So, giggle at the ghostly
Gauff at the grossly
Crack up at the creepy
Whoop it up with the weepy
Chortle at the kooky
Snortle at the spooky” they sang while a random pony would laugh like how they sang.

Then the ponies went silent to let Pinkie sing the finale “And tell that big dumb scary face to take a hike and leave you alone and if he thinks he can scare you then he's got another thing coming and the very idea of such a thing just makes you wanna... hahahaha...heh...

Laaaaaaauuugh!~”.

All the ponies in the vicinity start to cheer and clap while Pinkie just bowed for a bit. The group of ponies then started to drift off to go back to their business and Pinkie said “And that’s what you do” with a smile.

“…” Me and Pedro just stood there unsure about what to say.

“Well I got to go back to Sugar Cube Corner have fun you two” she said with a quick wave and started to hop back to her home.

“Manny?” he asked.

“Yeah Pedro?”

“What the fuck just happened?”

“I have no idea” I replied back as we stood there dumbfounded at what just happened.

Chapter 8: A One Way Ticket? (Revised)

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My PoV:

“Ow” I grumbled as I felt a book hit me in the face waking me up.

“Who the hay are you and what are you doing under there?” a young male voice asked me.

“Under where?” I asked and tried to get up, but couldn’t thanks to the shit load of books on top of me. ‘What the hell happened last nigh…Oh wait now I remember’ Last night or I guess early morning Twilight and I were reading book after book trying to find a spell to teleport us back to our world. At one point or another, Twilight fell asleep at around four in the morning and was sleeping peacefully. After getting over how cute she looked while sleeping I carried her gently/quietly up to her room and put her to bed. Since I wasn’t feeling tired, and I didn’t want to break her bed or couch thanks to my heavy armor, that I still couldn’t figure out how to take off and make it stay off permanently, I decided to continue reading. Although I didn’t find anything about dimensional travel spell I did learn a couple of things like how the currency is based rather straightforward in that a bit is worth well one bit and how unicorns use magic by making it happen rather than wanting it to happen, but the unicorn has to have the magic to actually do the spells or they’ll turn into disasters. Anyway a little after five in the morning I noticed we made quite a mess so I decided to clean up a bit and one thing lead to another and I somehow became buried under a pile of books.

As I tried to force my way at, to no avail I asked “A little help please?”

“Why should I for all I know you could be a thief” he replied back.

“Why would a thief steal from a library and why would a thief say please?” I asked there was a pregnant silence in the room.

“Good point” he said and removed the book that was resting on my face. “But that doesn’t mean I trust you so no funny business” said a familiar looking purple baby dragon with green fins and green eyes.

“Yeah yeah” I said dismissively as he started to dig me out of the book pile. Slowly, but surely I was finally able to get out of my book coffin and stretched out my sore limbs. Getting a better look at Spike I was surprised that he was actually the same size in the cartoon, which was a bit higher than my knee. It was also surprising that he wasn’t in a human like form like everypony else was, but I chalked it up to being because he’s a different species.

“So if you’re not a thief who are you exactly?” he asked.

“Well do you want the long version or the short version?”

“Short”

“Ok then, oh by the way you can call me BJ” I said and took in a huge breath of air “Me and my friends are from a different universe and somehow teleported to your world. We were in the Everfree forest, saved the CMC, found Fluttershy; but made her faint, got out of the forest, got into a fight with AJ, Dash and Rarity, beat them/held them captive, Pinkie brought Twilight, told her the gist of what happened, brought us back here, told them the whole story, my friends left to stay at some of her friends places while I stayed here to help her locate a spell to send us back home” I said somehow with one breath, Pinkie would have been proud.

He just stood there looking at me like I was either crazy or on drugs “Just go ask Twilight later if you don’t believe, hell I don’t even believe me and I’m the one living it” I said with a shrug.

“I didn’t say I didn’t believe you, besides the feeling I’m getting from you actually makes sense as to why I’m feeling cautious around you” he said more to himself than to me.

“Strange feeling?”

“Yeah it’s hard to explain, I feel like uh getting rid of you and not in the kiddy kind of way” he said confused. ‘Why would he want to do that I didn’t think I came off that hostile, there must be more to it than that’ I thought while I stood in front of him letting him think. “Like I said I don’t know, but it feels like you’re going to rip out my soul or something.”

“That still doesn’t make….Oooooh shit I forgot about that” I said realizing why he feels so threatened by me. ‘Dragonborn plus dragon equals dragon soul which in the game kills dragons, but I didn’t think that would apply here then again there hasn’t been any known death here in the show so that could mean dragons don’t die here, but maybe are reincarnated, like in the game, or something or it could just be because of our presence in this world to begin with’ I mused. “Don’t worry about it Spike I promise not to hurt you or anypony as long as my friends are not in harm’s way” I said to him reassuringly.

“Ok I guess…Wait how do you know my name?” he asked.

“Ask Twilight I don’t want to explain stuff right now, still tired, only got like *glance towards clock 8:38* three hours of sleep.”

“Wow only three hours how and why are you even up?”

“Well a book to the face tends to wake ponies up” I said eyeing him in anger.

“Eh heh right sorry” he said while rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. Spike and I then proceeded to start cleaning up the books that were scattered all over the floor and surprisingly in twenty minutes the books were all put away in their respected shelves.

“Wow we got that finished pretty damn quick, figured it would have taken us at least an hour or two.”

“Well when you live with a pony who loves to read and keep things organized you tend to pick up a thing or two” Spike said followed by the growls of our stomachs. “I’m thinking it’s time for breakfast”

“And I agree” I said as we made our way to the kitchen. The kitchen itself was rather small, but was rather normal besides that.

Taking a seat at the small wooden dining table I watched Spike fill a teapot full with water and set it on the stove to let it warm up, he then joined me at the table with a small bowl full of gems “So I was thinking oatmeal for you and Twi if that’s cool” he said and munched on a emerald.

“Sure why not” I said and then we sat there making small talk for a few minutes until the pot started to whistle making Spike get up and make a bowl of oatmeal for me and another for Twi setting it up for her when she wakes up.

As I was digging into my meal, which was delicious by the way, Twilight walked into the kitchen and took a seat at the table. She was still wearing the clothes from last night with a bad case of bed hair. “Morning sleepy *thunk* head…” I said as Twilight’s head connected with the table. She just mumbled something, turned her head and began to use her magic to lift her oatmeal to her mouth. I started at her with concern and envy, why because you know how awesome it would have been to be able to lift your food with magic and just eat it like a lazy person “Is she ok?”

“Hmm oh yeah she’s fine. She just doesn’t like to be up this early” he said dismissively.

“Hey Twilight wake up I need to ask you something?” I asked she responded with a mumble and continued to eat her breakfast.

“Hello Equestria to Twilight” I said lightly poking her on the arm. She simply ignored me.

“You’re just wasting your time” Spike said munching on a sapphire.

With a heavy sigh I gave up and finished my meal. As I got up to put the dishes away I noticed the fridge and an old memory from my childhood came up giving me a great idea. Setting the dish in the sink I made my way towards the fridge and opened it, looking for the two items I would need. I found the milk right away, but I couldn’t find any kind of hot sauce.

“What are you looking for?” Spike asked.

“Hot sauce” I replied back almost giving up until I saw it way in the back with giant note saying ‘Twilight don’t use its hot sauce’.

“What are you going to do with hot sauce and milk?”

“Oh you’ll see…also where are the cups?” I asked which he pointed towards a cabinet. I then poured a small cup of milk and set it near Twilight. After putting the milk away I made my way back over towards her, unscrewing the lid to the sauce and waited for the right moment to put it in her spoon. Just as the spoon was about to enter her mouth I dapped a couple drop of hot sauce on the spoon and put the hot sauce away. ‘Three…two….one’ I counted off and on cue Twilight shot up her face turning a shade of red, her eyes were starting to water up and she was fanning herself like crazy.

“HOT!HOT!HOT!HOT!HOT!” she said and tried to get up, but I stopped her by pushing her back down into her spot.

“Here” I said holding the cup of milk in front of her, which she grabbed quickly and drank it with gusto.

After a couple minutes of swishing it in her mouth she swallowed the milk and let out a satisfied ‘ahhh’ which quickly turned into a scowl. “Why did you put hot sauce in my oatmeal?” she asked upset.

“Need to ask you something” I said casually.

“And that would be?” she asked unamused.

“Are there more books besides the ones in the main room?”

“No all the books are in the main room.”

“*sigh* I see” I said disheartened.

Twilight must have put two and two together and tried to cheer me up “But the library here is much much smaller compared to Canterlot. I’m sure they must have something about dimensional…

“Ugghh can’t we just call it time traveling instead of dimensional travel” Spike interjected.

“Spike time travel and dimensional travel are two different things” Twilight responded back.

“Yeah but time travel is easier to say” he said with a shrug.

“Anyways” I said gesturing for Twilight to continue.

“I’m sure that there must be something there about dimensional traveling, although it will probably take a bit longer till you and your friends will be able to go home” She said, but I noticed doubt in her eyes.

“Better than nothing I guess” I said. Twilight quickly finished her meal and then went upstairs to change her clothes. We proceeded to talk both of us asking each other basic question about our worlds for an hour or so, while also recapping again to Spike who we were and stuff like that, until there was a knock at the door.

“Wonder who that could be?” she thought out loud and went to answer the door.

“Uh isn’t this a public library why would somepony knock?” I asked Spike.

“Cause the library doesn’t open for another few minutes *shrugs* maybe they just want to be respectful or polite” he said. As Twilight was finishing up her conversation I think since the cloaked figure didn’t give any signs of talking, just handed…hoofed?....uh screw it I’m going with hands since hooves don’t have fingers, a letter to her and quickly left.

She sat down across from me and opened the letter quickly reading it. “Nice conversation” I said making my way towards her while trying to take a look at the letter. I was only able to see one sentence of the letter before she wrinkled it up and lit it on fire ‘A simple don’t read my letter would have been good’ I thought. “Uh a simple no would have been fine ya know” I told her.

“What oh um sorry gotta go” she said rather quickly and made her way towards the door. “I’ll be back later, Spike keep an eye on the library” she said and left.

“Oh hey Twilight…well that was rude” said Ben entering the library.

“…” I sat there in deep thought.

“Eh some days she’s just like that” Spike said with a shrug.

“Hey you ok?” Ben asked taking a seat across from me.

“Yeah it’s nothing” I waved him off.

“So I’m guessing you’re Ben and you already know me I’m guessing?” Spike asked.

“Yeah nice to meet all the same” he said when the door opened revealing Manny and Pedro walking in, but they seemed off.

“Hey guys what’s wrong” Ben asked.

“Pinkie” they both said and proceeded to join us.

“Gotta be more specific than that” Ben said.

“She mind raped me in my dreams…” Manny said.

“And then sang a musical” Pedro finished.

“Yeah that’s Pinkie” Spike said with a nod.

“Whoa that huge gecko talked” Pedro announced to the world and then proceeded to back into the living room.

“I’m a dragon not a gecko” Spike said annoyed.

“Come on Pedro don’t pick on Spike” Ben said.

“Hey I’m not picking on him and besides what’s the worst that could happen?” He asked. Ben then leaned over towards him and whispered a couple of words. Pedro’s eyes shrank down a bit and said “Oh shit for real?”

“Yeah so I’d advise you to be careful”.

“What?” Manny asked confused.

“Sorry Manny these words cannot be said out loud” he said gesturing towards Spike.

The room went silent pretty damn quick. Everybody was just sitting there uncomfortably. Ben was lost in thought…as usual, Manny and Pedro were still trying to comprehend or get over Pinkie Pie’s action, Spike wasn’t sure of what to say or do and I just sat there looking at the window. “Hey Spike” I said gaining everyone’s attention “Mind letting us talk in private for a bit?”

“Uh yeah sure I have to go out to get some supplies today anyways, just don’t leave until I return alright” he said and left.

As soon as he left I turned to Ben a frown on my face “Start talking”.

“Whatever do you mean?” he asked innocently.

“Don’t bullshit us Ben we’ve been friend for years and we know you’re not telling us something” Pedro said annoyed.

“I want to tell you guys, but I’m just not sure how you’ll handle it” he said concerned.

“Geez Ben were not kids so don’t treat us like that and besides I’m the oldest here so if anyone should be keeping secrets to protect us it should be me” Manny said.

“I…I just don’t know” he said hesitantly.

Manny and Pedro then started to keep throwing out reason after reason as to why Ben should tell us, but Ben looked conflicted on deciding still. “We’re not going home are we” I said casually causing Manny and Pedro to stop their chant.

“How long have you’ve known?” he asked me.

“I could ask you the same thing, but I already have an idea ‘Who’ you asked” I said adding emphasis on who.

“Whoa Whoa Whoa back the fuck up what do you mean we’re not going home?” Pedro asked confused.

“It’s pretty cliché really” I said bluntly.

“Yeah well not for us apparently” Manny said annoyed.

“Every story ever written, conceived or what have you that follow the exact same plot as ours usually revolve around one simple concept. The hero or heroes never get to leave until they complete what they were brought for and I’m guessing that’s why the Doctor, who I’m guessing you ran off to meet with yesterday, told you that we're stuck here” I said eyeing Ben with a bit of anger.

“Whoa, whoa now. You met the Doctor?!” Manny asked surprised.

“Yeah and everything you said is true…we're stuck here for who knows how long” Ben said with a heavy sigh.

“And why didn’t you tell us?!” Pedro asked getting into Ben’s face.

“What would you expect him to say Pedro” I yelled at him and pulled him away from Ben “To just say ‘sorry guys were stuck here get over it’. I’ll admit it, I’m just as pist that Ben didn’t just tell us straight away, but I understand why he didn’t, it also doesn’t change the matter at hand” I said trying to calm everyone down.

A pregnant silence hit the room like shit hits a fan…not pretty. “So what now?” Manny asked breaking the silence.

“Get some jobs, buy our own place and we live our lives here as normally as possible” Ben said.

“To hell with that” Pedro said “I say we find the Doctor or whatever and force him to take us back home.”

“I’m with you Pedro” I said surprising everyone. “Except for forcing the Doctor to send us back, I say we do some research into dimensional traveling and talk to the princess about our situation right away”.

“*sigh* Guys he said that we're stuck here and…” Ben tried to say before I cut him off.

“Ben I really don’t give to bucks what he said. Even though this pains me to say, this is not our fight, we were not asked to help or given a choice in the matter, granted I’ve always dreamed of something like this happening and truth be told I was going to stay here anyways even if there was a way back home. However this is not fair to Manny and Pedro who want nothing to do with this world and I’ll be damn if I don’t do something about that”.

Silence held the room again for a few minutes until Manny asked “Wait what do you mean you’re going to stay?” making me the center of attention.

“Exactly as it sounds, I’m not going back home.”

“Why?” he asked again.

“It’s because he wants to be in this girly….” Pedro said until I glared at him, shutting him up.

“That’s part of the reason, heck if it were any other world like this I wouldn’t want to go back anyway” I said.

“You know BJ. I’m just as happy as you are about being in Equestria and all, but to stay here and give up everything back home I don’t know about that” Ben said.

I just started to laugh getting questionable looks from my friends “I don’t know about you guys, but my life is a broken record. I wake up, go to school one day the next day go to work, if I’m not doing either of those two I’m out and about helping family members do stuff. The only time I ever escape my dull and boring life is when I’m either watching a new MLP episode, playing some video games or reading some fan fics and even then I rarely get to do that. And hello earth to you guys, our world is in a shit hole that we can’t get out of, so if I want to be selfish for the first time in my life and actually make a choice then fuck yeah I’m staying here.”

“So you’re just going to leave everything behind just like that” Ben asked me.

“What’s left behind, my crappy job at McDonalds, my routine life as a mindless college student, wasting money on classes that will supposedly benefit me in the future for my career, and then what after college? Go into the workforce spend a good ten or twenty years of my life climbing the ladder, then maybe fall in love, start a family, teach my kids the same nonsense I was taught, eventually retire which will force me to stay at home and do nothing, then and finally then die of old age possibly alone with regret. Pray do tell me Ben why should I return.”

“…”

“Whoa BJ have you always been this fucked up?” Pedro asked me concerned.

“When you put it that way man then yes there’s no point in anything, but that doesn’t mean you should just give up on everything” Manny said concerned as well.

“Depends how you want to look at thing Pedro” I said with a sad sigh “I’m just so tired of the life I have, granted I’m not talking about ending my life, but the thought of going back to my mundane life…I would rather just be killed here and now ”.

“*sigh* I know where you're coming from and I would be lying if I didn’t say I have had the same…thought as well” Ben said a tinge of sadness in his voice. “But it’s our job as the next generation to fix our world no matter how crappy it is, Earth is still our home.”

“And that’s why we will continue to search for a way to send you guys home” I said another pregnant silence filling the room.

“Well” Pedro said clapping his hands to get everyone’s attention “so anything exciting happened last night?” We then shared tales of what happened last night which revolves around my troll on Pedro, Manny getting mind raped by Pinkie, Ben getting yelled at by AJ for helping her sister and my joke on Twilight.

Laughing at each other’s blunders I suddenly remembered something important from earlier today. “Oh shit” I exclaimed and raced over towards Twilight’s desk and started to write a note for Spike.

“What’s up?” Ben said joining me over by the desk.

“Earlier today a strange cloaked pony came by and dropped a letter off for Twilight” I said as I finished my note for Spike and placed it on a table near the front door.

“And?” Pedro asked.

“I didn’t get a good look at the letter, but one sentence said ‘Meet me at the edge of town or else’ and that usually tends to lead to something bad”.

“So why didn’t she ask for help?” Manny asked.

“Probably said don’t tell anypony else about it” Ben suggested.

“Either way I got a bad feeling when I saw that guy” I said making my way outside. I was met by the bright warm glow of the sun, colorful ponies walking to and fro going about their business.

“So we're just going to go out on a hunch?” Pedro asked.

“Well we could just sit in the library all day or we could just so happen to be out on a walk and just happen to bump into them in set walk” I said with mischief grin.

Pedro then pretended to cry while patting my back “I’ve taught you well”.

“Yeah don’t remind me” I said and started to make my way through the busy streets of Ponyville, my friend’s right behind me.

Chapter 9: Danger Around Every Corner (Revised)

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Planet: Earth Location: USA, Texas, Date: unknown, Place: Unknown

“*deep breathing* we should be safe here for the time being” Pinkie said to me as she opened a simple wooden door that lead into an old broken down home.

As I walked in I took notice that this place looked abandoned for quite some time as dust was hanging on everything I could see like some broken shelves, a table with chairs, and stairs that were too broken to hold anyone’s weight or random piles of…I don’t even want to know. Small slivers of light was shedding through the broken wood panels from above giving the room some light. “Pinkie…what…what are we doing here” I asked in between breaths.

“Will silly we are on the run from some scary looking people who are upset with what I did” she said like it was obvious.

“Yeah ‘scary looking people’ doesn’t really cover half the people in the state so you have to be more specific and also why are WE on the run?” I asked.

“Well because silly I had to do something while you were busy with work, so I popped down to Las Peg… whoops I mean Las Vegas and did some gambling” she said as she lead me into a secret room that was much more cleaner/newer than the previous room.

“And let me guess you lost and now have a huge debt” I said dryly. Looking around the room there was a simple refrigerator, a table with two chairs, a bed, a desk with a pretty slick looking laptop and a bathroom in the back.

“Oh contraire *giggles* contraire such a silly word oh no wait such a fancy word darling *giggles* look I’m Rarity now darling” she said with a bad Rarity impersonation.

“Pinkie focus” I said snapping my finger in front of her.

“Right, but no I won a lot of games so you’re like a gazillionaire”.

“I’m a what now?” I asked with disbelief.

“A gazillionaire silly, cleaned out all the casinos and apparently they weren’t too happy about that. I wonder why?” she said with a confused look.

I almost fainted at hearing her words, as my legs began to give out. I slowly walked over towards one of the chairs and plopped down on it and stared out her with shock/disbelief “I’m…I’m….rich”.

“Well technically we’re rich, but I did use your money and ID to get into the casinos to begin with” she said with smile.

“But you don’t look anything like me and I’m not even old enough to gamble” I said absently mindedly.

“Hello Equestria to Author” she said waving her hand in front of my face. “Wakey wakey eggs and cakey” she said slapping me for a minute straight.

“Huh oh what *slap* Ow, Pinkie stop I’m good, I’m good” I said covering my face to stop the mad mare from slapping me.

“Oh that’s good thought I lost you” she said with a smile.

“Also my name isn’t Author it’s…”

“Shhhhhhh Author we can’t afford to break the fourth wall anymore than we already are”

“Rightttttt so who’s after us exactly?”

“Hmmmmmmm wellllll there’s the mafia, the casino owners, lone sharks, the FBI….” She said listing off different groups.

“Wait! Whoa, whoa, whoa back up the FBI is after us, why?”

“Something about using my skills to infiltrate other countries or something like that” she said with a shrug.

“That’s actually sounds legit” I said.

“Yeah well I got to go, you should be safe here till I come back” she said and started to walk off.

“Wait, what!?!?” I said shocked.

“Well silly you have to continue the story I mean it’s been like two to three weeks since you last updated and I have to get back into the story” she said while pushing some number on the door effectively sealing me in.

“So what am I suppose to do until you get back?” I asked.

“Ida know, play some videogames, write some more, uh fap” she said with a shrug on the last one and right in front of my eyes disappear.

“Well great I’m sealed in a room with only one way out and the only perso…pony who knows the combination is gone. *sigh* might as well check to see what I have to eat” I said making my way towards the fridge and opening it to see what I have to eat and drink. “Let’s see, orange juice, Pepsi, Dr Pepper, Hawaiian Punch, cupcakes, brownies, bread, peanut butter, some jelly, uh hay?, and the freezers has ohh hot pockets, pizza bites, ice cream (that’s somehow cupcake flavored), and some of those microwavable meals. *stomach growls* Hot pocket it is” I said grabbing a pepperoni one and making my way towards the microwave. Only to realize that there wasn’t one and that there wasn’t even a stove to cook those frozen pizzas with.

“Oh god, why do you forsaken me!?!” I cried to the heavens and broke down into fetal position lightly rocking back and forth. Ok so maybe I’m overreacting, but can you blame me, I mean a week or two with the only thing to eat as an actual meal being peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. That tends to get old pretty damn quick. As if the gods themselves answered my plea a note appeared before me out of thin air.

It read: Dear Mr. Author,

I’m soooooo sorry I forgot to put a microwave and stove in there. Done, now you should be fine for a week see ya later.
,Love Pinkie Pie
P.S. those are my cupcakes and if even one sprinkle is gone, well let’s just say it won’t be pretty.

‘Note to self don’t touch cupcakes’ I thought. Turning around to look back at the small kitchen/dining room/living room/ bedroom I was not surprised to see a stove and a microwave just sitting there like they’ve been there this entire time. With a heavy sigh I made my meal, sat down in the computer chair and turned on the laptop.

“*sigh* might as well write” I said and began to work on the story.

My PoV:

‘This is so awesome’ I thought as my friends and I walked through the market district, ponies of all shape, color and size going about their day. Some were checking out the stalls for wares, others were grouped together; probably talking about the newest rumor; and others were just sitting on benches enjoy the scenery. It was honestly the most peaceful and relaxing day I have ever experienced. My mood couldn’t be happier, it felt like nothing could ruin this moment…until Pedro spoke.

“This is soooooo boringgggggg” Pedro whined ‘I hate you so much right now’ I thought my grin turning into a small frown.

“Pedro don’t be such a baby” Manny said annoyed too that Pedro ruined this peaceful moment for us.

“Wow Pedro the life of any party says this place is boring. It must be the end of the world” Ben said sarcastically.

“Or this isn’t our Pedro and he’s an imposter” I joined in.

“What? It’s not my fault that there’s nothing to do and besides weren’t we in a hurry?” He asked.

“Dude relax we have time and besides if we show up too early they might get suspicious” I replied back.

“Pedro has a point. How do you know they’re not meeting right now?” Ben asked.

“Because the letter said at one…I think” I said unsure if I was correct or not.

“So what time is it?” Manny asked looking at Pedro.

“Well according to my handy dandy pip boy, which can’t even connect to the satellites; since this place doesn’t have any; and shouldn’t be able to tell me what time it is, says 12:14” he said while looking at it.

“So we have a good forty minutes or so to mess around” I stated.

“But walking around the town is boring I mean there’s never anything exciting in small towns. Are we just going to spend our time walking around the town just so you can look at your girly cartoon world?” he asked annoyed.

I stopped, turned to look at him and put on my best smug smile “We could always go back to the library and read if you want or we could just continue to walk around and possibly find something to do.”

“….”

“That’s what I thought” I said with a cheeky grin and we continued our way around town, until Ben notice a familiar face tending to an apple stall.

“Hey Big Mac” Ben called and we made our way over towards him.

“Well howdy fellas” he said and continued “Enjoyin’ the town”

“Eeyup” Ben and I said in our best impression of Big Mac.

“It’s nice” Manny said.

“I hate small towns” Pedro said sourly.

“Yeah yeah Francis” Ben said dismissively.

“Sorry ta hear that, but ah reckon you're goin’ ta be here for awhile so it would be best ta find somethin’ ta do while yah wait” he said.

“That’s part of the reason why we're walking around” I said.

“I’m actually surprised to see you out here I thought it was AJ’s turn to man the stand while you bucked some trees today” Ben said.

“Well ah was until Dash came and told me that AJ needed ta go somewhere” he said concerned. “And then when ah get there she’s already leavin’ without tellin’ me what’s goin’ on or where they’re goin’”.

“Do you know which way they went?” Manny asked.

“Ah think they went to the northern pastures” he said pointing towards the direction.

“Don’t worry Big Mac we were going to find them and see what’s up” I said reassuringly. Then at the worst possible time my friends and my stomachs growled “Right after we find something to eat”.

“Here ya’ll can help yourselves” he said as he platted some apples and apple tarts for us.

“Uh Big Mac we don’t have any type of cash to pay you with” Manny said as he hesitantly took the plate of food.

“Don’t ya’ll worry it’s on the house” he said.

“Thanks Big Mac. Come on guys we should start making our way there” I said as I started to walk off. “Oh and we’ll let you know what happen if AJ doesn’t tell you later” I said earning a wave of thanks from him.

As we finished our lunch and made our way towards the pasture, where we hope the girls were at, I noticed a lot of familiar looking ponies. I saw Caramel trying to hit on some mares, but failing miserably, Filthy Rich and the Mayor,;I think; were talking about something over lunch; by the looks of it maybe some new buildings; Berry punch was walking around clumsily; probably drunk or something; a couple of unicorn, earth and pegasi guards were walking around the town and the flower trio were talking about what else flowers. Now Ben and I were acting like a bunch of school girls, jumping up and down in excitement or holding back screams of joy, while Pedro was still moping about.

“Oh lighten up Pedro” Manny said earning a couple of mumbled responses from Pedro.

“Look Pedro we’re stuck here for a certain amount of time” Ben said motioning for us to stop. “A day or two, maybe a week, hell it could be years before we’ll be able to go home and that’s even if research into it will bare fruit or if the Doctor was wrong, and trust me he’s hardly ever wrong” we listened as Ben continued to talk “So you’re just going to have to get over your little hissy fit and deal with what’s going on instead of trying to deny it”.

“Oh excuse me for not accepting a FUCKING girly world as my reality and excuse me for not being happy about it like you two” he said with sarcastic rage. “So let’s just forget about everything entirely from our world and just live here in, in what again? Peace and fucking harmony with PEOPLE who think they’re fucking ponies” he shouted through clenched teeth.

“The fact is Pedro” Ben said calmly and continued “We’re stuck here so there’s no point in hating every little thing or moping about. At least try to find something to enjoy here”.

“Easy for you to say” he replied back “Mr. Pony lover let me guess I bet you’re already trying to get into bed with one of the Main Six”.

“Hardly” Ben replied back rolling his eyes. “Only you would be such a perv to think about that kind of stuff”.

“Yet you’re not denying having thoughts about it” he said a sly grin on his face.

“I will neither confirm nor deny having such thoughts” Ben stated unamused.

“Uh guys can we continue this somewhere else everypony…” Manny tried to say.

“Its everybody not everypony” he hissed at Manny.

“Pedro listen…” I tried to say.

“NO don’t tell me to listen” he yelled gaining the attention of a lot of ponies in the area. “This is not our world, these are not are people and this whole goddamn place makes no goddamn sense. I mean really stupid fucking ponies think they’re ponies when they’re huma….” Pedro’s rant was cut short by me punching him in the face and sending him to the ground.

Everypony looked at me with mixed emotions, but that didn’t stop me from going over towards my friend and kneeling next to him to say “Pedro I understand you’re angry, confused, hell even scared. I get that I really do, but you need to calm down”.

After a couple minutes of silence Pedro said apologetically “…..Sorry”.

“It’s alright” I said holding my hand out to help him out, which he grabbed and I lifted him up. “Now we have a more…awkward problem” I quietly said to him as the sea of ponies kept on looking at us. Well to be fair most of the ponies here have been staring at us the second we left the library, but that was mostly because of our outfits.

“Don’t worry I got this” he said confidentially and turned towards the crowd. “Ok people shows over, move along nothing to see here” he said while shooing them away.

Surprisingly they just shrugged and left, not even asking any questions although I think I heard a female say ‘not as strange as Pinkie Pie’ or something along those lines. “So are you feeling better now?” Manny asked warily.

“Yeah sorry about that guys, but I’m glad I finally got that off my chest” he said with a half smile.

“Don’t worry about it Pedro just let us know if something is bugging you” Ben said which caused us to raise our eyebrows at his statement.

“Ok Mr. not going to tell my friends that we’re stuck here” he said jokingly.

“Heh heh right” Ben replied back with a sheepish smile.

“At any rate we should make sure to talk to one another instead of keeping it to ourselves all right” I said getting a nod of approval from my friends. “Ok then we should probably make our way towards the girls now before it’s too la…”.

“Excuse me could I ask you guys something real quick?” a female voice asked.

“Lyra don’t bother them and besides you promise” pouted another female voice.

“It will be real quick Bon Bon I promise” said Lyra ’….oh god no’. Turning around to get a better look I could see two attractive girls one with an eager look on her face while the other was pouting. Lyra was about an inch shorter than Dash and was wearing a mint green shirt with blue pants. She had tangelo eyes with short grayish cyan hair with white highlights. She had a small horn that matched the color of her shirt and on the back of her hand she had a gold lyre for a cutie mark. Bon Bon was about the same height as Pinkie Pie and was wearing a pale cream sun dress. She had cyan blue eyes and her hair was a shade of dark blue with pink going through it. She had a cream colored sunhat on and had three wrapped pieces of candy for a cutie mark.

My friends were confused by the ponies in front of us, but they didn’t know the horrors of Lyra and her human obsessions…ok so it might not be as bad as I make it out to be, but I really don’t need an obsessed girl chasing me and my friends around town asking us questions. “Guess it depends on the question” I said to her calmly knowing full well what she was going to ask.

“So you guys aren't from around here right?” she asked while circling us, a look of curiosity plastered on her face.

“What gave it away” Pedro said sarcastically, but was completely ignored.

“Yes my friends and I are from a small village in the Griffon kingdom” Ben answered.

“Uh huh if I’m not mistaken most griffons live either in cloud homes or high up in the mountains, where most ponies cannot stand the cold weather, kind of odd don’t you think?” she mused while she continued to look us over.

“Yeah we get that a lot” Pedro said with a shrug.

“Also your friend over there was speaking very oddly” she said merely inches away from Manny’s face making eyeing contact “Care to explain?”

‘Come on Manny don’t let us down’ I thought nervously my friends sharing the same look. “I need an adult” he said ‘….(facepalm)…’.

“I am an adult” she replied back slowly inching even closer to him with a mischievous look in her eye.

“Is it really strange I mean we lived most of our lives around griffons” I said getting in between her and Manny.
She thought about it for a couple of minutes and reluctantly agreed “I guess that’s true.”

“Now if you excuse us Miss Lyra we must really be on our way” I said as me and my friends started to leave until she got in our way.

“Your friend over there was going to say something, something that started with ‘huma’. I would like to hear what he was going to say” she asked me with devious smile.

“Uh…” I drew a blanked. I mean seriously who’s ever heard of a word that starts with ‘huma’ and doesn’t usually revolve around human. I motioned for the guys to help while also mouthing out to them to not say human.

“I’m waiting” she said with a smug smile. ‘Crap come on think of something anything’ I thought while motioning to the guys, but they had the same look that I had.

“I got it!” Manny exclaimed drawing our attention. “He was going to say humate” he said proudly, Ben and Lyra both facepalmed at his statement.

“Why would he randomly bring up humic acid in a conversation” Lyra said with disbelief.

Manny just smacked his hands in understanding and said “Oh so that what that means” causing everypony to groan in annoyance.

“Lyra come on we're going to be late” Bon Bon said annoyed.

“Just a second Bon Bon I almost have them where I want them” she said confidently.

“We have no idea what you’re talkin…” Ben tried to say before Pedro cut him off.

“No she’s right guys, oh well the cats out of the bag” he said.

This caused her to jump up in down in excitement while chanting “I knew it! I knew it! I knew it! I knew it”.

“Pedro what the hell are you…” I tried to ask but he motioned for me to stop.

“Don’t worry I got this” he whispered. “So Miss…Lyra right?” she shakes her head vigorously yes. “It is true that I was going to say human, bu…”

“I knew it! I knew it! I knew it! I knew it! Humans do exist” she chanted again.

