The Poncho Chronicles I: The Beans

Chapters

The Town
The Soothsayer
The Bus
The Road
The Glade
The Knoll
The Reunion
The Chase
The Discovery
The Hideout
The Arena
The Demise
The Beginning of...
...The End

The Town

On a relaxing day in August, Poncho and his eight friends went on a cross country trip on a bus, starting from their small town near the capital Canterlot, and working their way westward. Their last stop happened to be in Seaddle, where they would check out their favorite professional football team, the Seacawks, and watch them play in their first exhibition game of the season and hopefully get some autographs from their favorite players. After much debate, Poncho decided to tag along with his pals and pitch in for cost, even though he wasn’t a big fan of the sport.

Poncho was the most jubilant and comical one of the group, and also deemed the sketchiest by his friends. However, he still had the biggest heart and cared deeply about them. His coat had a khaki color that went with his dark brown eyes. His mane was a mix of brown with black highlights within it. His Cutie Mark was a small couch with a bag of chips and a game controller which rested on the cushions of the couch.

With Poncho and the others were Twilight Sparkle and her friends. Both parties met each other at Seaddle and decided to take a single bus back home. Twilight and her friends were merely on vacation, and for Twilight’s sake, research. Unfortunately, they had to go back home sooner than expected to fix a spell that went awry that made a users wings or horn unusable, along with their talent that made who they truly were. They were on their way back from the trip by going down the west coast and then heading east along the border to save more money, but also meaning, the trip would be longer and they wouldn't be able to use magic or flight for a longer period of time. On their departure towards home, after an hour or two away from Seaddle, hunger and restlessness bested them.

“Hey, where’s the next stop? I’m starving,” declared Rainbow Dash bitterly.

“There seems to be a town a couple of miles down the road that we can take a quick stop in, but we can’t be too long or the bus will leave without us...” said Twilight Sparkle, with uneasiness in her voice. "Let's try to get back home as soon as possible anyway."

“I’ve got the munchies, so we have to stop,” said Spike.

“Spike, that’s not n—” began Applejack.

“Oh it's necessary alright. I bet these dudes are hungry too,” retorted Spike. He pointed to Poncho and his group of friends, who all mostly nodded.

“But I—" Spike turned away and kept silent as Applejack frowned.

Soon thereafter, the bus slowed to a halt at a small, vacant town. There were a few gas stations and run down motels nearby which were most likely comprised of hookers, drug addicts, killers, and gangsters, but mostly hookers and drug addicts. The town was so small and desolate it probably wasn't even located on a map.

“Alright, go do what you want, but be back in thirty minutes or we’re leaving you behind,” said one of Poncho’s good friends, Clyde.

Clyde was a “true point guard” to his friends. He was well respected, and above all, had a personality that everybody liked and admired. He was always there for his friends and would do anything for them, whether it was a team problem or personal one. He had dark teal eyes that were harmonious to his grey coat and his favorite matching jacket that he wore everyday. His mane was a mix of dark brown and black. The mark on his flank, and that of his jacket, was of a musical note inside a basketball to represent his skill and passion of both.

Everyone all nodded then proceeded to split up and go in their own direction. While everyone went with somebody else, mostly in pairs, Poncho decided to look around the town by himself, as he was too nervous to ask anyone to join him. Rainbow Dash and the partner she was paired up with, Tyrone, quickly found their way to the nearest convenient store, where a strange man was behind the counter, but the two paid no attention to him and continued looking through the store.

“Ay yo, Rainbow Dash, what choo gettin’?” asked Tyrone. Tyrone shared similar hobbies and qualities with his good friend Clyde. However, unlike Clyde, he thrived for the spotlight. He was the most confident and cockiest of the others about his own abilities. Most ponies hated his cockiness, but his lax nature and personality made him a cool dude to be around. His coat was black along with his dark black mane. His eyes were dark gray and blackish also. His mark was also a basketball, like Clyde’s, except instead of having the musical note, Tyrone had a dollar sign, to represent his love for money and making it rain (money) due to his excellent athletic abilities.

“Just some snacks, but first I need to find the bathroom,” replied Rainbow Dash doing a small dance.

“Sheeeeeeiiit...” Tyrone said, as he watched her walk away when she saw the bathroom near the back of the store.

A few minutes later, Wahlburn and Spike ventured into the same store and also noticed the strange man behind the counter. During the short amount the time they spent together on the bus, Spike grew to like Wahlburn a lot. It was mostly due to the fact Wahlburn gave him a small sample of weed, which Spike enjoyed thoroughly.

“Hey, you see that dude behind the counter?” Spike asked Wahlburn as they entered the store.

“Yep, he looks like a demented serial killer,” replied Wahlburn. Walburn was one of the more typical and cliche types. He loved to smoke weed, had his own parties on occasion, which of course involved alcohol and the obvious weed, and would have sexual intercourse with his stick figured fillyfriend. He spent most of his days either high, and/or speaking in a very loud, obnoxious, and angry tone to everyone. Wahlburn had a pure white coat, which was now somewhat gray due to the constant tarnishing from the marijuana smoke. He had an olive drab colored mane, with dark brown eyes. His cutie mark portrayed a helmet with a dark green colored bong painted onto it, and also with flames around it.

“If he is, I hope he doesn't kill me,” said Spike with a worried look.

“Indeed,” voiced Wahlburn as they continued rummaging through the store. The two went on and bought some snacks, devoured them in a minute, then left the store. Like the druggies they are, both went off looking for the nearest dealer. It didn’t take long before they found a sketchy looking guy standing on the sidewalk and got their hands on some fresh weed. They found a discrete location and smoked half the bag, keeping the rest for later. Wahlburn and Spike were also the first ones back to the bus, after stumbling on return.

Most of the party didn’t do much during their road break except buy food and use the restroom. One of Poncho’s other friends, Jeb, found a gay bar that he needed to be drug out of, but other than that, everything was quickly done in the town.

Jeb had always been a part of the tightly knit group. Yet he had always seemed to have his differences with the clique. There would be times where they would all get along, and then others where Jeb would get singled out among the group. During these moments, Jeb would form a great spiteful rage, in which he would do anything in his power to piss off the rest of the group. It was these moments that sort of distanced him from the rest, yet he never left the group, nor was he ever removed from it. He just sort of became the outlier of them all. Jeb had a dark green coat color. His mane was black with white trim. His eyes were of pure gray. His mark was a cart full of dirty dishes to represent his working life as a busboy.

It was ten minutes before the bus was going to leave when all the stores started to shut down for the night. The air was growing cold and it was nearly pitch-black outside already, which was odd at this time of year, as it was only a quarter past six. Everyone was back at the bus, except for Poncho. None of Poncho's friends knew where he went off to, nor did they seem to care that much about his absence. Only Twilight and some of her friends showed concern.

“I say we leave him,” stated another one of Poncho’s eight friends that was part of the trip, Cannon, nonchalantly. Cannon was basically the smartass of the group. He loved to make everyone laugh and smile, yet hardly gave a shit about anything else. Cannon had a jet black coat that was accented by his blonde crew cut and short tail. He had these piercing red eyes, that all tied into his broad, military formed structure. The mark he wore with pride consisted of a Screamin' MeeMee that bore the flag of the Third Reich in honor of his ancestors. However, don't be fooled though as he had no hatred towards Jews, homosexuals, or any of the other anti-Semitic feelings that come with the Nazi ideology. He only hated Jeb and sought nothing more in the world than his demise.

“Yeah, I agree with him, who even needs that guy? He slows us down anyway,” Rainbow Dash chimed in.

“We can’t just leave him behind!” shrieked Twilight, “he’s our friend!”

“Friend? We don’t even know him, let alone any of the others,” stated Rarity as most of the males that she just talked about rolled their eyes.

“Whatever, he can find us anyway, he still has one of the walkie-talkies we found on the bus so he could call us and find a way back into town,“ said Cannon ignoring the prior statement, “let’s just go already, this place is giving me a weird vibe."

And as a whole, without Twilight’s consent, they decided they were going to leave Poncho behind, and boarded the bus back to Ponyville.

The Soothsayer

Poncho checked his watch. He was five minutes late of the original meeting time the rest of the group had agreed on earlier. Solicitously, he turned around and tried to get back to the bus stop as fast as possible, hoping that the others would wait for him. He quickly approached the bus stop and realized they hadn't. Frightened, he tried to call his friends with the walkie-talkie. After a few unsuccessful attempts, he looked and saw that he had no batteries. Afraid of being alone, he went back to the center of the creepy, nearly abandoned town. He noticed one store still open and thought he may be able to use their phone, that is, if they had one.

Poncho opened the door to the convenient store, the same one that Rainbow Dash, Tyrone, Spike, and Wahlburn ventured into just thirty minutes before. As the others did, he noticed the strange looking pony behind the counter. The pony was skinny, which was an oddity for one his age. He also had a long dark cloak on, draping over his long back. He felt uncomfortable about talking to him and looked around for any other employees. He searched around quickly but, unfortunately, the only other person in the store was the man behind the counter. Feeling brave, he slowly walked up to the counter.

“Hey, um...” asked Poncho nervously, ”would you happen to have batteries around here?”

Just as the man was about to answer, a masked individual came through the door. His mask was shaped like a bean. Poncho had no time to react when he was hit in the head with the butt of a gun. A burst of light filled his eyes, and then the world turned dark.

* * * * *

“Hey, hey! Are you alright kid?”

A voice ringed in Poncho’s head as he slowly regained consciousness. He got up slowly and looked around. The masked individual was gone and the weird man behind the counter was standing over him.”I guess,” said Poncho rubbing his head, “what happened, did you get robbed?”

“No, no, no,” smiled the man, “you see I had my own gun behind the counter, a Remmington 870.” He looked over at his gun, with a grin of pride. “I thought he would have shot me first but he ran like a bitch. Oh by the way, my name’s Xarlin.”

“My name is Poncho, thanks for saving me.”

“Nice to meet you, and no problem boy,” replied Xarlin, “do you need anything else?”

"Yes actually, there is something,” started Poncho,"would you happen to have a set of batteries? My friends left on a bus without me and I need to see what’s going on.”

Xarlin looked around suspiciously and looked at Poncho with an awkward, almost haunting stare. “Yeah, I have some behind the counter," he said with a nod of his had. Xarlin then proceeded to the storage room and left Poncho alone.

Poncho got up and limbered over to where the batteries were and plugged them into the back of the device. He couldn’t shake a thought that something bad was going to happen to the rest of the group. He tried to ignore it and held the "Talk" button hoping someone answer back. To his happiness, another one of the friends that went on the trip with them, answered back, the loner Patel.

Patel was a rather quiet one. Although he had his quiet personality, he was also tech smart. He spent much of his day playing video games or watching videos on the Internet. He stayed within his close knit group of friends and could be very obnoxious with them, but when meeting new people, like the time he first met Clyde and Poncho, he tended to be quite shy. His eyes were of a navy blue,with a light cerulean blue coat color hue. His mane matched the color of his eyes. His mark was of a navy colored lion wielding a staff, in honor of his dedication and love of his favorite Futbol team. “Hey, who is this?”

“Patel! Hey, it’s Poncho, where are you guys at and why did you leave me here?” said Poncho with anger and sorrow in his question due to his friend’s choice of leaving him behind.

“Look, you were ten minutes late and the bus driver wouldn’t wait any longer,” replied Patel, “don’t worry though, we’re only a mile or so down the road because this damn shite bus broke down.”

Relief filled Poncho’s mind. “Are you guys going to be long? I mean, I could just walk down the road and meet you there, at most it would take only about twenty minutes.”

“Yeah, this will probably be a while, but be careful, this area is sketchy as fuck. Get here as soon as possible.”

“Don’t worry I will be,” Poncho said to calm his friend’s uneasiness, “I’m not feeling so well right now so I might grab something to make me feel better.”

“No need, brother. Wahlburn and this dragon Spike have some weed, they’ll probably let you have some, hell, we all might be able to have some.” said Patel with slight humor.

“Nah bro, I don’t do that stuff,” declined Poncho.

“Alright, whatever, suit yourself more for us then.” Patel chuckled, “Good luck man.” and with that final thought, he cut off the transmission.

Poncho hung up and was still feeling dizzy. He took a seat on the floor and leaned his head back on the wall. He couldn’t stop himself from falling asleep right there.

Poncho woke up and he was back on the bus. Confused, he sat up. He had no idea how he ended up on the bus, but he just figured that the group went back and picked him up. He looked out the window and saw that the sun had just risen. He looked around and noticed that everybody on the bus was asleep, even the bus driver. Poncho ran over to the driver and began to shake him to try to wake him up. As he was shaking him, the driver’s license fell to the floor, revealing his name as Captain Quantico Baxter.

“Quantico,” yelled Poncho, slapping the driver as well to force him awake, “Wake up!! We are going to crash!!” To his avail, Quantico would not wake up. Shit...shit...shit, thought Poncho as he cursed to himself. There was no way to wake anybody up. Poncho looked up again, but the evident happened.

The bus veered off the highway and slammed into a large tree. The bus was flipped on it’s side and Poncho was flung to the back of the bus, The shockwave woke everyone up. Poncho saw an ember spark in the front of the bus. Soon, the ember grew into a massive fireball. The flames engulfed Quantico, then shot out at Rivs, continuing in a path towards Sticky, Jeb, Wahlburn, Patel, Clyde, and finally Cannon.Tyrone and him were next, but he couldn’t move because a seat was crushing him into the side of the bus. Poncho closed his eyes and prepared for the worst.

Poncho opened his eyes and was back at the convenient store, it was just a bad dream.

“Hey kid, wake up!” said the familiar voice of Xarlin, "you’ve been out again for about ten minutes. I’m about to close the store for the night so you gotta go.”

“Oh, sorry,” said Poncho sadly as he rose from the floor,”I’ll just be going now.” He left the store thanking Xarlin for helping earlier with the masked individual and for allowing him use of the phone. Xarlin gave a feign nod and locked the doors. Down the road, Poncho turned around and saw the store’s lights shutting off, leaving him in darkness. With a nervous shrug he fled the town.

