The Necromancer's Forces

Chapters

Chapters 1 - 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12

Chapters 1 - 4

"I don't know how he was able to raise the dead, that magic has been lost for centuries!"

The ponies watched through the massive ornate windows, horrified, as a legion of skeletal remains marched on Celestia's castle. The army had shown up on the border of everfree forest a few days earlier, and the entire populice had been moved from harm's way into the final pony stronghold. The walls were holding, as the skeletons, ghouls, and zombies of many different species clicked ceaslessly against the walls, unable to penetrate the stone ramparts.

"We have time, at least" commented Twilight "maybe the archives contain a reason for this?"

"No such luck," noted Spike " and we already know where this assault is coming from!"

Twilight dipped her head slightly in embarasment, the transition spell that she had been working on went awry a few weeks ago. Resulting in her letting a strange creature from another world into Equestria. The creature, standing on two legs and having no fur, wore a skull mask. It spoke in a raspy tone that terrified her, and it eventually was able to outsmart her, allowing itself out of the back of the treehome while she went to find a book on the subject.

The creature ran, both out of terror and ambition, into the pure world; prepared to spread fear and dissonance. A few days later lights were seen in the Everfree forest at night, and animals began to retreat out of the forest, filling Ponyville with all forms of strange creatures who called the Everfree Forest home.

"We can't continue to grab food and run." remarked Rainbow Dash. Those who had wings were assigned with aquiring food, as they could grab food and fly before attention could be brought to them.

"The last time the Wonderbolts and I went down, the creatures had objects that could fire a stick fast enough to hit us. We barely escaped, and Soarin had one of the sticks stuck into his leg when we returned."

"Then we need some form of tie breaker." pitched in Celestia, who had moved towards the group after comforting a group of earth ponies that were cowering in the edges of the room. "I cannot think of any spells that could damage or remove an army of that size. Even if getting rid of the creature that is controling them stopped them, we could never find it amid that mass of bones"

It was true, the skeletal army outnumbered the guards a hundred to one. Even when mobilised and at full health and equipment, the guards could only fight the skeletons one on one safely, any more than that and they would have casualties.

“I have an idea, but it may make the situation worse.”

“Can we risk it? Could he be helping them?” asked Trixie, who had heard Twilight's plan. Old feuds had long since been forgotten after a real threat offered istelf to Equestria.

“What else can we do?” remarked Twilight “Just wait here to starve, or worse, allow Rainbow Dash to be captured like Fluttershy? Like Pinkie Pie? Like Rarity?”

Twilight's words cut deep; only a small portion of the populice was able to evacuate before the skeletons overwhelmed them.

“We have to,” added Celestia “but I have no idea where he is or how we can contact him....”

A boombing voice struck out “You don't have to. I'm already here.”

Celestia peered arounf the room, looking for the voice.

“Over here.” The voice called again in a mocking tone, coming from behind.

The three ponies turned to face the throne, atop of which was Discord.

“Did you have anything to do with this?” shouted Celestia, raising into the air as she spoke

“Unfortunatley, no. Although I applaud anyone who becomed powerful enough to simple walk off the elements of harmony.”

It was true. When the force appeared the five, now just two, attempted to stop the advancing army with the elements of harmony. The rays of light emitted from the crowns harmlessly bouncing off the advancing troops.

“And, even I have no effect on them. You see, they are allready in a form of discord. I have no effect on them.” as he was stating this he revealed a wound on his arm, as evidence that this new force was much stronger than even the greatest threat that Equestria had ever faced.

“Then there is only one thing that could stop this. Your spell created this power, maybe brandishing it again will cancel it out?” queried Trixie, stumbling over her inadvertent compliment of Twilight's power.

“And what if it adds?” added Discord, rolling in his seat, mocking Trixie.

“What else could we do? We're done no matter what!”

“Fine! I will perform the spell again!”

“No, I will” interjected Celestia

A group of gaurds was formed into a circle, if this new creature was evil too; they wanted to nip it in the bud. Discord stood vigilant to the side, across, Luna and Celestia began preparing the spell. Trixie and Twilight stood at an angle to the circle.

“Do you think it will be fine?” asked Spike, afraid to be in the same room as something on the same level as whatever controled the vast army outside.

“It will have to be. The three strongest forces of Equestria are in this room, and an entire squadreon of guards. If it can overpower us, no power in the land could stop it.” commented Twilight

“Unfortunatley, that's what we want.” remarked Trixie “we want something that we can control, but it can still go out and smash that army like waves on rocks.”

The three drew quiet as Celestia and Luna, who offered to help, began the spell. Shouting keywords, they began to lift off of the ground without using their wings. Small purple wisps began appearing in the centre of the circle of guards. These wisps grew into larger sprites, which then became a large cloud. A rumbling, sounding distant at first, grew.

Sounds like thunder could be heard, and men screaming filled the room. A thunderous roar of some apparition overhead startled the guards. Metal could be heard scraping across the floor, and something with tracks crossed near Discord. The purple illusion floating softly past him. Suddenly, a voice screamed;

“Affix bayonets and charge the lines!”

The guards shifted uneasily, even these intangible sprites could strike fear into anypony with their screaming, calls and banging. The smoke suddenly changed color; a target had been identified, the spell had chosen a victim.

The smoke, now diffused across the room, becan to coagulate in the center. Forming a shape similar to the beast from Twilight's original spell. The smoke became denser, thicker, and lower to the ground until a figure began to form inside of it.

“Whatever it is, it's here now.” commented Discord.

The creature fell to the ground, the guards standing at attention to face the potential threat. The creature was of the same species as the one from Twilight's original spell. This one wore strange clothes of green and brown that were covered in many straps and bags. A large sack was attached to its back, and an object much like the skeletal stick throwers clattered to the ground next to it. On the end of this object was a sword, although this sword was small and would be of no use against one of the skeletal broadswords.

The creature's face was covered in a mask made of a shiny green material, round eyes potruded from the face, and black lenses hid the eyes themselves from the outside world. A helmet was donned, although this helmet was covered in fabric. The words 'NCS ENG' were marked on the side of the helmet, and a flag with a red leaf was painted on the side. This beast was certainly bigger in stature than the original, if only just. It would have stood taller than even Celestia if it were standing.

“That fucking hurt” commented the beast, scraping itself off of the floor.

As it stood, the front it's body was revealed. Blood poored from a hole in its shirt, and the green and brown fabric was mottled red. The beast looked down and yelped, as a glow of green light came from the hole in the blouse.

A few moments passed, and the beast poked an appendage into the hole in the shirt. And seeing that the would was healed, went about its business. It was at this time that the beast finally looked up to where it was.

“H... Hello?” queried Twilight

The beast looked up to the speaker and immediatley flinched. It grabbed for the item on the ground and pulled a small arm on it's back. It began to circle around itself, noting that it was surrounded.

“I don't suppose you guys like me?” asked the beast, peering at the guards through a tube in the top of the object.

“That depends.” commented Celestia, swooping down infront of the beast. She landed a few feet in front of the beast. “Are you going to attack us?”

The beast replied “Only if you attack me first.” his tone was not one of joy. The tone of his voice made it obvious that he was one inch from attacking. He reached for his throat, and grabed onto a metal clasp that held on the mask.

“Knife!” shouted one of the guards, mistaking the beasts motives. Thinking that the beast was reaching for the knife on his lower shoulder and not for his mask.

The beast swore as the guards advanced on him. They ran at full pace towards the threat, with Celestia jumping, then flying, into the air away from the new threat. The first of the guards reached the beast in an instant, but to no avail. The beast used its longer reach to easily push away the guards pikes as they charged. Once the point of the spear was past him, he would bring the point of which his arm bended onto their head, and a sickly crack was heard. In a few seconds, he was able to disarm or knock out the entire guard force in the room.

Celestia attempted to subdue the beast next, placing him in a ball of magic. She lifted the ball off of the ground with ease as it's tennant peered around, perplexed. The beast put its hand against the sphere of light, testing it. It immediatley looked down, part of it's mask peeling away, revealing a mouth similar to the one from earlier, but still very different.

The beast raised its leg and stomped on the bottom of the sphere, and Celestia immediatley yelped in discompfort. She was feeling a backlash from the sphere.

“That's impossible.” commented Trixie

“Backlash is possible for weaker magicians and stronger forces, but that mere stomp should have been contained by Celestia” added Twilight, not wanting to be outdone by Trixie

The beast quickly figured out what to do. It began thrashing around in the sphere, smashing the edges of the sphere with the butt of the object that it held. The sphere began cracking and flaking, Celestia's cries becoming more laborious as she slowly lost grip on the spell. Soon it would be free.

The shell cracked and faded, and the beast fell to the ground. It flipped the object around and immediatley brought it to its face. It looked down the tube of the pipe, pointing the weapon at Celestia. He flipped a small dial with a digit and squeezed a small trigger on the bottom of the object. A thunderous bang was heard throughout the room.

Celestia fell to the ground, but not as a repercussion of the beast's weapon. The spell had drained her too much, she could not stand any longer. The beast yelled in anger as it inspected it's weapon. The end of the weapon had flowers sprouting from it, and everyone in the room, the beast aside, knew who had just saved Celestia.

Discord lowered himself infront of the beast. This was the first time that anyone had seen him act seriously.

“If you try that again, I will kill you.”

Twilight and Trixie watched, horrified, as the beast raised the weapon to Discord's face.

In a second he cleaved down, cutting the weapon in two. This did nothing to stop the beast, as it immediatley grabbed the arm that Discord had used to sever the weapon. In a feat of strength, the beast twisted Discord's arm downwards, forcing discord to stand at an odd pose.

He yelped as the beast reached its remaining arm upwards, the five digits wrapping themselves around Discord's neck. The beast, in a very foul mood, whispered into Discord's ear. Through his own struggling breaths Discord could hear, clear as a bell;

“Those who stand against me, do not stand for long.”

Discord blacked out from lack of air, unable to teleport or use magic while weakened by his twisted arm.

The beast began walking towards Twilight and Trixie, who were now huddled together, unable to move out of fear. Luna tried to stop him, using all the magic available to her to stop him. Her sphere didn't last more than three seconds, as the beast pulled a black object out of his belt and with a crack the spell was broken and Luna fell to the ground, the strength sapped from her body.

The beast continued towards the two, neither of them willing to attempt their magic against this unstoppable force. Luckily, he ignored the two ponies. His true motive was the door that they blocked, and with a small show of force, he was able to cleave open the door that took four guards to open.

Twilight listened as the beasts footsteps retreated down the hall, towards the main door. Whatever that thing was, it was much more powerful compaired to the first, and it was going outside.

When the necromancer had taken over, the residents of ponyville were forced into their own homes, and anyone who left their homes were attacked by the new 'guards'. The skeletons, ghouls, and apparitions did not appear to be interested in entering the homes and it was assumed that they wouldn't enter unless provoked. Patrols would walk down the larger streets every hour or so, with some of the smaller streets only seeing the apparitions once every day, or even less. Despite having an 'innerumable' amount of footsoldiers, the necromancer's force was concentrated on Counterlot's gates.

Rarity sighed as she attempted to fall asleep, a patrol was passing outside, their weapons, armor and bones making too much of a racket for anypony to sleep on the street. The patrols were much more present in the last day, starting this morning, she had heard or seen the skeletons pass every half hour or so. Their stature and armarment was different too, instead of the small weapons they carried, they now carried great spears, which were overkill for a pony or even a stallion. Their small, leather coverings were replaced by massive iron guardings. Something, or somepony, had angered the necromancer's force, and keeping the populice awake with metal armor was apparently the solution.

She decided that she would go downstairs and work some more, perhaps if she was sleepy enough she would be able to sleep despite the noise. Down the stairs she went, trying not to step on Opal who circled around her hooves. The lights came on, and her work from the day before presented itslef before her. At least in a time like this, she had something to do. Her thoughts went to that of Applejack, who would have nothing to do at a time like this. She spoke to herself;

“Who knows, maybe Applejack made it out of there.”

Her thoughts turned to her friends who were able to escape the phalanx of skeletons. Some were routed by the force, but many, close to a half, made it out. She began to cut fabric and measure, using her dummy for the praportions. The moonlight shone in through the window, addind to the lamps inside of her workshop, tinting the fabric she used slightly. She heard another patrol move outside, but this one was different; it seemed hurried, alarmed, like it was reacting to something.

She peered outside, unable to see anything against the reflection of herself in the window. Somepony was running from the skeletons, as she heard them running down the allies of the road. She giggled to herself, seeing it fitting that somepony would be able to escape them, and head to salvation only because of their atrocious armor. Her thoughts turned to escape, she continued working, imagining herself overcoming the legions of the undead and reaching salvation. That was dependent on wether or not salvation existed, maybe all of the pony strongholds have been overrun, maybe Equestria already belonged to the necromancer? She grimaced at this thought, and tried to ignore it, returning her concentration to her work.