“HOWEVER” he shouted causing Lyra to stop jumping up and down “we are not humans, but just ponies from the griffon kingdom.”

“But that can’t be true, you’re lying I mean look at your outfits and the way you guys talk” she exclaimed.

“Yes it is true that we talk…different, but being surrounded by mostly griffons tends to do that to peop…ponies” he said, Lyra seemed really sad about her being wrong and was about to apologize till Pedro continued “However you were partially right about one thing, we are human enthusiast like yourself”.

“Really?!?! Do you belong to a group?” she asked cheerfully.

“Uh yes we belong to the uh Hand Society” he said quickly covering up his pauses.

“*gasp* you belong to THEE Hand Society” she said with envy/respect.

“Yes, yes we do” I chimed in Ben and Manny nodding their heads.

“You see we heard a rumor that” Pedro motioned for us to get close and started to whisper “That there might be humans nearby in Ponyville. So the Hand Society sent us to this town with these disguise in hoping that the humans would think we were human as well so that we could possibly catch them and bring them back”.

“But humans don’t look like ponies” Lyra said confused.

“Have you ever seen one?” Pedro inquired.

“Well no, but from what I’ve read and heard they stand on two legs, they don’t have wings or horns and they have hands” she said.

“But you do have hands” He exclaimed while pointing at her hands…or hooves?

“I wish…stupid hooves” she said with a sad expression.

Before Pedro could lose it…again Ben intervened and said “Well human seem to have developed a way to look like ponies so we were hoping to disguise like them and pull off some sort of scheme to trick them into letting us meet there group”.

“Is there any way I can help?” she asked hopefully.

“I’m sorry, but this is official Hand Society business and we can’t have outsiders helping” Pedro said Lyra had a sad expression on her face.

“Well we could always do…that” I said to him gaining a hopefully look from her.

“What’s ‘that’?” she asked, but was ignored.

“You don’t mean….” He tried to say but I beat him to it.

“Yes I’m referring to that” I said.

“Ahhh you mean that rule” Ben said joining in.

“What rule?” she asked again.

“Brother Manny please tell her rule number 286 paragraph 5 section 3” Pedro said.

“Rule 286 paragraph 5 section 3 states: In the case of needed assistance an outsider can temporarily become a member until set mission or goal is complete” he said like he was reading out of a text book.

“So does that mean…” she said, but trailed off.

“Yes until the rumors are confirmed you are a temporary member of the Hands Society. At your earliest convenience start your search for set humans and send a letter to headquarters about your findings” Pedro said in a military like fashion.

“Right away” she said with a salute, but was interrupted by a cough from Bon Bon “Right after our date” she said with a sheepish smile and then they both left.

“Whew that was a close one” I said. “So ‘Hand Society’?”

“Well Ben whispered to me, when you were distracting her, her obsession with humans and hands so one thing lead to another and it worked out” Pedro said with a shrug.

“Ok guys no more distractions we have about…”

“Five minutes” Pedro answered.

“Five minu…FIVE MINUTES, oh shit go go go” I yelled and dashed off my friend right behind me.

Outskirts of Ponyville, Third Person:

The northern pasture was mostly used during the rainy season to store water in, since it had a lot of natural hills to begin with, but recently the field has been changed to house some flowers to grow and possibly sale for the next winter wrap up. It was a nice sunny day and even though the girls were waiting for this mysterious stranger to show up, it did not mean that they couldn’t enjoy a nice picnic on the newly constructed flat field. As they were finishing and cleaning up their mess, Dash asked the question that was on everypony’s mind “So Twi why are we out here? I mean don’t get me wrong it’s cool to hangout like this and all, but this was just kinda out of the blue”.

“I told you already Dash this guy just left a letter and it said to meet out here” Twilight answered.

“Yeah you said that already. I mean why do we have to be out here to meet him to begin with?” Dash asked.

“She already told us Dash that somepony was makin’ threats” AppleJack said as she handed the picnic basket to Pinkie who once got set basket made it simply disappear by putting it in her hair. “Ah still don’t understand how ya’ll do that” AJ said while bobbing her head, trying to find the basket that should be in her friend’s hair yet it was nowhere to be found.

“Oh yeah because it’s such a big deal if somepony knows that we’re the bearers of the Elements of Harmony” she said sarcastically.

“Uh Dash it is a big deal, if you don’t mind me saying” Fluttershy said barely audible.

“Dash darling, the sender wasn’t threatening to tell everypony about who we were, that was merely to get our attention” Rarity said.

“Exactly! So then I don’t see why we can’t just let the guards handle it” she said annoyed.

“Oh Dashie your just upset because you were suppose to go to the Wonderbolts show today” Pinkie said.

“That’s totally beside the point” she said defensively.

“I’m sorry Dash and I promise to make it up to you, but I just have a really bad feeling about this” Twilight said with an apologetic look.

“Don’t sweat it egghead, besides there’s always the next show” Dash said. “So any leads on that whole teleporting dimensional thingy?” she asked.

“Dimensional traveling and no nothing so far” Twilight responded.

“Twilight dear is there even such a thing because I don’t even think I’ve ever heard of it to begin with” Rarity said with a look of uncertainty.

“Well from what I remember from reading there are only theories about the possibility of different dimensions, but nothing about traveling between them” Twilight said tilting her head in a thinking like manor.

“Care ta explain?” AJ asked.

“Well there are many different theories on Multiverse alone like Tegmark’s classification, M-theory, Anthropic principle and hay even Fictional realism. And then there’s, my personal favorite, the Many-Worlds Interpretation or MWI for short, where…” Twilight said before being interrupted by a loud fake snoring, courtesy of Rainbow Dash, which was followed by a couple of giggles from her friends.

Twilight scowled at her friend’s antic “Oh lighten up egghead and besides it’s not my fault you went all…uh egghead on us. Can’t you just...I don’t know make it short and simple” Dash said with a shrug.

“Oh oh let me Twilight I’m an expert on this stuff” Pinkie chimed in waving her hands frantically in the air like “I just don’t care” she said to nopony in particular her friends just simply ignored her comment.

“Go ahead Pinkie” Twilight gestured.

“Well basically for every action, even the most insignificant one, there is a world where it branches out. So for example what if today I ate a muffin instead of a cupcake, even though I love cupcakes, with their sweet sweet frosting and their yummy sprinkles, more than muffin and would eat them first, there would be a world where that Pinkie would be eating the cupcake I wasn’t going to eat” Pinkie said while she shifted a pair of reading glasses, that somehow got onto her face unnoticed, up to her eyes.

Her friends, especially Twilight, were surprised by how Pinkie explained the idea of different universes so easily. “So basically there’s a whole universe where I could have been already a member of the Wonderbolt” Dash asked getting a nod from both Pinkie and Twilight.

“But it’s also not that simple you see….” Twilight was about to say.

“Because Dashie I said the most insignificant thing like maybe I said this 1.1 second faster or maybe I said this .1111 seconds slower or maybe this simple grass was bent 1.57 degrees left” Pinkie said.

“That’s exactly right Pinkie, but how do you know about this?” Twilight asked.

“Because silly I travel between worlds all the time. Isn’t that right bronies” she said while talking to nopony in particular. Before Twilight and friends could even deny Pinkie’s words, Pinkie shot up quickly and said “Oh shoot I almost forgot” and magically brought out a piece of paper and quill. She scribbled something really quick on it and then stashed the letter into her hair making it disappear to parts unknown.

“Rrrrrright so anyway basically there’s nothing on dimensional travel” Dash said quickly storing the previous events under the ‘It’s a Pinkie thing’ cabinet. Set cabinet that a Pink pony is going through right now and should get out of her friends head and get back in the story.

“Well excuseeeeee me Author” she said again to nopony in particular.

Ignoring Pinkie’s randomness Twilight said “So far, yes nothing on dimensional travel. I’ll probably have to start from scratch, but even I don’t know how long this kind of project will take or even work” she said a bit sadden at the prospect of letting down BJ and his friends.

“Aw it’ll be okay sugarcube ah’m sure the guys will understand that there was nothin’ y'all could do” AJ said reassuringly.

“Speaking of those guys how was it letting them stay over, anything strange?” Dash asked getting odd looks from her friends.

“Uh it was pretty normal, why would it be strange?” Twilight asked confused.

“Well you know colts and mares under the same roof and what not” Dash said a mischievous smile spread across her face.

“Oh? OH! Dash that is most unladylike” Rarity with a small frown.

“Um ah’m not followin’” AJ said looking at Twilight for an answer, but only getting a shrug.

“Oh *giggles* I get it Dashie, you’re so funny, she was thinking something happened between us and the guys” Pinkie said.

“Well nothin’ really happened durin’ tah night, but in tah mornin’-” AJ didn’t even get to finish before she noticed her friends different reactions. Dash was holding her hands over her mouth to cover up her laughing, Rarity and Twilight were a light shade of red, Pinkie was just laughing hysterically and Fluttershy face was completely red. “What so funny all ah said was nothin’ happened and…ohhhh only you would think of somethin’ dirty like that Dash” AJ said embarrassed with a scowled look on her face.

“That was hilarious” Dash said in between laughs.

“*Ahem* Yes well it looks like our guest of honor has arrived” Rarity said gesturing towards the field where a lone figure could be seen making its way over towards them. The girls got up, dusted themselves off and made their way towards the brown cloak figure.

The figure stopped atop of a hill when the girls reached about halfway towards he spoke while raising his hand for them to stop “That’s close enough”. The girls stopped much to their protest and waited for him to speak, but he never did instead a disgust look, or what felt like one since the only thing visible part of his face was his mouth, was all that he gave.

“Are you the one who sent the letter?” Twilight asked trying to sound intimidating.

“Yes” the man answered.

“And you’re?” Twilight asked hoping for an answer.

“None of your business” he replied back coldly and then stared off into space.

There was an awkward silence in the field the only noise was that of the gentle wind blowing between them, causing their cloths and hair to sway with the wind. “So what…” Twilight tired to ask until Dash butted in.

“So what do you want we don’t have all day” Dash said impatiently.

“Hmmm oh yes that’s right” he said absentmindedly and much to Dash’s annoyance was simply ignored “I need you girls to do something for me”.

“And why should we” AJ asked crossing her arms in defiance.

“We wouldn’t want to have to drag that precious little town into our problems now would we” he said an evil smile spreading across his face.

“No we wouldn’t want that at all” Twilight said trying to calm down everypony “Now what is it that you need us to do?”

“Die” he said and magically threw a small ball of fire. Twilight instantly threw up a shield around her and her friends; the ball of flame hit the shield with a surprisingly quiet, but deadly explosion covering the field in a slight haze of smoke.

“Tch” he said noticing the purple bubble through the smoke.

Only then to side step out of the way as a blue blur came flying past him. “What the hay?” Dash said surprise on how her kick was easily dodge, especially since she snuck up on him, which in all honesty happens rarely when she gets into fights.

“Is that all you got” he yawned and acted like he was bored. This cause Dash to yell out in rage and fly right towards him. Right at the last second before Dash charged into him, time seemed to have slowed down as the man simply reached out his hand towards her neck, effectively stopping Dash in mid flight and throw her hard to the ground. Dash hit the ground with a thud, knocking the wind out of her and causing her to be slightly disoriented. The man stood over her, blades of ice spinning around his head “Bye, Bye” he said pointing his hand towards Dash. The blades stop there spinning and heading straight for Dash. Before Dash could even react her body disappeared in a flash of light and was now laying down next to her friends.

Shaking off the disorientation of the blow and getting a helping hand from AJ she rose back up to join her friends “Man that was close, thanks Twi” Dash said as the man continued to assault Twilight’s shield with fireballs, but to no avail.

“It ain’t over yet Dash” AJ said placing her hat on more securely so that it wouldn’t fall off.

After a couple of minutes the man simply stopped his attack now just standing there with what felt like a look of irritation. “Why are you doing this and why do we need to die” Twilight asked as she cautiously took her barrier down to catch her breath.

“Do I need a reason” he stated coldly motioning his hand the earth rumbled around him as a jagged looking chair came up from behind him. Twilight instinctively brought up a barrier around her and her friends again, but when she realized there wasn’t going to be another attack. She cautiously once more dispelled it and eyed the man as he took a seat in his chair. “You needn’t worry, I already know that I cannot beat the Element of Magic with my own magic” he stated simply.
“What do you mean that you don’t need a reason?” she asked confused.

“Exactly as it sounds. Do I need a reason to kill you” he stated once more.

“There has to be a reason, you don’t just go up to a bunch of ponies and say ‘oh I’m going to kill you now, k thanks’” Dash said to him mockingly.

“*sigh* it’s always the same thing. They say this and I answer, they bring up another pointless view and I respond back, and then it goes on and on and on and then I finally kill them. So if you don’t mind I wish to skip that and go straight to the killing part” he said and rose from his seat the chair disappearing in a cloud of dust.

“Yeah you and what army pal? Its six against one” Dash said triumphantly.

A wicked grin spread across his face, a dark aura started to spread around his body “I do love it when they say that” he said as he started to chant a spell. The sky around them started to cloud up with black ominous clouds, the air around them started to turn cold enough to see their own breath and the ground started to rumble making the girls shift their weights to help them from falling. As soon as the rumbling of the earth came it left taking away the coldness that surrounded them, only leaving the dark clouds above their surroundings.

“Ooooh you moved the earth and made it a bit nippy, I’m so scared” Dash said mockingly only to jump back in surprise as a torn piece of flesh came out from underneath the ground.

“You should be” the man said as more hands sprung out from underneath the earth. Slowly, but surely bodies of both flesh and bone started to rise from the ground. The undead like creatures all looked similar, the only noticeable difference between them being that they were different colored, but were severely faded out, different types of ponies and the different weapons that were among them like sword, bows and spears, yet shared the same worn out silver armor that they wore. There were about thirty of them just standing around the girls, occasionally letting out a hollow moan. “Since I’m a pony of…fairness, I’ll let you decide” he said and continued “A quick and painless death or a slow and painful one?”

“Yeah and how about neither” Dash yelled at him.

“I agree. Can’t we just talk about it, if you don’t mind me saying” Fluttershy said, but was pretty much ignored as Dash continued.

“I’ll just fly into town and let the princess know about this, maybe get some guards to come and help. Probably only take me a minute or two” she said puffing her chest up in pride.

“Yes that is a pretty sound plan, but would you really risk that and leave your friends behind”.

“Hey I’m the fastest flier in all of Equestria, I could probably do all that stuff in a minute and have enough time to kick your flank into next Tuesday” she said.

“Yes and I admit my magic is second rate compared to your friend, but even I could break her little barrier in a matter of a minute” he said.

“Yeah right, you’re totally bluf…” Dash said till she felt a hand squeezing her shoulder.

“He ain’t bluffing Dash” AJ said a hint of fear escaping her lips.

“Then again even if you did manage to get back here and your friends did survive my attack I could always just involve the residents of Ponyville into our little problem and then when they die you can ask yourselves why did we have to involve them or why did they die a pointless death, but hey it’s your call” he said with a shrug.

“Well I guess we have no choice then” Dash said getting ready to fight AJ getter prepared as well.

“Oh can we just talk about this” Fluttershy asked barely audible.

“Don’t worry Fluttershy I won’t let these…things near you” Rarity said positioning herself in front of Fluttershy.

“You still didn’t explain the reason why you’re doing this” Twilight pointed out, but the man simply ignored her question.

“Don’t worry Twilight that’ll be answer in the next episode of: Games in Equestria” Pinkie said like she was announcing it to an audience.

“Pinkie what the hay are you talking abou…” Twilight was about to ask, but then the undead like creatures started to make their way towards them.

“Enough talking, time for some action: AJ take the left side, Pinkie help Rarity with the rear, Twilight handle the front I’ll go right” Dash said and everypony sprang into action.

Chapter 10: Battle of the Living Dead Pt.1

View Online

Third Person:

“C-careful Dash. Don’t strain yourself Twilight. There’s one behind you AJ, oh you already saw him I’m sorry. Oh be careful Rarity” Fluttershy said barely hearable thanks to all the fighting. The fight had been going on for five minutes straight and it was pretty much going nowhere. Even though the undead had the girls outnumbered ten to one, they were extremely weak/slow so a good kick would knock down a group of them, most of them disappearing in a puff of smoke, but even though they were easy to defeat they would just come back in a matter of seconds.

“Come on Fluttershy even you can beat these guys” Dash said annoyed landing next to her shy friend.

“Oh I don’t…”

“Now Dash we both know Fluttershy is too…delicate to harm another living thing” Rarity said as she released an arcane bolt of magic knocking a group of the undead to the ground.

“Yeah but these things aren’t living so…” Dash tried to say.

“Um please don’t fight” Fluttershy said half her face hiding behind her long pink hair.

“Oh you know what I meant Dash” Rarity said annoyed.

“Come on girls we have a battle to win” Pinkie Pie said jumping out of nowhere in some…interesting new set of clothing. She was now wearing a light pink Chinese dress with brown stocking. On her wrist were spiked bracelets on each hand and in her hair she had two dark pink ox horn decorations, but it looked odd since her hair still retain its puffy nature.

“Pinkie where on Equis did you get those?” Rarity asked slightly intrigued by how it look yet confused as to where she got them, let alone have the time to change into them.

Before Pinkie could respond Rainbow Dash said impersonating her energetic friend “I have emergency cloths stored all over Equestria in case of a clothing emergency”.

“*giggles* no Dashie these are my emergency fighting clothing” she said like it was common knowledge.

“Would y'all stop messin’ around and help” AJ shouted as she gave a wide kick to a small group of the undead causing them to fall over and disappear in a black haze.

“Gee AJ having a little trouble with them I mean I could take these guys with my hooves tied behind my back” Dash said flying high into the sky and coming back down kicking her way thru them, leaving an open path where they once stood, while doing exactly what she said she would do.

“Well sorry ah don’t have wings like ya and ah’m stuck down here kickin’ them normal like” she said annoyed at her friend showing off.

“Whatever AJ, I mean look at Pinkie” Dash said motioning over towards her friend who was calmly standing in front of an army of them walking towards her.

“Hyakuretsu Kyaku” Pinkie shouted and started to kick at the advancing army with lightning fast kicks, her legs moving so fast that they were blurred, defeating them in mere seconds.

AJ looked at Dash skeptically and said “Like ah said kickin’ them normal like” punctuating each word while giving swift kicks to the advancing army.

“Good point” Dash said agreeing with her friend “Hey Twi do you need a hoof?” Dash yelled towards their friend, who was busy lifting a huge majority of them and throwing them as far as she could.

“Did you say something Dash?” she asked while throwing arcane bolts all around her, hitting the undead that were unfortunately, or I guess fortunate for the girls, to slow to dodge.

“Never mind Twi. Geez AJ even Twilight fighting better than you are, I mean she’s not even breaking a sweat” Dash said nudging her friend who was still fighting.

“Twilight has magic while you have wings, ah’m just an Earth pony” AJ snapped at Dash.

“Pinkie’s an Earth-” she tried to say, but her friend piercing gaze made her reconsider finishing her sentence.

“Ah’m a normal Earth pony, no offense Pinkie” AJ said.

“None taken, Hey~ that wasn’t very nice” Pinkie said as she gave a strong uppercut to one of the undead sending it soaring upward followed by a kick to its chest sending it towards a group of them knocking them all down in the process like bowling pins “YAY~ A STRIKE I’M TOTALLY BEATING YOU GUYS” Pinkie cheered as an image of a bowling screen showed up from out of nowhere signaling her strike. The screen also showed scores of her friends who placed as follow: Pinkie first, Twilight second, Rainbowdash third, AJ fourth, Rarity fifth and Fluttershy last with a score of zero.

“So instead of complaining would ya’ll just shut yer trap and help” AJ said annoyed.

“Your right AJ” Dash said surprising her friend “I can’t lose to Twilight” she exclaimed flying thru the undead, while knocking down all of them that got in her way, and quickly making her way towards the cloaked figure.

A groan of annoyance escaped AJ lips, until she realized where her rainbow haired friend was going “Twilight, Dash might need yer help again” AJ said while making her way over towards Twilight.

“Hey bonehead” Dash shouted hovering a few feet away from the cloaked figure. “Ready to get your flank handed to you” she said while rolling her left arm first, then followed by the right one.

“Hardly” he replied back unamused, watching the rainbow haired Pegasus closely.

“Dash don’t! Ya’ll just get caught in his magic again” AJ said while helping Twilight fight off the undead.

“Also he seemed to be able to use some form of time magic, which takes a lot of concentration and magic” Twilight added.

“Meaning?” Dash asked still getting ready to charge towards him.

“Meaning he has a lot of magic in him, maybe a bit lower than my own, but still enough” Twilight said while trying to not sound boastful of herself, since she didn’t like to show off or brag about her magical capabilities.

“Eh so what? He has a good amount of magic to do that time stop thingy, big deal. It won’t do him any good if he can’t hit me” she replied back nonchalantly. “And besides if I beat him I know I’ll place first instead of…FIFTH PLACE HOW THE HAY DID THAT HAPPEN?!?!” Dash yelled while looking at the scoreboard.

“Well Dashie you were spending a lot of time talking” Pinkie said as she fought her way over towards Rarity and Fluttershy.

“What I was only talking for like two minutes…you know what, whatever just tell me how much this guy is worth” Dash said as she started to move anxiously around in the air.

“Ok I’ll tell you, buuuuuuuut you have to ask me the right way” Pinkie said.

They stared at one another for a few seconds with Dash looking at her friend for a hint about how to ask the question the ‘right way’, while Pinkie looked at her with a bright smile. Dash looked at her friend in confusion/annoyance “And how am I suppose to ask you if I don’t know how to ask you?” she asked annoyed.

“Oh that’s easy, just say ‘Pinkie what does the scouter say about his score level’” she said keeping that same cheerful smile while she had her fingers prepped to push a button on the strange looking device she was talking about, that also appeared out of nowhere.

“*sigh* What does the scouter say about his score level?” Dash monotone. Pinkie looked at her with a disappointed look “What?” Dash asked confused.

“If you’re not going to ask it right I’m not going to answer” she replied back turning her head and lifting it up in the air just like those rich society snobs they saw during the Grand Galloping Gala.

“Pinkie you didn’t tell me about ‘how’ I was suppose to ask” Dash said annoyed.

“Isn’t it obvious?” she asked tilting her head in a thinking like matter.

Dash just stared at her pink friend, baffled by her response. After a couple of minutes she replied back a bit more loudly/angrily then she planned to “NO”.

“Really because I’m sure…”

“Pinkie, first off I don’t know how to ask it right...you know what forget it. Pinkie what does the scouter say about his score level!?” Dash asked apparently in the ‘right way’.

Pinkie then pushed the device on her head and in a couple of seconds she removed set device and screamed “IT’S OVER NINE THOUSAAAAAND” while breaking the device in her hand, the machine shattering into, coincidentally, nine thousand pieces.

“Is she always like this?” the man asked out loud.

“Most of the time yeah, although it’s been happenin’ more frequently fer tah past few weeks now” AJ answered without thinking.

“Huh I guess I’ll be doing this world a service once she’s out of the picture” he said with a cynical smile.

“WHAT NINE THOUSAND….Aw yeah I’m totally going to win now” Dash cheered and dove towards the cloaked figure.

The man’s response to her dive was to summon blades of ice and send them right towards her. Dash was able to effortlessly dodge them at the last minute, weaving and rolling out of the way, closing the gap between them in seconds. She was a mere two feet away from giving the man a good smack to the face when she noticed the area around him was acting odd like it was bending the area around him making the view skewed looking.

That’s when Dash’s gut told her to back off the attack and she learned the hard way from a fight a long time ago back in CloudsDale to listen to her gut feeling. Deciding to listen to it she tried to slow down, but thanks to her being a Pegasus, which mean she’s naturally light; and being one of the fastest Pegasus in Equestria; it was rather difficult for her to just stop so suddenly, which usually resulted to crashing into objects or ponies. So instead she decided to kick him in the gut and hopefully use him as a platform to jump out of the way for whatever the strange vibe she was getting from him.

Shifting her position to give the man a good drop kick to the head she was about arms reach away from him when a black barrier sprung up around him. Dash, grateful for listening to her gut feeling, used her legs to take some of the shock of crashing into the barrier. Following quickly with the momentum she shot off like a bullet back into the sky and taking a glance down she noticed a streak of red flame striking where she was just moments ago.

“I knew it wasn’t going to be easy, but come on” Dash muttered to herself until she remembered a talk, or maybe it was a warning/threat that Twilight was going to start using a barrier to protect her windows or something, that she and Twilight had about barriers “Uh I think the bigger…no wait the smaller the…Horse apples why can’t I remember” she said to herself rubbing her mane frantically. “Buck it! What I do remember is that if you hit it on all sides it weakens…or something like that” she said to herself and once more charged towards the man, to only return to the safety of the skies in under a minute, rubbing her now sore limbs while muttering a few choice words.

“Two things” the man said followed by the sound of a snap making the undead army stop in its track. “You” he said pointing towards Rainbow Dash who now joined her friends, hovering above them “are the dumbest pony I’ve ever had the grace to meet. I’m mean really who just kicks a barrier that is as strong as steel with their bare hooves”.

“Hey it’s not my fault Twilight…” Dash tried to say before Twilight interrupted her.

“Don’t blame me Dash, I tried to explain to you the proprieties of how barriers work, but somepony didn’t obviously listen” Twilight said sending a glare towards her friend.

“It’s not my fault you went all ‘egghead mode’ on me” Dash said back with a dismissive wave of her hand.

“Well actually darling by the sounds of it the only pony you can blame is yourself” Rarity said.

“Yeah, even ah know that ya just can’t kick a barrier and hope it breaks” AJ added.

“Yeah well I didn’t see any of you guys going over there to help or beat him so we could just go home” Dash pointed out.

“Ah and that brings me to my next point” the man said making himself the center of attention once more “I think it’s time we ended this little game” he said with the same bored and far off tone.

“Awwwwww but we were just getting started unless *gasp* we’re gonna play a different game I hope it’s pin the tail on the pony, oh is that what we're going to play because that’s my most favorite game to play at parties. Well is it? Is it? Huh, huh, did I guess it right?” Pinkie asked while jumping up and down in excitement.

“You know what yeah why not” he said as a sickly black fog started to come out from his sleeves and spread around the undead army “Just make sure to let me know if they have that game in the afterlife” he said. The undead army before them started to change, at first they were brimming with bones and flesh sticking out or hanging off now started to grow back into place. Wings and horns that were not present or half torn off started to grow back with flourish and life. There once lifeless eyes were now glowing with an eerie shade of purple. “Now then round two” he said fingers prepped to snap the undead army baring their weapons waiting for their master command to attack.

Just as he was about to snap his fingers the pink party pony shouted “Wait!” gathering the attention of her friends, the undead army and the cloaked figure. “If we’re going to round two I need to change my character” she said followed by her excusing herself and walking into a changing booth.

“Again is she always like this” he motioned to the random changing booth occasionally she would say something along the lines of ‘not this one’.

“Like ah said it’s been getting worse the past week or so” AJ said flatly.

“Ok I’m ready” she said as she stepped out of the changing booth, which was no longer there, now sporting a new outfit. She was now wearing a light pink and black jumpsuit with a belt buckle bearing Pinkie Pie’s cutie mark. She had a dark pink harness crossing over her chest in an X-shape that were holding two katana on her back that were also in an X-shape. The man gave her a questioning look that gave off the feeling of a ‘WTF’ moment while her friends just shrugged it off as a Pinkie Pie thing, except for Rarity who was looking at the outfit with disdain.

“So are you good to go?” the man asked warily getting a nod of response from the pink party pony “Ok then let’s end this” he said followed by the snap of his fingers.

The undead army snapped to attention and ready their weapons “Pffft this will be easy I’ll beat these guys in ten….whoa!” Dash exclaimed barely dodging an arrow that soared past her. She was about to say something, but was interrupted as she dodge a thrust from a lance from one of the undead Pegasus, that was now flying after her, followed closely behind were a couple more Pegasi.

“Dash!” Twilight yelled focusing her magic to help her rainbow haired friend only to lose her focus as AJ pushed her out of the way, a second later an arrow planting itself where she once stood. “Thanks AJ” Twilight said as she quickly got up; her horn glowing with magic as she caught an arrow that was soaring towards her. With a light pulse from her horn and a flick of her hand the arrow turned around and headed right towards her assailant, lodging itself right between its eyes.

“No problem sugar cube” AJ responded as she did a roundhouse kick to one of the undead sending it towards a group of them and making them fall over like a bowling ball to bowling pins. Except these pins didn’t stay down, but instead got right back up and slowly made their way back towards her and her friends. “Well ain’t that a load of horseapples” she muttered to herself and kicked another undead.

“Yo Twilight mind handling the unicorn and archers it’s kind of hard to fight these other pegasi while I’m constantly dodging” Dash shouted as she zoomed by leaving her signature rainbow trail and a couple of undead pegasi behind.

“I’m working on it” Twilight yelled back as she focused her magic on five of the undead soldiers only to lose her concentration as an axe swung down in front of her. To close for comfort Twilight grabbed the undead and placed it to the left of her, moments later an explosion rang out and the undead was nothing more than a pile of ash. Noticing another unicorn undead charging up a spell, she focused her magic and was about to release an arcane bolt, when suddenly an arrow flew right past her and lodged itself right between the undead unicorn’s eyes. Turning around to look for where the arrow came from she noticed Rarity holding an old worn out white bow, its once beautiful and well sculpted design were lost to the sands of time.

“Twilight darling, if you would be so kind as to take care of the other unicorns while I’ll take care of the archers, so that we can give Rainbow Dash some room to breathe” Rarity said to her as she notched an arrow and fired.

“Right , AJ keep covering us as best as you can” Twilight said as she lifted a group of unicorns into the skies and tossed them as far as she could.

“You got it sugarcube” AJ hollered back as she roundhouse kicked a group of them.

“Pinkie…” Twilight was about to say when a loud explosion could be heard.

“Pineapple surprise” Pinkie yelled as she backflipped into the air and threw a round circular object into a horde of the undead, set object exploding the second it hit the ground and showering the field with undead body parts. “Yes Twilight?” Pinkie asked as she continued her bombardment on the undead.

“Keep doing whatever it is you’re doing” Twilight yelled deciding right now wasn’t the best time to question her friend’s fighting ability.

“Okie dokie lokie, Bang” she said and quickly teleported out of the way from a sword swipe which was follow up by an uppercut “Shoryuken”.

After the fifth consecutive throw Twilight seemed to have had enough as she closed her eyes and began to gather her magic. At first it was just a dull lavender glow that surrounded her horn, but after a couple minutes of concentration it soon began to shine brighter than the stars in the night sky. When she opened her eyes her once beautiful violet eyes were now white as snow. Just as she was about to release her spell her eyes flickered towards some sudden movement. Her eyes widen in panic and instead of releasing a shock wave she instead casted a barrier around herself and her friends. And not a moment too soon as a blizzard of ice and a torrent of flames hit against the barrier, the barrier holding strong and true, though the grounds surrounding the barrier was either littered with shards of ice or burned to a crisp. Eventually the torrent of flames and the shards of ice stopped their bombardment against the shield the unlucky undead that couldn’t get out of the way in time were littered all over the battlefield either burnt to a crisp or blades of ice protruding out from their bodies. The barrier flickered for a second and eventually shattered. In the center of the barrier breathing rather heavily was Twilight, Fluttershy next to her supporting her friend up.

“I may not be as strong as the element of Magic” stated the man breathing heavily as well though he continued “But I can at least prevent you from using your full capacity by harming your friends” ending his speech with a smug smirk.

“You alright sugar cube?” AJ asked concerned.

“Yeah…just…tired” Twilight said in-between breaths.

“Oh w-what are w-we going to do…” Fluttershy tried to ask only for a loud scream to be heard from behind them.
“AAAAAHHHHHHH!” turning around quickly they located the source to come from Rarity who was slowly getting forced away from her friends.

“Rarity!” AJ screamed as she tried to intercept her friend though was forced to stop as a sword came crashing down in front of her. “Git out of the way” she cried out as she pushed, punched and shoved the creatures out of the way though to no avail.

“Rarity” Twilight cried out softly as she concentrated on a teleportation spell her horn fluxuating with magic. After a moment of concentration she was brought out of it as Fluttershy pushed her to the ground and out of the way as a bolt of magic sored by them.

“I-I'm sorry Twilight but I had to-Eep” she cried out as she brought Twilight into a hug and began rolling out of harms way once more, blades and arrows crashing down where they were at moments ago.

“Don’t worry I’m on it” Pinkie cried out as she began to make her way towards Rarity only to trip as a greenish glow surrounded her leg. “Uh oh” she said before she was unceremoniously thrown the opposite way.

“AHHHHHH” Rarity screamed in fright as her bow laid out of arm’s reach away while an undead prepared to pierce her through the heart.

“Hang on Rarity!” Dash cried out as she dived bomb towards her bowling through the blockade of Pegasi in the skies like they weren’t even there.

“DASH LOOK OUT!” AJ cried as she body tackled an undead archer though it was too late as the arrow sored towards it target. With a quick flick of her wings she narrowly dodge the arrow and continued her assault though now AppleJack was being pinned down as well by the archer while an undead raised his blade high ready to pierce her the heart.

“AJ”Twilight cried out as she fired a bolt of arcane energy towards the undead only for another bolt of magic to hit hers canceling out the spell. Before she could charge up another shot a dark foreboding shadow loomed over the two. Slowly turning around they saw a massive earth pony wielding a warhammer about equal to his massive frame. He brought his hammer up high towards the heaven ready to smash both of them in one go. Time slowed down to a crawl as Twilight watched the hammer descend. Glancing over towards the others she could see the same scene playing out though with Dash only a couple seconds away from crashing into the undead holding Rarity down.