Poncho began his walk down the dark road leading past the outskirts of the town. He felt extremely alone, as no cars seemed to travel this road at night. The wind blew hard, and was cold and eerie. The trees swayed back and forth, almost teasing him. Poncho checked his phone, and saw that he had been walking for fifteen minutes. He confidently thought that the bus should appear from the darkness any minute. He turned his head to the right and noticed something white in the trees. It moved suddenly then disappeared in the shadows. Poncho ran as fast as he could down the road and shortly saw the lights of the bus down the road.

The Bus

The bus pulled out of the town and everyone got comfortable in their seats. There was some joking going on with Spike and Wahlburn, who were still feeling the effects of the weed they smoked earlier. The mood was chill and everyone else was slowly falling asleep when the bus suddenly jerked and halted at the side of the road.

“Hey, what the fuck?!” yelled Wahlburn.

“Shut up Wahlburn,” replied Jeb, “Do you have to be so damn loud?”

Wahlburn gave Jeb a threatening look and yelled back, “Fuck you, Jeb. You’re beat.” Spike, who found this comical, started laughing along with Wahlburn.

“Haha, yeah, beat!” The two kept laughing for what seemed like a couple minutes.

“Seriously, though,” said Cannon annoyed by the pair’s shenanigans,”what’s going on?” The driver, Quantico, got up from his seat and started to pound on the dashboard. After a minute or two he replied back.

“Bus took a shit, I’m going to step outside and check it out.” He opened the door of the bus and walked outside into the cold air. The rest of the group sat on the bus in silence for another five minutes until a voice finally broke out.

“Come on,” said Rarity whining, “ I’m tired of this bland and filthy bus. All I want to do is get out of these terrible woods, and go home and take a nice, relaxing bath.”

Applejack looked at her. “Quit yer whining, Rarity. Just be glad we are safe on this bus and not out there deep in the dark woods without support.”

Rarity looked at her with cloudy eyes. “But I—”

“No!” shouted Patel who jumped up and looked at her, “don’t even start bitching. I can’t stand bitches who bitch and complain about every damn pointless thing!” He sat back down, while everyone else on the bus were left shocked. Most of the group simply kept quiet for a moment and then continued talking in their little groups they had made on the bus. Clyde gave Patel a cold glare, who refused to acknowledge his exchange and looked out the window. Clyde then glanced over at Rarity, who was also in deep thought looking out the window, but he noticed that she had tears growing in her eyes. He looked at her for another moment, and then stared at the floor in remaining silent.

A few minutes passed and the conversations were subdued by a strange growl. “Does anyone want to trade a bit of Wahlburn's weed for a bag of chips?” said Spike with a sigh, “I’ve got the munchies again.”

Patel’s walkie-talkie began to buzz, but ignored it momentarily to toss Spike a small bag of chips for some weed in return. “Keep quiet, someone is trying to call me.”

He answered the walkie-talkie and rambled on for a minute or so. After hanging up he said, “It’s Poncho, he said he’s back at the town and that he’s just going to walk here to rendezvous with the rest of us.”

“You’d be crazy to walk along this road on a night like this,” Fluttershy spoke up, ”who knows what kind of scary creatures that are out there!”

Patel cleared the window of fog and looked out of it and agreed. “He insisted though. Anyway, we can’t just go back and pick him up, our bus kinda broke down.”

Twenty minutes passed and everyone was growing extremely tired. The jubilant atmosphere from earlier had died down and now everyone was grumpy. Spike and Wahlburn finally calmed down from before, and Quantico stepped back in the bus.

“Welp, this is going to take a while to fix,” he said scratching his head, “We might be here all night, and maybe we’ll have to get this thing towed somehow. So get comfortable, I’ll be outside if you need me.” The news made everyone groan.

“Well no point in waiting,” Patel said, “I’ll be sleeping if anyone needs me.” No one heard him as everyone else had already fallen asleep before he spoke.

As soon as Patel drifted to sleep, Poncho stormed onto the bus and woke everyone up accidentally.

“Hey, look, It’s the sketchbag!” laughed Wahlburn, as he pointed to Poncho. Spike laughed with him.

“Dammit, Poncho, I was finally getting some sleep,” growled Cannon, rubbing his eyes.

“Sorry, I thought I saw something outside in the woods.”

“Like what?” asked Sticky Hooves while Twilight and her friends looked at him with confused faces. Sticky Hooves was more of the quiet type. He kept to himself most of the time, but as soon as he felt comfortable around everyone, he became a little less socially awkward. He was good friends with everyone, but his best friend was the last member of the group, Rivs. Sticky had a light blue coat and a white mane, which resembled the colors of his favorite place in the world, the University of North Marolina. His mark consisted of 2 basketballs side by side, sitting beside the university’s famous Tar Heel.

“You can TALK!?” yelled Pinkie Pie, who then became happy at the thought of him speaking. Before Sticky could answer again to say he wasn’t a mute, Poncho cut back in.

“I don’t know what it was, but I know it was white. It also moved really fast! Before I could take a second look at it, it disappeared.”

“We can talk about it later,” said Cannon in an annoyed voice, “just get some sleep.” He then fell on the seat and closed his eyes. In a few minutes, he was out. Everybody else soon followed. Poncho laid down in a seat. He was glad that after his experiences, he could regroup with his friends. It didn’t take long for him to drift into well deserved sleep.

Morning sunshine came through the windows of the bus rather quickly as everyone grumbled out of their sleep. Tyrone was the first one up and walked to the front of the bus. He stretched and stopped and exclaimed, “Aw shit. Ay! Everyone. Where’s Quantico at?”

Most of them didn’t hear him, or were still tired and ignored him. Cannon was the first to reply back, “What are you talking about?”

“Where’s Quantico at?” he looked outside the bus windows with a worried face, “he never came back in here from last night and I don’t see him anywhere outside.”

Patel woke from his slumber and sat up. “I think you are overreacting." He opened a bag of chips and started to eat some. "Maybe he’s just taking a shit outside?” Tyrone continued not believing him while everyone else started conversations throughout the bus.

“I’ll go check,” said Cannon as he slowly got out of his seat and walked off of the bus. The morning was sunny, as in a normal day in the middle of August should be. The air, however, was still abnormally chilly. He looked around the bus and trees, but there was no sign of Quantico. He paced around the bus again and saw something he hadn’t seen the first time. What looked like a blood trail was leading towards an abandoned house on the side of the road.

“Well that’s fucking creepy,” said Cannon, as he hurried back onto the bus. When he got back on, he broke up some friendly morning conversations with the news of the blood trail that he found.

“He’s probably just dicking with us,” said Wahlburn, “you know those types of ponies.”

“Or, you know, he’s dead,” added Spike, “that also sounds pretty reasonable around these parts.” Most of them then debated on what might of happened to Quantico. Spike thought he was murdered, Patel thought he was taking a deuce somewhere in the woods, and Fluttershy thought he was kidnapped by hostile woodland creatures.

Cannon stood up.”Well someone come with me and check this shit out.” Nobody volunteered to help so he just called out someone to go with him, “Poncho, come with me.”

“Well...” said Poncho as he drug out the word, as if to stall time. “I’m not sure...I mean, I just got back, so don’t you think I could have a break and chill with my bros?” He then gave a nervous chuckle.

“You’re kidding,” said Cannon without any emotion or enthusiasm, “don’t be that guy.” All eyes were then on Poncho, making him feel even more awkward than what he was.

“Just go, man,” said finally the last member of Poncho's group, Rivs. Rivs for the longest time was Sticky's arch-nemesis. Years before, Rivs and his Dook friends had upset Sticky's favorite basketball team with a game winning 3-point. This of course had been shot by Rivs himself, but over time they progressed from being simple acquaintances to ultimately becoming best friends through their unfaltering love for basketball. Rivs himself was a unicorn, or maybe a bicorn through a genetic mutation. His horn was split in the womb and he now resembled a devil pony. Unlike most unicorns, he, however, was unable to perform magic. He was a deep royal blue pony with a pure white mane with deep green eyes. His mark resembled a pelican holding a basketball, and on this basketball, there was a bold 3 painted onto it. Again, like Sticky, Twilight and her friends were astonished that he could speak too.

Finally, Poncho caved in and agreed, “Alright, alright, I’ll go...” With a face full of glee, Cannon walked off the bus, while Poncho slowly trudged behind him. They followed the blood trail down the side of the road. After a few minutes, they were in front of the house. The house was only a rancher, but it was worn down. The paint was nearly off the walls. The shingles were either gone, or partially off. The door, had strange markings on it, and was heavier and thicker than most front doors.

“If this isn’t the sketchiest thing ever,” said Cannon as his voice trailed off. He looked at Poncho and saw that he was spazzing out. Poncho’s eyes were huge in fear and dread as they touched the handle of the door, “Never mind, you are.”

Cannon and Poncho knocked on the door to see if anyone might be inside, but there was no answer. Cannon slowly opened the door and stepped inside with Poncho. The inside of the house was in no better condition as the outside. Paint was mostly chipped away by age. Furniture was either absent or ravaged. They proceeded to follow the blood trail and came up on a closed door. The door had markings on it as with its front door companion.

“Poncho open the door,” demanded Cannon. Poncho listened and opened the door. From what they could see from where they were at, there was a staircase leading down to a dark basement. Cannon flicked on the lights and could make out something at the bottom of the stairs. It was Quantico’s dead body. Cannon and Poncho turned around and booked it out of the house and back to the bus. They informed everyone of what they saw.

“That’s bullshit,” said Patel, in disbelief.

“No dude, I’m fuckin’ serious. Quantico is dead,” addressed Cannon.

“A murder! I need to see this,” said Rainbow Dash eagerly. Spike and Wahlburn agreed and wanted to go back to the house. Without any hesitation, Cannon showed them the way back. Dash, Spike, Wahlburn, and Cannon led the group as the others slowly walked behind them.

When everyone was gathered, they all crept into the house. Twilight was paying no attention to the group as she studied the markings on both doors. Cannon slowly opened the door to the basement, ready to explain what happened earlier,but he froze. Instead of seeing Quantico’s body, another object was in its place. On the floor of where Quantico’s body was, there was a Remmington 870 lying in the same spot.

Past memories flooded into Poncho’s mind, “Oh shit!” he started to feel dizzy as he remembered where he saw that gun before, “we really need to go!”

“What, why? I want to see a body,” said Spike, disappointedly.

“The creepy clerk at the gas station where I called you guys from had that same exact gun!” Poncho started running in small circles nervously.

“You’re correct, my boy,” said a mysterious voice from the basement. Everyone froze in fear at the sound of the voice. They all looked down the basement stairs. It was dark, save for the illuminated shotgun, but they could see movement in the shadows in the corner of the basement. Before anything else could happen, Poncho slammed the door shut, and ran out of the house, screaming. Everyone else ran back following him. Most of Twilight's friends ran back screaming like Poncho did. They all managed to get back on the bus and stopped to take a breather.

“What are we supposed to do now!?" asked Poncho gasping for breath.

“We can’t drive the bus out of here, unless Quantico got it fixed before whatever happened to him,” said Patel.

“I’ll check it,” said Cannon getting up. He started to fiddle with the bus controls, but as expected, the bus wouldn’t even start.

“Eventually a car or another bus is going to come down the road,” said Rivs, “we could get them to help us.” They all agreed. What else could they do at this point? They all sat down in seats and decided to leave it up to fate.

The Road

“Why are we waiting in a bus when there’s a killer in the house fifty feet from us?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“Good point,” said Spike. Simultaneously, everyone grabbed their belongings and hurried off the bus. There wasn’t a whole lot of items that were brought for the guys road trip, except food and sorts of clothing, like Tyrone’s myriad of sport hats. Poncho and his group also soon learned that Twilight carried books with her everywhere she went. Fluttershy told the group this was normal, but they still found it weird, even by their means.

“Let’s just walk down the road,” said Sticky, looking down the long road ahead, “we’re bound to run into a car or small town eventually.”

With that notion, the long journey walking down the road ahead began. They walked for about twenty minutes without any signs of progress. The road was flat, and the surroundings were a forest that seemed to never end on their right, with plains that stretched across the horizon on their left. After another few minutes of walking they came across a two-way split in the road.

“Let’s stop here for now,” said Poncho, “I’m tired.”

“I agree,” said Twilight, “I found an interesting bit of information reading this book while we were walking.” She took out one of her many books that she had brought and sifted through the pages. She finally stopped and pointed to a picture of a strange marking.

“Wait,” said Cannon, “wasn’t this on the door of that house where we found Quantico?”

“Yes!” replied Twilight, “I knew I saw those before so I had to look them up, sure enough, they are in here.”

“Well, what do the markings mean?” asked Patel. Curiosity also took advantage of the others.

“According to this,” said Twilight as she tapped on the book, “that marking is the symbol of a cult whose name is “Phaselus Civilis.” This cult is known around these parts, but their motives are still shrouded in a mystery. This book also says if you ever do meet a member of Phaselus Civilis then bad fortunes are to ensue upon you, but it’s just a myth.” The group sat there in silence.

“That’s some BS manye,” said Tyrone, “we never came across any members of that cult and these bad things are happenin’ to us!" He sat there with an angry look of his face. “What do these punk-ass bitches look like?”

“I have no idea,” said Twilight as she sifted through the book again and searched for a picture of the cult’s attire. She gave up after finding nothing. As she set the book back down, an envelope fell down from inside of the book. “What the...that wasn’t here before when I was in Seaddle.” She picked it up and dropped it in horror. On the front of the envelope was the same symbol from the house and the book. Most of them yelled and backed up from the envelope. Twilight crawled back to it and picked it up. She slowly opened it up and screamed.

In the envelope was a photo. The photo had Quantico’s dead body being hung from a rope in an unknown building. Beside Quantico, however, was a masked individual looking straight at the picture taker, whoever that was. Twilight dropped the photo and ran back to the others. As it hit the ground, the photo landed on the front side, revealing the back. The back had the same symbol that had been torturing them for the past day, and a message: “There is no Hope, only Despair.” Again, screams filled the campsite.

