> The Silent Saviors
>  by AFestiveTaco77781
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> In the Beginning (Edited)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"There you go, Albert. All 100 cattle, present and accounted for," the man said.

Albert stopped and walked around the area where his cattle stood by the train car, examining them. He squinted his eyes, rubbed his temples and chin, and concentrated, as if trying to see if there was one missing. Satisfied with his counting, he turned to the man with a rifle in his hand. 

"Alright, they're all there. Here's your pay," Albert said while reaching to his waist. 
Albert handed the man 4 crisp and newly issued $20 bills from his pocket. The man took the money, examined it, and frowned. 

"The deal was $100, Albert. You're short a twenty," the man said looking up at Albert. 

Albert smiled maliciously. "You get what you get. Be happy that I'm even paying you at all, scum," he said while turning his back to the man and proceeded to start herding his cattle into the train car. 

BANG!	

Albert's leg exploded in pain and he cried out into the sky. He fell to the ground clutching his leg, trying to stop the endless pain he was feeling. Crimson blood began to ooze from his left calf and gathered under his leg. Bits of bone were splayed out into the soil and placed themselves into the grass. Albert tried to move his foot to get up, but he found he couldn't. The man in front of him slowly started to walk over to him. Albert tried to reach for his sidearm, but a firm stomp on his hand stopped him, and he cried out again in pain.

The man in gray reached down to Albert and took his sidearm from him and threw it away. With bandana up, he crouched down to Albert's level. 
"Give me my pay," he said angrily.
His eyes pierced into Albert's and stared down into the deepest pits of his soul. Albert refused to budge. His pride would never let him give in to this lowly scum. The man saw this and promptly stomped on Albert's leg. More pain shot into Albert as he heard several cracks down in his leg. He clutched his leg and ground his teeth, trying to alleviate the pain. The man reached into Albert's pockets and pulled out his purse. He sifted through it and grabbed 6 twenty dollar bills and 5 silver dollars. 

"I don't like being denied my fair share, Albert. If you had just payed what was due to me, you could've kept your cash. And maybe your leg," the man said gruffly. "Enjoy bleeding," the man said and lobbed Albert's purse back to him. He started to walk away. 

"I'll find you, Emmerson! I'll hire the biggest gang around and I'll track you from the Rockies to the Atlantic! There will be nowhere for you to hide! You're a dead man, Emmerson!" Albert screamed at the man.

"As are you too, Albert," 
The man turned around and fired his rifle at Albert. A clean shot through the head ended the man's life in an instant.

And Richard Emmerson slowly walked off to his horse.



Richard reached his horse and mounted. 
"Damn," he said to himself, "Gotta stay out of Missouri for awhile. Someone likely heard that. Let's ride, Coal!"

The man rode off from the loading area and traveled eastward. He reached the Mississippi and crossed over into south Illinois. After 2 miles, he came to a small farming town and decided to spend the night there. He trotted into town on his horse and stopped at a tavern. He tied Coal outside by the water pail and headed inside. He pushed the door forward and stepped inside. A couple men were sitting at a table in the corner and were playing poker. Richard walked towards the counter past some men enjoying cigarettes and chatting. He sat down at the counter and looked up at the tavern owner, who by then had made his way over to Rich. 

"You getting anything?" the owner asked.

"Yeah, I'll have a beer. Need something to unwind from the day," Richard said as he took off his hat and ran his hand through his hair.

"Ah, had a busy day. Sure I'll get you something," the owner said.

He pulled out a large glass from under the counter and poured some beer into it. Richard pulled out a silver dollar from his pocket and gave it to the owner.

"Much obliged," he said and went off to tend to other customers. 

Richard drank his fill in silence and contemplated what had happened. He was happy to have a quiet moment to himself when the world for once didn't hate him. However, his quiet moment was soon stopped as the two men playing poker had been staring at Richard since he had stepped in. They walked over to him, with the biggest man taking the lead. 

"What's a man like you doing in my town," the large man said to Rich while holding his shoulder.

"Hey Rob, just let the man enjoy his drink!" said the old man with a smoke in his mouth. 

"Beat it, old man! This don't concern you!" Rob said staring angrily at the old man.

Turning back to Richard, Rob said, "$10 is the insurance money. Cough it up, or your legs are going first,"

Richard slowly backed out of his seat and got up. 

"Ok... I see how it is," he said while holding his hands up. He turned around to face Rob and greeted him with a smile. And then a right cross to his face. Rob was stumbled away from Richard and fell down, knocking over a table. The other man responded with a punch to Richard's gut and tried to follow up with a left cross. Richard recovered and blocked the attack with his right arm, grabbed his neck, and headbutted him. Rob was starting to get up, so Richard grabbed one of the stools and swung it at Rob. The stool connected with Rob's left cheek and promptly knocked him out. 

Rich put the stool down, slowly walked over to the counter, chugged the rest of his drink, and walked over to the exit. As he passed by Rob, he said while wiping his bleeding nose, "Don't mess with ex-US cavalry." 

Richard walked over Rob, opened the door, and stepped out into the warm summer dusk. He got onto Coal and rode over to an inn. He checked in, bought himself a room for the night, and headed up to his room. Taking off his gear and setting his rifle down on the bed, he took off his boots and laid his hat down on the nightstand next to the bed. He laid himself down in the bed and went to sleep, all the while thinking of the things he had done today. 



Richard woke up and stared up at the ceiling. Slowly rising up, he stretched his arms out and yawned. He blinked his eyes for a couple seconds before getting out of bed and putting his gear on again. He put his hat on, grabbed his rifle, opened the door, and headed downstairs. He grabbed a quick bite to eat at the counter in the inn before paying and walking out. He found Coal still tied up outside the inn where he had left him the night before. He began checking through his belongings before a man came up behind him.

"Can I help you, sir?" said Richard as he turned to the new face. 

"Yes, actually you can. You see, there's been weird things going on recently up by Hayman's Ridge. Some of our cattle and farm animals have disappearing around there while we've been taking them out to graze. We need someone to go investigate, maybe bring back our animals if they are there, or kill whatever might be taking them. Do you think you can do that for us folk here in town?" he said finishing with a smile.

Richard eyed him for a bit, looking for any deception or malicious intents in his eyes. He found none. 

"Alright, I'll do it. I want $15 dollars though," he said as he mounted Coal.

"Not a problem, sir! If you find our animals or whatever it might be that's taking them, please bring them back here to me at the tavern! Thanks again!" the man said while handing Richard his money and walked off. 

Rich set off for Hayman's Ridge to do what he was being paid to do. He tried to pass the time and ended up thinking of his horse, Coal.  
Coal was, needless to say, Rich's good friend, if you could consider a horse your friend. With all the things Rich did, he didn't have too many friends. It came with the business and it often left him only with the companionship of Coal. That was fine and dandy to him, although the occasional visit to a town didn't hurt. Coal was a smokey black horse with gray splotches at his ankles. Richard had taken to him as he looked intimidating with his coat color and he liked his stubborn/aggressive behavior towards others aside from him. He had a white splotch on his muzzle which made him easier to find in the night if he ever got lost. That was another thing about Coal that Richard adored. Coal was very easily concealed in the night, so if Rich ever got into trouble, he would always have that working with him. Just a quick disappearance into a forest, and the rider and his horse would be gone without a trace. 

Smiling while thinking of these things, he reached for his rifle and fiddled with it. His rifle was a beauty. And boy, did Richard love it. But it was more of a carbine, if you wanted to be specific. It was a Springfield M1873 Trapdoor Breechloader that came with a shortened barrel. Its stock would glisten in the sunlight with how well-cleaned and polished Rich had kept it. It had a deep, dark chocolate colored stock with Springfield's logo stamped onto the medal. It felt smooth to the touch, and fit snugly into his hands and his shoulders. Recoil was light, since the bullet had less charge in the cartridge than its rifle counterpart. It was an accurate weapon for a cavalry rifle and Rich had learned to work with the bounce that Coal would make and use it to his advantage when sighting in targets. It was good up to 200 yards, which was better than anything a muzzle-loader could get you.  The fact of the matter was plain and simple. Richard loved this gun. He loved it as much as a boy loved his first crush. And Rich was never gonna part from his first love. He was lucky to have it. It was a new model of rifle when it came out 2 years earlier in 1873. He had picked it up while in his last days in the military. His commander let him keep as a token to all the hard work he had put into the military. 

By then, he had reached the ridge and dismounted from Coal. He walked over to the ridges drop-off and looked out over the edge at the sun slowly starting to peak over the horizon. He smiled and took in the sight. It was interrupted, however, by a slight ever-so-quiet hum. He stopped and frowned. He turned around and looked past Coal.  He noticed a little flicker inside of the small patch of trees that were growing in a triangle shape. Just a small, menial flicker that gave off a slight pulse every so often and a quiet hum. This intrigued him a bit, as it didn't look like the sun reflecting off of anything. No, it looked like a ripple from intense heat in the air. But it wasn't even hot. It was early morning, and the sun was still peaking over the horizon. Maybe there's a fire? he thought to himself. Upon closer inspection, no fire was present. He looked at this little ripple with fascination and intrigue. What was this little thing doing here? What was causing it? What was it doing?

As if on cue, the ripple began to spark and pulsate with light. Richard began to back away a bit upon seeing the commotion it was causing. Suddenly, a huge flash of light exploded outward and blinded Rich, as if he was staring directly into the glory of God. His pitiful attempts to shield his eyes did little to help his situation. The magnitude of the light enveloped him and shone every which way with majestic power! And just like that, just after 3 short seconds, it stopped. Rich opened his eyes and saw that he couldn't see. Not because he was now blind, but the afterimages from the light still danced in front of his eyes. He sat down in the soil and let his eyes adjust again. When he regained his vision, the ripple was gone. No trace of it was left, only a couple plants now in place of where it once was. Rich was relieved to see that. At least everything could go back to normal and he could forget about this whole thii-- HOLY CRAP! Where did the town go?

Rich got up with a start and stared at where the town had once been. There had been large fields surrounding the town with roads crossing through them. Now there only stood trees. Hundreds upon hundreds of trees were there. And they were huge. They made California redwoods look like puny insects under their gaze. Rich had to get back to Coal and find what had happened. But, he thought, It's useless. Where could they have gone? I know for certain that roads and towns and people don't just up and disappear out of nowhere! 

He turned and ran back to find Coal where he had left him. Good, at least he hasn't changed. He began to pack up and put his gear back on Coal. After running over and double checking everything, he climbed up and settled into the saddle. 

"Alright, Coal. We gotta figure out what's going on here," Rich said. 

"Gotcha!" he heard as a reply.

"WOAH!"

Rich, in the shock of the moment, tumbled off of Coal abruptly and fell down on his rump. He looked at the horse with surprise and awe, mouth hanging open and eyes scared. 

"Did... Did you... Did you just talk?" Rich asked with disbelief. 

"Umm... yes," Coal replied with a sarcastic tang in his tone. 

"Whaa... Whaaaa are.... What's going o-- What is going on here?" Rich asked with surprise in his voice. 

"Whaaattt... Haven't you seen a talking horse?" replied Coal.

"No," replied Richard with more surprise. 

"Well, congratulations, you're the first one to figure out how to speak horse. Now can you get up? We aren't going to get anywhere while your rump and the ground are getting intimate with one another," said Coal with a snarky smirk on his face. 

Richard rose up from the dusty soil and admired Coal with an look of awe sprawled on his face. Here he was, having tamed this horse over 3 years ago and never once had heard him talk. He felt like someone had handed him the controls to a steam engine and expected him to understand it within 5 seconds of looking at it. He was just honestly, baffled. 

"Do you know where we are?" Rich asked Coal.

"What? Oh heck no Rich. I am just as confused as you are as to the issue of where we are! I suppose we will just have to explore and find out. Who knows? Maybe there's more territory out there. Or maybe... another horse like me out there. The possibilities are endless, my friend," Coal remarked with a smirk. 

"Oh come on, Coal. Don't be ridiculous. Other talking horses out in the world? Not possible. There is no way there can be other talking horses like you out there. We're just lost in some unknown territory and I'm hallucinating you talking to me," Rich said. "Just come on. Let's get going."

He climbed into the saddle of Coal and got himself comfy. He rode down the ridge and arrived at the beginning of the forest that grew where the town had once been.

"Do you think we can find someone in here?" Coal asked with a turn of his head towards Rich.

"I don't know. I suppose there is only one way to find out. Come on now Coal! Let's go find the town!" He said while trying to stay optimistic. 

And with that, they entered the forest. 

---
They walked. They walked and walked and walked. They sat, rested, and walked some more. And not once, had they sighted any signs of a town anywhere.
Rich was starting to get uneasy. He almost thought that the Rapture had happened and forgot to take him with it. But the forest kept going on and on and on. He thought there wouldn't be an end to it. Nearing the late afternoon, he decided to give up on trying to find them. Whatever had happened to them, he was certain either a thief or a pack of animals had picked them off by now. He would just have to face whatever came his way once he found his bearings and his way back to civilization. 
Coal was starting to tire from walking the whole day. They came to a small clearing of grass by a river and decided to camp there. Rich slowly meandered over to the river and pulled his canteen out to refill. He took a nice, long, and refreshing sip of that wonderfully clear water and sat down, letting himself relax from the day's work. At this point, his stomach let out a low guttural grumble into the air and promptly let Richard know that he was hungry. Standing up, Rich walked over to where Coal was and found him grazing. He picked up his rifle, knife, and ammunition off of the small pile of his stuff on the ground. 
"Coal, I'm going to go out and see if I can get anything to eat. Stay here, graze, drink, rest, whatever you want to do, but don't leave unless you have to. Got it?" Richard said while standing near the edge of the clearing. 
Coal looked up at Rich and smiled. "Don't worry about me. I'll be fine. Stay safe out there," he said and turned back to the grass. 

Satisfied with Coal's safety, Rich left the clearing and ran through the forest with fervor. The imagined smell of a cooked rabbit or squirrel fueled his agile sprint through the forest. He came to a patch of long-leaved bushes and hid himself. He decided to roll on the ground for a couple seconds to mask his scent, something he learned from a frontiersmen in Missouri. With his scent concealed and his hiding spot taken, he waited for whatever unfortunate animal that crossed his path. 

But nothing came.

An hour passed and no sign of any edible animals had been seen. His stomach complained with every passing second and it was starting to bother Richard. Hunger can drive men to do crazy and uncivilized things, so he wished to snuff out his hunger before he did something he would regret. Due to this fact, Richard decided that he was going to have to go out and find something instead of waiting for it to come to him. Again, he rolled around in the ground to mask himself, picked up his rifle, and started walking. 
He walked through the forest for awhile and admired the scenery. He thought about nothing in particular, just menial things and thoughts to pass the time while monotonously trekking through this seemingly endless forest. Is there really ever an end to this forest? he reasoned to himself. 
His question was soon answered as he came to the forest's end and open fields of grass appeared before him and also, a road. 
Roads lead to civilization. Civilization means people. Then I can find out wherever the hell I am. he thought gleefully.  His stomach grumbled yet again. But first, I am going to find some food.
With renewed fervor and energy, he started across the side of the road. After 5 minutes of walking, he noticed a small little cottage built beside a small brook, with many different kinds of wooden coops, animal cages, and strangely, lots of birdhouses hanging on the house and the trees around the entrance. Even weirder, there was shrubbery and plant life growing on the roof of the home. This would mean two things. This house was either abandoned or the caretaker was obviously not doing their job. Nevertheless, he slowly crept toward the front of the home and knocked on the door. 

No one answered. He knocked once more. Again, not a sound of life filled the cottage. The opposite was present in the back of the cottage, so Richard decided to go around the back and maybe see if someone was there. 
Again, Rich was disappointed to find no people there. But there were plenty of animals. There were woodland creatures, pigs, some farm animals, and even a bear, which Richard avoided entirely. 
And boy, they looked tasty. Many of them were fat, plump, and ripe for the picking. However, he was feeling quite conflicted with himself. These are someone's animals. How will they act if I steal one? Will they come after me? They are going to be understandably angry if they find out one of their animals is gone.  he thought to himself. 
He decided to grab a chicken, as there were many of them inside the coop and taking one wouldn't raise any suspicion. He chose a fat and plump hen to take to the slaughter and promised himself that he would pay back the owner double the amount this hen would cost. The day was getting darker by the minute and sunset was approaching. He would have to get back to Coal. They would come back here tomorrow in the morning after breakfast.
However, many of the animals were starting to notice he was there and raised the alarm. Picking up the chicken, he began to run with his rifle in one hand, and the chicken curled up in his other one. As he got onto the road, he noticed a road sign pointing south farther into unexplored territory. The sign stated,

"Ponyville, 1.5 miles South, Everfree Forest, 0.1 Miles North"

This made Richard quietly laugh to himself at the weirdness and silliness of the name. Ponyville? What kind of a stupid name is that? "Oh yes, Joe, I'm going back to my wife and kids in PONYVILLE! Some one ought to name their towns a bit better! he thought to himself. 

Luckily, he was able to find his way onto recognizable territory. About 10 minutes from camp and in hearing distance of the river, Rich killed the hen as not to make Coal uncomfortable. While he was walking back he held the hen out with his hand and let the blood drip onto the ground. When he got to camp, he found Coal sleeping standing up as he had seen him do so often. Deciding not to wake him, he got onto the task of plucking the feathers and skinning the dead animal. He got a fire and spit going and cooked his catch over the fire. After properly cooking the animal, he ate his trophy and finally, his stomach was satisfied. Feeling full, he took a swig of water, rolled out his sleeping roll, laid down with his rifle clutched in his hands with the safety on, and went to sleep, thinking about tomorrow's travels and adventures. 

	
 





> A Tussle in the Woods
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	A small ray of sunshine peaked out of the clouds and shone down upon Fluttershy as she entered her cottage. She had been out at the market getting various animal feed and some food for herself. Now was time to relax, enjoy herself, and read a book for a bit. 

