Stalker

Chapter 2

Damn these fuckers, why won't they just give up? Especially that orange one. You'd think that she would have given up after I nearly broke her back leg a couple times. Even a very nasty threat to permanently cripple her didn't get her to stop. Actually that just seemed to make her more angry, I don't think she likes me much. Note to self: don't antagonize the fucking ponies. There was a gully coming up giving me two options. One I could try to jump it which would result in my chest hurting even more; two I could go in the gully and run down its length until I found somewhere to hide or to get out. Deciding to go into the gully I just run off and land lightly on my feet and turning to my left to take off at a sprint again.

I had only gone a few feet before I heard scrabbling hooves behind me. This might be fun if the sides never lower for me to get out. God, I really hate having fucked up ribs. I picked my speed up again, which almost faltered when I heard a distant scream. It was a familiar scream, something that I wish I would never hear again.

I pushed harder only to be shoved violently to the side of the gully with snapping jaws next to my face. I get my forearm against whatever the thing was, and turned my head to see that it was a runner. Holy hell, they are here, shit. I get my knee up, and shove with my arms to get enough room for my leg. I kick out, connect with its stomach, and launch it into the far wall of the gully. It fell, and I took off again only to be stopped by a high pitched scream. I turned to find that the runner had grabbed the pegasus that had been following me, and was trying to bite into the pony's neck. I figured her friend would save her only to look past the two struggling creatures to see that the one running after me had been taken down by another runner.

Slipping my arm out from the strap I aim the rifle and put one through the first runner. The gunshot echoed throughout the area and I put another bullet through the seconds one shoulder, then neck. The second round very nearly blew the fuckers head off, but it was a second to late. The wingless pony had been bitten, and now shook and cried. It was a pitiful sight. I aimed the gun for third time, figuring that quick death would be a blessing, and I squeezed the trigger a third time, then turned tail and ran.

The pegasus didn't follow me, and after maybe an hour, the longest time without being chased, I stopped, and sat against a tree. Maybe ten minutes passed before I stood again, and made my way further into the forest. I wonder where the first one runner or walker had shown up at, and how much damage it caused for the head honcho to be so pissed. Not much considering that my species probably doesn't even exist here. Wherever here was. After some time I came across a swamp that was vile looking. Also there were many, many frogs roaming around.

I turn my back on the swamp, and tried to figure out what to do know. The forest had a malevolent feeling to it, and I really didn't want to stay in it more than I had too. Plus there was that red strip on the map I used when I first arrived. What was so bad that it had avoid written repeatedly along it repeatedly? The only other option was to go back to queen psycho bitch, and get my head put on a spike. Damned if I do, damned if I don't. Was it raining again?

I look up, and was met with an ugly brown scaled, green eyed bastard that was soaking wet. Best bit was that there were three identical heads. Man my day was just getting better and better wasn't it? Once again I was running, hell if everything wanted me dead they were going to work for it. I thought the trees would bring some cover, but the bastard just pushed through those like they were tooth picks. This caused me to have to dodge the trees in front of me, and also the trees that could possibly fall on me from behind. I broke through into a clearing with it right behind me, only to suddenly be off me feet.

The monster chasing me shrunk as I was carried higher and higher. I noticed that the hooves holding me were a light blue. It was that Rainbow Dash which meant that I was being taken to the Princess. Well I could put up with dying that way or I could struggle resulting in her dropping me causing a gooey mess below. I'll just run for it again when I reach ground. A few minutes later we came to a cloud and she started to lower me on it. Letting me go I fell onto then through the cloud getting me wet. I couldn't help, but chuckle at the expression that must have been plastered on her face, it would have to be priceless. The wind grabbed at my clothing, and threatened to tear my recently returned bag from me, but once again the pony grabbed, me and we were off again only this time we landed in a clearing.

"That was not cool," said the breathless pegasus. "You had enough time to tell me that you couldn't stand on clouds." I looked at her for a second before it clicked that this was one of the horses on that tablet that I took from the tank crew member. Laughter bubbled up, and past my throat. Soon they were hysterical, and I was clutching my sides. Eventually I made it to my knees. I'm not sure when the laughter degenerated into crying, but it must have been awhile. It couldn't have been helped. This was karma biting me right in the ass for my sins.

Eventually I calmed down enough, but I didn't respond, instead I examined her. She was about four five with multicolored hair, and tail with a cyan blue body. Here wings were the same color as her body, and she had about a six and a half foot wingspan. "Well I'm Rainbow Dash," she says this as if that means something to me. Sighing I stood up and looked around only to find that we were in a good sized clearing. I needed to get out of here soon, and get back into the trees. Though, to be honest, I was curious as to why she had saved me.