Poncho got up and started to pace in dread, “Guys...do you remember that gas station with that guy and the phone?” He started to pace again.

“GET TO THE POINT!!” yelled Wahlburn, “stop dragging it out, you fuck!”

Poncho backed up from him, “Well...I may have kinda, uh, “met” one of those masked people...” he gave his nervous chuckle again.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and all looked at Poncho with shock. Everyone stared at him with their mouths ajar and in disbelief. Poncho could feel these looks of hatred and sorrow surrounding him. Tyrone got up slowly and started walking over to him, “You sonuvabitch...” He threw a punch at Poncho. Poncho flinched, but was unscathed due to Patel’s interruption.

“Guys...look over there,” said Patel as he motioned towards the forest. Everyone stopped and looked over there. The females, and Poncho, screamed again. Out of the forest, walking towards them slowly, was a masked individual that matched the figure in the photo. Everyone froze in fear until Patel turned and ran down the left split in the road with most of them soon doing the same. Sticky, Rivs, Jeb, and Applejack remained at the camp frozen in fear, but as soon as the masked individual crept within about twenty feet of them all four booked it down the right split in the road, running as fast as they could.

“Shit!” yelled Spike, running as fast as his stubby legs could carry him.

"Spike!" retorted Twilight. "Language!"

“Is he behind us?” asked Wahlburn, too focused on running to turn around and look.

“I don’t think so,” said Clyde looking back, checking behind them. “I don’t think he was chasing us in the first place.”

“Okay, stop running!” shouted Patel, and the group halted in an instance. They all sat or laid down for a quick breath of air. Clyde noticed the group was smaller than before.

“We’re obviously missing some of us,” he said looking down the road to see if the others were lagging behind.

“Ah, Sticky and Rivs,” said Patel gravely, “I don’t see them anywhere.” A feel of sadness carried out throughout the chilly air. “However, Jeb and Applejack appear to be missing also.” The sadness drifted away in the air, as happiness bloomed in their emotions. Only Twilight and the rest of her friends were sad that Applejack was gone.

“I hope I never see them again,” exclaimed Spike, “I hope they get chased down by a pack of timberwolves and mauled alive.” He laughed as he said it.

“Spike!” yelled Twilight, but he refused to care and take back what he said.

“But Sticky and Rivs are still out there,” said Wahlburn solemnly. “We need to find them. They’re cool dudes, even though all they talk about is basketball.” Everyone agreed and started to plan ideas to help find their missing peers. After a few minutes of intense planning, Clyde spoke up.

“I’ve got an idea. How about six of us go looking for them, while the other six continue down the road to look for help?”

After debate, they finally concluded that it was the only logical way to go about this situation in the little time that they had. Tyrone, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Twilight, and Pinkie Pie volunteered to help look for the others.

“That’s five,” said Clyde as he turned around to the others, “we need one more to go with them.”

“I nominate Poncho,” said Spike in a nonchalant voice.

“Yeah, Poncho,” added Patel.

“Definitely Poncho,” voiced Wahlburn.

Poncho looked frightened and disappointed at the same time. “Come on guys,” he complained sadly, “Do I have to?”

“Yes, now go!” said Clyde, giving Poncho a shove forward. The search group then left immediately and traversed back down the road they were chased off from. The light from the sky was starting to fall below the horizon. “They better hurry up and find them. Darkness in these parts seems to be a bad omen.” He then joined the remaining members of the group and they hurried down the road, hoping to find a town or someone else.

It was already dark out by the time the search group traveled back down to the split in the road. The temperature was colder on this night than yesterdays. When they arrived at their old camp at the split in the road, they instead took the road to the right. A few minutes traveling that road, they eventually came across Sticky leaning against a fallen tree.

“Ay, Sticky where’s everyone else at?” asked Tyrone.

“I tripped and sprained my hoof,” he said holding it, grimacing in pain. “Everyone else just kept running and veered off into the woods.” The search group then looked at the dark outline of the woods and sighed. Into the dark maze of woods they would have to go.

The Glade

“Tyrone and I are going to stay here with Sticky,” said Rainbow Dash, “you guys keep looking for Rivs.”

Poncho, Twilight, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy nodded and continued into the sketchy forest. The interior of the forest was darker than the outside of the forest due to the tall trees that shrouded them. The forest was indeed a thick maze of trees and branches that, even without darkness, cut visibility. They continued to run through it to an unknown location.

“Hey, Fluttershy,” said Twilight, “can’t you summon up your woodland creatures to help us find Rivs? I mean we could probably find non-hostile animals somewhere in here.”

“I would but...we can’t use our powers, remember?” replied Fluttershy in her soft voice. Twilight frowned due to the fact as she had forgotten that important detail in their journey home. That was the real reason why she cut her research trip short.

They trekked into the forest longer and they all noticed the temperature still gradually lowering as time passed. It was a good thing they had brought extra blankets from the bus or their asses would have been quite frozen. They draped the blankets around their necks and were stopped by a Pinkie Pie outburst.

“Guys, guys! I see something hanging from the tree over there!”

“What tree?” asked Twilight as she tried to scan the dark forest.

“That big one to your right!” said Pinkie.

Twilight looked over and she saw a big tree, alone. The tree was in the middle of the forest, so she thought, and was under the only gap that showed the sky. The moonlight shined on something that was hanging from the tree. It was faint from where they were currently at, so they decided to get a closer look. They approached the tree slowly and realized that the body of Rivs was the thing hanging from the tree. Horror struck them at what they saw of him. His body was loaded with bloody scratches and bruises. His limbs were also deeply cut. His eyes were still open and lifeless.

“Oh no! Guys, let’s go,” said Poncho nervously.

“Hold on a second,” said Twilight. She stepped closer and examined the corpse of Rivs. She studied the cut marks and how deep they were. Finally, she noticed what looked like a mark on Rivs’ dangling arm. She quickly returned to her friends’ side. “Yeah, we should go, and let’s make it fast.”

“What is it?” asked Pinkie curious of her findings.

Twilight looked at her blankly, “It’s the same marking from the house we found Quantico-.” Poncho was quickly off before she finished the sentence. They chased after him deeper into the woods.

“Poncho wait, you’re going the wrong way!” yelled Twilight as she and her friends chased him through the forest. Poncho ignored them. He kept running to get away from everyone and everything. He couldn’t believe this was actually happening. After a long sprint, he stopped and sat down as he couldn’t run any longer. A couple seconds later the rest of them caught up to him.

“Poncho,” said Twilight out of breath, “why did you run this way?”

“I don’t know, I was scared,” said Poncho sadly.

“Well,” said Twilight as she and the others helped him up, “let’s just all get back to Rainbow Dash and the others. I bet they are worried about us. We have been in this forest long enough.”

The group jogged cautiously through the forest back to the clearing near the road where Sticky was sitting. As they passed more and more trees, they kept noticing the marking on them they swore they didn’t see the first time through. “They have to be following us,” said Fluttershy softly. “They’re almost mocking us at this point.”

Twilight nodded, “Probably, let’s hurry up and pick up the pace. I think I see the clearing.”

They all sped to a full, almost near sprint. It felt like they were running for hours when they finally saw the clearing to the road in sight. They broke out of the dark forest and onto the side of the road. They saw Rainbow Dash, Tyrone, and Sticky at the same spot they were at earlier.

“That was quick,” said Rainbow Dash fluttering her unusable wings. "Although, I could have been in and out of there much faster."

“Quick?” said Twilight shockingly, “it felt like we were in there for hours!”

“Well it’s only been ten minutes. I guess you didn’t find anyone?”

“Well...” started Poncho with his famous drug out word.

"Well what,” said Sticky half-annoyed, “don’t even start that here.”

“We did find Rivs,” said Twilight gravely, “but he’s kinda dead.” Sticky, Rainbow Dash, and Tyrone went silent. The silence was broken after a couple of mournful seconds.

“Dead? You’re kiddin’ me, right?” said Sticky in disbelief, “you have to be. There is no way he is dead. We have been through a lot and you guys are saying he, my best friend, is DEAD?!” Sticky sat back down and closed his eyes.

“Oh no he’s dead alright, you can go check for yourself,” said Poncho, “he’s hanging from a huge tree just in the forest.

“Shieeettt, now I’m da only brotha out here...” said Tyrone, “tha dude was fly.”

“Save the tears for later,” said Rainbow Dash suddenly, “that doesn’t matter right now. What we need to do is go back to the rest of the group and see if they’re alright.”

“Yeah, we-”

A loud screech echoed from in the forest cutting off Twilight, and everyone froze. They then heard a second one, which sounded closer to them than the prior one. They kept hearing the screeches get closer and closer until their minds told them to get out of there and they began to run down the road.

“What is that?!” asked Poncho loudly.

“I don’t know and I don’t care, just run!” yelled Twilight.

They heard a scream right behind them, Tyrone took a quick glance over his shoulder. “Ay! They be draggin’ Sticky away!” The others turned and saw Sticky being dragged by a dark figure into the woods until they could see him no more. Then they heard a scream, which they could tell belonged to Sticky. The scream continued for another five seconds, and then swiftly, the scream, along with Sticky, was no more. “Aw man! Everyone’s dyin’!”

Twilight closed her eyes of the horrors from what had occurred in the the past twenty minutes. She couldn’t grasp the fact that they were all about to die, one by one. The world seemed to start swirling in disbelief and fear. She quickly shook her head and fought back tears. She abandoned the prior thoughts and looked at the remaining members of their group. “We need to keep going, there’s nothing we can do now. Let’s just hope we can get back to the others before any more of us perish.”

* * * * *

The Knoll

The rest of the company traveled the road until fatigue bested them. The sky was shrouded black by this time, but no one could tell the actual time. The search group was gone for, what they believed, for what seemed over four or five hours. After failing to find a town or someone to help them in their plight, they decided to stop for rest and make a basecamp. They found a reasonable spot, nearly half a mile from the road, that was also surrounded by the base of hills, perfect to hide from possible pursuers.

“I’ll go find some firewood,” said Clyde. He faced towards the small patch of trees near the base of the hills.

“For a fire?” questioned Wahlburn, “how are we going to light a fire?” Most of them just looked at him for his ignorance.

“I’m a fucking dragon, you idiot,” said Spike, “unlike the others, that spell didn’t affect me because I’m not part of their “Harmony” group. Sometimes I wonder why I am hanging with you.” The two started to bicker back and forth and soon, their verbal battle became so pointless and irrelevant that Cannon fell asleep on the ground.

Clyde continued listening to the argument for another minute and then continued on his way in his search for firewood to heat up from the terrible cold of the air. He made his way to the small clearing of trees and scavenged around. He found a multitude of twigs and branches that fell off the trees. He looked up at the sky and saw that the moon had already risen to the top of the sky. He quickly gathered as much as he could, and made his way back. On his return he noticed that Wahlburn and Spike had set their differences aside and were particularly happier than they were moments before. “What is wrong with them?” he asked Patel suspiciously.

“When you left, they kept arguing for another five minutes or so, then they pulled out that bag of weed they bought in that run-down town. They just finished and now are being affected by it.”

“Did you have some?”

“No, they wouldn’t let me,” said Patel a little disappointed, “it doesn’t matter though, as I’m about to fall asleep. This damn cold weather is pissing me off and making me tired. Seriously, it’s fucking early August...” He grabbed a blanket they took from the bus and covered up to protect himself from the snipping cold. After a few minutes, he was passed out on the ground sleeping beside Cannon. Clyde zipped up his jacket and sat there along side Wahlburn and Spike who were laughing and making jokes at each other. The effects of the weed were making them immune to the harshness of the cold.

Wait, thought Clyde. He looked around the camp and realized the absence of the final member of their group. Where did she go? He got up and searched the surrounding area. After looking in the camp, he looked up at the hills and squinted his eyes. He saw a dark silhouette against the lighter shade of the hill, that showed a slight contrast, making it noticeable, even in the dark of the night. He looked back at Wahlburn and Spike, who were both passed out now due to the weed, and made his trek up the hill.

The ascend up the hill was not at all difficult. The size appeared much larger at a distance than up close to what it actually was. When Clyde was almost at the pinnacle, he saw Rarity look at him with confusion and then continued to look past him, down onto the camp below. When he finally made it to the top of the hill, he sat beside her.

“What are you doing up here?” she asked him, still looking at the camp, as to avoid his presence.

Clyde ignored the question for a moment and looked up into the sky. The dark sky was illuminated with the bright stars and moon of the night now. He remembered how, when he was little, he would always go outside during the warm nights as a child and look into the sky whenever he had a problem and watch the stars clear his thoughts and troubles as it helped him with his loneliness. Because of this, he learned names of constellations and certain stars that he could pick out during any night. He looked to see if he could spot some of these constellations and then replied back, “I could ask you the same thing.”

“I asked you first,” taunted Rarity.

Clyde chuckled at the remark and finally answered, “Well, you were missing and I decided to come and find you. Obviously being alone didn’t work for Quantico.” He saw the distant fire in the camp finally diminish in the wind. “I answered your question. Now answer mine: why and when did you sneak up here?”

Rarity remained silent for a few seconds and responded, “I came up here nearly as soon as you left for firewood.” Her sight was still on the camp below them.

“Yeah, okay, but why?”

Rarity finally stopped avoiding him and looked at him, “In case you didn’t know, I am the only girl here.”

“Okay.”

“Well, I’m not going to hang around a bunch of random guys I don’t even know!” Her face was furious. "Especially if some do drugs! You know what could happen to a lady like me with a bunch of random immature guys!”

“Well, you do know Spike,” stated Clyde.

“That’s not the point! He would probably help you guys as he thinks I hate him for rejecting him countless times, even though I did it nicely.”

“Ah, so you’re hiding because you don’t trust us.” Clyde looked at the sky again and noticed the two bright stars, Altair and Vega, beaming above them. He felt a sudden urge of confidence in him, which never happened to him before. “You can trust me.”

Rarity looked at him blankly. “How?”

“Well, I did come to search for you.”

“Yeah, but I wasn’t asking for help,” she said as she looked down at the ground. “Besides, who else would even bother?”