‘Everypony...I’m so sorry’ Twilight thought as she closed her eyes and awaited the inevitable crushing blow.

*clink* echoed out the sound of metal against metal.

“DYNAMIC” cried out an all too familiar voice a dark greenish brown duster soaring towards the undead holding down Rarity. “ENTR-LOOK OUT SKITTLES” he cried out just as Dash crashed into the undead.

“Wh-” Dash tried to say before the figure crashed into her causing them to tumble over one another as they landed on the ground the figure laying below Dash.

“As much as I love being ridden by the opposite sex I would be ever so grateful if you got off” the figure said snidely the helmet with red tinted glasses masking his true voice.

“What...But...This isn’t what it looks like” Dash said as her face turned a shade of red in embarrassment.

“No serious skittles get off!” he said as he tried to shuffle out from underneath Dash. Confused as to what he meant she soon realised what he was referring to as she turned around and came face to face with a spear heading towards both of them.

Only to then watch in amazement as the undead stopped his strike, bringing his hands into the air, and released a blood crying screech. His screaming last for only a moment as his body fell lifelessly towards the ground, though it never made it as it evaporated before it hit the ground, and standing behind the recent killed was a blue suited figure smoking his signature cigarette. “AHEM” he said as he adjusted his tie “Gentleman...and Gentlewoman...yeah it’s just not the same” he said with a shrug as he helped both of them up. “Come on man I always tell you to keep an eye on your six” the blue suited figure joked as he pushed the other away only for an arrow to fly by his face and into an undead trying to sneak up on them.

“Irony at its finest” said another familiar voice though while the other two were wearing odd cloths this one was simply adorned in normal clothing. He was sporting a nasty cut across his chest, though it was slowly healing up, as he leaned against AJ for support while she stood next to Rarity who fired the life saving arrow.

Twilight confused about what was happening dared to take a peak only to see a shadowy figure standing in front of her hiding behind a shield. “That...that all you got” the figure said in another familiar voice as he stood in front of the girls playing a game of tug of war with the undead as he held his own against the massive weapon. With a strong strike from his shield he shoved the giant away like it was nothing causing it to stumble back a few feet away. Taking the opportunity the figure covered in strange bone like armor took in a mighty breath of air “FUS RO DAH” he cried out a blue shockwave of energy soaring towards the giant and sending set giant soaring through the sky. “You *huff* Okay Twi and Fluttershy” he asked as he held out his hands to help the girls up.

“Yeah, just tired” Twilight said weakly though feeling much better not only for resting for a sec, but to her newly made friends arrival.

The other quickly join up while the undead stood motionless their master making himself know as he asked “And who might you four be?”

The one with the bone like armor seemed to whisper something quickly to the others and then stood in front of them, prompting the hooded figure to assume he was the leader of this odd group, the other unannounced guest standing in front of the girls though right behind him. “You know in some cultures it’s considered rude to not introduce oneself first” he replied back smugly and continued “So how about you first?”

My PoV:

I asked him waiting for a response. He stood there thinking about my proposal for a few moments while we stood there waiting for his response. “Very well” he said as his hands reached towards his hood and brought it down revealing a male around his mid twenties with a black set of hair and gold colored eyes. He looked a bit on the skinny side as his face showed more bone than fat, but it was hard to tell since his coat was very loose as it would occasionally blow in the wind though his most distinctive attribute about him was his horn. From far away it looked like a normal horn, but at the distance we were at I could tell it was far from it as it was instead a black like crystal protruding from his head black and red like colors dancing about similar to how a lava lamp works.

“I have long since forgotten my name and have adopted the name Raven. I was born on the outskirts of Equestria to a drunkard and a whore. When I became old enough and had gather a reasonable enough amount of bits I set off into the world but most importantly away from my ‘beloved’ parents” he said venomously and resumed “A few years past as I wandered the countryside on occasion lodging at particular towns for a time that were decent enough as I worked for bits as a digger though they usually revolved around digging graves” a sickening yet reminiscing smile splayed across his face.

“A few years passed and while I was lodging in a town, that I care not to remember its name, near the border of Gem Fido a group of slavers waltzed right in and took the entire town. The guards and townsman fought valiantly of course, but were eventually either killed, surrendered or fled to save their own skin. A few months passed by as I continued to slave away with my fellow captives when the majority of them tried to revolt” He said displeased while my friends and I gave him confused looks.

Sensing our confusion he said “At the time I had been working on a way out, since I’m rather proficient in digging, that started through the mortuary and lead out near the border of Equestria. Anywho long story short they failed miserably and one of the townsponies sold me out to save his own hide though he was still killed anyways, but that left me in a bit of a predicament. Just before I was about to be executed before the remaining survivors I was saved by my master. My master saw the potential I could achieve if I opened my eyes to the truth and gave me the power to do so. Ever since that day I’ve sworn to follow his every whim and even give my life to achieve his goal.”

“I asked for a name, but you give me a life story why is that?” I asked him cautiously.

“And what is this ‘truth’ you’re referring to?” Ben pipped up.

“It’s because you are different from...them” he said venomously gesturing towards the village and continued “You can see the world for what it truly is, a fake utopia of peace and harmony”

“Fake!” Dash cried out. “I’ll show you fake” and tried to dash off towards him, but was stopped by AJ.

“Yes fake” the man said and elaborated “You propose peace and harmony yet when it comes down to it you are only interested in yourselves. You choose to ignore the outside world and pretend nothing is wrong when thousand upon thousands of beings die each day because of slavery, malnourishment or war. Whining and complaining about the stupidest of things when life or death situations take place everyday deciding who lives and who dies. And where are the goddesses of the sun and moon at? Here neglecting their duty to fill their own selfish desires and to be treated like royalty instead of what they truly are: Gods”.

The area became silent as everyone took in what he had said. The girls having rather conflicted looks across their face while my friends kept a rather calm demeanor. “Whelp I guess I’ll be the first one to say something” Pedro said as he clapped his hands making him the center of attention. “For starters he does have a point” he said while nodding his head sagely though his face was obscured by his helmet.

“WHAT?!” the girls cried out.

“OW You don’t have to yell” my friend exclaimed back.

“How could you agree with this jerk” Dash cried out.

“I always knew you were a ruffian, but this is even low for you” Rarity agreed.

Before any other comment could be aimed towards Pedro, Ben raised his hand awkwardly while wearing a nervous grin “Well he’s technically not the only one”.

“Ben ya’ll can’t be serious?” AJ said surprised at Ben’s action.

“Whelp this is already awkward as it is so...yeah” I said while rubbing the back of my head with one hand and making a apologizing gesture with the other.

“What a twist” Pinkie exclaimed randomly.

“Ah so you understand how wrong they are” Raven said.

“Yeah this place is too...what’s the word I’m looking for?” Pedro asked looking towards Ben for an answer.

“Orderly, perfect, random, cartoonish, cheery or girly. Though to be fair I could go on, but we could be here for awhile” Ben said listing off a spew of words.

“Yes, YES. Exactly” he cried out in joy the army of undead soldier parting way to allow us safe passage to their master. “Now that you understand we can work together to wrong this right. And for starters by killing them” he sneered while pointing at the girls.

“Bit harsh don’t ya think?” Pedro said. “I mean couldn’t we give them a stern talking to” he said jokingly.

“No” he said completely oblivious to my friends joke. “The only way to fix this problem is by ‘pulling the weeds by the root’ otherwise they’ll just keep growing back”.

“Hmm yes indeed a very good point” I said while nodding sagely to him. “But where we are from we have a little thing call Democracy and we put things up to a vote. So those in favor of stern talking to?” I asked.

“Aye” my friends said while raising their hands.

“And those for killing them?” I asked though the man wasn’t amused or interested in voting as he scowled at us. “Whelp its unanimous then” I said while turning to the girls. “Now you girls better stop it before I tell your parents” I said while wagging my finger at them.

“Oh please anything but that” Rarity said while acting like she was about to faint from sheer surprise.

“Now hold on there partner lets not do anything hasty” AJ said panic all too evident in her voice.

“But if you do that they’ll send me back to *shruders* magic kindergarten” Twilight exclaimed.

“Ha magic kindergarten got nothing on *gulps* flight camp with Sergeant Fleet Hoof” Dash said as she nervously rubbed her arm.

“No please I’m begging you don’t tell my parents” Pinkie pleaded while grabbing onto Manny’s leg. “They’ll take away my cupcake eating privileges” she said on the very edge of bawling.

Then we all began to laugh at our improved act. The man just realizing we were messing with him silently told his army to block the path towards him. He had an unamused scowl across his face “It appears I’ve been made into a fool...I despise people who do such a thing to me. Just as much as I hate those who take what I say worth a grain of salt”.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa” Pedro said raising his hands up defensively “Who said anything about disregarding your ideals” though the girls just stared at him strangely. As if sensing this he replied “Yes I know big words too I just rarely use them”.
“I’m mean you are technically right this place is way too orderly” I said with a nod.

“Yes and because of that it usually leads to bad things since where there is good there is evil and vice versa” Manny said as he tossed his cigarette into the sea of undead warriors.

“However that doesn’t mean you have any right to force your ideals onto others” Ben said.

“So with that said I’m going to have to ask you to leave” I said my blade pointed towards him threateningly.

He glared at us for a few moments as if debating on leaving or not when he finally said “I’ll commend you on your bravery, but that leaves me with one question” he said as his horn began to glow an ominous color. Raising his hand towards us he snapped his finger causing the earth to quake once more. After a few moments it stopped as quickly as it came though it was soon followed by more of the undead seeping out from the ground. The small single man army of sixty soon expanded towards the hundreds as they stood in front of him now in neat single file line or technically a few dozen rows. “Who or what is going to stop me?” he asked with a confident smirk.

“That is a very good question indeed” Ben said with a nod of approval.

“But before we answer that may I ask you something first” Pedro said and continued “Do you know how to count?”

Confused by Pedro’s question he pondered it for a few minutes into it finally sunk in. Scouring our group and counting off heads he soon realized that he was short by one. Looking off into the distance Fluttershy was nothing more than a black silhouette. The man roared in outrage the undead pegasi sensing their masters anger took off into the sky only for a rainbow blur to crash into the majority of them. The few that Dash missed didn’t make it far as a bright magenta barrier sprung up and halted their process. Confused they tried once more only for the barrier to spring up again. Before they could try to do anything the same rainbow blur crashed into them sending them hard towards the ground.

“Looks like operation look away worked” Pedro said with a smug tone.

“Wait I thought it was operation pull string?” Manny asked confused.

“No it was agreed on being called operation distraction since the others one didn’t make sense” Twilight said though a bit strained as she continued to hold the barrier up.

“I don’t think that really matters right now!” I cried out as I got into a defensive position.

“Agreed!” Ben said while moving to be in front of Twilight. “Pinkie and Pedro take the left side, Manny and AJ well handle the right, BJ front and center with me while Rarity takes care of the archers, Dash handles the skies and Twilight if you can keep us protect, but focus on making sure they don’t get past us” Ben shouted out orders.

Without having to say a word the undead army began its advance towards us.

Though moderately fast we still had an adequate enough time to get into position. An undead with a greatsword came at me, but I easily blocked him and shoved him away to catch a nimble undead and slice him in two. Following the momentum I turned my attention back to the greatsword wielder and cut it’s sword wielding arm off which was followed by it’s head.

As the dagger laid on the ground, Ben dove for the blade and with an acrobatic roll he then sprung up from the ground and dug the blade into a mage that was a few seconds short of releasing a spell. Releasing the blade from it’s head he turned and blocked an undead with a short sword. Instead of trying to overpower the undead he leaned back causing the undead to fall over its own force. It didn’t even have a chance to fight back as he forced the blade into the back of it’s skull. Putting the dagger through one of the loops of his belt he then grasped the short sword and tested its weight.

Taking the opportunity an undead snuck up on him and raised its sword high ready to cleave him into two. Though it wasn’t prepared for me to shield bash it away at just the right moment. Ben getting out of his daze charged the undead and shoved the blade through its chest. The undead, still alive...technically, began to bite at my friend while Ben held him place as my blade cut it’s head off clean. Looking at Ben’s wound it wasn’t deep, but a small trickle of blood eased down his shirt as his wound already began to close up.

In my new position I was able to see how the others were doing so far. Pedro and Pinkie were working in tangent with one another as Pinkie would lead first taking out the majority of them while Pedro took care of any stragglers. Though at one point I heard “Okay seriously my power revolves around the usage of guns yet I’m left with a knife while she, a pony, who has not even discovered how to manufacture guns is using one and nobody questions this at all!?” he cried out and continued “Does no one see how crazy this is!?”

“Somepony is just jealous” she responded back while sticking her tongue out.

“.............Of course I’m jealous!” he responded back after a few minutes of silence.

Ignoring them I looked to see how Manny and Aj were handling their side. Aj was someone I wouldn’t want to get into a fist fight with as she took on several of the undead at a time. With the fortitude of a farm worker she easily was able to keep her own against two or three. While that was going on Manny would disappear and reappear at random intervals as his dagger dug deep into many of the undead though for the most part he made sure to give Aj a hand when she would be overwhelmed while also taking care of any archers or mages that Rarity couldn’t keep up with.

Speaking of Rarity she was handling that bow like a pro as each shot always found their mark, which isn’t surprising given her attention to detail, but what made it amazing was the fact that the rate she was taking them down was making sure that they could never overwhelm us though at the same time prevent her from helping us.

Looking towards the skies a rainbow streaked zoomed each and every which way making it hard to keep track of while a small platoon of the undead pegasi followed in its wake. Dash was doing her part well as most of the pegasi were too busy trying to catch her though some did give up and began attacking the barrier. Seeing that Dash would swoop in and hit them all at once forcing them to crash to the ground hard enough to make them vanish. Everytime she did she’d give a taunting cheer of celebration and would fly away again just as the rest finally caught up with her only to then resume chasing after her once more.

Twilight had it hard as she focused on keeping the barrier up and running. She looked exhausted, but had a determined look on her face that let us know she wouldn’t give up without a fight. Only occasionally would any of them get close enough to force her to concentrate, but for the most part we were able to keep them at bay. I was more surprised that Raven hadn’t tried to release another barrage of magic at her. Looking towards him he seemed to be concentrating on sole keeping his army going rather than trying to break her barrier.

Only a few minutes had passed and I already felt tired. Glancing back towards Ponyville I couldn’t see any sign of help coming. Looking towards the others I could see the girls were much more tired compared to my friends as they had fought not to long ago. ‘Come on Fluttershy, please hurry. I know there were a couple of guards wandering about so even sending them to help could tip the scales in our favor’ I thought while shrugging off another undead and decapitating it.

As the fighting continued on, neither side losing to the other, the man screamed in frustration “Enough of this!”. Reaching towards the inside of his right sleeve he pulled out an odd dagger with a hilt that had a sharp edge to it. The whole weapon design was odd as the metal was crafted to form waves of sorts, for what purpose I was not sure of, but could tell that the dagger was dangerous. Bringing the dagger to bear he did something unexpected as he forced the blade into his own hand. A hiss of pain escaped his lips, but he held his composure nicely as a steady stream of blood fell to the ground.

We were shocked to say the least at what he had just done, but didn’t get a chance to say anything as to what happened next. “Spirits of the dead hear my cry!” he chanted his horn glowing ominously once more as the hill he stood on took on a sinister black shade. “I summon you from the abyss of death to live once more! Pass through the gates of Tartarus and crush the enemies before me!” he continued the pool of blood shot up into the air forming an arcane circle of the like that I’ve never seen. The very hill he stood on exploded into chunks of debris as more and more of the undead soon rose from the grave. “Forbidden Magic: March of the living dead” he said as his new found army stretched out for miles.

The plus side was that they all seemed to revert to their second stage rather than the one we were fighting meaning it won’t take that much effort to take them down though the obvious down side was the sheer amount that now stood before us. “Twilight, what just happened?” I asked as we all pulled back into one area.

“Blood magic. Forbidden magic that use the life energy of others or yourself to enhance your own magical abilities though this doesn’t make any sense. Princess Celestia has always kept that knowledge under lock and key, how did he acquire it” she said with concern.

“I think we’ll have to ask that later” Ben said grimly.

“If there is one” Pedro said underneath his breath.

“You should have chosen the quick and painless route, but as you can see you forced my hand” he said with malice while wrapping his wounded hand with a piece of cloth.

“We need to readjust are tactics” Ben said as his mind worked overtime to counteract the situation.

“I suppose using some sort of light magic won’t just kill them all?” Manny asked with a hint of panic/desperation.

“No as they are now...it would only stun them momentarily” Twilight said as she now rested on one knee.

“Ben” I said as the army of the undead began to get into formation.

He didn’t respond.

“Ben” I called out again.

“Just give me a couple seconds” he said angrily.

“As much as I loved playing with you guys I think it is time to wrap this up” he said sarcastically followed by a snap of his fingers. The undead army snapped to attention and slowly made their way towards us.

“Well we don’t have a few seconds!” Dash yelled.

“All of this yelling and pressuring isn’t helping!” Ben snapped back.

Looking at the area near Twilight a plan began to form “Twi I need you to raise a giant wall of earth to block them from advancing while also casting a barrier only in the sky to prevent the Pegasi from flying over it. While you and Dash take care of the skies, Rarity we’ll join you up there and use the vantage point to take care of archers and mages while the rest of us will take care of the ground troops” I said.

“I don’t think I can make one that bi-” she tried to say while Rarity moved to her side and supported her.

“It doesn’t have to be ginormous just tall enough that they can’t climb over it very easily” I said then asked “Can you do it?”
She thought about it for a moment, the army merely about to get into striking range, and then closed her eyes in concentration. The very earth below our feet began to shake which was then followed by a mass of dirt rising up from the ground to form a small wall that went on for miles. Standing on it was Twilight with Rarity next to her and Dash hovering above both of them.

“You realize you just locked us down here with no escape” Pedro said as he got into a stance.

“Yeah” I said solemnly and got into a stance myself the others soon joining us.

“Okay as long as you know” he said casually and added “Also if we die you’re buying the first rounds of beer”.

“Heh” I smiled light heartily at my freinds attempt to cheer everyone up “Hell if we live I’ll buy everyone their own keg of beer”.

“Buy from the Apple family and ah’ll throw in a discount” AJ said with a friend tip of her hat.

“I’ve always been curious as to how it taste, from the episode it looks delicious” Ben joined in.

“Oh it’s beyond delicious!” Pinkie cried out joyfully and continued “It’s super duper fantastical-” but didn’t get to finish.

“Here they come!” Manny cried out and quickly vanished from sight.

The first of the troops charged towards us reusing Ben’s idea I took up the front with Ben by me while the others went to their respected positions. Four of the undead came towards me, but were easily repelled with a swing of my shield however not even a second later four more pushed through and tried to tackle me to the ground. I reacted too slowly , the bulky armor though good for defending did little for my mobility, as I tripped and fell. I felt their weapons bounce off my armor as they tried to find weakness in it, but Ben was able to get a few of them off me while I used my newfound strength to get back up and knock the rest off of me. Nodding in gratitude we soon went back to work fending them off as best as we could.

Out of the corner of my eyes I could see Manny having a hard time backstabbing them and reclocking to hide, since a simple bump would reveal his position, and was forced to dance around them to position himself for a backstab. Again I would not want to get into a tussle with AJ as she was taking on a group of six of them at a time.

The familiar rainbow trail streaked over the sky as Dash tried to help not only us, but as well as keeping the undead Pegasi occupied so that Twilight could have a much needed breather. Showers of arrows rained down on the undead mages and archers as Rarity went into overdrive while simultaneously taking arrows from the archers to make sure she had a steady supply.

Pedro was having most trouble as he was left with nothing more than his dagger and suit. He was constantly on the move making sure he was never in a position to get surrounded while Pinkie was-

“Katana-Rama! Katana-Rama!” Pinkie cried out she slid across the ground while simultaneously slashing any who dared to get in her way. She had a gleeful smile spread across her lips while doing so making this whole ordeal as fun rather than a life and death situation. Jumping back she shouted “Pineapple surprise” and threw a grenade causing a small explosion that took a good chunk of them out.

“I still call shenanigans!” Pedro cried out.

I was going to respond until a loud explosion above us caught our attention. Streaks of fire began to rain towards the top of the wall while torrents of wind cyclones streaked from the wall to meet the fire, but there was more flame then wind as some would hit against the earthen barrier causing dents in the wall. I tsked at my own stupidity. My plan would have worked if it wasn’t for the fact that I forgot about Raven.

Thanks to him downgrading his army plus that little blood magic stunt he now had more than enough magic to spare towards his army and fight Twilight at the same time. Twilight was fighting him off as best as she could which was beyond what I expected of them since they used up so much energy earlier. Hell it was either a miracle and I shouldn’t jinx it or maybe the elements of harmony was lending them strenght. Either way it didn’t matter unless Fluttershy shows up in the next few seconds we’re fucked.

Releasing another barrage of wind cyclones to counteract against Raven’s fireballs they, for the most part, cancelled each other out once more. Pausing for a moment he observed the battlefield, while the rest of us continued to fight when suddenly an idea came to him. His horn began to glow with power once more and a cool wind blew over us.
‘What’s he up to?’ I thought and soon found my answer as a hail storm of ice shards rained down upon us.

Twilight was quick to act as she released a torrent of flames to shield us from the hail storm. She was able to most of them, but a few still got by and nearly hit us-”AHHHHH!” Dash cried out.

Locating where she was at I could see her spiraling out of control as a small shard protruded from her right wing. As if on the same thought pattern everyone of us began moving towards her location, but the undead were thinking the same thing as they intercepted us effectively blocking us from getting to her.

She fought valiantly, but was easily overpower in seconds as they prepared to deal the finishing blow. Before the blow could connect a flash of purple light blinded me momentarily, but once I regained my vision I saw Twilight forcing them away.
We continued to try and advance to protect them, but continued find ourselves going nowhere. As I sliced through a group of undead I caught something out of the corner of my eye. Looking towards the source a sense of panic consumed me as I fought even harder. “Twilight get out of there!” I screamed as loud as I could, but my scream was unheard thanks to the battle.

“This is the end for you two!” Raven cried out with a maniacal smile. Two orbs: one red the other blue danced around him, but finally settled as arcane circles formed in front of them. Time slowed down to a crawl as a torrent of fire and a hail storm of ice shot out from the arcane circles and streaked towards Dash and Twilight.

Dash was unable to move thanks to her injury plus the crash while Twilight didn’t have enough time to teleport the both of them or cast a strong enough barrier because of the undead still coming towards the two. I tried to think up something anything that would save the both of them, but soon realized I didn’t have the means to access my other equipment or spells...which left me with only one option. I didn’t want it to end like this, but if it could save their lives then maybe it was worth it in the end.

Taking in a deep breath of air I shouted “Fus Ro Dah” sending the undead before me flying through the sky. Tightening my muscle for a second I then dashed using my shield as an improv battering ram and knocked any who got in my way. At some point I had lost my shield and resulted in using my sword to cleave through the masses, but eventually the same thing happen to my sword which then results in me pushing and shoving my way through. By luck, a miracle or maybe destiny I reached the two just in time as the blast was only a few moments away from vaporizing them. Without a second thought I stood in front of the two as a giant human shield and looked back towards everyone with an apologetic yet sad smile. Wording out an apology I turned back towards the magical blast before I could hear/see their response and closed my eyes waiting for it to strike.

Author's Notes:

So yeah wow about a year and a few months, but yeah here it is...the first part of the chapter that I wanted done a year ago...So for starters I have no excuse for you guys. It wasn't that I lost interest in this story, which I can promise you guys now that i'm not anytime soon giving up on this, but I guess it was the fact that I didn't give myself a good amount of time for it. Honestly I'm not sure what prevented me from writing this story, but I'm kinda of getting the flow back into me so I'm taking it off of hiatus and putting it back on incomplete. To my long, and new, loyal readers I thank you for being patient with me and let us get this show, hopefully, back on the road.

Last bit of information but I changed the currency from gold, silver and bronze to just a universal commodity that is know as bit in the pony verse. To tell the truth I don't know why I did it before as gold, silver and bronze so sorry for the inconvenience. I also update/revised the chapter, but they are basically the same.

Chapter 11: Battle of the Living Dead Pt.2

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Ben’s PoV:

I don’t know how I was suppose to rationalize what happened so far. It was just a normal weekend of my friends and I chatting about the week we had when out of nowhere we ‘magically’ teleported to the lands of Equestria. On top of that we some how gained powers from the games we were playing: Me with my ability to regenerate and not die from Minecraft; Pedro with his armor, skill set and a functional pipboy from Fallout New Vegas; Manny with the ability to backstab and turn invisible for a brief period of time from Team Fortress 2; and BJ with his armor, sword, shield and dragon shout from Skyrim.

Just one day here felt more like a vivid dream then the reality we were living. Traversing the dark dense forest of the Everfree while fighting off those coyotes and a manticore. How simple, terrifying and even exciting it was to work together like we did as if it was a fond memory we once shared. Meeting the local inhabitants brought forth a new fond memory we could share while also forging new bonds of friendship that would transcend time and space itself. Finally the prospect of setting up a new place for us to call our own. Living in this world and seeing all it could offer brought forth a new resolution for the four of us until a way home was found. Everything was going smoothly...hell I could have even said according to plan...but the world is never kind even in the lands of Equestria.

I don’t remember when I lost sight of BJ as he charged through the horde of the undead nor do I remember meeting up with the others as we stood there shell shocked. All I remember is the image of him apologizing with a sad yet content smile as the magic blast of fire and ice exploded where he stood causing the area to kick up a small, but dense dust cloud. I stood there mouth clenched shut as the event played over and over again like a broken record.

I wanted to convince myself that he was going to be fine. I wanted to convince the others that they were going to be fine, but I couldn’t find the voice nor the words to say anything. I felt my eyes tear up as they rolled down my face like a broken dam. The sobs of the girls could be heard as Rarity used AJ as a crutch while the latter hid her face behind her stetson hat. Pinkie’s puffy hair was straight as it covered her face though tears could be seen as they fell to the earth. Manny was on his knees still trying to comprehend what had happen to our friend as his eyes were glazed over while Pedro stood there. Though his expression was totally unreadable I knew he was mourning for the lost of our friend.

Then laughter filled the air.

It was a sickening one as Raven laughed hysterically. All of us as one glared at him with ill intent, but that only made him laugh harder. “To think I would get three for the price of two. It is just so...hilarious” he spoke and continued his crazed laugh. “What...what makes it even funnier was that the fool thought he was going to be able to stop that blow by merely being a human shield. It’s just so fu-”

“SHUT YOUR FUCKING MOUTH” screamed Pedro, with righteous fury.

Raven merely waved his comment off “Oh come on. You have to admit how ridiculously pointless that act wa-”

“IT wasn’t ah pointless act you...you...” said AJ, struggling to find an appropriate word for him.

“Psychotic douche of a bastard whore” cried out Manny.

“That act was the most honorable and noblest act anyone could do and I will not stand here and hear otherwise” said Rarity, as she notched an arrow into her bow taking aim.

“Oh do not worry” said Raven, with fake pity. “You will soon be joining them shortly” his voice echoing out loudly as his undead army began to encompass us. As we prepared ourselves to fight once more his horn began to glow with power though out of the corner of my eyes I saw something moving from within the dust cloud. ‘...no way must’ve been my imagination’ as I focused on the enemy before me.

“AND with this, this is the end of the line!” he cried out, until a single shard of ice sped right past his cheek grazing him. Losing concentration he soon paused to look for the source of the magic until a hail storm of ice shards rained out from within the cloud.

Not reacting quick enough he raised his hands over his face to protect himself, but the shards never reached him as a wall of the undead converged over their master, shielding him from the blow.

Turning to look at the cloud of dust I could make out two silhouettes kneeling next to one another, but what really caught my eyes was the massive silhouette that seemed to tower over the both of them.

“That’s…that’s not possible” said Raven, his eyes going wide in panic. “YOU SHOULD BE DEAD” his horn glowing with power and fired a few dozen fireballs.

The massive silhouette simple raised one of it’s hand towards the oncoming storm as a white light illuminated the area. As the fireballs reached their target instead of exploding they simply vanished from existence. Raven was left speechless as he stood there while the rest of us just watched the exchange in stunned silence.

The silhouette took one step forwards as it took in a mighty breath of air and shouted to the heavens-

BJ’s PoV:

Death.

I always imagined it to be different. I imagined it to be an endless black sea of nothing or from what I was raised to believe as either a white bearded old guy welcoming me to heaven or some devil looking man welcoming to hell.

Either way what laid before me was a semi dark area with light peaking through. It reminded me of a cool summer day where you would find yourself a nice open field, take a nap and let the stress all go away...oh wait my eyes were just closed. At this realization I slowly opened my eyes only for the world to be a blurry mess of unclarity. Closing my eyes I gave them a few seconds of rest and slowly opened them once more. Looking at the world made me nauseous, but after a few moments the feeling passed and I was able to get a good look at my surrounding.

I was in the same field where I was fighting not a few moments ago, but it was different as I seemed to be floating or maybe a better way to describe it was as if I was in third person mode. Looking around I could see my friends in the distance, though it was hard to see their faces, while behind me Dash and Twilight were huddled together eyes shut. In front of me was the magical blast coming towards me while Raven had a sickening smug grin plastered across his face.

“Well this sucks” I stated, as I tried to move only to be firmly planted at my location. “Well that sucks even more” I continued though to nobody in particular. ‘Well I guess I’m stuck here like this for all eternity...yup this must be hell since this would be a perfect torturing device towards me’ my casual nature got the better of me until I realized I did in fact died.

“Wow I can’t believe how...calm I’m about dying. Either that's depressing, creepy, stupid or all of thee above” followed by a forced laugh that died down just as quickly as it came. “That's it then, I guess”.

I suppose that a small part of me always wanted this, but at the same time not so soon either. I mean there was still so much I wanted or never got to do. Fall in love, get a degree and a sweet job, grow old, have children/grandchildren, play Fallout 4 (what? It’s going to come out…eventually…), beat other video games I never got to play or finish, hit Pedro with a flounder, kick Pedro in the balls, kick him in the balls while slapping him with a flounder...well I guess I could just do the last one and count it as both. You know my life may not have been perfect, but there were some moments that made me happy to be alive, though I guess it doesn't matter now.

I was so lost within my thought that I jumped when I thought I saw something move. Looking at an undead trying to crawl over towards us I shook my head in disbelief ‘Must have been my imagination’ until I watched him for a few more seconds.

He moved.

It was subtle. No more like almost unnoticeable, but by god did it move. I tried to think why this could be happening as I looked every which way making sure I wasn't crazy- which I wasn't- until I looked up. My mouth dropped at what was above me.

I blinked, rubbed my eyes and blinked consecutively for the past minute. Though no matter how many times I did it still continued to stay there as if mocking me.

It was my equipment screen.

It just hanged there as if it belong there from the very beginning. It had four option: Up skills, right items, down map and left magic. After dumbly looking at it for a few minutes I decided to try and access it. I at first thought about where I wanted to go, but nothing happened. Then I tried to apply from what I learned about magic to it, but again nothing happened. I tried about a few more different way of making it work- hell I even tried yelling at it- but the results were just the same. Muttering a few choice words at it another idea formed, one that made me feel stupid for even considering it.

“Pffft yeah right like that's going to work”, but with nothing to lose I decided to try it anyways. Holding my hands up as if holding a controller I moved my left thumb left.

The menu changed as a list of magic popped up before me.

I stood there in stunned silence.

…

“You’re kidding me right?” I asked the screen, but it yielded no response. “You’re telling me we could have accessed the rest of our equipment/power by imagining using our frickin controllers!”

I wanted to rage. I wanted to cuss out who ever did this to us. I wanted to bash my skull against a wall. Hell I would have rather spent a lifetime trapped in a room with Pinkie having to deal with her randomness rather than find out about this, but that could wait right now. My friends and the girls needed me.

Scrolling through the options I looked at all the spells before me, but as it was right now I only needed one. Looking through them all I finally found the one I needed at the moment. Greater ward a spell that would-hopefully-negate his magical attack. Equipping it my hands subconsciously turned over to reveal my palms. A soothing wind wrapped around my hands as they danced around my finger tips. I could feel the magic as it coursed through my veins as it went up all the way towards my wrist. It was a very different yet amazing feeling, but I didn't have the luxury to describe it.

Backing out from the magic menu I almost existed out completely until I remember something else about my ‘character's build’. Moving over towards items a sub-items list popped up where I then went towards appeal. A list of all my cloths/armors popped up, but I ignored most of them for the moment until I found the ones I was looking for.

‘Equipping them’ I felt the object materialize onto my body which was odd since normally I didn't wear jewelry or accessories, but it felt rather normal for some reason. Looking at my right hand a beautiful hand craft-by your truly...technically- silver ring with a ruby red jewel attached itself to my middle finger. Looking at my chest I could also see a equally beautifully crafted silver amulet resting around my neck that had a sapphire in the very center of it. Looking at them I noticed that at first they would glow at different intervals compared to the rest of my armor, but eventually the entire set glew as one.

With that all done now I was ready. Backing out I ‘clicked’ B only for a message to appear in my vision.

It read:

Do not get used to time slowing down as it did, that was a one time thing for your benefit. Other than that have fun and don’t die to quickly. Since there would be no fun in that.
From, A Stone who’s bored

Reading the letter I was utterly confused, but didn’t have enough time to contemplate what it meant as time began once more. ‘I’ll think about it later’ raising my hands I combined the two spells to create a stronger version of the ward before me. Not a moment too soon as the blast crashed right into it. My barrier held strong though some of the magic ran wild as it struck everywhere that wasn’t directly behind me.