A loud bang sounded at the door to her shop. Rarity froze, many thoughts of who or what it was crossed her mind. Could it be one of the undead? The pony who was trying to escape? Someone come to rescue her? She stood, frozen by fear, facing the door. Something moved outside of the window, she couldn't tell what it was, but there was movment. A rapping could be heard against the glass of the window, the fact that whatever was out there could see her, but she could not see it, terrified her. She was now obliged to open the door, she could no longer feign innocence, it knew she was in there. Despite this, she still stood, immobilized by her inner terror.

“A lady never fails to help those in need!” she reassured herself, moving towards the door. The latch on the door jiggled, whatever was out there, it really wanted in. Closing in on the door, she heard a loud thump on the other side. It was not like the banging to gain entry, this was something else. It sounded as though the pony on the other side had fallen against the door, or was hit into it. She braced herself, and pressed down on the latch of the door.

Rarity screamed as her new guest entered the house. More of a slump than an entry, the creature fell through the frame of the door. She stood, frozen in terror again, as the creature made a soft, moaning noise, and went rigid. A few moments later she was able to gain a sense of the situation. The creature was, in fact, friendly. At least, it was against the skeletons, that much was apparent by the arrows sticking out of its back. She could also tell that the creature was injured, again, by the arrows protruding from its back. In a moment she knew why the patrols had been moving so much in the past while, and she guessed that this strange creature, able to endure injuries that would kill at least ten stallions, had scared the necromancer causing the necromancer to 'up his game' with the better equipped guards in the area.

“I need to get you inside” spoke Rarity, more to herself than to the body on the ground. The slow raise and fall of the creature showed that it was still alive, if barely. Immediatley she tried to lift the creature with magic, but to no avail. Something about the creature blocked her magic, and she could barely lift the metal necklace that it bore. She dragged the unconscious beast inside, hoping that a patrol would not pass while she was doing so. She tried to hide him in the basment, the main floor offering no resort from the skeletons' peering eyesockets, and the upstairs might have been on the other side of Counterlot. She could barely drag the massive creature, and carrying it upstairs would be nearly impossible.

In an attempt to lower it down the stairs, she sent the creature toppling down the stairs, its weight overcoming her strength. She watched as the body rolled and tumbled down into her store room. It hit the bottom of the stairs, with the side full of arrows down. A sickening crunch filled the room as the arrows shafts broke, some of which dug deeper under the weight. Rarity gasped as she saw the extent of the injuries, its body was peppered with arrows, and the clothes he bore had slash wounds that appeared to be from the massive pikes that the skeleton knights carried.

“Holy fuck! Why! Why the stairs?” the disoriented creature screamed, awaking from the pain of both its descent and the arrows being pushed further. Rarity stared as the creature lifted itself, and began to rip the arrows out of its front. After neatley removing all of the arrows, it addressed her.

“Thank you.” Rarity just stared at the beast, shaking off the wounds that should have killed him.

Upon a quick inspection of its surroundings, the beast inquired.

“Is this some kind of tailor's shop?”

“Y...Yes.” replied Rarity, too astonished to speak coherently.

“Do you have a needle and thread? Preferable larger? And maybe a rag?”

Rarity immediatley turned around, going to grab the requested supplies. When she returned to the top of the staircase, she saw the beast for what it was. During her absence it had removed its garments. She now saw that this beast had no fur, aside from the top of its head. It bore a face like no other in Equestria, and its hide was taught, with muscles bulging beneath the skin. Red blood was ebbing out of the wounds, and Rarity began to feel sick. She brought the supplied to him using her magic, an offended look came across his face.

“Fuck, and I thought you weren't like the shitlords in the castle!”

“Who is in the castle?” she cried, excited to hear about her friends.

“A bunch like you, they used their magical fuckery to bring me here, only to attack me!”

“Was there someone like me, but purple?”

“Aye.”

“What about a pink pony?”

“One.”

“Blue?”

“With wings?”

“Yes”

“Bastard followed me for miles, I lost her in the forest.”

“Yellow, with wings?”

“No, none like that.”

Rarit's heart sunk. She had hoped that Fluttershy, of all ponies, had made it out. She was the least likely to last in this situation. She was in the middle of nowhere, alone.

“What are you doing?” shouted Rarity, as the beast bent the needle that she had given him. He began to thread the needle, and placed the rag in his mouth. He began to sew his wounds shut, a small scream coming through the rag. Rarity, disgusted, turned away from the gruesome sight.

The pain from this act was too much, even for the beast. A few minutes after finishing, he fell to the floor, destroying a chest of gems that he fell on. Rarity understood that there was nothing that she could do to help him now, and she didn't have the guts to retrieve the needle or thread.

Retreating to her bedroom, she decided that that was enough excitment for the night. She had a difficult time falling asleep, both from the excitment of her new 'guest' and from the increased guard activity outside. Eventually, she fell asleep, allowing the warm embrace of the night to take her.

Rarity awoke to a banging at her door. She descended down into her shop, forgetting about what had happend the night before. The banging continued as she approached the door. Glancing at the floor, she noticed a smear of blood across the ground. In an instant she remembered the night before, and about what lay dorment in her basment. The knocking on her door intensified as she approached it. If a group of those skeletons wanted in, they could just rip the windows from their panes to get into her house. Resisting them was not worth it. She opened the door and was met with a grizzly sight.

Five of the skeletal ponies stood before her, the bones clicking slightly as they swayed in the wind. The closest had dirt on its face, mixed in the dirt was traces of blood. It was apparent that these 'guards' had followed the bloody trail back to her front door. They shoved her aside, she was of no importance to them, they wanted him. The largest of the skeletal intruders carried himself across the store, following the smeared red trail intently. He came up to the door to the basment stockroom and guestured for his accomplices to come and assist him.

The four ghouls pushed open the door, but they were soon standing face to face with the beast. The intrusion had been heard, and the beast knew that a choke point like the door would leave him in the advantage. The hulking figure advanced upon the skeletons, who backed away from him to avoid being at a disadvantage.

The beast immediatley struck the largest, bringing the massive boot he wore up to the neck of the animal. A crunch like snapping twigs was heard, and the remaining three skeletons attacked the beast while he was occupied with the large skeletal stallion. They jumped onto him, clinging to him, hoping to bring him down to the ground where they could buck him into submission. The polearms that they carried were far too long to use indoors, and had been left outside. Despite the weight of three skeletons, of whome were biting his uniform to no avail, the beast did not falter. Extending his arm to the large skeleton, he wrapped the appendeges he bore around the skull of the disoriented construct. He lifted the remains with one arm, and crushed the skell, the muscles in the arm flexing and distorting as they worked. He turned his attention to the other three attackers.

Rarity watched as the beast showed an impressive amount of strength, throwing the skeleton on his back over his head, and bringing his foot down upon the skull of the attacker in a curb stomp that managed to crack both the skull and the wooden board of the floor below. Reaching around himself, the beast grappled the other two adversaries, bringing them to bear infront of him. With ease, he pressed their skulls together, their bodies flailing to no avail as their seemingly weak skulls cracked, flaked, and eventually shattered between his gloved hands.

He opened the door to the basment and kicked the shattered remains of the defeated warriors down into the storeroom. He turned to Rarity, who was equally shocked and terrified, as a look of sheer excitment crossed his face.

“Breakfast?”

“Um... Okay?”

“What?”

“Nothing...”

“What!”

“I saw Big Mack, one of the strongest ponies that I know, defeated by a single ghoul.”

“And?”

“You have killed five of them before breakfast.”

“That's the CDF. We do more before you wake up than you do all day.”

Rarity chuckled at this remark, feeling at ease that this seemingly calm individual could easily deal with any problem that would arise. She would no longer need to fear the patrols outside, or intruders. She quickly made breakfast; hay and daisies. It was simple, and lacking in elegance, but what it lacked in taste it made up for in availability. Most of her food was gone, as she had been unable to leave her home in a week.

“Breakfast is ready.” she announced, the beast had made himself busy while she gathered breakfast, removing his blood from the floor with a mop and overturning the sand in the street to hide which house he had gone into. He walked over to the table and sat upon the ground, his massive form coming up to her level while she sat on a chair.

He peered at the foilage on the plate, and a look of both disappointment and disgust came across his face.

“Um. Here. You have it.” pushing his plate before her.

“What, too snobby to eat this simple meal?”

“No. I can't eat it.”

“If you don't eat this then what can you eat?”

“Meat.”

The answer terrified Rarity, there were meat eaters in equestria, but they were all nonsentient carnivores, unable of complex thoughts or remorse. He noticed the terrified look on her face, and felt bad for making her afraid again.

“No. My species does not eat ponies. I will not look at you when I'm starving.”

“My word.”

He was lying, he could have easily eaten any living thing. He was an omnivore, but closer to carnivore than to herbivore. His mentality for killing came from thousands of years of hunting, killing, and warring.

“We have to leave town.”

“Why? We're safe here, and I still have food. You can hide in the basment during the patrols, and they will never find us.”

“Aye, but I want to go and piss off the people in the castle some more. And you're running out of food, so you might as well come with me. Do you know of anywhere where we could stay outside of town?”

“Yes, but you will not antagoinse those who are in the castle.”

“Fine.”

They sat there awkwardly, Rarity trying to eat as politley as possible as he produced a small package from his pack. He opened it and becan to scoop out the contents with his fingers. The smell baffled Rarity, she had never smelled anything like it. The package read 'Pre Cooked Steak'.

“So...”

“What?”

“What is your name?”

Rarity felt like kicking herself, her savior had delivered himself to her doorstep and she never even thought to introduce herself.

“My name is Rarity, and you?”

“Captain Bradley, at your service.”

He had finished his small packet, and upon checking the pocket it came from for more, he stood up and stretched. The belts, buckels, and straps on his uniform moving slightly, he reached down and adjusted some, and pulled a rubber hose off of his shoulder and began to suckle on it. He paused for a second, motioning to Rarity that he was offering the water that he carried, but she declined with a shale of her head.

“As soon as your done your breakfast go and pack your crap, we move ASAP.”

He ducked down the stairs to the storeroom as another patrol shuffled past, proving that his work earlier was a sucess.

Chapter 5

“Do you have to bring all this crap?” complained Bradley, eyeing the cases that filled the store.

“Yes. It's my essentials.” Rarity commented, trying the best to hold her composure

“Essentials! Ha! My buddies and I were thrown out of a helicopter for three weeks with nothing more than a knife and a chocolate bar each!” exclamied Bradley, tiptoeing around insulting Rarity.

“Well, I'm not like you or your buddies. I can't kill a man with my bare hooves, or throw someone into orbit.”

Bradley avoided eye contact, he liked when someone would compliment him, but he was missing the nerve to take a compliment head on. He lifted his pack off of the floor, and placed it on his pack. He placed himself ontop of the largest case, watching as Rarity packed the final case.

“Good. Now I'm going to carry one, case for you.”

“What! I can't be expected to carry all of this by myself!”

“Essentials?”

“Fine. I'll make do with the bare minimum.”

Rarity showed Bradley which case he should carry, and he heaved it up onto his shoulder, barely noticing the weight of the case, full of clothes. Bradley peered out of the door cautiously, and once assured that there wasn't a patrol near, he departed. He had Rarity draw him a crude map of the location, after failing to find one in her home. A small cottage close to the forest was circled, and he began to walk towards its general direction. Rarity found some difficulty in keeping up with the massive male, as every one of his steps was two of hers.

The journey was slow and arduous, with the pair stopping and hiding while waiting for a patrol to pass so they could travel safely. Eventually they came to the edge of town, coming up to a large clearing with the main road out of Ponyville bisecting it.

“Okay. I don't like this. Is there any way around?”

“No, there is no other way to get to the cottage.”

“Fine. I'll take your case, and I'm going to sprint to the edge of the clearing. You stay here, and if I make it farther than half way without anyone coming chasing after me, you come too.”

Without waiting to hear Rarity's responce to his plan, he lifted the case that burdened her so much. Rarity doubted that he could run with the two cases, now strapped to his shoulders and back, as she could barely walk with the one. He tested his new weight distribution by jumping into the air and landing on one foot. Once satisfied, he eyed the field one last time, making sure that there were no guards in plain sight. He pulled a pair of wires from his chest pocket and found two small buttons on the ends, of which he placed into his ears and pressed on a small coin on the wire.

He started with a run, and Rarity believed that she could have easily outran him if she needed to, but he was not slowing down, but accelerating. His legs pumped faster and faster, his arms reaching infront of him, opposite of his legs. His pace went to a speed far faster than any pony could run, although he would still be cought by Rainbow Dash if she were chasing him. It dawned upon Rarity that she had forgotten the plan; so intrigued with Bradley's running and speed that she had forgotten to run herself.