“I don’t know, Patel?” Clyde gave a good-hearted chuckle.

Rarity gave a cold glare at his response. “That’s not funny.”

“Sorry,” apologized Clyde, “are you still mad at him?” She continued with her glare until Clyde looked away, “Alright, that answers that...” Suddenly a cold burst of wind attacked them and quickly subsided within moments. The temperature seemed to be colder, and it felt more deadly, than nights before.

“This darn weather!” complained Rarity shivering and hugging herself for warmth. “Why is it so cold? It’s early August and it keeps getting colder and colder every night! It should still be warm weather! This trip has been nothing but trouble. I knew I shouldn’t have went in the first place. Ponyville is a hundred times more elegant than this!” She quickly looked away to hide a frozen tear so Clyde wouldn't see it. Clyde looked over at her and then back to the sky. Altair and Vega was still shining brightly amongst the blackened sky. After more deep thought, he unzipped his jacket and took it off. He placed it on her shoulders. Rarity looked at him with a surprised look.

“Clyde! I-” she began but was interrupted by his voice.

“No, put it on.” He looked back at the sky. “I can handle this cold. Besides, my jacket looks better on you anyways than it does on me.” That comment made her smile. It was the first time Clyde had seen her smile since first meeting her, and he was glad that he was able to make her happy after all that had happened to her and to the group since the past few days.

“Thank you...,” said Rarity softly.

“Don’t mention it,” replied Clyde. He felt a cool breeze on his back but ignored it. “You know, you are the only other one to ever wear that jacket. Consider yourself lucky.”

“Well, my name is Rarity...,” she said as she smiled at him. They both laughed and began talking about an assortment of topics. He learned that she was a dressmaker and ran her own business back in Ponyville while she learned that he was a fan of music and playing basketball with his friends, especially with Tyrone. Of course, during the time they spent together on the hill, sometimes while Clyde talked, he stuttered or caused an awkward pause that Rarity giggled to. The conversations continued until dawn quickly approached, a few hours later.

“Morning already?” said Clyde as he got up from the hill and stretched. “Time sure does fly. The others will probably be awake soon.” Rarity started to take off Clyde’s jacket.

“Here, you can have this back,” she said.

“No, keep it,” said Clyde looking down at her. “My time with that is past due.” She looked back at him and nodded and put the jacket back on. He helped her up and they walked down the hill together back to the camp. Clyde walked over to the dead fire and took a blanket from the pile beside it trying not to wake Cannon, Patel, Wahlburn, and Spike as they were all still passed out. He walked back over to Rarity.

“I’m going to take a quick nap before they wake up,” said Clyde, “do you want this?” He showed her the blanket.

Rarity shook her head and looked at his jacket that she was wearing. “No, I’ll just use this." She grabbed the edge of his old jacket and smiled.

“Alright, well, wake me if you need me,” said Clyde as he turned to head back to the middle of the camp to join his fellow mates in sleep.

“Wait, Clyde,” said Rarity and he stopped with his back still turned, “thank you for actually caring and coming to find me. I’m glad I have someone I can trust here. I won’t forget it. I never would have thought any of your group would ever be worried about my friends, let alone me.”

Clyde turned around and smiled. “Don’t mention it. I’m glad I could help.” She waved at him then entered her tent she put up from the night before.

He turned back around and walked closer to the middle of the camp to find a spot to rest. He was both tired and not tired at the same time. His time awake wasn’t wasted in his opinion so it didn’t really matter to him. He laid down a good distance away from the others and closed his eyes. The last thing he remembered was the events of the past day before he finally drifted to sleep.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Reunion

Tyrone, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Twilight, and Poncho veered off the the road and into the forest. They jumped across a stream and dived over some bushes into a small clearing.

“We can rest here I guess,” stated Poncho looking around for any strange sights, which he wasn't able to see one.

“It’s good enough, but keep a lookout for anything suspicious,” said Rainbow Dash.

“Mayne, this shit’s crazy, we need to get to the rest of the group, real talk,” said Tyrone in a worried voice.

“Let’s just stay here for a bit then we can continue,” said Rainbow Dash, “we also need to find Applejack and that other guy most of you hate.”

Poncho had some chips in his backpack that he took out and shared with the rest. The group chilled and talked for the next hour, but making sure to not let their guard down. To lighten the mood, jokes were told, some even at Tyrone, but Tyrone shook them off as he was used to being made fun at back home. After a hour or two, all the chips were gone and the jubilant atmosphere was drained of life.

“Why do you think those ponies are after us?” asked Fluttershy with fear in her voice.

“I don’t know,” said Rainbow Dash, “they’re probably a bunch of psychos trying to have some fun around these parts.”

“Fun? They killed like three people, how is that having some fun? I know what fun is, and that is NOT fun. Fun is having parties with me and Gummy!” said Pinkie Pie excitedly. Poncho was in awe on how much Pinkie kept her jubilant attitude no matter what was currently going on. She could be falling from the sky without a parachute, and still manage to have fun.

“Heck if I know then,” said Rainbow Dash looking away to take watch.

A few moments later, the group eventually decided it was time to continue down the road, by this time the sun was beginning to rise. Like all prior days, the coldness of the air was still eminent. It was early August, in the dead of summer, yet it felt like February. Tyrone peaked out of the forest and checked the road. “We good.”

Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash soon followed him out of the woods, but Poncho didn’t come out. He sat there, lost in his thoughts it seemed.

“Come out, sketchbag, it’s clear!” yelled Rainbow Dash. Poncho was startled and went quickly with them.

* * * * *

It was early dawn when Cannon was quickly awoken by the subtle noise of bubbling hydrogen dioxide. Within moments of opening his eyes his nostrils were filled with the scent of burning marijuana. Without even taking the time to verify his presumption, he blatantly said, "Are you guys fucking kidding me?!"

“What? We are trying to get high, brother!” said Wahlburn from across the fire-pit. He was sitting with Spike and were both getting ready to smoke some more of their weed they bought in that town a couple of days ago.

“Dammit guys this is fucking ridiculous,” said Cannon getting up walking towards them, “like for Celestia's sake it's 7:30 in the goddamn morning! Fucking ridiculous.”

“We don't have time to waste! We are on a hitlist!” said Wahlburn putting the bong up to his mouth.

“Well you're about to be on my hitlist real quick if you keep this shit up! I'm fucking exhausted. I might've passed out quick like you stoners, but I fell asleep on a motherfucking rock and didn't get a minute of restful sleep and then I get woken up by you bastards, again resulting from your unfaltering addiction to this ‘non addictive’ drug. Fuck you both. Seriously. FUCK YOU ALL!” said Cannon, showing extreme frustration.

“Bro, why are you so angry? Why don't you take some with us? We have plenty to go around.” Wahlburn tossed the bag at him.

“Because I'm not a fucking idiot like the both of you,” said Cannon as he threw the bag on the ground, “I actually want to make something out of myself other than become a drugged out dumbass!”

“Whoa, that is harsh,” said Spike.

Wahlburn now stood up and walked over to Cannon. “Well then fuck you, you chickenfucker!” he yelled as he jabbed Cannon with his hoof.

“Just because you want to Wahlburn, you fuck,” said Cannon, as he shoved Wahlburn back.

“Who you calling a douche ya corksucker! Excuse me for actually having sex on a weekly basis!” said Wahlburn. Spike then ran over to him and gave him a high-five.

“Well excuse me princess! At least I don't have to go after a fucking bitch and fuck her like the walking stick that she is just to say I get some pussy! Hell, I bet when she's about to orgasm, she yells, "Here comes the Crimson Chin!” Wahlburn looked at Cannon with an amazed look while Spike laughed at the comment.

“Too far man! TOO FAR! You know I love her,” said Wahlburn sadly, about to cry.

“Fuck love man. That's bullshit. She fucking cheated on you and shit. Hell, she even wanted to suck my dick there for a bit,” said Cannon. This time, Spike gave him a high-five.

“Come on man, this isn't even right,” said Wahlburn with tears running down his cheek. “I know she did me wrong, but I need her so bad in my life. She completes me.” Wahlburn continued sobbing for a few moments then abruptly stopped and rubbed his eyes.

Awoken by the tomfoolery occurring before him, Patel, still rubbing the "sleepies" out of his eyes, yelled, "God damn it Walburn shut up! For Celestia's sake no one gives two shits about your "Crimson Chin" bitching bitch! So shut the fuck up, get over yourself, get your ass back to sleep. Now!" Patel looked at everybody with extreme hatred. “Can I sleep for one day! Just one!” Patel closed his eyes again and attempted to continue sleeping.

“Man, this place needs to chill out,” said Wahlburn as he walked back over to the bag of weed. He picked it up and trotted back to Spike as they soon began to smoke again. Cannon rolled his eyes and walked to the outside edge of the camp. Wahlburn plopped down beside Spike and looked at him. "I'm glad I got to convert you to the awesome power of weed."

"I thank you too man," said Spike smiling. "It's a great way to end all of my tension Twilight gave me for the past few years."

Cannon looked at the grass as he left the small campsite. Due to the rising sun, the dew on the grass was still visible and reflected a myriad of colored specks along the plains and up the hill. Since he was up early, Cannon decided to be the guy in charge of the firewood needed to sustain that night’s fire. He went to the the same clearing of trees Clyde had went to the night before and picked up some branches that would suffice as efficient fuel for the fire. He walked back towards the camp and looked down the road.

As he was pondering about the other group he saw small silhouettes coming down the road at a breakneck speed towards their camp. At first, Cannon was about to run back to the camp and warn the others, but he decided to not and be the hero that saved them all from harm. When the silhouettes were about half the distance from him than before, he was able to spot details on them. He dropped the firewood in his revelation.

“No way!” said Cannon, as he watched Poncho and the other members of the search group get closer and closer to the camp.

After picking up his dropped firewood, Cannon quickly rushed back to the camp to tell everyone of the news. Patel was up and yelling at Wahlburn for something upon his arrival. “Guys! They’re back!” said Cannon. Patel, Wahlburn, and Spike looked at him confused.

“Whaaa?” said Wahlburn, still bearing the affect of his bag of weed.

“Poncho and the others!” said Cannon eagerly, “I saw them running down the road! They should be here soon.”

“Are you serious?!” said Patel as he, Wahlburn, and Spike ran to the outside of the camp to wait for the others. It took nearly five minutes for Poncho and the others to reach the camp. When they finally arrived, there were hugs and hoof shakes to go around. After the initial reaction, they all settled back to the fire-pit and sat around it.

“So what all happened?” asked Cannon.

“Well...,” started Poncho and everyone gave him a look. He ignored it and continued talking, “We found Sticky injured by a log, which led us to wander into a forest where the others fled to. We got there, and found Rivs dead. So, we ran out and went back to Sticky, who later died.”

“Wait,” said Patel confused, “how the hell did he die?”

“We found Rivs hanging from a tree,” replied Poncho.

“No you idiot, Sticky. How did he die?” said Wahlburn.

This time Rainbow Dash cut in, “We were chased out by something, and in the heat of the moment, we left Sticky behind. The fact that he couldn’t walk completely slipped our minds.” Patel and the others showed a face full of sorrow, but quickly erased all signs of it. “We also failed to find AJ and that other guy.”

Spike coughed. “I’m going to stop you there. Let’s be frank, do we even really care about them?” said Spike, “I mean, what have they done that’s so important for us to save them?” Both Cannon and Wahlburn agreed with him.

“Spike! She is the Element of Honesty!” yelled Twilight with concern. "Why are you acting like this all of a sudden? You never were like this before we came to Seaddle! I don't like your new attitude you gained since meeting Poncho's friends!"

“Replace her then,” said Spike, “no wait, I forgot, nobody cares about honesty. Also, Wahlburn over here helped me enjoy life more. I needed to be more "relaxed" per se."

Twilight had an ignorant expression on her face and soon looked at Wahlburn with anger, but soon, she was calm again. “Speaking of which, where is Rarity?”

“Probably in that tent, that definitely wasn’t there last night,” said Cannon pointing to a random tent near the camp, “then again, I fell asleep early because of these two douches, so I have no idea what did happen last night.” He looked at Wahlburn and Spike with some rage.

“Looks like she did bring her emergency tent,” said Fluttershy. She and her friends laughed, while Tyrone stood up. He walked over to the body of Clyde that was lying on the ground. He punched him in the stomach to wake him up, but he wouldn’t move. He tried again, but with more force and punches, yet it yielded the same result. Worried, he quickly got a bottle of water that was in someone’s bag, and poured it on him.

“Gah!” said Clyde, jolting up, “what do you want?” He rubbed his eyes and looked up. He looked at who woke him up and grinned. “You bastard.”

“Sheeeeeeiiit...” said Tyrone, helping him up, “I thought you was dead.”

“What time is it?” asked Clyde.

“I dunno, probably like 8 or 9. You looks like you just went to sleep not long ago.”

“That’s because I did go to sleep not that long ago.” Clyde wiped off the water from his face and sighed. He then went to the fire-pit to join the others. They told him what had occurred of Sticky and Rivs and also the missing of Applejack and Jeb. Clyde chuckled when he heard this, but quickly cleared his throat to pretend that never happened when Twilight looked at him.

“So what did you guys do when we were gone?” asked Twilight.

“Absolutely nothing,” said Cannon, “well at least for my perspective anyway.”

“We smoked,” said Wahlburn and Spike, grinning. Twilight frowned again at Wahlburn but Spike waved her away.

“No surprise there...” said Patel, “I also did nothing.”

Clyde yawned and answered. “I found Rarity sitting alone atop that hill over there. I went up there too because everyone else was either asleep or high. She was pretty upset that you girls left her here. We talked until dawn and that’s why I am still tired and she is still sleeping.”

“So that’s where your jacket is,” said Cannon noticing the absence of the gray jacket. “This is like the first time I have seen you without it on.

“Well, surprise, here I am,” said Clyde sarcastically.

“If that’s the case, we won’t wake her up, if she doesn’t get enough sleep she can be...” started Twilight.

“Even more bitchy?” said Patel with a surprised look on his face.