A cloud of dust kicked up obscuring my vision, but that didn’t stop me from keeping the ward going. A few seconds later and I could see/feel that the blast was no longer coming towards us. Lowering the ward I made my way towards Twilight and Dash to see how they were doing.

Twilight and Dash at one point opened their eyes and watched me repel the blast as if it was nothing, which in fact is not true. Twilight after a few moments tried to say something, but Dash beat her “THAT WAS-” though I quickly covered her mouth. Making a silent gesture to the both of them they nodded in understanding. Satisfied that they weren’t going to give away our position I moved my hand back to my side. “awesome~” she said quietly.

Remembering Dash’s injury I brought up my menu “How did you do that? I thought you guys didn’t have magic?” asked Twilight, as she observed me curiously.

Sad that time being slow was a one time thing I scrolled over towards Restoration spells and equipped Healing hands. “We don’t” I answered her and backed out of the menu. A warm glow encompassed my right hand as a small orange orb floated on my palm.

Reaching out to Dash I felt the magic do its magic-okay wow that was lame and I feel bad-as orange lights began to swirl around her form. Her once injured wing soon began to close up and after a few seconds closed up completely. Lightly testing her wing she gave a small wince, but other than that she seemed okay.

“However my powers encompasses some magic” I said, unable to see very well I was able to hear where Raven was at least as his sickening laughter continued. Looking back towards the two I asked, “Okay we need to get back to the others. Twilight, do you think you can teleport us back once the dust cloud is gone?”

She thought about it for a second and answered “I think so”.

“Perfect. After that, you girls can probably rest and we’ll take over from there” I said while getting up. They tried to ask what I was thinking, but I ignored them as I tried to focus in on where Raven was.

Going through the magic screen once more I equiped Ice Spike and charged up a shot. “You will soon be joining them shortly” he said, rather loudly. ‘Well ain’t that perfect’ looking towards where I thought he was I then released the shard of ice. With the cloud of dust still obscuring my vision I wasn’t sure if I hit him. Remembering what I read about magic a thought occurred ‘If my dragon shout could become stronger in a cave I wonder what would happen if I were to focus more magic into the spell’. Focusing towards the task I mad-no willed for the spell to work as I released it once more. Instead of a single measly shard of ice a small storm of shards soared towards the same area as before though this time I was able to hear as the shards pierced what sounded like flesh.

‘Did I get him?’ I wondered, only to receive my answer.

“YOU SHOULD BE DEAD” screamed Raven, as an orange color began to make its way towards me.

“That’s a no” quickly raising my left hand I casted greater ward once more. The blast of fireballs merely evaporated into nothing as I stopped the spell. ‘Okay I think it’s time to finish this’ opening up my magic screen once more I went towards my dragon shouts instead of my spells. Finding the right one and backing out once more I took a step forward while inhaling a deep breath of air. Releasing it I shouted to the heavens “Od Ah Viing!” the shockwave of energy parting the dust cloud that surrounded us.

My friends and the girls cheered in happiness for our well being while Raven continued to stare at us with untold confusion and rage. “NO, NO, NO, NO! YOU. SHOULD. BE. DEAD!” throwing another swarm of fireballs towards us.

Raising my hand I activated my spell and blocked his magic once more. The look on his face was priceless as he looked at me profoundly. “Twilight, now!”, though her horn was already glowing with arcane energy as she teleported us over towards the others.

Getting over the disorientation before I could say anything I was assaulted by my friends and the girls as they hugged us to death. “Can’t...breath” I choked out as they finally released us. Before they could ask us what happened I looked towards my friends “Guys to get to your equipment imagine using the controller you were using”.

They just looked at me profoundly and as one said, “What?”

“Look I know how stupidly crazy that sounds, but its the truth”

Pedro and Manny continued to give me a blank stare though Ben had a more thoughtful look on his face. Though that quickly changed as he went bugged eyed followed by the repeating action of blinking as if trying to awake from a dream. “What the…that’s just so…”

“Stupid”

“I was going to with retarded, but that works too” he conceded, as a small brown cube appeared in his hand. Setting it down a crafting table appeared before him its 8-bit weirdness clashing with the real world’s image.

“What in tarnation is that?” asked AJ, while looking at it.

“It’s a” - Ben answered though stopped for a moment- “Actually it’s dead weight right now. Damn if only I had some materia-Rarity!”

“Y-yes?” Rarity responded back.

“Please, please tell me you might have some diamonds on you”

Briefly patting herself she came up empty handed and muttered an apology though a look of realization came over her as she looked at Pedro. He looked at us and we looked at him.

“What?” he asked ignorantly.

“Pedro” I said.

“No seriously I've no-”

“Pedro” Ben and Manny joined in.

“...But...I’m going to be ri-”

“Pedro, just give Ben the diamonds!” we all shouted.

Reluctantly he fished through his coat pocket and gave them to Ben, “You owe me diamonds”.

“Yeah, yeah” with a half-hearted wave he quickly got to work.

“So I guess you weren’t lying about the whole controler thing” commented Manny, as we watched Ben work. Ben’s hands moving so fast that it was hard to keep up with what he was doing.

“Looks like it...which is bullshit because that means I knew about this from the time I leveled up” grumbled Pedro, as he now held a riot shotgun in his hands.

“Oh there we go” as Manny looked up. “Wow this is bizarre and-Hey someone screwed up my loadout!” he then began the laborious process of fixing them.

“Manny worry about that later right now we need…” I paused for a moment since I knew I was going to regret saying it. “Him”.

A look of realization crossed Manny’s face “You don’t mean...him”.

“No” said Pedro, firmly.

“Look Pedro, normally I’d agree with you, but right now we need the Demoknight if we want to survive” those words were poison to my ears.

“I hate to agree, but BJ’s right” Ben commented. We were taken back not by him surprising us, but at the outfit he wore. Ben was now stylishing a full set of diamond armor with a matching sword. Its 8 bit weirdness still clashing horribly with the world. The girls looked at Ben with mild confusion except for Rarity as she marveled at the weird design and Pinke because well...she’s Pinkie.

Pedro let out a low cry for his lost diamonds, but we ignored him as Ben continued “Sure, Manny has been know to...get out of hand, but he has been making progress”.

Looking towards Manny we could see him jumping up in down in excitement. “Improvement huh” said Pedro, unimpressed.

“At any rate this is the game plan” I said, bringing us back to the problem. “Pedro, Ben, you two will be on the defense while Manny and I take care of Raven”.

“You know we could always just snipe him” suggested Pedro, while he made a sniping motion with his hands.

Ben shook his head at him, “You could do that, but we would then lose valuable information”.

I nodded in agreement, “Ben’s correct. There’s something big going on and we need to at least be aware of it”.

“ENOUGH!” cried out Raven, his mane was erratic as it went each and every way while his body began to turn a pale white. “It makes no difference if you have magic or not. I still have an army! What do you have?”

An ear screeching roar filled the air causing everyone to flinch. It was then followed by a streak a flames as the undead army before us was reduced to nothing but ash. A mighty shadow flew by us as it began to circle above. Odahviing was easily as tall as the earthen wall that towered behind me with enough height to rest his head on. His body was a dark maroon red while his wings and underbelly were a dull grayish color.

Raven was left expressionless as he stared at the creature above him. With a smug expression I answered, “We got a dragon”.

“K-k-k-kill them. NOW!” the undead army snapped to attention as they charged towards us.

“Odahviing, make sure none of them get towards that town!” I don’t know if he responded back to my request or not, but I did know he was going to follow my order as another streak of fire covered the sky wiping out the undead pegasi with ease. “Manny you rea-” I didn’t have to finish my sentence as Manny charged head first towards the horde.

Manny was no longer in his Spy suit, but was now adorned in his Demoman outfit. Though instead of his normal shoes he wore the Ali Baba’s Wee Booties, with the Splendid Screen over his left arm and the Eyelander in his right hand...*sigh* he was also wearing the Treasure Hat hat and the Dangeresque, Too? shutter glasses. The undead didn’t know what hit them as he chopped through three of them with ease. Manny then executed the decapitation taunt, slicing through four more “This.Is.Awesome!”

The roar from Pedro’s shotgun filled the air as he released four rounds at the oncoming undead. “We just released a monster”.

“Well better than them then us I suppose” said Ben, as he sliced through the undead with cold efficiency.

“At any rate keep the girls safe” I said while making my way over towards Manny. “This’ll be over before you know it”.

“I still don’t know why we just can’t shoot him” Pedro called out jokingly.

Ignoring him I made my way over towards Manny’s side occasionally burning any of the undead who got in my way. Reaching his side I had to duck out of the way as his blade soared towards me and through two more of the undead. “Manny, focus. I need you to clear a path towards Raven”.

He just nodded with a gleeful smile as he recklessly charged forward. Sighing at the monster we released I soon followed him in his wake. The world before me became a blur of motion and action as the sweet feeling of adrenaline kicked in.

Dodge. Release streak of flames. Take hit. Turn undead to ash. Heal. Follow after Manny. More flames. Smell of undead flesh being burnt...oddly enough smells like jerky. Dodge spell. Shoot stream of ice shards. Block spell. Chase after Manny. With each passing second I became more accustomed to switching in and out of my screen while also on the move.

Manny gets swarmed. Go over to help him only for the pile to explode of body parts flying everywhere. Manny’s injured rushes over to heal him only for him to chop an undead and watch as his wounds heal up. Still hurt, but better than before. Releases twin flames to give him time to recover before we move on. I feel him grab me and pushes me towards Raven. Eyes lock for a moment and I nod in understanding. Manny releases a war cry and charges head first into the undead once more.

I look towards Raven and inhale a deep breath of air. Raven notices me looking at him and he prepares to unleash a spell. “Wuld Nah Kest” I cried, rushing forward at incredible speed. In a matter of seconds I was already a foot away from Raven.

Raising his hands he quickly casted a barrier. As my shout crashed into his spell they cancelled one another out. A small explosion roared out causing us to stumble backwards. Shaking it off we began to circle one another. Our standoff came to an end as Raven releases a streak of flames. Though that was easily blocked by my ward. Retaliating I use the spell ice storm as a small ball of ice creeped it’s way over towards him. He dodge with little effort though that was the plan as I released a hail storm of ice spikes. He smiles smugly as a group of undead sprung up from the ground taking the blow in full earnest.

More undead rose from the ground and surrounded me. “You and your friends should have just minded your own business” said Raven, as he charged up his magic once more.

Mimicking his idea I equipped fire storm-my strongest area of effect spell-and went through the animation for it. Watching me closely he didn’t realize what I was doing until the last second. Two small flames danced around the palms of my hands as I held my pose, “Yeah, but we’re really damn nosey” I respond light heartedly. “This is your last chance. Give up now or face my wrath” my expression making a one eighty as I glare at him.

Pedro’s PoV:

Shoot. Duck. Reload. Shoot. Kick. Dodge. And shoot once more. I fell into a strange dance of sort as I weaved through the never ending horde of the undead.

Behind me the girly ponies were still stunned at the change of events while in front of them acting like a knight stood Ben, his blade cutting through the undead like a hot knife through butter.

“Hey if you girls are just going to stand there could you do it somewhere else” I cried out. “You’re just getting in the way”.

“Yeah says the guy who I kicked his flank without breaking a sweat” said Dash. “Besides I still have enough energy to kick some flank-” trying to take off she made it only a few inches off the ground, but winced as her injury flared up again.

AJ went over towards her down friend and began to supported her “You okay there sugarcube?”

“Peachy”.

“I think what Pedro, is trying to convey is that you girls have done enough and should go take a breather” said Ben, intercepting a few that tried to get by. Motioning towards the wall he continued “Twilight, why don’t you teleport the five of you up on top of that wall you made. It’s probably the safest spots here”.

“But Ben, we can’t leave you guys to fight by yourselves” Twilight said. “This is our mess and we should be the ones to clean it up”. The girls nodded their heads in agreement.

‘Oh brother’, Rolling my eyes I then elegantly made my way towards them. Reaching them in a few seconds I then lightly pushed AJ who lost her balance and crashed into the others creating a dog pile or technically pony pile I suppose. They glared at me with ill intent “What the hay was that for, you jerk” yelled Dash.

Firing a barrage of shots, my gun finally ran low and I was forced to switched over to another. Scrolling through my list I equipped my Weathered 10mm pistol and released a short burst of shots. “Proving a point” I said while reloading my magazine. “You girls are too tired to the point where a simple shove took you all down. I get you want to fix your own problems, but you shouldn’t be afraid to ask for help now and again”.

I could feel them looking at me as if I was speaking another language. “Did you just...show compassion?” said Rarity, awestrucked.

Ben wore a shit eating grin, “Don’t expect that to happen often”.

“Up yours good buddy” giving him the bird I then released another short burst of shots.

AJ sighed, “He might be right, Twi. We ain’t in no condition to be fightin’ no more”.

Twilight released a low steady breath of air, but nodded in agreement. “All right, but if we think you guys need help we’ll come to your rescue”.

“Better than nothing” said Ben, as he ran off to draw the undead’s attention.

As Twilight charged up her spell a wickedly smart idea came to mind. As she was about to release the spell I grabbed on at the last second though did not account for what happened next. “Good lord this would be a dream come true if I wasn’t suppose to be killing me some zombies” as Rarity and Pinkie rested near my lower region.

This got me some unamused looks, but I ignored them. Getting up I made my way towards the lip of the wall and equipped my newly received weapon. The Red Glare was the name of the rocket launcher that I scavenged from the Divide. It reached to about my chest and had a dull green for its base with an image of the old world flag resting at the barrel. Though this baby was special as I completely modded it out with faster rocket speed, faster fire rate and increase zoom.

Taking aim I was ready to unleash a barrage of rockets when suddenly I felt a little patriotic. Clearing my throat I began to sing “O say can you see, by the fuck load of zombies~” as I fired the first round into the horde of the undead.

“What in tarnation is that awful sound?” said AJ, as she covered her ears. ‘Hater’

“It sounds like bad case of diarrhea” said Dash, mimicking AJ’s idea. ‘Well you’re a lesbian bitch, so there’

“It sounds more like a blender blending nails” said Twilight, as she magicked up ear plugs. ‘Well you’re a nerd’

I was waiting for miss prissy pants and hacker pink pony to say something, but soon found they were silent...to silent. Turning around I found out why. Rarity, fainted from my lovely singing while Pinkie, held a white flower as she pretended to have been killed. ‘...Screw it I don’t care’ Reloading I continued my beautiful singing “Where so proudly torn apart, while I laughed my ass off~”.

Arrows and spells whizzed by me as the undead started to focus on me “Who the hell shot at me, because now I’m going to kill you~”. Another barrage of rockets rained down upon the lands as small cluster of red explosion blasted them all to pieces.

Though that didn’t stop them from coming which was fine by me. “Valiantly they march, they were still so gallantly blown apart~” I snickered a bit as I lost my composure, but I was able to get it back under control.

Reloading I continued “And by the rockets’ Red Glare-Ha-,body parts bursting everywhere~”.

The undead soon began to step it up as I was now forced to side step out of harms way every so often. “Gave in that night, and went back to their god damn graves~”.

As the song began to reach its climax I became more reckless with conserving ammo and more focused on explosions, “Why the hell did I start singing~”.

“It was for the shit~”, Firing off a three round barrage of rockets I decided to finish up my song. “And giggles~” as I released the last rounds of rockets that I had on me.

“Whelp your useless now” I said, casually and equipped my light machine gun with it’s beautiful expanded drum mod. With a bow towards my undead audience and then towards the living ones I then jumped off the ledge.

Some would think this was stupid, but I had a plan of sorts. Falling I angled myself to crash into one of the undead pegasi and was successful. Just before we crashed I put him in front of me to cushion the blow. Low and behold my half assed plan worked as I survived with nothing more than bruised legs. The undead that surrounded me shuffled towards me, but I was quicker as I unleashed a hail storm of 5.56mm rounds into every direction.

Continuing my onslaught I felt something was out of place. Like I was forgetting something. As I continued to mow down the never ending horde my light machine gun ran out forcing me to switch to my beautiful CZ57 Avenger mini gun. Continuing my onslaught once more only a few rounds later and that was out of ammunition as well. ‘You know I don’t even remember why I picked you up as you eat through ammunition like there’s no tomorrow’. Shifting through what guns I had left-while dancing around the undead-I equipped my unique cowboy repeater, La Longue Carabine that I ‘liberated’ from someone who was never going to see any real action with her.

She was quite the beauty with her maple like wooden body and her shiny steel bits and pieces. Though there were a few nicks here and there, it just showed that she was one tough customer that also knew how to pack a punch. Also yes she’s a she so get over it. Firing off a few rounds I finally was able to remember what was missing. Scrolling through my pip boy-while firing off a few more rounds-I finally found the radio section.

There were only two option that I had right now: One section said MP while the other said FS. WIth no distinction between the two I choose FS and was rewarded with the ending from a Fallout 3 classic I Don’t Want to Set the World on Fire. ‘Hmm maybe FS stands for Fallout songs or something’ though I was brought out of my thoughts as my girl demanded more ammunition. Treating my women with respect I reloaded her while introducing an undead’s face to the heel of my shoe. Needless to say they didn’t play very nice with one another.

With a quick spin-while pumping the lever-I let loose another few shoots while one of my all time favorite songs from New Vegas began to play (Ain’t that a kick in the head?). “Oh yeah now shit is going to get real” while carving a path through the undead and slowly making my forward.

Manny’s PoV:

Pain. The feeling of blood dripping down my side. A ringing noise is all I could hear. An undead charges towards me. Disoriented I luckily slice his head off. Feeling a bit better. The ringing is gone. BJ is beside me releasing twin streaks of flame. I grab him. Look him in the eye and point him towards Raven. He understands. Gives a nod. I return the gesture and bellow out a war cry as I charge the undead once more.

The pain from before clears my head allowing me to think clearly. Dodge war hammer. Slice head off. Pain from before is non-existent now. Undead soon begin to swarm me from every direction. Barrage of slices deals with the lot easily. They keep coming. I keep swinging. Neither side is making any progress. I attempt to charge forward. Blast of fire catches me off guard. Stumbles back. Feel something swing into my side. Another war hammer. Think I hear a ribs snap. Get knocked to the ground. Feel the undead hold me down while stabbing me with their various weapons. Try to muster strength. Nothing happens. Pain intensifies.

Heartbeat beats like crazy. Adrenaline goes up a notch. Muster strength once more. Able to get sword arm free. Slice an undead. More strength returns. I slice another and another and another each one give me life and energy. I stand back up. Some undead continue to cling to me. Each one stabbing me to slow me down. I move forward. I slice another that tries to jump onto the pile. I see a look in their eye as I continue to make my way forward.

It was fear.

Ben’s PoV:

“Damn” I cursed, my diamond sword finally breaking. It was odd since the entire blade just vanished from existence. ‘That answers one question I suppose’ as I equipped my other yet last diamond sword.

An arrow flies by nearly lodging itself into my skull. I charged forward-adrenaline still pumping strong through my veins- and slice through her clean. With a duck and a roll I take her bow and arrows. I then quickly equip them and let loose a volley of arrows towards a group of undead mages. The arrows find their marks as they now reside in their skulls. Re-equipping my sword I slice through an undead’s sword and decapitate him with one single motion.

I stop for a moment to catch my breath though soon regret it as I am now surrounded. Each undead brings their weapon to bare and strikes where I’m kneeling. I didn’t have time to dodge or kill them all. With no other option I aimed down and began to dig. Three blocks down I went. Reflexively I closed my eyes, but quickly opened them only to come face to face with a very flat war hammer. ‘Anything less than three and I’d have been bashed open like a pinata’. An undead peered down the hole I made. Naturally I introduced him to my sword though now it becomes crowded in my hole.

Before anymore could pop in I began to dig away. Moving about six blocks right I felt safe enough to resurface. Hopping back up to the surface-thanks to the good old place jump trick-I flanked the undead that surround my hole and killed them before they could retaliate. An arcane blast hit me causing me to fall face first to the ground. Shaking the blow off I switched to my bow and fired off a shot towards the mage. The shot held true as the undead fell over and disappeared, but at a price as my bow shattered to pieces in my grasp.

Looking at my equipment I could see that my sword was heading towards limeish green while my armor where all in the low yellows. That didn’t stop me. It couldn’t stop me. I just needed to keep pushing forward. Just a little longer and everything would be over with.

An explosion echoed out for all to hear.

BJ’s PoV:

Raven seriously contemplated my question for a moment as he observed his army being easily repelled by my friends. Closing his eyes he took in a deep steady breath of air and released it as he match me with a determined look. Fast as a whip he released his spell while the undead army encompassed me. Just as they were about to full cover me I released my own spell. A huge explosion of fire roared out for miles as the undead were burnt to ash while Raven’s spell was overpowered by my own.

We both stood there. Raven breathing heavily while I stood there barely breaking a sweat. With a flick of his wrist his blade came out once more. Impaling his hand again I could feel/see Raven’s magic surround him. It was a sickly looking black with splotches of red in between. His already pale skin turned a deadly shade of snow white as he struggled to hold himself up.

Raising his hands he released a storm of fireballs towards my vicinity. I raised my ward up though only a few actually hit while the others soared past me. ‘Man he really like to use that sp-’ while making a balant observation a thought occured. I tried to suppress my laugh, but in the end lost as I held my gut.

Raven glared at me “What is it that you find so funny?”

“Firecrotch” I mumbled out.

“What was that?”

Catching my breath I wore a shit eating grin and cried out in laughter “Your new nickname is Firecrotch”.

He looked at me with a blank expression as the joke went over his head. “HA I get it” cried out Pedro.

I chuckled a bit more though had to stop and throw up another ward. A stream of flames evaporated as it touched my ward. Raven had to stop his assault once more as he took another breather. The short magical boost wasn’t doing him much as the price of being winded and disoriented made it a miracle in itself as he continued to stand.

Allowing him to catch his breath I decided to take the opportunity and see how my friends were doing. They were doing fine-though I didn’t expect anything less- as they held their ground. Though something else caught my attention. In the distance towards Ponyville I could see something make its way towards us. Focusing I finally was able to make out who they were which brought a small smile to my face. Holding their banner high was the Equestrian flag as a few hundred royal guards made their way towards us.

“Well, well, well, looks like the cavalry has finally arrived” I gestured with a nod of my head.

Raven glanced at the direction and merely tsked in annoyance. “Do you think that such a small platoon will be able to change anything? No those guards are weak in body and mind, and will be nothing more than a nuisance” as he waved them off. “What really changed the outcome was you four and that leaves me with one question: Who are you?”

It took me a moment to realize that we did in fact never introduce our selves. I took a few moments to consider how to respond to his query. Satisfied I began “To the man who’s giving piggyback rides to your army is a mercenary. Though this mercenary has the ability to change his class at the drop of a hat. From offensive to defensive to support: each one offers something that the other can’t and each one is just as deadly as the last. He’s the man who know the most random of things and the designated cook of our group. His name is Manny, and he’s the Jack of all trades”.

“To the man who’s decimating your army with nothing more than a flick of his trigger finger is the man who brought independence to New Vegas. A man who: pulled the greatest heist the world never thought was possible, tipped the scale of a war between two tribes, brought order to a land where scientific experiments ran wild and traveled down a road that no man ever wants to do alone. To some he’s referred to as a messiah, but to us he’s the lovable asshole of our group. His name is Pedro, and he’s the Courier”.

“To the man wearing diamond armor-yes it’s diamond armor-is a craftsman of sorts. From monuments to castles to dungeons to traps to armor and blade. He has made most of them by hand with nothing more than with tools, time and imagination. Slayer of zombies, creepers, spiders and pigmen he is also are unofficial tactician/brains of the group. His name is Ben, and he’s the Minecraftian”.

“And finally yours truly”, as I equipped chain lightning in my right hand. A small current of electricity danced around the tips of my fingers, but never strayed any further. “I’m the Arch-mage of Winterhold, Blood-Kin to Orcs, Guild Master of the thieves guild, member of the Nightingales, Harbinger of the Companions, Listener of the Dark Brotherhood and Thane of nine realms. To some I’m dragonborn and to my friends I’m the unofficial leader of the group. My name is BJ, and I’m Dovahkiin or in english ‘Born Hunter of Dragonkind’”.

We stood there in relatively-because of the fighting still going on-silence. “If that was suppose to frighten or impress me then you will be sorely disappointed” responded Raven, horn glowing once more. Bright orange orbs began to appear above our battleground almost blanketing the sky. Though no bigger than a child’s ball I could feel the power that they held which brought a shiver down my spine. “You and your friends have been worthy adversaries, but I no longer have the luxury of waiting any longer” as more and more orbs continued to appear. “This will be the last and final time I say this: This is the end” shouted Raven, only to cry out in pain as a current of electricity enveloped his body.

“You know it’s kind of funny” I said, charging up the spell once more. “I was going to say the same thing”.

He stood there panting in exertion while small sparks of blue electricity danced around his form. Horn glowing once more a black barrier appeared before him blocking a direct shot towards him. He wore a smug smile as he stood there-more and more orbs littering the sky- though I was going to fix that. Releasing the spell he brought his barrier to bare only for the shot to miss and hit the ground behind him. He was going to mock me, but stopped as he cried out in pain once more. Baffled he looked at me wide eye.

You see chain lightning is arguably one of the most useful spells in Skyrim. Not only does it damage health and magicka, but it targets the closest thing in the vicinity. Meaning I could literally miss each shot and it would still jump back and hit my enemies. Not only that, but it could also hit multiple targets. Fighting dragons and other magicians in Skyrim, this spell saved my ass more times than I could count and now I’ll have to add one more to that list.

Straining himself, Raven created two black barriers: one in front and another behind him. I took notice that the orbs decreased in number though were painstakingly appearing back. Equipping chain lightning to both hands I released two shots: one to his left side and one to his right side. Though Raven was confused he was ready this time. As the shots hit the ground beside him they arched towards the openings in his side. Attempting to dodge the attack he soon found it futile as they honed in on him and struck once more.

Another cry of pain escaped his lips as his body spasmed. Unable to hold both barriers up the one behind him disappeared while also more of the orbs vanished from the sky. Breathing heavily he took notice of the sky and realized what my spell was slowly doing. Horn glowing the orbs began to glow a bright orange until I released another chain lightning. Spasming once more he tried again to activate his spell, but another shot forced him to stop. This went on for a few more times each time fewer and fewer orbs were left in the sky. Eventually Raven could no longer hold both his barrier and the orbs in the sky as both disappeared.

Raven unable to bare his own weight fell to one knee breathing heavily. Making my way towards Raven I could hear the undead army making their way towards me. Equipping healing hands and sparks I went Emperor Palpatine on Raven’s ass as blue electricity shot out towards him. Crying out in pain once more as he immediately fell over and spasmed on the ground. As the first wave of the undead reached me I didn’t have to stop as they crumbled before me. Standing over him I did the cruelest-yet very effective means of training-thing in Skyrim as I shocked him while healed him simultaneously. Being careful-since one of my perks has the chance of turning him into a pile of ash-I continued my assault every so slowly lowering his magic.

The undead army continued their advance, but never reached me as they would crumble into dust. As the last of the army was put down rays of sunlight cut through the dark clouds bringing warmth and light to the area once more. With his magic depleted I stopped my assault and left him there to spasm. Walking over towards the side of the hill I could see my friends making their way over towards me backed up by the girls who were backed up by the royal guards. In the distance I could see Odahviing flying away, with his job done he had no reason to linger any longer.

With adrenaline leaving my body I felt exhaustion hit me like a brick to the face. The heat that I was radiating began to make the suit of armor very uncomfortable. Going towards my equipment screen I equipped ‘casual cloths’-as that was what it labeled them-and was now sporting simple blue jeans, black shoes and a steel gray shirt.

“Don’t think that this is over” Raven said, his voice hoarse as he struggled to stand. Watching him it took him only a few moments to get his bearings, but he was still on the verge of keeling over. “This is merely the appetizer to the events that will unfold. And once my master learns of my demise he will come here himself to take care of all of you” he smiled with a crazed look in his eyes.

“You still haven’t explain to us why this is happening in the first place or who is behind all of this” I questioned, while glaring at him though the world around me began to go dark. ‘What the?’ as sleeps tight grip took hold of me. I fought to stay awake long enough to hear his answer, but it was on deaf ears as only bits and piece could be heard. Unable to hold my own weight up I fell to one knee barely keeping myself awake.

Raven finished answering my question-though I didn’t hear a lot of it- brought out his dagger. Fear creeped into me as I was unable to defend myself only to be shocked as to what he did next. Grasping his dagger with both hands he pierced his own heart. What life was left in his eyes were gone as his body fell over. I could hear the cries of my friends calling out to me, but soon joined Raven on the ground as sleep took hold of me.

Chapter 12: A Tale of Three Friends

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A Night on the Town

Pedro’s PoV:

We rushed BJ to the hospital and we were now twiddling our thumbs waiting for the news. Though my medical skill were only in the forties I was still able to deduce that he was not going to die which brought a sigh of relief from everyone. While waiting the guards-rudely-began to question what had happen. Personally I wanted to tell them to piss off, but was out voted.

To make matters worse they had only males interview me instead of females. Could you believe it? A hot stud like me being denied any alone time with some good looking female soldiers-who are mostly looking for an excuse to have a good time, at least according to some pornos that I’ve watched-just because those guys were jealous. The nerve of some people I tell ya what.

The sun set a few hours ago as we continued to wait for some sort of news. The girls refused to leave-even after telling them they could go home if they wanted or need to-as they stubbornly stayed put even after Rarity and Fluttershy fell asleep. It was pretty cute how they used one another as a pillow. Thier-very lovely-chest rising and falling in synch with one another at a low steady rate. Hell I could have sworn they were lightly snoring if I wasn’t lost within my music.

So I also figured out what MP was. Turns out MP stood for My Player-or what I’m labeling it anyways-as it held every song I’ve ever listen too. Don’t get me wrong I loved the songs from both Fallouts, but listening to the same song over and over again can drive anyone nuts. Looking at you Johnny Guitar.

About half an hour later and the doc final came out and delivered the news. He said BJ was going to be fine and started to explain what happen. Uninterested in the jargon he was spewing I later asked Ben to sum up what he said. Basically it was magic exhaustion. When I gave him a blank look he explained that BJ used up to much magic-somewhat similar to what Raven was doing- and was using his life force essentially. That didn’t make much sense to me and explained as so because I’ve could have sworn that was what his armor was suppose to prevent. Ben was just as lost and with no knowledge of the subject just shrugged his shoulders.

So there we were-a little around nine pm-standing around BJ. He looked peaceful while he was resting. His breathing slow and steady as he matched the low beep of the heart monitor hooked up to him. ‘I really wish I had a marker right now’ though a dick move it’d still be hilarious.

Knowing that BJ was going to be fine we all started to leave and head home though Ben pulled Manny and I to the side for a moment. Telling the girls we’d be along shortly we waited until they were out of earshot. After finding a table to sit down and talk I asked, “So what’s up?”

“Don’t you find it strange the moment we arrive here in town thing go crazy” said Ben, as he shook his head in disbelief. “It just seems like too big of a coincidence”.

“Well the Doctor did say we were apart of something going down so it might not be that big of a stretch” responded Manny, as he lit up a cigarette. Manny was back in his spy outfit and when asked he simply said ‘It just feels comfortable’. He also had to be a smartass and point out that I was still in my riot gear.

“I know, I know”, as Ben waved his hand defensively. “It just-” as he struggled to search for the right words “-feels so sudden I guess. I mean we got lucky that BJ figured out how our powers worked, but who knows what dangers will come next”.

Growing tired of the conversation I decided to throw in my two bits, “Ben, it’s true that we got lucky and that we’ll never know what will come next, but to worry about something that may or may not ever happen is pointless. Instead we should just get ourselves prepared as much as possible and went shit gets real-” a smug smile plastered on my face “-we’ll invite them through the front door and kick them out the back”.

It didn’t take long for that to sink in as they match me with their own smiles. “It’s a cold day in hell when, Pedros the one motivating us” said Manny, as we all shared a laugh.

“Yeah well tough shit” getting up I said my goodbye. “I don’t know about you guys, but I’m not that tired yet so I’ll see you some time tomorrow”. Before I completely left I asked, “Same plan still right? Find some jobs and what not”.

Ben responded with a yes and we parted ways. True to my word I didn’t head back to Rarity’s home, but instead strolled around the town. With too many thoughts plaguing my mind sleep was at the bottom of the list and I figured might as well do something productive. I noticed some for help signs though none of the places really appealed to me, but I still noted the locations since beggars can’t be choosers.

About an hour past when I stumbled upon a few drunk saps sleeping in the park. Glancing around I saw no one else in the vicinity. My mischief side took over as I searched their pockets for money. All together they had twenty bits. Annoyed I carefully put them next to one another and quietly laughed as they began to cuddle with one another. With that done I left.

A few minutes past until I heard something in the distance. Still not tired I decided to investigate the noise and came upon a night club. It was located near the edge of town-probably to keep the noise from bothering everyone-however it looked more like a warehouse than a club. On the face of the building there was a vinyl with a blue scratch going down the middle. Looking at the entrance my jaw nearly dropped as I saw the line to get in. It snaked around building as it made it way to what I guess was the center of town.

‘Whoa this must be one popular place for such a line’ looking at the small amount of bits-which is what my pipboy labeled them-I knew that this was an insufficient amount to bribe the bouncers to let me in.