Bradley now stood on the far side of the field, arms outstretched in a guesture of confusion. Rarity began to run across the field, although she took a much longer time than Bradley had. She met him behind an old tree, out of breath. He stood, watching the edges of town.

“I think we got out without anyone noticing us.”

“How can you run that fast, with the weight, and still breath?” queried Rarity, who was confused as to the logistics of Bradley's running.

“Ah. Humans, me, I mean. We sweat, meaning that we can run without stopping to pant.”

“That's cheating.” commented Rarity, who had by now composed ourselves.

“Maybe? It allows us to run for long distances.”

“How long?”

“I ran fourty kilometres on my training?”

“I don;t know kilometers, how far was that run, in kilometres?” commented Rarity, stumbling around her new word.

“Maybe half a kilometer, at best?”

“That's not possible.”

“Maybe for you.” joked Bradley, chuckling a little as he handed the case, now unattached from his chest rig, back to Rarity.

“Puhlease? It weighs so much, but you barely notice?”

“Ugh... Fine.” Bradley reattached the case to his chest rig, affixing it behind his backpack.

The pair continued throught the forest, not using the road at Bradley's command. They traveled through the brush, far enough from the road that they could see it, but someone on the road could not see them. Bradley moved in front of Rarity, crushing plants and breaking sticks with his form so Rarity was unobstructed. Whenever a patrol would move on the road, they would stop, out of fear that Bradley would break something or topple something that would lead to their position.

This slow, methodical method of movment carried on for the rest of the day. The two talked in a hushed tone for quite a while, quieting whenever a skeletal patrol would move by.

“Night is almost upon us, are we close to your friend's house?”

“Yes, her cottage should be in the next clearing.”

“Okay”

Finally, the clearing came to them, and they moved to the front of the cottage. As soon as his feet touched to front stoop, Bradley coarsley slammed on the door. Waiting for a reply, he stepped back, Rarity standing at his side. When no reply came after waiting for a few minutes, Rarity became restless, fearing for her Friend. Thoughts filled her mind; Maybe she got away? Or she moved to another, safer location? Or could she be hiding?

“I don't like this. This could be a trap.”

“I'll go around back, and try the back door.” added Rarity, hoping that Fluttershy had just hidden in her home.

Bradley flipped down a pair of elongated spectacles from his helmet, and flicking a switch, the night's darkness faded as his technology began to cut through the darknesses mystery. He brought the crosbow of a fallen skeleton up to his shoulder, hoping to get off a good shot at anything that tried to startle him by hiding in the night. Donning the bottom portion of his face mask, and pulling up a hood over his helmet, he offered no reflective points, or white marks.

He snapped around when he heard the door behind him creak open, coming face to face with the new threat. Unfortunatley, his goggles were cought off guard by a lantern and he was temporarily blinded by them. He swore as he raised his weapon and flipped up the goggles. Before him were three terrified ponies, one of whom was large enough to be a threat to the earthen warrior. He yelled; “Friend or foe?”

Chapter 6

Rarity found her way through the back window, which she knew Fluttershy left open for creatures to come and go. She searched through the house, looking for her friend. After checking upstars she went to check the front room. She came face to face with Fluttershy and Applejack, who were staring intently out the front window.

“Hello?”

He intrusion caused Applejack to spin around, with Fluttershy diving for cover with a scream. Upon realising that the intruder was Rarity, the two eased themselves slightly, they returned to their window positions. It was strange that the two didn't move to embrace their friend, whom may have been dead. Applejack turned to face Rarity

“Hell of a time for you to show up. Big Mack is out front fighting one of those weard dead things. Could you help him with your magic?”

Rarity hurried to a position next to Applejack, sidling up to Fluttershy. She peered out of the window, and saw Big Mack, facing away from the house, charging some unknown assailant that hid in the darkness. As he picked up speed to ram the aggressor, the assailant charged him. When the two colided it was obvious who the victor of the action was. With outstreched limbs, the massive creature lifted Big Mack, toppling him over onto his back. He dove ontop of Big Mack, pinning him to the ground, and drawing a blade from his shoulder and holding it to Big Mack's throat.

“Stop!” Rarity screamed, bursting out of the door. Bradley paused for a second and looked up at Rarity, who was standing on Fluttershy's deck, slightly above him.

“He is a friend!” she added. Bradley held the knife for a few seconds, weighting his decision. Eventually, he withdrew the blade, returning it to the sheath on his shoulder. He stood up, and pushed the fallen steed over onto his right side with the side of his foot. Big Mack stood up, eyeing bradley.

“Why is it everyone attacks me here? What the fuck did I do to you?” Bradley commented.

In an instant Applejack was upon him, firing a salvo of questions.

“How in tarnation did you get up after one of Big Mack's bucks? He can fell a tree with one of those! What are you? Where do you come from?”

“I'm going to say this once and only once, because I'm tired of saying it. I come from a planet called earth, I'm a human, I eat meat, I kick ass, I am in the military.”

The four ponies stood silent, as the massive figure pulled the mask down, lifted the goggles and withdrew his hood. He rubbed his chest, inspecting Finally, he added;

“Oh, also, my name is Captain Bradley.”

“Well do come in, a friend of Rarity's is a friend of mine.”

“Thank you.” commented Bradley, carefully stepping into the household, as it was made for someone half of his height.

“Do you know that you're the only person that I've met so far that hasn't automatically assumed that I'm some evil, warmongering, kill-o-tron that will kill them on sight. Well, aside from the screams of terror, but at least you invited me in.”

Fluttershy chuckled as she sat on a wingback chair, Big Mack closed the door behind Applejack and Rarity. Bradley clicked on his harnes and caught Rarity's cases behind his back. He placed these on the floor, and pulled off his pack. He began to unclick all of the straps and belts associated with his clothes. Eventually, a large pile of gear was in the middle of Fluttershy's floor.

“So, Rarity...” Applejack queried “where did you find this guy?”

“He stumbled into my house late last night, he had arrows sticking out of him, so I put him in the basment to hide him from the patrols.”

As Rarity said this, Bradley removed his shirt to check on his wounds. Most of the arrows had been caught in his thick uniform, and the ones that did make it through only went in a few centimetres. He carefully touched each of the wounds on his chest, once satisfied that none of them were infected, he replaced his shirt with another from his backpack. He let out a sigh and sank into one of the larger chairs.

“The patrols?” Big Mack asked, still keeping his distance from Bradley

“The skeleton things that pass by every day?” interjected Rarity

“Oh, those. We hadn't named them.” added Applejack, she continued “One of them attacked Big Mack when he was out collecting fire wood a few days ago, although they don't seem to follow you if you run inside.”

“They will go inside if they want to. This morning a group of them came inside, searching after Bradley. Fortunatley he was able to stop them.”

“How scary.” commented Fluttershy “How were you able to stop them?”

“Smashing their bones to dust seems to work” commented Bradley, stifling a chuckle at the comment.

The humor was lost on the other four, and Bradley made a face of innocence mixed with regret of his comment. He queried;

“So, why a cottage in the middle of nowhere?”

“I like it because I can live with all of my animal friends!” commented Fluttershy, pride of her compassion showing.

“My family had a cottage like this, although I haven't been there for years.” when nobody commented he continued “We used to drive all night on Fridays to get there, and we would arive just as the sun was setting.”

“Driving?” asked fluttershy

“Where I come from, we have massive metal boxes that we ride around in.”

“Like a train?” queried Applejack

“Yeah, like a train, except smaller, and it goes on roads.”

“Then a carrage?” she continued

“Uh... Similar, except it has an engine, nothing pulls it.”

“So it's like the Flim Flam machine?”

“I don't know what that is...” Bradley concluded

“Oh...” commented Applejack, caught in an awkward position

“Anyways, it didn't have power, and we don't have magic s-”

“There isn't magic where you come from?” yelled Rarity

“No. And from what I've seen so far, I'm glad there isn't magic.”

“I would imagine that life would be dreadful without magic, or the ability to fly” while she said this she recieved a dissatisfied look from Applejack and Big Mack “And why would you say that a world would be better off without magic!? It makes work much easier, and it allows us to keep our hooves clean!”

“Mainly because it's probably something stupid like electromagnetism or feild forming that can be directly interfaced with that horn on your head. And, it seems to be unreliable, from what I've seen I can break through magical barriers with ease!”

“Who put up the barier, it was probably a new magic user!” shouted Rarity, defending her craft

“Um... Some tall white pony, she had wings too.”

The four's mouthes stood agape, there was no way that Bradley could have broken through a barrier formed by Celestia. She was a god! If he was able to inadvertently beat her at magic, what did that make him?

“Am I missing something?” asked Bradley, concerned with the looks he was recieving

“Princes Celestia. Her name is Princes Celestia. She is the most powerful magic user in all of Equestria.”

“Ha. See, damned unreliable!”

“There has to be an explanation!” commented Rarity, agast at Bradley's claims.

“Maybe humans are immune to magic?” offered Fluttershy, trying to console her friend.

“Maybe?” added Bradley

Bradley's words tailed off, he turned to the window at his back. In a half crawl-half walk, he approached the window. He lifted himself above the edge of the window, and peered out. His eyes failing him in the light, he returned to his pile of equipment and pulled out hte goggles he bore before. He flicked a switch and they began to cry as there was too much light in the room. He flicked them back off and approached the window, he put the rubber ending up to the glass to prevent glare, and he peered out.

“Ah. Fuck!”

“What is it?” asked Fluttershy, wincing at his use of curses.

“There's a bunch of them outside. About half a click out.”

“How many is a bunch of them?” asked Big Mack, who poised himself to fight

“Twenty, maybe more.”

Big Mack lowered his head, he had trouble fighting one of them, twenty would be impossible. Bradley returned to his pile, he withrew a small, pear shaped object made of metal.

“Is there a window upstairs that can see in the same direction as this one?”

“Yes” answered Fluttershy

“Good. All you go up there and watch this!”

With that he pulled a long tube from the pile. He clicked on a button and it threw a massive amount of light onto the ceiling of the cottage. He waited to hear the footsteps of the four over his head before he opened the door. He pulled open the door and peered at the approaching group, they were no more than two hundred metres out. He flung the door open and started waiving the light about, trying to get the attention of the approaching armada.

Eventually they noticed, and began to charge the nere-do-well. He stepped a few feet from the deck, and started fumbling with the object in his hand. He pulled something off of it, and another piece went flying over his shoulder. He screamed aloud

“ONE! ... TWO! ... THREE! ... FOUR! ... FIVE!”

At five, he hurled the object at the group of attackers, who were now within throwing distance. The object sailed towards them, and fell in the middle of the group. Instantaneously after contacting the ground, it exploded in a flash of light. The bang of which could have been heard in Ponyville. The group of skeletons had been decimated by the weapon.

Bradley went to inspect his handiwork, and found only a few battered skeletons had survived. He was able to easily destroy the remaining forces, and returned to the cottage. The four occupants were now standing on the deck.

“I thought magic didn't exist in your world?” commented Rarity, with a smug look on her face

“That wasn't magic. That was a reaction between Aluminium and Iron Oxide.” *google thermobaric bombs; they're kickass!*

“So that's how your species makes do without magic? They use science?”

“Pretty much, yeah!”

“That was awesome!” commented Applejack, awestruck at the power of which someone without magic could weild.

“How many of those do you have?” commented Fluttershy, afraid to have more of them in her home

“That was my only one. We never see anough action to justify carrying two.”

Bradley entered the home, and began to rummage in his gear again. Pulling out another silver packet; he began to eat again. This packet was labeled 'Beef Stroganov', and again, it filled the home with a smell that had never been smelled by the ponies.

“I'm going to eat this and then go to bed, and I would recommend that you do the same.”

“We ate earlier” commented Applejack

“Rarity?”

“I'm not hungry, thanks.”

Bradley finished off the pack after a few minutes, the ponies sitting around the fire. Eventually the four went off to sleep, after a bit of fussing from Fluttershy for rooms. Bradley lay in front of the fire, resting his head on his pack. He began to nod off, allowing the darkness to envelop him.

“Um... Excuse me?” Fluttershy caught him off guard, her footstep was light enough that it didn't disturb him. Before adressing her, he glanced at his watch, he had been laying in the semi-darkness for half of an hour.

“Yes?”

“Nevermind! So sorry, did I wake you?”

“No. You didn't. And you came down here for something, what is it?”

“I... Uh... Um... I get really scarred at night...”

“Oh?”

“Yeah... I haven't been able to sleep since the skeletons started appearing...”

“Okay?”

“Would you like to sleep upstairs?”