Twilight shrugged and about to say something but Tyrone quickly stood up again and pointed to the road. On the road, looking at them, was a group of five hooded figures wearing masks. Each mask had the same symbol on them, the symbol of Phaselus Civilis.

The Chase

“Shit,” said Cannon looking at the hooded figures. “These guys just don’t know when to give up, huh? Do you think we can take ‘em?” he asked Tyrone and Clyde. The hooded figures started their slow approach at the comment.

“Oh no,” said Twilight, “we need to leave, not fight!” The hooded figures quickly picked up their slow walk to a trot.

“Whatever we are doing, we need to do it now and stop wasting time,” said Fluttershy.

“Agreed,” said Twilight. Everyone they hurried up and got their bags, or whatever that brought with them, and left unneeded supplies behind. Twilight looked back at the hooded figures. They had only a couple minutes left before they got there. Twilight then scanned the area again to see if they missed anything. She saw that Rarity’s tent was still up. Panicking, she called over Clyde. “I need you to go and get her up so we can leave, just forget about the tent”

“Me? It would probably be better if you did it, being her friend and all.”

Twilight sighed, “We don’t have time for this!” She dragged Clyde over to the tent. Twilight yelled Rarity’s name to wake her up and get her out of there, but Rarity simply ignored her. Frustrated, Twilight went in the tent and hit her with her bag.

“Twilight, stop! I told you to never wake me up early from my well deserved sleep!” Rarity put her pillow on her head in attempt to continue sleeping.

“You don’t understand, we have to leave! The cult is outside and is getting closer and closer!” Twilight smacked her again with her bag, but she refused to move. “You can sleep while we escape.”

Rarity removed the pillow from her face. “What? How?”

“Get on Clyde’s back so he can carry you while you can sleep and not complain about anything.”

Both Clyde and Rarity were shocked at Twilight’s plan.

“Wait, what?” asked Clyde. “I mean, I can do it, but you need to carry these bags and whatnot.” He handed the bags to Twilight, while she was still nervous about their time. Rarity looked outside and saw the group of hooded figures draw nearer and nearer to them. From what she could see, they were only about 200 yards away. Finally, she decided to follow Twilight's plan. She got on his back, holding on around his neck for support.

“Just don’t strangle me,” said Clyde, as he and Twilight ran toward the others. Rarity nodded and loosened her grip. They started to run around the outside of the camp and kept following the road. The hooded figures saw them and quickly changed routes after them.

The pack was led by Walburn and Spike. Apparently while high, both of them obtained the speed of Olympic class sprinters. With Cannon and Rainbow Dash close behind. Holding up the back was Clyde due to the recently added weight, as well as Poncho, because he's just extremely out of shape. The only thing that could possibly drive his chubby self to run was the gunshots he heard going off behind himself. All the while everyone else was somewhere in the middle, making a mad dash for their lives.

Suddenly everyone heard a sound somewhat having a resemblance to a pig squealing mixed with a mare screaming while giving birth. It had come from the back of group.

Immediately everyone spun around to see where the shrill shriek came from, except for the two potheads and Cannon. They were too caught up in the moment to give a shit where the sound came from. For the rest of the group, they turned and saw an absolutely horrific sight.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

While roaming the darkness within the forest, a terrible sound rang through Jeb and Applejack's eardrums. The few living things left in the woods, such as a few ravens and a sole squirrel on a branch above the couple, immediately flew through the dark branches to find refuge.

"Wha-wha-what was that?" whispered Jeb

"Welp I couldn't rightly tell ya little buddy, but one of our friends might be in trouble! Let's go check it out!" responded Applejack.

"Uh, I don't know if that's too good of an idea....We might get hurt, or worse!" whined Jeb.

"I don't care one bit Jeb! Let's be honest, they would come after us!"

"Applejack, wait. If they would have came for us, do you really think we'd be in this forsaken forest?" Jeb slanted his head downwards to let her ponder.

Applejack stroked her chin and spoke. "Point taken, but still Jeb, maybe we can at least regroup with them and help as well!" Applejack reiterated.

"Ugh...Fine...,” retorted Jeb.

They continued their path and before too long, managed to see rays of light peeking out between the trunks ahead of them. Within no time they were out of the dreaded woods and they saw before them the road they had sought the whole time. After a few minutes of inspection, they managed to find a small blood pool, a lot of hoof prints embedded into the sodden ground, and a mediocre blood trail going in the same direction.

Both ponies shuddered in fear at the same time. "We have to help them!" yelled Applejack. In a split second she was galloping off following the tracks. Shocked and scared, Jeb followed her.

* * * * *

Whipping around their heads, each one of them saw blood pumping out of Poncho's front right leg. Woken up by the gunshot, Rarity pulled off her eye cover and let out a blood curdling scream once seeing what had happened. Clyde gallantly set her down on a small patch of grass that wasn't muddy and sprinted to Poncho's aid. "Poncho how are ya doing?" asked Clyde.

"It hurts so bad! Just go on without me!" yelled out Poncho.

"Poncho, it's just a flesh wound. It grazed your leg and if anything it's a large gash in your leg! Get up and let's go!"

"But I can't! I'm going to bleed out in no time," exaggerated Poncho.

"We don't have time for this! They're gaining on us already!" said Clyde looking back down the road.

In a split second the heroic Clyde had the cry baby on his shoulders and was galloping away while Rarity was whining to her full potential about how horrible it is that the mud is getting on her pure white coat because she no longer had a ride through the mud.

Now with the distance between the groups was about thirty yards, the ponies knew they had to push harder. However, this only caused the Phaselus Civilis to run harder too. While looking over his shoulder to check the distance, Cannon made an incredibly surprised face and shouted, "Hey look guys! Those two losers joined the killers!"

Everyone else threw their heads over their shoulders and noticed Applejack gaining on the Phaselus Civilis, with a winded Jeb behind her. The unaware hooded figures were completely taken off guard when one was punted forward eight feet by one of Applejack's infamous kicks. The group of friends halted their runs and marveled at the beatdown.

Applejack was kicking away their guns, breaking legs and jaws, and chomping at the bit to avenge the dead. By the time Jeb reached the brawl, there was only one conscious cult member remaining. The hooded pony was able to blindside Applejack with a swift swing with the butt of his gun. The fallen pony laid on her side, with the gun now pointed in her face. The pony, with his eye down the sight, and his hoof on the trigger, took precise aim on the orange pony's head. Out of the corner of Applejack's eye, she could see Jeb running their direction. Then there was a loud crack, and darkness.

Once she reopened her eyes, Applejack realized she was still alive, but felt her face moistened with crimson blood. She looked around, and then she saw it. On the ground in front of her lay Jeb. Immediately she stood up, and looked for the cult member, but only saw him running away, with two members strewn over his back, and dragging one in his mouth, back into a nearby opening in a forest. She laughed then quickly went to Jeb's aid. With blood pouring and squirting out of his front shoulder, she knew his fate was sealed. "You didn't have to do that Jeb, but I'm eternally grateful to you for this great deed ya did."

"Bitch, are you kidding me,” said Jeb, coughing up blood. “I was just trying to run past you and get to the rest of the group. I was leaving you to die!" he shouted.

"Oh," said Applejack sadly. "Thanks anyways."

Quickly, everyone else rushed around Jeb, to see what had happened. "Damn Jeb, I'd say you really fucked up this time, huh?" giggled the high Wahlburn. Before he could begin to retort back to the smartass comment, Jeb's eyes slowly closed and he released a final, sullen breath.

Almost everyone began to tear up over the not so tragic loss, including Cannon, Walburn, and Tyrone. Patel even began to shed a tear, but once he realized this, he forced the droplet back into his eye and acted like nothing happened. Once seeing the hateful trio's current condition he said, "Why the fuck are you three upset?"

"I don't know about these two, but personally I'm doing it because I'm relieved. No more of his temper tantrums, and I'm also just sad that I have no one else to fuck with on a daily basis," whimpered Walburn.

"I second that," agreed Cannon.

Only then did the group realize that the sun was setting. Hurriedly they sought out firewood and shelter, and posted up camp in a small rock overhang they found. Stressed from the day's events, they all soon passed out.

The Discovery

“So what all happened while I was gone?” asked Applejack the next morning. The morning, however, was soon full of dread. The guys all buried Jeb’s body early in the morning and each said final rites to their friend. After they finally said goodbye to Jeb, the guys returned to the camp when the girls were beginning to awaken.

“Nothing really,” said Cannon. He looked around the countryside and sighed. “Except Rivs and Sticky died too.” The guys all looked sad again at the mention of their other dead friends.

“Oh, well I’m real sorry for that,” said Applejack sullenly.

The group sat at their camp for a few more hours, chatting away time, as if this whole situation was a nightmare. At about noon, they packed up their things and went back down the long, flat road they’ve been traveling for the past few days. Their travel was mostly silent, devoid of life. No one was in the mood of talking.

After what seemed like hours of walking, Patel noticed something in the far distance. “Hey, guys, do you see that?” he asked them pointing towards a faint outline of what looked like a building atop a small incline beside the road.

“Oh no,” said Poncho, “I’m not going back into a building after what we saw happened to Quantico.” Poncho was extra grumpy today, as his wound from the day before was still bothering him. Twilight used one of Rarity’s extra scarves to wrap it around his wound to stop the bleeding and protect it from infection, but no matter how bandaged it was, Poncho still bitched about it.

“Shut up, you sketch-bag,” said Cannon, “we’re going to take a gander. What else could go wrong?” His sarcasm made everyone want to punch him.

As they drew closer and closer to the building, a shock of horror surrounded them all. The building was a rancher it was worn down by age. The paint was chipped off the walls and the shingles were absent completely. The door had the same symbol that have been stalking them for the past days. The house was an exact copy of the house they found in the forest.

“You have to be fucking kidding me!!!” yelled Wahlburn, “looks like we are all going to die after all.” He continued his rant as the others went to the back of the house. What they saw there didn’t help their morale either.

In the backyard was a ten foot tall statue of a hooded pony. He was holding on to his face, the familiar mask that Phaselus Civilis members wore. Because of the mask, the sculpture only showed his captivating sinister smile. At the base of the statue was a plaque, inscribed with unique runes. Twilight pulled out a certain book and flipped through the pages. After she found a certain page, she walked up to the plaque and began to decipher the message. A few minutes laters, Twilight read aloud:

“Fabalis Rex
Our Great Savior
To Purge The World,
In Glory of Phaselus Civilis”

“Their leader?” asked Rainbow Dash, “he doesn’t look that tough. I bet we could take him if we came across him.” Applejack, Cannon, and Tyrone agreed with her.

“I’m guessing this building here is important due to the statue.” said Twilight, “we have to check inside there. Running only seems to get us in trouble.” The others were reluctant at first, but ultimately agreed with her. What other option was there at this point?

They all went back to the front door of the house and took a deep breath. Cannon opened the door and they all filed inside. The interior of the house, like its exterior counterpart, was the same as the house in the forest. The house layout was the same, same furniture, same door to basement. This time however, they decided to wander down into the basement. “Keep the doors open,” said Twilight to the others.

All of them slowly descended the staircase leading to the basement, with Cannon first and Poncho last. The basement was small but at the far corner was a table with a map on it. Beside the desk was a lone door. Twilight walked over to the desk and picked up the map. The map showed the county of which they were located in currently, along with random marked locations near roads going through the county. Twilight studied the map for a few more moments until she figured it out. She called everyone over and they all circled around the map.

“This map...,” she started, “this map and that door over there, shows a whole underground tunnel system. These 'X's show the different buildings, that we are in right now, and where to are located. That is how they keep catching up to us!”

“My, my, aren’t you a keen one?”

Everyone was stunned and looked up the staircase to the source of the voice. Atop the staircase, looking down at them, and the source of the voice, stood the lone figure of Xarlin.

“Y-You!” said Poncho nervously. “You were the one that killed our bus driver and our friends? I thought you were nice by helping me back at that town, but it was just a decoy?”

Xarlin grinned. “Now hold up, I can only take credit on one of your accusations, but yes, I did kill your bus driver.” He began his descend down the stairs. Behind him, stood a group of hooded figures that also walked down the stairs to the basement. “I had no involvement with the forest or road. We have many members, so I couldn’t tell you who did it.” He reached the base of the stairs while Poncho and the others backed up against the far wall with the door. The other hooded members joined Xarlin’s side and began a deadlock amongst everyone in the room.

“I have to give you credit though,” Xarlin said looking at Twilight,” you figured out our traveling system pretty quickly. I told the ponies in charge of that map to at least make it difficult to understand it, but they wouldn’t listen. Go fetch that map from them.” He hit the member beside him to tell him the order.

“Are you then, Fabalis Rex?” asked Twilight throwing the map at him so the grunt wouldn’t get close, “I mean, you sound like you have authority over these other members.”

Xarlin laughed, which sounded more baneful than anything. “Me? Fabalis Rex? Ha! You have got to be joking. However, I do see your point. I am more of a “wingman” than anything. Speaking of him, I think it’s high time you finally see our King.” He and the other members started to walk towards them.

“No!” said Wahlburn picking up a stone on the basement floor and stepping forward, ready to throw, “you’ll never take us!” As he said that a scream filled the room. Soon, multiple screams filled the room. He quickly turned around and saw members of the cult walking out from the wall with the door and grabbing the others from behind, and dragging them back through. “An illusion!!” Just then, he felt a massive blow to the back of his head. Unable to remain intact, he quickly passed out.

“Hmph. What do we have here,” said Xarlin sheathing back his hidden blunt object, “a defiler and hero. Looks like the King will have some fun tonight after all.” He tied Wahlburn’s limbs together and ordered a grunt to carry him. Xarlin and the grunts walked through the fake wall and met back up with Poncho and the others.

All of them were being forced to wear a collar, which all attached to a single chain, and forced to walk together. All the grunts took their bags and ventured further into the dark, barely lit, tunnel.

“I’ll be in charge of you folks until we get back to base.” Xarlin laughed again as he ordered the grunt carrying Wahlburn to drag him instead. “I hope you folks get comfortable, because no one escapes from Regnum Fabarum.”