Looking around the building I found a backdoor behind an alley that was cleverly hidden to make the frame/material to look like the building. Walking past the alleyway to look inconspicuous-yes big words I do know them people-I brought up my inventory and equipped my MK2 stealth suit.

“Hello it’s nice to meet you. Who can I hide you from today?” spoke a feminine voice, though low enough where I could only hear her.

Sneaking back towards the alleyway with the door it was a good idea too as a bouncer walked right by me. He didn’t even bat an eyelash as I stood only a few inches from him though I still didn’t dare to move until he turned the corner. Releasing a breath I didn’t know I was holding I continued and got to work on the door. Three bobby pins later and I was in.

I was in a back room that held an assortment of equipment with electric wire going every which way. Being careful I snuck my way around-making sure I wouldn’t unplug anything-I eventually found a janitors closet. Sneaking in I looted the area, came up five bits richers and with a map that detail the inside of the building. Plotting my course I brought my pipboy to bare and changed outfits.

I was now stylishing a black tuxedo with red trims. I got this suit back in Dead Money and even though it was meant for females-since it is called Vera’s outfit- it was stylish as fuck. Plus I didn’t want to stand out-which most of my outfits would do-so I was left with no other choice. Besides let’s not forget Fallout logic makes no sense. I mean seriously a male character wearing a dress yet it somehow magical transforms into a tuxedo. That makes just as much sense as a group of friends being teleported to another world…*cough* moving on.

Fixing my collar I stepped out and made my way towards the dance floor. I got a few looks here and there though the way I walked made it seem like I owned the joint so they ignored me. That’s how it’s done ladies and gents: confidence...plus blackmail since I’m pretty sure they weren’t suppose to be playing poker back here.

Arriving at the heart of the building I soon understood why this place was so popular. The most amazing beats blasted out from all direction though loud you could still hear bits and pieces of chatter going on. In the center techno lights constantly changed with the beat while partygoers danced their hearts out. Most of the party goers were wearing glowsticks to help give the joint a party goers paradise. Guys were dressed stylish and classy while girls were dressed alluring and hip. Needless to say I’m happy that I came. One corner of the room held a bunch of tables, booths and cushion to rest on while the other side had a huge bar area for drinks. Needless to say that’s where I went first.

Ten bits later and I had three drink flowing through my system. I was also pleased to hear that you only had to be over eighteen to drink. As I leaned my back towards the bar I noticed not only a second level to this place, but there was also a booth hovering over the dance floor. I assume she was the DJ, her electric blue hair bobbing up and down as she matched the beat. I couldn’t see much else noticeable beside the pretty cool shades she was sporting.

“AW YEAH THIS IS DJ PON-3 AND HOW IS EVERYPONY DOING TONIGHT!” she cried out, the music barely hearable in the background. A loud roar from the crowd responded back some saying they love her while some asking to marry her. Hell I think I heard one person actually answer the question and said he was doing fine.

“THATS GOOD, THATS GOOD” as she nodded in agreement. “BUT YOU KNOW WHAT WOULD MAKE THIS NIGHT EVEN BETTER?” the crowd responded back with mixed cheers and asking what. “A FREE ROUND OF DRINK”. That got everyone cheer of approval. “AND GOOD ALL DJ PON-3 CAN HOOK YOU UP IF YOU ANSWER THIS ONE QUESTION” pausing she waited for the crowd to be dead silent and asked “WHO’S THE MOST HAPPENING, AWESOME, COOLEST DJ PONY IN TOWN?”

As one the crowd roared, “DJ PON-3!”

After that she sent a message to the bar tenders who were now working overtime to pass out drinks to everyone. Being close I was able to get one before I was rudely pushed out of the way. Shaking my head in annoyance I was pleased to announce that my shot was still safely within my grasp. Taking a sniff of the drink it smelt rather pleasent-like cinnamon-and I took the shot. I was right in my deduction as the burning cinnamon taste went down to my gut. Setting the glass down I made my way towards one of the ends of the bar and waited in line. After a few moments-and a little light flirting and persuasion-I scored another free shot.