“Sure”

With that, Bradley lifted him self as silently as he could, fearing waking up the other occupants of the house. He could hear either Big Mack or Applejack snoring softly in the distance. He brought his pack up the stairs, and entered Fluttershy's room. He placed the mock pillow on the ground near the foot of her bed.

“There” he commented, dropping himself to the floor as Fluttershy got into her bed “if anything wants to mess with you, it will have to go through me first. And trust me, I'll yell and fus if something shows up.”

Fluttershy snuggled herself down under the covers

“Aren't you going to be cold without any blankets?”

“No, I'm used to sleeping on a ship in the North. This is like a tropical vacation!”

“A ship?”

“Yeah! The HMCS Halifax!”

“Is it a big ship?”

“It's about one hundred and twenty metres long”

“Is that big?”

“About ten of this cottage from end to end.”

“That does sound awefully big. What do you do on the ship?”

“Me, or everyone on the ship?”

“Everyone, I guess my question is what is the ship for?”

“It's a warship, we hunt other ships during war times.”

“Oh, that sounds scary!”

“Yeah, it is at some times. Although my country hasn't had a war that needed ships for over sixty years. We mostly hunt pirates.”

After stating this, Bradley began to softly hum a tune. After a while Fluttershy picked up on his humming.

“What is that song?”

“It's an old war song, about a massive ship called the Bismark?”

“Can you sing it? Softly though?”

“Uh... Sure?”

And with that Fluttershy fell asleep listening to Bradley sing about The Hood and The Bismark, sailors running and guns firing. She admired that he was able to sing a song about killing and death in a tone that seemed like a child's lulaby. She was unable to hear the end of the song, as his hypnotic hyms and her sleep depravity caused her to fall asleep sooner than she thought it would.

Chapter 7

The calm summer air wafted in through the window as Fluttershy awoke, although she felt as though she should not stir. Raising her head to peer around for whatever caused her to wake up, she found nothing. Although she felt as though she had slept through the night, the sun was still not up. She smiled as she thought of how she had a few more hours of 'bonus time' to sleep in, without seeming lazy. In her groggy state, she had either forgotten or ignored the past days, and she slowly drifted off again.

“That was cute” muttered Bradley to himself, waking at the slight sound of Fluttershy's movments. He usually awoke at the tone of his watch at five in the morning and nothing else could wake him, he was used to sleeping in buildings that were full of roudy men who fought and played while he slept. The silence of the cottage had lulled him out of his usual state of sleep, a small noise was able to wake him in this state. He decided that his strength was more important than tardiness, he would sleep in, he removed his watch and clicked off the timer. He had found it strange that the sun never seemed to move here, it just went up and descended in an instant on the same rough time every day.

He peered at his watch, the electronic display read four minutes past two. He recalled of his time in training; by now his bed would have been made and he would already be working on ironing his pants. It was always the same fashion, a drill sargeant would arise at half past four, and at the exact moment of five he would play loud music, or otherwise get the attention of the recruits. In an instant the calm barracks would explode into action; soldiers moving their beds, folding sheets, and getting prepared for the day.

He slowly tried to fall back asleep, hoping to continue his dream from before, some small fragments of which were still embedded in his mind. The floor creaked as he adjusted himself, trying to return to sleep. He was uncompfortable on the wooden floor, as the boards were roughly cut, and the splinters dug into his back and sides. He had tossed and turned all night, hoping that he would eventually find a comfortable position.

He sat up-right, scanning the room for a more comfortable place to finish his slumber. Back in rotation he had never needed a matress, there was almost always a place to sleep, from a grass patch to a pre-made bed. Slumping down in defeat, he decided that there was nowhere to sleep other than the floor, other than the bed.

His eyes snapped open as he debated in his mind wether or not to return downstairs to sleep on the carpet in front of the fireplace. After a few minutes of dileberation, he decided to move himself downstairs. He lifted himself again and began to gather his blanket when Fluttershy's voice cut through the night.

“Are you leaving?” her tone cut him deep. It was as though she was actually afraid of his absence.

“Uh... Yeah... I can't sleep on the floor. It's too rough.”

“Oh...”

He half dragged half carried his blanked to the door to downstairs. He was reaching for the handle when another option was presented to him.

“There is a lot of space here?” he paused for a second. It had been several months since he had slept on a real bed, one that wasn't the size of a showbox or made of steel, and the offer was very tempting. He stood still for a few moments, before turning and trudging towards the bed. It creaked and groaned as he flopped down onto it, as it was made for someone much smaller. Fluttershy attempted to offer him some of the blanket that she bore, but he pushed them back.

He began to doze off immediatley, the comfort of the bed taking him by surprise. She, on the other hand, had a hard time falling asleep, as she tried to stay as far as possible from her 'guard' while remaining on the bed. Eventually, they both fell asleep.

Author's Note

Sorry for the delay, I'm very busy on Thursdays and Fridays.

Chapter 8

Fluttershy was awoken by Bradley's movments, as he left the bed he shook the entire frame. He pulled his watch out of his breat pocket and peered at the time. He let out a small gasp and turned to her.

“The sun moves in a strange way here, why is that?”

“Uh... Strange way?”

“It stays still all day and only moves for a few moments.”

“Oh, Celestia moves it for us.”

“Has she ever been tardy?”

“Tardy?”

“Late.”

“No. I've never seen or heard about her being off of time.”

“Well, shit. That means that something is keeping her busy, and we can only guess what.”

“What do you mean?”

“The sun was supposed to rise three hours ago.”

Fluttershy froze out of the fear of Bradley's implications. Was it possible that the castle had fallen? Could Celestia and Luna have been defeated?

“I'm going to wake the others, you can sleep in if you like. If you're still woried about sleeping alone, I'm going to be outside, nothing will get into this home.”

With that he pulled his boots on and threw his vest on, the small pockets full of metal objects clinking as he walked down the stairs to awake the others. He found Rarity sleeping on a bed in one of the side rooms, and Applejack and Big Mack shared another. He peered in through the door to the pair's room, and he noted that one of them stirred when the old door creaked.

“Anyone up?” he wispered, deciding that everyone to be awake wasn't needed

“I am.” a gruff male voice replied. There was still a bit of bad blood between Bradley and Big Mack.

“Well c'mon. Let's go find breakfast. I'm all out of IMPs.” he prounounced the last word as eye-em-pees, not imps.

The two prepared for their journey outside and quickly left. After exiting the cottage Bradley looked around, still straing to see in the moonlight.

“Isn't it a bit early to get up?” asked Big Mack

“No, it's eight in the morning. The sun is a bit delayed today

“Oh.”

“Today has been cancelled, return to bed.” Bradley joked, a common saying that the troops would yell at him whenever he tried to wake them early.

“What do you think of going in those woods? The trees look different than all of the others, maybe there will be food there?”

“That's Everfree forest. That's where the creatures came from.”

“Okay. We'll go the other way, unless you feel like a good scrap?”

“No, I'm fine.” the tone that Big Mack replied in made Bradley crack a smile.

The two followed the path back to Ponyville, as they walked bradley grabbed a hanging branch from a tree and pulled his knife and began to sharpen the stick.

“Why would you use a weapon to make another? What is the use of two?” asked Big Mack, watching Bradley's dark form as he shaped the stick.

“This one offers a lot more range, as I can throw it and not have to care about retrieving it.”

“Ah. But wouldn't that be useless against the skeletons?”

“It would, but I intend to catch some food with it, not fight.”

“If you do that, you'll piss off Fluttershy.”

“Ah, crap.” replied Bradley, not wishing to insult his host immediatley. He tossed the stick aside, and continued down the road.

“There will still be food stocks in town, if you don't mind fighting or avoiding a few of the patrols?” asked Big Mack, it was Bradley's decision, as Big Mack could not fight them effectivley.

“Food I can eat?”

“What can you eat?”

“Meat, Vegetables, Fruit and Grains. But the vegetables that you eat are too coarse for me to eat, I need more protein.”

“What about apples?”

“I can eat those, but I couldn't life off of them.”

“Grain?”

“Yeah. Grain would be good, it has all of the junk I need in it.”

“Then we can either head to my farm and grab a wagon full of apples, or go to the bakery.”

“Ah, so you're a farmer?”

“Eyup.”

“I grew up on a farm in the middle of the country. How big is the farm?”

“About a thousand trees.”

“Ah. That's cool.”

“Impressed?” commented Big Mack

“Yeah, for manual labour that's a huge farm. But it's tiny by human standards. We build machines that work for us. My father's farm was over a thousand acres.”

“How bis is an acre?”

“A thousand acres is about four square kilometres. So we would have just walked across it by now.”

“That's huge! How many trees?”

“My father grew corn and potatoes.”

“Ah. Potatoes are a pain in the flank to harvest though.”

“Not with the help of specialised machines, they pull them right out of the ground, moving faster than I could run. If we return things to normal, I'll give you a design for one before I leave.”

“Where you came from, did you run your father's farm?”

“No. I joined the military at the age of eighteen, and I graduated military college at the age of twenty-two, that was three years ago.”

“What is a college?”

“It's an academy.”

“What do they teach at human academies, if you don't have magic?”

“Mostly math and science, but there are degrees in art.”

“What did you take?”

“I have a bachelor's in electrical engineering, and a lot of on the job training with ballistics.”

“Electrical?”

“Human magic.”

The idle conversation carried on as the two approached town, there were no skeletons present, so they walked down the main street. Bradley peered around every corner, convinced that they were walking into a trap. Eventually they came up to the bakery, and Bradley walked up to the door, signalling for Big Mack to stay still. He slid his hand around the seams of the door, once convinced that it was not booby trapped, he tried the handle.

The handle jiggled nut did not yield to Bradley's touch, it was locked. He looked at Big Mack, his expression was obvious, even in the light of the moon, Bradley was allowed to break down the door. Big Mack sat down, waiting to laugh at Bradley, who would be unable to buck the door open. Bradley took a few steps back, and rubbed his shoulder, and charged the door. With an immense crack, the door splintered, but did not open. Bradley stepped back, raised his knee to his chest, and spartan kicked the door. Snapping, the two halves of the door sailed backwards into the bakers, clattering to a stop before the counter.

Bradley turned to face Big Mack, with a smug look on his face. Big Mack's expression was clear, it said 'You got lucky'. He followed Bradley through the door frame, and started to look around inside of the dimly lit house. Bradley reached into his vest and pulled out a tube, and upon snapping it with his hands, it began to glow red.

“Chem-lights. Usefull if you don't want to be spotted.”

They began to look around the deserted shop, pulling open cabinets and drawers until Big Mack found the sacks of flour. He called to Bradely, who came over to inspect the sacks that sat in the bottom of the cabinet.

“Flour?”

“Eyup.”

“Good. How many can you carry?”

“Probably three?”

“Okay, I'll carry three as-well.”

“Eyup.”

Bradley returned to peering around the shop, looking for anything else that would be of use in their struggle. He opened the door to the next room, and upon opening it, he saw a flash of what appeared to be pink.

“Chimmy chongas!” someone screamed in the night, and Bradley crumpeled to the floor, a searing pain spreading through his groin as Pinkie Pie bucked him in the crotch. He rolled himself over, to face his attacker while he still remained on the floor. She stood over his form, he was writing in pain. She giggled as she thought the intruder was so easily defeated, but Bradely was not out of the fight yet. He reached up and grabbed her foreleg. With another feat of strenght, he hoised himself into the air, lifting Pinkie Pie with him.

Her feet unable to contact the ground, and Bradley holding her at arms length, too far to strike him again, she was out of the fight. He turned to show his new prize to Big Mack, who was now standing at attention.

“Is she friendly?” he asked between pained gasps for air.

“Hiya Big Mack! What are you doing here? Who is this? Did you hear me yell?”

“Eyup.”

Bradley lowered Pinkie to the ground, setting her down as gently as he could, and she turned to face him.

“Hiya, I'm Pinkie Pie! What's your name? What is that vest you are wearing? Why are you wearing a helmet? I only wear a helmet when I'm doing something dangerous. Are you doing something dangerous? What's your name?”

“Bradley.”

Pinkie continued to fire salvo after salvo of questions at bradley, and he only replied to few.

“We should get going. I'd rather not stay here. Are you coming with us?”

“Um... Where are you going, who is there.”

Bradley turned to Big Mack, giving an expression that showed that he wanted him to answer this question.

“Fluttershy's cottage. And Fluttershy, Rarity, and AJ are there.”

“Okaysy!” Pinkie cried, hopping out the door of the bakery. As Bradley lifted his alloted bags of flour, he hear a shrill scream eminate from outside. He dropped the bags of flour, the bottom one bursting from the shock. He ran out the front door, and he saw Pinkie surrounded by a large group of the skeletal enemies.