However, her activities were interrupted by the intense and heavy amount of noise coming from her animals outside. She looked out of her window with a confused look and pondered why the animals could've been making so much noise. Coming away from the window, she opened up her back door and stepped out into the yard of animals. Upon seeing her, they immediately assaulted her with whines, cries, and grunts. 

"Calm down everypony, calm down now," she said with a reassuring and calm tone. The animals did as they were told and ceased their rambles. 

"Now, can anypony be so nice to tell me what has got you all in a fuss?" she said with a smile.

A gray woodland squirrel stepped up to the plate and chattered his sentiments. 

"A strange, new creature? When did it come here? Oh, I would've loved to see it! What did it look like?" Fluttershy said with an inquisitive smile that would've rivaled Twilight's.

The squirrel continued his talk. 

"Walks on two legs. Has claws with stubby appendages. Oh that sounds so interesting! But, correct me if I'm wrong, did you say it had a hat, carried a long stick made of metal and wood, and had a strange curved sword on its waist?" she repeated back.

The squirrel nodded its head. However, Fluttershy wasn't smiling after he finished his statement.

"It took Mrs. Hen? Oh dear, oh dear! Mr. Rooster must be worried sick!" Fluttershy exclaimed. "I'll go out right now and see if I can bring her back!"

Upon looking out into the sky and seeing how close to the end of the day it was, she decided differently. 

"On second thought, maybe I'll go tomorrow. But, I'll go first thing in the morning!" she exclaimed back to the squirrel. 

And with that, she entered back into her house and went back to her book.




Fluttershy awoke from her wonderful and refreshing slumber. She blinked her eyes a couple times to adjust to the light from the sun shining into her bedroom. After a couple moments, she arose from her bed and walked downstairs. She quickly fixed herself some breakfast in the kitchen and sat down at her table to eat. 

After finishing breakfast, she put on a saddlebag, gently opened up the back door, and peaked out to see if any of her animals were still sleeping. Most were awake, however, some were still in dreamland. She quietly trotted out to where the squirrel from the night before was.

"Hello again, Mr. Squirrel. I hope you had a wonderful night's sleep. About Mrs. Hen, do you know which direction the creature went?" she asked in her usual shy tone. 

The squirrel replied by pointing towards the northern path towards the Everfree Forest. Fluttershy gulped. Her legs started to wobble and her body started to perspire a bit. She was wary of the place as many bad things happened to ponies who dared to enter through those cursed trees. The weather was wild and unruly, monsters of all shapes, sizes, and builds thrived there, and most of all, the forest was huge. She was afraid she would be swallowed whole by the forest and never, ever, come back out again. But her motherly love for each and everyone of her creatures made her snap out of it. Mrs. Hen might be in trouble, she might be dead, but Fluttershy had to make sure if she was okay or not. She had to at least retrieve the body if it had come to Mrs. Hen's death. So with that, Fluttershy stepped onto the road and started her walk towards the Everfree. 

The walk across the path towards the Everfree was monotonous to say the least. However, her thoughts were on Mrs. Hen. She hoped that she was okay and the creature had decided not to eat her or harm her. But she almost knew that was stretching it. Why else would a creature of the Everfree take one of her animals? It wouldn't make sense if she found out that it didn't eat her. She knew, even though it was unsaid, that Mrs. Hen was most likely dead. She was just looking for her body to give her a proper burial with her family. 

By that point, she had entered the forest and was walking along the path towards Zecora's hut. She stuck to it as not to get lost and swallowed by the vastness that was this forest. She would quietly call out for Mrs. Hen here and there, just to see if she would hear some sort of response. 

But something new came up in her vision. A trail of blood. And by the looks of it, still relatively fresh. It, however, went off the beaten path and went deeper into the more overgrown parts of the forest. As much as her body said no, she decided to follow this trail of blood and investigate it. 

She started towards it and followed it through the forest. She would fly here and there as to get over fallen branches and to get around thorny bushes. She eventually came to a small clearing by Serpent's River and found that the trail ended there. At the end of it, she found what she had come looking for. There beside a small pile of ashes in a fire pit, was the carcass of a chicken and the head of Mrs. Hen beside it. Fluttershy's stomach gave way and her breakfast came flying out her mouth. She barfed for a good couple seconds before looking back at the carcass. She washed her mouth out in the river before going back over to the carcass and silently wept for her lost animal friend. After 5 min of weeping, she slowly put her saddlebag down and shuffled the carcass and head into the bag. She picked it up with her teeth and secured it to her back firmly again before looking back into the forest again. When she looked, she was met with 4 pairs of yellow eyes staring at her. Soon after, she heard a low growl and the telltale form of a timberwolf stepped out into the clearing. 

There was a pause and Fluttershy let out a scream.




Earlier...

Rich woke up with a start and raised himself off of his sleeping roll. He blinked his eyes for a second to adjust and looked for Coal. He found him drinking from the river on the sands of the shore of the clearing. Upon finishing his drink, Coal looked up and back at Rich.

"Oh, hey. You're up. How was your sleep?" he asked while walking over to where Richard was. 
"Fine. We need to get moving," Rich said and rose from his spot on the ground. 
"Why?" said Coal. 
"While I was out hunting yesterday, I found a house near the edge of the forest and a path that led to a town. We can get out of this forest finally and restock our supplies at the town." Rich said while rolling up his sleeping roll and grabbing his rifle. 

The man continued to pack up his gear and check his equipment. He checked his canteen, saber, and made sure everything was there before strapping it onto Coal. With that done, he doused any remaining embers of his fire with water and checked his campsite to make sure he hadn't left anything. Seeing nothing there, he walked over and mounted Coal. 

"Alright then. That's everything. Come on, let's get moving," he said.

And with a small tap to Coal's side, they were off. 

They traveled through the woods along small dirt paths until they found the main road Rich discovered the day before. 

"Here it is. If we follow this, according to a sign that I found, we should reach civilization. Maybe we can find a few clues as to what happened to the town. Anyway, onward, my friend," Richard said. 

They followed the main road farther through the forest at a small trot. Richard fiddled with his rifle a little here and there to pass the time as he was understandably bored. The forest never seemed to stop and there was nothing but trees for miles. So he tried talking to Coal for a bit, to somewhat cure his boredom from this long trek. 

"So, lovely weather today, huh?" Rich said nonchalantly.

"I suppose so. It is a wonderful sunny day, wouldn't you say?" Coal replied back with a grin.

"Yes, indeed. Man, I hope that town has a tavern of some sort. I could use a beer right about now," Rich said while scratching his chin.

"I don't think you should have that stuff anymore, Rich," said Coal, "it makes you act really strange whenever you drink it."

Richard was surprised and a tiny bit shocked at what the horse said. How could he have known what beer was? Or what the effects of the drink were? Last time he checked, he had always tied him up outside by the water pail for horses. How would Coal have known?

"That's none of your business," Rich said back with a bit of coldness in his voice. 

"I've seen you get into those fights and frankly, you might win, but you get seriously injured whenever that happens. It's not good for you. I want you to stop," Coal replied back. 

"I ain't taking orders from a horse," Richard said stubbornly and poked Coal in the side lightly.

"Well then," Coal said and promptly stopped in his tracks.

"What are you doing? C'mon, let's get moving, Coal!" Richard said loudly and hit him in the side with his heel.

But no matter how hard he tried, whether he whipped the reins of the bit, hit Coal's side with his heel, or downright yelled at him, Coal refused to go a step further.

"Will you get moving all ready? Rich yelled with frustration and anger.

"Not until you promise to stay away from that stuff," Coal replied stubbornly. 

"No way. The day I take orders from a horse is the day I... what are you doing?" Rich asked. 

While Richard was on his childish tangent, Coal had trotted over to a tributary in the forest that looked like it would run into the creek by the cottage. Coal was hanging precariously close to the edge of the water and made his intentions abundantly clear to Richard.

"If you don't promise to give that stuff up, I'm gonna dump you into the water," Coal said while looking back at Richard.

"I'll never give," Richard spat back.

"Suit yourself," Coal replied back.

Just as Coal was about to dump Richard into the water, they heard a scream pierce through the air. Richard reacted with lightning reflexes and looked towards the sound. It had come farther up shore and sounded fairly close. 

"We'll finish this later," Coal said while turning himself towards the scream.

"Yes. We shall. Let's ride!" Richard replied back.

Coal galloped towards the location of the scream. It had sounded feminine, so he guessed that it was some sort of lady who had got lost or was being robbed maybe. He would just have to find out and see. The two tore through the forest at a gallop and eventually reached the site of the scream. Richard was stunned by the sight of what he was looking at. There in the middle of the clearing they had camped in, was a small yellow horse thing with wings on it and some pink butterflies branded onto its behind. Even weirder, 4 creatures had surrounded the creature in a semi-circle around its front and sides and were backing the creature towards the water. They looked like trees twisted themselves into the forms of wolves as they were made entirely out of chopped wood and leaves. Somehow, they were living and breathing despite being wood. Many of them looked hungry. The signs of starvation were apparent both on the faces and on their bodies. Many of them looked incredibly skinny, with one of them with their rib cage showing. They were closing in on one of their first meals in a very long time. 

"Should we help?" Rich asked.

"Why would we not?" Coal replied back.

Rich didn't understand why he didn't just let nature take its course on the tiny horse. But that paternal instinct in him arose. He had guessed that this horse was a baby since its eyes were huge and cute, but also it was very tiny with stubby little legs and barely defined hooves. Besides, what kind of heartless monster would let a cutie like this die at the hands of these wooden abominations?

Richard pulled up his bandana around his face, pulled out his saber, and charged with Coal at the wolves. The wolves were caught off-guard by the sudden appearance of a new foe. This allowed Richard to get the first one easily. Upon reaching the first wolf, he brought his saber down on the wolf and slashed up. The new gash had cut deep into the wolf across the bottom of the chest to the top, which caused splinters of wood to fly up into the air. Tree sap began to leak out of the wound and the wolf fell dead to the ground. The second one, reacting to his friend's death, came around the side to try and get at Coal's belly. No sooner had he reached his position and sprung at Coal had Richard also brought his saber down upon the wolf. He too fell like his brother to the ground from a gash through his hind legs. The third and fourth were approaching their position rapidly, so Richard quickly grabbed his carbine and squeezed off a round. The bullet entered around the left jawline which severed it and was stopped by the brain stem which killed the wolf instantly. Unable to reload in time to meet the last approaching wolf, Richard quickly holstered his rifle and drew his saber again, preparing for the final strike to the wolf. The wolf, however, learned from its brothers mistakes and instead, came from the front. Richard realized he wasn't going to be able to hit the wolf before it would barrel into Coal. He prepared to dismount Coal when the wolf attacked. Instead of Coal's neck being mercilessly destroyed by the wolf, Coal had reared up and brought down his hooves on the wolf's head and brought him down from midair. When Coal's hooves met the ground, the wolf's head was between them and therefore, was smashed under his weight. 

A liquidy tree sap was splattered across the clearing like a Jackson Pollock painting. The ones killed by the saber leaked out the watery sap into the clearing and slowly drained into the river. Richard let his nerves wind down from the battle and reloaded his rifle with another cartridge. He heard movement, however. One of the wolves who was slashed on its hind legs slowly tried to crawl away. Immediately, he whipped his rifle toward the wolf, sighted in, and shot it straight through the head. After dealing with the final timberwolf, he turned to the small yellow horse thing, which was noticeably frightened. Upon making eye contact with it, it bolted through the forest and disappeared without a trace. Richard didn't bother to give chase to it. 

"Are you hurt, Coal?" Richard said as he leaned over and checked his horse for wounds.

"No. I am unscathed, my friend," he replied back to Rich.

"Do you think you will still be able to walk to the town?" he asked.

"Yes," Coal replied back.

"Well, let's get going, I guess," he said nonchalantly. 

And with that, our heroes set off for the town. 




Fluttershy was scared. Terrified. Afraid. 

4 timberwolves had surrounded her and were closing in. She knew their intentions. She scanned for any possible gaps that she could run through or fly through. But the forest canopy blocked her from flying away and the wolves had closed any gaps for escape without getting extremely hurt. She could try the water, but she wasn't a very good swimmer and would eventually drown. 

Fluttershy began to accept death. Her life flashed before her eyes and she remembered her days. She thought of her wonderful friends, who had made her life so much better with every moment spent with them. She loved them, and hoped to never see them suffer this fate that she was unfortunately facing. Fluttershy clenched her eyes, ground her teeth, and waited for the inevitable to come. 

But it didn't. In fact, she heard and felt a loud thumping in the ground. The wolves stopped and looked around for the perpetrator of the sound. She opened her eyes and scanned the scene before her. Out of the foliage burst a massive creature wielding a weird, curved sword. Stranger still, it was on top of another creature with four muscular legs and a completely black coat, save for one white splotch on its muzzle. The wolves had no idea how to act and stood there for a second, unsure of what to do. Reaching the first wolf, Fluttershy observed it bring the sword down and up again with a swipe across the wolf's chest and into its neck. The second one tried to come around its side and get to its belly, but it too met the same fate, with a swipe across its hind legs. The third one was charging the creature with speed and Fluttershy thought for sure that the creatures would be finished. The larger creature slowed its gallop speed, turned itself to the left while the other on top of it pulled out a funky-looking metal and wood stick. At first, Fluttershy thought it was a club. But the smaller creature instead brought it into its shoulder and squeezed the small lever in the middle of the stick. A resounding BOOM! echoed through the sky and Fluttershy's ears rang. The once pleasant aroma of a summer breeze was quickly replaced with a terrible, sulfurous smell. She brought her hooves to her ears and tried to make the ringing stop. While she was doing that, she saw the larger of the creatures stomp its hooves on the last wolf's head, and it was no more. 

Her old enemies had been destroyed, but she feared she had made a new one. She looked up and saw the smaller creature pull out the stick again. It flipped a small door on the stick open and a yellowish metal sculpture flew out of the stick and landed on a rock with a clatter. She saw the creature pull out another one of those yellowish metal things and put it into the stick. After that, it closed the door and brought back a small hammer on the top. One of the wolves had gotten to its paws, trying to get up and limp away. The creature, however, without mercy or hesitation, brought the stick to its shoulder and another BOOM! thundered in the air. The wolf was no match. 

It then turned its attention to Fluttershy. She was able to see what the smaller creature looked like. Its face was mostly concealed, as it was wearing a gray bandana and a blackened hat in the style of Braeburn's. She was able to see through the tiny slit between the hat and the bandana and see eyes. They were tiny and squinted. She had expected the eyes to be yellow like every other creature in the Everfree possessed. But she was mistaken. Instead, she was greeted by a smooth and calming pair of blue eyes. She thought to herself that they looked like the waters off the coast of Saddle Arabia, sparkling against the sun's reflective rays which gave its eyes a sense of warmth to them. 

She shook herself out of the trance and booked it towards town. Even though it possessed beautiful eyes, she had watched it mercilessly and flawlessly kill 4 fully grown timberwolves. It was dangerous and she did not want to become its 5th victim. She quickly ran back to her cottage, dropped her saddlebags off, carefully making sure she didn't let Mrs. Hen's carcass fall to the ground, and flew full speed to town to find Twilight. Fluttershy may not have known what this was or what to do with it, but Twilight surely would've known. 

She reached Twilight's tree-house library and quickly knocked on the door. 

"Coming!" she heard from inside.

She was greeted by Twilight with a smile.

"Hi Fluttershy! So nice to see you!" Twilight noticed her friend had tree sap splattered on his coat and mane which she immediately noticed was timberwolf blood. "What happened to you?" Twilight asked with worry.

"I have a lot to tell you, Twilight," Fluttershy said with a shake of her head.

She entered the house, closed the door, and told her story to Twilight. 

> Raid on the Town
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The badlands sun beat heavily down upon Rock as he trudged through the desert with his pack. The heat was relentless and tormented him with every second of being in its grasp. But the goal he and his band walked towards ahead was well worth the difficult and arduous walk. A raid on the town of Ponyville was his mission. Food was needed for the pack back at Dragon's Mountain, so Alpha dispatched him to retrieve food and supplies. But also, the ponies needed to be reminded who was boss in this land. He loved giving the worthless ponies a good kick in their flanks. 

Bone came up behind him with his crossbow in his hands and walked beside him. 

"The dogs are getting tired and our supply wagons are running low on food. How long till we reach the town?" Bone asked worriedly.

"We should be there by the late afternoon. Tell those dogs to stop their whining or I'll come back there and set their priorities straight!" Rock yelled back to Bone. 

Bone shuffled past the dog-drawn wooden cart before taking up his position again with the other 50 diamond dogs. Rock turned his head back towards the dune that they were scaling and thought back to the mission.

"Yes, those ponies will get theirs. And we will drown in the spoils of their weakness and futile trust in love and friendship," he thought to himself.

Rock quietly cackled to himself at the thought and pushed on to the town of Ponyville. 




The sound of jovial laughter thundered through the afternoon heat.

"No, No, No more!" cried Coal, trying to contain his laughter and compose himself.

"But the very best part, Coal, is that while I was doing it, I tied his boot laces together, so when I booked it, he got up, fell right down, and wobbled all across town trying to get me!" Richard shouted back, barely keeping himself together before bellowing out into the sky in joyous laughter.

The two companions enjoyed the moment in happiness before finally calming down and settling back in happy silence. 

"It sounds like you had a good relationship with your friend," Coal said as they walked across the path. 

"Yes, he was as good a friend as any teenage boy could have asked for," Rich adjusted his hat upwards and scratched his chin.

The two walked in silence, enjoying the stillness of the early evening air. Richard broke the silence once more.

"You know, how did this whole talking thing come about? Do you know anything about it?" Richard inquired of his friend. 

"I've always been able to speak. I spoke to you all the time. We just spoke in different tongues," replied Coal.

"Huh," Richard paused for a couple seconds and pondered the thought, "who woulda thought? What kind of things would you say?" Rich looked down at his friend with a hint of suspicion in his eye.