The Hideout

The group was hit with the musky smell of the tunnel system as they progressed farther in. They were all quiet during the walk, except Xarlin, who was too busy laughing and explaining the history of the tunnels. Wahlburn was still unconscious even though he was being drug along the bumpy, underground path. They saw, along their trip, how the current path would branch off to other sub-paths. These, of course, led to the other scattered outposts they’ve seen before. After what seemed like ages, Xarlin and the grunt finally stopped at a door.

“Alright,” said Xarlin turning his attention to his prisoners, "you are all about to meet our Savior, so please be respectful?” Patel was about to speak in defense but was stopped by the grunt. Xarlin laughed and opened the door.

When the door opened, the atrium of the hideout was revealed. The room itself was about the size of a chapel. It was filled with many hooded and masked members of the cult. There were multiple doors and doorways leading to unknown rooms. The walls were covered with a multitude of portraits of their King in different, confident poses. The ceiling, instead of earth and stone, was stained glass of the symbol of Phaselus Civilis. At the end of the massive atrium, there was a giant double door with two guards on both sides of it. Xarlin and the grunt that still had Wahlburn led them over to it. After the guards acknowledged Xarlin’s presence, they saluted and opened the doors. At the end of the room was a throne with a unicorn sitting on it. Xarlin led them nearer then stopped them and walked off to the side.

The unicorn was of a gray hue, cladded with a deep maroon colored robes with a cape. The robes and cape had a gold style trim to it. The haunting symbol was etched on his cape. He was also wearing a mask with the same colored scheme and symbol. He looked very muscular and confident. With him was an odd staff with strange carvings on it which the tip of it had a dim orb. “Welcome to our lovely home!” he said, his voice deep, confident, and unrattled. “I do hope you excuse my good friend Xarlin here with his terrible manners. Since he won’t properly introduce myself, I’ll do it. My name is Charles.” He smiled as he finished.

“Sir,” said Xarlin, “wouldn’t it be better to actually use your official name? You know, to scare them off a bit? I mean Fabalis Rex sounds a lot more intimidating than...Charles.”

The King shot him a glare. “Do you dare insult me in my own throne room, my friend? I will have your head for that!” He looked at Xarlin who gulped. Charles smiled. “Just kidding.”

“Now then,” continued Charles, “I’m guessing my dear good friend Xarlin here told you about the benefits for accepting membership?”

Everyone looked at him blankly. “Sir, they aren’t accepting due to their choice, I captured them and brought here to be force to join.” Xarlin gave a half-hearted laugh.

“Damnit, Xarlin! You told me these were your friends, not enemies! Why would you do such a thing! I’m trying to make us look proper and intelligent, but you have to capture them? Well, I ought to banish you from our cult!” Xarlin put his head down in embarrassment. Charles looked back to the others and smiled, “Just kidding. He knows I’m a good joker and tease him all the time but he still gets worked up. No, but you can leave now, I can take care of our guests.” Xarlin bowed his head and quickly left the room.

Patel whispered to the others, “Is this guy for real?” They all agreed and wondered at Charles strange personality.

“Now, as a good, mannered being, like myself truly is, I should show you do your residential paradise. It has high-quality beds and even all you can eat!” Charles stopped talking and paused. He saw that Poncho was getting excited by the news.

“Uh, well thank you sir, your highness, your majesty, the all powerful”, said Poncho, blurting out random, honorable phrases.

There was a moment of an awkward silence due to neither side expecting such a kiss-ass response. When suddenly from the corner they heard a familiar voice say, “Are you fucking kidding me Poncho?! You fucking pussy, he won’t do shit for us! Just look at him!”

Enraged by the challenge of his power, Charles simply stomped his right front hoof onto the arm of his throne. From a hidden door behind him appeared an extraordinarily large pony, cloaked in all black, and wearing a satanic looking mask. Strapped onto his back was an absolutely monstrous double sided axe. This “pony” then made his approach towards the freshly woken Walburn.

“Call me a liar will you, you buffoon?” said Charles, “Well I’d like for you to meet a dear friend of mine, my son. Oh and by the way, his name is Janice.”

Upon hearing the large pony’s name, the dazed pothead burst into laughter, “Oh my God! You’ve gotta be kidding me! You named your son, Janice?! Like come on man! Why in the world would you name your son Janice?”

“For the sole purpose of the intense anger that would brew inside of him every day,” started Charles, “I knew before he was even born that if he wanted to get anywhere in this world he had to be strong, and the only way I could guarantee that was by knowing he’d fight his way through everything. And now look at him! He’s an absolute monster and I couldn’t be a more proud father!” On that note, Janice walked over and gave his father a chest-crushing hug. Once he was let back down, and had caught his breath, Charles returned to his rightful throne and began to speak.

“Now, since introductions have been taken care of, Janice, I’d like for you to do what daddy has raised you to do.” Upon the command, Janice unsheathed the axe from his back and began to approach Walburn. Walburn began to get very frantic and fidgety. Without giving him the chance to speak or utter a simple whimper, Janice flung his axe straight through the center of Walburn’s skull, leaving symmetrical halves of his brain lying on the extravagantly tiled floor of the throne room. Janice then walked back through the doors he entered and left Poncho and the others shocked and scared.

“My guests and new friends! Now that you have seen how business is handled, even though it can be terribly...barbaric, in my little piece of heaven, and how unnecessary comments are tolerated, I do expect you all to be on your best behavior whilst I allow you to live...here.” He stopped talking again and waved his hoof around. “I meant not here, as in this very room, but here as in the hideout in general. Probably somewhere extremely warm or cold, but I heard that some ponies don’t really mind temperature...” He rambled on, talking to himself.

Patel looked over again at the others and whispered, “This dude...”

“Anywho, enough of my insensitive rambles, I’ll have you shown to your new rooms. Xarlin, my good friend!” A pause that lasted for a few seconds filled the massive room. Poncho and the others looked at the remains of Wahlburn. Disbelief and depression took over their thoughts.

Suddenly, Xarlin wandered back into the throne room, “Lord Fa-I mean Charles, you’ve called my services?”

“Yes, my friend! Show them to their new rooms.”

“Which rooms? The Hall or-”

“Now Xarlin, you should know better. They only get the good rooms when they pledge fealty to the cult and to myself. You know where to take them. Now if you all excuse me.” With a twirl of his cape, Charles left the room through the same door as Janice.

Xarlin quickly turned around, “Alright, let’s go, follow me.”

“Yuh-yuh-yuh-yes sir,” whimpered the saddened Spike over the loss of his friend. Xarlin led them back to the main atrium and passed through groups of members hanging around within it. They traversed the massive room and was led down a narrow corridor. At the end was another door, and when opened, showed the location of their new rooms. The room had a distinct similarity to a prison block. The room itself was big, and also multi-layered, but the “rooms” were actually cells. Each cell contained a simple bed and a blanket, from the ones that were open. On the sides of the cells were iron walls about an inch thick. The only way in and out of the cells were through the broad iron door. In the cells that were open, they could see other ponies being held against their will. Most of them looked weary and deprived of life. There were multiple guards patrolling on each level, and from what Twilight could figure out, one guard was in charge of one section. Xarlin led the group through a door with a section of six cells.

“Since we don’t really have enough for the twelve of you individually, seeing how there are only six cells per section, I guess we have to put you in two to a cage. I don’t give a shit who you are paired with. Don’t try escaping because guards are always on watch. Food and water will be provided in the morning and dinner. During the day, well, Charles will find something for you to do. You know, this would be a lot easier if you just accept your new fate as a member of Phaselus Civilis.”

“Never,” said Twilight, with a rabious voice. Her own friends nodded in return, while Poncho and his were all under conditions nearing depression at the increasing deaths of their friends.

“Have it your way then, you have ten minutes until lockdown,” said Xarlin and he left the block, leaving them alone, save for their own company.

The Arena

Nearly after Xarlin left them, Cannon walked into the first of the cells, and collapsed on the bed. Spike quickly rushed in after him, yelling at him because he wanted the bed. When he entered the cell, the iron door closed on them.

“Looks like a magical door to trap in prisoners,” said Twilight, “it doesn’t help us that Charles is a unicorn. I could probably unfix most of these enchantments, but we never got back to Canterlot....” Her voice trailed off.

“Don’t worry Twi, we’ll figure out a way to get out of this joint,” said a very eager Rainbow Dash. “It doesn’t matter right this moment anyways. It’s best to just go to sleep, seeing how we have a chance to.” She walked into the cell opposite of Cannon and Spike and dove onto the bed.

“Sheeeeiit...,” began Tyrone, “I wanted the bed.” He trotted in after her in rage and the door slammed shut behind him. Patel soon yawned.

Patel looked at an open cell. “I know this sounds terrible, but I’m glad I finally get to sleep. I’m used to sleeping until ten o’clock in the evening during this month.” Both Fluttershy and him went unto the next open cell, and also had the door close on them. Patel decided to be nice so he let Fluttershy be a cell mate with him. Since they were both shy, they never spoke to each other.

“Hey, I know this is probably a late time to bring this up,” began Poncho as an alarm went off to show there were only two minutes until lockdown, “but the order of my friends dying in my dream is the same as in real life.” He gave a nervous chuckle.

Twilight looked at him funny. “What?”

“Oh, when I was abandoned at that town where we met Xarlin, I had a dream of my friends dying in a bus crash and with the flames. The order of them dying in that dream is so far correct with deaths out here.”

The others looked at him flabbergasted. “What was the order?” asked Applejack.

“Well-” Poncho began but was cut off as the alarm went off and a guard walked into the section. The guard quickly pushed Poncho and Pinkie into a cell, then Applejack and Twilight into the one opposite of it. The guard walked toward Clyde and Rarity, but Clyde pushed her into the cell with him before the guard got close. The thick iron door slammed shut in his face.

“Well, looks like it’s the two of us again,” said Clyde as he turned around to face her. “You can have the bed. I will lie down in front of the door so they have to literally go through me to get to you.” He sat down with back against the iron door.

Rarity walked over to the bed and then glanced at the cell's floor. “There’s enough room on here for both of us, you don’t have to sleep on that dirty floor.”

He looked up at her. “That’s definitely a single sized bed. There’s no way we both can lay beside each other and fit on there without one of us falling to the floor.”

“We don’t have to lie beside each other.” She had a tint of red appear on her face.

Clyde also flushed red as he caught her meaning. “You know, I would, but I’m pretty sure we have this trust bond right now, and I don’t really want to mess it up.”

Rarity's face became serious. “Clyde! This is no time to be so chivalrous! If you want to protect me so badly, then I’m sure it would be more effective if you were closer to me than being down on the floor, where they could simply just walk over you!” She kept her serious gaze on him as he slowly got up. He looked at her serious expression and smiled.

“Alright then.”

* * * * *

The next morning the guard in charge of their section opened the door to Cannon’s cell. “Wake up you maggots,” he said angrily, “King Charles wants to see you and your friends, ASAP.” He then proceeded to wake up the others in their cells. After all of the cells were open, the guard turned to leave. “You have five minutes.”

In almost no time at all, the group was being escorted down the multiple passages towards their captor. Under the escort of two brawny individuals, they soon found themselves in the face of Charles. He told the group to line up for inspection, whatever that meant. Confused, everyone lined up and waited impatiently.

Charles passed by most of the group, which was the females, and instead inspected each of Poncho’s friends from head to toe, even taking the time to squeeze their muscles to check how large they might be. The dark lord stopped only at two of the imprisoned comrades; Clyde and Cannon.

"Well, well, well, my dear gentleponies. I've chosen you two for a privileged lifestyle, and yes, this is in fact an offer towards the both of you, but I believe you'll gladly accept it."

"What do we have to do, your almightiness?" said Cannon in a smartass filled tone.

"Well ya see, I've chosen you two to be in my elite group of gladiators if you will. Granted, I have no living gladiators at this point and time. At least none to compete with. The current Champion at this moment is Janice, and I expect nothing less than for him to continue his reign as such. He does, after all, take after me.” He smiled, then continued, “But anywhos, you two, if you accept, will compete against any foe I shall put you up against, fighting to the death, and nothing less. Until one is dead, no one shall exit the arena, fans included."

"You've got to be kidding m-," muttered Clyde through his teeth.

"What was this my kind sir?!" blasted Charles in a moment of rage.

"He uh, he said he feels blessed to be given such a privilege sir," saved Cannon, elbowing Clyde mid sentence.

"Ah, so you accept?!" Charles gleefully exclaimed.

"Yeah sure, whatever," Clyde mumbled.

"So then it is decided!" spinning the two new warriors around to face the group, friends and foe together, Charles continued, "Everyone behold the next two warriors!" he shouted then silently uttered to himself, "Hopefully these two last longer than the rest...."

Within moments the duo were being led aware from their brethren, while the rest were sent to the stands. Clyde and Cannon were soon being suited up in heavy bronze armor. Once fully clad in their protective gear, they each were given their own choice of medieval weaponry. Clyde chose two steel daggers, each having a handle wrapped in leather and each with a pommel embedded with diamonds that had a bright luster. Also to have coverage of both close and far distances, he chose a compound bow, which came with an unlimited supply of razor-sharp, poison tipped arrows.

For Cannon, he chose a sole dagger, composed of solid gold with a handle wrapped in deer hide strips. For his primary weapon he chose a twelve foot long trident, with razor sharp tips with fishhook like ends.

In a split second of choosing their apparel and weaponry, they were being shoved down a dark corridor to a solid steel door, with the roar of a thousand screaming onlookers on the other side. The five inch thick door slowly creaked open and the two friends were pushed out into the arena. The colosseum looked like a large circular sandbox, having just two doors at the perimeter. The sky was shown and apparent that the stadium was indeed outside and open to the public and looked as though they could handle the same number of fans as a professional football stadium.

“Looks like this is our fifteen minutes of fame,” said Cannon looking around at the crowd. He saw Poncho and the others sitting close to a fancy booth where Xarlin and Charles were in the stands. He gave a grin and turned towards Clyde, “Let’s make it count, huh?”