Bradley yelled as lous as he could, hoping to draw their attention from the pink pony. Most of the group turned to face him, as be raced back into the house. He returned a moment later with the bottom half of the door, putting his arm through the handle and grabbing a twisted piece of the hinge, he had made himself a sheild.

The skeletal remains charged him, pointing their pikes up as they did so. Bradley crouched in the doorway, lowering himself so his sheild covered most of his form. He braced for impact as the wave of skeletal remains his blockade. After a moment it was over, his boots had dug into the ground, and the majority of the pikes were stuck into the wooden door. He rose, pulling one of the pikes, which was a small spear compared to his size, and he used it to snap or dislodge the remaining pikes in his sheild.

The skeletons, now mising their mane weapon, drew their short swords. Bradley hald up his sheild and rushed to closest ghoul, slapping the sword our of the way with his door and drving the pike through the skeleton's chest. It fell to the ground, and he curb stomped it's head in.

He looked up and quickly summed up the situation, there were eight of the acolytes left, exluding the one he had just finished off. By now they had all drawn their weapons, and they began to circle him, realizing that he was undefeatable from the front. Bradley threw his spear at the skeleton that was circling aroun behind him. The spear made contact with its skull, and the skull splintered and fractured, but the attack alone did not kill the skeleton.

He turned to Big Mack, who was standing in the doorway. “The alley.” he ordered, tilting his head to the alley to his right. Pinkie noted this, and ran to the alley, whith Big Mack behind her. Bradley backed himself into the alley. Here the skeletons could not surround him as easily as the main street. He held fast behind his sheild, as the skeletal remains entered the valley after him. Unable to attack around the sheild, the ghouls began to push on Bradley's sheild, hoping for him to stumble or fall back under their force. Bradley began to slide back under to force of the eight ghouls. The alley was a dead end, with another building coming up beind them. Bradley slid, slowly, backwards, compressing Pinkie and Big Mack behind him. He came up the the back wall, and then he began to yell.

“Gory, gory what a hell of a way to die!”

With his war cry, he struck the door with his remaining arm, and began to force his way back out of the alley. Big Mack and Pinkie watched as he practically threw the eight attackers, unable to escape the onslaught of his shield. They each, in turn, stumbled beneath the sheild, and were crushed under the weight of Bradley's sheild and his boots. Bradley let out a scream as a white hot pain went through his leg, as the remains of foe, at his feet, thrust his sword into Bradley's calf. He stomped on its skull, shards bouncing off of the walls of the alley.

Bradley emerged from the alley, blood matting his leg. All but two of the ghould had been defeated, the remaining two began to run away. With a huff, Bradley threw his sheild, and it collided with the back of one of the two fleeing skeletons. The force of the impact cut the retreating ghoul in half, bones fragmenting and breaking under the weight and force of the heavy door.

Pinkie Pie and Big Mack emerged from the alley as Bradley sat down in the middle of the street to inspect his leg.

“Fuck. I won't be able to carry the bags of flour now. But I think I can make it back to the cottage.”

“Okay. If we can find a cart, I can carry more.” commented Big Mack, he contined “and If you get tired or your leg hurts to much I can try and carry you in the cart.”

“Thanks for the offer Mack, but I'll try and make a crutch before we start the trip back.”

“Oh! Oh! I know!” commented Pinkie. “There was a cart behind Twilight's house!”

“How far is that?” queried Bradley

“Just up the road.”

The three walked down the road, with bradley limping. They came up to the old tree-home, and found the cart behind. As they inspected the cart to deep whether or not the cart would be able to make the return trip, Bradley stood up.

“I can hear more of them.”

“Let's get inside.” commented Big Mack

This time, the door was not locked, Twilight had left it ajar when she had fled the town. The three entered the house. They sat, silently, in the darkness as they heard the partol go by. Out of boredom, bradley checked his watch, the illuminated screen read that it was five minutes past ten, although the moon was still up and the sun was nowhere to be seen.

He stood up and began to pace around the library, eyeing the books on the shelves.

“Nothing about mathematics? Science? Engineering?”

“Nope. Twilight mostly reads fiction or books about magic.” commented Pinkie Pie

“Ah.”

He pulled a book labeled 'Intro into Magic' off of the shelf, and began to flip through the worn pages. He peered at the text for a while, and stowed to book in has pack. He turned to see Big Mack staring at him.

“Know thy enemy, and what not.”

“Eyup.”

“At least there are no books on engineering, then the could see right through my tricks!” commented Bradley, chuckling to himself. The joke was lost on the other two.

“It seems that the patrol has left, maybe we should continue on?”

“Eyup.”

The three cautiously exited the house, led by Bradley. He carried himself down the street, peering at all the shop signs. He stopped in front of a building that had a hammer on the sign.

“Is this a workshop?”

“That's the town carpenter's shop.”

Bradley walked in through the door, which was wide open. He returned after a few minutes with a board, a piece of cloth was draped over one end, and he used it as a crutch. They carried on down the street, Big Mack pulling the cart behind. Bradley inquired as to what each of the shops were, and he made note of all of them. He seemed particularly interested in the blacksmith's shop.

When the cart was laden full of flour, the three set off on their return trip. The trip was long for Big Mack and Bradley, both laiden down. Eventually they were able to make it to Fluttershy's cottage, avoiding a few patrols in the process. Pinkie hopped in the door, and Big Mack and Bradley heard her, along with Fluttershy and Applejack, scream in delight as she was reunited with her friends. Big Mack parked the cart close to the front of the door, and he began to carry in the flour.

Bradley limped in past Big Mack, and the three ponies inside gasped as they saw his wound. The bleeding had been stopped by a quick wrap, but his pant leg was covered in matted blood, he stated that it looked much worse than it was. After they fussed over him for a bit, they turned their attention to the food.

“Finally, I'm tired of grass and hay every day.” commented Applejack

With the transfer complete, Big Mack pushed the cart behind the cottage, and returned inside, where Bradley was tending to his wounds. After cleaning the would, he pulled a brown bottle from his kit. He placed a cloth in his mouth, and poured the contents onto his wound. The mixture was foul smelling and abrasive on the eyes, it foamed up when it contacted the wound. Bradley screamed in discomfort, biting the towel with his eyes watering. After a moment he recomposed himself, and he wrapped the wound in a special cloth that he had retrieved from a pack with a red cross on it.

He reached for his pack and withdrew his new book, with the ponies starting to make something to eat with the new provisions. Big Mack sat down on the large arm chair, peering outside towards the moon. By now it was around one in the afternoon, but the sun still lay dormant. He began to worry as to the princesses safety.

Bradley put down his book, and stumbled towards the window. He had heard something coming, but he couldn't place what it was. He moved the curtains aside, and peered out the glass pane.

“Everyone get in the back room! Put something heavy against the door and don't come out until I tell you too!”

The ponies followed his order as Bradley braced himself against the door, he prepared for anotehr confrontation.

A loud banging was heard at the door, and bradley braced himself against the frame. He clicked the lock and wrenched the door open, but he did not expect what he found.

“Blue? Is that you?”

“H... Help me....”

“Hey! Open the door! Come quick!” Bradley yelled, signalling for the others to come out of hiding.

Bradley lifted the pegasus off of the ground, and brought her to the table in the middle of the room. He placed her on the table, and flicked a switch on his helmet. A light came to life on the side of his helmet, which he had not taken off yet. He peered over the pony; she had an arrow protruding from her flank, just a few inches from her cutie mark. He looked her in the eyes.

“This is going to hurt, but it will make you better.”

She nodded in acceptance, she couldn't object to this strange creatures remedies. Fluttershy was the first out of hiding, and she screamed as she saw Rainbow Dash's wound. Bradley grabbed the bag with the red cross on it and returned to Rainbow.

“Here,” he said, holding his glove in front of her mouth “bit on this, it will distract you from the pain.” She bit the glove, and recoiled for a moment. He held his hand on her flank, and grabbed the shaft of the arrow with another, he pulled, and Rainbow cried as the arrow dislodged itself from her flank. Blood started to dribble from the wound, but Bradley pushed the wound shut, and grabbed the brown bottle from before. He cautiously poured the peroxide on the wound, holding Rainbow down as she bucked and screamed into the glove, tears coming from her eyes. He pulled a small container with a spout from the bag; using one hand to hold the wound closed, he applied the substance to the wound. He retrieved a canister from the bag and sprayed the substance, which hardened like rock in an instant.

“Gotta love krazy glue.” he commented “The wound is fairly small, I doubt that it will scar.”

“Fairly small?” Rainbow cried “I'd like to see you take a wound like that!”

She turned to her friends, and made a brave face to show that she was okay. Bradley sighed and lifted his shirt, and Rainbow gasped as she saw his wounds, he had seven of the wounds that she now had. He lowerd his shirt and raised his leg, the legging of his pants were now cut away.

“Sword stab.”

“Oh” commented Rainbow Dash, realizing that her injury was small compaired to the wounds of Bradley. She got off of the table, with her friends watching, and tested her leg. Bradley's first aid was immaculent, she could barely feel the wound, and her walking was not impeded.

“Now. Tell us what teh hell happened at the castle.” asked Bradley, curious as to why the sun had not risen.

Author's Note

Big ass chapter to make up for the last one. I was able to re-download DOTA while I wrote this, spent around two hours writing today. Add me on steam if you want to kick some ass;
http://steamcommunity.com/id/K-Dog

Chapter 9

“What do you think is going to happen now?” queried Trixie, who was put in a cell in the dungeon with Twilight.

“I have no idea, but it can't bee good.”

The ghoulish forces walked by outside the cell, stirred by their talking. The two ponies watched, horrified, as the castle's new occupants made their way downthe coridor. The soft moaning and crying of ponies could be heard down the halls, and the scene was something of nightmare.

In the distance, the door to the dungeon opened, hissing and creaking as it did so. Footsteps could be heard coming down the hall, although these were diffirent; the timing was off. Whatever was approaching was walking on two legs.

A gruff voice was heard “Open the cell, hold them down.” In reply, the noise of a cell door opening was heard, and the screams of a few ponies were heard. The screams grew louder and louder, more and more frantic, until they stopped completley. The creature could be heard stepping out of the cell, and the door did not close behind him. It continued on to the next cell, the guards opening the door and repeating the proces.

The ponies began to hurl insults at their tormentors, and cause a general commotion. The skeletal guards replied by smashing their clubs on the doors to the cells, scarring the ponies into submission. Trixie began to weep as they heard the cell next to them open, and the process of the screaming continued, and then silence.

A ghoul rounded the corner, coming face to face with the pair in the cell, it looked at them, then to its mater. As the creature presented itself, it was apparent that this was obviously the creature that Twilight had summoned almost two weeks ago. It wore a skull as a mask, and a long, dark robe trailed behind it. Tears began to stream down Twilight's eyes when she noticed that the crowns of the princesses were affixed to the skull at odd angles.

The skeletons opened the door to the cell, and quickly overpowered the two, as the cell made it very difficult to use magic. The necromancer carried himself in.

“Ah. Are you the one who brought me to this virgin world?”

“Y... Yes. And I wish I could send you right back!”

“Why? I like it here. I think I'll stay!”

“You can't. We summoned another champion to fight you!” with this, the Necromancer's expression changed, it went from a wry smile to a look of fear.

“Another champion? And what is stopping me from convincing him to fight under the Blight Legion?”

“...we kinda pissed him off... he might just want to kill everything...”

“Oh. Well shit.”

With their exchange finished, the necromancer raised his staff, the end of which began to glow a slight green, despite the powerful incantations of the walls of the cell. He touched the end of the staff to Trixie's head, and her screaming ceased. She stood upright, and the guards released her. Twilight was next, and the Necromancer raised the staff and repeated the proces. The spell was that of a mind breaking spell, anyone that it contacted would be forced to do anyhting that the Necromancer wanted. The ponies that remained in the cells were assimilated into the 'Blight Legion', one by one.

“So an infaltrator opened the gates?”

“That's what I think happened. The skeletons just marched right in!”

“So the sun isn't rising because this Celestia person is dead or incapacitated?”

The thought of this made the ponies grimace, they feared the worst for their beloved ruler. Bradely looked around the room at the solemn expressions of the ponies around him. He released a sigh and continued.

“Well, perminent night is bullshit. I'll fix it.”

The ponies all stared at him, half disbelieving that he could not attack the caslte single handedly, and half disbelieving that he would so on a whim.

“The way I see it, she is the only one that can put me home. And I sure as hell don't want to spend my life here.”

“There's no way that you can assault the walls, the entire skeletal legion took a week to find a way in!” commented Rainbow Dash.

“Boo freaking hoo. I'll do it in a day.” with that, Bradley lifted himself, and began moving towards the door.