"Oh, nothing of importance," Coal's barely contained smile brimmed with amusement.

Richard raised his eye in suspicion and a sly smile spread across his face. "Oh, really? That smile certainly doesn't tell me that it was nothing of importance."

"Really, it was mostly serious in those serious situations, but playful banter other times. It wasn't anything insulting,"

"I figured. It's alright," Rich patted Coal's mane and gave his neck a rub. 

The town came into view and Rich raised his head to stare into the town. 

"Looks like we found what we were looking for," Rich said.

"What? No, that's Schnitzelwerfertown, home of the Duke of York. It's definitely not this Ponyville we are looking for."

"Ha, Ha, very funny. Come on, let's go," Rich gave a slight whip of the reins and they were off. 



Twilight stepped out of her house, with Fluttershy closely following. 

"Thanks for telling about your little incident, Fluttershy," Twilight turned back and closed the door to her house behind her. 

"I'm just glad that I have friends to confide in. When those wolves attacked, I thought I would never see you and the girls again," Fluttershy shook her head and shuddered at the thought of the wolves.
"Well, I better get back to my animals. It's been almost 6 hours that I've been gone and they're likely hungry," Fluttershy turned towards her house. "Have a nice evening, Twilight."

A roaring cry pierced through the dry air, coming from Mareaton Hill. Twilight, confused, turned her head toward the bizarre sound. Streaming down the hill were Diamond Dogs, carrying crossbows, spears, and swords in their paws. Her ears flattened and eyes widened in fear. She looked to Fluttershy, who was already flying off to warn the town. Twilight began to gallop away back towards her home to seek some safety. The diamond dogs were closing in behind her, so she cast a shield spell behind her to try to hinder the diamond dogs. It worked only temporarily as the diamond dogs just went around it. 

By then, she had reached her home, and found that nopony was occupying the streets anymore. Most had gone into their homes and locked the doors. She quickly followed suit and barricaded her door with a table. However, the diamond dogs poured into the city and burst down doors of each of the homes. Shouting, screaming, and yelling was heard before Twilight heard her own door being hit. 

"Twilight! What's going on?" Spike exclaimed as he ran down the stairs. 

"Diamond Dogs! They're attacking the town!" Twilight yelled back at him. 

Two dogs burst into the foyer of the library and held up their crossbows.

"Get into the square, now! DO IT! DO IT NOW!" the taller of the dogs barked.

The two dogs herded Twilight and Spike into the square of the town. Other dogs were similarly herding the other ponies into the square as well. Children looked around confused and worried, trying to find their parents. Mothers yelled out for their fillies and stallions got in front of the mares and fillies, trying to protect them. The dogs surrounded them, the ones with crossbows trained them on the ponies. 

The pandemonium was silenced by an extensive roar in the sky. 

"Silence!" Rock bellowed to the ponies. "Good! Now that I have your attention, let me just say, Hi," Rock took a bow in front of the ponies, "Always should have manners when you're raiding," he said with a toothy smile. 

The ponies all glanced at him, eyes wide with fear for their lives and children. 

"You may be wondering why I've gathered you all here on this fine evening. Well, I'll tell you why. I want food and supplies. And you ponies always seem to have plenty of them! I'm sure some sharing wouldn't be that bad, now would it?" Rock jumped down from the wooden cart and landed hard on the ground and looked up at the ponies.

One stallion spoke up. "We have no extra food to give. We only have enough to sustain us till the Fall harvest!" 

Rock sighed and shook his head at the ground. "Guess we'll just have to do this the hard way, not that I mind."

Rock reached out and wrestled Applebloom out of Applejack's grasp. She bit and fought against Rock, but he, being the larger, easily deflected anything she threw at him. He held her by her back and pointed her crossbow at her head. 

"Let me go, you big ol' jerk!" Applebloom tried to bite his paw, but failed. 

"How bout this, ponies? I put a bolt in this little filly's head, murder all of you, and take the food anyways, boring option, orrrrrr, you can just give me what I want, and we all go home happy," Rock smiled and tilted his head.

"Why you yello-bellied chicken...," Applejack's face darkened with barely concealed rage.

"Winning's winning," shot back Rock. 

"Give them what they want," Mayor Mare ordered.

The ponies went to their homes and each gathered some of their food, all while under diamond dog guard. Some others went to the grain silos and took out some grain for the dogs as well. Rock stood quietly in the square, with his crossbow still trained on Applebloom's head. The ponies gathered their tribute together and deposited it into the wooden cart the raiders had brought along. 

"Tie up the food tightly," Rock ordered Applejack.

Applejack stomped towards Rock, closing in for a buck.

"Uh uh uh," Rock pushed the crossbow into Applebloom's head, "We wouldn't want the little tyke to get hurt, now would we?"

"You're the most repulsive and pathetic thing ah've ever laid my eyes upon, coward," Applejack stepped back once more and went back to tying up the food and supplies. 

Everything was neatly packed into place. The dogs herded the ponies back into the square. Rock still grasped Applebloom firmly in his paw.

"We're leaving now. Do not follow us or the kid gets it. When we cross over the hill, we'll release her, and you can go back to worthless lives," Rock spat at the ponies.

The band gathered themselves and headed to the hill, with Rock in the back of the column holding Applebloom out. As the last of the raiding party scaled over the hill, Rock turned back and stared at the ponies. He dropped Applebloom abruptly and spat at the ground.

He turned to the filly. "Run along now, child." He joined his party and walked, until he disappeared over the horizon of the expansive fields of grass.

Applebloom eyed the horizon to see if the dogs would come back, before turning back to Ponyville and galloping down to join her sister. 




"A bunch of ponies? Richard disbelievingly stared into the town and observed pastel ponies wandering through the streets. "No, no, a bunch of TALKING ponies?" 

"Wanna take back that little statement from the ridge now, Rich?" Coal turned back towards Rich, "I mean, there are talking horses right there, as we speak."

Richard asked his eyes if they were seeing correctly. He rubbed them with his hands and closed them. He opened them again. Yup, they were. 

Geez, it looks like a rainbow barfed all over them," Richard thought to himself.

"Sooooooo, are we going to go in, or what?" Coal threw back his mane with a flip of his neck to the side. 

"Yeah, yeah, sure. Come on, let's go in."

A massive roar reverberated through the air. Rich looked up to the sounds epicenter to the west. As he looked up, massive dogs streamed down the hill like the hordes of Indians he fought in the Indian Wars. 

"We need to move! We need to find somewhere safe and hide!" Rich yelled to Coal and whipped the reins. 

Coal maneuvered his way through a small line of trees before coming up behind a thatch-roofed house and stopping. Rich dismounted Coal and snuck into an alleyway, remaining in the shadows. He looked out into the square and observed the ponies being assembled into the square by the hostile dogs. Rich couldn't believe he was seeing these dogs. They were standing on their two hind legs, which made them easily exceed five feet tall. Not only that, they had somehow gathered the intelligence to be able to handle weapons, with some of them training crossbows on the ponies and others wielding swords and daggers. Rich observed a bigger dog climb up onto a wooden cart, pulled by one of the dogs, and began to speak in perfect English. 

Richard listened to him negotiate his demands with the ponies. It's a raiding party. I see now. 

"We have no extra food to give. We only have enough to sustain us till the Fall harvest!" Rich heard one stallion speak up at the dog. 

He heard the dog mutter to himself before snatching a small pony from another. The tiny pony spoke with a high-pitched and squeaky voice and he immediately knew that the dog had grabbed a child. The dog shoved its crossbow towards the child's head and talked once more.

"How bout this, ponies? I put a bolt in this little filly's head, murder all of you, and take the food anyways, boring option, orrrrrr, you can just give me what I want, and we all go home happy," the dog tilted its head and showed an evil, toothy smile. 

Rich could not believe what he was seeing. He had seen many terrible things. Murder, thievery, war, suffering, rape, all of it. But, at least, even his old enemies had the decency and honor in themselves to not threaten a child! That was it. This dog, this thing, was going to taste the brass of his rifle and feel the iron of his saber upon its back. He watched the ponies meet the dog's demands and bring out food and tools to the cart. Once they had tied up the goods, the dogs set out once more towards the hill they had come down from. Once they reached the top, the leader released the child and disappeared over the top of the hill. Richard quietly crept back to Coal.

"Come on. We're going after those dogs," Rich mounted himself into the saddle.

"What? Are you kidding? I don't know if you noticed Rich, but those dogs had weapons! When was the last time you saw a dog carry a crossbow?" Coal exclaimed to Rich. 

"You went with me on all those jobs. You've seen me get dirty during those jobs. What's the problem with combat?" The two had by then been riding around the side of the town and headed towards the hill. 

"Combat is a bit different, you know. Instead of you shooting one guy and being done with it like we normally have done, we have to shoot almost 60!" Coal looked back to Rich and shot him a glare. 

"I promise, Coal, I will keep you safe, and when we're done, I'll buy you a big bag of carrots," 

"It better be a massive bag."

The two reached the plains and galloped off towards the horizon.
	
	
> Retaliation (Edited)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight could not believe what had happened. Her home was just raided, her friends and family threatened, and most of the town's food supplies had been all but drained. Applebloom was close by death's door and Rainbow Dash, in the time they needed her most, was nowhere to be found. The townsfolk shifted themselves to her, as if thinking she would know what to do.

"Twilight?" Spike asked, "What should we do?"

"Get me,"

"My,"

"Quill..."

Spike sprinted off towards the library to fetch what she had asked for. Twilight trotted toward the storehouses to inspect the damage that the dogs had caused. As she got out of the square and passed the Sugarcube Corner, Rainbow Dash descended out of the air and walked with her.

"Hey, Egghead! What's up?" Rainbow Dash said.

"Diamond Dogs attacked the town, stole most of our food, threatened Applebloom, and made off with it all without so much as a hoof lifted against them. That's what's up, Rainbow Dash," Twilight replied flatly. 

"What? Diamond dogs attacked?" Rainbow recoiled back.

"Yes," Twilight reached the storehouses and stood outside the main door.

Rainbow put a hoof over her eyes. "You're telling me," she paused for a second, "That while I was gone, Diamond dogs attacked and stole our food, and I missed it?"

"Yes."

"Why does everything cool happen when I'm gone? I had a serious opportunity to kick some flank and I missed it!" Rainbow stomped her hoof on the ground in frustration.

"And you're telling me that you are not the slightest, slightest, itty-bitty, teeny, tiny, bit worried," Twilight started to walk foward, "that Diamond dogs just threatened the safety of your friends," Rainbow Dash slowly started to back away from Twilight, "threatened a child with death, and took almost all of our food, and you are worried about FIGHTING THEM!" Twilight's face contorted with a rage unprecedented at Rainbow who had backed into a wall.

"Twilight! Twilight! I got your quill and parchment!" Spike ran back holding the materials in his two claws.

"We'll talk about this later," She turned to Spike and took the quill and parchment from his claws with her magic and began a letter.

Dear Princess Celestia,

An unfortunate event has taken place today in Ponyville. At approximately 5:20 pm, a platoon of Diamond Dogs came down from Mareaton Hill and raided our town. We were held hostage by their leader, named Rock, in the town square. He demanded that we give him some food from our food storehouses. At first, we refused his demands. However, upon hearing our rejection, he grabbed little Applebloom from the crowd and threatened her life unless he got his demands. We gave in and he got what he wanted. He left over the same hill he and his party came down from.
I must request your aid in this time. Our food storehouses are low and we have no protection from any future raids that may possibly take place. 

Please send help.

Your faithful student, 
Twilight Sparkle

Spike sent the letter off with a whoosh of his breath. Two minutes later, he burped out a letter with the Royal Sisters Seal on it. Twilight opened it with a tug of her magic and read.

Twilight,

Your request for aid has been approved. Luna and I are sending two guard platoons to your location, one of pegasi, and one of unicorns. Food is being taken out of the Royal Reserves to be used to relieve Ponyville until the Fall Harvest. If I am able, I shall try to come as well.

Princess Celestia

"At least we have this bit of good news," Twilight rolled up the parchment and gave it back to Spike.

"What do we do now, Twilight?" Spike looked up at her expectantly.

"We wait for the guards, then we find these dogs and bring them to justice," Twilight seethed out, anger barely contained.




Night had fallen upon Equestria. The harsh desert sun was replaced with the cooling gaze of the moon, spreading its light across the sandy dunes of the desert. 

Coal and Richard galloped onward, following the grooves of the wooden cart that the dogs possessed. Rich was happy that night had fallen so quickly and that the moon was not full. His luck was great today. Concealment would be easy to maintain with Coal's black coat and his grayish-black apparel. The only problem... was the gun. 

Richard definitely planned on using his gun in his attack. But it was loud and would surely draw attention to his position. It was just him and Coal vs. 40-50 five foot tall dog, some of which had crossbows. How would he go about this attack? He hadn't really thought about it all that much. His revengeful attitude had blinded him to the thought of how he would come about his attack. 

As the two scaled a sand dune, Rich sighted his target. The column of dogs had lit torches around their tents to illuminate the area. Two campfires had been started and some of them were cooking some of the spoils of their raid over the fire. 

"Ok, Mr. I-Know-What-I'm=Doing, whats our plan of action?" Coal stopped under a dune with enough room for Rich and himself to look over the dune towards the camp. 

Rich studied the camp and the terrain that surrounded it. The dogs had chosen to camp in a valley between two large sand dunes. That meant that he could hold the high ground. He counted 15 dogs that wielded crossbows in their paws, 3 of which stood guard outside of the two entrances into the valley. Rich considered his options. Stealth would be incredibly difficult, if not impossible, as the camp was very tightly packed together and possessed very little dark areas to hide in and hide bodies in. But, staying behind these dunes sounded like a much better option. Rich decided what he wanted to do. 

"Here's what we're gonna do. The crossbow dogs are our biggest threat since they can keep us at range. But," Richard pulled out his rifle, "we have an answer for that. You and I will use the sand dunes for cover and peek the gun over, fire at a dog, and then relocate while I reload. Once the dogs with crossbows are dead, we move in with the saber and cut down all in our way. Then, we find the leader, interrogate him, and deal with him."

"Decent plan. Let's just hope it works," Coal remarked and readied himself. 

Coal maneuvered himself to the downward slope of the dune nearby the east entrance to the valley. Rich decided on his first two targets. Two sentries were standing outside in a line guarding the entrance to the valley. The path in front of them was only slightly illuminated by a torch that was placed next to a dune. Rich slowly pulled his rifle out of its holster and loaded a round. He sighted in and took a deep breath. "Ok," he said as he exhaled. 

Rich lined up the dogs in a line, aimed for their heads, and waited for the right moment.

BANG!

Immediately, the dogs looked up and around, trying to find the source of the loud noise. Some by the campfire noticed their now two fallen comrades lying on the ground in an accumulating pit of their own blood and rushed over to help them. Rich re-chambered another 
round in his rifle and squeezed off another shot. Flipping the rifle open he yelled to Coal, "Let's move! We gotta relocate!"

Coal started towards the other side of the dune, running through the blackened dark of the night. The dogs with swords by now were trekking to where Rich had fired his first shot. He took aim once more and took another crossbow dog down. Various forms of "Where is it? Where is it?" and "I can't see it!" rang out as Rich took down each of the dogs. He repeated the cycle each time as he fired off one or two rounds, switching between the two dunes that the camp was in.
The camp was in chaos. The dogs had no idea where he was at all and the night was doing wonders at keeping him and Coal concealed, despite the thunder of Coal's hooves and the rifle. Rich could see the leader trying to organize his men together, but by this time, he had lost control as many of the dogs began to run. Upon finishing off the last of the crossbow dogs, Rich observed the camp. Most of the dogs had run off, but a few stood resolute and had gathered in the middle to take up positions. As Coal was started to gallop towards the dogs, Richard flipped the safety of his rifle on, holstered it, and pulled his saber out with sleek precision. The gallop towards the dogs had now illuminated him and the dogs noticed him. But by now it was already too late.

Rich brought his sword down on the first dog he lined up on his right. He quickly swung on his left and cut cleanly through the next dog's neck. After his attack, he quickly disappeared again into the shadows to relocate and confuse his enemies. The dogs looked on into the dark, fear glazed across their wrinkly faces. Rich struck once more and cleanly took out two more dogs who had been split from their group. Now, only two out of the 55 remained. One of them Richard recognized as the leader. He would need him alive. For now.

Rich put his saber away and took his rifle out. He flipped the hammer back and shot the last dog through the lungs. By now, only Rock remained. He reloaded and sighted Rock in, who by now, was running for his pathetic life. He squeezed the trigger and fired his round. The bullet tore through Rock's left femur and promptly sent him tumbling down the sand dune. He landed in front of the campfire and spat up blood. Rich galloped forward on Coal and stopped in front of him. He stepped down from Coal and walked toward the groveling Rock. 

"Please! I'll give you anything you want! But spare my life!" Rock put his paws up to cover his face. 

Richard stared at this man for a moment to elicit more fear into Rock's heart. And then he spoke. 

"You and I... are going to have a long night together," Rich flatly spoke. 

Rich pulled Rock upwards and adjusted him to lay back on the wooden cart's front wheel. 

"Who sent you? Do you act alone or were you sent by a higher power?" Rich asked coolly. 

Rock said nothing back and turned his head to the side.

"Answer my question," Rich knelt down.

No reply. 

Richard pulled out his rifle and shot Rock's right leg through his calves. Rock let out a roar into the air and clutched his leg with his paws.

"Ok! OK! We were sent by the Alpha! We were sent by the Alpha!"

"Who is the alpha?"

"He's the pack leader! He sent us to get food!" Rock ground his teeth and bent down to lick his wounds.

"And you thought the best idea was to raid a town that for all intents and purposes, did nothing to you and also would have tried to help you find a place to get your food," 

"Those ponies deserve nothing better!"

Rich stomped on Rock's left leg and twisted his foot into the gaping hole that now took its place in Rock's left leg. Fresh blood squirted into the sand, sinking into the grains like water. 