Clyde kept his gaze at the booth and the others for a few seconds then finally turned and looked at Cannon. He nodded, but Cannon saw a glimpse of an unexplainable emotion, mixed of sorrow and passion, in his eyes. Both friends stood in the sand, Clyde with his bow, ready to draw the string, and Cannon with his trident plunged deep into the sand, prepared to grab it and send it straight into the heart of any enemy presented to him. The door across the plane from them then flew open and out from it slowly emerged the largest cat either of them have ever seen. Charles began to shout from his extravagant booth.

“Ladies and Gentleman! I give you my two newest competitors, Clyde and Cannon!” The roar of the crowd grew louder. “And I’ve put them up against one of my toughest friends, a liger that I have appropriately named, Liger. Enough talking! Let the first round begin!” He gave a laugh and the liger sped towards them.

In a matter of moments, Clyde had already fired off three of his arrows at the beast, two grazing its back and side, and one piercing his broad front shoulder. Cannon, being the confident little bastard he is, wielded his golden dagger and charged at the beast. Upon the meeting of the two, the animal, which stands easily at eleven feet on its hind legs, pounced directly onto Cannon, pinning him to the ground. With the cat slashing away at his mane, luckily dodging the swipes, the war veteran gashed into Liger’s face, cutting as deep and long as he could. All the while, Clyde was still firing off shots at the animal, usually landing the poison tipped arrows deep into his chest, and even one into his right nostril, which grazed Cannon’s short mane. At this point, the small doses of poison began to tarnish Liger’s strength, and he became somewhat drowsy. In the middle of Liger’s attack on Cannon, Clyde rushed forward, dual daggers at the ready, and tackled the huge cat off of his best friend, impaling his daggers deep into his side. Being half dazed from the beating, and also somewhat out of it due to a slight poisoning from the arrow grazing his head, Cannon could hardly get to his feet. In his daze he saw Clyde valiantly fighting the beast, keeping him at bay to keep his friend safe. In a moment of inattention, Clyde found himself receiving a massive paw, claws included, to the face, knocking him down dazed and confused.

In his moment of instinctive action, Cannon mechanically ran to his savior’s aid. Liger was now five feet away from the fallen horse, crouching towards the ground, readying himself to spring onto his soon-to-be victim. Noticing this, Cannon kicked into high gear and galloped as fast as his body could allow himself. Liger was now in the air, body as straight as a board with his claws extended, and teeth bared, hell bent on killing his foe. Cannon got there just in the nick of time and slid into the madness on one knee, plunging his trident into the ground, ready to spear the immense feline. In this chaos, Clyde slowly regained consciousness, waking up to a blurry image of his best friend in front of him, and Liger fast approaching with a scared look on his face. He then blinked, reopening his eyes to a bloody scene of Liger laying on top of Cannon, neither moving nor making a sound.

Clyde rushed to the bloody heap, ripping the cat off of his friend. In the madness of seeing his mutilated friend, he unsheathed his diamond studded daggers and began to create the deepest gashes possible in the liger. In a moment of pure rage and uncensored emotion, he even took the time to cut the cats fifty pound head off. After ripping the skull off, he took the blood red trident and threw it deep into the sand, impaling the cat’s head onto the end. When he spun around from the madness, he looked at his friend and began to sob quietly. Determined to wake the motionless body, Clyde began to shake, hit, and even stomp on his pal. In his final, and hardest, stomp to the chest, Cannon sprang up, coughing as though he had just smoked a whole pack of cigarettes in thirty seconds. Relieved, Clyde picked the revived pony up and embraced him in such glee.

“What the hell? Get the fuck off me!”, yelled Cannon, blood dripping from his body.

“Oh my god man, I swear to Jehoshaphat you were dead!” trailed Clyde.

“Well maybe if you were a better fucking shot and didn’t graze my fucking skull with your POISON-TIPPED ARROWS! And maybe if I didn’t have to save your ass too!” He wiped blood off of his face and out of his eyes.

“Hey now, man you gotta chill. Just be chill. I saved you too!”

“Alright, alright, touché”, retorted Cannon.

At the realization of seeing the two newest warriors be so victorious, Charles raised out a golden goblet, sticking out horizontally in judgement. Slowly, ever so slowly, he gave the two a hoof up, granting them to continue in the madness of the arena. In seconds of sending the approval, a “clean up crew” walked out and carried Liger away to the crematorium, where all the dead were taken. Then two cult members walked out through the door and escorted the victors back to their cells. Here, they reunited with their friends, and talked to them about what had happened, even though they had watched the whole thing.

For the next week, the same schedule happened everyday. Cannon and Clyde were escorted to the arena where they continued their reign as a team. During their streak, they defeated some of Charles's best fighters such as Bruce the grizzliest of all bears, Oxnard the mighty ox, and Greg the shape shifting chihuahua. Their success in the arena gained them some fame from the crowd, who before booed them, as they now gave chants and cheers. Not only morale changed for them, but both Clyde and Cannon both became stronger, faster, and bigger. Due to this, they were able to defeat multiple foes in a few minutes. However, no matter how great and popular they became from the arena, they still remembered who they kept fighting for and kept trying to figure out ways to escape from Regnum Fabarum with their friends. Other than their cellmate, they were not allowed to see the others.

For Poncho, Patel, and Tyrone, because they were not arena participants, they were forced into labor for Charles or Xarlin. Whether the chore was to mine out huge boulders for expansion, or simply getting a glass of water, they were all worked ruthlessly.

For Twilight and her friends, when asked about what Charles had them do, most of them didn’t answer in much detail. The only close answer that was given is when Clyde asked Rarity one night if Charles had hurt her, or the others, and she replied that there was no harm to them on any accord.

When morning came on the tenth day of their imprisonment, Clyde woke up to a vague premonition that something was about to happen.

“Today feels weirder than any other day I’ve felt before,” he said to Rarity, “I guess my time is about to end soon....”

“Don’t say that!” she yelled at him. During the past week, both of them became even more closer to each other than any of the other pairings. Every night they recalled their latest days adventure and sometimes about their life before they met. In a span of two weeks, they went from complete strangers to becoming close friends.

“I know I shouldn’t, but it’s just the feeling I have.” He looked over to see her worried face. “Don’t worry about me, Cannon and I will make sure we get back home. That’s our main goal.”

Rarity smiled then became sad again. “You better promise me that you won’t leave me without saying goodbye....” Her voice trailed off and the look of her sadness struck Clyde's heart.

Clyde nodded and put his head to hers. “I promise.”

Soon, the guard in charge of the cell banged on the door three times, to signal the arena was waiting. After wishing Rarity good luck for the days work, Clyde strode off with the guard. The guard woke up Cannon, and the three of them set off for the arena. The walk to the arena was silent, as Cannon was still drowsy from being woken up. Near the waiting lobby, Charles was there waiting for them.

“Ah! My two new stars!” He then shook hooves with Clyde and Cannon, “I’ll be frank with you two, I never imagined that you both would come this far. However, today will be the day to test yourselves for complete champion status.”

The word “champion” made Cannon attentive. “Who do we get to kill today?”

Charles laughed at his response, “Kill? You mean be killed by! Today, you finally get to fight the Supreme Champion, Janice! Good luck!” He quickly strode off towards the stands but turned around, “Just kidding, you won’t win. Janice is immortal after all.”

The two remained confident after hearing the news, but became somewhat uneasy. They knew how absolutely ruthless Janice was and also how much of a monster he was. The door opened, and the duo stepped out, unsure about their pending fate for the first time in a week. Standing in the sand, they awaited the coming of the satanic foe. The opposite door slowly opened, then was blown open, ripping it off the hinges. Out of the darkness of the tunnel, Janice came, even having to duck to pass through the ten foot doorway. Cannon looked down into the sand after seeing the bulking foe.

“You guys are fucking lame!” roared Janice. The three charged each other, full tilt, all the while, the two best friends were confidently charging towards the foe, and Janice was yelling at the top of his lungs the greatest battle cry anyone there had ever heard. Then they collided, making the sound of thunder cracking like the clash of the titans.

Janice was swinging his double-edged axe like a hurricane, while Clyde had backed off and was firing, accurately now, as many arrows as possible. Cannon himself was dipping, ducking, and dodging the perilous axe, and making sure to occasionally get his trident deep into the horse’s legs.

Janice could handle no more of the bee-sting like hits from the arrows, so he charged Clyde, who was not ready at all for the rush. Janice swung his axe at the bow-wielding pony, chopping off part of his mane, and disarming him of his bow and arrows. The blow scattered his arrows into the sand. Clyde was knocked to the ground from the strike, so in an attempt to get away from the Champion, he began to crawl backwards, but wasn’t fast enough. Janice had ahold of him and was swinging him through the air like a small child with a doll. Enraged by such an attack on friend, and seeing the ensuing possibility of death for Clyde, Cannon threw his trident straight to his brother in combat.

Back home, the two were always setting each other up for alley-oops on the basketball court, so this was nothing more than a routine maneuver for them. Clyde, catching the trident, immediately plunged the long, three-pronged trident straight into his attacker’s chest, multiple times. Blood was squirting profusely from Janice’s chest, and in his own rage, he threw Clyde as hard as he could straight into the ground. When Clyde hit, he let out a huge burst of air, both due to the air being knocked out of him and the intense pain he felt in his lower abdomen. While desperate for air, he looked down at his stomach and noticed one of his poison tipped arrows sticking through his body, with none of the poisonous resin on the tip.

Cannon too noticed this, and in pure and uncontainable rage, he ran over, grabbed his trident and threw it from about 10 feet away. Janice saw the thing coming from a mile away and was completely ready. While the projectile was approaching his face however, his vision blurred due to the rapid blood loss. When his vision finally became clear, he blinked, and had no time to react. The trident pierced both of his eye sockets, knocking him to the ground, dead. Victoriously, Cannon rushed over to Janice, removing his trident, and then decapitating Charles’ son and placing the head cleanly atop the trident, sticking into the sand. Cannon had done this for every fight, to show Charles just how proud he was of every victory. Once this was complete, he rushed to his friend's aid, who at this point had passed out on the ground, pinned to the arrow.

Charles stood up from his seat at the sight of his dead son. “Janice, my son!” he began to sob but quickly diminished his tears. He looked back among Cannon and the fallen Clyde, “You two! The fight isn’t over yet!”

Cannon stopped in his tracks and yelled back at him, “What? We killed the Champion! We are the Champion!”

Charles smiled then laughed, “I indeed said there would be a Champion today, but I also said there will be only one!”

Cannon shook his head as he caught the meaning, “No! That means-”

Charles laughed again, “Yes! You both now fight to the death for the title of Champion!” Xarlin joined in on the laughing and the two tones of laughter filled the dreaded silence in the crowd.

The Demise

Cannon remained distraught over the fact that he had to manually kill his fallen comrade, and a best friend, who was still lying on the ground unmoved. He looked back at Charles who was still laughing. “I’m not doing it.”

Charles, who knew he was going to reply like that, said, “Oh, yes you are, my dear good sir. You have killed the current Champion, as much pain as it brings me to say that aloud, so there has to be a coronation to the next one in line.”

“You can’t make me kill a friend! Besides, without him, we would’ve never gotten this far-”

Charles laughed. “I never wanted you to get this far!” Anger was magnified in his voice. “Do you think I wanted you to kill my own flesh and bone! Of course not! You will battle your friend whether you, or he, like it or not.”

Cannon looked back at Clyde, who was still on the ground. “He’s not even in fighting condition!”

“Then you shall have no problem winning and becoming the new champion. Now, for the final time I will ask you, kill him please and let’s move on with our lives. I have matters to attend to today. Very important matters.” Charles took a sip of wine from his goblet.

“No.”

Charles coughed up some of his wine at the response. “No? Xarlin did he just say no to me?” Xarlin nodded his head and Charles continued his rant. “Fine, since you don’t want to take this the easy way out, I’ll show you why you don’t toy with me!” He gave a whistle and all was silent for a few moments.

Before Cannon could figure out was exactly was going on, he heard a scream from the crowd where his friends were. From what he could see, a masked pony in black was behind Poncho and the others. The masked pony was carrying a giant battle axe and was about to swing downward. In his reaction, Cannon was about to yell look out, but he was just too late. The massive bulk of the axe had already entered the shoulder of Patel. The incision of the axe left blood splattering everyone in the vicinity and most of the crowd fled the scene. The masked pony picked up Patel’s body and threw it over the stands, onto the floor of the arena. He gingerly picked up his axe and watched over the others with vigor.

Cannon ran over to Patel’s dead body. He closed his friend’s eyes and fought back some tears. He looked back at Charles who had a devilish grin on his face.

“I told you boy, do not toy with me! Now, before I kill any more of your friends, which I might have to kill one of your female friends this time, kill the other!”

Before Cannon could respond back, an arrow whizzed by his leg from behind. He turned around and saw Clyde breathing heavily with a limb covering his ghastly wound that was received by the impact of his own arrow. The remaining crowd gasped.

“Go ahead...I don’t have much time left anyway....” Clyde stumbled back down and the crowd gave out a gasp. He slowly got back to his feet. Blood, at this point, was leaving his body through the wound at a faster pace. The poison of arrow also was making the wound turn a sickly color.

Cannon rushed to his friend’s aid. He knelt down beside him. “I told everyone in this arena, I will not kill you.”

Clyde sat back down, “I’m not going to let you endanger the others because of your stubbornness. I told you, might as well end it now than to prolong this blasted poison....” He coughed up some blood and spat it out. “If you stab me with an arrow, you can leave the arena.”

Cannon with tears in his eyes looked at Clyde. He saw that Clyde wanted him to do it, and he knew it was the best choice instead of delaying the inevitable, but he just couldn’t bring himself to do it. He picked up an arrow, that was wiped clean of poison, and held to Clyde’s chest. Before he could plant it, Clyde grabbed Cannon’s arm and thrusted the arrow into himself.

Jolted by the sudden movement, Cannon yelled out, “You idiot!” Clyde grinned and closed his eyes. In his sad filled rage, Cannon looked up at Charles. “You happy now?”

Charles grinned, “Of course. Being a Champion requires sacrifices for their great journey to supremacy. You may leave now, and take your friends.” He glided off his seat in the booth and disappeared in the crowd, his staff in hand.