Downing that shot things became a little fuzzy.

~~~~~~~~~

“Ow my head”, I moaned as I rubbed my head and slowly opened my eyes. The bright light of the street lamb made me pause for a moment, but I soon adjusted to the brightness. Bringing my arm to bare I checked the time to see that is was about three in the morning. ‘Man what happened?’ as my mind tried to piece together the events of the previous night.

I remembered getting a second shot and then I did something. Dance? No that was later. Relaxed no that was after danc-Oh wait I went over to talk to some people. Yeah, we were having a good time talking about the girls in the club when one of them dared me to go talk to a group of them. My drunk ass took that dare and I...failed? No thats not right I...won? Yeah I got a few of their address or something and rubbed it in the guys faces. They left a little after that though did buy me another round. I’d never forget them. I think there names were Steve or Carl.

After that dancing-considering it was me it must have been epic (it was not)-and after an hour or so I felt tired. I then went over towards some sofas to get some rest though I think I got some colts address...what don’t judge they bought me more booze. Being near a group of girls I struck up some conversation though one of their brothers didn’t like me being so touchy. Not liking his face I punched him. Guess the bouncers didn’t like that and threw my happy ass out on the curb which would explain why I’ve been laying on this pile of-rather comfy and surprisingly not smelly-trash.

‘Should probably head back before Rarity notices I’m not there’ though an adult and able to do what I want, I was not looking forward to the hangover and the possibility of some one yelling at me. Getting up I used the wall as a crutch though had to pause as the world around me began to spin. A few seconds of rest and I began my journey ‘home’. Walking down the main street I at some point equiped my riot gear armor since the helmet kept some of the glare of the lights from abusing my poor eyes.

About a few minutes past-though that was because I thought I was going to hurl, which I didn’t-and I was about a third of the way back when suddenly I thought I heard a muffled cry for help. At first I past it off as the alcohol messing with me though that was until I heard it again once more. Turning my EFS on-since there were so many people in town the blue ticks drove me crazy-I looked around and wasn’t surprised by the amount of blue ticks. However after a few moments of searching I came upon three red ticks.

Carefully making my ways towards them I came upon three males-one a unicorn and two just earth ‘ponies’, or so I’ve been told-surrounding one female. There was nothing else distinguishable about them-since the night vision that the riot gear helmet provides didn’t really help show color just images-though it didn’t take a genius to figure out what was going on. They were going to rape her.

One of the earth ‘ponies’ held her arms down with one hand while the other hand covered her mouth. Her shirt was completely ruined as her bra was the only thing saving her from being completely exposed. Her pants were still in fine shape though that was probably because of her cries for help, and even then that wouldn’t last long as the second earth ‘pony’ got to work on taking them off.

Rage began to bubble deep with in me-either that or that was the alcohol again- as I brought my pipboy up and scrolled through my weapons. You can call me what you want: an asshole, a pervert, a sexist pig, a douche and etcetera, but if you dare try to compare me to one of these sick bastards than we’ll have a problem.With most of my guns out of ammo I was only left with a scarce few options. Even then a third of those were either to bulky for the job, to deadly for what I wanted to do or I had to get in close proximity. That left me with only one option. Equipping the Mysterious Magnum I felt its presence on my right hip.

Preparing myself I almost drew the gun only to forget one simple little detail. Two of them were standing near or in front of girl. I tsked at my blunder and tried to come up with a new plan, but was unable to as they finally got her pants a little half way down her legs. My vision turned red as I charged around the corner recklessly.

The unicorn barely took notice of me as I shoved him into the wall hard. This got the Earth pony’s-near the girl’s legs-attention as he sprung up. He didn’t make it far as I punched him in the gut. Keeling over he held his gut and tried to settle his stomach though I wasn’t done as I kicked him in the gut once more. Some fluids spewed out of his lips as he fell over.

Satisfied for the moment I turned my attention to the other earth pony until a light began to illuminate the area. Ducking I barely dodge a blast of magic aimed towards me courtesy of the unicorn. Gathering the dirt from the ground I chucked it at the unicorn before he could aim at me again. The Khan’s trick worked like a charm as the dirt blinded him long enough for me to smack him hard in the face while his body smacked against the wall as equally hard.

“D-d-don’t move or she gets it” cried out the survivor of the rapist group.

Turning towards him I could see him holding the girls hostage as he shakingly held a dagger near her throat. My heart ached for the girls as she stood there tears rolling down the side of her cheeks. If the situation wasn’t so dire I’d have noted that she was pretty damn good looking. On a side note I took notice of a horn sticking out from her forehead.

My right hand reached towards my weapon and with the most convincing voice plausible I said, “Don’t worry everything's going to be fine. Trust me”. It must have worked as she gave me a weak smile. Fixing the survivor with a glare I continued,“You still have a chance to walk away from this relatively unharmed. Just let her go”.

The other two goons got up and slowly worked out the pain from our scuffle. “I don’t know what type of hero crap you're trying to pull, but this is the end of the road for you Mr. hero” the unicorn snarled as he stalked towards me the other earth pony doing the same.

“All right you dumbasses, you asked for it” quickly drawing my weapon a tune played out. As the bozos tried to locate the source of the sound I activated SATS. The world before me slowed down to a crawl as I was able to take in all the little detail of the alleyway.

Trash cans lined the walls helping them hide incase someone was either using it as a shortcut or was hammered and lost. The intersection in the alleyway didn’t go very far only a few inches from the main path, but still deep enough that unless someone was really perceptive would only imagine seeing shadows moving.

Using the assistance of the targeting computer I lined up my shots and let SATS do the rest. My first shot tore through the unicorn’s leg as he let out a roar of pain. The second shot did the same to the earth pony as it did to the unicorn as they both laid on the ground wailing in pain while holding their hurt limb. The last earth pony tried to slice at the girls neck, but my third shot held true as the bullet knocked the dagger out of his hand. Confused he was too slow to react as my fist connected with his face. Letting out a cry of pain he released the girl and tried to take a swing at me. I easily ducked out of harms way and placed my gun against his leg.

Panic rose in his face as he saw what it did to his friends. “Wait can’t we wor-” he didn’t get to finish his sentence as the bullet tore through his left leg. Crying out in pain he joined his friends on the ground.

Shooting another shot in the air I got their attention. “Try anything and the next one will go in your skull” I threatened. They immediately shut up though an occasional whimper escaped their lips. Dragging them to one side I told them to sit. They complied and sure that they weren’t going to try anything I brought my attention to the girl.

Reaching her side she flinched away from me as she continued to shake in fear. Remembering that the ruined clothes she was wearing was not a fashion statement I took off my riot gear’s duster and draped it over her. She looked at me wide eyes and without a second thought began to hug me. I felt a blush formed as she continued to hug me while occasionally sobbing out a thank you. Reloading my gun I then aimed myself so that I could keep an eye on the rapist squad. Sitting down and leaning against the wall the girl continued to use me as a crying post. I was okay with this given the situation she went through. It was just a tiny little inconvenience that I could get through.

A half an hour past until the royal guards showed up. Explaining to them what happened they said they’d take it from here. Normally I’d have left, but considering the girl didn’t have a spare change of cloths on her-and if I wandered off to far she’d be left half naked walking home about four thirty in the morning-I decided to linger around for a bit longer.

A few of the guards were talking to her asking some basic question. Waiting for them to be done I then walked over towards her. “Hey you doing okay miss?” I asked, with as much sincerity as I could muster.

She just nodded her head.

An awkward silence held the air between us. I sighed, “So listen I need to get going home, but well” as I looked at my duster she put two and two together. She nodded her head once more and slowly began to take it off. Before she got even remotely close I stopped her. “Hey. Whoa. Hold on that’s not what I meant”. Fixing it so no one could see anything I continued “I don’t mind letting you borrow it, but well the guy who made this outfit put a uh enchantment on it” lying through my teeth I didn’t stop, “Basically if I walk too far out of proximity of it, it will teleport to me, but seeing as you need it more than I do right now I propose that I escort you back home” putting on my best smile. I mentally face palmed as I recalled that my helmet was still on.

She was deep in thought. I could see the conflict in her eyes, but not only that the fear and memories of what happened a few moments ago. I wouldn’t blame her for not trusting me-a complete strange, who’s also a guy-after what she went through. After what felt like forever she said in the lowest voice possible, “Okay”. Offering her my hand she shied away at first, but eventually took hold of it.

As we made our way towards her home the guards tried to stop us, but with a little persuasion-plus a light dose of intimidation-we were back on our way. The light from the sun barely scratched the surface of the horizon as we walked the empty streets of Ponyville. A dead silence hung in the air between us, the only sound that could be heard were our own foot steps. At one point I took my helmet off-hoping that maybe if she saw my face it might make her more relaxed around me-though it didn’t work I was now able to see her features more clearly.

Her hair was two shades of blue: one cyan blue while the other was a darker shade. She stood at equal height with me-profound sadness-with magenta colored eyes, with a white horn and a ‘cutie mark’ of some sort of musical note. I think I might have accidentally noted it-though was not appropriate at the time-but she was good looking. Though a nagging presence in the back of my head insisted that I knew her from somewhere.

Racking my brain it took me a few minutes till I remember. “I like your music. It was pretty damn awesome”. This caught her off guard as she looked at me confused. “Your DJ Pon-3 aren’t you? Because if not this just got even more awkward”.

She was silent for a moment-occasionally glancing my way-but eventually responded back, “Yeah the one and only” with forced enthusiasm. “So what do you want me to sigh? Record? Shirt? Chest? Butt cheek? That cost you extra”. I could tell that was a well rehearsed line though it seemed…fake or not the normal way it should have been said.

I waved my hand at her, “No, no I’m good. Honestly-though extremely talent-tonight was the first night I’ve ever heard of you” she seemed surprised at that though didn’t say anything.

Silence descended down on us again until, “So what gave it away? I mean I know my ‘disguise’ isn’t grand or anything, but most folks-unless they’re true fans-never recognize me without my shades”.

I thought about it for a moment and then shrugged, “To tell the truth I took a shot in the dark”. She raised a brow at my response and I elaborated, “Well your hair color were similar, but that doesn’t mean shit since I saw like ten other ponies with the exact same color scheme in the club. I knew Pon-3 was female and last I checked your not a dude” that got a slight snicker out of her. “Other than that just dumb luck I suppose”.

“You were at my club tonight?” I nodded my head. “I thought you looked familiar, but I still can’t place it” as she was now deep in thought.

“Do you tend to remember every face or just the good looking ones?” Damn am I smooth.

She snorted and shook her head, “No only the ones that cause problems” damn, “and sometimes the cute ones” a sly smile splayed across her lips.

Scrolling through my pipboy I brought up my clothes and was about to equip my suit-to help her remember-until I remembered what would happen if I did so. Dropping the outfit I unfolded it and held it in front of me, “Maybe this will jog your memory”.

“...You were wearing a dress?” she asked, half of her wanted to laugh while the other half wanted to see if I was serious.

Looking at the outfit it was indeed a dress instead of a suit. “Uh well” as I struggled for the right words. “In my defense it makes my hips stand out like theres no tomorrow”.

We stood there as I waited for her to get that I was kidding, but a part of me thought she wouldn’t. Then she laughed. It was an honest to god true laugh as she held her sides. I soon joined in laughing at the idea of me wearing this dress. ‘I would still look damn sexy’.

Getting over our laughing fit we walked side by side smiles still plastered on our faces. “Thanks” she said abruptly, as she wore a sincere smile. “I really needed that”.

“No prob, its what I do” besides looking sexy and being a badass. After that we made some light conversation, but before we could get any further we arrived at her home. It was on the other side of Rarity’s home-meaning I had a long walk waiting for me-as I escorted her to the front door. It was a simple two story house with yellow paint and some flowers hanging on some of the window sills.

Unlocking the door she slipped in and took my duster off. Handing it to me I put it back on, “Thanks. For everything”, she smiled sincerely once more.

“Like I said it was no problem” as I adjusted the duster to settle back into place. “Guess I’ll see ya around” turning to leave I didn’t get far as I felt her hand grab my duster.

Turning to look at her she hesitate for a moment, but soon gave me a determined look. “Are you still looking for a job?” she asked. I remember at one point I mention that to her, but that was merely for conversational purpose. I replied back with a yeah and her eyes lit up for some reason. “The truth is Pon-3 is rather famous to the point where fans get a…little out of hand sometimes” I could understand that. Back home celebrities would have body guards or high tech security to keep them safe and given that this place doesn’t look very technologically advance they’d have to rely on other means.

“Truth of the matter is, my bodyguard had to leave because of a new hole in his leg” she winced slightly as memories began to play in her head. It took only a second to understand what she implied and it took all of my willpower to not run back across town and kick the living shit out of all three of them.

It then occurred to me where she was going with this, “Wait you want me to take his place? Don’t get me wrong I’m flattered and all, but we’ve just meet. Why me?” This was a very sudden turn of events and the surprise in my voice didn’t go unheard.

She shrugged, “Why not? You need a job and I need a bodyguard. Win-win”.

“Do you normally give jobs to random strangers?”

“Only to the ones who saved me out of the kindness of their heart and not for personal greed”. With a tired sigh she added, “Look I know this crazy and like you said we barely met, but theres something about you that-” as she struggled for the right words. What ever she was trying to say it was long gone in her train of thoughts. Shaking her head she spoke once more, “I don’t know how to put it in words, but it just seems like a good idea”.

“I don’t expect you to take the job, but the offer-”

“No I’ll take it” I responded without hesitation.

“-is really good. Good pay, free-limited-drinks and-Wait did you just say yes?” she question, surprised at my immediate response. I just shrugged and nodded my head. She stared at me with disbelief for a few moments before she regained her wits, “Okay now I’m confused. Why were you so questioning about it in the first place?”

“I was skeptical at first, but after seeing that you were serious I thought ‘why not’”, as I shrugged once more. “Besides this would probably be one of the only jobs here that I’d actually find some enjoyment in it”.

Turning to leave I walked down the steps when she-quietly-called out, “Wait don’t you want to hear the rest?”

I casually waved her off, “Nah I figured it so late that we need to salvage what sleep we can get and discuss it the next time we meet”.

Changing my direction towards Rarity’s home I caught something out of the corner of my eye. “Catch” she cried out, though making sure to keep it low to not disturb anypony.

With cat like reflexes I caught it-after it smacked me in the face-and looked inside. There were bits about a few hundreds worth, “Hey whoa, whoa, whoa what’s this all about?”

“Think of it as not only as an early payment, but a thank you for saving me” a sincere smile splayed across her luscious lips once more. With a wave she cried out one last time, “Come back here in about three days and we’ll discuss what your job entail”.

Before she could close the door I waved my goodbye, “The Name’s Pedro by the way. And later”.

“Vinyl and see you soon” with that she was gone and I was left in the middle of the street alone.

Glancing towards my pipboy I saw it was almost five. With a sigh I started to track my way back home until a thought occured, ‘I got a job before everyone else...’ As the realization kicked in I changed course towards ‘Sweet Apple Acres’ a mad grin splayed across my face. ‘I’m so going to go rub it in Ben’s face’.

Chapter 13: A Tale of Three Friends pt 2

View Online

Building a home

Ben’s PoV:

After talking to Pedro and Manny, I began my trek towards Sweet Apple Acres. On the way there I passed city hall and noticed a light on. ‘If we’re going to be living here we can’t freeload off the girls forever’ with that thought in mind, I decided to go talk to the mayor about possible homes that are available for purchase.

The inside of the building is what I’d figured it to be. I was in a lobby with some wooden chairs off to the side that lead straight to a secretaries desk. There were some colorful paintings-ranging from actual art to poorly drawn ones-from the school that lined the walls. A few small roundtables were evenly spaced between the chairs, and offered a variety of magazines to read while waiting.

Reaching the desk, I noticed a closed sign that listed the times that they would open/close. Looking around the room I saw a clock that said it was nine thirty five-which was barely five minutes past the time that they closed-and two hallways leading further into the building. With a dejected sigh, I turned and began to walk out until a low cough caught my attention.

“Hello is there something I can help you with?” She was wearing a light greyish business suit with a green puffy tie, and was carrying a light tannish bag stuffed full of papers. Her eyes were a shade of blue, while her hair was a two-tone grey.

“Mayor Mare?” I questioned, to which she responded with a nod of her head. “It’s nice to meet you. My name’s Ben”.

I held out my hand for her to shake, to which she greeted me in return. I noticed that her cutie mark was that of a scroll tied up by a blue ribbon. “I was originally going to set up an appointment, but considering I’m late I’ll just come back tomorrow and try later”.

“Oh, nonsense. Please follow me”. With a gesture of her hand she beckoned me to follow as she walked towards her office.

Following after her, I caught up and walked side by side with her. “I appreciate what you're doing, but don’t you want to go home? It is kind of late.”

“Oh don’t worry about it.” Waving me off with little to no care. We turned a corner and began to climb up some stairs. “To be honest the only reason folks come down here now a days is to complain.” She chuckled slightly at her comment while shaking her head in disbelief, “Growing up I always wanted to be a mayor though I was expecting more paper work and committee work rather than playing foal sitter, but I still wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.”

Reaching a door she held it open for me as we finally arrived at her office. It would have been rather spacious if it wasn’t for the piles upon piles of papers that littered the office. Leading me around the stacks she offered me a seat as she sat down in her chair. Sitting down I thanked her and explained how I was looking for a home to buy. Shifting through the piles of papers she eventually brought a stack over and began to show the many available properties that Ponyville had to offer.

I looked over each one carefully, but each one had two things in common: they weren’t able to accommodate more than a family size worth of people and the prices were rather high on most of them. When I asked why she told me that it’s because of how small the town is compared to other settlements. That and most of the reservoirs fall under the jurisdiction of other towns. Allowing them to legally charge a bit more for maintaining the water way and distribution to Ponyville.

Of course I assumed that the price was reasonable-I mean if it was ludicrous I’m quite sure the Princesses would have told them otherwise-, but it still wasn’t right. Finding a few homes I asked some basic question like: Could we add on to the house, how much would it cost to purchase or lease, what utilities or taxes would we have to pay and etcetera.

Mayor Mare was very forthcoming and respectable about the answer. Which were: Yes but will cost extra, a big down payment first then a monthly or quarterly plan and we’d have to pay a minimal for utilities regardless of how much we use which also includes taxes.

I could see the bill getting bigger and bigger as the price...actually I’m not honestly sure how much would be considered a lot considering they use a different currency compared to back home. I weighed my option and asked, “Is there anyway I could purchase a plot of land?”

She mulled it over for a moment and shuffled through some more papers. “I think we might have a few spots open, but I need to double check.” Excusing herself she left me in her office for a little while.

Bored I looked over the previous options just incase my idea of building my own home didn’t work out. About twenty minutes passed as I was able to get my options down to two when Mayor Mare finally came back with another pile of papers. Scrolling through the papers at incredible speed she pulled out a single piece of paper and placed it before me. “Sorry it took so long, but it appears this is the only one left.” Turning the piece of paper for me to get a better look at.

The plot of land was half the size of a football field. The initial price racked up to about eight hundred bits, but after wards-accounting taxes-the rent would be eighty bits. When I asked why she told me that the utilities weren’t apart of the deal and that the plot of lands was technically not a part of Ponyville’s district so it didn’t have to be charged for that unless we hired contractors to make a water system that connect to Ponyville, in which case we would then have to pay. I asked if she could show me on a map of where it was located and she did. I now understood why it was-relatively-cheap as the plot of land was basically near the border of the Everfree Forest.

I mulled over the options splayed before me. On one hand it was cheap compared to the other offers, but they offered security while the plot of land did not. Sure with our powers we could-probably- fend off anything that came our way, but I did not want to live in a home where I had to keep one eye open. On the other hand we would not be bound by utilities or on how big our home could be, allowing us free reign on what to do.

In the end I caved and offered to purchase the plot of land. In the long run I thought it was a better investment especially considering how much money we actually had. As she began to fill out the paperwork I explained to her that at the moment I didn’t have the money. That didn’t bode well with her, but after a half hour discussion we were able to come to a compromise.

Thanking her once more for her time I bid her farewell and made my way towards the plot of land. Overgrowth of grass and weeds littered the area along with a few wrappers, but other than that it looked pleasant enough. It was high up on a hill allowing water to flow down meaning we wouldn’t have to worry about rain. Though it wasn’t steep enough that if it snowed or iced over we would still be able to get home. Looking the area over I mentally began to calculate the most optimale house size while taking into account: how far away we wanted to be from the forest, if I wanted to make traps to ward creatures away and if I wanted to make our home part underground or have it go a few stories high.

By the time I settled on a basic idea of what I wanted to do the moon was slowly arcing it’s way back down just as the sun began to come up. With the blueprint lodged within my mind I then realized a problem. I didn’t have any material to which to build our home from. And it’s not like I can just go around and take an entire mountain or forest apart for the material I’d need like in Minecraft.

I tsked at my blunder now regretting not asking to buy an actual home. ‘Well it’s not like it’s set in stone. I could always ask her tomorrow if we could still purchase one’, though sad at the prospect of not being able to create a wickedly awesome home for ourselves it was just an annoying inconvenience.

Heading back to Sweet Apple Acres another thought occurred, ‘Regardless I still have the problem of getting enough bits for at least a down payment’. Arriving back onto the main path I changed course that lead me back ‘home’. “Maybe I could ask AJ for a loan”, I mused though felt awful about the idea. “I’m sure she would be willing, but how would I pay her ba-Wait what if I offered to work for her”, as the idea came to me. “If I did that it’d be me only asking for an advance payment rather than a loan. Plus it seems like they are short staffed so it could work out.”

Moving at a quicker pace I made it back just as the light from the sun illuminated all over the farm. The sight was breath taking as I stood there and admired the view. That didn’t last long as I remembered what I had to do. Entering the house I saw signs of them being there only a few moments ago. Sighing I went back outside and began to look for any signs of the Apple family. With nothing showing up I made my way towards the barn in hope of finding somepony.

Again I was out of luck. With a dejected sigh I began to make my way out until I caught sight of Pedro. “Pedro, what are you doi-”, I didn’t get to finish as he put his hands over my mouth.

Breathing heavily-as if he ran a marathon-,he took his sweet time in catching his breath. Removing his hand he commented, “Okay I need to start running again because damn am I tired”, as he rested his hands on his hips.

“If that’s what was so important to tell me, I’ll be going now.” I said with a hint of annoyance while making my way outside.

“Guess who got a job”, Pedro asked rhetorically. I turned to him in disbelief as he pointed at himself. “This good looking mother fucker. Boo-Ya!” As he laughed mockingly.

My mouth dropped to the floor as I looked at him. Blinking a few times in an attempt to see if I was dreaming-which I wasn’t-I eventually was able to say, “How?”

“Eh, details aren’t important, but let’s just say I’m awesome like that.” Smiling smugly he scrolled through his pip-boy, pushed a button and a bag full of bits appeared before me. “Before you say I stole it, I didn’t and this is my down payment.” His smug smile growing even bigger. “How do you like me now, Mr. Eagle Scout.”

I stood there and processed the information for about five minutes. Nodding my head in fake understanding I made my way over towards a bunch of tools hanging on the racks. Pedro said something, but I ignored him as I grabbed a pitch fork and looked it over. Making sure it was sturdy I then impaled my head with it. An explosion of pain roared out throughout my body though thankfully it lasted for only a moment. Reappearing over the tool I picked it up and placed it back in its place.

Looking back at Pedro-and much to my demise- the bag of bits was still firmly held in his hands. “Whelp I’m not seeing things or dreaming apparently so congrats”, as I pat him on the shoulder. I became unnerved as he wasn’t acknowledging my praise as he went wide eyed at something. Turning to look at what he was looking at I soon understood why, as AJ stood in the door frame looking at me wide eyed as well.

For a tense few minutes we all stood there looking at one another. I was the first to break out of our stupor, “AJ I can exp-”, though didn’t get to finish as she thumped to the floor. “-lain...Oh shit.”

Pedro reached her side first and did a basic medical assessment. Kneeling opposite of him he eventually said, “She’s fine, just merely passed out from shock”. I breathed a sigh of relief. “Gotta say nicely done. We should totally go do that in town now.” He suggested jokingly.

I glared daggers at him, but he simply shrugged it off. Clenching at the bridge of my eyes I let out a deep breath, “Look help me come up with a way to weasel out of this. It is your expertise after all.”

“Besides being funny, good looking and-”, he shut his mouth as I gave him another glare. “Geez lighten up will ya?”, as he shrugged me off once more. Looking around he went over towards one of the supports of the barn and lightly tapped it. “So how structurally fit do you think this building is?”

I gave the building a once over. The main support beams keeping the barn up were well intact, but some of the lesser ones could definitely use some attention. I told him as much and he nodded in understanding. Walking back to my side-while keeping his gaze upwards-he saw something he liked. Grabbing the nearest object in grasp he then chucked it at one of the beams above us. His shot held true as the hammer smacked the beam causing it to fall to the ground a little bit away from us.

It took me a second to understand where he was going with his idea. “Ah, I see. So a beam fell lose threatening to smash her, but one of us was quick enough to push her out of the way. The force of the tackle knocked her unconscious and we’ve been waiting for her to wake up”. Summarizing his plan I nodded in approval-a smug smile plastered on his face still-though soon lost it, “Slight problem: Applejack is the bearer of the Helmet of Honesty”.

“And?”

I gave him a flat look, “She’ll know we’re lying right off the bat. Unless you already forgot how her sister knew we were lying when we first met her. Blood tends to run thick in the family”.

“Oh please”, as he waved me off. “The only reason why she saw through that lie was because you guys can’t hold a damn poker face”.

“I’m telling you it’s not going to wo-”.

“Ben, Ben, Ben.” Pedro said as he pulled me into a friendly head lock. “Just let Uncle Pedro do all the talking and you’ll see how wrong you are.”

“I’m six months older than you.”

“Details, details.” Nonchalantly blowing me off once more.

Deciding to humor him we both sat there and waited for AJ to regain consciousness.

~Ten minutes later~

“Pedro, ah know your lying ta me.” AJ said, giving him a rather irritated scowl.

“*cough* Told you so *cough*.” I teased though he responded back in kind by giving me the bird.

“So if you two are done foolin’ around. Would ya mind tellin’ me the truth?”

I thought about it for a moment making sure it wasn’t to complicated, but not too simple either since I didn’t want to insult her, “Well it’s rather complicated. You see-”

“Is it because of your power?”

I blinked in surprise as she basically summarized it up quite easily. “Eh, actually yes.”

“Well ah’d appreciated it if you wouldn’t do that in front of everypony else. Dang near gave me a heart attack.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

“Now if you two don’t mind ah need to git back to work.” She said as she left the barn.

“Whelp I’ll be going too”, Pedro said as he let out a low yawn. “I’ve been up for quite sometime and need some beauty rest.”

Before Pedro could leave I grabbed his shoulder, “Pedro, wait. I need those bits.”

He turned back to me with a raised brow as he cradled his pip-boy defensively. I then explained to him why I needed the bits to get a down payment on a house-though I neglected to tell him that it was just a plot of land-and any other bit he could get his hands on.

“So first it’s my diamonds and now it’s my bits”, as he went drama queen mode on me. “What’s next? My clothes? My awesome personality?...My virgini-”, I smacked him before he could finish his sentence.

“Pedro, be serious for a moment, please?” I pleaded.

“We can’t keep mooching off of the girls. I don’t know about you, but I feel awful as it is and would really like to be out of their hair.”

“Ahhhh you’re just looking at it the wrong way”, as he locked his arm around my shoulder. “Think about it: You and AJ under the same roof. One night alone with one another you-”

“I swear if this leads to some porn scene I’m going to shove that pitch fork up your sphincter.”

“...”

“...could I at least finish? It was just getting to the good part”, he whined.

I rolled my eyes at Pedro’s ridiculous nature, “That’s not what she said to you.”

“Oh! You wound me so.”

“Pedro, please?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Scrolling through his pip-boy once more the bag of bits appeared in his hands. Dropping it into my hands he said his goodbyes and left me alone in the barn.

‘I really do feel bad about taking his semi-hard earned cash, but I’ll make sure to make it up to him sometime in the future.’ Opening up my inventory, I stashed the bag of bits into it. With that done I made my way outside in search of AJ. It didn’t take me long as I found her placing some baskets under a group of apple trees.

“Hey AJ, do you have a sec?” I called out.

“Sure if ya don’t mind helping me place these baskets out. Thanks to somepony giving me a heart attack, ah’m a little bit behind.” I know she was just giving me grief, but I became a bit concerned at how easy she was taking my whole ‘immortality’ thing.

Helping her place the basket about, it only took us about five minutes. After we were done she began to buck at the trees causing the apples to fall into the baskets. I watched her for a few moments-noticing the sad look in her eyes-and asked her, “AJ, are you okay?”

“Ah don’t rightly know.” She responded, as she shifted her hat to hide her face. “You died Ben. Ah saw you, yet you’re standing there like it was nothing. Ah watched you l-lower your head towards the pitch fork and a-ah froze up. Like a scared filly”, tears began to stream down her face.

I did the only thing that came to mind: I patted her on the back. She didn’t shake me off though neither acknowledge me doing so. She just cried and spoke incoherently. I caught bits and pieces, but refrained from asking. We stood there in the apple orchard for a few minutes as she composed herself. She looked much better than before, but her eyes still held a sadness to them. I wanted to ask her yet shied away as I rationalized that it was probably something she wasn’t ready to discuss.

“*Sniff* Thank you”, as she wiped the remaining tears in her eyes.

“No if anything I should be asking for your forgiveness”, as I hung my head low. “I shouldn’t have let the shock of Pedro getting a job before me surprised me to the point of killing myself.” Now that I thought about it I couldn’t believe I actually did it. I mean there was no guarantee I would respawn like normal since all the times that I did die was because of external forces and not because of my own free will.

For all I knew that could have been the end of me.

*Thwomp* came the sound as AJ went back to work. The air was heavy between us as she focus back on her work while I brewed over the recent events. Minutes past by as she continued while I observed her at work. I wasn’t surprised at how strong she was-since she’s been probably doing this for most of her life-as her kick shook the tree with ease yet was light enough so as to not leave any permanent damage to the tree.

Growing bored I asked, “Mind if I help?” Though I asked at the wrong time as my question reminded her that I was still here. She yipped in surprised as she lost balance-her kick flying wide-and fell to the floor.

I smiled sheepishly and helped her up. “Are ya purposely trying to give me another heart attack?” She asked with a scowl.

“Sorry.” I said with a wince.

Turning to leave I didn’t make it far, “No ah’m sorry Ben.” An apologetic smiled splayed across her face, “Ah didn’t mean to snap at ya.”

“Well I could have waited to ask or gave a signal that I was still here.” I admitted while scratching the back of my head.

Silence rained down upon us once more as we stood there. “Well what are you waiting for? A grand invitation?” Said AJ, as she pointed towards the tree she was going to kick.

I tried to shy away, but eventually caved in to the demand. Finding my center of gravity I did a round house kick to the tree as hard as I could mustered.

*Thwomp*

*Crack*

*Plop*

“GAHHH!” I cried out in pain, now holding my cracked leg. AJ was by side within a second as she was prepared to ask me if I was okay. *Snap* “Oh god why!?” I cried out once more as my once cracked leg snap itself back together.

“Are you alright?” She asked, while supporting me.

“Peachy.” The pain from my leg was gone within a moment or two. Standing back up-much to AJ’s chargen-I moved over towards the basket to see only a total of five apples with the four baskets surrounding the tree.

My disappointment didn’t go unnoticed, “Ah don’t feel too bad.” As she patted me on the back, which almost caused me to fall flat on my face. “Usually takes more practice to get three down. So you did pretty well on your first try.”

“Hmm I suppose”, as I began to formulate what went wrong and how to improve my results. Remembering how she struck the trees a thought occured, ‘Maybe she’s targeting at a focal point in where the tree is vulnerable thus allowing the apples to come off more easily’. I relayed my idea to her and she nodded confirming my suspicion.

“So how do you know where it is?” I asked, coming up with no real logical answer. Heck I tried knocking around the tree for some abnormality/sign-like how you would knock on a wall to see if theres a board there-, but came up with nothing.

“Well...it’s hard to explain.” She began only to pause for a second. “It’s...kind of like your power in a sense. Ah don’t know how to explain it, only that ah know how to.”

I theorized that maybe it was the natural earth pony magic doing it’s job at a subconscious level and left it at that. I figured maybe practicing a few more times will eventually lead me to some results. And pain. Lots and lots of pain, but some sacrifices are necessary.

We spent the next few hours bucking some more trees: Me having to kick a tree a few dozen times before it was empty while AJ did most of the brunt work. Afterwards we loaded the baskets onto a cart-courtesy of Big Mac-and delivered them to the barn where Applebloom began to sort through them.

It was AJ’s turn to man the stand while Big Mac continued delivering apples to Applebloom. I tagged along with AJ to town since I had business there anyways. Along the way I asked the big question that I nearly almost forgot.

She said she’d think about it, but would have to makes sure it was okay with Big Mac. I understood since this could affect their business in either a good or bad way and that they needed to discuss it as a family.

...Wow I just realized that my previous statement could be taken in the wrong way. By big question I meant a job on the farm not a marriage proposal. Granted to say I wouldn’t mind marrying her in anyway or form, but considering we’ve barely know one another it would seem rather unorthodox to do so. I mean she is rather fetching to the eye and her honesty is rather refreshing than compared to back home...and now I’m digging myself a bigger grave.

Moving on.

Stopping by the mayors office I dropped off the first payment and promised to deliver the rest as soon as I could. I was actually surprised when she said it was fine-so long as we delivered the rest of the payment by the end of the month-and that the land was ours. Signing some paper work and legal documents I was now the proud owner of a plot of land.

Thanking her once more I left and returned to the Sweet Apple Acres to get some rest. Lying down I decided to take an hour nap or so. Closing my eyes I immediately fell asleep.

Not even half an hour later did I spring up from my bed, “I’m such an idiot!” Scouring my temporary room for a piece of paper I then began to scribble a bunch of numbers with accompany names. Racking my brain for a good fifteen minutes I-hopefully-wrote down every item in Minecraft possible to summon via giving command.

A part of me didn’t think this would work, but felt that I really had nothing to lose. Going through the process I opened my text screen though stopped as a thought occured, ‘I wonder if the guys can see this? We were on steam chat at the time and most multiplayer games have a means of communicating with one another. So maybe we can speak to one another via chat windows’. I sent a simple message of ‘test’ and focus back on my original goal.

I decided to give myself something simple: some stone blocks. Entering in the command I ‘pressed’ enter and stared dumbfounded at the stone block in my hand.

…

Oh I’m so going to build a home now. WIth a gleeful smile I ran out the front door-almost knocking Big Mac to the ground-as I rushed to my plot of land.

~Hours later~

“I think that’s good for now” I said, wiping the sweat that formed on my brow. I spent most of the afternoon creating the framework of what our home would be as it stretched twenty four blocks wide and sixteen blocks high. I would have made it higher and got at least started on the inside if I didn’t reach the max of what I could summon.

I learned many things about my summoning power. For starters I could only summon raw materials. Meaning I would have to make everything from scratch: so no summoning swords, armor, beds and etcetera. There was also a limit to what I could summon within a certain time frame. I know this because a message popped up telling me that I had to wait. It didn’t say how long, so for right now I’ll just have go through trial and error to see how long, but I was happy to at least be able to get the walls closed up. A safety precaution just incase it either rained-which could happen since we are near the Ever Free-or if some critter/pony became interested in my work and wanted to snoop around.

With a tired yawn and a growl from my stomach it occurred to me that I didn’t get any sleep or had a single bite to eat all day. Making my way back to Sweet Apple Acres I arrived just in time for supper. Eating I then helped clean up, took a shower and went straight to bed.

The next morning I woke up early-to at least show that I was committed to working here-and was pleased to hear that they would hire me. Though the pay was low-and they did say sorry-I told them it was fine as long as I get a few apples for compensation. They agreed upon those term and we set out to work. Big Mac trained me in what we needed to do before we buck the apple trees. It required emptying the low quality apples to the farm animals, cleaning the baskets and setting them up all around the fields. We were focusing on the southern fields-as they rotated which field they harvested-and then began to buck the trees.

I improved slightly-knocking down seven apples rather than five-though it still took me longer than the Apple family. Just a little before eight I was told to load up the apples and deliver them to the barn so that Applebloom could sort through them. Afterwards Big Mac and I went to town so I could learn how to set up the stand. I spent most of the afternoon learning the prices and how to haggle. Twilight stopped by and said hello. We talked for a few minutes, but she soon left to go check up on BJ. I felt like a jackass since this whole time I was more distracted about getting enough money to buy a home than to check up on my friend.

A bit later Big Mac said I could go and that he would give me my payment when I got back home. I thanked him and went to the hospital to check up on my friend. Pedro was there-having the same remorse as I did-and we entered BJ’s room. Twilight was reading some books-they were about how to wake someone up, which I found funny-and greeted us when we entered. She excused herself for a moment-allowing us some private time to talk to our friend-as we both discuss what has happened so far.

Even though he was asleep I could have sworn he reacted when Pedro told him about how he got a job before everyone else. We both left after ten minutes and just discussed some more about things that we’ve learned so far.

As we left the hospital we went our separate ways: as he went back to Rarity’s home while I went back to work on our home. It didn’t take long as I smashed down the wall-where the door was going to be placed-and opened up some walls where window were going to be. Crafting a few torches to lighten up the room, I soon went back to work.

As I was putting the stairs in a thought occured; ‘I wonder where Manny is?’

Chapter 14 pt 1: A Tale of Three Friends pt 3

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A Noir Tale pt. 1

Manny’s PoV:

“ ‘Early to bed, early to rise’ as they say.” That was my thought process as our conversation ended that night. Making my way back to Sugar Cube Corner was uneventful, so I went straight to bed. The next morning, I woke up early and left to see the job opportunities that Ponyville had to offer.

The choices were vast to say the least, ranging from gardner, cook, waiter, repairman, smith, courier, and other such options. Needless to say I looked into the jobs, but none seemed to garner any real interest. If I had to be practical though, I would choose cook, but my meager skills in the culinary art mostly revolve around meat products. Last time I checked, ponies don’t eat meat.

The first day was done and over with as I went back to Sugar Cube Corner. The Cakes noticed my distress, and when I explained it to them, they suggested that I should try over in Canterlot. They told me that Canterlot holds a variety of creatures in the city and that I might have better luck over there.

With a thanks, I went to bed and woke up early once more. Getting over to Canterlot wasn’t hard, as I just turned invisible and rode the train over there. With no bits and not wanting to mooch off of anyone, I figured this was a better alternative than running all the way there or stealing bits to buy a ticket.

Exiting off of the train, I made my way out of the train station and took in the sights. Canterlot was more refined than the rural town of Ponyville. The streets were light grey cobble stone with streetlamps neatly placed in even intervals. The surrounding buildings matched the theme of the city quite well as the structures were cleaned cut and placed to give the city symmetry. The noble stallions and mares walked to their destination in well crafted designers clothes. They would only make the briefest of stops to either talk to one another or to look at some new wares that the merchants displayed in their stores.

Truth be told, if I wasn’t so desperate for a job--that could compliment my cooking skill--, I would have sucked it up and got one back in Ponyville. Most rich people I’ve ever met were either snobs, spoiled brats, or huge jackasses that didn’t deserve the riches that they held. I was being optimistic though--courtesy of Ben and Bj--hoping that ponies were going to be different than us humans.

That, and if this didn’t work out, I still had the opportunity to get a job back in Ponyville. So I really had nothing to lose. Adjusting my tie and making sure my suit looked presentable, I then set out to see if anyone was hiring.

~Hours later: about mid day~

A loud groan of annoyance escaped my lips as I sat on a park bench. Each interview went about something like this; they took a glance at me, raised their heads and huffed me away. Only a scarce few actually gave me the time of day, but still told me to leave after they were done humouring me.

My optimism was shot to pieces at how cruel ponies were compared to what my two pony loving friends said. Reaching into my coat pocket, I brought out a cigarette and lit it. Taking a puff from the cancer stick, I let it sit there in the corner of my mouth while I stared off into space.

‘I don’t know why I’m so surprised. Where there is good there has to be evil. And where there is kindness, there is cruelty.’ I thought to myself.

The growl of my stomach brought me back to the here-and-now. Reaching into my coat I pulled out some rolled up churros, courtesy of Pinkie. How she knew I would need these later, I’ll never know, nor do I really want to. Eating them in a few large bites and a quick toss into a nearby trashcan, I set off towards the West District in hopes of finding a job.

I didn’t even make it two blocks away until the feeling of being watched washed over me once more.

‘Okay this is getting really annoying.’ At first I thought it was just me being paranoid since most of the ‘noble’ ponies would give me either disdainful looks or looks of complete disgust. But after the first hour I caught a glimpse of my stalker before he ran off.

With a casual glance over the shoulder I caught movement out of the corner of my eye.

‘Well then Mr. Stalker, prepare to meet your maker.’ With a devilish grin, I turned down an alleyway and sprinted as fast as I could. Turning a corner sharply I caught sight of my would-be stalker chasing after me. This went on for a few minutes until a dead end presented itself. Just before the stalker came around the corner, I activated my Cloak and Dagger wristwatch and turned invisible.

Just as planned, my stalker walked into the lion’s den after me. His worn-out, off-tan overcoat hid everything noteworthy except for his height, which was about a little bit lower than my chest. He walked around the area slowly, while keeping a watchful eye on his surroundings. After a few moments he felt it safe enough to let his guard down as he searched the area for any clues of my whereabouts.

‘Scrolling’ between my weapons, I equipped my L’Etranger, decloaked and lit up another cancer stick. The click of my lighter caught my guest’s attention as he turned around in surprise. Before he could make any other sudden movement, I fired a warning shot near his right foot.
“I wouldn’t do anything if I were you.” I said while releasing a cloud of smoke.

My guest didn’t say anything, and merely held up their hands in submission. “Good. Now why are you following me?” I asked.

He didn’t answer right away, causing the atmosphere around us to become tense. Movement from his hand caused me to cock the lever and aim at his head. We both stood there in silence as the tension grew thicker. He didn’t dare move in fear of the deadly weapon before him. It took me a moment to realize that my stalker was only moving their hand to the hood of their cloak to show that they meant no harm. Lowering my gun a bit, I nodded in understanding.

With the threat of being shot out of the way, they continued and revealed a young Earth bound mare with short blonde hair and magenta eyes. She would have been quite the looker if it wasn’t for the dark bags under her eyes, accompanied by bloodshot eyes, and finished with a nasty bruise on her right cheek. So shocked from her appearance I didn’t even react as she reached into her coat and pulled out a badge.

“I’m with the Stalliongrad police and I need your help.”

~Half an hour later~