"The major artery in your left leg is torn. You've already lost a lot of blood. You are likely going to die. Answer my questions and I promise you a quick and painless death," Rich reloaded his rifle with a fresh cartridge. 

"Where is this alpha? Where could I find him?" Rich asked, cradling his rifle in his arms. 

Rock once again said nothing to the gray and black man. 

"Answer me, dog,"

Once again, he was met with silence. Rich brought the stock of his gun down repeatedly onto the gunshot in Rock's left leg. Each time, he added more force and fervor. 

He grabbed Rock by his shoulders and shook him. "I AM LOSING MY PATIENCE! WHERE IS THE ALPHA?"

"DRAGONS MOUNTAIN! DRAGONS MOUNTAIN! ITS FARTHER NORTH FROM HERE! PLEASE! SPARE ME!" Rock screamed out into the sky.

Rich took his rifle and shot Rock cleanly through his forehead, ending his life quickly. He stood there for a moment, staring at the body of his victim and contemplating the actions that he had just committed.

He turned to the camp, hoping to see Coal behind him. But instead, he found Coal far away from him, hiding behind a tent with his head poked out. He looked into his eyes and saw unadulterated and utter fear in Coal's eyes. He rose up and stared back at Coal. Five minutes past and they were both still rooted to their spots. Finally, Coal walked forward towards Rich and stopped right in front of him. 

The fear he saw in Coal shot through Richard like a bullet through his heart. The actions of his past flooded back to his mind. The Indian Wars. The cattle driving jobs. Albert. Now this. Just another thing that would haunt him the rest of his days. He had gone too far. But there was no turning back. The past was in the past and it could not be undone. Now his own horse feared him. And that, to him, was devastating. 

Rich put these thoughts away and turned to the cart to see the ponies food. He climbed up into it and examined the supplies. 

"Here, Coal," Richard reached into the pile and took out a massive bag of carrots. He also took out some apples from a large bucket and promptly ate one. Coal dug into the bag and gobbled up some carrots as his dinner. Rich thought of ways to return the cart to their respective owners. 

"We camp here tonight. Get some rest. Tomorrow, we leave. I'm sure the winged ponies should be able to find their things again out here," Rich said as he took his sleeping roll off of Coal and laid it down next to the fire. 

Coal said nothing to Richard and walked away towards the cart to sleep. He laid himself down and sat, staring at the sky.

Rich eyed him for a moment and soon fell asleep, Rock's agonized face gracing his dreams.



The next day...

"Princess Celestia!"

Twilight pranced over to where her teacher landed beside the two guard platoons that landed next to her. She raised her hoof in front of her and pulled Twilight into a hug. 

"Twilight Sparkle, it is good to see you," 

"You too, Princess,"

"I'm afraid we must not waste a moment now. We must leave to track those dogs down and see if we can claim what is ours and bring the culprits responsible to justice," Celestia stared out to Mareaton Hill where the dogs had disappeared to. "Are you ready to leave?"

Rainbow Dash, who was next to Twilight before, hovered in the air. "I sure am, Princess," she gave a bow in the air.

"I am as well, Princess," Twilight looked back to her teacher. 

"Then let us be off. Capt. Shield! Take your pegasi to the air! I want your platoon scouting ahead for potential danger! Unicorns, with me and Twilight!" Celestia relayed her orders to her troops.

And so, the band of ponies set off to the great unknown, bent on justice and retribution. 




Rich awoke to an quiet breezy desert morning, as the sun was peaking over the horizon. He shook himself in an effort to wake himself and got up. His stomach cried out to him upon standing up, so he went to the cart and grabbed himself some apples and some blueberries to sustain himself.

"Can't wait till I can hunt again. I want some meat running through my system," he thought to himself.

He found Coal sleeping still, so he shook his back a bit to wake him. Coal's eyes fluttered open and focused in on Rich. A small frown replaced his expressionless look as he looked into Richard's baby blues.

"C'mon, we got to get moving," Richard attached his sleeping roll to Coal and grabbed a few more apples and some water from the cart to resupply. 

He put out his fire and packed up the rest of the gear attaching it to Coal. He mounted up and rechecked the area. Everything was dead still, so everything's normal. 

"You alright, Coal?"

Coal gave no reply and turned his head to the side, facing away from the gruesome bloodbath they had made yesterday. 

"So be it then," Rich muttered to himself, "Let's ride!"

The two left the scene and never looked back. 




They had been traveling for two hours, and so far, Twilight had not spotted anything yet. The pegasi scoured the ground from their vantage points in the sky and they still found nothing. They were well into the desert, but nothing was found. The only thing that was found were tracks from a cart going through the plains, but the trail had ended as soon as they had reached the desert. She was worried that nothing would be found and that the dogs escaped unpunished. Rainbow Dash was getting bored with all the walking, or in her case, flying, and no bad guys had appeared for her to beat the snot out of. 

"Uhhhhhh... Are we there yet?" Rainbow Dash asked Twilight.

"We get there when we get there, Dash,"

"But this is taking forever!" Rainbow Dash folded her front hooves.

"Well, what did you expect, Rainbow? That the dogs would just magically appear and present their behinds for you to kick?" Twilight felt exasperated with her friends attitude.

"Yes?" 

"We found something!" A pegasus scout yelled to Celestia from the sky, "Over the sand dunes, Majesty!"

Twilight, Rainbow, and Celestia quickly galloped over the sand dune they were on to find am awful, horrific site. Dead dogs were everywhere, strewn about the small valley in various positions and configurations. Some had large holes in their heads, chests, and arms. Many had diagonal slashes up their chests and into their necks. But when Twilight sighted Rock, that's when she tossed her cookies on the ground. His left leg possessed a massive hole near the femur, with the bone barely clinging to the rest of the body by a thread. A dried pool of blood had gathered all around the body and made the area stink. His right leg had a similar hole in it, while not as big and finally, his head had one as well, but even smaller. Flies darted in and out of the dog's mouth and wounds, laying their eggs and eating the rotting flesh as the heated desert sun cooked it under its gaze. 

"What happened here?" Twilight said as she got up from the ground and collected herself.

"Obviously, someone got to the dogs before we did," Celestia muttered back.

Even Rainbow was quiet as she observed the gruesome sight in front of her. No longer were the flashes of battle and glory racing across her face. Only disgust occupied her now. 

"Princess! We have the food! Most of it is still here!" a private called out to Celestia. 

Celestia walked over to where the cart full of Ponyville's food supplies rested. Sure enough, most of the things that were taken were still present and accounted for.

"I want logistics to count what we have lost and the dog causalities. I want clues as to what has gone on here. Bury the bodies and clean the place up," Celestia ordered.

Celestia and Twilight walked about the camp, observing the corpses and looking for clues. A unicorn guard came up behind them, holding a brass casing in his magic. 

"Princess, I think we might have something. All around this campsite are these strange metal casings. They are almost everywhere. Here, take a look," he handed the casing to Celestia, who took it in her magic's grasp.

Celestia observed the casing and squinted to make out any markings. It smelled exceptionally foreign, like fireworks after they had been shot off. Grayish coloring painted the rim of the hollowed metal in a random and explosive pattern. She turned the cartridge to the bottom and squinted her eyes to make out the writing.

Springfield Armory 45-70 cal.

The last observation she made was a small bend in the metal in the back. It was perfectly centered and looked like it was struck by a pin. She gave the metal back to the guard. "Gather as many of these things as you can. I want them analyzed back at the castle." 

"Yes, ma'am!" the guard gave a salute and hurried off. 

"What could have done such a thing to these dogs, Princess?"

"Only a monster, Twilight."




The ride back to the forest was silent. Coal refused to speak to Richard as they rode on through the plains. Richard prodded and tried to start conversation, but failed ultimately each time. Rich was afraid he was receiving the silent treatment.

"So, nice weather out today, huh?" Rich said. He turned his head up to the sky, "Not a cloud in the sky."

He received no reply. 

"So did I ever tell you about the time I pranked a telegrapher with a fake telegram?"

No reply. 

"You feeling alright?"

Nothing still.

"Please, Coal, Please. Talk to me again," Richard pleaded with Coal.

Coal only turned his head slightly towards Rich, but looked back at the path once more.

"Please! Tell me what's bothering you!" Rich pleaded once more.

He was met with silence, until Coal finally spoke to him in a very long time.

"Why are you so cruel?" Coal asked plainly. "Do you have no respect for the life of other things?"

"Yes, Coal, I do. I just got carried away," Richard replied back, rubbing his back neck.

"But you always get carried away! I saw you torture a dog until he was screaming at the top of his lungs for you to spare him. I've seen you do many bad and terrible things, but that is easily one of the worst things I've ever seen you do. It's always endless violence with you!" Coal shouted back.

Richard looked to his side and said nothing.

Coal stopped walking, turned his head back, and looked Rich in the eye. "Just promise me, Rich. Promise me that you will never do something like that ever again,"

"I... I promise, Coal."

"Thank you. C'mon, let's get back to the forest."

The two said nothing more.
> Discoveries and Confrontations
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Our two heroes finally reached The Endless Forest, which is what Richard dubbed it on the ride back.

"Never thought I would be happy to see this forest again," he shook his head and smiled. 

"Same," Coal replied and walked through the tree line. 

The two walked through the forest at a steady trot in no particular direction, listening to the chirps of the sparrows and robins as they went about their business. 

"So what do you think our options are right now?" Richard asked.

"What do you mean?" said Coal as he jumped over a fallen tree.

"Well, what do you think we should do? We aren't in America anymore. That's for sure. So what exactly should our course of action be?" 

"Maybe we can make contact with the ponies. They seem nice enough," Coal ducked under a low hanging vine, with Richard doing the same. 

"I don't know about that, Coal. Remember that small yellow one with wings? We know they talk. So that one probably ran her mouth all across town talking about us. Personally, I don't believe we are exactly dressed to look like we are friendly," Richard looked at his dark apparel, Coal's menacingly black coat, and his rifle. 

"Yeah, guess you're right. We might be seen as a threat to their safety. Maybe we can just camp out in this forest and try to figure out what's going on. Try to see if we can get back home," Coal said.

"Sounds like a plan. Let's find that river again. Although, maybe camp in a different clearing this time," Richard added. 

"What? I thought you liked wooden abominations in your sleeping area," Coal flashed a s**eating grin.

"I ought 'a turn you into glue, Coal," Richard rolled his eyes. 

Coal laughed, and they were off.



"What the hay is this thing?" Twilight mumbled as she peered into the hollow tube. She had been trying to study the cylindrical tubes they had taken from the site and exploit its secrets, but she had found out next-to nothing. She set it down on the lab table and stared at each of the cylinders they had collected. What were these things and what was their purpose? No leads had been found as to what they were or where they came from. No clues of what had done all those things to the dogs came up. The only things they had found were weirdly shaped hoof-prints that led towards Ponyville, but disappeared upon reaching the beginning of the plains. She sighed and decided to head out of the lab. She would look at them again another time. Before leaving, she grabbed a clipboard with her data on it, put out the candles, and left the room. 

She entered into the hallway of the castle and looked towards the throne room. Celestia had Twilight and her friends taken to Canterlot to analyze the data taken from the site. Closing the door to the lab, she heard the throne room door open to reveal Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. They both stepped out of the throne room, with Celestia coming over to Twilight and greeting her with a hug. 

"Hello, Twilight. Have you been able to find anything about those metallic tubes?" she asked. 

"A bit, Princess. Here's what I have," she levitated the clipboard to her face and read. "There were blackened residues inside of the tube that I swabbed and analyzed. The results came back identifying it as carbon and some kind of fine black powder of some sort. The casing is made out of brass. Aside from that, I wasn't able to determine much else," Twilight levitated the clipboard down and looked up at the Princesses. 

"May I see these tubes, Twilight?" Luna asked. 

"Yes, of course. Right this way," Twilight beckoned the Princesses over to the lab. 

They filed in through the decorated door and walked to the lab table carrying the cartridges. Luna levitated one up to her eyes and studied them. 

"I am just as baffled as to what they are as you are, Twilight Sparkle. We have found no suitable leads on who did it, so I was hoping these things could help us in our search. I suppose I was mistaken," Luna put down the casing and turned to see Twilight's friends filing in. 

"Hey girls," she nodded towards their general direction and greeted them.

"Hey Twi! Whatcha lookin at?" Rainbow Dash.

"The Princesses and I were studying the brass tubes we recovered from the massacre, in hopes of finding out who or what did it and where to find them. Here, why don't you guys have a look? See if I missed anything," Twilight levitated the tubes over to the girls. 

Upon seeing them, Fluttershy let out a huge gasp and ran to hide behind Rainbow Dash, shaking all the while.

"Fluttershy, what's wrong?" Twilight looked behind her to Fluttershy.

"Those tubes. I've seen them before,"

"Where? Do you have any information about them? What are they?" Twilight smiled in a goofy, studious grin only achievable by a massive nerd.

"No, but I know who they belong to. Twilight, do you remember that creature from the Everfree that saved me I told you about?"

"Yes, I remember. But what does it have to do with these?" Twilight levitated the tubes back down on the table as Pinkie and Rarity began to study them.

"When its thunder stick went off, it would flip this switch on the top and these things would pop out of the back of the stick. It was so... scary," Fluttershy backed out of Twilight's shadow and returned to her original position by the door. 

"It appears we have found our lead, Luna," Celestia said. 

"Apparently so. What do you suppose we do, Celestia?" Luna looked up at her sister.

"I appreciate what this creature did for our ponies in Ponyville. However, we don't know if it will attack the town like the dogs did. So, I was thinking of sending a platoon of guards there for extra safety until we find out more information about this thing," Celestia looked back to the tubes once more. 

"Sounds like a logical course of action, 'Tia. Let's do it," Luna replied. 

"Good. Girls, I think it be best that you be on your way to Ponyville again. We will send the guards tomorrow and they will arrive the day after tomorrow. However, I think we shall accompany you to Ponyville, to reassure our ponies that we will protect them. You all don't mind chariots right?" Celestia turned to Twilight.

"Not at all, Princess," Twilight nodded.

"Then let us all be off."



"My next move has gotta be dinner," Richard looked down at his grumbling stomach as he sat in a small clearing by the river they had decided to set up camp in. He rose from his spot near the shore and grabbed his rifle and ammunition. 

"You going hunting?" Coal looked up from his grazing with a mouthful of grass between his teeth. 

"Yup. I'll be back in a bit. Stay safe, Coal," he jumped over a log and sprinted off. 

Richard ran through the forest, rifle firmly grasped in his calloused hand. He figured he would start closer to the town and work his way through. Perhaps not to find game, but really, just to spy out the town and try to figure out just what situation he was thrown into. He mantled over a rather large fallen tree and noticed something odd about this one. This one had pulled up from the ground, with its roots sticking out, and multiple cracks lay throughout the trunk. A large crack lay in the middle of the tree, as if something had stepped on it or had been knocked into it. Just above where the tree lay was a massive paw-print that could easily fit one of the ponies into. Richard perspired a bit at the sight of the print. Whatever had made this was huge, and he really didn't want to cross paths with it anytime soon.
Note to self, avoid this area from now on. Rich decided.

Richard continued on his way to the edge of the forest. Eventually, he came to his destination, which sat at the edge of the treeline and became plains of grass. In his sight stood the town of Ponyville, with all the bustle and life of any town. Still a really dumb name... he thought to himself. He decided to climb a tree to achieve a better vantage point and came to rest on a sturdy and firm pine branch. And thus, he began his stalking.

From what he could see, most of the ponies were doing what any other townsfolk would be doing. Retrieving water from wells, buying supplies at shops, some were tending to crops near the outskirts of the town. However, the sky was oddly active with the winged ponies. Richard stared in awe as they effortlessly moved clouds out of the late afternoon sky and away from the sun. One was walking on it and conversing with another one of the winged ponies. Note to self, winged ponies control weather and walk on clouds. Not like this place is any more weird. Why am I even surprised? he thought to himself. 

At of the corner of his eye, he saw three large flying objects descending out of the east. He turned his gaze to it and was further baffled by this land's distinct middle finger to physics. Three chariots were coming out of the sky, with two winged ponies in golden and silver armor pulling them. In the backs of each of the chariots were three ponies, each looking different then the other. I'm no scientist, but shouldn't they be falling out of the sky right now?

The chariots came down into the town square and settled by the fountain. The occupants stepped out from the back and gathered by the now enlarged crowd that came to meet them. The ponies of the air even flew down to the ground to see what was going on in the square. If they care an awful lot, then I probably should too. Rich climbed down from the tree and ran through the plains. He came to one of the buildings in the square and climbed up to the roof. With no winged ponies in the air, he was sure that he wouldn't be spotted. He peaked over the roof's edge and watched one of the ponies step forward. It was massive in comparison to the others, easily to his shoulders, not including the horn. A shining ivory made up its coat with its mane in many different colors flowing freely in the air. And most weird of all, this one happened to have both a horn and wings. Some sort of hybrid maybe? Many of the ponies all faced towards this new arrival and bowed to it. Looks like royalty.  He huddled himself in his hiding spot and began to listen to the pony's words.

"Ponies of Ponyville! I bring good news to you! The dogs that attacked the town have been slain and the food that was taken has been restored to its rightful owners!"

Cheers and applause rang out of the crowded square. The white one waited for them to settle once more before continuing.

"However, there might be a new threat to the town once more. We have reason to believe that a new dangerous and deadly creature has taken up residence in the Everfree forest. We believe that it was singlehoofedly responsible for the slaughter of the dogs."

This was received with groans, gasps, and worried glances to the white pony.

"This creature is believed to be very technologically advanced. We know that it carries a stick in its hand that can kill anything from a very far range. So from this point forward, I am instating a no-travel zone in the Everfree forest. Nopony is permitted to travel through its bounds without a guard escort and permission from Mayor Mare. This is for the safety of the town and your safety. Luna and I are also stationing two platoons of guards here to provide extra protection to the town. Rest assured! We have everything under control!" 