As Charles departed, Cannon quickly picked up Patel and Clyde and hurriedly rushed out of the arena gates and back to the lobby. He put both Patel and Clyde on the floor. He stripped Clyde of his damaged armor and threw it across the room. Before long, the others ran into the lobby. The others all looked around to both Patel and Clyde. The room remained silent.

After a long period of silence, Cannon got up, “Might as well give these two some proper last words.” He stood up on a platform that always had Clyde’s and his armor on it. “Not only were these two my friends, they were my best friends. I’ll always remember our awesome scary movie nights, especially when Poncho was there. Farewell, fair cruelty.” He stepped off the platform, showing tears in his eyes.

Tyrone walked up to the platform. “Sheeeit...I never thought I would have to be the one givin’ the speech about a friend dyin’. I always thought I would die first then the others...I guess you will be playing basketball, dishin’ out da dimes and lobbin’ it, up there with Rivs and Sticky. I’ll always love you guys....” Tyrone stepped down, sobbing.

Poncho nervously walked up next. “Uhm, well, you guys were always there for me.” Tears began to flow down his face, “I know you guys always joked around and had fun, but I enjoyed being made fun of. I only wanted to make you guys laugh when I made a big deal about everything. I’ll always remember what you meant to me.” Poncho quickly ran down the platform and began sobbing loudly.

Next, Twilight and her friends began some last words. Because they really didn’t know them as much as Cannon or the others, their comments were short and sweet. Finally, after Pinkie’s, sad, yet always somehow amusing, comments, Rarity’s turn was up. Instead of following the procedure like the others, she walked past Patel, ignoring him completely, and slowly walked up to Clyde with tears in her eyes. “You promised me...” she said softly.

Upon hearing the voice of Rarity close to him, Clyde coughed and spat out blood beside him. “I did, didn’t I?...” His voice was weak.

Everyone in the room became silent and shocked. Rarity started to cry. “Y-You’re alive?” She gave him a soft hug.

“Not for long...” He looked around the room and stopped at Cannon. “Make sure you kill Xarlin and Charles for me twice....” He smiled then grunted in pain as the poison grew stronger.

“I will, I’ll finish this, whether it’s the last thing I do.” Cannon wiped off tears in his eyes.

Clyde closed his eyes from the increasing pain. “As long as everyone makes it back home, I don’t care what happens...” He looked up at Rarity who was still trying to fight back tears. “Well...it looks like it’s that time for that goodbye I promised....”

She began crying again and tears poured down her face. “N-No Clyde, please don’t leave me. The last few days that I spent with you were truly magnificent. You made me extremely happy during this whole disaster of a trip. You are the gem I never tried to find....” Her voice was shaken and her tears were pelting Clyde's chest below her.

With the last amount of strength he had left, Clyde tilted his head upwards and kissed her on her forehead, the spot right below her horn and above the middle of her eyes. She gasped and started to cry louder as he painfully lowered his head back down. He then closed his eyes for the final time.

At that moment, Clyde passed into the void.

“Clyde!” screamed Rarity as she put her head on his chest and started to sob. She held onto his body and sobbed as much as she could.

All was still except the sound of death

The Beginning of...

Rarity's crying continued for another few moments until Twilight forced her to stop. “There’s no point on grieving. We have to find a way out of here and fast.” Twilight got up and walked towards Cannon. “I guess you’re in charge here, Champion.”

Cannon gave a smirk, but then went back to nonchalant over the loss. “We have to have a plan, and the first objective has to be Xarlin. I won’t rest until he’s dead. He’s caused us more pain than Charles did.”

“Yeah, but Charles is still a threat,” said Rainbow Dash, “I say we should plan a two-pronged assault.”

“It won’t work because Xarlin is always near Charles.” Cannon looked at the others. “Unless...”

“Unless what?” said most of the others in unison. Rarity's only reply was a sniffle.

“You have to trust me on this. Pack your things it’s time for revenge.” He grabbed his golden dagger.

“But we don’t have our belongings anymore...” said Fluttershy softly.

“That’s perfect then. Let’s go.”

They quickly assembled a plan and quietly snuck out of the lobby. Since they were under the metaphorical cover of the night, most of the members were sleeping and the guards were on certain patrols that were easy to sneak by. Soon, they were in the main atrium and in front of the giant doors leading to the throne room.

“Alright,” whispered Cannon to the others, “we made it this far, so it should be a simple walk into the throne room.”

“You wish it was that easy,” said an ominous voice behind them. They all turned around to see Xarlin appear from the shadows in the room. “I had a feeling that tonight would be the Grand Escape. Good thing I decided to have my midnight snack earlier or I would have missed this.”

“Oh no!” said Cannon sarcastically, “I most certainly was not planning on finding you here!” He took out his dagger.

“Alright boy, I’ve had enough of your remarks, time to join your friend.” He too pulled out a dagger.

They both rushed at each other, stabbing and slashing away. In the midst of the combat, Poncho and the others sneaked to the giant doors. Xarlin noticed and began to run towards them. Cannon tripped him and quickly stabbed at him on the ground. Xarlin rolled away and kicked Cannon in the stomach, knocking him down. Xarlin, being cocky, walked over to him.

“Looks like the Champion will die by a servant tonight.” He thrusted his dagger into Cannon’s chest. As Cannon coughed up blood, he smiled then grabbed the hilt of the dagger and Xarlin’s arm. Within a split second, Cannon too, stabbed Xarlin with his dagger. Realization struck Xarlin, “I fell for the trap! Damn you...”

Outbursts of pain erupted from Xarlin and Cannon as they remained in a deadlock. Cannon spoke through his clenched teeth. “My plan all along was to get him to stab me so I can hold him in place while you guys go after Charles. Now, if either of us move, the dagger will go in deeper...We are both going to, slowly, bleed to death.”

The others were about to say something but Cannon and Xarlin’s grunts of pain grew louder and more constant. “Don’t worry about me anyway. You have a number advantage over him. My goal was to avenge my friend and I will. Make sure you kill him for me...twice.”

The others noticed the motive of the quote and nodded. “Don’t worry Cannon, we got this. We’ll inherit Clyde and your own goal.” Poncho felt a sense of pride come to him.

“You bastards, you’ll never escape-!” Xarlin was silenced to the pain of the Cannon’s dagger.

“Shut up you prick,” said Cannon as he thrust the dagger deeper into Xarlin. “Guys, go!”

The others looked back at the deadlock and went into the throne room. Cannon and Xarlin stared at each other. Both were about to pass out due to the massive loss of blood, that now was a puddle on the floor under them. They continued pushing the daggers farther and farther into one another for a few more moments until they both collapsed on the floor. They both looked at the huge stained-glass symbol of Phaselus Civilis on the ceiling above them.

“I’ll be waiting for you in the afterlife...” said Xarlin slowly as he closed his eyes.

Cannon chuckled and grinned. “Bitch please, I’ll see you in Hell....” He soon, too, closed his eyes for the final time.

“He’s not in here!” yelled Poncho as they entered the throne room. The throne room was the same as their last visit here, except the throne was missing its King.

“He’s probably behind that strange glowing door behind the throne...” said Fluttershy. The others looked behind the throne, and sure enough the outline of the door was glowing. It was not the door Janice first came out of, but rather a smaller, almost hidden door, to the left of it.

“Maybe he’s making magical drugs?” said Spike in a tone of happiness.

“Ooh! Maybe he’s throwing a party!” Pinkie hopped in excitement.

“Or he’s doing some sort of ritual?” said Twilight in response.

“Whatever he’s doing, we need to deal with him.” Rainbow Dash quickly ran towards the door. “As Cannon said, we outnumber him by plenty.”

They all agreed and decided to, safely, open the door. When the door opened they saw Charles across the room. He was using a magic beam to charge the orb on a staff, the one he carried, in the middle of the room. A strange magical circle surrounded the staff. The magical beam dispersed and Charles looked up.

“Salutations, my friends!” He slowly walked towards the staff. “You just caught me doing my forbidden ritual preparations. But now that you all are here, looks like I have to confess on what exactly I am doing. You see-”

“Wait,” said Twilight interrupting him and looking at the detail of the staff, “I know what that staff is and the purpose of it. It’s the-”

“My dear, please don’t talk when I am talking. That is extremely rude.” Twilight frowned and remained silent. “As I was saying, this staff is known as the Staff of Renascentia. With it, and the drainage of ALL my magical power, I can simply resurrect any being I want. With enough ponies, I can resurrect the same amount of dead beings as ritual participants. I should also mention that the being that gets resurrected will retain all memories, that is if the pony responsible of reviving that specific being remembers their last moment, words, or thoughts. They will have either a scar or pain in the area that killed them, but other than that effect, it’s basically a free resurrection.”

Horror struck the group. “That means-!” began Fluttershy.

“Yes!” Charles smiled. “That means Janice will come back. I told your friends before, Janice is immortal. Janice doesn’t die that often, but life would be much more sad without my son” He laughed

Twilight challenged his statement. “But you just said you need to drain your magical abilities to be able to use it. How is that even possible that you can use it multiple times?”

“Ah. A very keen detail you noticed. I also forgot to mention another detail about this staff. When the ritual is complete, the participant, chooses the exact place and time to go back to before the being’s death. Basically, you go back in time and before you talk about paradoxes, only the participant will remember what happened. For example, if the ritual would take place now, only you all and myself would remember and all other beings that died, such as my good friend Xarlin, will remain dead. Now are there anymore questions? I must get this done with as I am really tired.”

Before any questions or responses could occur, a loud gunshot ringed through the room. Charles was on the ground with blood flowing out of his chest. They all looked around and saw that Tyrone had a pistol.

“How did you get that...” said Charles gasping of breath. “Only my elite guards during arena matches have pistols....”

Tyrone looked at him, “I’m good at stealin’ valuables. No one messes wit my fam’.”

Charles looked back at the ceiling in distraught. “Well, my son, I guess I’ll see you soon. Long live the Beans...”

“D-Did we just kill him?” asked Applejack in shock.

“No, I did. Now quick, let’s get outta here before the hooded fuzz show up.” Tyrone made a dash to the door. The others began to turn with him.

“Tyrone, everyone, wait!” Poncho yelled. They all turned around.

“What?”

Poncho slowly walked towards the staff. He looked back at the others. “I can only revive one, who should I pick?”
The others and Tyrone were left speechless. “You honestly can’t think that works.” said Twilight in disbelief.

Poncho shrugged, “Well...it’s worth a shot, besides, it’s an easy way out of here.”

“I can’t believe-” Twilight stopped as Rarity walked up to the staff.

“I’m with Poncho, we can at least try. I want to talk to a certain someone again...” She became sad at the mention of “someone”. Soon the other’s quickly joined in on Poncho’s idea. The only one at that point that rejected his idea was Twilight. She looked at the others and saw determination in their eyes. She sighed and went to the others. They all planned out who they wanted to revive and at what time to go back to. They all put their hooves, and claw, together above the orb of the staff.

“Yeah, the power of Friendship!” said Poncho and they all touched the orb simultaneously. The world began to blur around them, and then a bright flashing light devoured them.

...The End

Morning sunshine came through the windows of the bus rather quickly as Poncho woke up due to the luster of the sunshine. At first, it seemed like an ordinary day, but he remembered about the staff and Charles and everything else associated to them. He looked over his seat and cried. There, in their own seats, was Cannon, Clyde, Patel, Jeb, Sticky, Rivs, and Wahlburn sleeping. His crying became so loud it woke everyone else up.

“Poncho! I’m trying to sleep!” said Clyde looking at him. He then froze and looked at his hooves. “Wait a second, I’m not dead!”

Upon hearing Clyde speak, Rarity got out of her seat and dove at Clyde, hugging him tightly. “You’re alive!!” She began to cry and kept hugging him tightly, not caring about anything else at that moment. Clyde smiled at her and returned the hug.

As with the others, chaos erupted as everyone who died was excited and scared on being alive again. The bus was soon filled with tears and crying as everyone was back. Twilight and Poncho gave everyone a quick recap on how everyone was alive and the aftermath of Charles.

“We should have a PARTY!!” yelled Pinkie and everyone else cheered.

“That’s fine and all, but why are we still on a bus in the middle of the forest?” asked Rainbow Dash.

Before anyone could answer, the bus door slid open. Quantico stepped on the bus, “Sorry I’m late. Apparently I fell asleep on the road walking back to the bus. I got the parts we needed from a small town about a mile north of here. We can get back on course and be back in no time.” Everyone cheered again.

After traveling on the road for a majority of the day, night quickly fell. Everyone was in high excitement and joy during the travel. that when night came, they all settled back into seats and either passed out of being tired or just sat and quietly talked between the seats.

“This was the first night we’ve talked to each other up on that hill,” said Clyde to Rarity as he looked out the window. He saw Altair and Vega shining brightly in the sky, just like that night, which seemed like a month ago. They both were sitting in the back seat of the bus. Beside them, across the aisle, was Patel who has been sleeping since noon that day.

“Yeah, and it’s most definitely not the last.” She snuggled her head on his shoulder and fell asleep. Clyde noticed she still had his jacket on from that night on the hill. He remembered even when they were in the cells and as he was dying, she still had it on. Clyde smiled and quickly fell asleep too.

In the front of the bus, Cannon noticed Tyrone with a mini-fridge beside him in the seat. Tyrone was drinking a grape soda that he pulled out from the fridge. “How the hell did you get that?”

Tyrone looked over at him and laughed. He hit the fridge and the fridge transformed into a small chihuahua.

“You’re kidding!” They both laughed.

After a few days on the road, Quantico stopped the bus and woke everyone up. “Hate to break it to you, but my GPS was giving me the wrong directions to Ponyville the whole time.”

Alarmed, Twilight spoke up, “Where are we now?”

Quantico looked at her. “It looks like the GPS took us to South Beach.”

TBC

Author's Note

And with that, Story One is done!

If you actually got this far and are reading this, then thanks again for sticking around. C&C is always welcomed. Credit goes to everyone who helped on this. It was fun doing this, especially with some references scattered throughout.