Prep Step (Part 1)

It was a nice day, the sun was bright and there were few cirrus clouds in the air. One thing we found out about the ponies is that the pegasus is the only source of controlling weather. That was going to be a problem. Scooter was the greatest help ever, our new and improved town and defenses were more than enough to keep us safe. Klum and Scooter were talking, many people were just relaxing, I was just exploring the town. I was actually impressed with how the ponies could build, there was a barn, a tree library, and a large town hall. The cottage out in the distance was left untouched, in fact, no one had ever approached it yet. I was looking out in the distance towards the mountain castle, there was a huge dome over it. They were obviously getting prepared for another attack. There was another problem on out hands, we had no blacksmith, usually if we needed to upgrade or repair weaponry, we'd go to the blacksmith. We couldn't buy new weapons and armor, nothing. I was considering practicing blacksmithing for the sake of our town.We were good on food, there was a bakery and the biggest farm i've ever seen, along with apples, corn, pumpkins, and many more. I'm guessing Applejack worked there for sure, and maybe Rainbow Dash worked at a bakery? No way, to tough. We had to prepare for expansion, we needed to gear up and go, explore this unknown land more. I decided to call a town meeting.

"Attention!!! Can I please say a word? I have a suggestion!" I said, Klum walked on the stage with me and stood next to me. "I think we should explore this land more! We don't know a lot about this place! We should make a group of people willing to scout out this place! Look for more settlements! Soon we will not have enough space to house everyone! WE need to act now!"

"YEAH! WOO" The riled up crowd cheered in unison.

"Nice thinking, bro" Klum said. Many people volunteered for the scouting, even Scooter obliged to join in. This was going to be a great day, I will be leading the scouting and Scooter will be in his robot, to get up high places and protect us.

"Ah' think thats a swell idea!" Scooter exclaimed. "I will love doing this!"

"Alright thatssss...... 13 people! Just enough!" I said, writing this down on a piece of paper. We all prepared for probably two days worth of walking and climbing. We packed tents and supplies, we needed to scout the surrounding areas of the town. I had a large yellow and black flag on my back, just to stand out more. I did a role call before we left. "Scooter, Marcus, Jinx, Petro, Ryan, Skippy, Ned, Mariah, Langley, Gengo, Blue, Seven, and Felix?"

"Here!" They all said in sync. I was surprised by their enthusiasm, we got going in two minutes. Klum stayed behind to keep the town safe, and he was also our new leader. I had a large blank sheet of paper with a quill, as we went along I recorded the land on a map. There was a large dark forest, which I named the 'DarkWood Forest'. We came across a large valley, which was being treaded on by the train tracks. I didn't come up with a cool name for the valley, I just put 'Valley' in its large space. There was a small woodland area that had tall skinny trees with white and pink leaves, I named that 'SnowFlinx Woods'. There were snowy mountains, I just drew some baseless triangles to symbolize mountains.

"Woah, it's getting late, we should set up camp and continue tomorrow" I said, everyone obliged and unpacked their stuff, I set up a campfire and grabbed some apples for everyone. I even grabbed a pack of marshmallows from that bakery, good stuff.

"And then he just fell off!" Scooter finished, everyone broke out into laughter, we told stories,jokes, and just talked. "Man, those were the days"

"Hey, we should get to sleep guys..." I said, feeling a bit drowsy.

"Mmmhm" The group replied. We all had our own tents, but I bet Felix and Jinx were sharing one. Its was about 30 minutes until I was woken up by some snapping twigs. I silently opened my tent up and grabbed my staff, I put my hood on and snuck out. I had a keen eye for sneaks, being on alert the whole time. I noticed something jump from one cloud to another, I squinted further ahead to see 3 ponies crouching on the ground. I quickly went prone and sighed, I watched them move closer. I felt some wind rush above me, only to have the wind pushed out of me. I felt four hooves on my back, and they were putting extreme pressure on my back. I felt my hands being pulled by magic, NO NOT THIS, NOT AGAIN, I thought to myself. I regained my breath and tried to scream, but I couldn't, I was silenced by some weird spell. I was tied up by a rope and then there was a bright flash. I was then hit in the back of the head and everything went black.

"What was that?!" Scooter yelled, He ran outside to check, nothing was there. Everyone was outside to find out what was wrong. Scooter did a role call. "Marcus, Jinx, Petro, Ryan, Blue, Seven, Skippy, Ned, Mariah, Langley, Felix, Gengo, Wyatt?"

"WYATT IS GONE SCOOTER!!!" Felix yelled, everyone gasped and panicked.

"Ah shoot! What happened to him!!" Scooter exclaimed.

"It's those damned ponies again!!! They outnumbered and ambushed him, he's been captured!!" Ryan said.

"Dang, Klum isn't gonna be happy when he hears the news..." Scooter frowned and looked at the ground." Lets get back to the town! Lets go!" Scooter commanded.

Everyone hurried back to the town, wide awake. They were going to quickly tell Klum, he was not only the leader but my BEST friend. They got back to the town and went to Klums house.

"Klum!Klum!Klum! Open up!" Scooter banged on the door a series of times. Klum opened the door, worried about why I wasn't on the other side of the door.

"W-what is it?" Klum asked.

"WYATTS GONE!!" Scooter screamed. Klums eyes went wide and his eye twitched, he looked over the small crowd of people.

"Alright, ponies, you wanna play like that" Klum said to himself. He looked over to the castle and smiled.

"This.Means.War."