The ponies gave a collective cry of relief and settled themselves once more. Richard slumped down from the edge of the roof, laid himself back on the thatch, and adjusted his hat. They knew about him. What could have tipped them off to him? Did he leave footprints? Did someone hear him? Was Coal's hooves too lo-- Richard was stunned as he remembered what he had left behind. His spent casings. He had left his spent cartridges all around the sand dunes and never bothered to pick them up. They merely had to find them and connect the dots. 

The ponies looked about ready to wrap up their meeting, so Richard left in a hurry so as not to be seen. He would have to be more careful with when he went out for food. Nice as the ponies may look, he didn't want to find out how they would react to him, specially the ones with horns. Evening was starting to come, so Richard decided once again to detour to the cottage by the path. He felt conflicted once more as he was stealing from the owner. Not only that, with enough of the animals taken, one of the ponies would notice. He would have to stop eventually. 

He arrived at the cottage and began to spy out the animal coops again. Might as well get another chicken again. But as he approached, the animals got wind of him, and started to flip out. He ran through the maze of coops, rushing clumsily towards the chicken coop. He reached it and jumped over the enclosure to grab a hen. But over on the side of the cottage, he heard voices. Pony voices. Quickly, he tried to snatch one of the chickens and make his escape. The chickens, however, had all gathered themselves in their wooden home and hid themselves away. He turned himself and spied two ponies turning the corner of the house. He was too late. The two ponies turned their heads and gasped at the sight of him. One was purple, with a horn jutting out from its head. The other, Richard surprisingly saw, was the smaller yellow one that he had saved from those wooden abominations. 

Richard wasted no time and bolted for the forest, mantling over the metal caging of the chicken coop. The yellow one became scared and ran off towards the town. The purple one, however, gave chase to him, and was charging something on her horn. Whatever it was, Richard did not want to be receiving it, so he renewed his dash and ran faster as he strapped his rifle to his back. Looking forward, he saw a massive, sparkling purple barrier spontaneously appear in front of him, blocking his way. Acting quickly, he turned his shoulder to the wall and body-checked it. The shield faltered away and broke from Richard's assault. Another one appeared as he neared the treeline. He came to it and punched it with all his might. It too fell away from his attack, and he sprinted onward. The purple pony, however, refused to let up and sprinted even faster toward him. It was in full gallop, and it being a horse, it was only a matter of time before it caught up to him. As Rich reached the treeline, he rolled on the ground, pulling his rifle out while rolling, took up a crouched position, and fired his rifle into the pony's leg. Instantly, the pony fell, crying out in pain as it plummeted towards the ground. Richard could see one of the winged ponies flying through the sky towards him, so he began his run again and ran further into the forest. He had to find Coal and tell him about what happened and what he had learned. 

Richard disappeared into the forest, running all the way, hoping he hadn't injured the pony too badly, and never looking back.
	
> Fights, Meetings, and Agreements (Edited)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Pain.

Pain was the only thing Twilight could recognize as she rolled on the ground, clutching the clean hole in her hoof. Blood from the wound was now starting to collect under her as she lay there. The creature, seeing it was no longer being chased, bolted off into the forest and disappeared once more. Twilight detected a flapping of wings and turned to see Rainbow Dash closing in on her position. She quickly landed beside her and examined Twilight's wounds.

"Oh man! Twilight! Are you okay?" Rainbow Dash looked frantically over Twilight, trying to think of what to do. 

"Get me to a hospital or doctor's office!" Twilight screamed at Rainbow Dash and ground her teeth.

"Don't worry, Twi! Everything's going to be alright!" Rainbow Dash shifted Twilight onto her back and took off for a hospital. 

Twilight looked back at the forest, eyes focused on where the creature had disappeared to. Upon returning to health, she was going to come back and tear the forest apart trying to find the creature and study it. She will unlock its secrets if she has to uproot every tree in Equestria just to find it. 

"I'll find you, creature, if it's the last thing I do," she mumbled to herself.




Two weeks had gone by since the debacle with the violet pony. As Richard suspected, staying hidden while spying on the ponies had been difficult as guards were stationed everywhere around the town now. Many close calls had been made while he had been spying. Not only that, food was becoming scarcer as animals near his camp had moved away from the river with each animal killed, making it harder to find food each passing day. With these factors, Richard decided to move out of the clearing by the river and move further into the forest. 

Richard packed up his gear, strapped everything to Coal, and mounted up. 

"Food's getting a bit scarcer, Coal, so we gotta move someplace new. Also, I kinda want to explore this place. Maybe we can find something that can help us get back," Richard loaded a round into his rifle, threw the hammer back to safety lock, holstered it, and whipped the reins. 

They moved out from the clearing and decided to head east, taking care to avoid the area with the uprooted tree. Coming to a small stream, they found themselves in a much more vine-infested, but open, landscape than a forest now. Tall pines and deciduous trees were now replaced with willows, bushes, ivy vines, and a couple holly trees. Coal took care to avoid the holly's and began to follow a path that had came up. 

"So, Rich," Coal said, "Do you mind filling me on some things? You've kinda kept me in the dark on what you've found since that whole "encounter" with that purple pony. 

"Yeah, sorry about that. Sure. Here's what we know," Rich replied.

"The ivory white pony I told you about is named Celestia. She seems to be the nation's main ruler around here, or at least that we know of. The town's on high alert because of our little... "talk" with those dog things. They believe we are a threat to the town and are trying to find us as we speak to either interrogate us or flat out kill us. Guards are getting better at picking up our tracks every time I hunt for food. That's one of the reasons why we are moving to a different spot. The purple pony I shot is sister to the guards commander. I think his name is Shining Armor? I don't really know. Point is, the guy's furious about me shooting his sister. Got a special kind of hatred for me, apparently. he's completely committed to capturing me for that very reason. And frankly, I wouldn't blame him."

Richard took a breath before speaking again.

"So with all that said, here's what I've been thinking. I think we should lay low for awhile and stay out of the ponies' way. We can explore the forest and maybe try and find a way home. Only thing is, we need to find a reasonable place to call home for a bit," Richard adjusted his hat upward and looked at Coal expectantly for a reply.

Coal was silent for a few moments, drinking in the information he heard. He hopped over a log and spied an answer to their dilemma. 

"Rich. I think I know a place." 

"What do you... Oh..."

Richard turned himself forward and figured out what Coal meant. Sitting in front of them were massive castle ruins that was sitting in a clearing, surrounded by a cliff. Vines, foliage, and rocks littered the castle ruins in a haphazard and chaotic sort. Willow trees grew wildly inside of the ruins and draped their vines over the castle. A small rope bridge connected the castle to the other parts of the forest. The two came to the bridge and stopped in front of it. 

"Do you think it's safe to cross?" Coal looked back towards Rich. 

"I don't know. It looks pretty intact. Doesn't look like the wood has been deteriorated enough to break under our weight. But to be safe, let's take this slowly," Rich held on tightly to the reins and urged Coal to walk forward. 

The bridge whined under the new weight of Coal and Rich. The ropes creaked as they trekked onward. Halfway across and none of the wood cracked under the pressure. They reached the end and stepped off. 

"Well, that wasn't so hard!" Richard smiled wholeheartedly with gladness. 

"C'mon! Let's go explore this place!" Coal started to gallop towards the ruins.

A close and shrill howl into the air abruptly interrupted their adventure. Richard stopped Coal and turned back to the forest. Stomping out of the forest came 3 diamond dogs, looking incredibly similar to those in the raiding party.

"These guys again?" Richard said.

"There he is!" He heard a dog shout and point its paw towards him.

Upon seeing him, the dogs sprinted for the bridge and began to cross. Rich clumsily went to draw his rifle, but fumbled with the strap holding it in place. By the time he got it out, the dogs had already crossed the bridge and were heading straight for him and Coal. Richard quickly shouldered his rifle and took aim. The dogs stopped their assault immediately, realizing they were staring at the business end of the machine that had killed their brethren. 

"You! I'm going to enjoy ripping the life out of your bones, creature," the biggest dog pointed his paw at Richard.

"I assure you, that if you turn around and leave the way you came, I won't leave you like I did your leader," Richard tapped his rifle to assure them of his accusations. 

The biggest dog was unfazed by Richard's threats and stepped forward. "I am Bone! You have killed my brothers in badlands! Bone and fellow brothers will make you pay for that, skinny runt."

"Ha! I'd like to see you try, you abominable mutt! Run along now before one of you gets hurt," Coal pawed the ground, preparing to charge. 

"Ah, the runt's big pony friend. You will make an excellent slave for the pack. You will pull our raid carts and supply wagons for us. Pain shall be your only friend when we're through with you," a malicious smile crept across Bone's face as he clutched his spear in his hand, "Now, let's begin."

Bone leapt forward towards Richard and knocked him out of the saddle, tumbling across the grassy floor. Upon recovering from the fall, Bone quickly grabbed Richard rifle, which had been knocked out of his hands and clattered away. He shouldered the rifle like Rich did and tried to pull the trigger. But he found that his paw could not fit through the trigger guard. Richard took advantage of this and quickly charged Bone. Bone fumbled with the rifle for a couple more seconds, but was met with a sharp tackle to the ground by Rich, sending the rifle clattering towards a lone willow tree. Bone quickly kicked Rich off of him, swiped his right paw across Rich's face and left paw into his knee, and got up, reaching for his spear which had landed near his right paw. Rich, spitting up blood from the punch, right crossed Bone, sending the spear spiraling through the air and off the cliff. He followed up again with a right cross, followed by a left-cross. He pushed Bone down, pinned him, and gave a prompt hard and forceful punch to his face. 

Bone was knocked out by this, so Richard turned to the other 2 dogs who had come with him. They had taken up a circular position around Coal, cutting him off from Rich and surrounding him. Rich could see that they had done some damage to Coal, as there were some minor stab wounds from their spears, multiple bite marks on his leg, and a couple bruises to his side. One of the dogs went for another stab, but Coal quickly grabbed him in his teeth and threw him across the meadow. However, the other dog followed up with a swift stab of his spear into Coal's side. Coal cried out in pain and fell to the floor, blood leaking out of each of his wounds and pooling up in the grass. Rich let out an enraged, bellowing war cry, reached for his rifle by the tree, took aim, and fired his rifle at the dog. The other dog, seeing his comrade fall and the disadvantage he had, tried to run back across the wooden bridge to safety in the forest. Rich quickly flipped the chamber open, rechambered another round, and fired again. The bullet hit and the dog reached for his back before falling off the bridge and into the abyss. 

Quickly strapping his rifle to his back, Rich rushed over to his heaving friend, worried and scared for his life. 

"Coal! Coal! Speak to me!" Rich yelled out.

He assessed the damage that the dogs had done to his friend. His chest had three massive claw cuts across it, starting from the bottom and reaching all the way up to edge of his neck. Blood was slowly trailing down his chest into the ground. Numerous other scratches and bites were on his legs as well, all bleeding slowly. And of course, there was the massive stab wound he had in his side. Rich was quite surprised that Coal was still alive with all the wounds he had suffered. Richard quickly ran over to Coal's back and scrambled through his gear looking for gauze or cloth to stop the bleeding. Settling on one of his shirts, he raced back over to the wound site and pressed his shirt onto the wound, trying to stop the bleeding from the stab wound.

Instinctively, Richard yelled out into the air for help. "Somebody help me!"

"I'll help."

Richard turned to the forest again, frightened and pulling his rifle out from Coal, half-expecting it to be another talking creature that wanted to rip his balls off and feed them to its children. But what he saw surprised him, and frankly, confused him somewhat.

There, standing in the flesh, was the purple pony he shot two weeks before.

"My name is Twilight Sparkle. And I have a lot of questions for you."



Earlier that day...

Twilight walked out of the hospital, Nurse Redheart by her side.

"I don't want you doing any extreme physical activity, Twilight. We don't know everything about what that thunderstick did to you, so I don't want you taking any chances. Ok?" the nurse stopped short in the middle of the pathway.

"Yes, nurse. That won't be a problem," Twilight replied back.

"Alright. You have a nice day, Twilight," Nurse Redheart turned back to the hospital and walked back in. 

Twilight trotted out of the hospital, head upright, in good health and spirit. Because today, she could finally start figuring out what this new creature was and what that stick it held in its paws was. So as she started any new adventure, she shimmied on over to her library to research this thing. 

"Spike! I'm back!" Twilight yelled up to the upstairs.

"Twilight!" she heard a certain dragon say.

She heard a tiny patter of Spike's claws on the ground, and soon enough, she spied her number one assistant. Spike jumped into her and gave her a hug.

"I'm glad you're back. What can I do for you?" Spike said as he dropped himself to the ground.

"Spike, we are going to do what we do best," Twilight shuffled over to her bookshelves and stared up at them, "Read books."

"What exactly are we looking for?" Spike trotted over to another bookshelf and took his position by it.

"We are going to research information about that creature that hurt me. I want to know about it. Know its strengths, weaknesses, intelligence, if it's sentient, everything. We are on the possible verge of discovering something monumental, Spike," Twilight climbed the ladder to reach for a distant book. 

"Ok. What exactly do we already know? Do you know what it looks like?" Spike asked.

"It walks on two legs instead of four, like us. Very flat face, leaves odd shaped tracks in the dirt, carries a projectile weapon of some sort, I'll explain my reasons for that in a sec, and wears clothes all the time, weirdly," she scrunched her face in confusion at her statement. 

"Alright, got it," Spike began reaching for a book, "So about the weapon, you think it's projectile?"

"Yes. When I was in the hospital, the doctor said that whatever the stick did, it definitely shot a projectile of some sorts. There really is no explanation for how I received my wounds otherwise. So the task I have for you specifically is this weapon. I want you to search ways that the weapon might work. Of course, if you still find anything about the creature, you let me know. Anyway, let's get to it."

The two spent their time reading in a still silence for the next couple of hours. Nothing was discovered about this creature, much to the surprise of Twilight. Ecology and biology were very strongly studied subjects in the Equestrian world. She was sure she would find something. As for the weapon, Spike found a couple things on fireworks and how that might be how the weapon works. But of course, with lack of information on the weapon's functions, this was only a guess, though educated. 

Twilight closed her book and set it back on the shelf. 

"Spike?" Twilight walked over to a counter and grabbed some bits, "Why don't you head on over to the market and grab yourself a nice ruby over at the shop?"

"Oh boy!" the purple dragon eagerly snatched the bits out of her magic and ran out the door quickly. Twilight smiled and laughed at her scaly companion. Always the hungry one she thought to herself. 

Now, with her companion distracted for awhile, she could get on to her real task. Going into the Everfree, finding the creature, and studying it. She knew her brother would never let her near the forest if she asked for permission to go in. Probably no luck with Mayor Mare as well. So, she would have to resort to secrecy and sneaking. Not exactly her strengths, but this was a discovery waiting to be made. She'd be darned if the only thing stopping her from learning was her brother. She exited her house and passed into the alleyways. Most of the guards would be in the makeshift barracks they had constructed a couple days prior. She came to the end of the town and found the path to the forest. 

She, after a few minutes, entered into the forest, spirits high and . Alright, creature. Where are you? Twilight began her search.

She silently crept throughout the forest, hunting for footprints, clues, scents, anything she could find. Occasionally, she would stop and perk her ears up to listen for any peculiar sounds. However, she encountered nothing apart from a couple deer tracks and bird chirps. Frustration soon began to set in after a couple hours of looking to and fro through the forest. 

This is harder than trying to repair the Castle of the Two Sisters in a day.

"The Castle of the Two Sisters! Of course!"

Why hadn't she thought of it before? She had completely glossed over the fact that the castle had a whole library chocked full of books filled with ancient knowledge! If the creature didn't show up inside one of those books, then she would eat her own tail! Filled with renewed fervor, Twilight galloped towards the castle, all the while thinking of what it might hold in store for her.

With the sun still high in the sky, she came to the clearing and cliff that held the castle. Smiling to herself, Twilight strutted on over to the old wooden bridge. 

SNAP!

Twilight caught a roaring snap of a stick in the forest. She turned and spied a rustling of the bushes. Quickly, she hurried herself to cover to hide from whatever was emerging from the forest. Nestling herself between two bushes, she looked out into the clearing, waiting and preparing herself in case she needed to run. 

The rustling grew louder and she felt a steady beating on the ground. Could it be a manticore? Hydra? COCKATRICE? 

But it wasn't. Out stepped what she had come for. The creature.

And not just the creature, but also another. The creature rode on its back and it had all sorts of cloths, packs, and pockets strapped to it. 

How odd. What's the situation here? Did the creature enslave it? Are they in a mutual symbiotic relationship? Oh, this got so much more interesting! 

No sooner had she watched the two creatures cross the bridge did she hear another rustling in the forest. 3 diamond dogs emerged from the foliage line, growls, snarls, and grunts escaping from their wooden snouts. An enraged challenge escaped from the mouth of the largest of the dogs, and they charged. 

She saw the creature whip out its weapon and point it towards the dogs.  The dogs had chosen to stop in front of the two creatures, so Twilight decided to creep closer to see if she could get a better view. 

"I assure you, that if you turn around and leave the way you came, I won't leave you like I did your leader," 

IT TALKED! The creature of the Everfree talks! Excitement set into Twilight's mind at all the talks and findings she could now find thanks to this creature's ability to talk.

The lead dog yelled once more at the creature, and soon, the fight was on. 

The creature was immediately knocked off of the saddle by the large dog who had challenged him. Twilight watched as this creature wrestled, stabbed, beat, and fought it as they tumbled around in the grass. She was amazed by this creatures fighting prowess. There was precision in its strikes and a strategic planning to each of them. But also, there was a brutality to it. A somewhat peculiar hunger for combat. Each time it struck, it would become more rigorous, more forceful with its punches. 