“Um. Bradley, maybe it would be better to wait for the night? You could wage war in the morning?” commented Fluttershy

The time had caught bradley off guard, as the moon was still up. His watch read that it was now around five in the evening. He stopped and slumped down a bit, rubbing his eyes.

“Fine. I'm going first thing in the morning.” and with that he slumped into the large armchair. He lifted his book on magic and bega to read again, assisted by his helmet light. As the ponies began to grow tired, they each went their seperate ways to bed, one by one. Finally, Rainbow Dash and Bradley were the only ones awake. He lowered his book, as he considered it rude to ignore an individual.

“So, how fast can you fly?” he queried, eyeing her wings as he asked.

“Fast enough to cause a sonic rainboom!” Rainbow Dash's eyes lit up, proud of her self.

“Sonic? You can break the sound barrier?”

“Yup.” she stated, as smugh look on her face. “Do humans have anything that can go that fast?”

“Uh, yeah. The missiles that I worked on had a cruising speed of mach two point five, so two and a half times the speed of sound. But some of the missiles that are being developed travel around mach five.”

Rainbow's jaw fell, someting that ccould go five times as fast as she could go?

“That's.... That's....” she stuttered “Freaking awesome! How can they go so fast?”

“Well, they basically light fuel on fire, and as it expands they push the expanding gas out the back, and that propels them forward.”

“And that works?”

“Yeah, it works like hell!”

This casual conversation carried on for a while, until Rainbow eventually grew tired. She said 'Goodnight' and went off to the room she was sharing with Pinkie and Rarity. Bradley lowered himself to the floor, checking his watch. The display read that it was only a bit past eleven, he would be able to read for a bit before nodding of.

As he flipped through the pages of the book, he heard soft footsteps on the floor above him. He realised that Fluttershy must have stayed awake, waiting for Bradley. He dropped the book to his chest, and looked towards the stairs. As if on command, a shadow appeared at the top of the stairs.

“Um... Hello? Are you awake.”

Fluttershy let out a small cry of terror as he lifted himself, he had startled her. He grabbed his pack and followed her up the stairs. She placed herself gently on the ornate bed, snuggling herself under the blankets. He flopped down on the bed, the frame shaking as he did so. She looked at him from under to covers, he lay on top of the covers.

“Why don't you use the blankets?”

“I don't know, I prefer to sleep on top of the covers.”

“Oh, okay. It's just a bit cold tonight, I was worried that you might freeze.”

“Aha, no problem there. Where I come from, we wear our tees until the weather is around freezing, even then, we still dress lightly.” he stated with a smug grin

“Will you tell me about where you are from?”

“Ah... Okay. I come from a country called Canada, we are the northernmost country on our side of the world. It's the second largest country on my planet, and we are known for our tolerance to the cold.”

“Are you like the nords, from fairy tales?”

“A bit” he stated with a chuckle “we are known for our politeness, and most of the world likes us.”

“That's good!”

“Yeah. Aside from that, we are known as a peace loving country, but I don't know why; we kicked the crap out of a couple of Europian countries in the last world war.”

“World war?”

“Every militaristic country took a side, and they had a fight to end all fights. Millions of men met each other on the battlefield, and weapons that destroyed entire cities were used. My grandfather's father was in the war, he flew a plane that dropped bombs on the Germans.”

“Are the Germans like you?” she paused while saying Germans, stumbling on the word

“Actually, yes. I am of German descent, but my ancestors left the country long before the war.”

“So everyone on your planet is like you?”

“Ah... A bit. We vary slightly, our eyes and skin tones are different, but other than that, all the animals that can talk are like me.”

“Aside from being a soldier, what do you do for work?”

“I am a full time soldier!”

“What? Your planet has people whos only profession is killing?”

“Yeah, but it's not all 'kill kill kill' we do humanitarian aid, and we hunt pirates, but I don't think that helps my case.” his expression went sheepish as he finished the statment. Fluttershy let out a yawn as she turned to him, and he could tell that she was loosing her battle with sleep. He chuckled.

“Go to sleep if you are tired” he said with a smile. He turned away from her and stretched out, his legs reaching past the end of the bed. He folded them beneath him, reaching around, he pushed her wings down, as they buffeted his head.

“Sorry!” she squealed.

“No problem.”

And with that she fell asleep, with him folling soon after.

Fluttershy woke to the sun shining on her face, and she rolled over to avoid the bright lights on her face. She wondered why she hadn't closed the curtains the night before, as she always does. She remembered why in an instant; there was no sun yesterday. She turned to Bradley in excitment, but found only a note where he had slept the night before.

'Gone to kill necromancer. Be back for dinner.'

She shuttered at the note's implications. Was he crazed enough to actually attempt an assault on the castle? His fight was obviously not in vain, as the sun was now up. Fluttershy lifted herself from the bed, and carried herself downstairs. Rarity and Applejack were already awake, drinking coffee in the kitchen.

“Notice the sun yet?”

“Yes!” Fluttershy commented excitedly

“Any idea why?” queried Applejack

Fluttershy showed the pair the note that she had found, and the two recoiled at the statment. How could someone assault the castle alone? It was impossible. The beating of wings sounded as they began making breakfast for everyone.

“Who is flying?” asked Rainbow Dash

The group froze, they had assumed that Bradley had taken Rainbow with him to assist or to send massages.

“If that's not you, then who is it?”

Answering their question, the door to the cottage creaked open, and the ponies inside froze in fear due to the sight they were witnessing. It was Celestia, but not the formal, regal, Celestia. Her brilliant mane was matted with blood, and her white coat had specks of blood on it. The group rushed to her assistance.

“Are you okay? What happened?”

After taking a moment to compose herself, she stood up on her own and faced the distraut ponies.

“The necromancer, he took the castle. He used some form of spell to control the minds of those inside. Even I was unable to resist the magic that he used. We were forced, although we were willing under the effects of the spell, to make weapons and work on armor for his forces.” she took a moment to breathe “Then, early this morning, the warrior that we summoned came crasing in the window. We attacked him, but none of the spells were able to hit him. He ran towards me, and he grabbed my horn. I tried to fry him through my horn, but he held fast. Once I had started expelling magic into him, I couldn't stop. Fortunatley, he used his body to absorb enough magic, and the spell broke. He cried for me to leave and forget about him. The last I saw of him as I escaped was him taking the full force of a magical bolt from the other magic users in the castle.”

Fluttershy interrupted “Could he have survived that?” tears formed in the corners of his eyes.

“No... I doubt even I could survive that.”

“Could he?” she continued

Rarity embraced Fluttershy as she began to weep, realizing that her new friend had sacraficed himself in order to save the people's symbol of hope.

“Rainbow.” Fluttershy spoke between sobs.

“Can you go see? I don't care how unlikely it is.”

“Will do.” Rainbow said, sprinting out of the house. She hated to see her friend cry, and she was willing to do anything for her.

Rainbow travelled as fast as she could, flying as low as possible to avoid being seen. In a matter of minutes she reached the castle, circling around it, she was able to see where he had made his stand. A rope was attached to the roof of the great hall, and skeletons peered at her from a broken window. She was too high at this point to be hit by their weapons, and she swung around to the front of the castle. She was met with a grizzly sight, she came in closer to confirm what she had thought.

The necromancer had his skeletons hang Bradley's corpse in front of the castle, his arms outstretched, roped binding his wrist. She began to hover in place, she had hardley known him, but that was an aweful fate. When she was about to leave, she noticed something strange about the body, it seemed to sway in the wind, but there was no wind.

Rainbow risked approaching the body, fortunatley, there was no vantage point where any of the skeletons could shoot at her from. She came up close to the body, and hovered about three metres from it. Blood dripped from the bottoms of his boots, and the 'ropes' that had been used to hang him were actually chains. His body moved slightly, and his head raised slightly. Rainbow gasped in shock, to do this to a dead man was one thing, but hanging a live man by his wrists, wrapped in chain, left to die, was another thing. He moved his head, again, using his shoulder to pull the scarf that covered his face down.

“H... Hello. I don't suppose I could get you to leave me here?”

“What!”

“If... If you stay for long, they will notice. And they might get you.”

“But! You'll die if you stay there!”

“I've already died. There's no way for me to get back to my world, the Necromancer at least had the decency to make me give up by telling me that. I might as well die, my life at home is over.”

“And what about your life here! Fluttershy and Rarity are your friends! How could you leave them.”

“Well. Mostly, it's not my choice.” as he spoke, blood started dripping from the corners of his mouth.

“Celestia said that you took a hard enough hit to even kill her, a god. How did you survive.”

“I cheated.”

“What?”

“That magic book. I know what your magic really is.”

“What?”

“I am really tired now” he said, his speech lulling as he did so. “I'm gonna go to sleep. Maybe I won't wake up.”

Rainbow noticed a small purple glowing coming from his eyes. He was being put to sleep by an unseen magician. She moved close to him and yelled in his ear;

“Don't give up! If you give up, we will to!”

With that he began to fall asleep, his head nodding down.

“What do you mean someone talked to him?”

“I'm sorry m'lord. The archers said they were unable to fire, and by the time we alerted spellmaster Twilight, he had already spoken to the intruder.”

“Do you have any idea how incompetent you are? An intruder comes to our gates, and you let them leave!”

“She was flying m'lord, the magic was unable to target her with her heart beating too strong.”

“Fuck!”

“What shall we do next?”

“Get him down from there, and make it hurt. Also, find something that looks like blood and cover the door in it, make it look like we butchered him.”

“Should we kill him?”

“No. If he dies of anything other than 'natural' causes, his body won't fight for me when he is raised a second time.”

“What shall we do with him?”

“Put him in the dungeon with that girl who resisted the spell.”

“Shall we gag him?”

“No. He would chew through a leather gag, and I'm unsure if we have anything else.”

“You are correct m'lord, we do not.”

“Then go, shoo, get to work.”

Bradley grunted as he was awoken from his slumber. His feet cracked as they hit the ground beneath him, with his arms weak from his hanging, he was unable to stop himself from smashing hsi face on the ground. A pair of large guards cane and dragged him by his feet, his beack and head thumping over obstacles as he went. They carried him down the great hall, all of the magic users's horns glowing, ready to strike him again if he attampted to escape. He was too out of it to do anything, and he didn't thing that he could survive another strike from them.

The guards pushed open an old door, the hinges creaked from lack of use. He was shoved down the stairs, and his tired body rolled down. The guards followed him, their eyes glowing with the magic of the Necromancer in the dim light. The grabbed his boots again, and resumed dragging his now limp form.

With the jingling of keys, they opened the cell that Trixie sat in, and threw his body in. He moaned and released a barrage of curses at the guards, who sniffed and smashed the door shut. He sat bolt upright, and turned to Trixie, who was now backing into the corner, terrified of him.

“You... You're him!”

“Wha?” Bradley asked, still to dazed to piece together his infamy.

“The one who defeated Celestia, Discord, and Luna!”

“Who?”

“You!”

“Me?”

“Yes!”

“Then why does everything hurt!”

“I don't know what you did! Idiot!”

“Oh... Okay.”

With that Bradley fell backwards, blood seeping out of new wounds and staining the floor. Trixie reared back in disgust, but approached him out of pity. She stood over him, now unconscious, and poked at his muscle bound form. She had seen some large ponies before, but his muscles made them look tiny. Wounds peppered his body, and a massive scorch mark covered his back.

“Why do I always get stuck with the weirdos?” she said to herself.

Author's Note

Sorry for the delay.
Ballistics engineering is hard and time consuming -.-

Chapter 10

Bradley awoke suddenly, pain shot through his back and side, the magic recoiling against him. He gasped for air as the magical residue burned him, glowing blue and singing his flesh. He tried, to no effect, not to scream in agony. Eventually, the pain grew too much for him, and he yelled. Someone replied to his yell, yelling at him to shut the hell up.

“What?” he yelled, in a frenzied state from his wounds. He peered around the room, looking for the source of the voice. He eventually spotted a blue pony sitting upright on the small bed in the back of the cell. He tried his best to give an inquisitive look, in doing so, his magical wound acted up, and sent him back into spasm on the floor.

“Calm yourself! That is potent magic!” she yelled, moving to his side as he lay back on the floor, his chest heaving as he confronted the pain. He looked at her, and she at him. What she had thought was a beast of terror and malice was actually afraid and confused. His eyes pleaded to her, to make it better, at least bearable.

“Unfortunatley, that spell is a time delay spell. The first wave immediatley wounds you, but it's more of a magical poison, designed to inflict agony over time. The fact that you aren't dead yet means that it isn't designed to kill, it's merely designed to hurt.”

He tried to reply, but the burning on his side pulled the breath out of him. He convulsed as the pain shot through his body again. Tears began to form at the edges of his eyes, despite his facade of anger, he was truly terrified.