"So why did you help me?" She just looked at me in surprise, maybe because I could speak, maybe she wasn't expecting an answer. I figured that she wasn't going to answer when I felt my legs get pulled out from underneath me, and then I was hoisted up into the air. My rifle and bag slipped off my shoulders as I dangled six feet above the green grass. My day just gets better and better. Holding my shirt to my waist to keep from falling down I looked at the princess. She wasn't happy, but then again she was covered in copious amounts of mud and dirt. I thought she was wouldn't do the dirty work with the guards. Strange, I was going to have respect for the thing that was going to kill me. She was about to speak when another voice beat her to it.

"What happens if you're bitten," said a pegasus to my right, and after looking at her for a few seconds I realized that it was the one I had saved.

"They change, into what attacked your people," I say keeping my voice low. "Put me down. I can help you, I don't want them to hurt your species like they did mine." I address the last part to the princess. Suddenly my head snaps to the left, and I hear gasps from the ponies, damn that's just weird thinking that, and I look forward again to see the princess breathing hard, and a look on her face that could kill.

"Why would I let down a vile creature such as yourself? Your kind," she says kind like it's a disease, "has killed many of my ponies." The anger and pain in her voice was apparent, and I felt a pang of pity for her, but I've lost plenty to the Dark. I was about to respond when a sight just over the trees caught my attention. It looked like a Pegasus, but fat as hell. Ah shit the disease must act faster in them than it does humans. The lumbering monstrosity was flying slow but was drawing nearer than what could be considered comfortable.

"Let me ask you something princess," I start, "Did you kill the ones that got bit, but didn't die from the wounds? If you didn't this will come back, and hurt you worse than what the original fuckers did. Let me help you find the rest, and put them down."

"No, I can't take that risk," the princess says, but I decided that it didn't matter much. She was going to drop me soon enough. I tense my body for the fall so that I could get up quick. I took a deep breath letting myself calm down. Then the flyer dropped down on top of her causing her to go to her knees, and dropping me, but I still heard multiple snapping and cracking sounds. I managed to drop on my uninjured side, and I quickly got to my feet. I pulled the blade from the sheath along my thigh, and dashed forward sinking it into its back. The ten inches went in all the way, it was a sickening display of ease. Grabbing the mane of the diseased beast, I threw him off, and was about to check the princess for bites when I was lifted off my feet by another one that had come up from behind.

I bucked hard trying to knock it off when suddenly its weight was gone. Looking behind me I found that it was surrounded in a dark aura, and being violently slammed into the ground repeatedly, blood flew and bones snapped as the beast became a ragdoll. It was good to know that the ponies were willing to kill. I got to my feet, and looked for the next creeper and charged it. There was a mixture of human runners, and walkers along with a few ponies. I slashed the blade across ones throat, and kicked the knee out to drop him. Then on to the next one, and the next one. It really is amazing what a few well-placed slashes, and stabs can do to the body.

One slash to the throat followed by the blade hitting the back of the neck and it was done. One stab to the spine and you have them dropped ready to be finished. So easy after you get accustomed to it. The fight didn't last long, maybe ten minutes with close calls all around. I did most of the heavy lifting, they couldn't get the hang of it, to just go for the kill or something to incapacitate them. In fact the only one doing much of anything was the dark princess. She would pick them up, and slam them into the ground or throw them into the others to get distance between us and them.

Eventually one got to her without me or her noticing. She screamed, and bucked as it jumped on her, and I turned to see that it was about to take a bite. I quickly grabbed the runner only for it to swing its elbow into my nose causing blood to erupt forth. His attention was on me when he was thrown up into to the air. I figured she had it under control so I continued with my slashing and shallow stabs to the rest still kicking.

The ones coming out of the trees slowed to a trickle, and then to barely nothing. Then slow moving walker in combat gear stumbled from the trees. I slowly move forward, and drive the blade into its throat, the tip poking through the back of its neck. It fell and I went with it, watching as what ever life it had left the body. It had been a male at one time, hell it even seemed a tad familiar. But they all do, after all. Faces just meld into one another.

I don't know how much time I spent like that, but a small tug on my shoulder was enough to bring me out of it. I look over my shoulder to see the Pegasus that I had saved. I stood, and made my way to my bag only to see that it had been stepped on by a lot of running feet. Sighing I picked it up, and looked for the rifle not that I had much hope that it was in workable condition when I heard a voice behind me.

