The Strange Tale Of Ezekiel Henderson

"What? Like, they didn't find anything?", Henderson had made the mistake of getting his hopes up, the news came like a slap to the face.

"No, something's..." Dash paused, "happened."

Henderson remained silent.

"The group that went into the forest has...um...disappeared."

"Well that's...um. Bad.", he hadn't expected that bombshell.

"It's terrible!", Twilight had caught her breath, only to turn to leave again.

"Come on!", she yelled over her shoulder.

Henderson gathered his gear from the base of a nearby tree and jogged after her.

This time a royal chariot had flown them to Canterlot, in a quarter of the time. Henderson had looked straight ahead the whole time, trying to ignore the thousand foot drop he was 8 inches from.

They came rushing into the throne room, in which Luna was standing, speaking to a guard. She addressed them as they entered.

"Twilight Sparkle, Lance Corporal Henderson, your haste is admirable."

Cut the crap, Henderson just about said as he came to a halt.

"We came as soon as we got your letter.", Twilight slid on the marble floor as she stopped.

"I assumed as much.", Luna turned to the guard standing beside her, to whom she introduced Henderson, and vice versa.

"Lance Corporal Henderson, this is Forged Steel, he was in the group that we sent to investigate the caverns. Forged Steel, this is the human interloper, Lance Corporal Ezekiel Henderson."

It felt weird to not be able to shake the hand of someone to whom he was being introduced, but Henderson was content with a simple, "Pleasure."

"Likewise.", the brass armored stallion replied.

"Now that they're here, why don't you tell us what you know of the disappearance of your companions, Forged?.", Luna phrased a stern command as a friendly question.

Forged cleared his throat and began, "Well, we got to the caves no problem. Shining Armor told another guard and me to stay at the mouth of the cave and watch to make sure, I guess, nothing bad went in after them.", he paused, as if having trouble remembering, then continued. "We were standing there for what seemed like hours, then we heard screaming.", both Twilight and Luna's eyes widened at this. "It sounded far away, like, really deep in the caves. The other guard, my brother Cast Iron, he went in to check it out.", Forged shuddered, "He was gone a while and then I heard him screaming as well, a lot closer.", Forged began to cry, "I wanted to go in and check on him, sniff, but I, I, I JUST COULDN'T! I WAS SO SCARED!", Forged screwed his eyes shut and tried to regain himself.

"You've undergone more than enough for a while, Forged. Go and rest.", Luna said softly, yet assertively.

The young guard slinked out of the room, towards his quarters.

Henderson was deep in thought when Luna addressed him.

"What do you make of that?"

"Well, it sounds like an ambush, obviously.", Henderson was rubbing his now bearded chin.

"Yes, it does. But what may have ambushed them? Their armor is enchanted to prevent wild animals from being hostile towards them.", Luna's mental gears were grinding as well.

"Would it have been Griffons? Or maybe changlings?", Twilight's voice was thick with worry for her older brother.

"Possibly.", Luna answered.

Twilight's 'worry look' doubled in severity.

"How fast can you get me to the caves?", Henderson asked.

Luna looked at him.

"Whatever is in those caverns caused the disappearance of a dozen royal guards, some of the most elite, I might add.", Luna couldn't believe the human's ridiculous proposition, "What makes you think you'll fair any better?"

Henderson smirked.

"Perhaps I didn't do a very good job of explaining what a Marine is..."

Henderson had convinced Luna to allow him to venture into the Everfree forest and try to find the missing guards. Though he probably would have done it if she had denied him.

It's because of me they are missing, he thought, So I need to go and...un-miss them. He smiled at his own dry sense of humor.

Though he really rather would have gone alone, but Rainbow Dash insisted upon coming with him, as did Twilight. Henderson drew the line at the former, she was too upset over her brother to be of any use.

The duo had followed the trail made by the original search group for a while, now they crested the top of a small rise and saw the cave entrance at the bottom of a large dip.

"Well, there it is.", Dash said as she carefully made her way down the embankment, followed by Henderson.

"Wait here a sec.", Henderson said. He stopped at the mouth of the cave and unslung his rifle, then his pack.

"What are you doing?", Dash moved closer to him.

"Remember how I told you this is for really long distance engagements?", he was setting out the tool kit and some parts.

"Yeah.", she replied.

"Well that's about to change." He set about swapping parts of his rifle for some out of his bag.

He removed the 29-inch barrel and screwed on a 15-inch one. Off came the 20 power, variable zoom scope, replaced by a simple red dot sight. Next, he attached a pistol grip on the tactical rail under the barrel, and a flashlight on the side rail. Then he used a screw-driver to turn a small knob on the side of the weapon's receiver. It adjusted how much gas would be drawn from the current magazine. He turned it down from eleven grams to four grams, increasing how many shots he could get per mag from ten to thirty. He returned all his extra parts and tools to their places in his pack, which was then returned to its place on his back. He now had a fully functional assault rifle, better suited for close quarters combat.

"You really think you're gonna need that?", Dash asked as they started into the cavern.

Henderson flipped on the gun mounted flashlight, casting eery shadows on the walls.

"Better safe than sorry.", he replied as he swept the walls and floor with his light.

They progressed ever deeper into the damp cave, the light from the entrance faded and disappeared. They saw all different kinds of imaginable cave formations, stalagmites, stalactites, springs, even a vein or two of what looked like gold. But not a single sign of Shining Armor or his subordinates.

They had been spelunking for about an hour when they stopped at a spring to drink and rest a moment. Henderson propped his rifle in such a way that the mounted light shown across the surface of the water.

"Mm", Dash was thoroughly enjoying the spring water.

Henderson had filled his canteen from the spring, and was sitting on the cave floor, leaned against a stalagmite.

"Ah,", Henderson finished a long swig and wiped his mouth with his gauntleted fore arm.

"If it wasn't for the circumstances, this would be fun.", he said as he screwed the lid back on his canteen.

Dash paused her drinking, "Scootaloo would love this.",she said with a chuckle, then continued.

Henderson though back to when Cheerilee had introduced him to all of Ponyville's children, er, foals. If he remembered correctly, Scootaloo was the little filly who had shot a spit wad directly onto the center of his faceplate, then hoof-bumped the colt next to her. He had rewarded her for her sharpshooting by carrying her under his arm for a while, much to the little pegasus' chagrin.

His thoughts were interrupted when Dash let out a surprised yelp and leapt back from the edge of the spring.

Henderson chuckled, "Salamander got your tongue?"

Dash violently shook her head, pointed at the water, then threw up on the cave floor.

Henderson sat up and peered into the shimmering pool. He searched for a moment, then found the source of Dash's surprise, and loss of lunch. Floating in the middle of the spring was a light-gray fore-leg.