“The only way to stop the magical poison is to move you as far as possible from those who cast the spell. And as we are in a dungeon, I have no idea how you could do that.”

“S... Send me back!” he barked through his teeth, writhing in pain as he did so.

“I can't send you back. It might not be your home when you get there!”

“I... D... Don't care! Get this off of me!”

She could sense his pain, if not at all obvious. He gasped for air as the glowing blue pulsed slowly. Whenever it would light up his feet would bend his boots and his jaw would tense. Trixie began the spell, trying to focus as he let out small screams of agony. She began to cast it when the magic flared up, he screamed as it went from blue to white.

“That was stupid!” she thought “Of course casting a spell on him will accelerate the process!” she watched as the spell continued itself. Magic began to lift his body, and it soon rendered him unconscious. Light began to pour out of his clothes, and he began to glow, not just the magical poison. In turn, his clothes began to glow with him, eventually he was too bright to directly look at.

With that, a thunderous crack was heard, and Trixie smiled to herself as she turned around, returning to her bed. She cuddled herself up under the torn, raggedy blanket, loftily thinking about how much better of a magician she was than Twilight.

There was a loud thump somewhere in the cell, and she turned to see what it was. Maybe a new prisoner? She turned to see the sofly glowing blue of Bradley, his body slumped over something else. She cautiously approached the figure, as she did so, the figure below Bradley moved and struggled, shoving Bradley off of itself. It stood, standing the same way that Bradley did, it was another like him.

Trixie strained to inspect the new creature, trying to see it in the dim light. She lit up her horn slightly to reveal it, in doing so, she alerted it that she was occupying the cell. His clothes were nothing like Bradley's, they were bright orange, and his pants were blue. His face expressed an instance of shock, then one of query.

“Trixie? Are you Trixie?”

“Um...” she was caught off guard by the comment “Yes? How do you know my name?”

“You're from the show!”

“The... Show?”

“Does this mean that I'm in equestria?”

“Yes... You are... What did you mean by 'the show'?”

“Where I come from, there is lore of this land.”

“Oh, and I am told of in your land?”

“Yes!” Trixie smiled with pride, she was talked about in lands that weren't even on this planet.

“Well. I seem to be at a bit of a disadvantage. You know my name and I don't know yours?”

“My name is Jay!” stated the excited human, taking a step forward to extend his hand. He tripped over Bradley, and fell face first onto the dusty floor. He rolled onto his back and peered at Bradley.

“Did he come with me?”

“No, you came here when I tried to send you back.”

“Oh. Who is he?”

“He's a warrior. He was summoned to defeat the Necromancer who has been tormenting the land.”

“Did you give him magic armor?”

“No, why would you ask?”

“He's glowing?”

“Oh. In an effort to save our princess-”

“Celestia?” Jay interrupted

“Yes. In an effort to save Celestia he was hit with a magical attack strong enough to fell gods. Fortunatley, your kind has a massive resistance to magic. But the attack was designed to linger, sending him to your world would rend the spell useless. As the auras of the humans would rip it to shreds, not to mention the problems with maintaining spells at a distance.”

“Are you going to try again?”

“I would rather not, as this cell is small and it could fill up quickly. Anyways, you humans have an affinity for fucking up magic. Maybe you should try poking at the spell? He was able to break a spell that subdued a god, maybe you could remove it from him?”

Jay bent down to Bradley's side, and started prodding at the glowing mass. He let out a sharp yell as it burned his finger, causing him a great ordeal of pain. He tried to remove the vest that Bradley wore, but found that it clung to the mask that he wore. He pulled on the side of the mask, and with a soft sucking sound it yeilded. With the mas off, bradley's face was revealed, although pale.

“B... Bradley?” he wispered.

“What did you day?”

“This is Bradley, he is one of my friends from Highschool!”

“Really?”

“Yeah, he was a grade ahead of me. He joined the military as soon as he graduated, but I stayed home to become a writer.”

“The spell must have brought you because you were stored in his memory. The probabilty of the two of you knowing each other when the spell selects someone at random throughout time is negligible.”

Author's Note

I know that it's short, but I'm finding less and less time every day to write. Chapters one to four were written in one day :P
Anyways, shoutout to my friend who is Cameoing as Jay, if he has an account here he should comment to get some recognition. He's the one that showed me MLP, despite me being a fuckass about it and judging it based on the art style/designated audience.

Chapter 11

Jay sat awake on the floor of the cell, both out of discomfort and out of the events taht had gone on less than an hour ago. The two beds that the cell contained were reserved for the wounded Bradley, and for Trixie, who slept silently not two metres from him. He turned to his friend, his cotton shirt rustling as he did so. He could see the slight glow of blue coming off of Bradley's side, reflecting off of the wall behind him.

Jay felt sorry for Bradley, but a big jelous; why had he gotten to come here first? He doesn't even appreciate what this place is! He stopped his train of thought, he knew that it wasn't Bradley's intentions to come here. He hadn't seen Jay in a few months, but he still considered him a close friend. Every time that Bradley was in town they, his group of friends, would have him over for the night, and they would stay up drinking and playing video games. Bradley sucked at both, as his career offered him no time to practice either of the two activities.

He peered down at the watch that he had taken from Bradley, he intended to return it when Bradley was back to normal. The time was close to six in the morning, but it didn't matter, there were no windows in the cell, and the only light, aside from Bradley's wound, came from a small torch in the hallway. He knew Bradley well enough that his 'internal clock' as he called it, would wake him up at six, and he would get a massive boost of energy from it. This was due to his body setting into a routine, and he would immediatley work out after waking up.

Jay stood up, peering around the cell, looking for a fault or weakness in the design or construction of the dungeon room. His mind raced, trying to find something that they could use before Bradley woke up. Jay intended to use Bradley's 'morning glory' to their advantage. He had recived a full explanation of their situation when he had arrived. Jay and Bradley had two things on their side; one was that there was now two of them, so they were twice as effective; and the other was that they were in a cell designed to hold a single pony, but it's architect would never have imagined the rigors of holding a pair of human captives. They were crafty, to say the least.

Jay jumped slightly as he heard a slight moaning coming from the cell, Bradley's numbing effects of sleep were beginning to wake him. He lifted himself slightly, and he rubbed his eyes as he sat upright. He peered across the cell, trying to discern who the new captive was. A few moments later the dazed expression left his face, it was replaced with an expression of shock.

“Jay!”

“In the flesh!” Jay yelled

“You fuckass! What are you doing here?”

“You tell me! When you tried to go home you pulled me here!”

“Well. Fuck, sorry man.”

“No problem, I like it here.”

“Wait until you see the outside.” he finished with a small chuckle. He cut his laugh short, reaching to his side. He peered at the wound, the glowing had gone down considerably, and with it the pain had diminished.

“I tried to find a way out, but the walls are smooth and the door is strong.”

“Did yo consider beating the fuck out of the gua-”

“Oh will you two shut up!” Trixie interrupted, she continued “I don't know what time you get up where you come from, but it's far too early!”

Satisfied that she had finished her rant, Jay continued, in a much softer tone. “Trixie says that the guards are friendly, they are just under some form of mental mindfuckery.”

“Okay, so I shouldn't kill them?”

“No... That's not a good idea.”

“Got it.” as if on que, somewhere in the distance a latch was heard, and the creaking of a door could be heard. Steps could be heard coming down the hallway.

“Jay!” whispered Bradley “get under the blanket. When they comes close, start screaming.” Jay immediatley followed Bradley's orders, hiding under the small cot's blanket as the guards drew near. The guards approached the cell, bringing with them some food for the prisoners. When the footsteps sounded to be directly on the other side of the door, Jay let out a bloodcurdling scream. Trixie screamed with him, as she had dozed off and did not hear Bradley's plan. Jay went silent for a moment to catch his breath, Bradley, standing in a position where the door would hide him when it swung open, wispered to Trixie.

“Call for help!”

Trixie went in uproar in a moment, screaming at the top of her lungs. It sounded as though Bradley had gone crazy and was attacking her. Through the screaming, the jingle of keys could be heard, and the latch on the door clicked as the terrified guards scrambeled to open the door. The door swung open as soon as they could manage, and they leaped into the room, drawing their weapons. They faced Jay, who was still concealed behind the blanket.

Before the pair of guards could say anything, they head the cell door behind them smash closed. They turned to see Jay, standing fully erect before them. He reached down and wrenched the guards' weapons from them. Even without weapon, the pair of guards attacked Bradley, but experiance had proven that they were no match for his physical advantage. He dismissed their attacks with his shin, bringing it up between them and him. Using this awkward pose to his advantage, he landed the steel toe of his boot cleanly on the the firsg guard's face.

The guard went down like a sack of hammers, felled by the single blow. Bradley turned his attention to the second guard, who was now backing into the corner of the cell. His behind came up against the wall, with the bed that Jay lay in immediatley next to him. Jay sat bolt upright, and scared the living daylights out of the gaurd. Bradley used this confusion to subdue the guard, tackling him to the floor. He wrapped his arm around the guard's neck, and held fast until the guard stopped struggling. Releasing him, he checked to make sure that the guard was still breathing, and he was.

“Good. Now how do we get out of the actual castle?”

“I have an idea” commented Trixie “while you were knocked out, the Necromancer came in here and tried to 'convert' you. But your partial immunity to magic prevented him from doing so. He told Twilight Sparkle that when you died, he would be able to convert you without error. He also muttered something about how he couldn't kill you or else you wouldn't pledge allegiance to him.”

“Convenient” commented Jay

“I have an idea.” commented Jay “what... Guys... Idea! What if I put wings... Guys! Wings, guys! What if I put wings, on my back legs!” Bradley burst out laughing, Trixie stared at the two of them like they were mad.

“It's an inside joke” *look in the author's note* “but here's a good idea. Why don't you put on one of those suits of armor and go yell that I've died in my sleep?”

“They will notice in an instant!”

“I don't think they will” commented Jay “they will just hear the message, it's too important for them to notice you.”

Bradley and Jay helped Trixie into the bulky suit of armor, adjusting and loosening some straps to hide as much of her brilliant blue coat as possible. She looked sheepishly at them as they inspected their work.

“Well, get on with it!”

Bradley opened the door and let her out, closing the door behind her. He motioned for Jay to hide under the bed and to stow the unconscious gaurds under the other. He got on top of the bed, covering himself in the blanket and sprawling across the bed. Jay laughed slightly as he heard Bradley make a rude remark on the occupants of the castle and their sense of hygene.

“Do you have a light?” asked Jay

“Yeah?”

“Put it uder the blanket with you, make it look like your wound is really glowing.”

“Damned clever idea, buddy!”

Bradley placed the light in one of the cargo pockets on his damaged vest, the mesh of the pocket holding the light in the right place. Soon, footsteps were heard down the hall, they were rushed. The door of the cell opened quickly, and two ponies stepped inside. Jay watched the hooves of those who had just entered, he was able to identify Trixie, who's blue hooves poked out from under her armor. The other pony give him no ideas, the purple hooves coming withing less than a metre of where he lay.

“We need to start the spell immediatley” came a soft, female voice.

The cell began to glow with a green tinge, as the pony chargedd the spell. Jay hit the bottom of the bed, an improvised signal for Bradley, the coiled serpent, to strike. He sat bolt upright, the purple mare before him recoiling slighly as he lifted himself.
“Morning, love!” He screamed. Fast as his muscles could go, he reached out and grabbed the glowing horn. His arm jolted as his flesh absorbed the magic, and the mare attempted to back away from the still fully alive Bradley, but his grip was strong on her horn.

Trixie leaned forward on her fron hooves, and struck the purple mare in the head with her back hooves, clipping Bradley's hand as she did so. The mare went down, only slowing slightly as Bradley held her up for a fraction of a second.

“What the fuck was that?” Bradley asked, an impressed expression plastered across his face.

“What happened” asked Jay, lifting himself up from under the bed.

“She roundhouse kicked the fucker!”

“Oh, that's Twilight Sparkle!” commented Jay, finally able to identify the pony who was now sprawled across the ground.

“So, aside from antagonizing the occupants, what is our plan now?”

“We have a hostage” cried Bradley, a smile crossing his lips

“A what?”

“Basically we use the threat of injuring her to get out of here.” explained Jay

“I'm sick of this dump, Jay?”

“After you!”

“Okay.” he lifted the sleeping purple mare from the ground, putting her on his shoulder, her head facing forward. He grabbed one of the discarded swords, and held it in his right hand, his left arm was wrapped around his 'passenger'.

“Let's a go!” he yelled, ripping open the door that had shut itself. Jay followed him, and Trixie followed timidly behind the moronic pair. She almost had to sprint to keep up with the pair, who booked it down the halls of the dungeon. Bradley came up against a large door, and he lifted one leg, barley slowing and kicked the door as hard as he could.