"Here's your weapon," I looked behind me, and saw that the Pegasus was holding my rifle. She looked frightened, but I really couldn't blame her after everything that went down. I took it from her grasp, and began walking toward the forest hoping that none of them would stop me. While no one physically did the sounds of crying, and… pleading did. Looking back again I saw the six civilians, and the princess standing over the other princess. She must have taken much more damage than I had thought. I was about to continue on my way when Fluttershy looked up at me. Her fur was tear streaked, and I almost left again. I mean come on, why the bloody fuck were they allowed to stay. The stupid bitch deserved to die for placing them in danger like that. But I couldn't just leave, not while I had something that could help. None of the other guards present had any kind of packs on them, and obviously they couldn't use magic otherwise that would have been used already. Feeling like throwing up I looked took my bag off my shoulders and chucked it at the group.

"It has medical stuff that you can use," I called over to them. The darker princess looked at me, and then the yellow pony took the bag, and started going through it. I laid down on the ground, and looked to the night sky.

After a week of doing nothing but sitting on a cot, doing mild exercise, and staring at the grey walls of an 8x8 cell you start going stir-crazy. This was a reward for my generosity to those damn ponies. Getting knocked out then waking up in my little cell with two meals a day which consisted of bread and water. Sometimes I got some fruit but because these were ponies I didn't get meat, that was a disappointment, but I digress. The guard ponies were not very good considering that I could get more than half of them involved in a conversation while the others would pay some form of attention.

"Are you awake creature," asked a gruff voice from outside my cell. Looking over I saw a grumpy pony in the light colored armor, these fuckers were color coded. One set of armor for day another for night. Good thing 'cause this told me how many days I'd been there.

"Yeah, what is it now, am I getting out," I ask with a much more force behind it than was warranted. He shook his head but unlocked the cell and then stood back as another five or six guards came up.

"You are wanted by the princesses but before that you must wash up. Stand and follow us." His talking was very… rigid. Like a good little soldier pony. I stand and did what he said to and followed. We went up many hallways and stairways with many turns and twists. I should make a poem out of that. After some time of walking we came to a small wash room.

"Clean yourself then put on these clothes," the head guard said. Sighing I take my shirt off and had my thumbs in the pants waistband about to pull it down when I noticed that they hadn't left.

"If you're going to stay you might as well join me, I could use the company," they left in quite a rush.

Damn these clothes are itchy. I was tugging at my collar when we entered a large room with the two princesses at the other end. And of course there were those six ponies here as well. I snapped my head forward as I heard one of the guards speaking. The princesses seemed quite interesting by what he was saying from what I could tell. Maybe he's telling them I'm gay, I snickered at the thought. I quickly grew silent as just about every single one of the ponies looked at me.

"Step forward," ordered the bigger of the two. Her mane seemed a bit lackluster, it wasn't quite what I remember from that night, she also looked a bit unsteady, however this was barely noticeable. I stepped forward and then turned by body toward the other princess, and went to attention with a salute closely following. I held this for a couple of seconds seconds before dropping my arm, and then turned to the bigger of the two, I did a quicker salute. Maybe showing that I can be professional will help a bit. Shit, play my cards right and I might just get them to send me home quicker.

"I wish to speak with you about what happened in the Everfree Forest and to apologize for my actions," she said. Her voice was surprisingly gentle compared to the way she had sounded toward me a week ago. What really surprised me was that she actually sounded like she meant it. Now though a small rectangular shape was lifted up from next to her throne and presented to me. It was one of the tablets that every soldier got.

"But first what is this and why does it have… these pictures," the princess' eyes had a glint in them, a small blush on her cheeks.

"Well this is a devise that let's humans do a lot. It's electronic, uses solar energy and the like. You can put music on it, pictures, movies-," When I looked back down I was met with two ponies kissing and grinding, only these two were relatively good copies of the two in the room. "This is a bit disturbing... and I don't know why. This is not mine. Mine is in my bag. This is one of my soldier's... uh, I honestly have no clue where the images came from or why they're depicting... this.

"Can thou get rid of it," asked the dark princess.

"I'd say destroy it, I don't think any of you can use them very well considering that none of you have fingers." I look up to see that the white princess had an incredulous expression while the dark one seemed to believe but she still wasn't happy. I quickly exit the animation only to find that his home wallpaper was a drawn image of the lavender colored pony with… was that a scroll in her… oh my god. I'm in personal hell right now. I died and this is my punishment. I start to go through the pictures only to find more of the pornographic material. I turn it off feeling sick because this made everything much more awkward.

"Does any of your electronic devices have anything similar on them," asked the head princess.