We sat outside of a cafe. There was little to no conversation--the only thing I got from her was her name--as we made our way out from the alleyway. Lighting up another cigarette--wow this’ll be my tenth in a few hours--, I took a puff and blew a cloud of smoke towards the sky.

Trace Back sat across from me as she chugged a few dozen cups of coffee. I became a little concerned for her well being after her fifth cup--though to be honest, I can’t really say the cigarettes are much better--, but I continued to wait for her to speak. Every now and again, she would look over her surroundings as if she was expecting to get jumped at a moment’s notice.

After a few more minutes my patience had reach its limit.

“You said you needed help, but why are you asking for my assistance? And what help do you need?” I asked, hoping that if I began the conversation she would finally speak up.

Setting her cup down, she stared intently at the empty cup as her eyes scrunched up in concentration. Her luscious lips formed words as she softly spoke to herself. Her eyes lit up as she reached into her coat pocket, brought out a manila folder, and slid it over towards me.

Curious, I opened it to see several case files. Each one had the same MO: they all had committed suicide in some back alley surrounded with empty pill bottles and a dagger in their hand. Looking over each case carefully, I took notice of the name ‘Gram’. Which, in all honesty, wasn’t hard as the name was highlighted, underlined, and circled in bright colors.

Looking in the back of the file, I saw a picture of the mysterious Gram. His face was flat yet held an air of authority not unlike that of a military personal. He had a strong chin with a mixture of light and dark grey hair that was kept short. Gram was an alias that he went by, his real name was Kolt Miner. Supposedly, the heir to the Colt Mining industry--the third largest coal mining corporation in Equestria--had a few misdemeanors on his record, but other than that nothing noteworthy.

Shifting through the file some more, I came upon a few records detailing the failed attempt at a drug bust. Each time there were little-to-no signs of drug trafficking or manufacturing in the area. When asked, all of the employees denied any such activities. Not only that, but the lead witnesses were found a week later, dead. It didn’t take a genius to see foul play in the works.

Closing the folder, I pushed it back to her and took a sip from my glass of water. Meeting halfway, she grabbed the folder and put it back into her cloak.

“As you can see, we are dealing with a mastermind.” She said as she took a sip from another cup of coffee.

“Or a pasty.” I replied.

She spat her drink all over the table, and shot me with a hateful glare after recovering. I didn’t allow her the chance to retort as I pressed on.

“I didn’t read anything that actually stated proof. So do forgive me for not believing you.” Putting out my now finished death stick, I flicked it out of view and finished the rest of my water. “From what I read here,” I continued, “all you have is speculation and the word of a few ponies at best. It’s a miracle that you were able to get warrants to do a drug search with such faulty evidence.” I said with a shake of my head.

Her face was a very deep red as she was merely seconds away from exploding. Than, all of a sudden, all of that anger vanished and was replaced with regret. Tears began to stream down her face.

“You’re right.” She admitted softly. “I know we don’t have a case, or any evidence at all. I know I might just be pulling theories out of thin air, but I can’t stop now. My gut is screaming at me that I’m right. Not only that but…” She trailed off.

“My...My partner is in the hospital because of me.” She choked. “For following me. For believing in me.” She finished quietly.

Wiping the tears away, she got up and left some bits on the table. “I’m sorry to have wasted your time.” With that said, she turned and left.

With a stretch of my limbs, I followed her action and got up, though going the opposite direction. ‘Cliche story about drugs, murder, and a desperate cop: Check.’ I thought as I brought out my cigarette case. Lighting yet another cancer stick, I closed the case and looked in its reflection. I could see two silhouettes following after Trace and a big blurry one following after yours truly.

‘Cliche moment where a bunch of thugs chase after both parties to make sure they stay quiet: Check.’ Rounding the corner I soon saw an alleyway to the right of me. Just as I entered the alleyway I caught a glimpse of my stalker. He was big--easily the same height as Big Mac--, bulging muscles,and had long brown hair that shrouded his eyes. His T-shirt was a simple black while his pants were a worn out blue. As soon as sight between us was lost, I changed my class. With a practiced hand, I was now the Scout. My refined stance was now substituted with a low crouch. My ski mask was replaced with a simple hat and dog tags around my neck. The need to run instead of smoke came over me, but I soon solved that. Without even a second thought I ran.

Three seconds.

That’s all it took for me to get to the first intersection. Using the wall, I kept my momentum up and ran off to the right. Before my stalker could even turn the corner I was gone. I couldn’t even tell if he was attempting to chase after me, nor did I care. The feeling of the wind rushing past my face was euphoric. I was so lost in my--technically the Scout’s-- bliss that I forgot my goal. Using the walls as platforms, I jumped back and forth between both sides and easily made it up to the rooftops. Jumping from rooftop to rooftop now, I began my search for Trace. It took longer than I hoped, but I soon found her with two ponies following after her.

One was a pegasus female with dark blue wings and light green hair. She had dark green cargo pants with a black belt going around her waist, a simple matching dark blue tank top and black gloves on both of her hands. The other was an Earth pony as well though much smaller compared to the other one. His mane was a rich magenta with a simple dark green shirt, a black vest, and matching black jeans.

They followed a few feet behind her, but didn’t really show any care in hiding that fact. Granted, that was thanks to the populace as they merely turned a blind eye to the ‘commoners’, leaving Trace on her own. I kept an even pace with them as I jumped from roof to roof, only receiving a few raised brows from some pegasi.

The chase didn’t last much longer as the two finally cornered Trace down a side road. The area they trapped her in was a roundabout landscape that lead no where. The buildings--though not as prestigious as the houses near the cage--still held an air of finance as they were equally sculpted with an artistic quality similarly to the area I arrived in.

Resting on top of a roof for the moment I could see them conversing about something, but the distance was too much, and I was unable to hear a word of it. Without warning Trace drew out a standard police baton and held it threateningly towards the pair. The stallion drew out a short sword from within his sleeve while the mare got into a low stance with her wings spread out to take flight.

Reaching into hammerspace--or what the guys have told me to call my backpack--I brought out my trusty Sandman. Sure it lowers my health a bit, but the stun effect has saved my life more times than I could count. With my bat in my right hand and baseball in the left, I took aim and prepared myself for the upcoming fight.

I already knew that Trace wasn’t going to be much help in this upcoming fight. Her stance was weak and easily breakable, and it didn’t help that her body was shaking. From fear or exhaustion, I could not tell. She appeared to be the brains of her group while relying on her partner to be the brawns. The pair before her were in sync with one another as they made simple little gesture to plan their attack. The stallion took a step towards Trace while the mare angled off to the right. From up above I could see what they were going to do. A simple, yet effective pincer maneuver as the stallion would charge her directly while the female would get her from the side.

I could also see that the female was the biggest threat to me. She was probably much faster than me; her natural pegasi ability made her lighter than the other races. Sure, I was fast on land, but compared to pegasi, I was relatively slow. With that thought in mind, I took aim at the mare. My plan was simple: Stun the mare, take out the stallion, and hopefully finish him off before the mare could recover.

They charged, just as I anticipated. The stallion brought his blade down upon Trace, but she was able to hold him off. The mare came from the right, ready to sweep Trace off of her feet. Though, she would find herself without the chance. Taking aim I tossed the ball in the air and hit it right towards her. Without even confirming the shot hit, I lept from the roof and at the last minute jumped to soften the blow. With a roll, I quickly sprinted towards the stallion.

A loud bonk sound confirmed my hit held true, but my attention was solely on the male. Crossing the gap in seconds, I brought my bat to bare and swung with all my strength towards his left side. The blow connected, causing him to grunt in pain and slide a few feet away. Taking a glance, I could see the mare on the ground moaning in pain while clutching her head.

Turning my attention back to the male, I charged just as he shook off the blow. He was surprised, to say the least as I brought my bat up again and swung towards his right side. He was ready this time as his blade skillfully deflected my bat. He attempted an upward slash, though I easily danced around the attack and quickly struck his right side once more. A low crack echoed out as he cried out in pain, clutching his right side.

Distracted by the pain, I struck him in the gut with the tip of my bat which caused him to clutch his now bruised stomach. Fighting to regain his breath, he fell to one knee and coughed as his blade clattered to the ground. Spinning my bat, I smacked him with the heel of it, and watched as he fell to the ground, unconscious.

Turning my attention to the mare, I barely reacted in time as I rolled out of the way. Scolding myself at how long it took me, I barely dodge her second blow as she zoomed past me. Her face was that of absolute rage as she circled around and dive bombed towards my position. Attempting to make it harder on her, I ran away, making sure to not stay in one spot for even a moment. My attempt proved futile as she easily kept pace, each blow barely missing me by the skin of my teeth.

As time went on, I notice her attacks were becoming more and more reckless with each second, as she started to throw her body weight into her strikes. Getting used to the time intervals of her attack, I waited for the right moment to counterattack. Diving to the ground once more, I dodge her attack and charged towards her with my bat raised in the air. As soon as I saw her smug smile, I knew that I made a horrible mistake. With acrobatic dexterity, she leapt into a handstand and used the force to spring herself into a flying kick. Her first kick didn’t even register, but her followup did as I was sent tumbling to the ground.

Quickly shaking the stars from my eyes, I rolled out of the way just in the nick of time as her heel came down towards my chest. Getting up, I ran once more while she chased after me. We fell into our dance once more; me dodging while she continued her assault.

This went on for a few minutes until a ping sound echoed through my headset. Instinctively my hand gripped a new baseball and wasting no time, I fired it towards her. She was just looping around when the ball soared towards her. With cat-like reflexes, she caught it, spun, and threw it back towards me. A batter’s instinct took hold of me as I got myself into a batter’s stance. Waiting for the ball to come to me, I took a swing and sent it back towards her at a much faster speed. Surprised, she attempted to dodge it, but failed as it smacked her and stunned her once more.

Wasting no time I ran over towards where she was going to land, got into a stance once more, and smacked her in the gut which sent her flying towards one of the homes. The blow not only knocked the wind out of her, but caused her to slump to the ground unconscious.

Taking in a deep breath of air, I fell to the ground and let my sore body rest for a moment.

“Look out!” Trace cried out as the universe had other plans for me. Listening to her I rolled out of the way just as a huge, meaty fist crushed the area I was at a moment ago. The giant stallion from before decided to interrupt my rest period. His hair moved from the pressure of his blow which allowed me to see his gold colored eyes drilling holes into my skull.

With a bellowing war cry, he charged towards me recklessly. To tired to continue from the previous fight, I waited for the right moment to use my final trump card.

‘Now!’ I thought as I activated the Scout’s home run taunt. Pointing towards an invisible crowd, I got into a batter stance, and waited a few seconds. Just as he was about to pounce on me, I swung. My bat connected with his midsection, the blow taking the air out of his lungs. Without any respite, he was sent flying towards the upper part of a building where he left a huge, man- size dent in the wall, leaving a small crater in the cobblestones, and joining his allies in unconsciousness.

Completely exhausted, I fell to the ground and wiped away the sweat that had formed on my brow. Trace looked at me mouth agape as she tried to process all that had just happened. Resting for a few more minutes, I attempted to stand only to fall back to the ground. Trace was by my side and offered to help me up, acting as a crutch for my sore body. Accepting her offer, we quickly made our escape before any nosy citizens in the vicinity could report what happened.

Miles away now, we rested on a park bench as we each regained our breaths. As soon as we did, I immediately changed class back to the Spy and lit a cigarette. With a few puffs, I sighed deeply and sunk into the wooden bench.

My relaxation didn’t last long. “Why?” She asked me confused.

“Going to have to be more specific, dear.” I replied back.

“Why did you save me? I mean don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful, but I don’t understand.” She said as she tried to shake the cobwebs that prevented her from thinking clearly.

Without even hesitating I said, “Because I felt like it.” She stared at me as if I was crazy, but I paid her no mind. “Just like I feel like helping, because I can.”

Her eyes open wide in utter confusion. “Wait, what?” She cried out utterly lost now. “I thought you said there wasn’t enough evidence to prove anything and that you weren’t going to help.”

“Actually, I believe I only said the evidence bit. Not the ‘I wasn’t going to help you’ part.” I said as I put my cigarette out. “It appears your lack of sleep is affecting you more than you think, as you jumped to conclusions.”

She attempted to respond, “But-You-And-!”

“I mean if you don’t want my help, you just have to say so.” I said casually while flicking her on the forehead.

“NO!” She cried out quickly, but soon apologized for her abrupt response. “I mean, no. Please, I could really use some help.”

Standing up, I offered my hand to help her up. Taking it, she hoisted herself up and stood in front of me.

“Off we go then, yes?” I asked while gesturing towards the train station.

“You don’t need to do anything before we go?” She asked. “I heard that you and your friends arrived here. Won’t they be worried about you if you don’t tell them where you’re going?”

“Nah.” I waved dismissively and headed towards the train station. I got a good head start before she caught up with me, “They’re busy doing their own thing right now so I don’t need to go bother them about it. Besides, I’m a big kid and I can take care of myself.” I said with a cheeky smile.

“That’s not what I meant.” She mumbled.

“I know.” I responded though she squeaked in embarrassment as she thought I didn’t hear her. “But like I said: They’re doing their own thing and I don’t want them to get distracted.” With a hesitant nod of agreement, Trace let it go.

‘Besides if this kind of illegal stuff is really going on, I don’t want them to see what I’m going to do about it.’ I thought grimly as we arrived at the train station. Purchasing some tickets, we took our seats and headed off to the bustling city of Stalliongrad.

It took about a days worth of travel to reach Stalliongrad. During the ride, we slept and talked about the general mechanisms of the city. Simply put, it was a dog-eat-dog world. The strong ruled while the weak followed. Corruption was as common as were drugs, murder, prostitution, slavery,and other horrendous crimes.

One of the reasons why Trace wasn’t able to get anywhere in the case was because the higher ups were preventing her from questioning anyone. Not only that, but she believes that the raids they attempt were all staged to make the police force less credible. It’s one of the reasons why she came looking for an outsider such as myself to assist. With no laws--technically-- preventing me from investigating, I could gather proof and insight she normally couldn’t.

It was midday when we arrived and I was not surprised at the scene before me. Old buildings littered the area as if they held together by loose boards. A few dozen ponies roamed the streets, all wearing filthy and ruined clothing. Merchants in shoddy stands cried out to sell whatever wares they could get their hooves on. A few fights could be seen here and there as ponies of different shapes and sizes smacked one another in a mad frenzy. Children ran about as they stole whatever food they could grab as adults chased after them. Mares in very revealing clothings stood on the corner of every street as some attempted to seduce passerby while others begged.

I knew what I was expecting, but the scene before me was still hard to grasp. “It gets better the further we go in.” Trace said with a hint of sadness. She led me down a different road and I made sure to follow close behind.

True to her word, the further we made our way to the heart of the city the more civilized it became. The buildings were made out of red bricks with wooden roofs and chimneys sticking out from the top. Ponies roaming the street here wore faded clothings rather than the filthy rags of those near the train station. This lead me to believe that this area was the residence of the blue collar workers as the ponies who walked by looked physically fit.

The general mood of the area was contempt rather than misery in the previous one. I noticed that some of them had bags under their eyes, indicating either long hours or multiple jobs. I also noticed that a few police officers roamed the streets which caused Trace to lean awfully close into me to hide her face.

We got a few suspicious looks, but we were soon ignored as I placed my arm around her shoulder making us appear to be lovers rather than...employer and employee. If you catch my drift. Even got a few nods of approval from some citizens passing by.

We spent the next half hour walking in the same district leading me to believe that our goal was somewhere in here. The further we went the more I noticed that the housing began to become less common as more and more factories took their place.

Even though the factories were spewing a ton of fumes into the air, the air still had a clean smell to it. Not only that, but the clouds were a clear white rather than a polluted black. That’s when I noticed it. My mouth nearly dropped as I gazed at the oddity above me. Up high in the sky was another factory entirely made out of clouds. I could see pegasi and even some unicorns up above as the pegasi would fly around the sky gathering what ever fumes they could get and gather it into a blackish greenish looking cloud. They would then lead it towards the factory building and come back out a few minutes later with a natural white cloud in its place.

Trace giggled at my expression. “Why are you so surprised? You act as if you’ve never been to or even seen a weather factory before.” She teased while lightly pushing me. Giving her a questioning look, she realized that I was being serious. “Wait, you’ve never have?” She questioned.

“Yeah I never have. Sure, I’ve heard of Cloudsdale and other things like ‘weather factory’, but I never thought they were being serious.” I replied back.

Trace looked at me with a raised brow. “That’s not possible. That’s like, elementary-level field trip.”

“Well I’m not really native, nor was I born here.”

“Really? So what was the weather like there?”

“It varied from place to place, the seasons just as much. During spring it either rained or it was sunny, summer it was always sunny, fall it was sunny but cooler, and winter it was usually cold. Granted, that was just where I was from. In some places it always snowed or rained or had lots of sun. Not only that, but sometimes it would rain during the summer or snow in spring.”

It was her turned to have her jaw drop and looked at me profoundly. “Where the hay did you come from?” She asked after a few moments.

“Way out west.” I answered and elaborated, “A mid size town consisted only of earth ponies.”

She gave me an odd look, but didn’t really question me about that much. “I guess that makes sense. It’s odd that you guys didn’t have ONE unicorn. Sure pegasi have a harder time adapting to their environment, but it’s unheard of for a new colony moving away to not at least bring a family or two.”

With a shrug, I lit a cigarette and took a puff. “Way before my time to be able to give you an accurate answer.” With that said and done we dropped the topic and moved on.

About twenty minutes later, we finally arrived at our destination. A factory that easily loomed over all the others within a few miles. Ponies of all shapes and sizes were moving multiple materials to their destination that ranged from metal, coal, wood, and even herbs. There were five parts to the factory. The central hub that housed and handled the materials being brought in. Each section handled a different material. Herbs, wood, metal, coal, and the hub in the center.

At face value, there was nothing suspicious about the place except the extra security that patrolled the perimeter. The only other thing worth noting was the logo of a black coal being struck by a steel pickaxe on the front of the central hub.

I couldn’t help, but laugh as the image reminded me of Ben. Getting an odd look from Trace I just told her, “It’s an inside joke.”

Shaking her head, she reached into her coat and brought out a familiar manilla folder. “When we attempted our raid we first searched the herb wing of the plant and came up with nothing.” She began while skimming through the folder until she got to the right page and offered it to me.

Taking the folder I looked at the images and once more saw nothing suspicious within the photos that they took. “After that we went over to the metal wing of the industry and again, found nothing.” She said while flipping the page to show me some more photos.

“You didn’t check the other two?” I asked while I looked over the other images.

“At the time it didn’t make sense since the drugs that they are manufacturing and selling require a high concentration of heat to soften it up so that it is easier to break down.” She explained.

“I don’t follow. What is the drug made of? What does it do?”

“The actual drug name is Jennamite, street name ‘Jen’ or ‘Jenny’. It causes the user to experience heavy hallucinations. It comes from a crystal that grows out east in Gem Fido. The crystal is normally as hard as diamond, but when there’s a high concentration of heat place on the gem it softens it up which allows it to be smashed into tinier pieces that can then be consumed.”

“Okay that explains the metal factory, but not the-” I began, only to stop as I put two and two together. “Unless they were to use the light from some sort of green house over there.”

“Yup. How did you know that the process didn’t require a lot of heat, but just enough?” She asked.

“Lucky guess.” I replied back smoothly.

“At any rate, that’s all the information I have.” She said.

Looking over the factory once more, I devised the best way to sneak in. However I was still missing one vital piece of information. “You wouldn't happen to have a recent shipping file in there would you?” I asked.

With a tilt of her head she thought about it for a few seconds. With a hesitant nod she began to skim through her folder once more. Coming to a stop on a particular page she handed the folder to me once more.

“Here it is.” She said while looking at it over my shoulder. “Though I don’t see why this is important.”

Looking over the page, I nodded and handed back to her. “Where's the fun in that.” I said with a cheeky grin.

She scowled at me and was ready to retort until I interrupted her. “This is where we’re going to have to split up for a bit. I’m assuming you’re going to go back to the station to do paperwork or something, correct?” I asked.

“Uh, well...not exactly.” She said nervously while twiddling her thumbs.

I just looked at her with a raised brow, or what constitutes as one considering I was wearing a mask.

“It’s-It’s not as bad as you think it is, but well-” She stammered out while her face turned a shade of red. “I may have been put on house arrest.” She said in a low whisper.

“Sorry was that ‘may’ or ‘am’ on house arrest?” I asked.

“Heh, heh, heh.” She laughed awkwardly while lightly tapping her head.

“What are you stupid! Do you know how much trouble you can get into if you’re not at home?” I cried out.

“Of course I do! I’ve been in charge of some parolees before so I know how it works and what the consequences are.” She cried back. “But this is much bigger than that. I simply couldn’t turn a blind eye while this operation kept going on right in front of my eyes.”

“Alright, alright. Geez, you don’t need to remind me. I suppose, I jumped the gun a little on that one, so my bad.” I said apologetically.

“Jumped the what?” She asked confused.

“Just an expression from back home” I replied back quickly.

“So that still leaves the problem of regrouping though.” I said changing the subject.

“Hmmm...Oh! We could meet up at the Lucky Clover. It’s a bar not to far from here and it’s pretty big so it won’t be easy for others to spot us or listen in on us.” She suggested.

“It’ll have to do. We can meet up there later tonight once I’m done snooping around here.” I said while lifting my watch up.

“Right, I’ll see you the-” She began to say though I was already cloaked and out of earshot to hear anything else.

~Hours later~

Getting in was a joke.

Granted, being invisible helps, but that still doesn’t justify the poor lack of security. I would have assumed that such a big corporation would have an advanced security system of some sort, unless you counted the unicorns, as they would ‘scan’ any pony they saw. Other than that, there were only patrols of ponies walking around, making sure no one was in a place that they weren’t suppose to be.

The only real hindrance to my progress was my watch, seeing as I had to let it charge before I could continue on. Waiting in an closed office for my watch to recharge, I snooped around the drawers. With a dejected sigh, I closed the drawers.

‘Man, there isn’t even a bit to take.’ I thought, looking at my watch. With my Cloak and Dagger fully charged, I peeked around the corner to see if anyone was there. With no one in the immediate area, I pressed on.

The main headquarters was what I expected it to be, a place filled with dozen upon dozen of small cubicles with a huge storage room filled to the brim with delivery reports. Ponies of various kind were rushing through the moderately sized office space to either deliver their invoices or get permission/other forms to help lessen their workload.

Sticking close to the walls and corners, I made my way through. Climbing up some stairs, I reached the tenth floor, opting to let my watch recharge before pressing on.

“Man, this isn’t going so well.” I mumbled quietly. So far my search had been unfruitful. None of the other building held any secrets nor were there any suspicious individuals as of yet. With that in mind, I figured that there had to be something--hell, anything--here, but alas I’ve found nothing of the sort to confirm that.

“God, the anxiety is killing me.” I groaned while leaning against the wall.

‘That, or I need a cigarette. It has been quite a while.’ I thought.

“Get outta my way!” Yelled out a male voice followed by the cry from a female.

Glancing at my watch to check the charge level, I made my way out the door, though had to quickly jump back in as a stallion almost barreled into me. The only features that I could see was that he was easily as tall as I was and a bit on the bulkier side. He was wearing a dark brown jacket with matching pants and had a slicked back black mane.

The sound of a door slamming echoed out only for the same door to slam back open. “Dammit, Quick Feet! Where’s my mail?” He roared and slammed his door once more.

“R-right away, Hard Lead!” Cried out a high pitched voice from the other end of the hall.

Slinking back into the stairwell, a young pegasus with white wings, a simple white shirt, and tan pants flew down the stairs.

“I do believe this would be considered a ‘lucky break’.” I said as I made my way down the stairs. Waiting downstairs I peeked around the corner and waited for Quick Feet to return. True to his name he, was already running back within two minutes.

Decloaking, I waited around the corner with the Eternal Reward in my hand. Years of reflexes of backstabbing were the only thing that helped me get him as he ran through the door. Instead of outright killing him I used the back of the handle,in the hopes of knocking him out. Luck was on my side once more as Quick Feet fell to the floor unconscious, but that wasn’t the only thing. In the bottom right corner of my vision I could see an image of myself covered by the image of Quick Feet.

“I’m really glad that worked.” I said, though my voice was no longer mine. Picking up Quick Feet I than carried him to a nearby closet and shoved him in there.

“Would have been a shame to kill someone innocent just to get to my real targets.” I said while closing and locking the door.

Making my way back to the stairwell, I picked up the mail that was scattered all over the ground. One letter stood out amongst them all. Opening it, I couldn’t help but smile at the contents within it.

Trouble, boss. That girl hired a mercenary or something. Don’t let your guard down. Right now we’re working on a way to bust out and head back to headquarters.

N.S.

‘So Trace was right.’ I thought while putting the letter back into its envelope.

‘Though there’s still no actually evidence to prove any of this. I guess I’m going to have to hope that a little black book is around.’ I mused while making my way upstairs.

Black book. Just like it sounds, it’s usually a small, leather-bound book that crime organizations use to not only keep track of their transactions with one another, but also holds details of how the crime works as well as any dirty little secret of those being blackmailed.

Reaching Hard Lead’s office, I composed myself and got into character. ‘Show time.’ I thought and entered the room.

Entering the room I made it appear as if I tripped. “Wahh!” I cried out and “caught” myself.

The room itself was rather dull: simple white walls with brown carpets, a large brown desk, a few filing cabinets and a bookcase. The bookcase was full of books though they were littered with a light coating of dust. The desk where Hard Lead sat was covered with papers in hazardous piles that threatened to fall off his desk.

Hard Lead himself had a few scars on his neck and one above his left eye. He also had a gruffed five o’clock shadow with dull grey eyes.

“Faust help me, how do you trip over nothing!?” He yelled with a scowl.

Eeping in fear, I stood in front of him, shaking in fear. “S-sorry S-sir.” I said.

“And what took you so damn long!?” He cried, holding his hand out.

Hesitantly handing it over, I shrunk back after he ripped it from my hands. “W-well you see Sir, one of the letters was opene-.” I tried to say before he glared at me.

“Someone went through my mail?” He asked, dangerously calm.

“I-It appears so.” I said while hesitantly making my way over towards his side.

Shuffling through the letters, I brought up the one that had been ‘opened’. “This one, huh?” He said while looking at the senders address.

“It wasn’t you, was it?” He asked while glaring at me. Eeping while falling on my ass, I shook my head from side to side quickly. “HA, HA, HA!” He laughed while shaking his head.

“‘Course it wasn’t you. You don’t have the guts for that kind of stunt.” He said and read the letter.

Getting up quickly while holding my knife behind my back, I got into position behind him.

“This is troubling, I better let the boss know.” Lead mumbled to himself.

“Quick Feet! Run a message to the bos-” He didn’t get to finish his sentence as the hilt of my knife hit him in the back. His face hit the table hard, knocking all the paper on his desk to the floor.

“Ah geez, look at the mess you made.” I said as my voice took on a deeper tone. My peripheral vision had an image of Hard Lead overlapping an image of my own.

Picking him up, I began to maneuver him under his desk. “Let’s get you someplace where no one will se-” I began to say, only to see him looking right at me.

“GAH!” I cried out and promptly dropped him. Without a second thought, I brought my knife to bare and aimed it at him. A few tense seconds later, I realized something. “Is he...still asleep?”

Carefully stepping closer to him, I poked his cheek a few times to double check. Sure enough he was still knocked out cold.

“Dude...that’s creepy.” I said. Reaching for a drawer, I grabbed a piece of paper and a roll of tape. Tapping the paper in front of his eyes, I then placed the same note he was reading in his hand and shoved him under his desk. Looking around the office, I grabbed an empty box and put anything remotely heavy into it.

Carrying the box out of the office, I started looking around the cubicles. Looking down the aisles, I spotted my next victim. He was a young earth pony buck, about twenty or so, with a short brown mane and a red business shirt. He wore black pants, brown shoes, and had gold colored eyes. He wore a big dumb grin on his face and had a spring in his step as he made his way downstairs.

“Hey, you!” I cried out to him.

He immediately stopped, looked around, and dumbly pointed at himself. “Me, Sir?” He asked.

“No I’m talking to the other dumbshit behind you!” I yelled sarcastically while standing a few inches in front of him.

“S-sorry sir!” He cried out and continued. “It’s just that I’m off and I have a dat-I mean ‘important meeting’ to attend to.”

“Boy, be glad I’m in a good mood because I know you just lied to me.” I growled at him, causing him to gulp in fear.

“All I need you to do is one little thing and then you can be on your way, sounds good?” I asked menacingly.

He just nodded his head. “Yes sir. Anything at all and I’m your guy.”

“I need you to carry this to the boss’s office for me.” I said while handing him the box.

“Uh.” He said, not sure of what to say.

“Did I stutter? Get moving!” I roared and shoved him.

He yipped in panic and quickly made his way to our destination.

Seven flight of stairs later and we were near the top of the building. The very top floor was way different to the previous ones. This floor held a few rooms with tinted glass and a waiting area. It led me to believe this floor not only held Kolt’s office, but it also held rooms for business meetings or sale reports.

“Well, well, well. Look who’s here.” Came a female voice, full of vice.

She was a female unicorn with a light pink mane with matching eyes that wore a simple baby blue dress. She was sitting behind a desk, leading me to believe that she was Kolt’s secretary. Glancing at her name plate, I finally acknowledged her.

“Sharp Tack.” I grunted at her. “The boss ain’t here yet, right?”

“No.” She said professionally. “And you would know that he’s running late if you actually read those memos I leave you.” She spat out.

“Oh so thats what those chicken scratches are for. Imagine that.” I said, blowing her off.

“You! Go put those in Kolt’s office near his desk. Not on it or away from it, but near it. You got me?” I asked the stallion with a glare.

“Yes, sir. Right away!” He cried out and carefully entered Kolt’s office.

“You seem...off Lead. What’s wrong with you?” She asked suspiciously.

“Oh, and here I thought you didn’t care about me.” I responded back with a smug grin.

“The day that happens is the day Tartarus freezes over.” She spat back.

“If you must know, I’m merely in a great mood.” I said, light heartedly. The door to Kolt’s office opened as the stallion from before came out. Closing the door carefully he then bowed to me and ran off after I yelled at him for good measure.

“I’m guessing it has something to do with that box, yes?” She asked.

“Yeah, something like that.” I said while making my way into his office. “Let the boss know I’m waiting for him.”

“Just don’t make a mess or touch his booze! You don’t want a repeat of what happened last time.” She cried out and went back to work.

“Yeah, yeah.” I said blowing her off once more.

Closing the door behind me, I took a glance around the room. Kolt’s office was very spacious, easily a small apartment. The carpet was a silky smooth grey while the walls were a shiny steel. Many assorted paintings adorned the walls. One wall held rows upon rows of books while another held a cabinet full of liquor. A large brown desk sat in the very center with a very expensive looking black chair while a few nice black chairs were placed in front. In one corner of the room sat a small black piano with a vinyl player and record off to the side. Behind his desk was a balcony that allowed Kolt to see every inch of his property. Wasting no time, I went outside, dropped my disguise, and lit up a cigarette.

“Oh that’s the stuff.” I cried out in joy while taking a deep intake of my cancer stick.

Leaning against the railing, I then kept my eyes on the door. “And now we play the waiting game.”

~Hours later~

The moon was just beginning to rise while the sun began to set. It’s hard to believe what my friends told me: that two ‘alicorns’ raise and lower the moon and sun respectively. Then again this is a place full of unicorns and pegasi.

The sound of the door being open brought me out of my daze. Cloaking, I hid outside and glanced through the window. “What is it that was so important, Lead?” Gram called out. My assumption of him was correct, as his voice gave off an air of authority. Looking around the room carefully, he called back outside, “Tack, you said Lead was in here, but I don’t see him.”

“Maybe he’s out in the patio, drunk. Wouldn’t be the first time.” Tack called back.

Closing the door behind him, he looked towards his liquor cabinet. With an eased pace he made his way over towards his desk and reached underneath it.

“If you’re looking for those dangerous knives of yours, I have them right here.” I said while decloaking.

Turning around he gave me a once over while slowly reaching out to his chair.

“These are pretty dangerous you know.” I said casually while examining his knives. “Not only are they sharpened, but coated with poison. If I had to hazard a guess they either slowly kill any unwanted guest or will paralyze them for quite a long time.” I continued while carefully wrapping them back up in their cloth.

“Powerful paralysis. Got it from a shaman over in the Zebra Isles.” He responded evenly.

“Capture then question them, I like your style.” I nodded while carefully tossing him his knives.

He caught them and hooked them on to his belt. Walking over towards his bar--while keeping one eye on me--he then began to grab some glasses. “Can I offer you a drink Mr.?” He asked while pouring himself one.

“Spy. And no thank you, I’ll stick with my cigarettes if you don’t mind.” I said while lighting one up.

Taking a swish of his drink he walked back to his desk and leaned on it. “So to what do I owe the pleasure then, Spy?” He asked.

“I’m here to offer my services.” I offered while leaning against the glass doors. “If my sources are correct, you’re going to need them.”

“Oh?” He said casually while taking another sip of his drink. “And do you have any proof of this?” He asked as he set his drink on his table.

“If a Mr. Hard Lead would wake up-” I began to say only for the door to slam open.

“Boss, trouble! Some schmuck-” Hard Lead began to say until he saw me. “Who the hell are you?” He cried out as he reached into his coat for a dagger.

“Lead, don’t.” Kolt said as he held his hand up. Lead unhappily agreed and walked over towards his boss’ side. “Now, you were saying.”

“Three of our...employees-” He began.

“I already know that your ‘employees’ were trying to get to a Miss Trace Back, so please spare the hidden messages.” I said while releasing a cloud of smoke.

“Why you litt-” Lead began only for Kolt to stop him once more.

“Continue.” Kolt simply said.

“Like I was saying: Team Shade was caught after they got into a fight with a mercenary that Trace hired. They described the merc as a scrawny looking kid that wielded a-”

“A wooden bat.” I said as I put my cigarette out and entered the room. Going towards one of the paintings I continued. “He also used a baseball that when it hit someone caused them to be unable to do anything. He was rather fast and not only has good reflexes, but a good amount of strength, correct?”

“It sounds like you know him.” Lead snorted.

“Yes we’ve crossed paths before. They were never pleasant.”

“Please enlighten us. Or is that charged information?” Kolt asked as he sat down in his chair.

“As a sign of good faith it shall be free of charge.” I said while sitting on a bench near the piano.

“The boy goes by the name of Scout, Red Scout, and he is just as his name implies. He’s a scout. However I should elaborate a bit more before I continue. You see there were two mercenary groups: Reliable Excavation Demolition - or Red for short - and Builders League United -Blu -that fought over everything their contractors wanted. Be it gold, jewels, land and anything inbetween we fought for our employers, so long as the money was good. Recently though both of our employers died of food poisoning - done by an outside force - which lead us both seeking new employers. The Reds have alway believe in ‘justice’ so perhaps that’s why they decided to take up this job.”

“How many?” Kolt asked.

“Sir, you can’t seriously believe him.” Lead cried out.

“Nine. Each one highly skilled and extremely dangerous.” I responded, completely ignoring Lead’s outburst.

“And what is it that you want in return for your services, bits? Jewels? Whores?” He asked.

“Si-” Lead tried to say, but quickly shut his mouth as Kolt glared at him.

“Normally I’d charge a high price, but not only will this affect the Blu’s morals, but screw over the Reds. So I’m willingly to do it for cheap.” I said while looking at the back of my right hand.

“Why?” Kolt asked.

“Like I implied: there’s bad blood between us.”

“How much?”

“Depends. Do you want her dead or alive?”

“Alive.”

“Hmmm. How about twenty five hundred up front and twenty five hundred afterwards.”

“Five thousand bits! Are you insane?” Lead shouted.

“I am many things, my good sir, but insane is not one of them.” I said cooly. “That title belongs to our doctor.” I add with a light laugh.

“Lead.” Kolt said with a nod of his head.

“Sir, with all due respect, I don’t tru-” Lead began, but shut his mouth once more as Kolt glared at him.

“This cop has been a pain in my ass for too long now and seeing that you and your group haven’t been able to doing a thing about it yet, I’m willing to give him a chance.” Kolt began. “Know this Spy: Don’t fuck with me. Got it?” He finished with a cold glare.

“Naturally.” I said with curt nod.

“Lead, make the arrangements.” Kolt said while pulling up some files.

Lead thought to say otherwise, but soon rethought that. “Right away, Kolt.” He said and gestured for me to follow.

Making my out the door, I barely crossed the threshold before I remembered something. “You should remember those words you told me because it applies both ways.” I said.

He didn’t say anything though I know my message was heard as clear as day. Well, technically night, I suppose.

Leading me to one of the business rooms, he then began to scribble out some locations. “The first location is where you’ll find your first payment, though it’ll take us about an hour or so to gather the money and place it there. The second one is where you’ll drop her off alive. The final location is where you’ll find the rest of the payment, though until we get confirmation it won’t show up. Got that?” He asked while passing the paper over towards me.

“Seems simple enough.” I nodded.

“Now get out.” He growled. “And make sure your on time!”

Heading towards the door I stopped at the very entrance and glanced back at him. “Just know this: what your boss said to me applies to you as well.” His response was to simply snort and wave me off.

Making my way out of the building - much to the confusion of the guards - I took a glance at the paper he gave me. “Well then, I have some time to kill.” I said while lighting up a cigarette. “Let’s go see if they’re going to leave my payment or not.”

Chapter 14 pt 2: A Tale of Three Friends pt 3

View Online

~Hours later~

The Lucky Clover was a worn out building. Probably seeing many years of drunken abuse and fights, yet it still stood tall and strong in the outer ring of Stallinograde. Entering the bar, my nose was assaulted by the stench of booze, vomit, and sweat. The inside reminded me of an old western bar. Round wooden table were splayed out in the center were games of Blackjack or Texas hold ‘em were being played. In the very back was a large bar that held rows upon rows of booze. When I attempted to count them, I eventually lost track after eighty five. Looking up I could see that the bar had three other levels with each level looking more refined than the last.

I was rather surprised to see how packed it was. It was full to the brim of ponies, griffons--I found out later--, and Diamond dogs--which I also found out later--, from the first floor all the way to the third. Each one was different from the next though they all shared two things in common: A drink in one hand and laughter all around. It seems this place didn’t discriminate against what race you were or your social background, so long as you had the bits and a good sense of humor.

As I made my way around the bar, I only received a few odd looks from the other patrons, but was left alone. That is until I began to go up stairs. A pair of hands wrapped around my left arm followed by something rather soft.

“Well howdy there, sug. You seem a little lost.” Said a female with a southern accent. Turning my head I was not only able to get a better look at her, but figured out what ‘soft’ thing was touching me...I assume you guys can put two and two together. The mare wore a typical fake cowgirl outfit. Which consisted of blue jeans, a black tank top and a small dark brown leather jacket. She had long hot pink mane with light orange eyes and a really small brown stetson hat on her head.

“Just a little.” I admitted while rubbing the back of my head. “A friend of mine was suppose to meet me, but she didn’t tell me where exactly.”

Releasing her grip on me she gave me a pitiful look. “I don’t think this ‘friend’ of yours is really coming, sug.”

I gave her a questioning look before I realized what she meant. “Thank you for your concern. I’m actually surprised someone here in the lower parts of the city would have such feelings, but I’m a pretty good judge of character-- or I’d like to believe-- and I know my friend will be here soon.” I responded back with a confident smile.

“Far from me to doubt your words.” She said with a slight shake of her head. Moving back to my side in an instant, she wrapped her arms around my left arm once more.

“Though while you wait, maybe you can keep little old me some company?” She asked while batting her eyelashes at me with a slight pout. “I happen to have my own private booth up on the third level. It has an enchantment to let you see outside while others can’t see in, allowing you to keep an eye out for your friend. It also keeps sound in allowing us to talk in private.”

My brain turned off for a moment.

“Wow that’s kinky.” I said without thinking.

She gave me a confused look until it sunk in. Her face turned a very bright shade of pink as she stumbled for a response.

“NOT LIKE THAT!” She screamed, her accent gone and replaced with a very familiar voice.

Before I could say anything she gestured for me to keep quiet. With a subtle gesture of her eyes, I looked around the room. A good handful of patrons were looking at us with mild interest as they prepared themselves to leap into action at a moments notice.

Moving her hand back to her side, she got back into character. “What ah meant to say, was that ah’m not one of those kind of girls.” She said with a slight scowl.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to insinuate that you were one. It’s just been a long day that my brain just ran off on its own for a moment.”

“No, no, it’s alright. Yer not the first one to think that.” She said back with a dismissive wave. “Besides my pa would tan my hide red if he knew his daughter did those kind of things at his favorite bar.” She added on with a slight laugh.

Joining in on the laughter, I noticed the patrons turning their attention back to their own group. “You know what? Maybe some company until my friend arrives is just what I need.”

“That sounds great.” She said with a big cheery smile. “So how about this: Ah’ll get us some drinks while you go wait up in my booth, deal?”

“Sounds good, though I’ll take a coffee. I need a pick me up rather than a pick me down.” I said jokingly.

“Alright, one coffee coming up. My booth is on the right side and five booths down.” She said and left.

Making my way up there didn’t take me long. The booth she was speaking of was rather big, easily able to hold a party of ten. The booth had maroon red cushion, a beautiful hand crafted wooden round table, and a pure white veil. Entering the booth I sat down and waited. She wasn’t kidding about the view as I was able to see a good majority of the bar and its patroons.

I didn’t have to wait long as she entered the booth with a cup of coffee and a glass of water. Setting the cup near me, she took a seat across from me, and reached under the table. A click followed by a low hum and the enchantment was on.

“What’s wrong with you!” Trace cried out as she threw her wig onto the counter.

“Oh yes, because this is totally all my fault.” I replied back with a roll of my eyes.

“And what’s that suppose to me?” She asked with a scowl.

I just looked at her with one raised brow. “Do I have to quote what you said to me earlier?” I countered.

With a huff she crossed her arms and looked intently at the table. “Why does every colt assume that when I tell them about my booth.” She grumbled to herself.

“Because most colts have a one track mind.” I offered with a shrug.

With a sigh she took a sip out of her drink which I followed. “Did you put something in this?” I asked as I took another sip. The taste was unfamiliar to me, yet it didn’t taste bad.

“No, but I bet old Mixer put some brandy in it or something.” Trace said while leaning back in her seat.

“So, please tell me you found something?” She asked.

“Well I did find some things, though they won’t be enough for what you want.” I said though that didn’t change the look of glee on her face.

“Well? Don’t leave me in suspense.” She said as she now leaned on the table.

“Remember those goons that tried to get the jump on you?” I asked which she responded with a nod of her head.

“Well they sent a letter to Hard Lead--Kolt’s second in command--warning them about me.” I explained though her gleeful smile turned to a slight frown.

“That only proves that Lead is a part of the operation and even then I assume there’s no way to trace it back to him.” She said.

I nodded my head and took another sip of my spiked coffee. “Though while I was snooping around in Kolt’s office, I came upon a really high tech safe.”

“High tech? How so?” She asked with a curious look in her eye.

“Well besides looking really fancy and technologically advance not much.” I admitted with a shrug.

“A lot of help that was.” She said annoyed.

“At first glance no, but if my hunch is correct all of his secrets and backwards dealings are in that safe.”

“And why would such a mastermind hold all of his information in a safe at his workplace? Let alone actually record all of his activities?” She asked dubiously.