Eventually, the fighting died down and all of the dogs looked like they were dead. The creature fell to the ground, clutching its paws, blood leaking out. It wasn't in very good condition. Its head leaked out crimson blood down its face and onto its shoulders. It walked with a limp at its knee and its hands were covered with dirt, grim, and blood. However, the creature seemed unworried about its own condition. Instead, it immediately rushed over to its companion, who was equally as wounded as he was. 

It fumbled over its body, grabbed some cloth out of one of the pockets, and pressed it down into the wounds of the horse. 

Twilight thought to herself for a moment. Now might not be a good time to reveal herself to the creature. But then again, if she didn't take any risks with this creature, she would likely miss her other chances to make contact with it. So she formulated her plan in her mind and stepped out into view.




Richard started to reach for his gun at the sight of the violet equine. 

"Easy! Easy! I'm not going to do anything to you," Twilight reassured.

"What do you want? Start talking, or you're getting a bullet through your head," Richard gestured to his rifle.

"Ok, how bout a little introduction. So yeah, I'm Twilight Sparkle and I live in the town of Ponyville. You?" Twilight asked.

"My name is not of your concern right now. What is your concern right now is helping me and my horse," Richard pressed a cloth into his face to try to stop the bleeding from his forehead.

"Well, there isn't really much I can do right now. Magic seems to be quite ineffective against you as you so, umm, bluntly proved in your escape. I doubt it would bode much better for your, horse, you said?" 

"Yeah, horse. Listen,"if you can't help, then you might as well run on back to your town. I'll figure this out on my own," Richard started to limp towards the bridge. 

"Wait! Wait! I can help you. I just don't have the supplies," a brilliant idea came to Twilight as she uttered these words.

"So, I'll make you a deal. I'll nurse you and your horse back to health in exchange for some answers to my questions. Deal?" She held out her hoof to the creature.

"If you can do that plus getting me and him some food, I'll do it," Richard held out his bloodied hand to the pony. 

The two shook and the deal was sealed. Twilight turned to Coal and studied his condition. 

"Hmmm, looks like you've stopped the bleeding, but those wounds could get infected real fast. I'll need some disinfectants for you both," Twilight turned to head back to the town and gather her supplies.

"Hey!"

Twilight turned back to Richard. "For every strip of bacon you bring back to me, I'll give you extra questions."

"Bacon. Got it," She turned back and began towards the town once more.

The heck is Bacon? she wondered.

Whatever. She would have to look it up when she got back to the library. But for now, she had a task. A task that could be the start of a whole new friendship. 




As Twilight left, Richard turned to Bone, who by now, was starting to stir. Richard reloaded another round into his rifle and pointed it at the dog, waiting for him to wake up. Bone woke up, and clutched his head as a headache set in. He looked up and spied Richard pointing his rifle out him and held his paws up.

"Listen here, dog, and you listen carefully. If you ever set foot inside this forest and threaten me again, I will show no mercy toward you, or any of the fools who choose to join on your quest against me. I want you to go back to where you and your pathetic pack lives, and I want you to tell this Alpha about what you've seen here. You tell him that if he sends another raiding party out here to either find me or raze the town, he will hunt him down across the face of the Earth. I will not hesitate to put a bullet in each and every one of you, men, women, and children. Now get out of here, and don't make me regret sparing your life." 

Bone immediately sprang up and began to run away across the bridge. He got to the forest, and promptly disappeared into the treeline. Richard brought his rifle down, and strapped it to his back. He walked over to Coal and sat down next to him. With nothing else to do, he placed his hand on his friend and began to pray, hoping that he would live through the night. 

	
> Dreams and Talks of Things Past
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The voices of insects and birds sang throughout the breezy night air. The crescent moon's light crept along the landscape and dimly lit the meadow that Rich and Coal resided in. The stars shone like moondust in the sky, as if there was a snowfall happening in space. Richard felt privileged to be witnessing such a marvelous sight. Richard watched the star's little show and sighed to himself as he lay his head on the grass.

Sleep seemed to elude him, due to his horse's dire condition, and the fear of some animal sneaking up on them. Ominous fog fell upon the meadow, with shadows twisting along the ground, touching every sliver of land it could find. Fear began to creep into Richard as the sleepless night went on. For the first time in a very long time, Richard Emmerson, the man who charged and killed his way through the Indian Wars, never backed down from a fight, and took no crap from anyone, felt terrified.  Here he was, stuck in an unknown land, with many things trying to kill or capture him, animals that talked, and monsters of all different kinds. This world was all so bizarre to him, like he was having a weird dream from which there was no waking. It was so vastly and astronomically different from everything that he had ever witnessed. He feared the unknown that lay inside and outside of the forest. His rifle had been his only constant companion, comforter, and reminder of the things of his past, as well as his only defense against these creatures. Through the night, he cradled it in his arms as if it were his own child, clinging to it for safety from whatever monsters that lay inside those forest borders. 

Finally, the grasp of sleep seemed ready to take him, and Rich silently fell into his slumber, escaping his fears for another night. 




Luna walked through the inky black landscape of dreams, smiling and humming a tune. All had been well in today's dreams. She had only a couple cutie mark nightmares to chase away from a certain few fearful fillies around Ponyville. Her work was finished and it was time to leave for the waking world. 

But she was slightly confused when she spied a portal into another soul's dreams. 

"That's odd," she muttered to herself. 

She had taken care of most of the dreams today. Perhaps it was just a last-minute nightmare that some foal was having. No matter. She would just fix it quickly, give the foal some reassuring words, and then head on back to the real world. She trotted into the portal and entered into the dream. 

The landscape was somewhat open, with plains spreading across the land. The land was somewhat hilly, with many small ridges and hills littering it as Luna walked through it.  She came to a ridge and spied a disconnected creek cutting through the plains and separating the soil into a makeshift peninsula. In this small peninsula around the creek were weirdly shaped huts of some sort. They looked like ice cream cones that had been turned upside down and were being held up by long, thin poles, all collecting at the vertex of the cone. Thin, brown two legged creatures would walk in and out of the conish huts, carrying various types of food in.

Nothing too out of the ordinary here. Weird creatures, but no matter. But where is the dreamer? Luna looked all around, trying to pick out that unusual glow that a dreamer would carry. 

Suddenly, she spotted more of these creatures appear from the top of a hill overlooking the plains. They rode on top of what looked like very large ponies and wore dark blue uniforms, making them easy to spot in the high morning glow of the day. More and more appeared over the horizon and looked down into the small village of creatures. There was a bellowing war cry, and they charged down the hill. Some of the bigger creatures in the village, Luna assumed they were the males, went in their homes and grabbed weapons of some sort and began to fire them. Screams and fearful cries rang out from the children and females as they ran into their homes to escape the army after them. 

Luna finally set the dreamer in her sights. It was the creature! The creature they had been chasing! He was riding inside a group of cavalrymen charging down the hill with the rest of the army. There was a certain boynishness to him, as his early youth still showed on his face. His group soon met the villagers and began the fight.

As they reached the village, a man popped out from one of the cone shaped huts and fired at the group. The shot hit one of the troops, and he quickly fell off his horse and down to the earth. The dreamer, seeing his friend fall, became enraged and charged at the shooter. He brought down his saber upon him, and he fell in an instant. Not content with his death, he dismounted from his horse and ran into the hut. Instantly, Luna heard screams coming from the hut that fell silent as soon as she began to hear them. 

It was a slaughter, something that Luna had never imagined could happen. The attacking army soon encircled the village and closed in on the occupants, entrapping them. Many of them ran through the place, killing anything they could find, men, women, and children. The dreamer was taking part in all of this, mercilessly and effortlessly massacring the population. Some of the villagers began to escape and the army went after them.

"Leave them!" Luna heard from one of the bearded creatures, whom she assumed was the commander, "No use in expending more energy for a couple more Redskins."

The army began to file through the village, searching for their own dead and cleaning up the bodies of their enemies. Dead bodies lay piled up by the sandy creek and on the dirt of the ground. Wreckage of the cone houses lay scattered chaotically around the battlefield, some burning, some drifting away in the creek. Luna spied the dreamer, however, silently observing the village on top of his horse. His commander soon trotted up to him and began a conversation. 

"This mission was a complete success. Good work out there, Lieutenant," the commander soon joined the dreamer in looking at the ruined village. 

"Just," the dreamer was hesitant, "Just doing my job, Colonel."

They spent a couple more moments in silence before the colonel began to reach for something on his person. 

"Here, Lieutenant. I want you to have this," the Colonel handed over a decorated curved sword which Luna could only assume was his personal saber. 

"Colonel, I can't take this. This is yours," The dreamer put his paws up to reject the colonel's gift.

"Rich," the dreamer slightly recoiled back upon hearing his name, "I'm old, Lieutenant. I'm going to be retiring soon back to my farm in Ohio, hopefully when once we beat those Rebels , and you've shown many qualities of a good soldier. Character, decisiveness in battle, a good relationship with the enlisted. You are a great soldier, Rich, and I want you to have this to thank you for all the good you've done for this fair country so far. I wouldn't be surprised to see you become a major, maybe even a general one day," The colonel handed the saber over to the dreamer, now known to Luna as Rich. 

"Now you take care of her now, Rich," the colonel rode off to oversee other events.

"I... I will, sir," Rich looked back 

The dream started to flicker and slowly began to fade. The creature was waking up and soon would be gone. Luna quickly opened up a portal back into the real world in her bedroom. Upon reaching there, she slowly replayed the events she had witnessed in her mind. She soon began to cry for those who had been killed, especially the children. 

She came to a realization that the dream was not some concoction of a nightmare, but a memory. 

How could have such a thing ever have taken place? she wondered. 

Her mind kept drifting to the scene. That scene. That massacre at the sandy creek. 




Richard awoke from his dream, rubbing his eyes in an effort to wake himself up. He turned towards Coal, and was greeted with the sight of Twilight, tending to his wounds.

"Oh, good. You're awake. I'll be with you in just a sec. I'm applying some disinfectant to his wounds and we should be able to wrap them up nice and snug," she had a weird tube in her mouth that was squirting out a weird gelatin into Coal's cuts and gashes as he slept peacefully.

Upon finishing her work, she set the tube down on an old tree trunk, and trotted over to Rich. Out of nowhere, she summoned a scroll, quill, and ink and sat down, holding up her quill and scroll, ready to write. 

"How the hell did ya did that?" Richard pointed at the scroll.

"A simple summoning spell. It's quite trivial if you ask me," Twilight scrunched her face in slight smile.

Rich confusingly stared at Twilight as he tried to comprehend what she had said. "You know what? I'll ask you again when I'm not waking up," his stomach grumbled as he sat up, "Or hungry."

"Oh! Speaking of which, I've got the food that you wanted," Twilight reached her muzzle into her saddlebags that she was wearing and pulled various things, some of them being, an apple, carrots, some other fruits, and strangely, hay.

Richard stared at the foods that he was given and looked up at Twilight. "You couldn't possibly have any meat in there, or maybe that bacon I was talking about?"

"Umm, no. We don't eat meat in our society. And I couldn't find any of this "bacon" around here. Did you mean hay bacon?"

"No. Bacon," Richard said as he picked up the apple.

"Well, what's bacon?" she sat down and picked up her scroll and quill once more. 

"It's only God's greatest gift to mankind, Miss Twilight," Richard said as he bit into his apple.

"Bacon. God's greatest gift to mankind," she said as she wrote down each of the words.

Twilight scribbled out a few more notes before looking back up at her new project. 

"So, onto my questions," Twilight looked up expectantly at Richard, "I've honored my part of the deal, so it's time for you to honor yours."

"Fair enough, Miss," Richard replied, and reached for a orange. 

"So first, what are you?"

"I'm a man. Next question." Richard bit into his orange after he finished peeling it.

Twilight was silent for a moment, and waited for more. "That's it?" Disappointment was apparent in her voice.

Richard frustratingly tore himself away from his orange. "Well what did you expect, Missy? Da Vinci's finest? I'm eating here." 

Notably sarcastic and uncooperative, Twilight noted on her scroll.

"Fine. That'll do for now. Anyway, where are you from and how did you get here?"

"I hail from the nice ol' territory of Colorado. Recently became a state," he dug back into his orange like a hungry lion.

"Where is this Colorado?" Twilight's nerdy smile began to graze across her face. 

"Well, we should be in lower Illinois right now, so it's very far west of here. Probably take you, oh maybe, a week, if you double time it," Richard pointed his now juicy finger towards the west.

"Umm... I don't know what this "Illinois" you're talking about is, but we are definitely not in it right now. We're in Equestria," Twilight said as she wrote down everything she had been told. 

"Huh... Equestria. Sounds like a stupid name for a country if you ask me," Richard reached for a carrot and laid down on the grass. 

Twilight was somewhat puzzled by Rich's demeanor. "Do you need some time to adjust? I mean, if I were in your shoes, I'd find that hard to understand."

"No, I don't. I'm pretty sure that there are no talking horses and mythical creatures straight out of a fantasy book inside the US," Rich said as he took a bite out of his carrot. 

Strangely ok with realization of a whole new world, Twilight wrote. 

"So, how did you get here?" Twilight asked.

"Now that," Rich sat up quickly at the question, "is something that I am not quite sure about. But I'll tell you what I know. Maybe you can help me get home some how."

"So! I was scouting out a ridge, looking for some lost animals for a person in the town I was staying in. There was this little ripple in some bushes and it looked real weird. So I decided to check it out, then I'm blinded, and now I'm in a talking horse land," said a exasperated Rich. 

"Oh be honest with yourself, Rich. You like me this way," Coal had woken a few seconds earlier. 

"Hey! Go back to sleep and rest! I need you healed up!" Rich pointed his finger forcefully towards Coal.

"That's quite... umm... odd, Richard. I'll have to look into that," Twilight said as she wrote down his account. 

As Twilight wrote down, her gaze eventually fell upon Richard's rifle, which was now snugly fit into his right hand. 

"What is that thing?" Twilight eyed as if it was going to go off merely by her gaze. 

Rich suddenly felt a little conflicted about what to say. He started to fiddle with his rifle as he thought. He could show her how it works and possibly pass on the knowledge of guns to these ponies. Maybe he could have his own ammunition factory if he taught them. But were these ponies really ready? He could do more damage than good by passing on what he knew. Well, better safe than sorry.

"I'm sorry, but I'm not going to disclose that just yet," Rich said as he strapped his rifle to his back.

"Why not?" Twilight slightly pouted. 

"When I think you are ready to know, I'll tell you. But for now, I'm not going to say," Rich shook his head.

Twilight wrestled with the thought of pushing for more info, but eventually, she chose to leave it. 

"Alright, that's about enough time I have for now. If I'm gone any longer, I'm sure the town will start raising hell with my absence," Twilight moved to get up from her spot and start walking.

"Here, let me walk you back. As a little thanks for the help you've given me and Coal," Richard got up as well and started for the wooden bridge.

"Oh, thank you," Twilight smiled.

"Coal, you be safe. I'll be back soon."

The pony and man walked across the bridge and into the forest. They walked in silence, enjoying the chirping of the birds of the noon. It was nice for Rich to get a quiet moment, with everything that happened and with all these night terrors he would get. Listening to the birds was quite therapeutic, and Richard was happy to enjoy the moment. 

"Pretty isn't it?" Richard said while looking up at the high canopy of the forest.

"Yes, it is," Twilight joined Rich with looking at the canopy.

"Hey, sorry if I was a little callous with you in the beginning. Didn't really sleep that well yesterday," Rich said. 

"Oh, it's fine. I've dealt with much worse in my experiences. All is forgiven," Twilight smiled and turned to her front to see the end of the forest and the beginning of the fields that lead to Ponyville.

Twilight walked out of the forest and started to trot back to her town. However, Richard stopped at the forest's edge and watched as the pony went. Twilight stopped as she noticed Richard was not following her.

"Hey. Why aren't you coming?" 

"I'd like us to keep this little meeting a secret, Miss Twilight," Richard said as he adjusted his hat.

"Why? You can come with me. I can introduce you to everyone. Everyone will like you."

"Well, for one, Coal's injured and I gotta take care of him. Two, I'm a solitary man, Miss Twilight. Towns aren't really my place. And let's be honest. You and I both don't know how your people will react to me, with everyone being on high alert cause of me."

"Wait, how did you know that?" Twilight became a bit suspicious.

"Not important. Point is, I'm not coming today. Maybe some other time," Rich started to turn back to the forest.

"Wait! I almost forgot. I wanted to give you something nice before you go," Twilight reached into her bag and pulled out a muffin.

"Wow. Thanks. It's been a real long time since I've had anything sweet," Rich stepped out of the forest to grab the cupcake.

"TWILY! GET AWAY FROM THAT THING!"

Twilight quickly turned to see Shining Armor careening towards them, horn charging up. 

Quickly, Richard reached for his back to grab his rifle and began shouldering it. Shining, however, fired a blast of magic at Rich and it hit his rifle, knocking it off to the side. 

Rich became stunned for a second, allowing Shining to barrel into him, knocking him to the floor. He landed on his stomach, facing away from Shining. He abruptly grabbed a handful of sand off the ground and threw it into Shining's eyes, blinding him. Richard sprang up, taking advantage of his opponent's blindness, and kicked Shining in the stomach. As he was starting to walk away, Shining tripped him with his hoof, and clumsily clambered on top of Rich, charging another spell. Before Shining could unleash his spell, Rich pushed Shining's face up as he started to fire. He grabbed Shining and threw him off of him. As Shining was starting to get up, Rich knocked him down, got on top of him, forced his hand down on Shining's muzzle, and unsheathed his hunting knife, ready to kill. 

"RICHARD!"

Rich stopped himself and looked over at Twilight, reason slowly starting to leak back into the man's mind. Seeing what he was about to do, he slowly let go of Shining's muzzle and got up off of Shining Armor. He walked over to where his rifle had landed, grabbed it, went over and took the cupcake from Twilight, and began to walk into the forest. 

"That's why I'm not coming."