"No, like I said I have no idea what it is or how he got ahold of it. Quite frankly I'm disgusted with it too," I said.

"Now I would like to apologize for my behavior early," started Celestia, "I also have a proposition for you if you're willing to listen." I nod my head, and she then dismissed the majority of the guards along with the six other ponies that seem to show up for everything. Anyway we went into a smaller room where there was another unicorn Pegasus hybrid. Alicorn I think my previous caretaker had told me this, no she did tell me this because I couldn't come up with this kind of shit on my own.

"This is Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, my niece, and Shining Armor, captain of the guard," said Celestia. The princess in front of me was pink, with a heart shaped tat on her flank. I need to ask what those are? Next to her was a unicorn guard who was bright white with varying shades of blue as his hair.

"I suppose you want to know where I'm from, what I am, along with what attacked us a week ago and all of that complicated shit. You all might want to sit down for this it's going to take a while," I said. I explained what humans were, what I had been doing and how it all turned into a clusterfuck. Next came time to explain the Dark.

"We called it the dark because that's what it brought with it, darkness and depression. We have no idea what it is exactly. A portal opened up on four of the continents. It lead to another world or dimension maybe, and well everything went downhill from there. The one that opened up that screwed my country was to the south of us. These pitch-black creatures came out of the portal and started attacking us."

"What did these creatures look like?" Asked Shining.

"They're about twenty-five feet long with their tail, have claws and teeth that were extremely sharp and they are fast, very fast. They have very large, leathery wings." a small lull followed that before I continued. "We were never too sure how it got from them to humans, but within a couple of days there was mass evacuation and in a month we firebombed all of that continent with some of our own, but it slipped through somehow and it pushed us north though much more slowly, it actually took years, and there are some places pushing back. The biggest problem are the people, not the infected. Anyway they have different stages of development. The first one is the runners, they don't change much other than a heightened aggression then its walkers. Takes a couple days after being bit then about a week for them to slow down. After that it's what we call fatties, they're bloated real bad, that's about a month to a month and a half.

"Then they turn into brutes, these guys are very tough to kill. Their skin turns very hard and are extremely fast with immense strength. Only good thing about them is that they're blind. After that they either keep growing into giants, which as far as I know never stop, but that's rare. In a different continent they killed one that had grown to forty feet tall. The one that was after me and my men before I arrived here was about twenty-five feet, but took down a building six stories tall. If they don't keep growing then their bodies become an incubator for what we call dragons. They don't have wings but the claws and teeth are not something you want to meet and they can shoot a spike averaging two feet from their tails, I don't know how but the must have room in their tail because they can shot more than one." I finish with my description of the Dark and the room was silent, all four lost in their own thoughts.

"Well that is worrisome," said Celestia, "but if what you say is true than I would like you to stay here. In Equestria, in Ponyville and watch over that stretch of woods and the towns ponies. We shall return your weapons and bag, not the device with those vile images on it though. That needs to be disposed of. Lastly we will have a home built for you, to fit your size and needs along with 50,000 bits, which is our currency." She finished and I was impressed that this is what I would receive considering I had been in a cell for the last week not including all previous bullshit.

"What about for the remainder of the forest, will you have your military or guards patrolling the rest of its perimeter along with the occasional fly over with a platoon of Pegasus or is the plural Pegasi?" I asked this figuring I might as well get used to their language and way of talking.

"Pegasi ," she responded as we all stood "And yes my guards will watch over the rest of the forest. One last thing Captain, if you would please answer my student's questions about your people and culture it would be greatly appreciated," said the sun princess.

"Thank you, but to be clear, you will be trying to get me home, right?"

"About that Richard, we did not feel any magic being used to bring you here, therefore we don't think we can help you. We have never come across a spell to go to different dimensions or different planets galaxies away," Celestia's words made me feel like throwing up. If they couldn't help then that meant that the stalker was the only one who could get me home and I didn't even know if it came through with me. "We will search, and try out best, but no promises."

"Well… that is disappointing. I would like to change out of these clothes so uh… yeah can I have my bag back now." Everything felt unreal, like a dream. There was a small flash and all of my belongings including the two pistols which were mine appeared next to where I was sitting. They all filed out without saying a word.

With red rimmed eyes I leave the castle and make my way to the front gates of the wall around the city, and along my trip I was met with many stares. They didn't say anything but just stared. It brought back memories of one particular battle where my platoon had killed forty or so men who decided they didn't want to work anymore in the coal mines. Not one of my proudest moments but it happened, and nothing was going to change that. Enough of that Richard, get your shit together, they're staring at you because you are one ugly motherfucker to them. I pull my baseball cap lower.