As the door bore no method aside from keeping itself closed, it flew open, revealing the great hall before the three. Everything that was astetic was removed from the walls, fires burned across the floor, and ponies worked at coal fired forges. The room's occupants turned to face the doors that had exploded open. Standing in the open door was Bradley, sword drawn, with Jay and Trixie standing off behind him.

“Alright, this is a stickup! If anyone so much as moves, I'm going to kill myself, and then I'll kill her.” as he said this he lifted Twilight's head to show everyone who she was. The room froze, nobody dared move. They might be under the Necromancer's control, but they are still unwilling to risk their friend's life.

Bradley moved down the hall, out the same doors that he had left several days earlier. As they approached the bulky doors, a voice was heard behind them.

“How dare you!” the voice was raspy and harsh “How dare you take my highest caster hostage! I will kill you, regardless of her.” Bradley turned to face the voice, and found himself staring at another human. This human was shorter than him, and he wore the skull of a deer to conceal his face. Red robes covered his body, primitive markings covering the cloth.

The Necromancer raised an object, and Bradley cried out in pain as his magical woud flared up. He fell to his knees, dropping Twilight as did so, the pain was too much. The Necromancer moved slowly forward, apprehensive of Jay, who was now standing behind Bradley, trying to help him up. Bradley waved off Jay, not wanting to risk his friend. Jay ignored this, and put himself under Bradley's arm to help him up.

“Ugh... The door. I have a plan, but the door has to be open.”

Jay understood. He released Bradley, who fell back to his knees, and he retreated to the door, and began to push on the large iron door. The Necromancer drew near, the drone of his monologue carrying on. Just a few more feet, so close. He quickly phased back in to the what the Necromancer was saying; something about his friends abandoning him.

Bradley turned around to see what his friends were doing, and he was pleased with what he saw. The door was open. Not only was it open, but there was a clear shot to the edge of the cliff. He knew from past experiance that a river ran beneath that cliff, but he didn't try it last time he fled from this castle.

He turned back to the Necromancer, who had gained some ground while Bradley had been turned. He was close enough, any longer and he risked being incapacitated by the magical disturbance that burned his flesh. Screaming, Bradley stood and whipped the sword that had been in his hand. The heavy projectile made solid contact with the Necromancer's mask.

Bradley felt relieved as the pain in his side stopped, and before turning to run he saw the Necromancer go down, clutching his face, shards of bone from the mask flying every which way. He threw twilight over his shoulder and sprinted out the door, yelling at Jay to carry Trixie as he did so. The pair of humans covered the distance to the cliff in mere seconds, feet pounding the ground as they ran. Guards on the walls began to fire bolts at them, but the combination of distance and speed meant that the shots were too far away to care about.

Coming to the edge of teh cliff, Bradley jumped, sailing off the edge. Jay stopped for a moment at the edge, and once he had seen that there was a 'safety net' at the bottom, he followed. As he did this, Trixie screamed at him to put her down, she would rather face the Necromancer and return to the cell, but it was too late. Bradley hit the water first, with the still unconscious twilight colliding with the water soon after. Jay and Trixie followed, both of them screaming, both for different reasons.

Jay crawled to the shore, laying next to Bradley, panting.

“Remember when we jumped off the bridge at my cottage?” reminised Bradley

“Yeah, it was twice as high as that shitty jump.” The two friends chuckled.

“Wait. Where's princess?” Jay looked around

“Oh, fuck! The armor!” Bradley jumped in the river, his head disappearing beneath the water. Moments later he surfaced again, with a coughing Trixie on his shoulder. He carried her to the shore, and pulled off the plate that covered her back and started tapping her back as she coughed up water.

“Sorry about that.” Jay commented, not knowing what to really say.

“You're an ass.” Trixie sputtered between coughs. “I would much prefer that cell to this!”

“Well you can go back, they're just up that hundred metre cliff!”

Jay looked skywards, seeing the row of skeletal guards on the ramparts of the cliff.

“She doesn't mean it Jay, she's just pissy that she got her ass wet.” he laughed at his own joke as he said so. Trixie gave him her best look of discontent, but her soaked coat just made her look silly. This earned her another belt of laughter from Bradley.

“Well.” Bradley commented, lifting the sleeping Twilight onto his shoulder “Where to now?”

Author's Note

The joke came from this;
http://cache.bordom.net/server/?type=image&size=full&id=aHR0cDovL2kuaW1ndXIuY29tL2tvRjE5LmpwZw%3D%3D

Chapter 12

The four trekked on, Bradley carrying Twilight over his shoulders. Jay followed directly behind him, and Trixie trailed along behind. Bradley and Jay talked as they travelled, telling each other stories and joking as they moved. Trixie had left the armor at the edge of the river, not wanting to experience the bottom of any body of water again.

Eventually the three made their way to Ponyville, and they cautiously made their way down the main street. Bradley ducked into an alley, pulling Jay with him.

“A patrol.” Jay nodded his head in recognition. They shuffled down the alley, and around the corner at the rear of the house. They turned again and continued down the new alley, they were now on a street parallel to the patrol that they were avoiding.

“We should find somewhere to hide. Maybe we could wait until night?” Jay suggested.

“Uh... That's an idea. The batteries in my night visions died a while back though, so we'll be flying blind”

“Flying?” questioned Trixie, curious as to how the humans would fly

“Just an expression.”

“Yeah, an idiom.” added Jay

“Idiot” commented Bradley, playing with Jay's word

“They are not synonyms, autist.”

“You're not a synonym! Goatfucker!” while Bradley shouted he punched Jay in the arm, although he held back.

“Oi! Are you looking for a bookin'?” replied Jay

“Don't make me come down there.” Bradley turned and loomed over Jay, he was almost five inches taller than Jay. The fact that he had a fully grown mare on his shoulders did nothing for his intimidation factor. The two broke off into laughter, and continued walking down the path.

“How can you be so aggressive if you are freinds?” Trixie asked, confused by the rapid change of tone between the two friends.

“We're all like this!” commented Jay, tackling Bradley, although it didn't topple the soldier.

“All humans?” continued Trixie

“Nah, just the guys. We're pretty dumb like that.” replied Bradley, who had casually pinned Jay to the ground.

“Then how do you know who your freind is?”

“Human guys? We're all friends at first, we just work our way down.” commented Jay, getting up and brushing dust off of himself as he spoke.

Bradley stopped in front of an ornate building, he approached the window, once he was satisfied that it was safe to enter, he pushed open the door to the shop and entered.

“Rarity's shop?” Jay asked

“Damn, you know your shit!” Bradley commented, half placing, half dropping Twilight's body on the table. “Well, I'm officially sick of carrying her around. There's a spigot in teh back room, go fill a bucket with water?”

“Okay, fuckass.”

“Cuntwerp.”

Jay returned after a minute with the bucket full of water, placing it on the table next to Twilight. Bradley dipped his hands in the water, and brought his soaking hands up to his face. He made an expression towards Jay, who chuckled at his idiot friend.

“Cold as dicks!” With that, he hoisted the bucket above his head, pouring his contents on the unconscious Twilight. She awoke with a scream of terror and shock. “Rise and shine!” yelled Bradley, pinning the mare to the table before she could react. She looked at him with eyes filled with terrror, trying to lift herself off of the surface of the table but being overpowered by Bradley's single arm.

“You have no idea how lucky you are. If it was up to me, I would have just killed you back at the castle, but no! You and I have mutual friends. But I'll warn you, try and use any of that mystical mindfuckery” Jay smiled upon hearing his self created word “on me, I'll pile drive you into the dirt. It will be funny. Jay will laugh.”

Tears began to form in the corners of her eyes, out of terror. She gasped, still in shock from the cold water. Bradley lifted her from the table, and placed her on the floor, where she immediatley fell over. She slowly raised herself, and stood to face Bradley.

“I won't be bullied by some big brute! I have magic! You should be the one fearing me!” she screamed in defence, her horn glowing as she spoke.

“Fuck!” Bradley turned to Jay “She called my bluff! How the hell did she know?” Jay shrugged at the question, and Bradley returned his attention to Twilight, who began to cast a spell. Bradley reached out and grabbed her horn, interrupting the spell and sucking the magic out of her body. She fell to her knees as the power was sucked out of her, her vision was fading.

Before she was put back to sleep, bradley relinquished his grip on her. She took a moment, and recomposed herself. She looked up at Bradley, and a strange look entered her eyes. She jumped at the soldier, catching him offguard as he did not expect a physical attack. Fortunatley for Bradley, this action was not out of malice. She hugged him and spoke;

“Thank you!”

“Um... Fuck what?”

“Your spell of soul steal, it removed the Necromancer's spell!”

“Oh... Yeah... Just like I intended?”

Bradley lifted her off of himself, and stood upright. His uniform was now soaked, Trixie giggling on the other side of the room, how the tables had turned.

“So... Ideas, Jay?”

“Um. Do you know where everyone else is?”

“Fluttershy's cottage, about an hours walk from here.” Jay slumped a bit, he was too tired to walk much further. Bradley noticed his level of stamina when they were walking.

“You woke up before me, how long were you awake for?”

“I never went to sleep.”

“Oh, shit. How about we nap, and take your idea of moving at night.”

“Um... Hello?” Twilight said timidly, trying not to interrupt Bradley

“What?”

“I'm afraid we haven't been formally introduced?”

“Ugh... I'm Bradley, and this is Jay. I'm a soldier and he's a bard. We're bros from another planet and or dimension.”

The crude answer silenced Twilight for a few seconds, she eventually replied.

“Well then. I am Twilight Sparkle.”

“Ah. So that's where Spellcaster Sparkle came from.” after a moment's pause he continued “Anyways, Jay, how about you nap for a few hours, then we move at dusk?”

“Sounds like a plan. Is there a bed in this house?”

“There's one upstairs” commented Twilight, noticing that she was in Rarity's home.

Jay trudged up the stairs, his footsteps heavy. Twilight also retreated into the spare bedroom, the cycling of her magic had made her very tired.

“Just you and I.” Jay commented, glancing towards Trixie, who had made herself comfortable on a chair in the corner. She replied with a slight nod, and leaned back, trying to doze off while she had the chance, the long walk had tired her out as well. “Lightweights” muttered Bradley to himself. He went into the shop and returned with a pair of fabric scissors, taking the oppertunity to remove his damaged clothes.

Jay awoke to Bradley looming over him, he put an object immediatley in front of his face.

“Made us some beatin' sticks.”

Jay reached up and grabbed the object that was before him, after a breif inspection, he was able to identify it as half of a coat rack. Bradley had the other half attached to his belt.

“Nice shirt.” commented Jay, nodding towards the crude shirt that Bradley had sewn while the others slept.

“Chest rig had a big fukkin hole in it! Anyways, the other two are waiting downstairs. Let's get a move on.”

The four exited the house, following the path that Bradley had taken before, following Rarity. He would duck behind an alley, or raise his fist before rounding a corner. His movment was very methodical, albeit lacking in speed. They made their way to the edge of the town without incident, and soon they were walking on the path towards the cottage on the edge of the woods.

Bradley stopped, raising his finger to his mouth. Jay nodded, but the signal was lost on the other two ponies.

“What?” Twilight said, with a puzzled expression.

“It means be quiet.” wispered Jay, who was sidling up next to Bradley, trying to see what he had seen “What do your elf eyes see, Legolas?”

“Dickbutts. Two of them, about a hundred yards ahead of us.”

“Are they a threat?”

“Not really, I've killed legions of them” he said, smirking. “You take the one on the left, I'll get the one on the right.” With that, he screamed and began sprinting, charging up to full speed in a few steps. Jay swore and followed him, four steps behind.

The skeletal ponies had very little time to react, they were barley able to draw their weapons before Bradley was upon them. When he was almost on top of them, he leapt into the air, smashing down his 'beating stick' on the skull of his designated pony. With a crack, the ghoul was defeated. It's comrade turned to atack Bradley, but Jay used this to his advantage. He brought the stick down on the neck of the second ghoul, lacking the grace and power that Bradley had supplied. Despite this, there was still enough force applied to fell the ghoul. It fell to the ground, the bones de-animating as they fell.

“That's fun! It's like a pinata!” commented Jay

“I know!” added Bradley, waving his arm for the two hiding ponies to come near.

After moving the bones off of the road, the four continued down the path. They came around the bend, nearing Fluttershy's cabin. The old building had no lights on, but it was easily spotted against the moon. Bradley was the first to reach the cabin, travelling around fifeteen metres ahead of the group to deter an ambush against the whole party.

He stepped onto the deck, and quietly jiggled the handle. He opened the unlocked door, swinging it hard enough that it made a loud bang hitting the parallel wall. He bellowed at the top of his lungs into the home;

“Honey, I'm home!”