Richard walked back to the Castle, never looking back.
> The Hunter and the Hunted
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Richard sprinted through the forest, rifle firmly clenched in his right hand. Rage festered inside of him as he replayed his actions back in his mind. How could he have been so foolish to engage the pony to such a high extent? Sure, he had defended himself. But he let himself get carried away in the moment and nearly killed him, as usual. He was frustrated with himself, but also with the guard pony. Richard had finally made contact with the pony race that didn't end with it blowing up in his face. Things were starting to look up. But this soldier just had to come along and ruin it for him. 

"Stupid guard. Making things difficult for me," he muttered to himself. 

But, he would worry about the issue some other time. He had to get back to the castle before that commander came a-running after him, reinforcements likely in tow behind him. He vaulted over a fallen tree and continued onward towards the castle. 

Wait a sec, Richard stopped himself, waited for a moment, looked back towards the tree, and retraced his step back towards it. 

Turning himself back, he tilted his head, frowning at what he saw. Nestled into the trunk of the tree was a burned out, blackened hole, like something had eaten its way into it. Blackened goo oozed out from it and trickled down the tree, leaving a charcoaled residue behind it as they collected in the grass. It looked of molasses and was as viscous as it, but it was slowly bubbling, as if it was slightly boiling. It was unlike anything Rich had ever seen before. 

"What is this stuff?" Richard quietly said to himself. 

He pondered the thought of touching it, but quickly threw it out of the picture. Who knows what kind of things could happen to him, especially in this wacky and crazy world he was stuck in? Instead, he plucked a piece of grass out from the ground and flicked a portion of it into the middle of the blade. A slow and docile bubbling began as he observed the strange liquid. After a couple of seconds, the end of the blade fell off and landed on the ground, cut from the original blade. The liquid began to eat away at the end that Richard was holding, so he let it fall to the ground. 

"An acid," he said to himself, "And a very strong one at that." He watched the blade of grass he had become completely burned away. 

Richard began to pace around the clearing, chin resting between his thumb and finger. What or who created this? What does it do to other things? Why is it here of all places?"  

As he was pondering this, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a small trail of the liquid that led further into the foliage of the forest. At first, he was hesitant to follow the charcoaled trail of puddles. He was both curious of what the cause of all this was, but also, terrified at what he might find. He had learned from living in this forest, that if you find something you don't know about, you respectfully book it in the other direction and never come back. But his curiosity won out in the end, and he decided to follow it, although still hesitant. 

The trail led him on a chase through the woods, twisting and turning, and occasionally stopped in a clearing of trees or around some bushes. 

Each pause in a clearing became more and more disturbing each time he found one. Normally, he found a puddle of the blacked substance, bubbling and slowly going down as it ate away at the ground. Blood splatters would be strewn across different sections of the area, sometimes on trees, sometimes on the ground, or around the puddles of ooze. 

Blood splatters. What are they doing here? This doesn't make any sense. Richard thought to himself as he studied the now dried liquids. His indecisive attitude from before came flooding back into him. Whatever had made this stuff had not been all too welcoming to those around it, evident by the blood. But, eventually, he pressed on once more. He was in too deep now, like it or not, he had to figure this out. 

He continued on his trek through the forest, Eventually, the trail came to an end inside of a narrow rocky ravine. Richard bent down and studied the end of the trail, thinking of what all this was. 

It was truly something bizarre, but frankly, he was getting quite used to bizarre things by now. But this, this was getting to the levels of both creepy and weird. He started to break into a sweat. Here was a liquid that destroyed almost everything that it touched, aside from rocks. Blood splatters normally were always present around the substance as well, which really didn't add up. Was it some sort of messed up ritual or sacrifice to the devil? He didn't really expect it, but who knows? Anything seemed possible in this land. 

A loud crack of a dead branch and rustling in the bushes disrupted his train of thought. Richard quickly unholstered his rifle and jumped inside of a patch of bushes, concealing himself and providing a clear view of the ravine, but also a good sight into the forest as well. His heart pounded away, with his hands becoming clammy. He expected the worst, some kind of massive animal or such, a giant bird or lizard monster or something of the sort, as life in the forest had conditioned him. He had spotted them while he had wandered through the forest and figured it was only a matter of time before he ran into them. 

Out of the forest line sprinted a doe, running as if the devil was chasing after her. Richard sighed in relief. It was just some frightened doe. Nothing to be afraid of.

Richard, however, had spoken to soon, as out of the forest came sprinting after the doe just as fast was, frankly, something that he had never seen ever in his life before. It was all black with most of its body covered in blackened skin, save for some patches of hair around its neck and on its stomach. Rows upon rows of sharp teeth lined its mouth that smiled menacingly as it ran after the doe. It ran on all fours, much similar to a dog or wolf, with its feet bearing 3 over-sized talons on each. The creature was surprisingly quick, which confused Richard, as he figured its oversized talons would slow it immensely.

The creature eventually caught up with the doe, finding it trying to scale up the steep cliff that separated another section of the forest and the ravine. It quickly sprang upon the doe, quickly ending the animal's scream with a gaping bite at the neck, ripping out the weak doe's jugular. It soon began its feast, digging into the animal like a dog chewing a bone. The sight disgusted Rich, and he soon turned to leave as not be heard or seen by the creature. However, as in most of these dire situations, a stick on the ground decided that it wanted to get friendly with the bottom of his boot, and snapped under his weight. To Richard, it sounded like the boom of artillery, and he immediately tensed himself, awaiting the monster to spring upon him. Sure enough, he saw the monster turn and begin to growl. It stepped into the foliage and Rich noticed another oddity, particularly with its eyes. They were completely black, charcoaled, soulless. He felt he were staring into the very fabric of unexistence itself. It was particularly unnerving to him.

A blackish ooze began to secrete out of the monster's mouth as it slowly inched its way forward, confirming to Rich as to what had caused the strange substance. He began to back away and slowly began to shoulder his rifle in case the monster tried to spring. The monster, seeing that the challenger was starting to back away, sprang at Richard, going for his neck. Rich swiped his rifle butt across the creature and knocked it away from him. The creature, landing by a tree, quickly sprang back to its paws, and spit some of the black liquid at Richard, hitting him in the middle of his right arm. 

"AAAAAAHHHHH!" Burning, searing pain shot through Richard as he felt the substance hit him. He dropped his rifle and clutched his arm, trying to wipe off the liquid with some of his shirt. He heard the creature screech at him and saw it beginning to launch itself at him again. He swallowed his pain, clumsily picked up his rifle, and fired. The bullet directly hit the creature's skull, spraying bone and guts every which way in the ravine, killing it instantly, and it fell to the ground, the strange liquid oozing out of its mouth. With the creature dead, Richard began to examine his injured arm. What had been flesh and skin on his arm was now replaced with grayish-black spots all over his arm. The pain had begun to subside strangely, and a bit too fast. He moved his arm and checked if any of its functions were damaged. Sure enough, nothing blocked or hindered its movements. He took one last look over at his new battle scars and ran his finger over them. He felt nothing. He ran his finger over them again. He, once again, felt nothing. He rubbed his hand vigorously over the darkened spots, but still felt nothing anymore on his arm. 

The sudden realization of his loss of feeling in some of his arm hit him hard. Would it be permanent? What would happen to him? His eyes began to dart around in fear as he pondered these thoughts. However, with a quick shake of his head, he pulled himself back together and steeled himself once more. These thoughts could wait. He had been away from the castle for a very long while and Coal was probably worried about him by now. He could talk these things over with Twilight, if she even came back. But for now, he had a mission, which was to get back to Coal. 

He picked up his rifle, loaded another round into it, pulled the hammer back to safety catch, and resumed his sprint back to the castle. 




"What the hay were you doing with that thing, Twi?"

"I WAS GETTING ANSWERS, SHINING!" Twilight angrily shouted back.

"You could've been hurt! You could've been killed! You are a smart kid, Twilight! Why would you go and do something so flippantly and utterly foolish?" Shining said. 

"There was no other way I could! You have the place locked down and knowing you, you would have never let me even step close to the place! I did what I had to do for the sake of science. And besides that, the creature is a he! And he is a very nice po- errr... man!"

"So you thought that the best course of action was to go against both Celestia's orders, my orders, and basic common sense to indulge in your curiosities about this... man?" 

Twilight began to speak again, but paused before she said something and reflected on what had happened. What she had done was quite foolish.

Shining stared out into the forest, half-expecting the creature to spring out and attack him again. "Twilight, you know the only reason I do these things is because I care about you and want to protect you. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if anything happened to you. And Cadence, sweet Celestia, she would have freaked out if anything happened to you."

"I know, Shining. I knew the risks and the consequences of what might happen. I'm not the little filly you knew anymore. I can make my own choices," Twilight nuzzled her brother at this. 

"Fine, I'm glad you're safe. But from what I've seen, this creature is dangerous and can't be trusted. I'll have to write up a report and inform Celestia of what has happened by tomorrow."

"What? But don't you want to know what I've learned about it?" Twilight burst out.

"Yes, I would like to learn about any weaknesses in this creature. From what I've seen, it... he... is a formidable fighter and a tough opponent," Shining solemnly answered as he looked back to the town, a protective glare firmly stuck on his face. 

"He is not just some violent animal that kills on sight, Shining. You charged him as soon as you saw him. How did you expect him to react?" Twilight spat back to her brother.

Shining was slightly fazed by his sister's sudden change in tone, but stayed stoic nonetheless. "Still, we have seen what he has done to the diamond dogs who raided the town. While it was helpful of him to take them out, he is violent and is incredibly powerful. Who knows what he can do to us? He is unaffected by magic as you have found out. His weapon outclasses ours in every way. He is enormous and quite strong from what I've observed in our scuffle. He is a threat to the ponies of Ponyville, maybe even Equestria, Twilight, and the Princess must be informed of this."

"But do you know his character? I've talked with him, Shining, TALKED! Although he was a bit mean at times, he apologized, and was kind to me. He was walking me out of the forest so I would be safe, for Celestia's sake! He's a man who's far away from his home and is likely scared, lost, and afraid. Please at least give him the benefit of the doubt," Twilight pleaded with her brother.

Shining looked around and began to pace a bit, pondering the request set before him. After a couple seconds of thinking, he came with his answer. 

"Twilight, I have to write the report down. But, why don't you write your own letter to Celestia explaining what you've seen? I'm sure she'll understand your stance."

Twilight paused for a second, deciding if she wanted to press the issue with her brother further. 

"Fine, I will," she said, looking down in disappointment. "Just go do what you have to do, Shining."

Shining retrieved his helmet and started back towards the town. "Twilight," he turned back, "Do you mind if I use Spike to send the message? It'll be quicker than flying it back by pegasus or by train."

"Sure," Twilight said, turning herself towards the forest, "I'll be back in a couple minutes."

Twilight pondered all of what she had seen those past couple hours. No doubt, the report that Shining would send would almost certainly sway Celestia into action against Richard. And frankly, who would've blamed her? Assault and attempted murder of a guard and the murder of a platoon of Diamond Dogs, rather brutally too. Even worse was the fact that Richard wasn't a citizen of Equestria, so who knows what Celestia would be allowed to do? 

But Twilight knew the other side of the story. She felt deep down that his heart was good and that he tried to act in good intentions, at least most of the time. If she could just articulate these points to Celestia just right, she could maybe outweigh the wrongs that Richard committed. 

And so, Twilight turned her gaze away from the forest and started back towards the town, ready to write the most important letter of her life. 



The next day
Richard walked among the misty, dewy fronds of the willow trees. The delightful, lengthy, and nightmare-free sleep of the night had refreshed his mind and body, giving him somewhat of a therapeutic euphoria as he walked through the hanging vines of the willows. He came to a stop under one such willow and lay his back against the wet, wooden trunk of the tree and began to think. 

He thought of nothing in particular, which was good for him in his eyes. It was wonderful for once to have nothing in his mind, with no worries prodding at his mind and soul. It was just good to sit down, relax, and enjoy the scenery of the wonderful place he and Coal had decided to call home. 

Eventually, the creature he engaged the day crept its way into his thoughts. What was its purpose? What created that abomination? Did the ponies know about it? And better yet, what was that substance it spat and how could he reverse its effects on his arm? All these unanswered questions troubled him. He hated not knowing things. He was always informed on anything he came in contact with, specially in the military. 

But then, an epiphany struck him. He had the body. It was probably still there, back where he had left it after he'd killed it. He and Coal could ride on over there, find the body, study it, and maybe bring it back to the Castle to analyze it further. His mind made up, he quickly got to his feet and walked over to a still sleeping Coal.

"Hey," Rich said quietly, "Wake up, Coal."

Coal began to stir, but groaned when he saw Rich. "What? Can't you see I'm trying to sleep?"

"Yes, but we need to go somewhere. Do you feel well enough now that you can get back to your regular duties?"

"Uhhhhh..." Coal groaned, "Just five more minutes, Rich." 

"You know, you have the weirdest sleep schedule for a horse. Shouldn't you be awake by now?" an exasperated Rich said.

"Who says I am a normal horse?" 

Richard grumbled under his breath, but quickly regained his composure. "This is not a debatable matter. Get up. We've got stuff to do today."

Coal begrudgingly obeyed, slowly getting up and standing on his wobbly legs. He shot Rich an annoyed look before going to graze. Rich, upon seeing his success, went and began to gather his things, preparing himself for the ride ahead. 



Twenty minutes later, after a nice breakfast, the two were on the move again, heading towards the body's location. Silence occupied most of their time as they walked through the forest. Bits of sunlight shone through the tiny cracks in the forest canopy, temporarily providing a sense of warmth to Rich as he went through them. This morning seemed somewhat pleasant to him. A fresh but quick rain had fallen during their travels, creating a humid air around him.

Coal, still somewhat annoyed at his wakeup call, decided to break the silence. 

"So," he groaned, "Is there any reason as to why you woke me up for... whatever we're doing?"

"We're finding a body, and we're gonna study it a bit," Rich replied.

"What's so special about this specific uh... body?" 

"It's... different, if I were to put it plainly. It has something to do with what happened to my arm."

"Ohh... right. That "Mystery Ooze" you were telling me about," Coal replied.

"Yes. Anyway, I killed the creature who made it, and I want to know more about it," Richard said.

Silence once again enveloped the two as they continued through the dense forest trees and bushes. Realizing their position, Rich soon began to look out for the ravine, furling his brow in concentration. He soon spotted the ravine a couple yards ahead, and told Coal to stop. 

"Alright, we're here. The body should come up ahead. Sorry if it smells, by the way. Not sure if the rain accelerated its deterioration," Rich said as he ducked under a tree. 

"Well, I don't smell anything too out of the ordinary, so I'm sure we're good," Coal remarked. 

This puzzled Rich a little. Surely, a smell should have accumulated from the rotting flesh. "Strange. Guess things rot differently here."

Rich decided to chalk it up to this world's unusual behavior or his minimal knowledge of decomposition. 

"Alright," Rich said as he parted two bushes, "Here it..."

He never finished the sentence because of what he saw, or lack of, in the little clearing. In other words, he saw nothing.

The body was gone. 

Confusion set into his mind almost immediately.

Am I in the right spot? It's gotta be around here somewhere, he thought to himself as he started pacing in the clearing.

"Uhhh... Rich, you okay? Why are you pacing around? And where's this thing we're supposed to look at?" Coal asked.

"What? Oh, it's just, the body should be here. I don't understand where it could've went. Because," he paused, "I know we're in the right spot. There's a blood spatter from when it ate a deer." Coal winced at the mention of the death of the deer. "So, the final question is, Coal, where is the body?"

Coal tipped his head down, thinking. "Why don't we run along the ravine? Maybe you did miss it, and we are just in the wrong spot."

"Alright, let's take a look," Rich agreed as he mounted up again. 

The two set off down the ravine, looking every which way for the body. But still, they found nothing. Rich retraced his steps through the forest, trying to visualize all the places he had been. Still, their efforts were in vain.

One question remained in Richard's mind as he looked. 

Where is this thing?




Deep within the forest, if one listened to the sounds in the air, they would hear a crunching and grinding echoing through the air. Because in this nook of the forest, Mareth was feasting once more. Feasting on a doe again, but deeply unsatisfied as he ate. For when he had awoken once more, his eyes were only set one target from then on. That two-legged creature. 

No one had bested him for centuries upon centuries. No one, pony, griffin, manticore, hydra, NOT ANYONE, kills him and gets to go free. 

So as he finished his meal and salivated his compound onto the corpse, Mareth's mission became apparent.

Find that creature, and strip it clean of its flesh.
> Bad Blood
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

A quiet, tranquil breeze flew across the great plains of Colorado. The mid-spring sun hung in the sky like a fog over the sea.The clouds had deserted the area for the day. All was right for a young Richard, dressed in his overalls, playing by a pond, looking for frogs and other creatures of the sort. 

He was seething with excitement. He had finally got one. After weeks of trying, he finally did it! He had caught that big looking bullfrog and was running back to his tiny log house to show his mother. He stepped over the threshold of his house to see his mother sewing. 

"Look ma! I finally got that big one in the pond!" he said as he thrust out the frog in his hand to his mother. 

"Ohhhhh, isn't that great," she said, giving a small cringe and sticking a hand out, "But I think the frog would much rather be back in the pond, wouldn't you say, Richard?"

"But maaaa, I finally got it. Can't I keep it?" he whined.

"No dear. Animals belong in the wild, not little boy's houses," she said and turned back to sewing once more.

Dejected, Richard trudged back outside to where he first took the animal. Stomping down into the pond, he let the frog out of his hand and watched it swim away into the peet, out of his sight once more. 

He heard a small, still cry in the distance, and a thump in the ground gradually began to grow louder and stronger. He looked up to the small hill by his home hopefully, believing his father might finally be home from trading in Denver. He started to run towards it to greet his father.

Instead, a painted brown man, adorned with a great mane of feathers, carrying a bow and riding on a gray horse, appeared over the crest of the hill instead, along with a few others following after him. Richard stopped in his tracks, turned tail, and sprinted back to his home. 