“Rules of hiding something and being a drug dealer.” I began while holding up two fingers.

“Rules of hiding: If you ever hide something you want it to be easily accessible by yourself yet not in a place that others can. Given that there are no signs of drug activity on his property-- and given that you guys failed recently-- it would be the safest place to hide his records. Not only that, but it wouldn't be strange for the boss--of any company--not to have a safe in his office holding very private and important documents.” I explained and paused for a moment.

Letting one of my fingers fall, I continued. “Rules of being a drug dealer: You always want to keep an edge on your other ‘business’ partners in case something goes wrong or if they plan to squeal. That way any loose ends can be dealt with and at the same time leave a cold trail behind. In other words the information he keeps is a double edge sword: It prevents people from stopping him yet at the same time it also could expose everyone that’s involved.”

Trace let that sink in for a moment before she spoke up. “Let’s pretend what you're saying is true. How are you going to get into the safe?”

“Well I might have a way, but the problem is that I need something made by the Platinum Lock corporation to really test my theory.” I began only to see a baffled look on Trace’s face.

“Platinum Lock, THEE Platinum Lock?!” She asked with a dreadful look on her face.

“I’m guessing they’re really famous?” I asked confused.

“Beyond famous.” She said with a deep sigh. “They’re the number one safe makers in all of Equestria. Heck they practically designed the royal vault themselves.”

“Well when I saw it, it looked...like something one of my gadgets could hack into-” I tried to reassure her, but she wouldn’t let me finish.

“And knowing him, he probably got the most recent series the three thousand one, right?” She asked, which I nodded my head.

“That baby runs on power gems that can sent a jolt of electricity to anyone trying to fiddle with it. Not only that, but it’s voice, finger, and retinal scanner can detect any illusion or shapeshifting. Even the elite lock pickers of the world could rarely get past it, yet your telling me you can?” She asked rhetorically.

“We might as well just ask him to open it for us. It’s beyond hope.” She said finishing her rant and slamming her head onto the table.

I just sat there for a moment and blinked a few times in surprise. “How did you know all of that?”

“A friend of mine has a lot of hobbies.” She responded back though her voice was muffled by the table.

The conversation died there as we sat there in silence. Finishing off my cup, I placed it back down onto the table and reached into my pocket for a cigarette. I was about to light it when it occurred to me that I was not only inside, but in a cramped space.

‘I should probably wait.’ I thought and began to place the cigarette back into its case. That is until it slipt out of my hand. Reaching down under the table to pick it up, I noticed a little black box underneath the table with an emerald green gem glowing brightly.

‘That must be the thing she was talking about earlier.’ I thought though paused as I saw a very familiar image of a lock.

“I didn’t know Platinum Lock made more than just safes.” I said surprised.

“If it has something to do with being secured or kept safe, they’re the leading group behind it.” She said joining me under the table.

Reaching underneath, I untapped the black box--much to Trace’s desire-- and put it on the table top.

“What are you doing?” She asked.

“I am going to test my theory with this little guy.” I said as I brought out my Electro-Sapper.

“Theory? Test? What are you talking about?” She asked with a raised brow.

Placing the two couplings onto the machine, I wasn’t surprised that nothing happen. Even though these powers of mine worked around video game logic, I knew some of the more finer details worked with a little human interaction.

“This little device purpose is to...short circuit gem based devices.” I semi-lied while twisting the knob on the sapper.

“Though for the most part it main purpose was to destroy three very particular designs, I believe with some fine tuning it can destroy any gem base construct.” I continued.

“Really now? I’ve never heard of such a thing.” She said with a curious look in her eye.

“Wait a second.” She said as her eyes went wide. “What do you mean destroy!?” She asked loudly though it was already too late.

Hitting the right frequence, blue sparks of electricity danced from the sapper to the machine. An image in my peripheral vision showed a white bar quickly being depleted. Once it was depleted the small box exploded into tiny fragments that flew every which way.

The sound of the bar’s patronage came in full force as the enchantment was no longer operational.

Trace sat there dumbstruck at what happened while, I sat there with a confident grin.

“That was worth fifteen pay stubs.” She said with a sad yet still dumbfounded look.

“...”

“Whoops.” I finally said.

“Whoops?” She said quietly, but soon gave me a death glare.

“Whoops!” She screeched, reached over the table, and grabbed me by the collar.

“After all of that, all you have to say for yourself is ‘Whoops’!” She screamed while she shook me.

“I’m sorry?” I offered while still being shook by this small, yet surprisingly strong mare.

Inexplicably she released me and gathered what piece were left nearby. Hugging the piece she soon began to mourn for her loss. Unsure of what to do I pat her on the back. “There, there. Time heals all wounds.” I said though wasn’t really sure if my words were going to be comforting or not.

She just continued to cry for her lost companion.

“Maybe you could send it back and they’ll fix it or send you a new one.” I suggested.

She stopped her crying and gave another death glare. She was about to scream at me--were I totally wasn’t flinching in the slightest bit--until she stopped and thought about it. “That...actually might work.” She said and whipped the tears from her eyes.

“It would?” I asked while totally not using the coffee cup as an improvised shield.

“Yeah. I have a warrenty on it though it doesn’t say anything about it exploding, that doesn't mean they won’t at least do something about it.”

“That’s good then?” I asked quietly while totally not hiding underneath the table..

“For right now, it’ll have to do.” She said while wiping away the last of her tears. With a tilt of her head she asked, “Why are you hiding down there?”

I slowly crept back up from underneath the table, placed the coffee cup back onto the counter, readjusted my tie, and coughed into my hand. “No reason.” I quickly said.

“Well it looks like we need to go somewhere else.” She said while putting her wig back on.

“Any suggestions?”

Checking to make sure the wig wasn’t going to fall off she thought about it for a moment. “The dressing rooms could work though we wouldn’t be able to stay there for too long.” She said.

“Big changing room?” I questioned as we both exited out of the booth.

Walking side by side she leaned into me so that our conversation would remain private. “No there little ones, but their shared amongst the other girls.” She gestured with her free hand.

Looking back out into the main hall, I did notice a bunch of other girls wearing similar outfits.

“It’ll have to do. Besides I’m going to need your help.” I whispered to her.

“Help with what?” She asked back in a low whisper.

“I’ll tell you once we get there.” I whispered back.

Few minutes later and we were in the one of the changing rooms. “We should be safe though we should keep our voices down.” She said while putting up a sign on the outside door handle.

The room was rather small. It was only big enough to hold maybe five people max and even then that was pushing it. There was a table and mirror in the back with an assortment of makeup and other accessories. To the right was a closet full of different outfits while to the left--much to my surprise--was a small bed.

“So what’s this plan of yours?” She asked while putting her wig and contacts back into a drawer.

“A rather simple plan, but one that requires a lot of trust.” I began.

~A little after midnight, Third Person PoV~

Hard Lead leaned impatiently against an old brick building. ‘He’s late.’ He thought while his right index finger tapped against his arm. Hard Lead was a rather impatient individual. Normally he’d have left after the first hour, later he’d hunt down the individual, and beat the crap out of them, but given that this was coming from Kolt himself, he would wait a few more minutes before he’d call off the hit.

“I knew his offer was too good to be true.” He grumbled under his breath. Getting ready to leave, he began to move back into the streets until he heard the sound of footsteps.

Glancing behind him he saw three shadowy figures. “This isn’t another piss break is it?” He asked menacingly.

“Nope, boss. We went before we got here. Didn’t want a repeat of what happened last time.” Said a voice with a Hooflyn* accent. (*Brooklyn)

“Then keep quiet and get ready to circle around back when I give the signal.” Lead whispered back as he got back into position.

Hunkering down they waited. The wait in question wasn’t long, but it sure did feel like it as a mare came around the corner cautiously. She wore a pair of blue jeans, a dark teal shirt, and a dark brown trench coat that hid most of her identity, though it didn’t help as Lead still recognized her. Lead gave a subtle gesture of his hand and the three shadows behind him were gone.

Trace cautiously moved down the street. The old worn out buildings groaned in unison that sent a chill down her spine. The lights that littered the street either died out a long time ago or sent an occasional flicker of light that caused the shadows to dance. Stories and rumors deterred most ponies from visiting the very edge of Stalliongrad though it was also the perfect place for criminals or secret meeting to be held. Even though she knew this, she decided to put her trust into Spy.

The sound of a moving glass bottle caused Trace to jump in fright. She was ready to flee until a stray cat ran off down a random alley.

“Stupid cat. Stupid rumors.” She grumbled to herself as she continued on her way. She didn’t make it very far as she barely caught a glimpse of a shadowy figure.

“Spy? Is that you?” She asked while scrunching her eyes.

The shadow didn’t budge.

“Spy, I swear if it’s you trying to scare me I’ll-” She began while making her way towards the shadow. That is until she recognized the individual.

“I’m sorry to say, Miss Trace.” Lead began as he menacingly walked out from the shadows. “But it appears you’ve been double crossed.” He finished with a cruel yet smug smile.

Trace made to run, but was stopped as a pair of big meaty arms locked around her small frame. With little trouble she was lifted and held into the air. It was no surprised that the arms belong to an equally big earth pony stallion that was bulging in biceps. He was easily a foot taller than Lead, with no mane atop of his head, and had dirt brown eyes. He wore camo-green pants with a matching shirt and dark brown boots.

Trace attempted to struggle and loosen herself from his grip, but he held on tight. She then attempted to scream for help, until a cloth--surround by a pink glow--wrapped itself around her mouth and effectively kept her quiet.

“Now, now, girly. We wouldn’t want ya to wake up the neighborhood, what with all that screaming.” A unicorn colt said--in a Hooflyn accent-- to the right of her. He wore a dark purple suit with matching pants and a teal undershirt. His mane was also teal though it was hidden behind the rim of a dark purple gambler hat. A decently sized teal horn stuck out from the top of his hat. His hot pink eyes looked over Trace’s body that caused her to blush slightly. Altogether he wasn’t a bad looking colt, though he really did need to get with the times as the hat was way out dated.

“Pffft, pink.” Said a colt to the left of Trace that caught her off guard. He wore a vomit green jumpsuit and had dirt covering most of his face. He was short--barely reaching Trace’s chest--with dark maroon haired covered in a layer of dirt and tannish eyes.

The well dressed colt snorted, walked over towards the shorter one, and slapped him across the face. “It’s a light purple, not pink!”. He growled.

The short one rubbed his now red cheek while angrily glaring at his ‘friend’. After a few more rubs he then stomped on the well dressed colts foot that caused him to yipe in pain. “It’s totally pink, bro.” He said back while sticking his tongue out at him.

Lead rolled his eyes at the common event before him. Walking over to both of them, he slapped them both behind the head. “Quit goofing around.” He hissed to the both of them.

“He started it!” They both cried out while pointing at one another.

“Does it look like I care?” He asked.

Before either one could responded, Lead smacked them again. “It was rhetorical!” He roared.

While the three bickered amongst one another, Trace brought her right leg down hard and right between the big pony’s nether region. A girly squee of pain escaped his lips as he not only let Trace go, but then fell to the ground in a fetal position. With her feet back on the ground, she turned and ran away from them with all her might.

Just as she neared the corner, Lead had finally found out what all that ruckus was about. “AFTER HER!” He yelled just as Trace turned the corner. He didn’t have to repeat himself twice as his goons chased after her though the big stallion lagged behind. Running after them, he was hot on their trail.

Twist and turns flew on by as they chased after Trace. Normally Lead wouldn’t be chasing after them, but even he knew that if she got away he’d never have another chance.

Minutes passed by as the chase continued. Causing Lead’s mood to become fouler and fouler by the second. It wasn’t until a loud scream echoed out did things change. Pushing himself to go faster, he turned the corner sharp and was not expecting his goons to be standing right there.

The sudden impact caused the big stallion to fall back onto his ass. Shaking the stars from his eyes, he got up, and was ready to scream at the top of his lungs until he noticed what they were looking at.

Under the moon’s light stood that blue suited fellow with Trace leaning on him. It wasn’t until Lead took a few steps closer that he realized she wasn’t leaning, but was slumped over him as a bloody dagger was held in his right hand.

Setting the body down gently and face up, he ran over towards a dumpster and began digging through it.

“Smooth?” Lead whispered to the unicorn colt while gesturing to the body.

Smooth Lips made his way towards the body and placed two finger to the side of her neck. “She’s dead boss.” He said while adjusting his purple hat. How it did not fall during the chase would forever be a mystery to Lead, but right now he didn’t care.

“Where the hell were you?” He growled over to Manny though was promptly ignored.

He made to move over towards the bastard, until Manny found what he was looking for. Dragging over an old worn out carpet, he unraveled it, placed Trace’s dead body in it, and wrapped it back up.

“Apparently doing your job.” He finally responded back while reaching into his coat and lighting a cigarette up.

“Excuse me?” Lead growled as he got near Manny’s face.

Not liking his personal space being invaded, Manny moved away from him though made sure to blow a puff of smoke into Lead’s face, causing the big stallion to choke for a few seconds.

“My job was to deliver the girl, which I did. While your job was to take care of her, which you didn’t.” He said annoyed.

Lead was furious to say the least. His face turned a whole new shade of red that caused his goons to cower in fear. Gritting his teeth he forced himself to calm down. “I don’t have time for this. I’m already late as it is.” Lead said while glaring holes into Manny’s skull.

“You three take care of it and make it quick.” He continued while walking past his goons and back out into the streets.

“And what about the rest of my pay-” Manny began until Smooth Lips got in his way.

“Now, now. I assure you that I have the rest of the payments location right in here.” He began while tapping his head lightly. “We just need you to help us get rid of the body and we’ll all be on our way.” He finished with a friendly smile.

“And why should I? I did my par-” Manny began once more, but was interrupted again.

“Well not only is the payment near the area we are going, but we need someone with such amazing stealth skills as yourself to reach our destination without being seen.” Smooth praised.

Manny simply stared at him. Smooth Lips was a smooth talker, given his name and his cutie mark--which was a pair of lips poised to speak--, it wasn’t surprising how he was easily able to con others into doing his dirty work.

With an annoyed snort, Manny simple nodded his head in agreement.

“Excellent!” Smooth cheered with a clap of his hands.

The next half hour was spent making their way through the back alleys of Stalliongrad. Only a few passengers caught sight of them, but so lost within their misery and misfortune, they simply looked the other way.

That and the occasional threat to break their skulls in convinced them to look the other way.

Reaching their destination, Mole--the guy in the jumpsuit--began to dig a hole. While waiting for him to finish his part of the job, the others stood around and kept an eye on their surroundings.

The area they resided in was mostly bare except the very few houses that survived the passage of time. Even then they were held together by only hopes and dreams. Groans echoed out from the surrounding homes, followed by an occasional grunt from Mole.

“Whoo. I think I’m out of shape.” Mole wheezed as he rested on the edge of the hole, now that the task was complete.

“I thought you felt heavier.” Smooth said whimsically.

“Up yours, Pinkie.” Mole responded back.

“If you two are done with your lovers quarrel, can we get on with it?” Manny asked, while putting his cigarette out and placing it into an inner pocket.

“Yeah seriously, my arms are starting to cramp.” Bronze said as he dumped the body into the hole.

“And I want to get my damn payment.” Manny finished as he moved over towards the hole and peered down into it.

“In due time, my good sir.” Smooth began while nodding his head towards him. Bronze responded back with a nod and quietly made his way over towards Manny.

“There’s just one tiny little thing left to be done.” Smooth finished with a smirk.

~Time: just before sunrise~

“Why the hell did I come here?” Kolt grumbled to himself. With one final step he made his way from the stairs and towards his office.

A few hours earlier, Kolt was in a meeting with his partner Crunch--a diamond dog--and discussed the possibility about expanding their operation to the east coast of Equestria. Of course he didn’t care, so long as he was properly compensated with gems. As they were writing up the new deal a strange feeling of wrongness took hold of Kolt. At first he tried to ignore it, but it eventually drove him to madness.

Leaving the rest up to Lead, Kolt had made his way back to his office.

“It’s probably just anxiety.” He tried to convince himself once more--this being the twentieth time now--, but he still reached into his pocket, grabbed his key, and unlocked the door.

With a simple turn of the knob, the door opened.

“No…” Kolt said with disbelief as the key to his office fell to the floor.

To the left of his desk was a picture of his great, great grandfather standing in front of the very first building that the Colt Mining company worked from. Though instead of being on the wall, it was now on the ground revealing Kolt’s safe. Said safe being wide open for anyone to plunder.

“No, no, no.” Kolt said with fear as he began to shove the paper and other odd ends out of the safe. With mostly everything on the floor, he pushed a hidden button near the very back. A low click was heard as a secret compartment revealed itself from the right inside of the safe. Opening it fully, a pure look of terror splayed across his face as he fell to his knees.

The compartment was empty.

“Looking for something?” Manny asked while he closed and locked the door.

Kolt’s head whipped over towards him. He wore a look of surprise that was soon replaced with one of untold rage.

“I should have killed you when I had the chance.” He snorted. Cautiously standing up, he careful made his way around his desk.

“In my defence, you double crossed me first.” Manny pointed out. Taking a step towards Kolt, while reaching into his coat pocket and retrieving his butterfly knife.

Without a second thought, Kolt quickly reached underneath his desk, pulled out a small dagger, and aimed it towards Manny. Before he could release it a sound similar to a cannon roared out, which was soon followed by the sound of cracking glass. The dagger that was in his hand flung away and out of his grasp, while a red hot searing pain caused him to grab his left hand.

With adrenalin pumping through his veins, Kolt soon forgot the pain and looked towards its source. The item was foreign to Kolt, but to Manny it was a very common one. The item in question was the default revolver of the Spy class. Simple, elegant, and deadly it was altogether a very basic weapon back home, but to Kolt it was essentially the most powerfulest and deadliest weapon before him. The very idea of making a cannon the size no bigger than a dagger yet able to kill something with a single shot was beyond believable. With a careful glance behind his back, Kolt could see a small hole through his balcony doors.

“Now, now, let’s not be so hasty.” Manny tsked while he waved his gun back and forth.

Kolt was scared. He knew one wrong move and he’d be done for. Swallowing his fear, he put on a brave face. “How? You should be dead?” He asked with a hint of fear in his voice.

Kolt hoped that if he could get him to talk long enough, maybe one of his guards on sight might show up.

Manny was caught off guard by the random question, but soon shrugged it off. “I suppose I can answer that.”

~back at the dumpsite~

“There’s just one tiny little thing left to be done.” Smooth finished with a smirk.

Bronze was a few seconds away from pummeling Manny to death, until the sound of a small cannon roared out. Both Smooth and Mole froze in place as the body of Bronze fell into the very hole that was dug.

In Manny’s hand was the Ambassador. A weapon meant for deadly and precise headshots rather than rate of fire. It had a rosewood brown grip with an engraving of a reclining women on the barrel. The barrel itself shined a beautiful glow as the moon’s light reflected off it.

Pointing the barrel at Mole’s head, Mole tried to say something, but was promptly silenced. His body hitting the ground with a low splat. His body sat there for a few moments until gravity decided to do its job and dragged it into the hole.

Smooth Lips was terrified.

A pure look of horror splayed across his face as he fell to the ground. He dared not to move or even blink in the hopes that Manny wouldn’t notice him. A small puddle began to form around his legs and stained his pants, while his eye remained focused on the man who killed two of his best partners.

Manny showed no emotion or remorse as he eyed Smooth with little to no care.

“The next step?” Manny asked. Never adjusting his aim at Smooth’s head.

It took far longer than it should have for Smooth to hear Manny’s question. He tried to speak, but a knot prevent him from speaking. Ironic given that his special talent was speaking, but the irony was lost to both parties.

Smooth knew he was going to die by Manny’s hand, but a simple thought gave him hope. That hope was that Manny still wanted his payment, the payment that only Smooth knew the location to. And given that he decided to humor him--instead of demanding the money straight away--he really did want that money.

After a few tense moments Smooth was able to find his voice. “We were going to burn the bodie-” He began, but quickly corrected himself.

“-body and then bury it. Boss man knew some zebras that gave him an extract from spiders that could shoot burnable venom. If applied and lit, it can burn a body in a few minutes.” He explained. Shakingly reaching into his pocket he extracted a small vial of green liquid.

With a gesture of Manny’s gun, Smooth poured the liquid onto the bodies. A nervous smile splayed across his lips as he completed the task though changed as Manny gestured to the pit once more. Nervously searching his pocket it took him far longer than it should have to find a packet of matchsticks.

It also took him far longer than it should have to light the bloody thing, but same as before he finally did. Throwing it into the pit, it took merely a few seconds before it lit up with an eerie green flame. True to his word the bodies were burned into a pile of ash in a matter of minutes.

With that taken care of Manny told Smooth to bury the bodies. It took Smooth awhile at first though he was able to get the task done quicker with the help of his magic. He did have a great motivator not to do anything funny as the barrel was pressed behind his head.

The two were now marching off towards where the stash of bits were hidden and Smooth knew that he needed a plan. And very soon as they reached their destination. The home was a faded out shade of blue made out of wood. The inside had a matching color and the home was quite obviously empty, save for dust and spider webs. Entering the abandoned home the two made their way upstairs, said stairs groaning in protest. Entering the room at the very end of the hall a small worn out chest greeted the pair near the very back.

“Open it.” Manny said while lightly tapping Smooth’s back with the end of his revolver.

Smooth did as he was told and opened the chest. Inside the chest were three bags filled to the brim with bits.

“How much?” Manny asked.

“Eight thousand. About two for each of us.” Smooth answer.

“You should look for a raise, I got twenty-five hundred just to basically bring her to you and more for afterward.”

“Well we get some perks that cover the payment opportunity.” Smooth responded while reaching into his right sleeve.

“Well it won’t be a problem in a few minutes anyways.” Manny said with a shrug. “Place the bits behind you nice and slowly.”

Smooth did as he was told though hesitated on the last bag.

‘Should be light enough still if I ran with one bag.’ He thought. Before Manny could ask him what was taking so long, Smooth let a purple looking ball roll over towards Manny’s feet.

The ball exploded and release a cloud of dense black smoke. Smooth grabbed the remaining bag and bolted for the door. Manny’s gun roared in the dense smoke that luckily only grazed Smooth’s left leg.

Smooth knew not only this home, but the area like the back of his hand. He made it clear to Lead that this location was the only place he’d pick up his payment for one and only one reason: if he was ever double crossed. Turning towards the end of the hall, he ran, and jumped through the window. A shot whizzed by his head as Manny emerged from the room.

A pile of trash broke his fall as he tumbled out and ran down the alley way. Another shot whizzed by as it grazed his shoulder. Turning down another alley, Smooth slid to the ground and rolled underneath a rotted out wooden fence. Jumping back up to his feet--a small dust cloud picking up as he got up--he ran towards another abandoned home. Opening and slamming the door behind him, he quickly ran through the kitchen and towards the front door. Opening the front door, he then quickly turned around, ran towards the side of some stairs, and pushed against the wooden frame.

The wood groaned in protest, but eventually moved to reveal a hidden storage room. Shuffling into the room he quickly, but quietly closed it behind him. Not a moment too soon as the back of the kitchen door slammed opened.

Manny carefully, but quickly made his way into the living room. Just like the other abandoned home there was nothing of interest here. Noticing the front door open he made his way over there. Looking out into the open street he didn’t see any signs of a trail left from Smooth. Looking towards the sky he was able to guess that it was near sunrise.

With an annoyed sigh, Manny shot the ground around him a few times. “I know you’re in here somewhere, but luck is on your side as my time is about up.” He said while he stood in the center of the living room.

Reaching into his coat pocket he drew out a familiar bag full of bits. Setting it down in the center of the living room he then made his way towards the front door. “So I offer you this other bag full of bits as not only as a bribe, but as a way to help you leave this city. Because if I so much as see you in this city or hear that you tried to sell me out, then I will find you and kill you.” Manny finished as he changed to the Scout class and ran off down the road.

Smooth didn’t dare move in the off chance he was hiding nearby. Smooth did know one thing, that Las Pegasus was calling his name.

Manny was able to quickly make his way back to Kolt’s office. It took him a while to find a spare key to Kolt’s door--which was cleverly hidden behind a portrait in the lobby--, but he was finally in. Putting the key back and closing and locking the door behind him, he then made his way to a portrait of a buck in front of the very first Kolt mining building. Carefully removing the painting he set it off to the side and got to work.

Taking out his Sapper he placed it on the safe and like before turned the knobs side to side. Within a few minutes the Sapper sparked to life as blue sparks of electricity danced around the safe’s exterior. In his peripheral vision an image of a white bar being drained appeared. Fully drained it thankfully didn’t exploded like the last time, but instead simple opened when Manny pulled the lever.

Searching through the safe, he found nothing of interest. It was by sheer luck did Manny feel a slight depression in the back of the safe that lead to his discovery of a hidden compartment. The contents of said object brought a smile to Manny’s face as he carefully took the book out.

Opening the book brought an even bigger smile as it listed names, addresses, and other odds and ends to how Kolt’s ‘business’ was run. Closing the hidden compartment back up. He made his way towards the balcony, switched his class to the Scout, and jumped.

~Back at Kolt’s office~

Manny did make sure to leave out the part of letting Smooth live. Kolt stood opposite of him with a scarred yet angry look on his face.

“Oh I left it in goods hooves, don’t you worry about that.” Manny said and finished with a soft chuckle.

“You know, I pegged you wrong.” Kolt said suddenly.

Manny raised a brow towards him and Kolt continued. “I thought you were some goody, goody, mercenary that was trying to trick me, but now I see you’re the dirty kind that does whatever it takes to get the most bits out of a job.”

“Well a man has to eat, doesn’t he?” Manny responded back with a shrug.

“But to kill your own employer has to be bad for business?” Kolt inquired that brought a small unnerving smile to Manny’s face.

“Dear me, it seems I forgot to mention something.” He said with a wistful tone.

~Back at Lucky Clover’s changing room, Manny’s PoV~

“How much trust?” She asked me while moving towards the closet.

I sighed, sat on the bed, and pinched the bridges between my eyes. “I won’t lie to you. It might get you killed or worse, but if it works right we’ll have all the evidence we’ll ne-” I said, with a motivational tone, but it died at the end at what I saw. Trace was only in her underwear. My face turned a shade of deep red as I looked over her body. I was actually surprised to see her wearing such girly and frilly yellow underwear considering I pegged her as an orang-

…

Ignore what I was about to say.

Finally noticing my pause, she looked at me confused. “All the evidence we’ll need? Is that what you were going to say?” She asked as she stood in front of me.

I sat there trying to only look her in the eyes, but thanks to our height difference--and her standing in front of me--it didn’t help.

“Hey are you okay? Your face looks like it’s burning up.” She said and LEANED FORWARD! My eyes trying to look anywhere and everywhere, but they would always find their way back towards her chest.

Placing her hand on my forehead she quickly brought it back to her side. “Oh no, it feels like you're burning up. Hang on a sec there, might be some medicine in here somewhere.” She said with concern and began to search through the table’s drawers.

As she searched through the drawers the one rational part of my brain reminded me why I was here to begin with. With a quick slap to the face--much to Trace’s confused look--,I then shut my eyes.

“Trace, stop. I’m not sick.” I said though paused as I tried to find the right words to explain this whole awkward situation.

“Manny, please. Your face is burning up and-” She began, but paused.

“Why are your eyes closed?” She asked.

“Trace there’s no good way to say this, so excuse me for being so blunt.” I began.
while twiddling my thumbs.

“But can you please put some cloths on.” I finished as my face turned a deeper red.

Trace remained silent while I sat there messing with my thumbs. A full minute passed by in silence until the room was filled with Trace’s laughter. Now being the one confused, I wanted to see what was so funny, but I remembered why I closed my eyes to begin with. Though it only slightly helped as my brain was oh so unhelpfully putting images into my head.

After a few minutes of her laughing she was able to slightly get herself back under control. “Whenever you want to fill me in on what’s so funny, that’d be great.” I said with a hint of annoyed confusion.

“It’s-It’s just that-” She tried though her laughing fit prevented her from answering.

Taking in a deep breath, she finally calmed herself down. “It’s just that I always figured you were a professional and that these sorts of things wouldn’t phase you. So to see you so embarrased is adorable.” She said with an amused tone.

“And you’re not in the slightest?” I asked.

“Pffft, please.” She said with--what I imagine--an eye roll.

“I grew up in a household with three brothers, two rooms, one bathroom, and a kitchen/living room. You kinda had to get over that kind of stuff pretty quick.” She said nonchalantly.

“Apparently growing up with three brother didn’t teach you how to fight properly.” I mumbled to myself.

Though I didn’t say it quiet enough as I felt Trace grab my right arm. Before I could even react, she twisted my arm towards my back and shoved me onto the bed. My eyes shot wide open, though I couldn’t see much as the sheets prevented me from seeing. My shoulder ached in pain as I felt her twist it in the right--or in this case wrong--angle. A muffled cried of pain escaped my lips as I felt one of her knees dig into my lower spine.

“Say it!” She cried out and oh so ‘gently’ applied more pressure to my limb and spine.

“UNCLE! UNCLE!” I cried out.

“Who’s your daddy?” She asked with--again what I could imagine--a sadistic smile.

“Well technically it would be mommy since you don’t have any dangly-” I began only to feel more pressure on my limb.

“OW! OW! YOU ARE.” I amended. A sigh of relief escaped my lips as I felt her remove the pressure from my back and let my right arm go.

“Need I remind you, at that time, how dead tired I was.” She said as she hopped off the bed.

Giving myself a few seconds to get the soreness out of my body, I turned over slowly. Thankfully Trace had some pants on with a shirt being put on in the process. Sitting up, I then began to work the kinks out of my arm and back.

Finish with putting her shirt on, she turned towards me and got in my face. “Need I also remind you that at the time, I was solely running on caffeine.”

Holding my hands up defensively, she backed off a bit. “Point taken.”

“Though by the looks of it now, you got some pretty decent sleep.” I added.

“Few hours on the train ride here, and a nap at the Lucky Clover does wonders.” She said wistfully.

“I could only imagine.” I said dryly.

She merely rolled her eyes at my response. “So this plan of yours entails what exactly?” She asked as she got us back on track.

“The plan is for me to ‘betray’ you and let his goons take you to their base, which I’ve no idea is at. Tailing you guys, I bust you out, get any information/evidence we can, and deliver it to your boss. He gets a whole squad of guards and the police force, we make some arrest, and see Lead and Kolt’s face at my triple cross.” I explained.

“What about that supposed ‘black book’? By the sound of it, it should be more than enough to nail him.”

“Well I was going to go get it after our conversation and then randevu back here, but in the off chance that he didn’t write somewhere in there the location to his workshop, I’d like a back up plan.”

She nodded in understanding. “Alright, that sounds like a pretty decent plan. I’m game.”

Reaching into the closet she pulled out a coat and began to put it on. “So how long is it going to take you?” She asked with her back towards me.

With a heavy sigh, I got up and reached into my suit. “Not to long hopefully, but there’s just one more thing.” I began as I brought out Your Eternal Reward.

“What’s that?” She asked as she adjusted the coat to fit more snuggly.

Standing behind her, I brought my weapon to bare and leaned towards her left ear. “Sorry.” I said.

“Wh-” She tried to ask, but the handle hit her in the back and knocked her out. Catching her before she could fall to the floor, I carried her over towards the bed and tucked her in.

“Why don’t you get some more sleep and let me take care of the rest.” I said in her voice.

Making my way out, I closed the door behind me and made sure that the sign was still up. It took me a few minutes--and some awkward conversations with the other workers--, but I eventually found the back door.

~Back at the office~

“After taking care of your goons and getting the book, I went back to the Lucky Clover, left a note for her, and asked the barkeep to wake her up within half an hour. It was then just a matter of me waiting for you to show up.” I explained. Granted there was no guarantee that he’d show up, but considering the Engineer gets a warning that his machines are being sapped, I had a good feeling Kolt would as well.

“And what happens now?” He asked with a cold glare.

“The guards or police force should be rounding up any and all of your ‘business’ partners while also putting a stop to your operations. I also imagine they should be showing up any moment now to arrest you as well.” I replied with my own cold glare.

Kolt would have been a formidable poker player, though he slipped as a sly yet confident smile slipped for the briefest of seconds. One that I was easily going to crush in a matter of seconds.

“Oh dear old me.” I began with that same wistful tone that caused Kolt to frown.

“It appears I forgot to mention one more important detail.” I continued while pulling the hammer back.

A look of pure terror was splayed across his face at what I was implying. “Y-you can’t. You’re the good guy. The good guy doesn’t kill.” He cried out while slowly backing away from me.

My gun roared to life as the bullet ripped into his right side and making a second hole in his patio door. Kolt cried out in pain as he held his side and looked at me with anger and fear. Walking towards him he eventually backed himself into the patio door.

With only a few inches between us, I stopped and stared at him coldly. “Who said I was the good guy?” I asked rhetorically.

He didn’t say or do anything, but was instead solely focused on my gun.

With a light laugh--much to his confusion--, I put the gun away. “Oh don’t be so worried Kolt. I can’t kill you with my gun.” I began much to his surprise.

With a simple thought, I changed my class to the Heavy. I retained my normal height and muscle mass, but that was rather misleading as I could feel the strength I now possessed. I also thankfully kept my hair, as I reflexively streaked it forward.

If I was in his shoes right now, this would have been the perfect opportunity to fight back. As it was he wasn’t me. My fist connect with his jaw before he even saw it coming. The force of the blow sent him through the glass patio where it then shattered into a billion pieces.

…

‘Holy shit! And I thought I was holding back to.’ I thought, but pushed those thoughts out of the way for the moment.

Kolt was still dazed by the time I reached his side. Hoisting him up by his back, I carried him over to the ledge. Holding him over the balcony I released my grip on him, but he was able to grab onto the ledge at the last second. He was hanging there for dear life while screaming for help, but alas no one could hear his cry for help.

The sun was just peaking over the horizon when light from the distant caught my eye. Wearing their gold armor proud, the Equestrian guard marched from the distant while a team of Pegasi flew ahead to the scene.

“And not a moment too soon.” I said while looking down into Kolt’s face.

“Please, I don’t want to die! I’ll do anything, PLEASE!” He begged with a desperate look in his eyes. Truth be told I could tell he was telling the truth. That he would change his ways given the chance.

Kneeling down next to him, I spoke in a kind yet tired voice. “I bet you could and would given the chance.” I began, a look of hope spread across his face, but soon faltered at my glare.

“But how many ‘chances’ did you give to those that betrayed you?” I asked coldly.

Shaking my head, I looked down at him with pity. “No, even if you did, it wouldn't have made a difference. This is more than just you and me.” I began.

“This is a message to all those who have sinned like you or worse. A message to spread fear and terror into their hearts. To remind them how afraid of the dark they should be, lest the buggy man comes and gets them. A message to remind the victims that there is someone watching over them like a guarding angel. That those who do wrong will not go unpunished.” I continued my speech, the conviction within my voice growing stronger and stronger with each word. Rays of light gave a warmth and holly presence as I kneeled before him.

“I will be the seeker who finds the truth. I will be the blade hidden within the shadows. I will be the shield to protect the innocent.” I continued though paused for a moment.

The rays of light that gave me warmth were soon gone as the balcony railings got in the way and covered me in darkness. “I will be the sinner to cast the final sin.” I finished solemnly.

“You’re insane.” Kolt simply said.

“Perhaps.” I admitted as I stood up. “But those words don’t mean much coming from a dead man.” I added and brought my foot up.

Before he could say another word my foot smashed into his face. The pain caused Kolt’s grip to slip as he fell to his death. His blood curdling screams could be heard for miles as he fell faster and faster. In the distance I could see the Pegasi trying to speed up and catch him, but it was far too late for that. Turning and walking back into his office, I changed back to the Spy class. Just as I reached his door, I could hear the cries of panic and surprise from outside. Walking towards the stairs, I cloaked and made my way down, only having to pause a few times to refill my cloak or dodge some guards going up.

Finally making it to the bottom floor, I could see a bunch of guards trying to escort everypony off the premises. Carefully weaving my way through the crowd, it took me a bit until I found Kolt’s body. A great big splatter of blood covered a good area near the entrance door. Yellow tape surrounded the area as earth and unicorns took pictures of the area or looked for clues.

Waiting off to the side for a bit, I eventually found an opportunity to go over towards the body. I stood over the body and bowed my head. “Forgive me father, for I have sinned.” I mumbled. Reaching into my coat pocket I retrieved two items. One was a simple note while the other was a yellow flower. Carefully placing the letter into his inner pocket, I then placed the flower on top of his body.

As I turned and walked away from the body, I heard one pony speak. “Hey! Who’s the wise guy that placed the flower on this guy?” He cried out unamused.

~Stallion Grade Police Station, before noon~

The place was in disarray as both police and guard ponies ran all over the place. Luckily I was in the chief’s office instead of out in the open or I’d have surely been in the way.

The room itself was a quarter the size of Kolt’s office. It was also rather simple: white walls, tannish carpets, a dark brown desk, a decently sized safe in one of the back corners, some images of past chiefs, and newspaper clippings of big cases being solved.

“Stallion Grade wishes to thank you for your help in not only solving the case, but bringing down one of the biggest drug trades in the city.” Brief Case--the chief of police--said. Case was in his mid fifties with silver faded hair and light orange eyes. He wore the standard blue police suit though had some medals adorned over his heart. His cutie mark was--oddly enough--an image of a stamper with the words ‘Case Closed’ on it. Probably representing how quick he could close a case. On another note, how the hell do parents know what to name their kids that somehow correlate to their cutie mark?

“I’m also willing to overlook what you did, Trace, in breaking your house arrest.” He add with a stern yet light hearted tone.

“Thank you, chief.” Trace said with a salute. She was also wearing her police uniform.

“I’m just sorry I couldn’t have been there.” I apologized while holding a bag of ice to the back of my head. Apparently offering a few bits to some kids can be a good way to make it look like you got attack/mugged. It was also a good enough albie which was a shame given that I payed a hobo to sleep out in the open--though with his back turned--so I could have had some more witnesses.

“Karma’s a bitch.” Trace teased, much to my annoyance though stopped as Case gave her a sidelong glance.

“Yes, well, your help would have been grateful, but you did well beyond anypony's expectations.” He said with an understanding smile.

A knock at the door followed by a mare entering in paused our conversation. “Sir, here are the ballistics on the letter.” She said and quickly excused herself.

“Letter?” I asked.

“Yeah. It was found on Gram’s body.” Case said as he read the report.

Trace got up and moved behind the chief to read the letter. “Something bad?” She asked though noticed her boss’ disapproving look. Muttering an apology she went back to her seat.

“Why would that be a problem?” I asked and was about to light up a cigarette until I remember where I was. With a sigh I put the cigarette back into its case.

“Besides the contents, or the fact that it was placed after my team looked over the body already, in the middle of the crowd with no one seeing a thing.” He said while putting the paper into a drawer.

“Is he going to be a problem? I could help track him down if you need me to.” I offered, but got turned down with the shake of his head.

“As of right now, the higher ups think it’s more of a joke, but I have a gut feeling we haven’t heard the last of this guy.” Case began with a hard look.

“The good thing is--by the sound of his letter--he won’t be targeting any police force or government official.” He continued though paused with an uncertain look. “Less of course they do some shady business practice.”

The door to Case’s office slammed open as a stallion ran in. “Sorry for the interruption sir, but we have a problem.” He said while setting the local news on the table for all of us to read.

The article talked about Gram’s death and his business practice--as well as naming a few of his business partners--, but what stood out was a letter at the bottom.

It read as followed:

To whoever it may concern,

To those who hide in the shadows and wrong the innocent, read this carefully. For wherever you may hide, I will find you. For whatever wrong you have committed, you will pay a hundred full. For whatever sin you have committed, you have forfeited your life.

For you see, I am the one who will finds the truth. I am the blade hidden within the shadows. I am the shield that protects the innocent.

Mock these word if you wish. Laugh at the absurdity that I leave this note to be read by the masses, but know this. You will soon know it is the truth by my calling card. For each of your lives that I take, I shall leave a gift behind. And then I hope you wonder, am I next?

Signed,
Lemures

We sat in the room in silence as we took in the letter. Case was the first to break the silence. “How?”

“We’re looking into it right away, sir, but from the reports so far, someone left different letters on a bunch of news editor’s desk.

“Find me answers. Fast.” He said in a dangerously low tone. The stallion gave off a quick salute and left, making sure to close the door on the way out.

“What did he mean by ‘calling card’?” I asked only to receive silence from both of them.

“Sir? He’s going to find out sooner or later.” Trace said softly.

Case just nodded his head in agreement. “It’s a yellow flower.”

“Well technically it’s a rudbeckia hirta-- or a yellow daisy--that’s common around the western area of Equestria-” She began to explain, but stopped at our looks.

“I have a lot of friends with odd hobbies.” She said with a blush. Getting over her embarrassment she continued. “Interestingly enough it’s meaning is-” She tried to say, but I beat her to it.

“Justice.” I finished earning an odd look from the both of them. “I read it in a book once.” I added with a shrug.

“Anyways, we’re not here for that.” Case said as he got up and went towards his safe. Entering in a combination, he then opened it, pulled out a brown bag, and closed the safe.

Standing before me with the bag in hand, I stood up and listened to him. “In honor of your servitude, I hereby present to you from the city of Stallion Grade five thousand bits.” He said and handed me the bag of bits. “I wish we could have offered you more, but that was all we had.” He added with a sad smile.

“Thank you sir, but I can’t except this much.” I began much to their surprise and handed it back to them.

“But what about your payment?” Trace asked confused.

“You guys need it more than I do.” I said with a light hearted smile.

“I appreciate the thought, but it would be wrong not to reward you in some way.” Case said as he gave it back to me.

“Yeah, you earned it.” Trace said with a smile.

‘If only you knew.’ I thought.

“Okay how about this: Give me half and keep the other half.” I offered.

“Are you sure?” Case asked, which I nodded my head. “Alright then.” He said and quickly counted out my half.

After that I said my goodbyes and made my way towards the train station. Though I wasn’t alone as Trace insisted on at least seeing me off. We walked in silence as we made it to the station within the hour. Luck was on my side again as the train was just getting ready to depart.

“Guess this is it then?” Trace said with a sad smile.

“For now at least.” I replied back with my own sad smile.

Tears streaked down her face as she gave me a hug and thanked me once more. I returned the hug and respond once more that it was no problem. Entering the train and finding a seat, I pushed the window up to say goodbye one more time to her.

As the train began to depart she kept pace with the train as she yelled out, “I’ll make sure to give you a call if I ever need help again.”

“Sounds good.” I yelled back until a thought accord. “Can you do me a favor?” I began my request.

“What is it?” She asked back.

“Tell your friends about me and let them know I can help with any problems.”

“Will do.” She cried out and waved one last time. I returned the wave though I don’t know if she saw it. Closing the window back down, I lit a cigarette, took a puff, and then settled into my seat.

‘Look out villains of Equestria, there’s a new sheriff in town.’ I thought as a dark smile splayed across my lips.

Gamers in Equestria

by Neoandermcd

Chapter 1: Where the Buck are we? (Revised)

Chapter 2: Welcome to the Jungle (Revised)

Chapter 3: Not out of the Woods yet (Revised)

Chapter 4: Meeting the Locals (Revised)

Chapter 5: The Mane Six (Revised)

Chapter 6: Bygones be Bygones (Revised)

Chapter 7: A Sort of Good Night's Rest (Revised)

Chapter 8: A One Way Ticket? (Revised)

Chapter 9: Danger Around Every Corner (Revised)

Chapter 10: Battle of the Living Dead Pt.1

Chapter 11: Battle of the Living Dead Pt.2

Chapter 12: A Tale of Three Friends

Chapter 13: A Tale of Three Friends pt 2

Chapter 14 pt 1: A Tale of Three Friends pt 3

Chapter 14 pt 2: A Tale of Three Friends pt 3