After a nearly ten minutes of walking past staring ponies, oddly shaped building, and well just very odd… everything. I arrived at the gates to see a large carriage being pulled by… ponies, seriously. They do some weird shit. Ponies pulling carriages that have ponies inside of them. I get to the carriage where a pony opens it for me and low and behold those six special ponies are inside. Shaking my head I get inside and letting the rifle rest against the side of the carriage on the seat, then I put my bag between my feet and leaned back hoping they wouldn't talk to me. That hope was quickly smashed.

"Hi, I'm Twilight-,"

"I know who you all are, no need for introductions," I probably came off sounding angry, but then again I was angry along with depressed. "Listen I'm really tired and I don't feel like talking right now. I'll answer some of your questions when we get to your town." She nodded her head and I turn to my bag. Putting my hand in it and thinking of the tablet with all of my music on it made the tablet come to my hand. I had no idea how it worked and I didn't care to ever figure it out. Next I pull out a pair of headphones and plug them into the tablet. Going through the music until I found what I was looking and pushed play. Leaning back in the seat with my hat pulled down so that it covered the majority of my face I let sleep overtake me.

"I'm telling you we have to go after Anderson and his boys, they need to be executed for what they did to us, to this outpost," said a deep, gruff voice through the door.

"What will that accomplish exactly? Nothing at all, what's done is done and killing them won't do anything," said a second voice this one higher in pitch but male. "Tell me you agree with what I'm saying Sara."

"Jake they killed two kids and Maggie is probably going to have a miscarriage because of them. I don't know about haunting them down though, that seems wrong. I say we wait until they come back and then take them alive if we can."

"Oh come off it," said the deep voice again, "there are plenty of bandit camps they can go to. When they come back they will bring bandits with them, and if you would have done as I said five years ago we wouldn't have bandits to worry about. If you two won't take action I'm going to, they wouldn't have gone far with Chris's leg and the storm. They're probably at the old cabin. I'm going to kill them, I'd ask you to come with but obviously your too pussy-footed to do what needs done." With that footsteps approached the door and the child hiding behind it scurried down the various hall ways of the school building and made his way back home.

Mere minutes after arriving a tall man entered looking fairly agitated, and went straight to the very old rifle hanging on the wall. The boy's father took it down then went to a dresser and pulled out a revolver along with two boxes of ammo. He loaded five bullets into the rifle and loaded the revolver with six. He then put a bandolier with the rifles bullets over his shoulder while slipping three speed reloads into a small pouch on his belt. He looked at me and then the woman who just walked into the room.

"Look after your mom Rick," he said to the boy and then he took the woman into his arms and kissed her deeply. The boy thought that was a bit nasty but didn't say anything. A knock came from the door and the man went to open it. There were six men outside with various weapons slung over their shoulders.

"Were going with you. That bastard and his sons deserve to be put down after what they did to Maggie," said the man in front. The man with the deep voice simply nodded and looked back at his wife and son then left out the front door. The woman walks over to the young boy and pulls him into a crushing hug then takes him off so that he could get ready for a bath before bed.

I wake up feeling slightly sick from the dream. I lean forward and slip the headphones to my neck and take my hat off so I could run my hand through my hair. The man had been tall six five, dark brown hair, clean shaven dark blue eyes, and his nose leaned to the right slightly. The boy had the man's general looks but with black hair and more grey in his eyes. The woman had stood at five nine with long black hair, green eyes, full lips, and well just pretty. Not knock you off your feet gorgeous, or a bombshell, but pretty.

"Are you okay," asked the voice of Twilight to my left.

"Yeah, just fine. Just dreams," was my response but I could feel that she wanted a better explanation. "Don't worry about it. I have a lot of 'em so I'm used to it." I knew that I shouldn't have said that because she was even more concerned as were her friends. "Seriously I am fine, don't start worrying about it."

"Sugarcube, there is something wrong and you can tell us," said Applejack. Gotta admit that southern accent was a bit cute, too bad it wasn't on a human girl... and that I had threatened to cripple her. I wasn't going to start telling them my life story though.

"How much longer is it till we arrive in town." It was obvious that I was changing the subject but thankfully none of them pushed for an answer.

"We have about twenty minutes to go," Twilight said. It was only after she said this that it occurred to me that none of them had watches on. Did they even have watches? Figuring that I would ignore this particular question I turn the tablet off and put it, along with the headphones, back into the bag. Looking out the carriages window I could see long green fields that actually reminded me of my childhood. Hunting trips and outings with my father. At least we did those things until he was injured by a bullet that made him blind.