"Mom! Mom! Them Redskins is comin!" He yelled to his mother in the sod house. 

His mother shot from her chair, a new fearful expression donning her once tranquil face. 

"Richard, get out of here! Run to town and find your father!"

"But ma! What about you? They'll kill you, them Redskins!" he said, a new fear gracing his mind. 

"Richie, don't worry about me. I'll be fine. Get out of here and stay away from the natives. I'll come get you when it's safe," she cried.

She knelt down, quickly pulled him in for a quick hug, and shooed him out the door towards town. He looked back to see his mother now scurrying back to where his father kept their rifle. Though he wanted to run back and help, he remembered his mother's instructions and began to sprint as far away from the place as he could. 





Richard woke from his dream, quietly sitting up, an aura of silence surrounding him as his memory/dream played back in his mind. Ambience settled itself into the quiet castle clearing as he thought of his mother's death, a small lump of sadness forming in his throat. He always hated remembering that day. 

He should've done something. Anything at all. Something that would at least given her time to get away. It would've been of no use though. 

"I need a drink. It's been too long," he raised himself up from his spot under a tree, grabbing his rifle. 

He started to stroll away from his "bed" and sauntered onto the wooden bridge, rubbing away at his eyes and yawning. Sadly, he had run out of coffee rations awhile ago, so he was running on fumes each morning. Giving his eye on last rub, he entered the forest, heading for the town. 


Pondering yesterday's events, he scowled in frustration. The search for the body had been completely unsuccessful, for the most part. There was, of course, the remaining traces of  black ooze that was there, but otherwise, nothing was there, not even a carcass or blood trail to indicate another animal or vulture snatching it. A body can't just up and disappear out of nowhere without a trace, and the illogical nature of the case was starting to bother him. 

But, no matter, he wouldn't be seeing it ever again. Time to focus on the task at hand. 

He stopped in his usual stalking... recon spot by a large boulder. Grabbing some new foliage to camouflage himself and climbing up on top of it, he settled himself comfortably and began to observe. 

There wasn't anything all that new happening inside the town. The usual pegasi were flying around, moving clouds with their hooves. The market, at least what he could see of it, looked especially busy. The guards were busy patrolling the perimeter. The children played happily with a ball near their parents. All seemed normal for the ponies of Ponyville. 

He snickered at the name. He still couldn't get over the odd and funny sounding name. Ponyville. Dumb names aside, he saw nothing that would require his attention, so he dismounted the boulder and began to walk towards the apple plantation. 

He had only discovered this vast plantation a couple of days ago, leading him to question his own eyesight with how easily spotted it was. The place was huge, bigger than he had seen in awhile, about as big as the old cotton plantations down in Dixie. Oddly enough though, the plantation always appeared so empty when he looked at it, no workers or slaves picking the apples, no pegasi moving clouds over it, no ponies planting new seeds, nothing. 

He hopped over the poor, rusty, and rickety excuse for a fence and feasted his eyes upon thousands of healthy, strong, and exceptionally large apple trees. Whatever the soil was feeding these trees was very good. It reflected in their size and the richness of their fruit. He climbed one and picked an apple from the stem, enjoying its rich, tasteful flavor. His taste buds were bombarded with flavor, beating any he had eaten in the army out of the water. They were by and far the most delicious apples he had ever had the privilege of tasting.

Finishing his apple and licking the excess juice from his hand, he let himself down from the tree and began to explore the orchard he was in. With the place always being so empty, he figured all the workers, if there were any, were on break or in another field, which would give him some time to look around. 

He walked through the uncharacteristically large apple trees and took in the scenery. The trees, the tall sentinels gazing upon him, rocked quietly in the tranquil breeze blowing through, bringing the sweet scent of ripened apples to his nostrils. Some of the leaves were starting to blow away as autumn was settling into the world. An quiet ambient noise had fallen upon the apple orchard, as if a fresh blanket of snow had just fallen on the land. 

The place rang of... peace, something that Richard had not felt in a very long time. He stopped his walk, sat down beside a trunk, and just watched the orchard for a few minutes, enjoying this feeling of serenity. 

The trees were reminiscent of the one he sat under with his mother, reading novels they had bought in St. Louis during the move westward. He thought of the stories of Odysseus from the Odyssey and King David from the Bible that she would tell him while his father was away. He smiled to himself. Truly, they were wonderful times, happier times, peaceful times, and he missed them dearly. 

He arose from his spot and began to walk back, thinking that the workers would likely be coming back. Looking up at a tree, he stopped and climbed up one, planning to quickly grab some apples for later consumption and some for Coal. He began his plunder on the tree, grabbing as many ripe and non-insect infected apples as he could. 

A distant voice began to grow ever so slightly. Richard stopped, listened, and quickly climbed higher, thinking that the workers were coming back. He leaned himself against the trunk of the tree and tried to hide behind some leaves, hoping that whatever was coming would just pass by. 

Hearing the voice getting louder and louder, he spotted 2 ponies coming down the path he was just at. Great, how convenient, he said to himself. The two ponies were a bit different than the others were. One was a bright orange and was wearing some sort of stetson hat that he would see back home. Odd. It had a sort of southern drawl to its voice, very reminiscent of the Texans he had spoken with in his travels. The other one with it was a massive crimosn pony, wearing an oxen yolk around its neck. It wasn't apparently saying too much, at least from what Rich could gather at his vantage point. 

"I was thinking that maybe this year, we should harvest from the south first, and work our way up instead. That would save us much more time and get our next batch of apple products out faster," the orange one said. 

"Yup," replied the larger. 

"I'll tell ya Big Mac. These southern fields have been a doozie. Look at the size of these babies. Why shoot! These'll be sellin' like, well, like our cider at a party!" she happily neighed. 

"Yup," the larger said again. 

The two were on their way past him when the orange one turned back and spied his hiding spot. Richard tensed, trying to make himself as small as possible to its face. The pony took a sniff in the air, and then a couple more. It continued to do this, coming closer and closer to the base of the tree he was in. 

Damn these ponies and their sense of smell. he thought to himself.

It stopped right under the tree and looked down to the ground. A large outline of his boot print was planted into the mud right below the tree, a dead giveaway of his presence. 

"Oh no," he whispered to himself. 

"Huh, never seen a critter with this print before," she whispered to herself. 

"Big Mac! Can you come look at this?" she yelled. 

The large one came trotting back to his companion and looked at his print with her. 

The two studied his boot print while Richard barely concealed his fear of being caught red-handed up in the tree. He quieted his breath and hugged the tree, trying to show as little of himself as humanly possible. 

Applejack had never seen anything like this before. No animal, or pony, she had ever seen or heard of could've made this. And whatever it was, it looked big, and it lead straight into her apple tree. Seeing this, she looked up to its branches. 

Nothing seemed to show. The darkness from the canopy of the tree made it hard to see anything going on in the branches. It seemed there was nothing there, but, just to make sure no new pest was eating or infecting her apples, she got an idea. 

"Big Mac, you go ahead back to the barn, I'll meet up with you."

"What about this print?" he replied. 

"I'm sure it's nothing. I'm just gonna check. It's nothing I can't handle with these apple-bucking legs o' mine." she said. 

He paused for a second, judging if he should push the issue. 

"Alright then. Be safe, Applejack," he said, turning around back the way they came. 

With Big Mac gone, she walked up to the tree, turned around, and gave a huge buck to it. 

The once quiet tree shook chaotically, tossing Richard around like a rag doll. He tried to wrap his legs around the trunk to provide more grip. He was barely able to hang onto the tree and regain his balance before another kick came again. 

His legs failed to support his weight. This time, Richard lost his grip, his hands sliding off the trunk, cutting his fingers on the abrasive bark, and he quickly fell onto the ground, hitting it with a large thud. 

Applejack didn't know what to make of the critter that fell out of her tree. The only thing she saw were the freshly picked apples that were falling out of its pockets. 

"You were stealing my apples!" she yelled, slamming her hoof into the dirt. 

"Look, a man's gotta eat, lady. It's been rough times in the forest." he painfully groaned to her, rubbing his right arm. 

"I don't care what's going on in the forest. You stole from the wrong mare!" she charged him, preparing to head-butt him. 

Richard, still nursing his wounds from the fall, was barely able to get out of the way of the charging pony, but he lost his balance and fell down. 

Applejack quickly stopped and turned around, running up to the man who was starting to get himself up. Reaching a now standing Richard, she reared up and bucked him with her back legs in the thighs. 

Rich went flying into the rickety fence, easily breaking the poorly maintained fence and landing near a few rocks. 

He felt like he had just been hit by one of those new Bowker locomotives and then run over by a herd of bulls. This pony was strong, much stronger than the other one he had fought. One more kick from that pony and he'd be out like a light, likely with many brain cells missing. With the state he was in, there was no way he was going to able to hold a fight with this one, leaving him only one other option. He drew his rifle and sighted in the pony's leg. 

His arms shook and swayed from exhaustion and pain as he desperately tried to steady his rifle on the now charging orange pony. 

Applejack was not deterred by whatever this thing was drawing. She kept up her charge and prepared another blow. 

A deafening crack resounded through the orchard, her leg exploded with pain. Her energy immediately fell away and she cried out in pain as she rolled to the ground, clutching the fresh wound with her foreleg. 

Rich, seeing that she was no longer a threat, slowly and painfully got up and began to limp back to the forest. 





Twilight Sparkle lay on a bench near a oak tree, enjoying a nice book in the late afternoon sun. The wind shook the tree peacefully across her spot and provided a little shade for the purple pony. The pegasi had scheduled a nice, cool summer day after yesterday's rain showers. The weather was wonderful, and one would be a fool not to enjoy it. 

As she read on, she heard a quiet thumping on the ground, much like a pony's steps. But its sound was peculiar. It was uneven, paradoxical, and out of sync like a normal trot, which meant something must be wrong. She looked up from her book and found a bleeding, wounded Applejack slowly and painfully limping towards her. A large trail of blood followed behind her, and it was clear she had lost a substantial amount of blood. 

She scrambled off of the bench, sweeping her book into the grass as she fumbled and tripped off the bench. Sprinting towards Applejack, she saw a large, gaping hole in Applejack's upper right leg, a hole that only one thing could have made. 

Immediately, she knew who Applejack had crossed paths with. However, not wanting Applejack to know of her relationship with Richard, she carefully picked her words as she intervened. 

"Applejack! What happened to you?" Twilight softly picked up her friend's hoof and analyzed the damage. 

"Some, uhhhh..., critter in a tree was stealing my apples. I tried to stop it, but it attacked me with some sort of... loud stick in its claws," she whimpered in pain. 

"Let's get you to the hospital quickly and then we'll talk. You look like you've lost a lot of blood," Twilight said as she picked her up and put her on her back. 

Twilight galloped toward the hospital pondering how she was ever going to explain this to the others. 




"What did the thing look like Applejack?"

Twilight sat tranquilly by the hospital room window, staring at Applejack as if at any point she may drop dead. The room smelled of moldy hay, betraying the obvious lack of care for the room. Twilight would have to mention it to the front desk before she left. The wall had apparent hoof dents in it, making Twilight wonder what had caused a pony to even do that. Applejack herself could've seen better days. Her face had lost much of its normal orange hue from blood loss, but it was slowly coming back to her as the doctors treated her hours before. Her condition showed her fatigue, one that she never had experienced in any day of work.

"Well," she croaked, "It was tall, built well, but not as muscled as a minotaur, and it was wearing these brown colored cloths over it. It also had a hat much similar to mine on it, although it was black instead of tan. Weirder still, Twilight, it walked on its hind legs, and it kept perfect balance too! If it wasn't stealing ma apples, I would've asked how it possibly managed to do that," she coughed hard into her hoof. 

"But weirder than any of that, it tal--"

A huge red giant burst into the room along with an armored white pony. Big Mac rushed over to his sister next to the bed and quickly sat down next to her. 

"I told you to be safe!" Big Mac yelled to her.

"And I thought it wasn't going to be anything," she said, looking at the wound, "Boy was I wrong."

She chuckled to herself. How wrong she was. 

"Applejack," Shining Armor spoke up, "Can you explain what happened to you?" 

Applejack told the same thing to everyone as she had to Twilight. 

"Interesting," he said. He looked to the floor as if he were concocting an ingenious plan.

"Applejack, the Guard will ensure action will be taken against whatever attacked you and stole your property. If you have any questions about this incident, be sure to find me. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to start planning," he opened the door and walked out. 

Twilight, seeing Applejack was okay with Big Mac, followed him out and caught up to him, walking beside him in a slow gait.

"So, what are you planning?" she asked, her eyes dejectedly looking to the floor. 

"His arrest. I've got more than enough now to put him away for a long time. We can add stealing and another count of assault to his track record," he answered coldly. 

She was silent for awhile, not saying anything to Shining Armor as they walked down another flight of stairs. 

"What do you think of this whole thing?" he asked, ducking past the receptionist's desk. 

"What do you mean?" 

"Well, you've talked with this man before. You, out of everyone, know the most about him on a personal level. What would motivate him to do this?" he asked, opening up the door out of the hospital.

Once again, she was silent, not sure of how to answer. There really was nothing she could think of that could prompt Richard to steal from Applejack. As far as she knew, there was plenty to eat inside the forest if you looked hard enough for wild crops, so he wasn't starving. There was no motive and that made Twilight lose respect for him. 

"I don't know," she quietly answered her brother. 

"Well, I'm afraid I must get back to HQ, Twilight. Have a nice rest of your day and I'll talk to you again later. Tell Spike I said hello," he walked out towards town. 

Twilight stood there for a moment before beginning the walk back to her house. As she trudged through the dry dirt road, she pondered her situation with Richard.

Her faith that he could hopefully become a integrated member of society was beginning to be shaken. At least before, when he acted maliciously towards others, it was towards their enemies. But now, this one was personal. He had attacked her good friend and he was stealing from her when he did it! How could she find a way to forgive him for that? 

"Ohhhh... this is the hardest lesson of friendship I've had to learn," she said to herself, as she entered her house. 

She knew that there was only one way she was going to get answers, and that was visiting the man at the castle. 

And with that thought in mind, she prepared her spell and teleported to the castle. 





Richard had seen better days. The orange pony had done a huge amount of damage to his chest and legs. He was surprised his ribs and lungs were somehow still intact, let alone functioning. He slowly limped over the fallen tree near the castle. 

He knew everyone in the town probably heard what he did. Knowing the white guard pony, he's probably on his way to get him as he spoke, which meant there wasn't a lot of time. 

As he reached the wooden bridge, he spied Coal grazing by the old willow trees. 

"Coal," he yelled out to the black-gray stallion, "We gotta get out of here."

The horse stood up from his graze, and seeing his rider's condition, trotted briskly over to him. 

"Good Lord, Richard. What happened to you?" he worriedly asked, his urgency to help his rider clear in his voice. 

"Had a run-in with another pony and it gave me a lickin'. Boy that thing can kick," he remarked, flopping down to rest on the willow trunk. 

"Well, where are you hurt? Are you bleeding? Any broken bones? Tell me what's going on!" Coal shouted.

The man opened his shirt to examine the damage he had taken. Indeed, his chest was a deep red-purple, with hoof-marks prominently accented inside of his skin. None of his chest sides were fallen, so at least none of his ribs and cavities were broken. Coal winced at the sight of his rider's injuries, and desperately tried to think of something to do. 

"You're gonna be ok, Rich. Just rest there," Coal shuddered.

All of a sudden, they heard a loud crack, like a branch broke off of a tree, go off. Rich instinctively reached for his rifle, prepared to take on whatever threat came for him. Coal, startled, looked to see what had happened.

A sigh came from the clearing. "Why is it when something happens nowadays, it always involves you?" A disgruntled Twilight stepped past Coal and stopped at Richard. 

"Well, you know, gotta keep things from being dull for the sweet ponies of Ponyville," he joked, "How's the one I shot?"

"She'll live. Applejack's a tough nut to crack," she said, coldly. 

"You know this pony well?" 

"Of course. She's one of my best friends," she replied back, with a bit more malice. 

"You sound a bit angry," he said before quickly shutting his mouth, realizing the stupidity of what he just said. 

"Oh really? I sound mad? Not only did you shoot my best friend in the hoof, but you were also stealing her apples which, may I remind you, are her livelihood? What is wrong with you?" she screamed.

"Well, a lot of things," Coal snarkily replied.

Twilight turned and glared at him with the rage of a thousand suns.

"Okay, I'm just gonna go graze over there. Heh heh, bye Rich!" he ran off to a patch of grass.

Rich turned back to Twilight. "Look, food's been a bit scarce right now," he defended himself. 

"Well, why didn't you come ask me? I've could've helped you!" 

"Oh, yes. Because I'm just going to stroll into the place where everybody wants me dead, stop at your house, and just beg for food like some tramp? I already have Capt F***face looking for me 24/7, so what makes you think I'm gonna come ask you for help?" he replied back, equally angry. 

"That doesn't excuse you from taking those apples and shooting my friend!"

"Well, what do you want me to do, princess? I didn't want to shoot your friend, but it happened anyway. I'm just trying to survive out here and keep myself and Coal alive!

They both stopped and looked at the ground for some time. 

Twilight looked up, "Maybe it's best if you leave this place. Shining Armor is probably mustering guards to take you back to Canterlot for trial. BY this point, he has more than enough evidence to put you away or have you executed," she said, her voice having lost all the fire in it. 

"Yeah, I think I'll do that, " he said, slowly and painfully lifting himself up, and limping over to pack his stuff. 

Twilight, seeing she had nothing else to say, got up and teleported away. 





Richard and Coal were at the edge of the forest, staring into the plains that awaited them. 

"Well, Coal, one chapter ends. Another one awaits us," he said, his voice sounding a bit sad.

"Where are we headed?" Coal asked.

"Wherever this world chooses to take us, I suppose," he replied, uncertain. 

"Come on, old friend, let's go exploring," Rich said.

They stepped onto the plains and never looked back.